Word Food: Bubblegum & To be a Musk

Pushback Talks Season 9 is here with "Word Food"!

This season, Fredrik & Leilani return with their signature bite-sized episodes: sharp, surprising, 15-minute explorations of the words that shape our world. Each week, they pick a single word (or two) and unpack how its simple surface hides deeper social, political, and economic realities.

Think of it as thought-provoking “intellectual snacking” -  quick enough for your commute, rich enough to shift how you see power, privilege, and the systems around us.

This week’s episode:

Bubble gum: a lighthearted conversation about bubble gum — something sweet, chewy and full of youth.

To be a Musk:  a discussion about individuals the likes of Elon Musk who accumulate power through right-wing populism and dehumanising acts.

New episodes drop every week.

Make this your ritual for keeping your curiosity - and your resistance - alive!

Transcript

Fredrik Gertten 0:02

I'm Fredrik Gertten and I'm the filmmaker.

Leilani Farha 0:05

And I'm Leilani Farha, and I'm the advocate.

Fredrik Gertten 0:09

Hello, advocates. This is Pushback Talk. And this is our, you know, the way of us keeping alive, you know, putting words to each other, and we call it word food. So let's play with words, Leilani. It's your time. It's your time.

Leilani Farha 0:28

It's my I'm gonna give you a word, Frederick, and it's it's intended to keep things light at a very heavy time in world history. So here's your word. Well, it's actually two words. Ready? Wait. Bubblegum.

Fredrik Gertten 0:49

Bubblegum. There is a card with an alarm outside her. Bubblegum. Bubblegum. Bubblegum, yeah. Uh can you please stop your car? Do you hate cars, Frederick? I do, I do.

Leilani Farha 1:05

For those of you who don't know, check out the film Bikes versus Cars.

Fredrik Gertten 1:11

I was about to talk about bubblegum. Actually, I don't buy gum. Oh, I hear that car now. Okay, they moved off now.

unknown 1:21

Okay.

Fredrik Gertten 1:22

Bubblegum. Bubblegum. Bubblegum. Yeah, it's something you put in your mouth and then you chew and chew and chew and chew and chew and chew and chew. And maybe in the beginning there is some kind of freshness to it. You know, you feel like, oh, there is some sweetness that are a little bit kick, kick, kick in the brain of sugar. But then quite soon I feel stupid, and my mouth is like, I can't talk. You know, it's like, what's the point? But it's and it's an amazing product that they managed to make people put that into their mouth and then go walk around chewing. You can see it sometimes. I know in in Canada, maybe also in Sweden, the hockey players chewing. You know, right? It's probably some kind of focus thing. I don't know. But I mean for the. It hurts my jaw.

Leilani Farha 2:16

It hurts my jaw. Oh yes.

Fredrik Gertten 2:18

But why did you give me that word then?

Leilani Farha 2:21

You know why? Yeah. Because for me, bubblegum evokes youth, young people, um, a kind of optimism about life, a kind of um such a small thing that brings so much delight. I remember as a child, like to chew, but like there was gum and then there was bubblegum, right? And bubble gum, you could blow these big bubbles. Super cool. And then they would break on girls. Exactly, exactly.

Fredrik Gertten 2:57

Yeah, you know, normally girls are much better in that, I would say.

Leilani Farha 3:01

Yes, why is that? Hmm.

Fredrik Gertten 3:03

I I will not go into any any thoughts around girls and bubble gum.

Leilani Farha 3:09

No, let's not. But um but you know, when you become an adult, if you chew gum, which I don't generally, it's like this small little piece and it's to freshen your breath.

Fredrik Gertten 3:19

I mean, you you lose the joy. Yeah, I I mean I actually last time I I bought uh a gum was when I I was going to meet my girlfriend at an airport, and I was a bit nervous. So I actually went to bought uh a gum, you know.

Leilani Farha 3:37

Oh. Because for what? Because you were nervous you had bad breath, or because I just, you know, whatever.

Fredrik Gertten 3:43

I uh I was just um but you but you are talking about bubblegum to make you feel young again. I think you look young, Leilani, but you don't feel young. Is that the story? Tell me all about it.

Leilani Farha 3:59

I I feel younger than I am, probably, but um I feel the world is so heavy, and I'm looking for light in all the places. So here we are doing a little word food, and I was trying to think, what's a what makes me feel fun? Like what feels fun? And then for some reason the word bubblegum came to mind.

Fredrik Gertten 4:19

There is this kind of bubblegum pop, you know, pop music, which is like then very much of uh uh teeny, girly, lightweight uh pop. Yeah, you see not really my music, but no, but people dance and they have fun, and I think that's it's a good thing. We we need to we need to have fun also. Yeah, yeah.

Leilani Farha 4:43

There it was, bubblegum.

Fredrik Gertten 4:45

That was bubblegum. Are you ready for my it's this for me? It's will be it's more of a complicated setup.

Leilani Farha 4:54

Uh-oh.

Fredrik Gertten 4:54

Because you have to imagine something. Okay. To be a musk. To be a musk?

Leilani Farha 5:06

Like an Elon Musk?

Fredrik Gertten 5:08

Like an Elon Musk.

Leilani Farha 5:10

Oh, well, I could just never be such an asshole. So uh uh to be a musk. Well, I don't hear about this Elon Musk anymore. He seems to have disappeared a little bit. Uh at least in my world.

Fredrik Gertten 5:27

He he recently was tweeting about my country, Sweden. Oh, he was? Oh, tell me. Together with Trump.

Leilani Farha 5:35

Oh, no, I this passed me by.

Fredrik Gertten 5:42

You know, it's like also Trump had this uh hit on Europe, but they pointed out Sweden. But I when I was thinking of to be a Musk, it's also because he is now the richest man on the planet, and his wealth is the same level as the whole country of Egypt, which probably means a lot. So what would you do with that wealth, Leilani? Or what should I do? I was gonna go there.

Leilani Farha 6:09

I was gonna go there. The the only thing is it's it's a difficult thing to think through because his reason for making money would be different than my. I would never make that amount of money for a bad reason or or nor would I do bad things with the money. I mean, that's obvious. My whole life has been devoted, my working life has been devoted to trying to make this shitty world a bit of a better place. And so obviously, I would try to use money that way. But then, you know, would I invent an electric car? And I don't know.

Fredrik Gertten 6:46

I mean, he didn't invent electric cars. I mean, he is just an investor who plays around with money. True. Um, but is it I think the interesting thing with him is that he's not, with all that influence he has, bought and uh he doesn't seem to have fun, you know. It's it's all very sad messages coming out all the time. And yeah, it doesn't seem that he ever read a book, you know, or really listened to beautiful music, or went to a theater and got moved, or you know, there is not a simple sign of emotions reaching that guy, more than this kind of hatred and attacks on democracies or people who try to do stuff around the world.

Leilani Farha 7:31

Yeah, I think that's right. And I think that's so true of so many, not all the billionaires, some of those billionaires are big patrons of the arts and et cetera, but the right-wing populism that Musk has hitched his wagon to uh to some degree, and that certainly Trump peddles, seems so based on negativity, darkness, um, hatred, anger. Um, it's really struck me as I'm writing my book, because of course, one of the chapters of the book is very much about um the takeover of housing by billionaires and by uh financial institutions and firms. And it all is so dark and and dehumanizing. I mean, really deeply dehumanizing. That's a big theme in my book. And it's like there's no lightness, there's no, as you say, beauty, art, music. It it's it's all devoid of of uh I like what you said, human emotions of of the things that bring life and that are interesting to me anyway.

Fredrik Gertten 8:45

So, Lelani, don't be a musk.

Leilani Farha 8:49

I'll never be a musk. You either be asked.

Fredrik Gertten 8:52

We have to tell people, we have to start to use this. Ah, come on, don't be a musk. Which means don't be an egoistic asshole who is, you know, using your money to destroy democracy and to hit on good people. Don't be a mask.

Leilani Farha 9:10

Let's see if we can popularize that. Don't be a mask.

Fredrik Gertten 9:13

Don't be a freaking musk. Thank you, Lelani, and uh see you soon. And to friends, if you want to support the podcast, send us some money on Patreon. It's not bad. Patreon.com pushback talks. See you.

Kirsten McRae 9:29

See you.com slash pushback talks. Follow us on social media at make underscore the shift and push underscore the film. Or check out our websites makeshift.org, pushthefilm.com, or breaking socialfilm.com.