Each week one of Popdust’s disposable clones — grown in a vault deep beneath the Mojave desert — is exposed to the outside world through a relentless feed of news, pop culture, and social media.

The arduous process accelerates their dissolution back into an amorphous clone slurry. But before they go, they leave behind a document of what they’ve absorbed and what they’ve learned — a time capsule preserving a single moment in the slow-motion collapse of civilization. We call these End Times Updates…

End Times Update 5/7/21: Dogecoin, J.Cole, and Caitlyn Jennerwww.youtube.com

Transcript: [Clone]: Oh hi! Welcome to another End Times Update, presented by Popdust. I’ll be your clone host for this week, Sir Shh! Ronin.

Unfortunately, as a defective clone, my actual appearance would be far too disturbing, which is why I’m being depicted by the alien from Contact, being depicted by Jodie Foster’s father, being depicted by actor David Morse. Okay, maybe just one quick shot… Did you catch the little bit of brain popping out of my nose?

As always, we’ll be sifting through the week’s news, pop culture, and social media to pick out the latest indicators of global dissolution. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed at any point by, you know, the onrush of mankind’s inevitable downfall, just pause the video…long enough to smash that like button! And don’t forget to subscribe for more existential dread.

This week has been chock full of sinister omens and disturbing portents. But where better to start than with Ben Affleck?

[Ben Affleck]: We were awaiting your arrival.

TikTok star Nivine Jay shared a video message that the Gone Girl actor sent her after she unmatched him on celebrity dating app Raya — believing that he was a catfish. While Jay claimed that she was embarrassed by her mistake, and didn’t find Affleck’s message creepy, other people, uh…watched the video.

[Music]

[Ben Affleck]: Nivine, why did you unmatch me? It’s me.

[Clone]: People who found it creepy may also have been informed by Affleck’s documented history of groping women.

In financial news, this week the joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin, surpassed a 50 cent per DOGE price, up more than 200 times from a year. This puts the total value of Dogecoin around 60 billion dollars.

Spurred on by memes and hype promoted by the likes of Elon Musk, there’s no telling how high the currency’s value might climb. Especially after the Tesla CEO — AKA the Dogefather — appears on Saturday Night Live this weekend.

In the world of music, this week rapper J. Cole announced his forthcoming album, The Off-Season, and on Friday shared the first track entitled “I n t e r l u d e”.

[J. Cole]: I be comin’ in peace, but **** me. Best beware of the others. This s*** deep, undercovers creep. This Southern heat make unbearable summers

J. Cole – i n t e r l u d e (Official Audio)www.youtube.com

[Clone]: The hosts for this year’s Met Gala were also announced this week. Widely recognized as the fanciest, most fashionable party in New York, the event will be helmed by an all-star crew of up-and-coming talents, with Call Me By Your Name actor Timothée Chalamet, Tennis Champion Naomi Osaka, inauguration poet Amanda Gorman, and “Bad Guy” singer Billie Eilish.

In political news, this week has been especially eventful for California Republican candidate for governor Caitlyn Jenner. Perhaps the most famous trans woman in the world — because Laverne Cox, the Wachowski sisters, and about a million other trans women are badly underrated — Jenner was once an Olympic champion decathlete known as the greatest athlete on Earth.

So it’s only natural that people would want to know her opinion on the controversy that has recently been drummed up about trans girls competing in sports.

[Caitlyn Jenner]: This is a question of fairness. That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sport in school. It just isn’t fair, and we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools.

[TMZ reporter]: But if someone transitions and now identifies as a girl, isn’t it delegitimizing their identity to prevent them —

[Caitlyn Jenner]: Have a good day.

[Clone]: In 2015 Jenner received ESPN’s Arthur Ashe Courage Award for coming out as a trans woman. But that’s nothing compared to the courage of her latest stance, especially considering that Jenner herself has competed in women’s golf tournaments, and also said this while receiving that award:

[Caitlyn Jenner]: I also want to acknowledge all the young trans athletes who are out there, given the chance to play sports as who they really are.

[Clone]: Whoops…

Another fun campaign trail highlight involved Jenner’s appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, where she made it clear why she’s running for governor, championing the plight of California’s beleaguered private plane owners, beset on all sides by the oppressive institutional power of, uh… homeless people.

[Caitlyn Jenner]: My friends are leaving California. Actually, we’re — my hangar, the guy across [unintelligible] airplane, he was packing up his hangar, I said, “Where are you going?” And he says, “I’m moving to Sedona, Arizona. I can’t take it here anymore. I can’t walk down the street and see the homeless.”

[Clone]: Okay then…

Well, that does it for this week. If the world survives longer than I do, we’ll send another clone with more updates. Until then, byyyyyyye…