The AyeSphere

On this week’s AyeSphere, Joy and Aye talk about the Glasgow Willy Wonka AI scam scandal, what the new Timothee Chalamet addition to the Wonka-verse gets right and where the other films rank compared to the original Gene Wilder adaptation. Aye also got Joy to watch Madame Web because apparently he enjoys testing the strength of their friendship ! (Spoiler alert: It’s bad) They also veer into various other media because it’s not the AyeSphere without a tangent.

Welcome back! In this first episode of the year, Joy, and Aye delve into the latest author scandal surrounding NY Times bestselling author J.D. Barker and his mass solicitation of Booktok content creators for lewds, nudes and more inappropriate content to promote his upcoming book and why you absolutely should NOT do this. After that, they take a look at the mass layoffs happening throughout the games industry, and fall headfirst into a rant about how AI is being exploited by corporate greed to destroy the creative industries and what we as creators can do to combat it. Also, there’s a brief segment where Joy has to jump off mic to give her husband the Heimlich maneuver because it wouldn’t be an episode of The AyeSphere without some chaos going on in the background!

In the final AyeSphere episode of 2023, Joy once again regales Aye about the latest book world fiasco as they break down the career-ending saga of Cait Corrain, an up-and-coming author who destroyed everything she’d worked for out of insecurity, racism, and lies. They also delve into the perpetuation of plagiarism and lack of accountability from content farms masquerading as creators, and why James Somerton can go fuck himself. What a way to end the year. Trigger warnings for this episode: This episode deals with fairly heavy topics surrounding racism, misogyny, homophobia, and mentions of Nazism.

This week on the AyeSphere, Joy and Aye look at the rapid rise and (hopeful) fall of TikTok “comedian” Matt Rife, the controversial take on Twitter/X that online content creators don’t deserve to get paid for marketing products and then go completely off the rails talking about books, toilet roll holders and upcoming Scottish holiday romance movies.

We’re back! And in true time honored AyeSphere tradition, we’re starting off with some author drama on TikTok as Joy informs Aye about famed author Jodi Picoult describing self-published authors as taking “the easy way out” with publishing and why that’s Wrong. After that, we talk about the death of genre literacy, misconceptions about satire as a medium, and how that enables people to get away with heinous takes online. We wrap everything up by talking about gatekeeping and a lack of accessibility in media—specifically video games—and what we can do about it.

In this week’s episode of The Ayesphere, Joy makes Aye watch LuLaRich, a Prime documentary that looks into the harmful and predatory world of LuLaRoe. Why? Because we need to talk about why people are drinking Borax on TikTok (We cannot emphasize enough Do Not Do That) and how people fall prey to predatory scams and the cult indoctrination used to keep them there.After that, Aye gets Joy up to date with everything going on in the UK regarding the Labor Party’s swing toward right-wing conservatism, their anti-worker-union stance and the harmful Tory policies they’re threatening to enforce. It’s been a helluva a week.Also, there’s some static in the recording this week. Sorry about that.(Trigger warning, this week’s episode contains discussions about cults, medical abuse, emotional abuse, and the UK government forcing the disclosure of rape to gain child welfare benefits.)

In this week’s episode of The Ayesphere, Joy and Aye take a look at Netflix’s new runaway animation, Nimona and discuss what it represents for modern media and the various messages it sends around conformity, fascism, and the importance of inter-community resistance. They then took a brief look at the Colleen Ballinger scandal and why you shouldn’t respond to child SA allegations via flippant use of a ukelele, the general brainrot of being chronically online featuring the dangers of Instagram and TikTok filters and why it’s better to age disgracefully online than fetishize youth.

In this week’s episode, Aye and Joy are boiling alive in the summer heat. They look at some of the latest video game announcements, followed by a brief tangent about the rise of hopepunk apocalypse games and Activision’s surprising pro-Pride stance. Moving on, they discuss the horrors and wonderment of Netflix’s original series ‘Love, Death & Robots’ and try to pin down their favorite episodes. After that, it’s time for another tangent as the pair wrap up the podcast with a discussion about what it means to follow the dopamine as content creators with ADHD.

In this week’s episode of The AyeSphere, Joy introduces Aye to the latest publishing drama coming out of TikTok, unpacking the unsavory origins of P. K. Mancini, the alleged author/editor who is girlbossing her way to the top of #writertok. After that deep dive, the pair take a lighter look at the popular anime series Spy x Family and what they like about the show, the characters, and Aye accidentally insulting Studio Ghibli by calling it anime

In this week’s episode of the AyeSphere, Joy and Aye look at the coronation of Princess Diana’s ex-husband (replete with a tangent about Outlander and the baffling concept of pro-monarchy Americans), followed by a much more interesting deep dive into the indie game What Remains of Edith Finch and why you should play it.