Apologies Accepted

Billie Eilish: Rerelease

In honor of Billie Eilish's nomination for Best Original Song this year at the Oscars, we are rereleasing our Billie Eilish episode.  Also it's Theo's birthday weekend and this is what he wanted and also Juliette had to drive really far and also Brent had his birthday last week and is still unwrapping gifts so...here we are with our first ever rerelease!  

Audio Note: Issues still exist but it's still a life-changing episode if your name is Billie Eilish.

 

A new album, new look, and old videos of Billie Eilish using an anti-Asian racial slur fueled the excitement in the Billie-sphere this month.  Arguably the most famous 19-year-old on the planet, Billie Eilish is a singer-songwriter-phenomenon who perfectly encapsulates Gen-Z angst.  She’s edgy and caring and nihilistic and full of hope, all at once.  She seemingly came out of nowhere and now has multiple music-industry awards, tens of millions of followers, and set new records across the internet.  Recently old videos of 13-year-old Billie appeared, showing her singing a song containing a slur against Asians, using a “blaccent,” and speaking in a gibberish-language that sounds a lot like a mock-Asian language.  Many of her fans were outraged and Billie was quick to act, offering heartfelt apologies directly to her followers.

 

But as we all know, the internet is judge and jury and holds a grudge.

 

Audio note: It’s not you, it’s us.

Disney: It’s not a Queer World Afterall

Disney has entered the culture wars, but only after first trying to avoid being drafted.  Florida has passed a law making it illegal to mention gay people in school.  The law is pretty broad and general, allowing any parent to sue a school district if information about gays is mentioned in class.  In Florida, Sally can have two mommies, but she better shut up about it in class.

Like all corporations, Disney donates money to politicians across the ideological spectrum.  Right, left, center, - if you're in politics then here's your Disney-money. Some of the anti-gay politicians got money from Disney and when word got out, Disney cast members started to publically speak out.  Disney, the corporation, said nothing.

The silence was notable.  Bob Chapek, Disney CEO, eventually came out (accidental pun and it stays!) against the law, saying that Disney was always against the proposed law but didn't say anything publicly because he wanted to work quietly, in super secret, from the inside. But he wasn't quiet about his apology for Disney's silence on Florida's "Don't Say (or grow up to be) Gay" law and to show that he fully understands the issue, he's suspended political donations to all Florida politicians until Disney can sort out the good politicians from the bad politicians.  Now everybody loses and nobody wins!

Amazon: Child’s Play is not for Children

It's an open secret that children work for next to nothing and don't complain a lot.  That's why they make great workers, only it's kind of illegal in a lot of countries to employ children.  But don't worry because corporations have found the wonder of willful ignorance and plausible deniability, two factors that mean they can hire companies that in turn hire other companies that hire subcontractors who hire kids (and sometimes buy them) to work in factories, fields, and mines.

Tang Mingfang. a factory worker in China, noticed that FoxConn, his employer, had hired a lot of kids.  He was told the kids were having fun working as interns and learning all about how to make Amazon's popular Alexa, Echo Dot, and Kindle devices.  He was also told to shut his mouth and get back to work.  Tang decided to report the child labor violations and was sent to jail for two years.  He was beaten and imprisoned for reporting a crime against children.  He's out of jail now and has asked Amazon for an apology.

Jeff Bezos personally apologized from space and we are here to thank him for being such a hero.  OK, that didn't happen.  Plausible deniability means that one of the richest men on the planet also has to pretend he's one of the dumbest.

But it's not all evil billionaires and child workers, there are some real heroes of note in this episode!

Martin Hyde: Bully for You

Someone had a pretty-rotten-no-good-awful moment with a cop.  That someone was a guy named Martin Hyde.  If you don't know Martin Hyde, you are dumb.  Martin Hyde is a really important super big shot deal and everyone who doesn't know that is just stupid. He's friends with all the super powerful and important people in Sarasota, Florida (so yes, this is a "Florida Man" story) and everyone knows to respect Martin Hyde and treat him like the god-man he is.  So when Martin Hyde was driving at 57 miles an hour in a 40 mph zone and texting while driving...well, Martin Hyde attracted the attention of a woman who was just doing her job.  That woman happened to be a police officer, and she pulled him over for speeding and texting, in short, breaking the law. 

Martin Hyde may have broken the law, but she broke Martin Hyde's brain because never in the history of ever had he, Martin Hyde, ever been treated with such disrespect.  The police officer was wearing her body cam, and Martin Hyde was recorded having a very Martin Hyde moment in the middle of the street.  Threatening legal action, her job, her livelihood, and most important of all - letting her know she had disrespected him.

Fortunately for the world, and unfortunately for Martin Hyde, the body cam footage was released and the rotten moment went viral.  Within a few days, the video crashed his hopes of becoming a Congressman.  He decided to say sorry and apologized for the following:

Insulting a police officer while on duty

Threatening a police officer with the loss of her job for daring to stop him and issue a citation

Calling her supervisor ("I know him personally!") to report her

Asking a police officer if her nationality had anything to do with how awful she was

Being Australian

But it's all OK because Australia has issued a formal apology to the world for producing Martin Hyde, former congressional candidate.  But all is not lost for Martin Hyde, deserver of respect, for he is this week's apology on Peach Glen PA's least favorite podcast (and now Martin Hyde's least favorite podcast as well)!  We could not be more proud.

As rotten and bad as his day was, it did lead to perhaps the most amazing written apology-PR letter we've had the pleasure to read, and with all due respect to Martin Hyde's campaign team: Bully for you for producing such a fan-f***ing-tastic piece of text book perfect work.

Harriet Tubman: Underground Humor

Russell Simmons learned the hard way that some historical heroes are not to be mocked.  His YouTube channel had released a short 3-minute video skit of the Harriet Tubman Sex Diaries.  The comedic take was that she used her feminine charms to seduce her enslaver and captured the encounter on video, only to use it as blackmail and get his help building the underground railroad (which in the skit required a shovel and a command to "get digging!").

Of course, that's not how the underground railroad got started at all.  And a lot of people ranging from the NAACP to Spike Lee to thousands of black women let Russell Simmons know that the skit was both harmful and hurtful.  This was the only video that Russell Simmons every took down, and he explained why, in the form of a couple of apologies.

We have a take down of the apology and we also provide a look into the real life and historic achievements of the woman who will be gracing the front of the US $20 bill...in about 8 more years (heads up: Maya Angelou is appearing on US quarters this year).

Join us in our continued observance of Black History Month and honoring the memory and achievements of Harriet Tubman, a true American Hero.

Awkwafina: Accentuate the Positive

Awkwafina is living the American dream.  She jumped from YouTube to rap albums to Hollywood in a few short years and got there by showing her appreciation for hip hop culture.  Some people think she got there by cultural appropriation, and have been pretty vocal about it.  Awkwafina has heard them and issued an apology.  She's an allie, she's got your back, but she's having a hard time saying that she's sorry.

What is cultural appropriation?  Is it the same thing as cultural appreciation, cultural emulation, or is it something that is hard to define - but you know it when you see it?

Hallmark Lesbians: Don’t Let Them Eat Cake

The Hallmark Channel is famous for its loving take on life.  It's the feel good channel with all the feel goods.  But that changed in December of 2019 when One Million Moms took offense to some commercials that were airing on Hallmark, commercials that featuring a lesbian couple getting married. 

The one-woman force behind One Million Moms started a petition to criminalize and destroy the Hallmark Channel forever, unless they did what she demanded.  Hallmark pulled the commercials, but then after hearing from One Million Lesbian Moms decided that they had overreacted and put the commercials back on the air.  Then they decided to show that they were inclusive and signed two gay themed Hallmark Movies - mostly about some gay baker who accidentally delivers a cake to the wrong address and when the guy who opens the door says "how did you know it was my birthday and my mom always made me a honey-lavender cake every year until she died in my arms yesterday" and somehow his birthday is Christmas Eve, well the baker falls in love but then his evil...step sister?  Sure.  His evil step sister comes in to take over the bakery and almost succeeds, but happily the birthday guy is a business lawyer with two degrees from Yale and drives over her with his car but makes it look like an accident - oh wait, that's Lifetime channel but anyway everyone falls in love are you still reading this?

The warm and loving messages of the Hallmark Channel are open to all.  But are they really?  Are there some spaces that should only belong to some groups of people?  Is it right, fair, do you care - when is it ok to have a club that is "only for us" and when is it not.  Does throwing a sassy black friend into the mix somehow equal inclusion?

We don't solve any of these questions, but we have fun trying.  Bakers unite!  Everyone eats love.  (Everyone also buys cards so Hallmark, we are on to you, but also one of us is still watching you because damn you and your messages of love and hope!).

Elmo: Reality Rocks

Elmo and Zoe are friends.  Rocco and Zoe are friends.  Rocco and Elmo are not friends because Elmo cannot be friends with a rock.  At least according to Elmo.  Elmo had it one day in 2004 and lost his cool on Sesame Street over Zoe saving the last cookie for Rocco to eat (because rocks don't have mouths and why are we explaining this, you get it, rocks are rocks).  Elmo refused to apologize and thus began the great debate: can you be friends with someone who fundamentally disagrees with you on the nature of reality.  Or the bigger debate: can you hurt a rock's feelings?

This Sesame Street episode was aired in 2004 but went viral in 2022.  What's up 18 years later that would make people want to share this clip millions of times over Twitter, that other online social thing that has managed to ruin reality for millions of people, Instagram, and TikTok?  Maybe - just maybe - millions of people have recently been through something and suddenly identify with Elmo's ranting about friends believe that reality is open to debate?

Join us as we meander down the dark twisted alleyways of memory lane: children's TV, puppeteers, and getting the chance to live your dream only to watch it crumble like a cookie in a rock's mouth.

Barilla Pasta: Momma (and Momma) Mia!

In 2013 Guido Barilla, immediate member of the Barilla family and part owner of the world’s largest pasta company, casually mentioned on a radio interview that his company would never cater to gay families.  He graciously offered that there was lots of pasta in the world (and there is!) and if gay people and their families did not like his words they could just eat some of the other pasta.  There was a lot of blowback (sorry) and Mr. Barilla said wait wait wait, I was promoting women and how important they are to the family.  He had apparently never heard of lesbian moms and sort of thought that now, at last, everyone understood the true meaning of his words from his interview.  He’s not anti-gay, he is pro-women cooking pasta!  Some more anger followed.  The next day he issued a real apology, on video, and then sat back and let his CEO fix the situation he had cooked up (ha!).

That was in 2013.  Barilla has made millions of dollars of donations to anti-bullying causes, worked with the alphabet mafia (LGBTQIA+) over the last 8 years, but some people still cannot bring themselves to buy Barilla pasta.  Some gay people with podcasts drive to other grocery stores to buy anything other than Barilla pasta.

When is an apology enough?  If an apology is sincere, do you have to accept it?  Can you split situations down the middle and allow that while one person has more work to do, another person has carried the entire company through a PR disaster and allow some sort of forgiveness?

Wordle: More Than Money Can Say

Josh Wardle invented a fun word game to play online for his girlfriend and she loved it.  So did her friends and family.  Josh opened the game up to the world and it caught on quickly - so fast that someone decided to try and make money off of it.  Zach Shakken took Wardle's Wordle and sold it as an app and got excited about how much money he was making.  But the internet got mad at Zach for stealing an idea and marketing it as his own.  Zach apologized for being a businessman in business doing business and if everyone just understood how business worked then the internet would be applauding him instead of throwing rocks.

Is Zach right - is taking an idea and "improving" it OK, is that how business works?  From the telephone to the light bulb, from Edison to Apple, ideas have been taken and modified and used to make money.  But Josh Wardle may have the last word and apparently that word is not "money".