“If you even act like you care on any level about the male gaze, you’re a pick me.”
1. How To Be Less Old Podcast uses “We Got That New ‘Pick Me’ Spirit” to track a shifting slang term and a Spotify Wrapped trend.
2. Deanna Chang and Emily Foster host the show, and their back-and-forth matters because they translate youth language, music charts, and Black Friday habits into plain English.
3. The episode asks what “pick me” means now, after the hosts say the term has moved beyond male attention into a broader judgment about women.
4. Deanna says she spent time with her 11-year-old nephew and 13-year-old niece, and she flags “six, seven” as still alive and well.
5. She describes her niece’s “No bear” rule, which supposedly makes someone get on hands and knees and bark like a dog.
6. Emily adds that her niece has nine piercings between her ears, and both hosts talk about hoops and dangling earrings as current style signals.
7. Deanna also mentions her niece talking about Timothée Chalamet, which she says she already knew about.
8. Emily describes a Black Friday trip to home goods and a dumpling spot in Glendale, where Wing ordered fried rice he called “the best fried rice he’s ever had in his life.”
9. The hosts then describe a rechargeable heated eyelash curler, contrasting it with the old metal clamp version and its battery problem.
10. Spotify’s new “listening age” feature becomes a talking point, with the hosts saying it can make someone’s age read older or younger depending on the music they play.
11. They note that Bad Bunny is number one artist worldwide and say they may need a Bad Bunny intensive before the Super Bowl.
12. The younger Gen Z top songs list includes Olivia Rodrigo, The Marías, Tyler, the Creator, Sombr, and Kendrick Lamar with SZA on “luther.”
13. The 18-to-24 list shifts the order and adds The Weeknd and Playboi Carti’s “timeless,” which the hosts treat as a useful comparison.
14. Global Gen Z top artists include Arijit Singh, Billie Eilish, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and Bad Bunny, while the 18-to-24 global list includes Drake, Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and Arijit Singh.
15. Deanna and Emily say the Spotify data feels like software-generated research and something they would use for their own purposes.
16. The hosts revisit “pick me” and define the newer version as a woman who puts other girls down to get male attention.
17. Emily says Sabrina Carpenter is being called “pick me” for talking about men, which leads into a debate about whether caring about the male gaze now reads as outdated.
18. Deanna says some youths think having a boyfriend is embarrassing and that a roster may be more acceptable than being exclusive.
19. The episode sounds loose, conversational, and parenthetical, with lots of overlapping reactions, quick examples, and on-the-fly definitions.
20. People tracking Gen Z slang, Spotify Wrapped, and pop-star discourse will get the most out of it; listeners wanting a tightly structured interview may skip it.
