Show notes
This week we welcome our pop culture king Blakely Thornton to the pod to talk about Kimberly Noel's Criminal Justice Era. We discuss how the Kardashians have evolved, Kim's journey from Paris Hilton's closet to the White House, and of course a few moments with Kris. Together we unpack how celebrities impact social issues and the nearly impossible task of fixing deep problems in the justice system. Check out the episode on Private Equity in prisons with Bianca Tylek Follow Blakely!! on ig Follow Blakely!! on TikTok Join the Patreon and never miss the tea! Meredith Lynch (00:01)Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of Oddly Specific. I'm your host, Meredith Lynch. And this is like kind of a groundbreaking episode y'all because I have billed this podcast as the only podcast that covers everything from private equity to Pete Davidson. And a lot of you have reached out and said, Meredith, you've never had an episode where you have ever mentioned Pete Davidson. And they would be right. But today I think we're gonna get Pete Davidson adjacent. I am so excited for this guest. Y'all are going to freak out. Y'all are going to say, Meredith, what if Oddly Specific was just hosted by this person and you just went away? And I would say, listen, I'm open to it. Blakely Thornton, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for being here. How are you doing? Blakely Thornton (00:41)Hello, thank you. Thank you. Welcome. Doing well, just got over the flu. We're good, but I feel human today. My body temperature is regulating as previously discussed and I'm ready to talk P.E. and Kimberly Noel, you know? Meredith Lynch (00:59)I love it, I'm so excited. Isn't it wild when you get sick as an adult too? Because you kind of forget, like when I was a kid, I would just throw up all the time. Blakely Thornton (01:09)Yeah. I just think you forget when like it sucks. Like I think because the primary directive as a child when you miss when you when you get sick is missing school or like getting to watch some TV. But it's like when you're an adult and you work for yourself and there's actually also like no one taking care of you specifically like I have to like go get the medicine feeling like this. There's just no purpose and also like sick days if we're just skipping work and like going to basketball games or like Meredith Lynch (01:20)RAID! Thanks. Blakely Thornton (01:38)They're like taking your vacation, you know, they're not for actually being ill. Meredith Lynch (01:42)Yes, exactly. When you were a little Blakely and you are homesick from school, what was the show of choice, the daytime show of choice? Blakely Thornton (01:51)I think it was a little Matlock. We'd have like a Matlock pizza party like the old school like I don't even know what that man's name was. But like that old white haired KFC like Colonel Sanders looking white man that Matlock and like a Domino's pizza, even though like I don't know why I think Domino's was better in the in 90s before now. But I remember Domino's pizza tasting really good. So Domino's, Matlock, Sally, Jesse Raphael on occasion. Yes, daytime smut. Meredith Lynch (02:17)Well, yes. Daytime smart. used to really like Lisa. There was a show called Lisa. Yeah, that was my girl. And I also really, you know, I was that was how I got into Jerry Springer originally was I think a lot of us via sick days. Blakely Thornton (02:23)Yeah, Lisa Gibbons. Right? I was actually thinking of like, I was actually talking to my friend the other day about like, need to bring back those shows to like rehabilitate like maga men. Like remember how you should like take kids away to those camps? Just like needs to be that but for like straight men with podcasts, like, oh, you have a podcast? You've never read a book? Oh no, you're going, you're going, know, we take them like to libraries. Meredith Lynch (02:56)my god, like the intros would be like, I don't care what my job says, I'm never getting vaccinated. Blakely Thornton (03:00)Yeah. I'm an alpha. I don't deal with we need more alphas. And it's like you don't have a job, Rob. You have a high school diploma and unemployment like like that. Like get go to library, read a book. Meredith Lynch (03:08)Right? my God, I love this. How do we pitch this? Anyway, I love this. I love what you do. And I would love if you could just sort of explain, you know, how you got to where you are because you are this sought after creator, speaker. You're an incredible host. You call yourself a pop culture anthropologist, which I love. And I would love to know what that means to you. Blakely Thornton (03:33)Yes. I just think we are in an attention based economy and there is no longer higher low culture. Like someone yesterday asked me, are you finding it hard to be interested in pop culture and music and fashion when we're like in a fascism right now? And I'm like, no, because it's all connected and we're actually currently a country run by a bankrupt game show host. like those things are connected. Like the apprentice to the White House to like, you know, the fourth Reich is all together. I might as well listen to music and pay attention in the meantime. But I got into this. I actually worked the short hero's journey as I worked in finance out of college. Hated it. It ended up working in marketing and brand strategy for Ralph Lauren for four and a half years. And then a couple of agencies actually worked for Fuck Jerry right after the whole fire festival debacle. So they were and they were turning that debacle into a film. Meredith Lynch (04:32)my god. Blakely Thornton (04:36)So that was interesting. So I kind of got to see all sides of how the sausage was made. And then my friend was working at TikTok and was like, please get on TikTok and say something. And I was like, that was back in the old like dancing phase of it. And I was like, I'm not doing that. like, but she's like, just do it once a day for a month. And like the fourth thing I said got viewed like 2 million times. And then when Instagram went into reels, I had this huge backlog of like, videos that had done well. My friend taught me how to like take the things off TikTok and put them on wheels with no watermark. then that, so then people were like, you, you know, you create so quickly, which I guess I kind of do. But also the thing that kind of popped it off was I said, I would like murder Tom Holland and live the rest of my life with like, with like five, six, and then white face to date Zendaya, even though I'm gay. And then like Tom Holland liked and commented on it. And that just kind of Meredith Lynch (05:05)Hey! Blakely Thornton (05:31)And apparently he'd been on like a social media break for two years. So that was the first thing he'd interacted with. And like, always say like, and like I always say, yeah, like I threatened to murder him and he was like, that's funny. which is kind of my MO. I'm like, you know, but I also think I stand 10 toes down in anything I say on the internet. I would say to your face. I think that's what sets me apart from most commentators is that if I, whatever I'm talking about you, I will tag you in it. Meredith Lynch (05:37)You brought him back to the bed. Blakely Thornton (06:00)And if you have a problem with it, I might stop. might be like, unless you're like, you know, a fascist or a racist or a misogynist or a homophobe. But if I like, don't like your pants and you're like, hey, that made me feel bad. Okay. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll back up. I think, yeah. Meredith Lynch (06:13)Right. Yeah, that's very different. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And you have this catchphrase that is famous. And I mean, I could say it, but you could say it for us and it would mean so much. Blakely Thornton (06:22)Yes. I I guess I don't even think of the role credits of it all. That originated because I didn't originally start saying it. Just one day I was so pissed and I knew I was gonna put the credits at the end, because I like putting credits at the end because it's a way to add an extra on the nose joke. The song usually has something to do with what I'm saying, usually a reference to like 80s or 90s culture or just Chapel Rowan or whatever I'm feeling right now and the gay girlie cop pops of it all. And then one day I was like really mad and I said it before the end and it became kind of like a thing that people really latched on to the point where like, if I don't say it, I get comments about not saying it. But you know, everybody needs a hook. Like the guy from Blues Traveler said, it brings people back. Meredith Lynch (07:18)ain't that the truth? What a fucking jam, by the way. I don't think so. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you who is alive and well. The person who I invited you to come on and talk about on this on today's podcast, which is Kimberly Noel. I like to call her Kimberly Noel, even though I think it might be infantilizing her. Noel, people always like, why do you call her? Why Noel? I'm like, it's her middle name, you guys. I think I made it up. Blakely Thornton (07:21)Right? John Popper, is he alive? Neither do I. Yes. middle name. Meredith Lynch (07:48)But I wanted to know, we're gonna get into a little bit of Kim's criminal justice work, because like you said, this is one of those moments where you see how pop culture is political. And I also like to remind people, pop culture stands for popular culture. Like it doesn't stand for like music, it stands for anything that's in that sort of popular culture zeitgeist. And so I would love to know. Blakely Thornton (07:54)Yes. Meredith Lynch (08:15)Keeping Up With The Kardashians premiered in 2007. I would love to know what was sort of your introduction to the Kardashians and how did you feel about them back in 2007, 2008, 2009? Blakely Thornton (08:18)Yes. I believe it was a junior in college at Penn when it first debuted on E! News. I remember like Wawa being a big part of my life in Philadelphia. And it was just the thing you'd watch on Sundays. I remember her as kind of like Paris Hilton's new Nicole Richie. Obviously the Ray J sex tape was going around the early, know, anal's of the internet or anal's of the internet or whatever pun not intended. But like, I think it was interesting. They were a family that seemed to be Meredith Lynch (08:53)This is Blakely Thornton (08:59)that seemed to like, as a consistent storyline, really lack shame. mean, that first episode, Kylie's on a stripper pole and Brody Jenner and Frankie Delgado from the Hills were in that episode, you know? So I remember like, she also went on Cribs on MTV when it was still going on and she like, but it was her parents' house, I remember that. So it was very interesting seeing them as this kind of like innocuous reality family in the vein of like the Osbournes or... Nick and Jessica newlywed. I feel like that's where we thought about them initially because social media had not come on. And I think they were almost like a two headed monster that were born together at the same time to rise up and, know, Seren, you know, Trojan horse, the ruin of society in certain ways, but you know, it's popular. Meredith Lynch (09:47)Yeah, and I mean, I guess I've never really thought about this before, but do you think it's the chicken or the egg in the sense that like, I think a lot of what has happened with the Kardashians has been orchestrated by Kris Jenner. And I don't say that to, even though I have my issues with her, she doesn't know about them. Right, exactly. So I'm kind of like, do you think it's like this was the goal all along and it just, or do you think it's like the show happened? Blakely Thornton (10:00)Mm-hmm. Not in a malevolent sense, just like she's a manager. Meredith Lynch (10:16)and then they realize the opportunities that could come. Blakely Thornton (10:20)I think Kris Jenner is an extremely ambitious woman born in a time before women could be outwardly ambitious. And I think that ambition was held and capped through being through the tools of the day in society, which was being a rich housewife. And I think Bruce now, Caitlin was her first entree into having a little bit control and rebranding someone. And I think by the time they got that show, she was ready to. grab the whole family and make them into juggernauts. I think you do not have those women, those girls who are all now entities of their own in a truly A-list sense in terms of the attention they can all command and the money they can all command without that woman. And I think she poured it into Kim. And I think in a way, they're further than they ever thought they would be. Like, I don't think one ever could imagine amassing this much power as a collective, but they have. Meredith Lynch (11:13)Yeah Yeah, and I guess that's probably like, you know, when people have visions of grandeur, they might think of that, but I think that it's pretty hard to imagine the position that they've gotten into. And it's so interesting that thing you said about Chris is so interesting because I don't know if you know this, you probably do, but before Chris married Robert Kardashian, she was a flight attendant. And I think that's really interesting because at the time where there were really limited careers for women, Blakely Thornton (11:39)Mm-hmm. Meredith Lynch (11:47)Being a flight attendant probably gave you a lot more power than a lot of other careers, right? You got to travel, you got to be on your own, you got a per diem every day, you know? Like, it was kind of like a very sort of forward lifestyle for a career woman at the time. Not saying that it still isn't, but it's just sort of like, when you think about that, she wanted a freedom. Blakely Thornton (12:11)Oh, I think being a flight attendant in the 60s and 70s was how you met wealthy men. You knew they were sitting in first class, you knew they had to afford the ticket. You could look at the washers, you could look at the ties, you could look at the briefcase, look at the shoes. And basically they were stuck in a metal tube to flirt with you. And I think that's how she met Rob Kardashian, I believe, their father. Meredith Lynch (12:15)Great! Yeah, I think that is how they met. And Vianna can fact check us maybe and tell us, but I think, I do think that they met and got married very quickly. Much more, yeah, much more quickly than Kim is finishing her law degree. Blakely Thornton (12:38)Mm-hmm, she was a teenager. I mean, truly, not, I mean, truly, the apprenticeship is difficult regardless of who you are. It was never gonna be a study for her. I think she's also recently said she's pausing that pursuit right now. Meredith Lynch (12:50)So. I mean, and that's, know, what I really wanted to bring you on and talk about because there's so many different ways we can look at the Kardashians, but Kim's interest in criminal justice reform over the last eight years has really evolved. And it started in 2018 and she publicly campaigned for the release of Alice Marie Johnson, which was completely necessary. That was so important. I'm so glad. that Alice Marie Johnson is out of prison. And did you know that Alice has just been named the, she's been named the pardon czar of the Trump administration. So listen, I just want her to get what she needs to get, right? Like, great. But Kim's approach to reform is unique because it does come from a place of privilege. Blakely Thornton (13:40)Sure, Jan. Sure. Meredith Lyn…
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