Ugh, As If! - contemporary art and culture podcast · Lisa Fevral

WHERE ARE ALLLL THE THINKERS???😩 - 3x23

·1 hr 6 min·4 clips

Lorde says watching Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s tape felt “so beautiful,” and the hosts push back hard.

The episode starts with a face reveal and a joke that works because it refuses to be precious about it. The hosts greet the camera, lean into the bit, and then make it clear this one is going to be ruthless. That leads into their new official framing of the show: they are basically two artists who hate art, meaning they are over artists who hide behind vagueness, sanctimony, and self-importance. Lorde is the first major target. They go back to loving her earlier songs, then land on real disappointment at hearing her talk about her art as an adult in ways that feel stalled rather than grown. Gracie Abrams gets mentioned in the middle of that stretch, mostly as another example of how little patience they have for glossy self-explanations or polished cultural poses. The episode stays self-correcting and messy on purpose, with the hosts restarting thoughts, laughing at their own derailments, and leaving the rough edges in the cut. A psychedelic therapy anecdote opens the next stretch, which turns into a complaint about how treatment discourse gets packaged, including the specific point about something being not FDA approved. From there they veer into Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee and the old sex-tape spectacle, treating it as a mix of gossip, rot, and cultural absurdity. The back end gets even stranger, with a recommendation of the Communist Manifesto, a pivot to oysters, and an absurd little campaign built around posting oyster photos until they free oyster on me. The episode never settles into one clean thesis, but that is the point: it keeps returning to taste, status, irritation, and the pleasure of saying the sharp thing instead of sounding respectable.

As heard by us

A blunt, loose art-world roast that runs through pop culture and criticism with plenty of attitude.

The episode opens with a face reveal and settles fast into a blunt pose: it is here to be ruthless about artists who seem far too full of themselves.

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Why you'd press play

For when you want Lorde discourse, ruthless art snark, and oyster-level chaos tonight.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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