Hey, it’s Marc

What makes for a good reporter? Recently we at the publication found ourselves consumed by that very question, as we sought to add another journalist to the MM+M News desk.

Given the opportunity to join this stalwart media brand, with its up-and-coming editorial staff, the search yielded no shortage of qualified applicants.

But one candidate looked especially impressive: Heerea Rikhraj. And it wasn’t just her Ivy League credentials that turned heads here and made her a shoo-in for the role.

In short, Heerea tells the stories that are neglected.

She uncovers and sheds light on the hidden realities that lie at the intersection of race, health and access to care.

This week on the show, as part of formally welcoming MM+M’s newest healthcare reporter Heerea Rikhraj to the staff, we’ll go behind the byline to talk to her about her background and body of work, and hear what kinds of stories she’s most interested in covering in this industry and why.

And for our Trends segment, we’ll unpack the recent acceleration in MedTwitter’s migration to social media platform Bluesky – and what it portends for public health messaging.

Here, a you join the staff probably less than a month ago, but you’ve already got a number of M&M stories under your belt. So it’s your settling in nicely indeed. But let’s just take a step back. I wanted to formally. Welcome. You once again to the editorial staff, it also love our audience to learn more about your background, and I’m sure the pr and comes out there would like to know more about how they can work with you as well. So just kind of keying in, on your background. Tell us about the basics. You know what types of media you’ve worked in and who you’ve written for? Yeah, thanks so much Mark, I really appreciate it. And really excited to be part of the team. In terms of my background, I’ve done a little bit more of investigative reporting specifically around Healthcare and when it comes to access the kind of areas that I’ve honed in on our maternal, care access and I covered that in New Mexico. I’ve also covered things like climate education, as well as climate Justice in relation to health, care and Health Equity. So those are

Assess what it looks like for women, getting Pregnancy Care, maternal, mortality rates. And I’ve also focused on my reporting around minority communities, across the country. And so kind of looking at the intersection between access and care and minority groups. And in terms of being part of the team, looking forward to just contributing to a lot of the reporting around the biotech and Pharma industry, as well as kind of focusing on gaps across care and focusing on solutions from a minority lens and Community perspective as well. Terrific, yeah that’s really interesting. You know, everyone has their kind of formal education, their schooling and they’re sort of informal education. You know the life experience is that shape them as a reporter? What made you crazy enough to want to do this for a living? You know? Is there someone who inspired you or is work? You admire or a cause that you want to Champion? Yeah, I think you know, I’ve always just been

Really interested in media and journalism. But I think just hearing a lot about public issues that came out of covid, really kind of Drew me into the health space. And from that, I was just really interested in telling stories around Healthcare access. I think a big part of what really shaped my motivation was thought. So, for the listeners as well, we’ve talked about this on the team, but I grew up in Canada.

And around 2020 and 2021. There were a lot of reports that came out of minority and Indigenous communities across the country when it came to healthcare inequity. But also specifically, when I came to the treatment of indigenous folks in residential schools and that was a pivotal moment in terms of Shifting public opinion of, you know what the government has done and also trying to Champion reconciliation. And that will kind of pushed me to educate myself and also talk to folks about their experiences and kind of got me into the field of learning more and old. So just trying to know Champion voices across Community. I’m going to turn things over to Jack and he has some questions for you as well. Absolutely, I’ll pick up on that thread too because I’m, it was one of the things that stood out when we were going through the resumes and again, you’re stood out among a bevy of very qualified candidates and

Is that experience of not only having healthcare reporting but especially as it relates to indigenous, patient populations. I’m kind of curious from your perspective, what you’ve learned in covering them, because I think similarly, to how it is in the United States. They are an overlooked. They are an overlooked patient population. That has a lot of needs that aren’t met by the Healthcare System. There’s a lot of systemic racism. There are institutional challenges and barriers to getting care and assess. What was that experience? Like both starting out in Canada, and then I know that you can continue that New Mexico.

It’s really interesting points there.

I think when it comes to kind of just covering communities, the first thing that I learned that it’s really important is just like being able to like listen and understand and part of what I really wanted to be able to do is just trying to get that trauma-informed training because, you know, especially with communities that have been through so much, especially when they’re subject to a lot of systemic issues as well.

Being able to communicate with folks and understand how to you know, talk around or talk about trauma is really important and then on top of that, something that I think I’ve learned kind of through my work across both Canada and the US is the ability to be able to connect with communities is extremely important, especially because a lot of communities exist in remote areas where things like the internet or you know, even just phone services aren’t available as much. So it’s so important to be in person but be able to create communication channels that transcend. A lot of the digital era that we are just so used to in cities and in towns as well and I think that’s also kind of tying back to this industry, is another area that is kind of quite valuable that you know the industry should think about a little bit more as well.

And emphasize is, you know the fact that there’s so many people across the country, not just indigenous communities but also minority communities and remote communities. That may not be aware about certain issues or certain treatments because they don’t have access to digital means like we do. So that I think, is something that I was able to take away, and I hope to kind of explore more of that in this position. Yeah, it’s interesting here you bring up that point because I think that a lot of the crisis and they see of medical marketing and big Pharma in general, is this kind of idea that oh, well, we see all these commercials. They’re pushing these drugs, they are. It’s trying to force people to talk to their doctors and get them to buy these products. Whenever but you bring up an interesting point where it’s like, if people aren’t aware of one, the condition, let alone, the treatment, or medication options available to them, to be able to treat or cure this condition. That’s just perpetuating. These kind of chronic ailments that they’ve had or the years. So, I’m interested to see how you’re going to be able to approach that. Give you have that.

Background, which is so exceptional in terms of your reporting there. I do want to take a step back too because I know that you were at Columbia journalism schools, where you got your Master’s, what was that experience? Like two and terms of being able to, because I’m sure it wasn’t coming in saying like, oh this is, you know, Healthcare report. It’s got to be all sorts of different reporting. So, what was that education? Like, in the formal setting

Yeah, I think it was quite Dynamic. I really was able to kind of hone in on my research skills, as well as expand kind of a lot of my investigative kind of skills. And also just get a lot of trading when it came to. Like, I mentioned really wanted to get that like trauma-informed, training, and so at school, we really focused on honing in on different mediums when it came to reporting. So things like either, if you wanted to specialize in Britain or investigative or audio,

Our video. And so for me, I really honed in on the written and the audio portion of it. And yeah, I thought it was really helpful. In terms of, you know, we were able to kind of cover whatever beats we wanted, but I think just because I had this like, natural inclination towards Healthcare, that was just something that I prioritized. And I think I just learned a lot when it came to navigating, a lot of spaces, a lot of information, how to collect and disseminate information to the public, but also just get the key things that, you know, readers need to know. Absolutely, I want to bring lesion in the conversation here, tell ya, I’m hearing I know that you spend a fellowship in New Mexico, right? Covering maternal Health. As you mentioned, you know, I know that maternal mortality rate in the US has been increasing a lot in recent years and there’s a lot of factors going into that. I’m curious what, you know, you sort of uncovered while you were there and like what some of your reporting

Shined a light on that you think is important for, you know, people in our audience and our industry as well. Yeah, for sure. That’s actually a really great question. So as you mentioned, you know, maternal mortality rates have been kind of increasing across the country, but they particularly really affect women of color, and Indigenous communities. And so the thing that really affects a lot of these rates is just primarily access to care, is just decreasing across the country. And in New Mexico, there’s a unique problem that there are a lot of Hospitals and Clinics that are being, shut down and a lot of the issues actually. It’s kind of complicated, but it’s a lot of it is actually tied back to Medicaid reimbursement rates just because, you know, when birthing facilities and hospitals, shut down because, you know, they don’t have enough funding or birth. Weights are really low that they don’t think it’s their like hospitals are able to sustain

Physicians or it’s okay to sustains. Then these birth centers shut down. But then in turn a lot of these pre-natal clinics that offer treatments that are around hospitals, also, kind of follow suit and shutting down because

Of the way that reimbursement rates work and, you know, a lot of Physicians. If they’re in the prenatal care space, they get reimbursed after birth happens and they’re also not reimbursed, fairly. They’re only reimbursed, like, with a low percentage of what the total reimbursement rate is and that’s not enough for them, to sustain their prenatal care practice. And the prenatal care practice is that nine months before birth happens. And so, it’s an complex issue where it’s not just affects, you know, women who are trying to give birth, but also just kind of get access to that prenatal care. And this is something that’s kind of full. So, just happening across the country. And so, you know, there’s a big emphasis on trying to unbundle those Medicaid rates because it’s not just a state issue. It’s more of a national issue but also being able to provide things like Telehealth and replacement in areas where

there are low birth rates where it doesn’t make sense to have you know a hospital with a birthing center or prenatal care facilities close by but also you know kind of encouraging.

Facilities to also provide things like transportation and Telehealth. So that women are also healthy. And another area is also just investing in the workforce. So that comes with, you know, investing in all different types of healthcare providers. You know, people nurses as well as midwives and doulas, especially in areas and communities where they’re trusted, and they’ve been doing it for generations and being able to work and increase. That Workforce would also definitely helped with a lot of the maternal care issues that

are kind of happening.

Absolutely. I think that is, you know, really great example of where Healthcare marketers often have to kind of play a role where they have to bridge a gap between there’s all of this, you know, Cutting Edge Innovative science happening in the former world. But then there’s a huge gap between the actual care that’s happening on the ground and What patients are actually facing on the ground. So many complications, go into patients, receiving care and access to care as you mentioned. And I think that’s one of the areas that Health Care marketers are hoping to improve and kind of bridge that Gap. And I think it’s also where our role is important as well as journalists and you know your role as a reporter here at mmm is kind of shining a light on these issues. To better inform Healthcare marketers on, you know what they can be doing to kind of bridge some of these gaps. So I’m really excited to have you with us and and to, you know, learn more about your background and to see what you accomplish here. Great. Yeah. I’m so excited to be part of the team. Yeah, you know to pick up on that.

To thread the Lesser Astra about here, you know, complications on the ground along the path to care. You know, we see this issue of incomplete reimbursement for hospitals in some high price therapies as well. I know like Gene therapies which are these like, multi-million dollar therapies that are custom made for patients, often with rare diseases are having a very slow launch and in the industry. And one of the big reasons for that is that hospitals are hesitant to take on the expense in because they don’t know that they’re going to get full reimbursement. So really does affect access to care all over, you know that you know, reimbursement issue and you know you’ve touched on as you both pointed out, this issue of the impact of high medical costs, lack of Equitable, Medicaid, reimbursement, and the resulting financial crisis facing rural hospitals. And I also love the way you put a human face on these issues.

With drug pricing, still the number one issue facing Pharma companies, where do you think the stories are that have yet to be reported here? What kind of impacts do you think you might look to Spotlight in your role at M&M? You know, whether it be the on the individual level or the industry level? Yeah, I think there’s so many different things that are really important to Consumers as well as people on the ground, but also so many issues that Healthcare marketers can kind of focus on moving forward. I mean there’s so much going on with Healthcare and you know there, there’s probably going to be a lot of transitions over the next few months and over the next year in general, when it comes to what, you know, drug pricing, kind of looks like what access to drugs looks like to. I’m really excited to be able to kind of focus on being able to bring light to individual stories around.

Sound, you know, access to care specifically, when it comes to just being able to get specific drugs on the ground for different people and different communities. But then also kind of focusing on larger trends when it comes to getting drugs and also just like getting access to care. Yeah, I would say kind of in that area. That’s something that I’m excited about and I think there are so many different things that Healthcare marketers can focus on, but I think specifically in the realm of woman tells that is something that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in order to be able to get women. The care that they need, especially as the rates of maternal mortality and the lack of Eternal care access right. Just keep going up. Yeah, the high maternal mortality rate and you know this is kind of a moment and the country where we’re seeing we’re about to see as you said a lot of Transitions and a lot more focus on why we spend so much.

On Healthcare as a country yet we have such low, you know, outcomes, so or poor quality outcomes. So it’s a great time, you know, for you to be joining the staff and to be shining a spotlight on these long neglected stories, 11, final question for me, how do you like to work with PR coms? Folks, you know, how, any sort of tips for them, you know, reaching out and pitching you stories? That kind of thing? Yeah, for sure. I mean I believe my emails on the site as well and I’ve, you know, been having great time kind of connecting with some folks already being introduced and kind of learning about all the different campaigns and some of the work that a lot of these PR agencies are championing in the healthcare space. It’s been actually really cool to learn and also just write about and so I’m excited to meet more folks. If anyone’s interested in kind of reaching out to introduce themselves or pitch any stories, I’m all ears. I have to cop a little bit to that too because I blew up. Here’s inbox Within

What two weeks have you joining here of introducing, you know, to various agencies and stuff and they’ve been nothing but positive in terms, the ones I’ve spoke with had conversations with you, as well. I want to ask a question that kind of goes beyond just, you know, the work and all that sort of stuff and gets or to you outside of work when it’s not focused on journalism and and health and the things that you prioritize your professional sense. What what do you like to do?

A variety of things, you know, I love, I think I’ve mentioned this before. I’m a big Hoster. I love hosting a lot of dinner parties and like coffee making sessions with people and friends. So, fun fact, I mean I I think I’ve told you guys like I’m Canadian but I was actually born in Singapore and my family has roots there. And so I do a lot of, you know, making a lot of Southeast Asian style drinks and coffees for friends and testing out recipes. Just because I as much as I love New York and I love the diverse food scene here, I don’t think we have great Southeast Asian food, other than Thai food. So, I, I mean, if anyone wants to start anything fun, I’d be. I’d be first in line for those restaurants, but, you know, that’s something I’m really passionate about as a hobby. So yeah, I really enjoy it when you talk about coffee. Is there like, are we talking about? Like, the third wave coffee? Yes, it’s it is, that’s

Sort of like what what in terms of like is espressos or this is where I should show my ignorance of coffee too because I don’t drink coffee but yeah.

I mean, I think it’s more like I feel like the coffee’s that we have in Southeast Asia. It’s kind of similar to if you’ve ever had like Vietnamese style coffee. I love. It’s kind of nice coffee. Yeah, it’s kind of like a drip over time, but then we use, like, we enhance it with ingredients like condensed milk or flavors. And so it’s just kind of like spice and it’s, it’s really good. That’s amazing. Yeah, it’s it’s really, um, coffee. So yeah, it might not be the best for your health. Actually, now that we’re, you know, talking this is a healthcare podcast but, you know, it’s good for your soul. So exactly, I’ll take it. I think when we have the first, mmm potluck. I think that this is all gonna be on the menu. Now know it’s wonderful to have you on the, on the team here and again, I just want to reiterate that, you know, when we went out looking for, this is the first report, the new first new report that we’ve hired since I joined and that was back in April of 2022. So it’s been a couple of years. It was really looking for somebody that was able to have the journalistic Bonafide and the

Interest and experience covering Healthcare and you were able to bring those both seamlessly. So very excited to see how you’re going to be able to continue to excel here. And I know that all of us and our editor-in-chief Jameson Fleming our here as resources too, in terms of being able to connect you with whoever, in the healthcare side of things, and the advertising agency world, you know, we want to be able to help you succeed as much as we can to. So looking forward to bigger and better things to come. Certainly once we get around to 2025 and everything has in store for us, for sure. Segment. Today we’re going to discuss the xt2 Blue Sky, migration post-selection. You’ve all probably been hearing about blue sky. It’s a social media platform that has seen a rapid increase in users following the election Blue Sky. Now has more than 20 million users and a lot of those people are moving over from X including a lot of healthcare leaders in science communicators.

On the day after the election X actually saw its biggest user Exodus since Elon Musk originally took over the platform in 2022. And a lot of the people who have moved over to Blue Sky, have cited long-standing concerns about acts things like an increase in Bots, harassment racism and partisan ads. Since musk took over and that those were the reasons why they’re leaving.

Blue Sky was originally developed by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in 2019, but officially launched separately in February 2023.

And when we originally covered, musk’s takeover of Twitter back in 2022, a lot of the healthcare marketers, I spoke to express caution and concern, that X would no longer be a safe choice for Brands. And since then we’ve seen a lot of health and Pharma Brands get more involved in tiktok and Instagram and access sort of quieted down in my experience and I would seems like they’re flocking to Blue Sky. Suggesting that the platform might be a new opportunity for healthcare marketers and Brands among the people have who have moved over there as Mark Cuban. He announced on his profile recently that blue sky offered a less hateful world.

The FDA has a though. It hasn’t posted anything yet. I briefly searched for some big Pharma companies on there. But I didn’t see any yet, so I’m not sure if that’s something that will happen anytime soon. Or Phil be sort of slow to adapt it. So, I’m curious to hear all of your thoughts on Blue Sky, and if you think that this will be an opportunity for Health Care, marketers kind of give an

I guess losing its luster. Yeah, I’ll hop in there as recovering Twitter X User I hopped off. It was like, May or so. It’s been about six months at this point. And there were the first, like, week or two of like, like it’s just that muscle memory of just I know where to click on my phone or going on my laptop or whatever and the decision was made easy because of a number of things that musk had done and posted in the rhetoric and all that sort of stuff that was easy to get off of there. But it was also talking to people in the agency world, who went, I was interviewing them for a campaign, they’re like, oh yeah, we’re gonna be doing a digital rollout and it’s going to be on the meta social media, as it’s going to be on LinkedIn. It’s gonna be on tiktok, nobody was posting on Twitter X anymore. Certainly after the Lily debacle where that person said that insulin was going to be free and that Lily lost all that market cap. So it was easy to leave their we were talking about this offline. Threads came on line was on there for about a week or 10 days. It was kind of like Pokemon go. You just did it for like The Fad period and then it was okay.

I have no use being here anymore. It Blue Sky. I don’t know. Like, I have an account. I haven’t posted anything. I’ll probably start posting stories on there, I guess, but like, I don’t feel that same urge. Maybe it’s being older, like, I got on Twitter when I was 16 and now I just don’t feel the same urge to, like, post my entire life on social media. And I don’t know that. I feel the same thing on Blue Sky, even going on the Discover fee. Like I’ve gone through the protocols to kind of have the algorithm know what I like. And it’s still not as in tune, certainly not as in tune as like, say, your tiktok algorithm is so it’ll be curious. I your points. Well, taken that there’s not drug makers aren’t on there with their brand sites. There are some interesting people Mark Cuban, but I also see people saying like, you know, if you like this, come follow me on Twitter or, you know, go somewhere else. So I don’t know what the staying power is. I do think it’s a retaliation against the election results for a lot of people. But yeah, I just don’t know if threads wasn’t able to maintain people in the way that Facebook is so good at doing it. I just don’t know.

Blue sky is gonna have the same thing. Yeah, it’s really, really good. Point threads did get off to a very promising start, you know, as an outgrowth of an existing platform. And, you know, I haven’t really played around with with blue sky, but I understand the user interface is strikingly similar to X Vera. So you know, They’re copying something, well established, no surprise there. So it’s a natural, you know, migration destination. You know for people who are disgruntled with the owner of X Elon Musk and you know, you both brought up the Lily debacle and you know the changeover of ownership and a lot of Pharma companies had paused their paid social media campaigns as well at that time and I wonder you know whether into what extent those have come back. But we do see, you know, a number of x’s, you know, Twitter at Texas, you know, medicine kind of well known names making the

Jump, there’s a Stanford hospitalist named Dr. Eric strong, who is a YouTube channel, a strong medicine where he said, you know, in a larger sense. This doesn’t really represent dissatisfaction with the prior ownership or the election necessarily, but kind of signals that perhaps the era of Med Twitter. You know, is coming has been coming to a close and, you know, the the musk takeover, we’re just kind of the last nail in the coffin for for that because of the slide into Political rhetoric and, you know, it’s kind of a building for years and just became too toxic for a lot of people. But now, you know, it’s, you know, to the extent that that blue sky is a place where these each cp’s feel, they can get back to just discussing medicine again, you know, free of the Bots, trolls and harassment, that’s like a net positive. A stat recently pointed out of their piece, you know, specially for supporting scientific conversations and public health messaging that becomes harder when the community is spread out among various social platforms anymore,

Uh, but so whether you know, blue sky is the next. Next big thing for medicine on social media, or it’ll fizzle out. It’s definitely got a lot more momentum than anything else and so it does bear watching going forward, you know, both from the medicine medical community as well as advocacy groups and journalists as well. Starting to pay attention, which is that kind of recipe, you know, where people say, okay, yeah. Now it’s it’s kind of gaining legitimacy in terms of, you know, a place where a good discussions are taking place, people can expand their networks network with colleagues and reporters, you know, importantly can Source a lot of their stories. You know, social media does you know Twitter became that place. I think a lot of reporters where they got their, they saw with conversations with Republican up and they got to kind of a first, you know, wind on what stories they want to pursue. So really encouraging start. Yeah, this is one of those things where it’s like, it’s almost like being at a party. It’s like, do you want to be at the party? If all these other people are there? Like I think about, like, when I used to open Twitter and the last like, few weeks and months, I was there.

And you just see like a blatant Neo-Nazi that was on there or smut or Bots or whatever it’s like, is this really where I want again? Like I can find sources. I can find people there but I also know, I can go to LinkedIn and it’s it’s gonna be devoid of all of that too. So like it’s, it’s kind of that, that balancing act. I don’t know if Blue Sky. I see our our podcast producer fits is setting up his own Blue Sky account now. So we must we must have sold them on it here. I want to bring you and have you set up a blue sky account? Do you have any where you active on Twitter, like what is been your social media approach in terms of being a journalist? Yeah, I was I was never really super active on Twitter though. I feel like I kind of just was on it. I feel like you know there’s so much information and so much content that just comes out. That’s really interesting. I haven’t been on Blue Sky either yet though, I brought up a lot about kind of just how the interface works. And so actually after this I might make my own account just to kind of scour and see what it looks like, interestingly enough, because I’ve kind of been in the audio and

Video space a little bit. I I love using tiktok. I know there’s a lot of talk about using tiktok because journalists to, you know,

Get sources and get your information. But I think you know, if there’s something that’s trending or there are some Niche topics, you can find a lot of voices on tiktoks on tiktok and I feel like a lot of people that maybe might not be on mainstream media use tiktok as a source of information. And so I think it’s also important to not like, kind of neglect that platform for a lot of news outlets to kind of have a presence on it and there is a lot of misinformation, but if you’re kind of scouring through it and you know what to look for, it can be a great resource to kind of be able to talk to people and kind of, you know, put a face on what is actually going on. So that’s kind of my interaction with social media and kind of looking for sources and kind of scouring through different new stories. And I think your point is so well taken about being able to put a face to what you’re interacting because there is so much unless you knows this better than anybody so much misinformation on.

Dark. But at the same time and you spoke with a number of physician influencers and people in that space, you’re then able to combat it too. Like, if you are a dermatologist and you’re seeing this really troubling skin condition Trend that’s going live on tiktok. You can hop on there and as an MD fight that back, whereas I felt like in the dying days of Twitter, it was like, oh, I can go on there and like, I’ll see misinformation about covid, or Mbox, or bird flu, or you name it. And I say something where it’s like, well, no, this isn’t true. And I’ve cited a medical journal and then I get a bunch of bots screaming back at me and they’ve got like, eggs or nagas hats on, you know, a meme or something. It’s like, okay, so it’s not the same thing where it’s like if I go on tiktok and I see that this physician influencer is fighting back, and they’ve got 200,000 likes and it’s reached this big, you know, audience.

It does seem a little bit more effective, I don’t know, it’s such a good point that it’s it’s not, I don’t, I think I agree with with Jack that Pharma companies and, you know, credible medical voices should not abandon acts because for that very reason, you know, you want to be around to fill that vacuum to fill that void and not let it get completely swamped, you know, by misinformation disinformation, whatever else is out there. But it’s important to, you know, kind of be that backstop that the internet sort really needs. Yeah. Just gonna say kind of what you are mentioning Jack. I think a lot of that started happening when Elon Musk took over an obviously, he had a very different approach to like her ship and you know, moderating content and his idea of disinformation is different from what we might Define this information. And that’s why a lot of those weird spammy accounts, started appearing and your timeline started looking really different and just seeing really inappropriate content, racist, content, things like that. And I think,

It has really. I mean, I saw that a lot of journalists have just left Twitter. I mean, I remember back in the 2010s almost every journalist was on Twitter. It was like the place for journalists and it’s I don’t really think that’s the case anymore. I don’t think that blue sky or threads or LinkedIn has replaced it in that sense. It seems like everything has been a bit fractured and people are some people are going to Tik toks and we’re going to LinkedIn. Some are going to Blue Sky. I don’t think there’s going to be sort of that, like replacement for the old Twitter that we used to know. But you know, we’ll see what happens with blue sky. And even if it’s not as big or doesn’t really achieve the same thing, maybe it will still be a place for you know, medical communicators and and researchers and journalists to go.

If I can just offer two cents on that, too, that is not an excuse for people to go on LinkedIn and turn LinkedIn into their own personal Facebook or Twitter. Because I’ve seen that too, where it’s like been this creep of, like, oh, here’s my personal or here’s my social life. It’s like, that’s not what I’m here for, you know, because I used to, I was, you know, again, I joined the platform and I was 16. I used to, I would be eating lunch. I’m like, oh, this sandwich is really good. Let me tell my Twitter followers, I certainly wouldn’t do that now, but people have started doing that on LinkedIn. It’s like, that’s not what I follow you for. I follow you, because X y’s. So that’s all. So that’s not the excuse to then turn these other platforms into what we used to love about Twitter. You know, one of my pet peeves as well kind of self-serving LinkedIn post on just absolutely or the post where it’s like, oh I ran into a guy outside and then he was, I interviewed him later and he became my boss, it’s like enough with all this. The fanfiction is enough. I swear. But, you know, then those post will get a thousand likes and it’s like, okay she figured out the formula. Yeah. You truly clout chasing anywhere. Did you guys see?

The first 1 million follow person is on Blue Sky. I I’m scared. Oh, you want to take a guess? The first person to get one million followers, if not Mark Cuban, it is not its politician politician. It’s actually a local New York politician AOC. It is AOC and I’m not a surprise. She’s big into social media. I do remember that this dates. May I remember back when it was Ashton Kutcher versus CNN to see if we get a million followers on Twitter and now none of that matters. Perhaps, you know, one, you know, take away from this conversation among many is that it’ll make all of our jobs collectively a lot harder because now, you know, the community is fractured amongst all these different platforms. So if you want one point of view, you’ll go to one platform and if you want to make sure you get some balance in your story, you got to go to maybe one or two others as well but that’s why we do we do. All right, that’ll do it for this week’s show. Be sure to join us next week. We’ll be joined by special guests naha, Dave, executive director at generation patient.

That’s it for this week. The mmm podcast is produced by Bill Fitzpatrick Gordon. Our theme music is by Susie himself rate, review and follow every episode wherever you listen to podcasts new episodes every week. And be sure to check out our website. And then hyphen online.com for the top news stories at Farmer marketing.