I love me some ‘the rest is…’ be that entertainment, politics or history. They all sort of intertwine and inform and reference each other and this is how my brain works so I love it. A reoccurring theme i’m picking up across these podcasts reflectingly across our current culture is the level at which authenticity is now the currency on which so many people must exist, and the commodification of it, has seemingly – killed it dead. It’s kind of like when my friend Grace thought she had managed to swerve hitting a pheasant only to realise 50 miles later that it had been dragged the whole journey by the neck in her front grill. Much like Grace and the pheasant, we tried to convince ourselves that true authenticity survived the car crash that is social media, but really its just been propped up and dead the whole time.

Lets look at some current examples as points of reference namely, Keir Starmer (UK PM), Taylor Frankie Paul (former Mormon housewife), Binky Felstead (MIC/Influencer) and Donald Trump (POTUS and i cant not say it a honking great cunt).

The narrative around our fella Keir Starmer way back when he was the potential next PM, was that he was constantly being underestimated by his peers and the Tories and apparently this was a narrative that superseded his foray into politics. Now a few years down the line I think we can say the opposite has been found to be true. He has seemingly spent his life being overestimated (a privilege in this country reserved exclusively for white upper middle class men). With a stench of the HR about him, I see what he has tried to become. The voice of reason and process in a post Boris world. But for someone who everyone built up to be underestimated his whole life (us brits love an underdog don’t we) I expected more. And I DONT mean more personality.

You see, he is often dubbed as inauthentic like its some kind of slight, but in this most professional setting do I want 100% authenticity? Do I want to know how many times he’s been so pissed he’s shat himself? do I want to know where he buys his PJ’s? do I want to know if he drinks tea or coffee? would that make him appear more authentic? or have we got so used to people oversharing every aspect of their life that we now think that’s what authenticity hinges on? You’d struggle to find any PM or indeed leader of a country that isn’t viewed in hindsight as paradoxical and therefore supposedly inauthentic. I don’t think you can be fully authentic in some roles and can that just be ok?

I recon behind the scenes this year he is constantly being told he needs to be more authentic to engage with voters and that is why he has come across as a synthetic android 80% of the time. You cant perform authenticity- that’s the whole point, as soon as you try you’ve killed it dead and you must drag that dead pheasant in your grill until you reach your final destination, with everyone on the outside able to view its grotesque carcass. I’m going to make a claim and say as leader of a country you cannot live 100% authentic life. It just doesn’t work. However, due to the current state of the world, you need to make it look like you are. Enjoy that head fuck.

Now let’s look at Taylor Frankie Paul. She has 2.5 million Instagram followers, 6.1 million TikTok followers and she was listed on Time Magazines Top 100 Creators of 2025. So it would be hard to argue that current culture doesn’t view her as someone with influence to a certain large demographic. She came to prominence as a star of the secret lives of Mormon housewives in 2022 and I’ll be honest I haven’t watched it but all my friends won’t shut up about it so I feel like I’m allowed a second hand opinion following some research. She was the breakout star with people hailing how authentic and real and ‘raw’ she was. Now, I am not going to speculate on any drama that has ensued in her life, but what I can say is for someone who was built up and held on the pedestal of authenticity- her TRUE authentic self is what tore that all down, and without that what does she have to offer? Only she can answer that. She has spoken about mental health struggles and has been investigated by law enforcement at least three times for domestic violence allegations. The persona she built on reality tv (which we should all not by now isn’t reality guys) was tore apart by the seeming chaos and messiness of her actual life. In this case, unlike our fella Kier, her true authentic self killed what people thought was her authentic self in a very scary movie 3 way. To add another layer to this, I believe it was Lulu that said it’s impossible to be truly authentic when you don’t know who you are yet. Taylor strikes me as someone this may apply to. It is no slight to her, but I think you find people in reality tv rarely have a sense of self that is truly anchored and not changeable by external influences. Its hard enough living in the world as a relatively unknown person, you add in millions of people watching you to see every single fuck up and you’re gonna struggle to just live your life how you see fit. As of 2026 she has seemingly left the Mormon church and entered therapy, hopefully this will lead her to gaining a better understanding of who she is without the other shit that doesn’t really matter (namely other people’s opinion on who you are, including mine)

Now we come to Binky Felstead. I was about 18 when the first series of Made in Chelsea came out just a couple of years younger than Binky in the show, and I used to watch it with my pals. Now I need to preface all of this by saying I went to a public school, my best friend also attended this school but was taken out of said public school at 15 and put in a private school because 1. Her mum worked there so got like an 80% discount on fees and 2. She thought all her public school friends were too rebellious and a bad influence and people in private school would be the opposite and therefore a good influence (You soon changed your tune there didn’t you Janey!) anyway my point is that we remained best friends and I unfortunately had to then socialise with some of her new friends who just didn’t tickle my pickle to be honest so I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder about posh kids. Regardless of this – I clearly had some kind of morbid fascination with them or I wouldn’t have watched the show at all; but I always thought Binky was the most ‘normal’. She reminded me of my best friend a bit, someone who could flirt with both worlds and everyone was happy for her to do so because she could fit in. She came across as down to earth, funny and therefore, you guessed it, authentic and I do believe she was then. Fast forward 15 years and I think she can only now be described as another ‘influencer’. I’m not slamming influencers, actually fuck it I am. I think the whole thing just smells off and I don’t have much respect for it. I don’t mind it you have a skill like cooking or fashion or whatever, sure share that with me, but don’t just ‘collab’ with people trying to sell people shit, that’s just a modern day telesales.

Anyway, Binky recently got in hot water because she requested a free cake from a bakery (in exchange for promotion but that’s still not paying isn’t it? can we agree on that yeah?) and thus she will in due course be cancelled. It may happen slowly with brands no re upping with her contracts and people not engaging with her as enthusiastically at events but i’m pretty sure it’ll happen non the less. A life and career built on ‘authenticity’ crumbles pretty quick when people realise you’ve just become yet another grifter, like any of us would probably be in the same circumstances but you cant derive power from the satirisation of authenticity. You cant be that authentically authentic because it inevitably gives people the ick. Once you’ve been found out your fucked and rebuilding ‘brand me’ would need to be done under ‘a new me’ banner and you guessed it you’ve killed your authenticity and dumped it in a ditch.

And now POTUS has joined the chat. Don’t want to spend too much time on this one but elected on the premise that he was for the every American, his rambling sort of spiels were, back at the beginning, authentic in the same way as your nan when she’s had a few and starts talking on subject matter that is giving Goebbels (racist and extremist) but with a delivery that is no different to when she’s reviewing the latest story line on Corrie. And she is then ignored accordingly. Unfortunately – Americans didn’t get the memo on that one because they elected him to their highest office. You don’t elect nan, you stick her in the corner with a sherry and hope she just falls the fuck asleep, but anyway I guess nan is being her authentic self in the same way trump was is my point.

Fast forward and the fucked up kind of authenticity that Trump had going for him is a husk. But everyone knows its a husk and accepts its a husk and its all got quite confusing because he now lies and we know he lies, we have proof he lies but we sort of have to believe him for his lies because he’s POTUS and then its like a tripple bluff- i’m so dizzy from it all that i cant tell if authenticity is dead, alive or a fucking goat on the moon.

In conclusion, authenticity is dead- RI fucking P. You want to bring her back? get off your phone, go out with your mates and just live your life. Oh and watch out for pheasants.