When You Have A Friend!

In this episode of "More Than You Think!" we talk about how the culture of friendship has a direct correlation with the status of the economy and we connect that conversation with trending TV shows and content creators.

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More Than You Think! is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2, student-run radio from NC State University. Like what you hear? Consider supporting it with a gift to the WKNC Enhancement Fund. Visit our podcast page to hear more and follow us on all social media platforms @WKNC881. Thanks for listening.

Creators and Guests

Host

Valerie Gorham

WKNC Podcast Content Creator

What is More Than You Think!?

“More Than You Think!" is a podcast that explores the deeper layers of pop culture, uncovering how today’s trends connect with the political, economic, and social climate shaping our world. Each episode dives into the ways music, media, and cultural moments reflect — and influence — the society we live in. "More Than You Think!" is a podcast produced by WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 at NC State University.

00:00
Valerie
Foreign. Welcome back. Welcome back to another episode of more than you think. Starring me. Starring me, Valerie, your host. Last time I told you all, whoever you are, that were going to be talking about friendship. Now you might be thinking, friendship, what does that have to do with the economy? Right? Oh, because this is more than you think. The podcast about how political, economic and social and cultural events interact with pop culture. Yay. Okay, got that over with. So today, yes, we are going to be talking about something beautiful, something amazing. Aww. It's friendship. And why is friendship becoming so popular? Well, you might not have really noticed it per se, but there are some very popular shows and influencer, not influencers, but like content creation, friend groups and friendships that have been taking the Internet by storm.

01:22
Valerie
So I'm going to start with FX's new show, well, second season, but they just released the second season a few weeks ago. It's called Adults and it's on Hulu. And I watched that thing in two days and dang, it was good. Dang, I love it. And I loved season one. And basically what's so nice about this show is that it shows a realistic portrayal, even though it isn't. It does take place in New York City. So it's a little bit New York. It's very New York. But it shows a realistic portrayal of what it's like to be post grad and in your 20s and basically have nothing going on in life and feel kind of sad that you're like starting your adulthood and you have nothing going on.

02:12
Valerie
So basically, without spoiling anything, the show centers around these five friends and one of them, his parents have this house and they all live in it. They all five of the friends, they just live in this guy's parents house. So nobody's paying rent. Most of them are unemployed, I think three of them are unemployed. And then the other two, one of them has like a steady job, like a decent job, and then the other one has like a bunch of jobs. But what's so realistic about it is not just like the hating of the post grad life and being in your mid-20s and realizing that nothing is happening. But the thing is like it's taking place now in our current like political economic time. So right now the economy is iffy.

03:01
Valerie
But what's so annoying about it is that people like my age, early to mid-20s, who have just graduated college or have been out of college for a few years are struggling to find jobs. And why is that? Well, AI has taken over entry level Jobs. We are cooked. We are cooked. For this reason. We are struggling to make money, which is why adult is so nice, because it shows these five friends living in a house together that none of them have to pay rent for. Which is the only reason these people are surviving, because one of them has enough money to pay for all the groceries and the rest of them are just there kind of leeching off of whoever is bringing in the cash. And the guy and his parents house in real life, this would be a blessing. Can you imagine?

04:00
Valerie
Your friend has a fully paid off house, thank you to his parents. Your other friend has a job and they love you so much that they don't mind that you live there for free. And realistically, Gen Z is currently not making enough money on average to purchase our own houses, especially not in New York City. I can imagine how expensive living is in New York City, but even here in North Carolina, like, you are graduating college, you are not making enough annually to purchase and own a house the way that previous generations were doing it. We're not that fortunate. And a lot of it does have to do with AI taking entry level jobs.

04:45
Valerie
And I know it's not like a new thing to have roommates once you finish college, but it's also, there's also, you know, the declining marriage rate, the declining birth rate, women not necessarily wanting to get married. And it's something that I think is starting to happen at an exponential level. Even since my last podcast about this, which was like, about a year ago, I talked about the summer I turned pretty and women changing and women's rights changing and women's views changing on marriage and the declining birth rate and marriage rate. But it's gotten even crazier. It's gotten even more like women are now standing 10 toes down on, like, we cannot just be getting married just for the sake of getting married. We can't just be trusting men with our money and our futures. So this is something that is like really gaining popularity.

05:40
Valerie
People are saying, like, I'm not going to get married unless A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, C, V, W, X, Y and Z. Or as Kourtney Kardashian. Was it Courtney or. Yeah, Kourtney Kardashian said, abcdefg I have to go. And so that's also causing people to not like, really get into the habit of, oh, I need to buy a house, I need to start a family, I need to do this, I need to. I need to hurry up and get a job. So people are also like, more like, I don't need to do this right freaking now. I still have time.

06:15
Valerie
And as career focused as Gen Z is, I think that a lot of us have seen work and nine to fives ruin our parents lives and so we don't want to be going through all that. A lot of us like to travel, a lot of us like to get a lot of a little more experience in life and just have fun. And a big thing in Gen Z that I have definitely noticed and that I think everyone has probably noticed is that like we really don't like to work. And it's not, that's not a bad thing. A lot of people are like, oh, you guys don't want to do anything. You guys suck. You're so lazy. It's not that we're lazy, it's just that work can genuinely kill you. It can be bad for your health. Not just mental, but physical.

06:53
Valerie
And hello, like, can we actually like not kill ourselves for a dollar? Like I think that's fine. I think that's fine to think and I think that it's a good thing that we're making that move and taking that turn. But anyways, friendship. Let's get back on this topic of friendship. What is another thing that friendship provides when you are broke? Well, when you are broke, usually that's a little bit disheartening because you're like, oh crap, I don't have any money, I can't buy anything. I like, I can't buy my own stuff. I can't do anything because I don't have enough money to do anything. And then you become sad and then you're like, aw, but guess what? If you have a friend, if you have friends, they can support you. They can tell you it's going to be okay.

07:41
Valerie
They can make you smile, they can make you laugh. Friendship is good for morale. And so in times of economic turmoil, having a friend group, not just one friend. It's more important to have multiple friends and a friend group that is supportive of one another. Like everyone is in, we're all in together because it's like a community having that is really encouraging and amazing. And it's something that Gen Z is really big on. And you'll notice that a lot of like sitcoms that have stood the test of time are friend group sitcoms. Like for example, Friends Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Although that one's kind of Family and Friends. But friend group, right? New Girl Seinfeld New Girl is one that a lot of people compare adults to. And I think Adults is like, one of those.

08:37
Valerie
Is gonna be one of those shows that will, like, be there for a while. Unfortunately, there's only eight episodes per season and that's gotta be dealt with. So. Mom, Donnie, get on that. Zoron, can you get on that real quick? Sorry. Dang. Okay, so more content that is friendship centered that I am going to be talking about is Bunch of Friends on YouTube and some other YouTube channels that I'll mention in a second, but Bunch of friends on YouTube. It's actually kind of funny how similar it is to adults because even though it's only four people, they're missing one female because the adult show is two girls, three guys. This one's a bunch of friends, three guys, one girl. But they're also in New York City. They all live together and they go through a bunch of shenanigans. But it's a YouTube channel.

09:25
Valerie
They don't do, like, plot. They. They just be doing. They just be doing anything, honestly. But I love them. They are supportive of each other, even though, you know, they bully each other a little bit, but it's always, you know, just fun and games. They are supporting each other. They're there, they're together, they're doing things, and they do things that cost very little money. Which is kind of the best part of it all is that, like, you see these people and they're having fun just because they're together. You know, you don't need to have a lot of money when you have friends because you can just have a good time and make each other laugh for no reason. These people, they bought a doll, a baby doll, and they went around the city and pretended it was a real baby.

10:09
Valerie
That does not cost a lot of money to do. They were just being stupid. And that's goofy and funny. And you can do that. You can be goofy for free, but it's less embarrassing to do when you have a bunch of friends. Okay. So, yeah, other YouTube channels that I like that are sort of friendship or like companionship centered are Slushy Noobs and Sinjin Drowning. And also, I don't know the name of the channel, but it's like that American High group, You know, the ones that did the Hunger Games, but better. You know that. That sound, that TikTok sound, Is it Tik tok sound? I think it was on a podcast and they say, would you rather bring a dead family member back for a day or be skinny forever? And the Girl goes, skinny, skinny. You know Grace. Great.

10:57
Valerie
I think her name is Grace. Grace Rider. Oh, my gosh, that group, they're just like there. They do stuff together. They make like these low budget freaking productions and it's amazing and I love them. And they're also in New York City. Dang. See, that's the thing about, like these Marvel movies. And everyone's like, oh, why does every superhero movie take place in New York City? Actually, everything happens there. I'm not going to lie. Like, and right now with this freaking Zoran, everything's happening there and everybody wants to move there. And. Which is kind of music to my ears because maybe all the New Yorkers that come to North Carolina will move back because we have way too many people. And North Carolina, the cities here are not big enough for that many people. Like, we are not New York. Sorry.

11:37
Valerie
I am sorry, but, like, we are not that girl. Like, I'm sorry, but North Carolina is pretty chill. But whatever. So another show is I Love la. So that's also sort of like a friendship circle type show. They all. The thing about I Love LA is it is younger millennials, so they aren't quite as friendship centered. And that's something that you actually might notice is that in I Love la, everyone's kind of going through their own character arc. They just come back together at the end of the day. And that's sort of indicative of like the millennial content trends. You might have noticed that right now on YouTube there is sort of that emphasis on like friend groups or like one or two friends or collaborations.

12:25
Valerie
Like, it's very collaboration heavy on YouTube and on streaming, like streamers right now are doing like, they collab, like this freaking streamer university thing that happened last month, like, that was like kind of popular. I don't think it was as popular as they wanted it to be, but I saw a lot of clips from that. I thought it was kind of funny. And I can see that there's like a lot of collaboration going on where, like, people are like, oh, I'm going to be Collabing with this YouTuber, this streamer, this other tiktoker, because people have more fun together, you know. And then back in middle school, when I was in middle school, I remember the whole bi sister thing happening. That was huge. But when you look at that era of YouTube, it was a lot of solo content.

13:16
Valerie
So like you had like your makeup artists, your vloggers, and these people were just making videos alone and in either just like a room, like a filming room or they were just going about their day alone. And those people are all millennials. No shade to millennials. But they are more like girl boss, do it on your own type vibe. So that is the difference that I'm seeing between Gen Z and Millennials. Gen Z is more. It might also be the emphasis on mental health in our generation, but we are more like, do it together. You can still be online, but be online together. Aww, isn't that cute? That is also something. But the thing is that I'm. I'm trying to say is that sometimes being broke makes you. Forces you to have a friend or two or three or four.

14:19
Valerie
Not saying that we should all stay broke. I do think that is a big problem and that is something that really needs to be solved. Because a lot of Gen Z are struggling to find work experience and are being thrown into jobs that we are not qualified for because the jobs that we need to start out with are getting taken by AI. I don't know how many times I've already said that AI is taking entry level jobs in this podcast episode, but they're getting taken away. And obviously some industries much more than others, but it's certainly spreading and it's a big problem and I don't know how to fix it. I don't know if it's something that needs to be protested. It can't really be protested.

15:06
Valerie
Because the thing is, although Gen Z, a lot of Gen Z, especially creative people, are against the use of AI and replacing people with AI, I do think that, like, companies don't really care because it's cheaper. And at the end of the day, money is the ultimate motivator for industries and corporations and businesses. And there's very little that we can do. And the thing too is, hopefully over time, AI becomes less environmentally harmful. So that is kind of the main goal of a lot of these AI companies right now. Because business ethics are also really big with Gen Z. And since we are like the primary users, us millennials. Well, I'm not going to say that Gen X and Boomers, I'm not going to say that they don't use AI because let's be honest, they be using the frick out of that AI.

16:08
Valerie
Oh my gosh, making pictures of themselves standing next to freaking Barack Obama like, what are you doing? Oh, that's crazy. But no, because AI, it's unfortunate. Like it is the future. Like, that's the thing. What we need to force AI companies to do is make it less environmentally harmful. That being said, taking jobs and replacing them with AI is also human harmful. But the one thing that Gen Z does have is that we are, as the youngest generation in the workplace right now, probably gonna be the people who are best at using AI. And so that's our strength. And hopefully that's. Hopefully we can get jobs that way. So there is hope. There is hope. And then we won't need to have friends anymore. Yay. I'm just kidding. Friendship is magic. My little pony. But yes, I hope that everyone here learned something today.

17:12
Valerie
The shows that you are watching, the YouTubers that you like, the tiktokers, the content creators, everything that you like, it has to do with the economy and the fact that people our age don't have enough money to have fun alone. And nobody wants to have fun alone anyways. So we have to stay in and just hang out with our friends and watch tv, which is fine. And that's what they do in FX adults. And that's why I love that show so much. And that's why I watched it, because I was like, oh, this is something that I can talk about with my friends. But yeah, I hope we all learned a little something today. That is the episode for today. Until next time. Next time, I'm gonna get a little crazy. Okay, I'm gonna talk. I'm actually recording this on the kirkiversary.

18:00
Valerie
I am going to talk about the Kirkification of the Internet and I'm not going to be disrespectful, so don't worry about that. But we are going to have a little fun. All right. Happy kirkiversary. Hope you enjoyed it. Have fun. Until next time, I will not see you. You will hear me. Love you. Bye. Sa.
pod19 - 9:14:26, 10.30�AM.mp3
Meeting created at: 14th Sep, 2026 - 10:35 AM