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Origin Story w/ David McIntosh JrOrigin Story w/ David McIntosh Jr

Fin Taylor - Why Did Podcasts replace TV?

From my full episode with Fin Taylor. In this video, we discuss the recent "evolution of media" and how it has shifted from traditional panel shows to more intimate formats.

Fin TaylorguestDavid McIntosh Jrhost
Dec 27, 20258mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 0:37

    Podcasts as the new panel shows and social “quote culture”

    1. FT

      Podcasts are like the new panel shows, you know? Aren't they? The intimacy and the kind of frivolity of, like, people bantering on a sofa, that's now ... You know, 15 years ago that was Mock the Week to my generation, but now it's ... And also I think people used to, people used to be going to school and we'd talk about Ali G that we saw last night and we'd quote lines from it. Now people are sending, like, my videos on WhatsApp groups, dad groups. Like, like, like, it's just the same thing, it's just changed slightly.

  2. 0:37 – 0:44

    From monoculture to fragmentation: what changed

    1. DJ

      And we used to live in a monoculture, like, I can imagine old ladies in offices would turn up on a Friday and speak about Emmerdale that night.

    2. FT

      I'm into this monoculture thing.

    3. DJ

      Yeah.

  3. 0:44 – 1:19

    Sidemen management interview and why blockbuster franchises dominate

    1. FT

      Have you heard that interview with the guy who manages the Sidemen?

    2. DJ

      No, no, no. Jordan Schwarzenberger, that guy?

    3. FT

      Yeah. He did an interview on Amal Rajan's, Amal Rajan's podcast, and he talked about this monoculture thing. And yeah, I recommend anyone who's interested in that to listen to that. He's a fucking smart guy, that bloke. And yeah, he's right. The, the, it's the reason movies are bad now is because, um, uh, people are trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. The only, you know, thing we have left are these big franchises. And like, I saw the new, I saw the new Paul Thomas Anderson film last night. It was

  4. 1:19 – 1:36

    The rarity of distinctive cinema (and a Paul Thomas Anderson counterexample)

    1. FT

      the best film I've seen for years. It's so creative and different and distinct and like, oh, film's really good.

    2. DJ

      It's not Fast and Furious 12. [laughs]

    3. FT

      But they're so, they're so rare now because, um, like you say, we don't ... It's not, uh, the monoculture has got so small that all they can afford to bank on are these big franchises.

  5. 1:36 – 1:41

    “Niches are massive” in a global market—benefits of fragmentation

    1. DJ

      Mm-hmm. But it means creators can have access to audience, whereas it would be-

  6. 1:41 – 2:59

    What we lose without shared touchstones: Oasis, nostalgia, and kids today

    1. FT

      Yeah, niches, niches are massive, you know? Like, who would have thought that a kind of a history podcast that didn't take their history seriously was a serviceable idea? But turns out there's quite a big niche, you know, 'cause in a global market the niche is huge. So, um, but I do think, I do think there's something that's been lost in that as well. I think it's quite telling that Oasis is like, "That's the best gig anyone's ever been to," in 2025, and it was probably the best gig they've been to in 1997. It's like there's not really been anything that big, like, that binds people together in the same way. It'd be interesting to see people who are 10, 12 now, what are the touchstones of their childhood when they are, are our age? What are their ... Would they be able to instantly relate over nostalgia in the way that, like ... How old are you?

    2. DJ

      I'm 27.

    3. FT

      Right. You're a bit younger than me, but presumably ... I don't know, did you have, like, Game Boy and N64 and stuff?

    4. DJ

      Yeah.

    5. FT

      Yeah.

    6. DJ

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    7. FT

      What-

    8. DJ

      And then, like, like, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3

    9. FT

      ... The Sims.

    10. DJ

      Yeah, yeah, yeah.

    11. FT

      You know. We've got these kind of cornerstone things that we all, we all, these phase, things we all went through. And I don't ... It'd be interesting to see whether that carries on.

  7. 2:59 – 3:18

    Memes, TikTok quotes, and the siloed childhood question

    1. DJ

      Or, or if they'll be reduced to, like, memes or-

    2. FT

      Mm

    3. DJ

      ... lines from a TikTok.

    4. FT

      Mm.

    5. DJ

      I see a lot of kids quoting things that I don't quite understand. Uh, this kind of, um-

    6. FT

      That's, that was always the way, wasn't it? It's ju- just about whether they're doing it together-

    7. DJ

      Yeah

    8. FT

      ... or whether they're, they've all fragmented, whether they've all grown up in a kind of silos, you know?

  8. 3:18 – 3:54

    Will AI “come for comedy”? Speed of change and uncertainty

    1. DJ

      Do you think AI will come for comedy?

    2. FT

      I don't fucking know, man. I don't know. Who knows?

    3. DJ

      Yeah.

    4. FT

      Uh, the, the whole AI thing. Like, it's, it's more just the pace, the pace of change is so stupidly fast that in two years it could be an entirely different reality. I don't know.

    5. DJ

      I'm not sure if this is fake news or not, so it might completely be. Um, apparently s- an agent in Hollywood signed, like, the first AI artist-

    6. FT

      Yeah

    7. DJ

      ... or AI actress.

    8. FT

      Yeah, yeah.

    9. DJ

      Which is ridiculous. Uh, and there's apparently, like, loads of songs in the charts that have been completely, like, AI generated. Um-

  9. 3:54 – 4:34

    AI may increase demand for live communal experiences

    1. FT

      I think what it'll do is it will fuel demand for live, actually. I think live is always so healthy, you know. Even at COVID when everyone thought live's dead, it's all gonna be online now. People have such a hunger for communal things. Again, probably why, you know, the, the Oasis tour has been so fucking massive. And I haven't been, but it's been such a, seemingly such a spiritual experience for people. Like, people yearn for those communal things, and so I do think that this has to be some kind of attempt at a monoculture that exists, but I don't, I don't know how you kind of reverse engineer the last five years. I don't know how you do that. Um-

    2. DJ

      Or if we ever can.

  10. 4:34 – 4:59

    Is mass appeal even worth it anymore? Sidemen as a modern ceiling

    1. FT

      No, and I, you know, it's, it's worked out for me. It's great.

    2. DJ

      [laughs]

    3. FT

      So, so... But, um, yeah. I guess, yeah, ma- mass appeal. Who, who's gonna have ... Is it even worth having mass appeal now? What does that even look like? I guess it's, it's the Sidemen, but even that you wouldn't know. Most people wouldn't know who they are still. Like-

    4. DJ

      Yeah, I think, I think you are right. The, the riches are in the niches, as they say.

  11. 4:59 – 5:49

    Bonnie Blue as sudden monoculture: booking Fimverse and surfing a cultural wave

    1. FT

      Yeah. But that's why, to get back to why ... So we booked Bonnie Blue for Fimverse: The Internet, or we penciled her. I wasn't that... We'd had porn stars before. I sort of thought maybe we'd made all the jokes we could make, and I was sort of like, "I don't know if we'll do." And then in the time between booking her and when we were gonna shoot, she basically became monoculture. Like, she broke through to the point where my mum was talking about it-

    2. DJ

      Mm

    3. FT

      ... and, like, people at the gym were talking about it, and you're like, "Fuck, she has actually, fair play, she's become sort of the most mainstream thing there's been for a while." And so actually we thought, "Well, we have to do this," because there's, there's a sort of, there's a kind of cultural, um, wave to surf. You know, we could, we have a chance to maybe be more relevant than we normally are, and, um, I have a feeling that Adam Curtis is gonna talk about her in 20 years' time. Do you know what I mean?

    4. DJ

      [laughs]

  12. 5:49 – 6:24

    Outrage, extremity, and the “numbers” era—what Bonnie Blue symbolizes

    1. FT

      It's like he's gonna be, he's gonna be... But the real, the real forces were, you know, all that stuff with footage of her fucking 1,000 guys. Um, yeah, she's sort of very symbolic of a, an era where it's like- Out- outrage, social media, you know, outrage industrial complex, to use that phrase again, of just extremity, extremity, extremity, like numbers, numbers, numbers

    2. DJ

      To think she made it on your mate Chris Williamson's self-development podcast, that's when you know she's mainstream

  13. 6:24 – 7:37

    Guests who can laugh at themselves: why certain podcast episodes work

    1. FT

      Yeah, I know. To be fair, I did Chris's self-development podcast the other week.

    2. DJ

      Did you?

    3. FT

      It was a great show. It was good. I like-

    4. DJ

      When he was in London?

    5. FT

      Yeah, I like Chris a lot.

    6. DJ

      Me too.

    7. FT

      And, and he's, um, he's definitely, I think, one of the best episodes we've done on the internet because he just... He's a fan of the show, and he knew exactly what we wanted from a guest and what the fans wanted, which is someone who can laugh at themselves. And I think, I think he, he normally gives a sense of someone who wouldn't... You wouldn't think they could laugh at themselves 'cause he's so controlled and, like, masculine, and like, "Gr. H- heal. Be better. Think. Gr."

    8. DJ

      [laughs]

    9. FT

      And you know, and so the fact that he could let it all out with us, I think, made for a really... People were really pleasantly surprised by that. Um, similar to M-Dot. I don't know if you watched that one, the Ja- the Jamaican, um-

    10. DJ

      Oh, yeah, yeah

    11. FT

      ... Well, he's not Jamaican. [laughs] Um, he's from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, but he speaks with a Jamaican accent. But he charmed us. We love him because he kn- he knows it's ridiculous, and he doesn't care, you know? And that's, um, I think that's when that show really excels is when, when people can prove they don't have a s- they don't take themselves too seriously. I think that's the best thing about it. Um, sorry, we've gone off topic. I don't know what we were talking about.

    12. DJ

      Bonnie Blue.

    13. FT

      Bonnie Blue.

    14. DJ

      Monoculture.

    15. FT

      Uh, Bonnie Blue is monoculture. Yeah. That's-

    16. DJ

      But, uh-

    17. FT

      It's true, though

  14. 7:37 – 8:50

    Porn becoming less taboo: OnlyFans, ubiquity, and “where does it go from here?”

    1. DJ

      ... it is strange, though, like you can openly admit to knowing who Bonnie Blue or Lily Phillips is as a man, whereas, like 10 years ago, if you mentioned a porn star's name, you'd be embarrassed. But everyone knows who they are. It's... Porn's being celebrate- Not to go into this as a, as a topic itself, but-

    2. FT

      Yeah

    3. DJ

      ... like porn as a category has almost become, because of OnlyFans and these celebritized creators like Lily Phillips and Bonnie Blue, has become less of a taboo industry because more people are talking about it openly.

    4. FT

      Well, it's also just more, it's just ubiquitous now.

    5. DJ

      Yeah.

    6. FT

      Like, when I was growing up, it was, it was the, the thing, the, bzz, the picture loading down the frame. And then when my dad was growing up, he was probably going to some woods and finding a sort of stuck together mag under a rock.

    7. DJ

      [laughs]

    8. FT

      You know, it's always been there. It's just that the shame has gone from, or at least the pretense that you're ashamed has gone from it. Um, so yeah. I, I, uh, I, I don't s- I kind of think to some extent Bonnie Blue might have ended porn. I don't see where it goes from here. How, how do you... What else do you do? Like you've done it, completed it. What-

    9. DJ

      It's like, uh, the hardest geezer, the guy that ran-

    10. FT

      Yeah. She's the hardest puss. [laughs]

    11. DJ

      [laughs]

    12. FT

      Yeah. Un- undeniably the hardest puss, Bonnie Blue

Episode duration: 8:50

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