The Computer Room

Nov 18 2024 44 ep. 74 mins 208
The Computer Room Podcast artwork

A show about our lives online.

default.blog

  Technology  Society & Culture
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Traumagotchi Redeemed?

Nov 18 2024 41 mins  
Leah Prime from our fantastic Art Bell episode and of the blog We Own the Night and I talked about my initial reaction to friend.com’s chatbot launch… and why I might be wrong about it after all. This is an experimental format I’m releasing to paid subscribers only right now. Please share your feedback! It’s very likely that a more polished version will be un-paywalled late

Be My Escape

Oct 29 2024 35 mins  
Katherine talks to Sam L. Barker about the enduring legacy of pop-punk and emo, and crucially, about how it all coalesced online. You can also listen to this on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.Read Katherine’s article about blink-182’s unique brand of humor here.Subscribe to Sam’s Substack here.A note from Sam:Be My Escape is an essay and podcast project where I look ove

Adam Lanza Fan Art

Oct 09 2024 57 mins  
Paid subscribers are receiving this a little bit earlier than free subscribers.Katherine reads her Tablet article, “Adam Lanza Fan Art,” a deep dive into the elusive True Crime Community (TCC), a small fandom of mostly adolescents and young adults who treat school shooters and serial killers in the same way other fans might treat boyband members. After … This is a public epis

First Time Caller: An Art Bell Tribute

Sep 18 2024 50 mins  
In this episode of The Computer Room, Katherine and friends talk about Art Bell's legacy. We meet Leah Prime, who's writing a book about Art Bell, John Steiger who on a mission to hand transcribe every single episode of Coast to Coast AM, and Joseph Matheny, the mind behind Ong's Hat. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to

Would You Still Love Me If I Swallowed a Worm?

Jul 09 2024 56 mins  
Katherine and Gio discuss “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,” a novella by Eric LaRocca about a complex BDSM relationship between two women that unfolds through emails, forum posts, and instant messages in 2000. They talk about what it meant to “log on” in 2000, lesbian media, and whether online relationships are uniquely suited to BDSM dynamics. Gio also reveal

The Digital Is Deceitful Above All Things

Jun 25 2024 141 mins  
“The most un-American thing you can do is reject fame.”In a recorded phone call, Katherine and Laura Albert, the writer best known for JT Leroy, explore the fuzzy boundaries of truth and fiction in our digital era. They discuss the telephone as a medium, catfishing, imagination, and lying as a form of storytelling. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with

My Little Polemical

Jun 21 2024 82 mins  
Katherine talks to a brony Zoomer about being online, mediated friendships, the fantastical world of My Little Pony, and the revival that the fandom is experiencing right now. Buy your Mare Fair tickets here, read the infamous MLP fan fic “The Lunar Rebellion” here, and watch the first four seasons of MLP here. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with othe

The Internet Is Power

Jun 17 2024 70 mins  
Kickstarter and Metalabel cofounder Yancey Strickler walks in on Gio and Katherine gossiping. Together, they talk about the meaning of gossip, the Internet as a source of power, and what happens when everything moves from main to the group chat.Check out Metalabel.Read Yancey's writing:The Dark Forest Theory of the Internet The Post-Individual This is a public episode. If you’d l

Grady and the Real Girl

Jun 10 2024 80 mins  
Lauren and Grady are Chicago’s hottest couple. Katherine and Grady talk about playing a role that’s not yourself but based on yourself, their appearance on Help! I'm In a Secret Relationship, where all the weirdos have gone on the Internet, if those chamoy pickles were worth it, and his relationship with Lauren. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with oth

The Millennial Left as a Moment in Internet History

Jun 06 2024 101 mins  
This week, Gio and I are joined by Benjamin Studebaker, a writer, political theorist, leftist, and former co-host of the infamous podcast “What’s Left?” to discuss the Millennial Left.One question I wish we had asked, and I invite our audience to leave their thoughts about, is whether there is/was a meaningful difference between the Millennial Left and the Tumblr Left. Was th