The Earth became flat…
Summary
A rider drops a provocative claim: the Earth became flat in the year 2000. But she's not talking about conspiracy theories. She means culture itself has flattened. Bland Street Coffee in Korea feels identical to a Parisian café, erasing local character through globalization and Instagram's homogenizing force. Kareem pushes to see her algorithm, the supposed culprit behind this sameness. She resists. Hard. Eventually she caves and reveals her Discover page, which turns out to be embarrassingly full of one thing: artisanal sandwiches. The conversation bounces from gentrified coffee culture to algorithmic echo chambers, landing on how social media traps everyone in narrow niches of identical content and experiences.
Full Transcript
What's your take? My take is that the Earth became flat. 100% agree. It's been flat since the year 2000.
Just global, global everything. Are you talking about globalization? Globalization, but also the trend that is detrimental to diversity.
But what does this have to do with the Earth being flat? No, everything is the same. It's like there's no—oh, like society. Not the physical Earth.
Okay. I just think that often—all I think natural and his—I think coffee roaster is just there's a blank street coffee everywhere, and you just get the same experience wherever you are in the world. Now, so like, for example, I was in theor in December, and we just stopped by a coffee shop, and it was the same exact experience that I had if I was in Paris somewhere. And then I was just like, h. I think the world became flat because of Instagram.
Absolutely. I think that's the main cause of flatness. Yeah, definitely. Also the algorithm. Like, you're just in stuck in a niche of the same interest. Okay, so you like this, and then suddenly you just see tons of people like you, and then you just—you can't escape the algorithm. What's on your algorithm? You don't want to know.
I want to know. I mean, it's just so—show us your discover page. It's so—no, it's so pathetic. Show us your discover. I will never. I would never date anyone that wouldn't show me their discover.
Well, good. Not saying anything about—no. I'm just going to have a glimpse of it. Sure. It's not all butterflies.
Oh no. I cannot—no. I'm sorry. This is so embarrassing. I can't. I can't. I can't. Maybe it's about gentrified coffee shop. It's just sandwiches. It's artisanal sandwiches.