The Cut

Into It: #FreeBritney’s Dark Turn

At the end of Britney Spears’s conservatorship in November of 2021, most of her fans rejoiced. But conspiracy theories have a subset of #FreeBritney fans convinced she’s still not really free. They focus on what they see as oddities or glitches in some of her Instagram posts. Vox reporter Rebecca Jennings says there are even theories that Britney has been replaced with AI or a body double. Rebecca and Sam talk about her current piece for New York Magazine and get into the TikTok sleuthing of this extreme set of Britney fans, how the conspiracy theories mirror QAnon, and what Britney herself thinks about her fans’ actions.
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In Her Shoes from the Cut is a weekly conversation between a special guest and Lindsay Peoples, The Cut's Editor-in-Chief, exploring culture, style, sex, politics and more. Intimate, provocative, and probing, the Cut aims to ask questions before listeners even know they have them, always with a generous wit and an expansive idea of what is possible. From New York Magazine and The Vox Media Podcast Network. New episodes every other Wednesday.