INFLUENCE

Dec 11 2024 354 ep. 63 mins 1k

INFLUENCE Podcast artwork

What does it really take to make a living (and an impact) on the Internet today?

Join Matt Silverman (who has been covering online culture for 15+ years) in conversation with YouTubers, musicians, podcasters, streamers, journalists, TikTokers and more about turning creativity into a job, building community on ever-changing platforms, and their complex relationships with huge online audiences.

INFLUENCE is the relaunch of 2 GIRLS 1 PODCAST, a weekly comedy/interview show about fascinating online communities, which ran for 7 years and nearly 300 episodes.

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31 WikiProject AI Cleanup: Why Humans and Bots Make Different Mistakes on Wikipedia | Richard Knipel

Dec 11 2024 75 mins

Wikipedia continues to be a modern miracle. Unlike social media platforms — which are rife with misinformation and grift — Wikipedia's openness and non-profit status are key to its two+ decades of value and accuracy. But a new threat is looming. Generative AI now touches everything we read, watch, and listen to on the Web. And some Wiki editors have begun experimenting with i

30 Skip the Script: How Karen Cassady Built an Improv Empire, One Wig at a Time

Dec 04 2024 90 mins

Karen Cassady had finally made it. She was working full time as a comedy performer and teacher, with weekly shows at Atlanta's top improv theater. Then March 2020 happened. She and her comedy cohorts tried to translate their shows to Twitch live streams, but the "lulz" in the chat just didn't cut it. Unemployed and painfully bored, she put on some wigs and began riffing other peop

29 Upcoming Episodes & Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 27 2024 48 mins

Salutations, one and all! I'm taking this week off, but excited to share some episodes that are on the docket for the coming weeks, and a BRILLIANT piece of media theory that might explain what the world is going through at this political moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 My Doctor Fat-Shamed Me, but TikTok Knew It Was Colon Cancer | Amanda Lee, Patient Advocate

Nov 20 2024 80 mins

Amanda Lee was a passionate wedding photographer whose business was booming - that is, until, February 2020. Covid canceled her job and income, and to make matters worse, severe stomach pain was preventing her from eating (and pooping). When she finally got an appointment to see a doctor at the height of the pandemic, instead of offering scans or tests, he said it was "a blessing"

27 Whoopsie: These "Wicked" Dolls Have a Naughty Website on the Box

Nov 13 2024 62 mins

Mattel's movie tie-in dolls for "Wicked" are being recalled due to the greatest typo ever made. Bluesky adds 700,000 users in one week as Americans flee Twitter, and a new contender might be on track to surpass MrBeast as the most-subscribed YouTuber of all time. Plus: I'm now obsessed with finding the Reddit sleuths who solved one of the oldest musical mysteries on the Internet.

26 From Immigrant to Icon: How Yaya Han Built a Cosplay Empire

Nov 06 2024 126 mins

There was no Internet when Yaya Han first discovered manga and anime in the early '90s. Born in China, she fell in love with this media (which was mostly imported from Japan) at a young age. But when her family unexpectedly moved to Europe, she became an outsider overnight - culturally and linguistically. That is, until she discovered a German anime magazine and started submitting

25 How Patreon Fosters Creative Diversity in an Algorithmic World | Hayley Rosenblum

Oct 30 2024 65 mins

Before becoming Patreon's Head of Online Community, Hayley Rosenblum was no stranger to fan funding. She had worked closely with musicians in their pivot away from record labels, and toward the Internet - where fandom reigns supreme. These days, she helps creators large and small by listening to their needs and communicating pain points back to the Patreon mothership. Many artist

24 Is Ethical AI Even Possible? Adobe Has Entered the Chat

Oct 23 2024 44 mins

Two very interesting announcements from the Adobe Max conference connect directly back to last week's conversation about digital rights attribution. The company is launching their AI image and video generation model called "Firefly," which has only been trained on licensed and public domain imagery. So: If tools like this could be vetted, would artists and regulators be comfortable

23 From Napster to Midjourney: Why Copyright & the Internet Have Always Been Strange Bedfellows | Jennifer Jenkins, Duke Law

Oct 16 2024 88 mins

Nearly every meme, YouTube video, and yes, even this very podcast, contains copyrighted work that may or may not be ... "officially" obtained. With millions of hours of audio and video uploaded to the Web every day, how can we possibly protect the intellectual property rights of creators? In short, we can't. BUT, laws and court cases dating back to the '90s have dramatically chang

22 Thousands of People Are Playing Trivia Online and You Can't Join (Unless...) | LearnedLeague

Oct 09 2024 70 mins

When "Thorsten A. Integrity" created a trivia challenge for his co-workers in 1997, he never dreamed it would become the Internet's most exclusive knowledge battleground. The proprietor of LearnedLeague (whose *actual* name is Shayne Bushfield) built a thoughtful trivia tournament on defense mechanics and the honor system. And when it finally got online, his core group remained sma