One of the most popular shows of this summer focuses on a gooey true-crime podcaster. Only murders in the buildingon Hulu, follows three fans of a Serial-as show called All is not OK in Oklahoma. By the end of season two, it becomes clear that the show’s host, played by Tina Fey, might be a cold-blooded murderer herself.

“I need something with famous people, and blood!” she shouts to an assistant. “God, I need a murder. A voucher !

Fey’s character is just one example of what appears to be a new pop culture archetype.

Call them the morally dubious podcasters.

In the movie RevengeBJ Novak plays a selfish journalist who starts a podcast about the death of a woman he briefly dated.

Another morally questionable podcaster sneaks into a crime scene (and a cop’s bed) on the Showtime series Dexter: new blood. And in the ironic social comedy Rutherford Falls on Peacock, not one but two morally questionable podcasters go wild, including an NPR reporter who destroys the life of one of the main characters.

“Ah yes, the morally dubious podcaster,” laughs Nicholas Quah. He covers podcasts for Vulture and New York Magazine and recognized the archetype immediately. “My favorites are the first ones I noticed: True Crime Podcasters of 2018 Halloweenwho – spoilers – ends up being brutally killed for chasing Michael Myers.”

But Quah remembered an even older example – from the 2014 Kevin Smith film Defense — and says there’s a reason TV and movies serve so many morally questionable podcasters in their quest for fame and notoriety. This reason would be real life.

“Look up and down apple podcast charts“, points out Quah. “You will find a number of frankly morally dubious real crime shows. People who, in some cases, plagiarize other people’s stories, accessorizing them and spreading incomplete facts and inconsistent truths. ”

Quah wrote about these issues with Addicted to crime, one of the most popular podcasts in the country. And of course the New York Times‘ podcast, Caliphate, had to be essentially retracted in 2020 when its sensational main subject, who claimed to be a member of ISIS, turned out to be a serial liar.

But morally dubious podcasters go beyond the true-crime genre. The Peacock Show, Rutherford Falls, features a smarmy, racist podcaster who imagines himself, as he puts it, “in the tradition of Plato, Nietzsche, and my personal podcasting hero, Mr. Joseph Rogen.”

This character embodies what NPR pop culture podcaster Linda Holmes calls “yelping and slapping”. People ringing into a microphone in their basement and posting the results on the internet remind her, she says, of the early days of blogging.

“You can start a podcast tomorrow with very little material,” she observes. “Just like you could go on the internet and start a blog. And what you get from that is a lot of people who are really good and really professional and some celebrities who see it as an easy way to expand their brand and control their own publicity.You have talented people who have not been welcomed into traditional media spaces.

But you also have scammers, she adds, opportunists and people who “don’t follow the rules you would like them to follow”. To some extent, the morally dubious podcaster is the latest version of a classic figure – the stranger in town. It is an exhibition device, a way of framing a story.

But now, when many polls show that trust in the media is collapsing, the morally dubious podcaster has a special power. You don’t know why she’s here. Or what she can extract from your truth.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To learn more, visit https://www.npr.org.

One of Vancouver’s newest and perhaps most authentic Mexican restaurants is gearing up for a busy week ahead of the annual Cinco de Mayo celebration.

mexican foodwhich moved to one of Granville Island’s prime locations early last year and opened in July, is hosting Mexican chef Hugo Durán this coming weekend for workshops and a special Mexican dinner organized two days later.

Alimentaria, a Mexican newcomer to a town that’s been swooning over tacos for a dozen years, occupies the plaza across from the public market formerly owned by Edible Canada, which closed around the start of the pandemic, in 2020. after 10 years.

The ambitious restaurant is one of the latest projects from the partners – Mexican-Canadian executive chef Ernesto Gomez, chef Martín Vargas and his partner Darragh McFeely – who have brought restaurants such as Nuba, Fayuca (“North Pacific Mexican “) and Yaletown’s Chancho Tortillerie.

The colorful, year-long canteen describes itself as “a one-of-a-kind immersive culinary and cultural experience that showcases the centuries-old techniques, traditions and products of Mexican and local artisans in an authentic way that pays homage to their origins. “.
It includes a retail shop, a take-out storefront and an educational space.

Guest chef Durán made a name for himself with his restaurant Ka’an in Tulum, a coastal town on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, where he specialized in showcasing the dishes of his Mayan ancestors.

Durán, a former interior designer with no formal culinary training, began his restaurant career with pop-ups in Mexico City offering farm-to-table fare rooted in his country’s pre-colonial history. His regular trips to small indigenous communities to seek out regional food plants and traditional cooking techniques paid off when his open-air beachside Ka’an became popular with locals and tourists alike.

The Mexico City native will lead two-and-a-half-hour morning workshops on Heritage Corn on Saturday and Sunday (April 30 and May 1) exploring Mesoamerican culture and history, the importance of maize (maize) in the food culture of the region, and the practical uses of maize in the home kitchen. Dishes containing four types of heirloom corn will be available for tasting.

Then, on Tuesday evening, May 3, Durán will host a five-course dinner steeped in its Mayan culinary traditions. The meal will include sikil pa’ak, a pumpkin seed and grilled tomato dip served with crudités; potato tamales; dried fish tamales; seafood mixiote; and poached pear with dried herbs and corn-cocoa porridge for dessert.

A limited number of tickets for all three events ($35 per person for workshops; $80 per person for dinner, $40 for optional drink pairings) are available on the Alimentaria website.

Next Thursday (Cinco de Mayo), Alimentaria will be offering festive takeout featuring beef-birria taco kits. Each kit serves three, costs $46, and contains a pound of the titular traditional beef dish, slow-braised in chili peppers and spices. Included are a dozen flour tortillas, salsa verde, cilantro, limes, pickled onions, and consommé.

Options include homemade mezcal or tequila margaritas, a margarita medley, and six packs of Pacifico pilsener-style beer.

Kits must be ordered in advance and picked up at Alimentaria or Chancho on May 4 between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.; quantities are limited.

After

A five-alarm fire burned San Francisco’s first Nigerian restaurant, Èkó Kitchen, to the ground in July 2020.

Founder and chef Simileoluwa Adebajo, who had just moved into the building a week prior to resume her original takeout and delivery-only model as the pandemic raged around her, lost everything.

The one-two punch would be enough to scare off any newbie restaurateur from a business, but not Simileoluwa Adebajo.

---

“I always try to find a silver lining,” she says, and there were plenty to find: donations from supporters started pouring in, Eko found a new home in the kitchen of Merkadothe Mexican restaurant and outdoor market focused on tequila and mezcal in South Beach, and Adebajo discovered SF New Deal, the non-profit organization that put restaurants closed by Covid to work feeding those in need. She now sits on its board of directors.

“SF New Deal felt like it was the missing key to finding fulfillment in my business,” says Adebajo. “I was able to deliver 12,000 to 15,000 meals to vulnerable people. I would give all my energy, all my time, to know that the food I was cooking had a meaningful impact.

Modern Nigerian cuisine from Èkó Kitchen.(Reed Davis)

The humanitarian work she’s done in San Francisco over the past two years is just one of the new ventures keeping her occupied now, as Adebajo is as much an entrepreneur as she is a chef, and her star is rising rapidly.

Adebajo’s second business venture, whipped ori, a skin and hair care company co-founded with childhood friend Bimpe Abiru, was born out of necessity. When she moved from Nigeria to the United States in 2016 for a master’s degree in international economics, Adebajo expected to be able to walk into any pharmacy to find shea butter, an essential natural beauty product in her home. But every jar she picked up was full of chemicals and her skin suffered. So she started whipping up her own, adding an aromatic kick with essential oils like lavender, tea tree, and peppermint.

“The way it made my skin glow and hydrated my hair, I’ve never seen it look so good,” she recalls. “Before you know it, I said ‘I’m going to start selling this and I’m going to call it ori’, which means shea butter [in Yoruba].”

Now a third company, aperitif, a lifestyle brand of bags, baskets and other products handwoven by artisans in Lagos, is in the works. Together they are the foundation of a budding empire built around the pillars of nourishing food, natural ingredients and caring for the most vulnerable members of society.

To balance his time between his projects, Adebajo strategically decided to stop operating Èkó Kitchen as a restaurant. But she’s in no way abandoning the business that brought her national attention. Instead, Èkó will focus on feeding the community, which has brought him great fulfillment over the past two years. She will also continue to operate as a private chef and caterer, hosting events like the upcoming Afrocentric “Homecoming” dinner at Merkado on Feb. 18 (6-10 p.m.) and teaching her popular pop-up. Cooking classincluding ones she holds virtually during Black History Month (from $50/person).

(Courtesy of Eko Kitchen)

For those who can’t make it to an event, there’s Adebajo’s new cookbook, From Èkó with love.

“I like to use three words [to describe Nigerian food]: fat, tasty and spicy. Our dishes are meant to take you to one extreme or the other in terms of flavor,” she says. “Nigerian cuisine is hot but it is also complex because for most dishes you get more than one flavor profile – smoky, salty, sour, spicy, sweet – there are several things going on at once. .”

The cookbook is full of modern Nigerian recipes, many of which have been perfected at the restaurant, including popular dishes like jollof rice and asun (spicy, roasted goat) with sweet potatoes and plantains.

Chances are this is just the beginning for this chef and entrepreneur with the rare ability to turn an idea from dream to reality.

“I love watching other black women I’ve seen go down this trajectory. Rhianna is one of them. Rhianna went from being a musician, she started a skincare business, a lingerie business , and is now a multi-billionaire,” says Adebajo. “I’m like, why not? I’m going to do my best to keep growing.”

// Email [email protected] to sign up for a cooking class;ekokitchensf.online, whippedori.com.

With the holidays quickly approaching, Athenians may want to get a head start on gift shopping. The Red & Black has compiled a holiday gift guide that will help you find the best suited gift for the people you care about.

For the metaphysical practitioner

Margo Metaphysical does not only sell crystals and stones, but also offers a variety of jewelry that would make the perfect gifts.

Crystal necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets are all available starting at just $ 5. An amethyst necklace would be perfect for those seeking serenity and grace, while an unakite crystal bracelet would be a great help for those who wish to develop themselves.

For the bookworm

Book lovers everywhere will appreciate the Snail Mail Surprise service from Avid Bookshop. After answering a few questions about the gift recipient, such as which books he likes to read and even what his zodiac sign is, a bookseller will choose a book curated according to his taste to surprise him in the mail. Options range from $ 20 for a single paperback to $ 99 for three hardcover books, all in mint condition.

For the chocolate lover

Condor chocolates will satisfy even the most stubborn sweet tooth. In addition to the traditional chocolate bar, the local shop also sells assorted boxes of truffles for $ 18. He even sells gift boxes such as the $ 35 Baker’s Box which includes cocoa nibs, chocolate chips and cocoa powder and the $ 40 Condor Sampler Box which includes caramel, a chocolate bar and a box of truffles.

For the person you can’t understand

The eco-friendly Community store sells prefabricated gift boxes starting at $ 42. All products are locally sourced from Athens.

The $ 45 Athens Care Box is perfect for anyone who might need to take care of themselves this holiday season, filled with goodies such as a bath bomb from Normal Soap Company and chocolate au Condor Chocolates Honeycomb Caramel. For those looking to splurge, the $ 85 Athens Classics box includes the most items, ranging from a jar of Provisions Piedmont fruit preserves to a 12 oz. 1000 Faces Coffee Company coffee grounds package.

Shortly after the Nas Daily Pinoy bait issue came to light, others decided they should break their silence as well – although instead of talking about the Pinoy and Apo Whang bait issue Od, the discussion snowballed into more drama from other people who weren’t even directly related to the Nas Academy Ancient Tattooing scam.

After Gracia Palicas posted her post saying that Nas Academy’s Apo Whang Od Ancient Tattoo Course was a scam, Louise Mabulo decided to talk about an experience she had it also involved Nas Daily. Long story short, Mabulo spoke about her cocoa business (called The Cacao Project) and how Nas Daily had more or less disrespected her and her family, as well as their cocoa business, which she said was still ongoing at the time.

Nas Daily then responded to Palicas and Mabulo.

Nas Daily responded to Palicas’ request, arguing that the Ancient Tattooing class was not a scam. Her evidence was a video of her great aunt Whang Od affixing her fingerprint to a document. Presumably the document was the contract for the ancient tattoo course, but this is not clearly seen in the video itself.

In the case of Mabulo, Nas Daily said he had kept silent about his cocoa business out of respect for her and went on to speak of how her cocoa business wasn’t what she said it was.

Meanwhile, even Project Nightfall, a longtime friend of Nas Daily, joined the discussion. He defended Nas Daily against Mabulo’s claim and said the Cacao project was not what it seemed because the business was “a failure”. In addition to his defense of Nas Daily, Project Nightfall made his own video to explain how sad it is to find himself caught up in this problem when he had just joined Nas Daily to help him make the video on the Cacao de Mabulo project.

Keb Cuevas was also involved in the tea spill and called Mabulo for his cocoa business. Cuevas claimed that Louise’s cocoa business was not a social enterprise because her Cacao project mainly exploited farmers.

After Cuevas called out Mabulo, Jim Leandro joined the fray – this time it was Cuevas’ turn to be called out. Leandro called Cuevas for calling Mabulo and claimed that Cuevas’ credentials were false. He also claimed that Cuevas was a hypocrite for calling Mabulo because what he called her for was something he was also guilty of – exploit the farmers and pretend it was a “social enterprise”.

Another joined him in calling Leandro. Roentgen tweeted how Leandro had “gone missing in action” when he was president of the College and vice president of USC.

Most of the time, you are calling fake credentials and missing persons from the College President and USC Vice President. Integrity na lang ha.

– Roentgen #MagpaRehistroKa (@ronaldgem) August 5, 2021

What started out as being about Whang Od and Nas Daily’s Pinoy baiting turned into a chain of problematic people calling each other to the point where it wasn’t really about it anymore. Some tea was spilled, but did it really solve something? This does not seem to be the case. This is the chismosa culture for you – problematic people who call on each other.

Still confused as to how they all ended up connected? Fortunately, a Facebook user took the initiative to create a matrix that perfectly sums up the drama in an infographic.

Filipinos love chismis and it really shows, considering how it exploded into a series of people calling and exposing each other. These people didn’t even make particularly strong arguments, they just exposed the faults of others and called them hypocrites because they themselves are problematic as well. Of course, they were shedding light on some problematic acts committed by other people, but that was it. It doesn’t really solve anything, they just added more arguments into the mix.

Another POP! stories you might like:

Pinoy’s baiting should seriously stop, like right now

Filipinos explain what #PandemicEffect is after Belo ad goes viral

Fil-Canadian Adds Stylish Touch and Pinoy Tribute to Hearing Aids