Episodes
Sunday May 30, 2021
Ep. 45 Crazy Congressional Calamities
Sunday May 30, 2021
Sunday May 30, 2021
This week on the Carolina Snowflakes Podcast we’re making fun of congress cause we can. Honestly, with the behavior of our elected officials as of late, how could we NOT point out the ever-expanding hypocrisy spewing forth from the Right?
This week all but 6 Republican senators voted against creating a bipartisan committee to investigate the January 6th terrorist attack on the Capitol Building. Republicans would much rather sweep the attack under the rug and some have even gone so far as to say the Trump-backed mob were simply “tourists” having a leisurely stroll around the building. What kinda tourism are they promoting these days in Washington? When’s the last time you tried to overthrow a government on your vacation? C’mon Republicans, quit the crazy talk.
Oh and speaking of crazy, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz just can’t help themselves, can they? After a week of spewing vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric and refusing to wear a mask on the congressional floor, Greene has yet to be removed from office and is still on her grand “America First” tour with child-diddler and pedo-trafficker, Matt Gaetz. They’re still shilling The Big Lie at every twist and turn and have no qualms getting grandma riled up at the nursing home. Grandma needs rest, y’all. Not this mess.
The duo’s tour has garnered quite a bit of attention from protestors, but they’re not the kind of protestors you might expect. In fact, other registered Republicans are protesting the two as they watch their beloved GOP tear itself apart. What a glorious sh*tshow.
And if national-level politics weren’t tricky enough, who is keeping tabs on what the states are up to these days in terms of anti-transgender legislation? Considering 33 states have introduced over 100 anti-trans bills, state-level congressional leaders are being just as slimy as their national counterparts. Anti-trans bills have been introduced in all southern states, including right here in the Carolinas. Texas is boasting 12 such bills and Tennessee has put forth 11. And as awful as our bills are here in the Carolinas, wait til you hear what Alabama wants to do to their transgender citizens. Ignorance runs rampant in this sea of red.
So tune in hear it all this week as we unpack, poke and mock these crazy congressional calamities.
Sunday May 23, 2021
Ep. 44 Am I In A Cult?
Sunday May 23, 2021
Sunday May 23, 2021
This week on the Carolina Snowflakes Podcast we’re answering the age old question of, “Am I in a cult?”. You very well might be and not even know it. In fact, cults are often quite effective at recruiting new members under the guise of “seeking truth” and “healing”.
One such truth-seeking cult made national news recently after the remains of its leader were discovered mummified and wrapped in a sleeping bag adorned in Christmas lights. The body of Amy Carlson, known as “Mother God” to her Love Has Won followers, was enshrined inside a home located in rural Colorado. Her death is still under investigation and so far 7 members of the cult have been arrested for abuse of a corpse.
After walking away from her home and family in 2006, Carlson found herself at the helm of a small, but dangerous cult. Followers of Love Has Won believed Carlson to be the God of all Earthly creation and that she had been reincarnated 534 times over 19 billion years. Through extreme forms of manipulation, exploitation and abuse, Carlson maintained her hold on the group up until her recent passing.
As far as core beliefs, the cult known as Love Has Won could be summed up as New Age Spirituality meets Qanon conspiracies. Carlson was a hardcore Trump supporter who happened to also believe much of what Q regularly touted as “truth”. As if Qanon followers weren’t culty enough, throw in some God and fear and end-of-days rhetoric, plus some astrology, tarot and crystal healing and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. Such is the case surrounding Carlson’s death as it is believed she may have accidentally poisoned herself by consuming an excessive amount of a compound her anti-vax cult was touting as “a cure for covid”.
Tune in to hear all about Carlson’s role as Mother God, plus the techniques and methodology she used to maintain control over her members. It’s wild. You’ll also want to hear about what the group is currently up to – despite her death, they haven’t disbanded as of yet.
Lastly, we close this week with a bit of a game we’re calling “Am I in a Cult?” by utilizing something called the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. The model, created by cult expert and mental health professional, Steven Hassan, provides a thorough and easy to digest breakdown of 4 components used by cult leaders to recruit and brainwash their followers. These 4 are: Behavior control, Information control, Thought control and Emotional control. We invite you to listen to the techniques demonstrated under each of these 4 components and see if you’ve ever been a part of a group, organization or even workplace setting that utilizes some of them. Not all “cults” are Cults if you know what we mean.
So be sure to tune in because this one is FASCINATING!
References:
BITE Model: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/?sfw=pass1621808623
Sunday May 16, 2021
Ep. 43 Freedom to Cheer
Sunday May 16, 2021
Sunday May 16, 2021
This week on the Carolina Snowflakes Podcast we’re giving a hip hip HOORAY and a pompom shake to the first amendment of the United States constitution. Nothing says “America Rules” like a heavy dose of FREEDOM. We’ve got the freedom to speak, the freedom to worship, the freedom to assemble, the freedom to press and the freedom to petition. That’s a whole lot of freedom and we’re here for it.
We begin our freedom celebrations by discussing a recent Supreme Court case out of Pennsylvania in which a 14 year old high school cheerleader named Brandi Levy sent out an f-bomb riddled Snapchat message venting frustrations over her failure to make the varsity team. Her salty snap wound up getting her banned from cheering for an entire year and opened up a legal question of how much authority should public schools have in “policing” social media use by students when they’re off campus and when such use happens during non-school hours. This case is a big deal considering SCOTUS hasn’t ruled on a school speech-related case in over 50 years. In fact, it’s so big that even the Biden administration is weighing in alongside the ACLU and several other heavy-hitting organizations. A ruling by SCOTUS is anticipated later this summer and whatever they decide will become precedent for at least the next 2 to 3 generations. Get your popcorn ready!
Though the Brandi Levy case is interesting, hers isn’t the first time public schools have been questioned for their use of seemingly excessive discipline in punishing students for bad behavior. Such was the case of a high school student who put up a sign on the building of his school asking his girlfriend to prom. He purposefully used paper and masking tape so that the sign could easily be removed and leave no lasting damage, but the school’s administrators weren’t amused. His romantic gesture got him charged with vandalism and thus banned from attending prom all together. As word of his story spread online, the internet blew up and thousands upon thousands of pissed off people called the school and demanded they let the boy go to his prom. After fielding rant-filled phone calls for a few days, administrators relented and withdrew the ban.
These stories are but 2 examples of the increasing collision occurring between protected freedoms and rule enforcement in the 21st century. Considering technology is only going to continue growing, so too must the regulations surrounding how authorities enforce their own rules. This is called progress and sometimes it’s necessary.
We close this week with an example of such modern technology colliding with antiquated laws in the telling of the story of The Pirate Bay. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve even visited. Even if you haven’t, you’ll be stunned to hear how the creators of the world’s largest piracy index have continued to skirt, dodge and thwart copyright laws for over 17 years. These guys are super smart and very clever.
So tune in to hear this and much MORE cause this week we’re celebrating our Freedom to Cheer!
Sunday May 09, 2021
Ep. 42 Hot Shots
Sunday May 09, 2021
Sunday May 09, 2021
This week on the Carolina Snowflakes Podcast we’re talking about vaccines and how the U.S. is performing in terms of getting all 328 million citizens vaccinated against Covid-19. Although great strides have been made in getting vaccines into arms here in the U.S., we think the numbers could be better. To be honest, we thought vaccinations would be further along by this point. Even the Carolinas are lagging behind most other states in vaccination rates and red states in general seem to be lagging more than the rest. Coincidence? Hardly.
In his new book titled “The Premonition: A Pandemic Story”, Michael Lewis reminds us that at one point, the U.S. was deemed to be “the most prepared country on Earth in handling a pandemic crisis”. Y’all, we had a whole team of scientists dedicated solely to figuring out the complexities of how to successfully navigate an entire nation through a global pandemic. But that team of scientists was promptly fired when the Tangerine Tyrant took office and well, we know what happened after that.
So here we are, trying to clean up the mess left behind by an incompetent leader, while in the midst of a still-ongoing global pandemic. We’ve got vaccines that people are afraid to take, a government that many still don’t trust and a group of rightwing nut jobs who genuinely believe their mission is to thwart progress at any cost. All of this is happening within the confines of a pandemic and is happening in a country that just a few years ago was named “most prepared” to handle the mess we’re currently struggling to handle.
Yikes!
We also can’t help but wonder what the future is going to look like. What are we going to do with those who adamantly refuse to get vaccinated? Yelling at them might make us feel better in the short term, but it isn’t going to fix anything or change any minds. We’ve gotta find some common ground and do our best to approach with understanding. To be clear, understanding is not the same as tolerating, which brings up our next question. Will limits be set on where unvaccinated Americans can go and what they can do? Who will set those limits, if so? Although we don’t particularly like the term “vaccine passport”, will something like a passport be needed to participate in day-to-day activities?
We speculate on these questions plus more. Heck, we even talk about our own experiences and fears surrounding getting the Johnson & Johnson shots. Are we going to grow tails? Have our brains started to pickle yet? We can neither confirm nor deny the possibility.
So tune in to hear our Snowflakey thoughts on the current status of vaccinations plus what we think the U.S. is doing right v. what it’s doing wrong in this week’s episode called “Hot Shots”.
Sunday May 09, 2021
*Bonus Episode* A True Bug Story
Sunday May 09, 2021
Sunday May 09, 2021
Hey Snowglobe! Enjoy this hilarious bonus bite called “A True Bug Story”. Hear about how in an effort to help remove a bug from Jason’s ear, Amanda nearly killed him. Whoops!
Sunday May 02, 2021
Ep. 41 Southern Fried Armchair Psychology
Sunday May 02, 2021
Sunday May 02, 2021
This week on the Carolina Snowflakes Podcast we’re flexing our untrained and highly unqualified skills in a little bit of armchair psychology. What is more fun than trying to guess what’s wrong with the people around you? Nothing, that’s what.
We begin with a little bit of Snowflake history in telling how each of us came to find the field of psychology to be a point of interest and how we’ve broadened our understandings over many years. No worries, we have a copy of the DSM-5, so we’re practically professionals.
Listen in as we talk about a cool study from 2018 in which researchers examined something called “collective narcissism” and how it shapes Americans’ perspectives on the importance of their own states in defining U.S. history. Indeed this study ended up being SO interesting that the researchers took it even further in a global program. How do residents of different countries rank the importance of their home country in terms of influence over world history? The results of this narcissism study surprised us and we guarantee they’ll surprise you too.
Then we share our theories on how the phenomenon of transference and counter-transference can be used beyond the walls of a therapy setting to explain things like why Donald Trump was our President for 4 years. Though we’d like to think it was simply bad luck, there’s more to it. If anything we’ve learned that gut reactions may not always be “right”, but they tell us a whole lot about the person(s) feeling them. We’ve also learned through systems theory (and watching a lot of Dr. Phil) that “bad apples” rarely occur within a vacuum, but instead are the product of rotten surroundings left festering for far too long.
And finally, we close this week’s episode with a fun game we like to call DSM Roulette. We guarantee you’ll love this game so much you’ll want to play it with your friends and family. Note: we’re pretty sure no conservatives were actually harmed in the making of this game. Pretty sure.
So pull up a seat and join us this week for a highly entertaining episode called Southern Fried Armchair Psychology!
Reference:
Wan, William. (2018, July 3). “America is a nation of narcissists, according to two new studies”. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/07/03/america-is-a-nation-of-narcissists-according-to-two-new-studies/