Tumbler Ridge Tragedy & Epstein Unredacted: The Viral Fallout [Buzz]

[00:00] Lila Grant: Welcome to Buzz, your daily pulse on everything trending, viral, and deep-seated in our digital culture. [00:07] Lila Grant: I am Leela Grant. [00:08] Jonah Klein: And I'm Jonah Klein. [00:09] Jonah Klein: Today, we're navigating a heavy mix of breaking world news, high-stakes government transparency, [00:15] Jonah Klein: and the Super Bowl's very weird AI-generated afterglow. [00:20] Lila Grant: We have to start with the story that's currently the number one trend worldwide on X. [00:27] Lila Grant: And it's a devastating one. [00:29] Lila Grant: A mass shooting at a Tumblr Ridge secondary school in British Columbia, Canada has claimed [00:36] Lila Grant: at least nine lives with over 25 others injured. [00:40] Lila Grant: This is a tiny community of 2,400 people. [00:45] Lila Grant: And the shock is just reverberating everywhere. [00:48] Jonah Klein: It's being called one of Canada's deadliest school shootings in decades. [00:52] Jonah Klein: Prime Minister Mark Carney called it an unimaginable tragedy. [00:57] Jonah Klein: But as soon as the news broke, Lila, the timelines became a battlefield. [01:02] Jonah Klein: We're seeing intense debates over the shooter's identity. [01:05] Jonah Klein: RCMPs say the suspect was found dead from a self-inflicted injury, [01:09] Jonah Klein: but that hasn't stopped the political firestorm. [01:12] Lila Grant: Jonah, the hashtags Tumblr Ridge and gun control are moving so fast. [01:19] Lila Grant: There is a lot of heat regarding how Canadian media is framing the coverage compared to the U.S. [01:26] Lila Grant: And, of course, the inevitable policy debates that follow these tragedies. [01:30] Lila Grant: It's a somber reminder of how quickly digital spaces shift, from grief to high-stakes political arguing. [01:40] Jonah Klein: For sure. The eyewitness accounts coming out of the small town are absolutely heartbreaking. [01:45] Jonah Klein: It's one of those moments where the global community is watching a local horror in real time. [01:52] Lila Grant: Um, shifting to a story that's been years in the making, transparency advocates are finally getting some of what they wanted. [02:00] Lila Grant: Um. [02:00] Lila Grant: The DOJ has unredacted six major names from the Jeffrey Epstein files. [02:06] Jonah Klein: Wait, what? [02:07] Jonah Klein: This was wild to watch on the House floor. [02:10] Jonah Klein: Representatives Thomas Massey and Ro Khanna actually read these names into the congressional record. [02:15] Jonah Klein: We're talking about Leslie Wexner, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulaym, Nicola Caputo, Salvatore Nuara, Zorab Mikoladze, and Leonak Leonov. [02:25] Lila Grant: The bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act is looking to release over 3 million pages. [02:31] Lila Grant: Jamie Raskin also mentioned he's seen some of these files, and the transparency push is real. [02:37] Lila Grant: The Internet is naturally obsessed with release the list, and having these names officially public is a massive gear shift from just speculation. [02:45] Jonah Klein: Lila, the fact that it's bipartisan is the key. [02:48] Jonah Klein: When you have names like Wexner and others being openly discussed in Congress, it moves [02:54] Jonah Klein: it out of the corner of the internet and right into the center of the national conversation. [02:58] Jonah Klein: People are dissecting every connection as we speak. [03:01] Lila Grant: Transitioning into the world of entertainment, the Super Bowl fallout is still ongoing, but it's taken a very funny and then a very serious turn. [03:10] Lila Grant: First, let's talk about Bad Bunny. [03:13] Jonah Klein: Oh, the shredded edit. [03:14] Jonah Klein: There is a video going mega viral. [03:16] Jonah Klein: We're talking millions of views that strips the backing track from his halftime performance. [03:21] Jonah Klein: It just leaves the raw, isolated vocals and... [03:24] Jonah Klein: Well, it's like brutally funny. The awkwardness is off the charts. [03:29] Lila Grant: It's a music meme goldmine, Jonah. But it also fed into a larger authenticity crisis this year. [03:36] Lila Grant: There was an AI-generated deepfake of a duet between Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl that went viral, [03:43] Lila Grant: and many people didn't realize it was fake at first. [03:46] Jonah Klein: That's the scary part. Between the deepfakes and those AI-generated ads from brands like [03:51] Jonah Klein: Svedka and Anthropic, which, let's be honest, were panned as soulless, the vibe was very [03:57] Jonah Klein: uncanny valley. The Verge even called the AI ads the worst of the year. [04:01] Jonah Klein: People are feeling really negative about AI replacing actual human performance. [04:07] Lila Grant: It's a total flashpoint. [04:08] Lila Grant: Are we watching a live show or a generated prompt? [04:12] Lila Grant: But thankfully, some things are still very human and very fun. [04:16] Lila Grant: Let's talk about the K-pop takeover of the big guy trend. [04:20] Jonah Klein: No way! Straight Kids members Changbin and Felix, the iconic Changlix duo, [04:25] Jonah Klein: finally jumped on the Big Guy TikTok challenge. It got over 300,000 likes in just a few hours. [04:32] Jonah Klein: When K-pop idols join a trend, they don't just participate. They basically own the platform [04:37] Lila Grant: for the day. The chemistry between those two is always a winner for the fandom. It's the perfect [04:43] Lila Grant: palette cleanser after a heavy news day. Seeing them lean into the meme culture with that much energy is why they're [04:49] Lila Grant: constantly trending. [04:50] Jonah Klein: From the tragedy in Tumblr Ridge to the unredacting of the Epstein files and the weird [04:56] Jonah Klein: AI-saturated Super Bowl, it's been a massive 24 hours online. [05:00] Jonah Klein: Lila, I think our 2026 bingo card is already filling up. [05:05] Lila Grant: It really is. [05:07] Lila Grant: That's all for today's roundup. [05:08] Lila Grant: Stay safe out there and keep your eyes peeled for what's real and what's deepfaked. [05:13] Lila Grant: I'm Lila Grant. [05:14] Jonah Klein: And I'm Jonah Klein. Thanks for listening to Buzz. We'll catch you tomorrow with more of the [05:19] Jonah Klein: internet's biggest moments. Head over to buzz.neuralnewscast.com for more. Neural Newscast [05:25] Jonah Klein: is AI-assisted human-reviewed. View our AI transparency policy at neuralnewscast.com.