INFLUENCE

Romance novels get a bad rap, probably due to a history of stereotypical characters, plots, gender roles, and an all-around "trashy" look on supermarket and drug store shelves. But the genre has changed radically, and romance fiction now spans a wide variety of sub genres and writing styles. If you love romance, but not sure where to find the best authors and titles, start with Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a community co-founded by Sarah Wendell nearly 15 years ago. The site (and podcast) is a social gathering hub that connects voracious romance readers with literature they love, and provides a safe space to gush with other fans.Wendell talks with Alli and Jen about busting romance stereotypes, the power of the Smart Bitches community, and recommends great books for everyone's tastes.https://smartbitchestrashybooks.comSupport 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year from 2G1P! We're taking a break this week, but wanted to re-share another one of our favorite episodes: Bronies! Enjoy and we'll see you in 2020.Original publish date: July 23, 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Portraying Santa Claus in the modern era takes a village. What's the best way to whiten your eyebrows? Growing a beard, or applying one? How jolly is too jolly?That's where ClausNet comes in. It's a social network, online forum, marketplace, and community where Santa performers can trade tips, tell stories, and learn the best ways to communicate with excited kids.Michael Rielly has been portraying Santa Claus since he was 12 years old, and founded ClausNet in 2007 after identifying a strong need for online Santa resources and camaraderie. Rielly shares his personal tales of playing Santa, the evolution of ClausNet, and we're visited by a VERY special additional guest...Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rise of powerful, free 3D modeling software has emboldened a cottage industry of VR enthusiasts to create custom sex avatars for virtual porn. But what happens when members of this community start requesting models that look like celebrities, ex-girlfriends, classmates, and co-workers?Samantha Cole covers VR and online sex for Vice, and her recent piece titled "They Can't Stop Us," chronicles the sometimes well-meaning but often seedy underbelly of a marketplace that trades in virtual belly buttons, boobs, and bespoke faces that VR pornographers can't get enough of.Read Samantha's piece here: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j5yzpk/they-cant-stop-us-people-are-having-sex-with-3d-avatars-of-their-exes-and-celebritiesSupport 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Instagram account turned multi-million dollar media company @FuckJerry is notorious for stealing funny tweets, memes, and other content from creators, and posting them — without credit or compensation — to their own social accounts. Fuck Jerry's following has exploded in recent years (14.5 million Instagram followers at the time of publication), but so has the backlash. The #FuckFuckJerry movement became an anti-piracy rallying cry across the Internet. Two comedians (Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig) known as The Good Liars, have taken the movement a step further by creating @MugJerry, an Instagram account that steals back the stolen content from Fuck Jerry, then contacts the original creators to pay them for their tweet, joke, or photo.Alli and Jen chat with The Good Liars about their mission of social media justice, the time they walked into Fuck Jerry's NYC offices and stole an actual mug, and the other ways they've created social commentary through comedy.Mug Jerry: https://www.instagram.com/mugjerry/The Good Liars: https://goodliars.com/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're taking the week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, but we hope you enjoy one of our favorite episodes. Sit back, relax, and enjoy a conversation with a very popular social media influencer: God. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we prank Jen, when her boyfriend Adam pretends to be an adult baby who knows a little too much about her personal life. Get ready for some epic 2G1P hi-jinks.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TikTok came on the social media scene relatively recently (2016), and teens have flocked to it. The Chinese-made lip-syncing video app boasts 500 million users, most of them young. TikTok has developed its own culture and communities within, and Rolling Stone writer EJ Dickson has been observing and reporting on them in detail. As a non-teen herself, she's fascinated by the empowerment and deep social awareness that appears baked-in to Gen-Z, thanks to their constant connectivity.Alli and Jen talk to Dickson about her coverage of TikTok, the teen communities that form there, the trends of self-empowerment that run through the network, and the social media cesspools we can't seem to escape.Read Dickson's piece in Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/tik-tok-toxic-exes-voicemails-901631/Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The anonymity of the Internet has long made it a place for confessions and bonding with strangers you'll never meet IRL. Virtual reality kicks it up a notch. Social spaces like VRchat allow strangers to inhabit the same "room" and communicate vocally and with body language, two aspects that differentiate it from the chat rooms of yore. One VRchat user, Syrmor, has found the platform to be an extremely compelling place for soul-baring, therapeutic conversations. So much so, that people around the world now seek out his adorable cat avatar to have deep conversations about death, love, purpose, and abuse. Syrmor shares these incredibly intimate VR conversations on his YouTube channel, where millions watch and react to this phenomenon of "VR therapy."Alli and Jen talk to Symror about how he became the "Dr. Phil" of VRchat, why VR is so conducive to intimacy, the conversations that never made it to his channel, and the future of social VR.Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When World of Warcraft came on the scene in 2004, it redefined the potential for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Players not only spent daily hours grinding for loot and gear, but socializing in a deep and organic way. Lifelong friendships and IRL marriages were forged in the flames of Azeroth.As WoW and MMOs evolved, some players yearned for that simpler time. And with the recent release of World of Warcraft Classic, guild-mates and raiding parties who haven't played together in a decade are reconnecting. Longtime WoW fan Chris Price created a Discord server for players searching for old comrades. Little did he know it would become a hub for warriors and paladins around the world to reconnect with long lost in-game friends.For any WoW players interested in joining the server or locating Price's guild:WoW Reunion Discord: https://discord.gg/EyedZVPrice's In-Game Name: Valandil (Alliance)Wow Server: Grobbulus: (RP, PvP)Support 2G1P on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/2G1PJoin us on Discord: discord.gg/2g1pEmail us: 2G1Podcast@gmail.comTalk to Alli and Jen:https://twitter.com/alligoldhttps://twitter.com/joonbuggerCall the show and leave a message! (347) 871-6548 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices