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Touching Grass

The New World

In online culture, to tell someone to touch grass is an encouragement to get off their screen and get back in touch with reality. In this podcast, The New World's Gen Z-er Lucy Reade and Millennial James Ball try to explain what's happening on the internet to people with much healthier lives - and each other. Expect confusing discourse, culture wars and bizarre influencer scandals.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  • 23 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 44 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • May 26 · 39 min

    Can you fall in love with AI, and the great UK v US food debate

    Welcome to Touching Grass, where two extremely online people attempt to explain internet discourse to those sensible enough to spend their time offline. This week, Lucy Reade unpacks what happens to people in love with AI when their chatbots’ coding is changed, and the rise of AI relationships among younger generations, while James Ball has accidentally waded into the great UK vs US debate on food and the weird politics which accompany it. Links to X and Reddit posts and Telegraph article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/25/schoolboys-ai-girlfriends/ https://x.com/boundandwoven/status/2058238387472216304?s=46 https://x.com/signalxsoul/status/2058171068133654862?s=46 https://x.com/groksbride/status/2017130525664956424?s=46 https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/s/oepRe3Zd2o https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/s/0tpWm91Q4x https://www.reddit.com/r/MyBoyfriendIsAI/s/tpajWPaRKU Links to Tiktoks and Bluesky food discourse: https://www.tiktok.com/@kjordyyy/video/7548881266955947287?q=british%20seasoning&t=1779781821401 https://www.tiktok.com/@emhdder/video/7137731683268267265?q=british%20seasoning&t=1779781821401 https://www.tiktok.com/@harrisonpawluk/video/7548059143551356178?q=british%20food&t=1779781665478 https://bsky.app/profile/jamesrball.com/post/3mmheaz2qhk2u https://bsky.app/profile/youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com/post/3mm4rkh3q3k2h https://bsky.app/profile/youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com/post/3mm4rrxgmic2h Presented by James Ball and Lucy Reade Produced by Matt Withers Subscribe to The New World for just £5 for five weeks here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • May 19 · 40 min

    The fascist video game row, and why are teens obsessed with New Labour politicians?

    Welcome to Touching Grass, where two extremely online people attempt to explain internet discourse to people sensible enough to spend their time offline. This week, James Ball dives into the debate over whether video games can be fascist, while Lucy Reade unpacks the baffling teen obsession with New Labour politicians – and their love lives. Links from the episode: Links to full Mass Effect thread: https://bsky.app/profile/machineiv.bsky.social/post/3mksstm3vss2u Links to Tiktoks: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRtaYvwn/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRtaURon/ https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRtaF1m2/ Presented by James Ball and Lucy Reade Produced by Matt Withers Subscribe to The New World for just £5 for five weeks here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • May 15 · 1 min

    Touching Grass - Coming Soon

    Welcome to Touching Grass, the new podcast on online culture from The New World. Telling someone to 'touch grass' means they need to get off their screen and get back in touch with reality - an insult which has been levelled many times at Lucy Reade and James Ball. This podcast is essentially two people who spend way too much time on the internet trying to explain what's going on there to people with much healthier lives. James provides the Millennial perspective. Lucy explains what Gen Z are up to. Expect confusing discourse, culture wars and bizarre influencer scandals. They'll try to explain why you should care about any of this - and also, sometimes, why you shouldn't. It's 2026, after all - there's no escaping the internet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes