flaming_trout

A number of years ago, a scandal familiar to our current pop culture climate broke out in the YouTube community. A number of men affiliated with DFTBA were revealed to have behaved severely inappropriately with younger Nerdfighters. As far as I know, the men's career's (rightfully) never recovered.

I still struggle with the impact of this event even though I was in my late teens when it happened. I went to events hosted by these people, bought all of their music. I no longer consume any of that media that had meant so much to me. I had a treasured photo with friends where one of the men gave me a hug that now repulses me when I think of what that person did with fans my age. Being a Nerdfighter was a huge part of my adolescence, and a chunk of that experience will now always be tainted because of what happened with those men and how the community reacted.

Do you have any thoughts on how fans of media can cope when it is revealed that people they admired engaged in this type of horrible behavior? With more women being brave enough to come forward into an increasingly more accepting climate, how can we as consumers support these women while dealing with the fact that media once associated with beloved memories is now no innocently consumed?

Hi Alex. Recently found Reply All on Spotify and am really enjoying the entire catalogue. Just finished part two of Long Distance and loved how you told the story. One question: Are Kamal and Alex Martin the same person? I couldn't tell if the friendly, joking guy you first called was the same person who threatened to come to your hotel room.