Podcast appearances and mentions of john herrman

This week we're traveling back to the ye old internet days of 2015 with Zola! Join us as we learn about Vine, Backpage, Florida strip club rules, and more! Sources: Casey Newton, "Why Vine Died: Closing the Loop" The Verge (2016) https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/28/13456208/why-vine-died-twitter-shutdown  John Herrman, "Vine Changed the Internet Forever. How Much Does the Internet Miss It?" New York Times (2020).  Justin Perlman, "What was Backpage? Why Did It Shut Down?" Philadelphia Weekly February 29, 2024. https://philadelphiaweekly.com/what-was-backpage-why-did-it-shut-down/  Rahul Choudhary, "What Was Backpage . com| Why It Shut Down By The Government Officials?" Medium, October 10, 2020. https://medium.com/@literatureguide/what-was-backpage-com-why-it-shut-down-by-the-government-officials-96f944ae119c   Felicia Garcia, "The Backpage . Com Bust" Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe U.S. Helsinki Commission (2018), https://www.csce.gov/articles/backpagecom-bust/  Sanctuary for Families and NY State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, "Human Trafficking: A White Paper for the NYPD" https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/IP/human-trafficking/content/2.Human%20Trafficking%20White%20Paper%20for%20the%20NYPD.PDF   Molly Smith and Juno Mac, Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights (New York: Verso, 2020), 123-5. Hillsborough County Code of Ordinances Part A, Chapter 4, Article 1: https://library.municode.com/fl/hillsborough_county/codes/code_of_ordinances,_part_a?nodeId=HICOCOORLA_CH4ALBE Shawn Alff, "Strip Clubs Top to Bottom," Tampa Bay News, available at https://www.cltampa.com/news/strip-clubs-top-to-bottom-12289009 Reddit Thread: The Zola Story-Jess's Side: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnythingGoesNews/comments/3quslp/the_zola_story_jesss_side/ Christopher Spata Interview with Jess. Complex. Available at https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/a/christopher-spata/real-jess-from-zolas-story-interview Aisha Harris, "'Zola' Takes A Twitter Thread And Turns It Into A Fever Dream On Film," NPR, https://www.npr.org/2021/06/29/1009630748/zola-review-twitter-taylour-paige-riley-keough-janicza-bravo-movie  Sheila O'Malley, "Zola," Roger Ebert 2021 https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/zola-movie-review-2021  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/aug/04/zola-review-aziah-wells-trip-florida-pole-dancing-seductive-comedy-thriller  https://youtu.be/nXiNxW2jupc?si=MZcc9CrQ-c7Pqoc-

Federal judges continue to declare most of Elon Musk’s activities in Washington to be probably illegal as the question of whether his 78-year-old boss will trigger a constitutional crisis becomes more pressing. At the same time, Musk has been making news in Silicon Valley, with a report Monday that he and others want to buy OpenAI. The proposal may have been a feint, but Sam Altman did take the opportunity to make Musk look small. The OpenAI chief executive said no thanks to the $97.4 billion offer, but added he’d be happy to buy X off of Musk for a pittance by comparison. From Washington, reporter Josh Wingrove joins host David Papadopoulos and panelists Max Chafkin and Dana Hull. Plus, New York magazine tech writer John Herrman comes on to talk about how Musk’s businesses may be benefiting from his role as Donald Trump’s hatchet man.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Meta is going MAGA. New York magazine's John Herrman explains Mark Zuckerberg's makeover. Writer Ben Wofford introduces Meta's policy puppet master. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn with help from Travis Larchuck, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Rob Byers, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc. during an event. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lawmakers scramble to pass a short term bill to prevent a government shutdown by Friday, as Trump followed through with his threat and sued the Des Moines register over a poll he didn't like. Plus, the Fed is expected to slash interest rates for the third straight time, which would be a sign they like the economic outlook -- so why are the markets sending a very different message? And, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing calls to resign after his finance minister quit. Peter Baker, Melanie Zanona, Jeff Mason, David Gura, Ron Insana, Richard Haass, and John Herrman join the 11th Hour this Thursday. 

By Walt HickeyWelcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.This week, I spoke to Julia Alexander, digital strategy consultant and author of the new blog Posting Nexus.Julia's brilliant, she's been one of the most insightful and compelling minds on attention — where we allocate it, how we measure that, and what becomes of that — for several years now, and when I learned about this new project I was incredibly excited to get her on a Sunday edition to hear more about what's got her, well, attention. We spoke about the incentive structures of the internet, attention as digital currency, and how online trends redefine culture.Alexander can be found on X and Threads, and the project is Posting NexusThis interview has been condensed and edited. Julia Alexander, thank you so much for coming on.Thank you for having me. What an honor.It's always great to talk to you. I've been a fan of your work for a long time, and whether it was your independent newsletter or this new thing, it is always really, really fun to talk to you about what people are consuming and watching and reading and seeing.Thank you, I appreciate it.I wanted to talk about Posting Nexus. It's a new project that you are launching and it is a really fascinating dive into attention and essentially how it has become commoditized, how we use it on the internet, and where it goes. Just to back out a bit, can you tell me a little about why you wanted to go in this direction and start this thing up?Posting Nexus came out of this obsession I have with understanding why people do what they do on the internet and how that affects what they do or don't do off the internet. I now work at Disney, and we won't get into any of that, unfortunately, but a large part of my career was spent looking at the development of the streaming industry and the reality that people's attention was moving away from these closed-circuit traditional distributors to more open-circuit digital distributors who were operating at a pace that was almost relentless, and that was in large part because the attention we gave to digital services was relentless. When I moved into Disney, it didn't stop me thinking a lot about why people do things, where they give attention, and what they want out of attention.So, I decided to launch Posting Nexus, which is me and a few friends who are doing this, edited by the brilliant Allegra Frank until someone very smartly hires her full time. As I say in the intro, it's not a newsletter, it's not a blog, it's kind of just a harbor for thoughts about a lot of this stuff. It really came out of this idea that you can boil down a lot of what people want and where they decide to give their attention into a matrix that I call the IPA matrix, which has nothing to do with beer. It has everything to do with identity, platforms and attention, and when you take those three circles and you put them into a Venn diagram, you get incentive structures and quite often hidden incentive structures. These exist for both the bottom up, so that's us doing things on the internet, and the top down, which are these massive conglomerates who build things on the internet.A great example would be when we look at something like Barbenheimer, which was effectively just an offline manifestation of online attention. Part of the reason that movie did as well as it did is because it leaned into the idea that my identity, which is formed by my interests and the platforms where I socialize, where I'm getting my social capital, and the attention that I receive for participating in this culture then create an incentive structure for me to go out and participate in something in order to post.My general theory on a lot of the tension now is that you give attention in order to receive attention, and through the democratization of a lot of the stuff that we do, we've made it much easier to receive attention by giving attention. I think that constant focus on receiving attention by giving attention leads to this kind of posting nexus.I am very interested in this, just as you are, and our jobs touch on this a bit. You saw it with the technology of film. Charlie Chaplin used to be able to do three shows a night and hit three audiences, and the technology of film made it so that he could be in every cinema in North America, if not further. It seems like what we've had recently is the next advance of that, so now all those audiences within those audiences can entertain each other as well. It's fundamentally inverted a lot of where we gather our attention from and how we disperse it, to the extent that I think it does terrify some people. I would love your thoughts on how this very unique moment we find ourselves in makes this such a fun topic to go into.What's really fascinating is that what's underlying this entire structure is the idea that growth is the end state, that growth is the final destination, and if that is the final destination then there's no real final point. If we think about that in terms of your own life, if you're listening to this, maybe you're a writer and your end point is a book, or you want to write a novel. If you're working within a large company, maybe your end point is CEO or vice president. There actually is an end point.When we think about the way our lives are constructed, which are intrinsically more digital than they are physical at this point, there is no end point. The numbers on your follower count continue to go up and your value, you as a person, is intrinsically tied to making those numbers go up, which means you create labor for companies effectively for free, right? There's this idea that if you do it enough, some offline benefits will occur. If you're an influencer, maybe you'll get a free trip to Rome; if you're a poet, maybe you'll get a book deal out of it. There's this incentive to continue creating free labor for these conglomerates.But if you're the conglomerate — and this is what I like to spend a lot of time on in Posting Nexus. It's not just why we do what we do, it's how are we incentivized by companies that are then incentivized by their own ambitions. If you look at what they've started to realize, it's that they've run out of space to grow, and by space I mean they've literally run out of people. They cannot reach any more people than they're going to reach. If the planet is the best example of finiteness, that's where they are, but they're designed to incentivize growth, so what do they do?If you're on Instagram, all of a sudden you're posting photos, but have you thought about posting a video on this new form of entertainment called Reels? If you're on YouTube, it's Shorts, and if you are an Uber customer because you love taking cars somewhere, have you considered getting your food via Uber? It's finding different ways to capture more slices of pie within someone's attention based on the necessities of their life.Getting into the mixture of business strategy and cognitive behavioral reasoning really starts to help us illustrate why we do what we do on the internet. What I want to do with Posting Nexus quite a bit, and maybe this is going to sound a little naive or a little childish, but I want to figure out a way for us to build a better internet that we understand.If we know that we do this for Facebook, that might not stop us from posting because we like to connect with our friends. Or on Twitter, I like to post to get likes because I am also addicted to the dopamine rush from when we do those things. But if we intrinsically understand that what we're doing is operating within this growth state and we want to get to a steady state where actually just the right level of attention and just the right level of input is going to provide a much happier and a much more mentally healthy lifestyle, how do we get there by working on what we can do and what we can control versus what we can't do?I want to dive into so much from there, just because you hit on something really interesting that got me thinking. There are basically 330 million Americans and there are 24 hours in a day, so that's essentially 8 billion hours that you can have from America. That is the total addressable American time.I think what you're getting at is that we are brushing up on that; there's a point at which growth really can maximize. Let's say you've got 2 billion hours for sleep in the aggregate, and another 4 billion hours for work. We are getting to the total addressable market of American time if we really think that growth is the only way to go about it. I would love for you to speak more to that element of it, because that was really interesting.I think about this joke from a few years ago that you'll remember. The prompt for the joke is that at one point, Netflix's former CEO, Reed Hastings, said “Our only competition is sleep,” and then a few years later, the Pokémon company came out with Pokémon Sleep. All of a sudden it was like, well, Pokémon figured out how to beat sleep. The eight hours a day you actually don't have my attention, finally they figured out a way to get into it. It almost feels matrix-y, right? It feels very dystopian.The thing about growth is that we don't talk a lot about cost. A great example of this comes from this great economist, Herman Daly, who died in 2022. He pointed out that GDP is a really weird factor of just looking at the economic value of a country. It's the growth of product, and when we look at the growth of product, it's been 50 times what it was 50, 60 years ago — in large part because of private companies, because of Reagan economics, you can get into a whole economic debate about it. We don't talk about the cost, both of resources and of time and health that go into creating that product. And if we look at the cost, actually, is it a net benefit or is it a net consequence?Attention by nature plays on two core strings: It plays on how I view myself and my value, which is then the attention I want, and it plays into where I know I can get that attention, and right now that's platforms. It used to be that your growth was in a very limited base. Your growth was in a group of friends, at a company, maybe on your soccer team. There was a very limited group where you had tangible benefit or tangible consequence. Both are good, depending on the attention you sought out.When we add in platforms and the ability to go and seek that out, tie what you know works to your identity, and take in all of this dopamine as well as all of this increased anxiety, when we have that playing out the same time you see third-party spaces disappear so people are not spending as much time with each other in real life, what you get is this growth that's going to end in total, not just disruption, but total destruction for a lot of people. You cannot keep going this way. It used to be, to your point exactly, Walt, that you would stop for eight hours to sleep, and now you stop for six hours to sleep. Or you would go to bed with a book and now instead you go to bed with your Twitter feed.We haven't given ourselves a chance to recover from the trauma of the last decade, especially the last five years. We've been running nonstop ever since basically the invention of the internet, but really the launch of the app store. We've been in this moment for the last 15, 16 years, and at some point, the speed we're running at — the necessity for growth, which is just finding ways to take more of your attention, more of your free labor, and create something out of that and ask you to keep sticking with companies — is going to run out.What I really want to try and figure out with Posting Nexus is where is the health, the net benefit? The net benefit is socialization, it's communication, it's connectivity. That is a net benefit. It's entertainment — entertainment is a net connectivity. We have more democratization of creators, which means we have more voices, which means we have more points of view. That's a net positive.It was a net positive for publishing back in 2010. You were getting stories on maybe Gawker or HuffPost or BuzzFeed that you were not going to get in The New York Times. It didn't mean that one was less valuable; it just meant there was a different POV that the democratization of publishing allowed for. But at some point when everyone had an opinion, when everybody was publishing and Google didn't know how to rank it, you lost authority and you got more disinformation. That became a really bad thing.With Posting Nexus, the underlying point is that we have such finite attention to give, even though it's sold to us as an infinite level of attention. We have a finite level of attention we can receive, even though we're told it's an infinite level of attention, and if we keep striving for growth, growth, growth, eventually you create a world that is unsustainable. With Posting Nexus, it's effectively an equation: How much can you do for net positive before you do too much and tip over into net consequence?That's such a good point, that from the perspective of the companies, they're arguing that growth could continue indefinitely. We can always make more money, but time is definitionally the one thing that you can't make more of.That's the thing with Posting Nexus that's really fun. For people who might not know my background, I started as a blogger for Vox Media, Polygon, The Verge, and then I went into being a strategy consultant, which was great. Recently, I wrote for a publication called Puck and there was a column dedicated to streaming, what was happening with streaming, and trends that were happening with streaming, which was, to your point, effectively an attention story. It was “YouTube is taking attention away,” that kind of story.What I've missed is this idea of being able to have thoughts longer than a tweet and put them somewhere. For example, we've got a bunch of really interesting stories coming out with Posting Nexus. We're looking at the value of The New York Times in 2024, kind of tied around a lot of the Biden coverage before he stepped down. We've got things on decreases in posting and how social media platforms turn into entertainment platforms and what does that mean for how we approach them.We also have really funny things, like a piece on how J.D. Vance as the first main character candidate was always going to happen because he's the first VP candidate ever who has an online history, like in terms of actually posting when he was 20. That's something we've only really seen with influencers over the last decade, and seeing how they've gone through it gets us to this moment where we can inevitably see where Vance goes.So we've got a lot of really fun stuff, but it all plays into this idea that we give our attention to things and our attention rewards through monetary incentives. Both Walt and I have worked in digital media, and when you give the attention to people, it then gives them a monetization pathway, and that's the number one incentive structure. If we think about how we give attention, how we then better focus that attention on something where we know the end result actually is a fiscal reward for a lot of companies or creators, how does that change the way we operate on the internet? And how does it change the way we want to receive some of those benefits, if that's something we want to do?We're getting into a world where your level of posting is the only growth that people have left to chase. This is all these companies have: that you're spending your time consuming Instagram stories. We need you to post in DMs because we know that's where you're spending time because the future of the internet is much smaller. We need you to create a post in a DM that steals from a post that's in your feed in order for us to then serve your data. There's all of that. People intrinsically know this.The New York Times? Our mutual friend, Ryan Broderick. Casey Newton, who writes Platformer. They are very good at writing about this. What I want to get at is the underlying incentive structures that we don't always talk about that are inherently tied to everything you do. If we break that apart, both from a strategic standpoint and a psychological standpoint, how do we better understand the internet that we are helping to create?This has reminded me of genuinely one of the first conversations that we had, which was us talking about Wattpad. A few weeks ago they IPO'd, and I think they still remain an incredibly interesting company. It just grounds some of these headier ideas we're talking about. Wattpad is a good example of a company that became a very wealthy company and a very valuable company because of the broad, dispersed labor of a lot of other people.Wattpad is a great example. I will say in full transparency, I do own shares in Wattpad. I went in when they were public, and this is not financial advice. I think those are the two disclaimers I have to have.Wattpad's very interesting. Wattpad — which is now Webtoon. They merged with a South Korean online comic company a few years ago — existed as a place where people could go and upload their fiction, often a lot of fan fiction. You had 14-year-olds writing stories for other people on the internet. What was interesting about Wattpad was that when it started around 2010, it was one of the first mobile app success stories. It worked because of the iPhone and Androids.You had people who'd go on and they would read their little stories and they would follow creators, but there was no actual financial incentive because you weren't paying the creators. The incentive was building a follower base. You had a lot of people at 14 who tended to be the audience for Wattpad, especially 14-year-old girls who were dealing with a lot of self-negativity in their real life, because they're teenagers coming of age in the time of Tumblr and Instagram and there's a lot of self-negativity on those platforms for young teenage girls.This was an opportunity where they could share their very specific, niche interests. They could write fan fiction about One Direction, or they could write fan fiction about their favorite anime, and they can write their short stories and have a really solid community of people — like LiveJournal for us — come out and say, “This is really great. You're talented, we'd love to continue reading.” And you could see your success and that attention you're receiving grow literally in the number of followers you had. It became this wholesome space away from the internet in a different way.I can't remember exactly the year they did this, but then Wattpad starts introducing financial incentives. There's this idea that you can charge for chapters as you're releasing them and people can subscribe to you for early access. As Wattpad continues to develop and they realize there's this really strong audience of content creators who are creating pretty well-thought-out content that would make for really good movies and TV series, Wattpad then launches its film division and says, we want to work with creators on this platform and bring their work to Sony Pictures, to Netflix, to Disney. We want to get them books.So you have movies like To All the Boys I Loved Before and that genre, which did not start on Wattpad, or you had After, which did start on Wattpad, and you had all these movies coming out that were gaining a larger audience. These authors then create a cycle of further posting, right? Because now people are saying, I can do that. I have access to Wattpad. I think I'm a good writer. And you see, which we've seen over and over again, how it goes from 1,000 subscribers to 10,000 to 10 million to 100 million users who are all posting in an effort to get attention.What's really interesting is how we define the value of that attention, because it used to be that the value of attention on the platform when people first started was from other 14- or 15-year-olds. It was a very peer-to-peer situation. It was, you are writing for someone like me.Now that value is defined by a Netflix executive in their 50s who says, I really think there are 14-year-old girls who would like this type of movie. That's really popular on the site, so we're going to work with Wattpad. The value has now become entirely backed by a financial reward. And if it's not backed by a financial reward, it's still within the follower count. What you get now is this company who — again, I bought shares in it — I think has a really strong business operation, because you have an endless supply of content coming in. You only need to pick a handful of titles that you think will appeal to these larger companies, and then you work with the author on getting them into this three-picture deal with Netflix.All of a sudden you're in between a very traditional world of moviemaking and television series, and you have this constant supply of free ideas and free content coming in that you technically can own the rights to if you work with a creator. No 17-year-old writer at this point is going to say no to having a movie on Netflix. So you get into a really interesting constant flow of supply with very high levels of demand that you can then cherry-pick.The other version of this — which is another company I have shares in, and this is not financial advice, for transparency — is Reddit. Once Google aligned and said, hey, people want more familiar answers when they're searching for “do I have cancer,” Google said, we can just pull from Reddit. It's going to help us with our AI and we can just serve that instead of having to pay The New York Times to have this.All of a sudden you're in this world where Reddit becomes the future of the internet because Google is the still the main pathway to the internet. And if you're pulling from Reddit, what does that do to authority? What does that do to the incentive structure to be popular on Reddit? Which for a while was just, did you show authority and knowledge within your own subreddit community? Now it takes on a whole new world.The business applications of controlling the supply of attention, putting it through a very narrow passage by cherry-picking demand, and how you can sell that demand, is kind of where we're at right now with a lot of these user-generated-content platforms.I love that. They found a way to sell, or at least monetize, like in Reddit's case, respect and reputation in the form of karma. And with Webtoon, I was shocked to see that they're like a $2.8 billion company now. There have always been web comics on the internet, but they were the first to really roll them up into Webtoon. There has always been fan fiction on the internet, but they were among the first to roll them up into this package.AO3, Fanfiction.net, they're not trying to develop a flywheel to give you more attention. They're excellent communities and they retain a lot of that original character. But the thing that Webtoon was really interested in is that they realized the currency of their realm is attention and followers, and now they are a multibillion-dollar company.That, I think, was one of the more compelling stories from this summer. When I saw that you were coming out with Posting Nexus, I was like, oh man, there could not have been a better moment for this. There could not be a better moment to really think about how attention works online.Yeah. And I know you'll appreciate the underlying part of this, because I know you are, and I mean this with all the love, a giant nerd.Gigantic.But one of the best stories I wrote when I was at The Verge — not in terms of it being a good story, but in terms of me liking it — was when I talked to the Wattpad team, the Webtoon team, and said, how do you incorporate data? You have huge numbers of chapters being uploaded every single day from all these authors that come on.They developed a tool, which will sound very familiar to anyone who's ever worked in SEO, where they look at every single word and they look at very specific trend words and try to figure out if it's reaching an audience cluster or cohort that is in demand from other studios. For example: Latino werewolf. Is there an audience for Latino werewolf romances? They can track it, and they do track it. Then they play around with the recommendation algorithms and some of the product placement, and as that grows, they then say, okay, we want to hyperfocus on this in order to sell.That, to me, is the other underlying part of the attention story. There was a really great article by John Herrman, who works at New York Mag, and he talked about whether Twitter is back or not back. He ends his article by saying it doesn't really matter, because according to Twitter's CEO, it is back. According to Elon, it's thriving. It was this idea that Twitter inherently feels very small because communities have gotten smaller. What you think is important is what's appearing on your feed, right? This is how something could be super viral on TikTok for you and no one else has ever heard of it.That idea started with companies like Wattpad and Reddit. They started with this idea that has a really strong impact on this audience and the equation they do. And I worked with companies — not Wattpad, not Reddit — as a consultant on this exact equation, which was: How monetizable is this small audience compared to that small audience? If you're going to look at your cost, where are you going to get the strongest return on your investment?We do that now across a million different cohorts every single day. It's just, where do we think the attention that we're receiving, because they are getting attention from the small group, actually transfers into an action that we can better monetize versus what's the attention that we're seeing that is not going to transfer into a monetizable action. You do that equation, and what that ends up doing is restructuring culture.Imagine Twilight today. Someone would've been like, queer vampire? We think that audience translates into highly monetizable. Now you have Simon and Schuster, Netflix, YouTube — you have all these companies saying, okay, there's a trend here. So we're going to see a new volume of content support that trend. Then a year later, all of a sudden, The New York Times writes a story about how everyone's into queer vampires.It's like, well, that started because someone looked at a cohort of strong attention and said, that's monetizable. It just blew up into redefining what culture is. That's pure attention online that transfers offline.That idea of “this niche is monetizable; this one's not” feels like that's been every success story on the internet for the past decade.When you were describing that, I was reminded of my favorite genre collision, which created something that could not have existed before the internet: the success of D&D podcasts and D&D content, whether it's Critical Role, or you see all this stuff on Dropout doing phenomenally well right now. That only happened because there was a group of niche fans that really, really clicked with something. They realized that this stuff is easier to produce than scripted content sometimes, and you could just see the value proposition make sense to people in real time. Now they're selling out Madison Square Garden.Seeing this very market-based thing, as you were describing, was like, oh man. We've seen this happen. That's really cool.I'm so happy you said this, because it's kind of the end point of what Posting Nexus wants to get at. The fact that things happen in one area and then move somewhere else happens all the time. You watch your favorite football team and then you go watch them play at the stadium. You discover your favorite singer via an album and then you go watch them play a concert. That's super traditional.What we're seeing now is a continuation of that, but it's fascinating to me. I think about this with Critical Role; I think about this with the Pod Save America guys. Effectively what they're doing is taking this attention that you've given them and monetizing it in a new way that feels weird to us because it's different from a superstar musician or a team sport that has always existed in the offline. This is a group of talent, a group of people that we associate solely with being online. And we have that really strong parasocial relationship with creators, because we literally watch them in our bed, even more so than TV. They're in our bed and we listen to them on their podcasts, because they can't just have a YouTube, right? Now they're podcasting, and they're finding different ways to capture more attention.It says a lot about how much we cling to human connectivity. This is my general barbell thesis, is that the world going forward, online or offline, is implausibly big — implausibly big like Christianity, or Taylor Swift — and addressably small. Which is still good; it just means monetizable, like Pod Save America or Critical Role.The whole goal of the first one is that you don't actually have to do 90,000 different things. People will come to you because that's what they crave. They crave that connection. And the second one, the more opportunity you give people to come and see you physically and have that connectivity, have that connection, the more you're going to be able to split how you want your attention eight different ways. Now that they've seen you, maybe they'll buy the book you're selling as opposed to if you just had the podcast.When we give attention and when people demand our attention in different forums, how does that then create these trends within business, within culture, the way we look at religion, the way we look at physical spaces? How does that impact our life offline? So again, it's that general thesis of why people do anything they do online, and how does that translate to what happens offline? That's the obsessive point for me.You've been so generous with your time, I want to make sure we bring this one home. You and I have both worked for the biggest entertainment company on the planet, you and I have both had independent newsletters that were profitable, and it is comforting to realize that it's not simply everything gets eaten or nothing survives. There is a vibrant version of the internet that has all of this.My favorite topic, which I annoy everyone in my life with, is history. I realize that makes me the most boring person on the internet, or just the most average person on the internet, but the thing I really like about history — whether that's ancient, modern, whatever it is — is that nothing is new. Everything happens again and again, so the internet and the fight for attention is like forms of religion battling it out during the Crusades. I mean, it was far more violent, and I'm glad we're not in those times, but it's this idea of what you're choosing to give attention and therefore power to, how we then take that power and tie it to our identity, and our way of communicating and the incentive that we have at the basis of all this is the same.What the internet has done is create unprecedented scale and rapidity that we can't even comprehend. We don't even have time to sit and think, oh, that's crazy that that thing happened. The publishing industry was wiped out, but we don't even have to do that because there's this new thing that's happening and it's newsletters. Which by the way are just pamphlets, which by the way are what people used to print the 1600s, right?It's not new, and yet for us because of the abundance of information that we have coming in, the abundance of content, of entertainment, of distraction that is demanding our attention, we don't have time to sit back and think, what was then five minutes ago and what will be five minutes from now? As we look at some of the biggest power players that build out a lot of these demands — whether it's user-generated social media, whether it's entertainment, whatever it is — bring it back down and really sit and think: What have I given my attention to today and why did I do that? What did it bring to me? And actually, what if I didn't want to do this?You kind of see this with Gen Z, by the way, who are like, I want a phone that's not connected to the internet. Them realizing this is not actually good for me, but what do I need in order to stay connected and feel that really strong presence of humanity?Big question. To your point, it's a super heady topic. What I try to do with the blog is bring it down into a topic that makes sense, that we can actually, tangibly grasp, while asking that question, which is why do you do anything and how has it affected you offline today?In your intro post you had a line saying it's a humongous topic, and there are a million tendrils to pull on. I am very excited to read those million tendrils. It is called Posting Nexus. I'll be sure to link it out.Julia, where can folks find you? Where can they follow you? Where can they see what you're up to?Wow, this is the first time I'm not in a publication. This is crazy. I'm still on X and Threads at @loudmouthjulia, and Posting Nexus is being hosted on Ghost. I'm trying that one out.Hey, a million flowers blooming. It's a fun time.This sounds like such a fun project, and I'm very eager to keep following where you're going. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.Thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure talking to you.Edited by Susie Stark.If you have anything you'd like to see in this Sunday special, shoot me an email. Comment below! Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for supporting Numlock.Thank you so much for becoming a paid subscriber! Send links to me on Twitter at @WaltHickey or email me with numbers, tips or feedback at walt@numlock.news.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.numlock.com/subscribe

At the Republican National Convention, Donald J. Trump named J.D. Vance as his pick for Vice President. On this week's On the Media, hear how Vance went from liberal darling to MAGA leader, with a little help from a billionaire. Plus, meet the right-wing Christians who see the failed attempt on Trump's life as evidence of his divine anointing by God.[00:00] Host Brooke Gladstone charts the media's role in shaping J.D. Vance's rise. Vance rose to fame as a liberal media darling who frequently lambasted Donald Trump after the publication of his blockbuster memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” to Trump's VP pick and a new leader of the MAGA movement. Ian Ward, a reporter at Politico, and Simon van Zuylen-Wood, a staff writer at New York Magazine, speak to how Vance's vision of America extends far beyond Trumpism. [00:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Andrew Prokop, senior politics correspondent at Vox, about Vance's roots in the so-called New Right, a scrappy but growing offshoot of conservatism that aims to seize and destroy societal institutions they believe are controlled by the left. Plus, John Herrman, tech columnist at New York Magazine, explains what Big Tech sees in MAGA.[00:00] Brooke speaks with Matthew D. Taylor, author of the forthcoming book The Violent Take it by Force, about how the attempted assassination of Trump has amplified a subset of evangelicals who believe that prophecy foresaw the event. These right-wing Christians see Trump as an anointed candidate, saved by God. Further reading / listening:The Radicalization of J.D. Vance by Simon van Zuylen-Wood55 Things to Know About JD Vance, Trump's VP Pick by Ian WardJ.D. Vance's radical plan to build a government of Trump loyalists by Andrew ProkopWhy Silicon Valley Elites Are Turning MAGA by John HerrmanHow the Assassination Attempt Has Ignited the Prophecy World by Matthew D. TaylorThe Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy by Matthew D. Taylor  On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

This is an unlocked bonus episode! Find it and more on our patreon! -------- This week, Hussein and Phoebe are joined by tech writer John Herrman to discuss his recent article in NY Magazine's Intelligencer about the 'Pussy in bio' bots. We all know them, we've all seen them. John takes us through the history of spam bots, and helps us place this most modern expression of them into context of online scams. Read John's article here!  -------- PALESTINE AID LINKS As the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in Gaza, we encourage anyone who can to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians. You can donate using the links below. Please also donate to the gofundmes of people trying to escape Rafah, or purchase ESIMs. These links are for if you need a well-respected name attached to a fund to feel comfortable sending money. https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/how-you-can-help/emergencies/gaza-israel-conflict -------- PHOEBE ALERT Can't get enough Phoebe? Check out her Substack Here! -------- This show is supported by Patreon. Sign up for as little as $5 a month to gain access to a new bonus episode every week, and our entire backlog of bonus episodes! Thats https://www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast -------- Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

TikTok once embraced the narrative of its algorithm as an all-powerful "secret sauce." Now, that narrative appears to be backfiring as Congress attempts to force a sale. John Herrman, tech columnist at New York Magazine, explains.→ The Secret Weakness of TikTok's All-Powerful Algorithm | Intelligencer

This is a preview of a bonus episode. Listen to the entire episode on: www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast. This week, Hussein and Phoebe are joined by tech writer John Herrman to discuss his recent article in Intelligencer about the 'Pussy in bio' bots. We all know them, we've all seen them. John takes us through the history of spam bots, and helps us place this most modern expression of them into context of online scams. Read John's article here!  -------- PALESTINE AID LINKS As the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold in Gaza, we encourage anyone who can to donate to Medical Aid for Palestinians. You can donate using the links below. Please also donate to the gofundmes of people trying to escape Rafah, or purchase ESIMs. These links are for if you need a well-respected name attached to a fund to feel comfortable sending money. https://www.map.org.uk/donate/donate https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/how-you-can-help/emergencies/gaza-israel-conflict -------- PHOEBE ALERT Can't get enough Phoebe? Check out her Substack Here! -------- This show is supported by Patreon. Sign up for as little as $5 a month to gain access to a new bonus episode every week, and our entire backlog of bonus episodes! Thats https://www.patreon.com/10kpostspodcast -------- Ten Thousand Posts is a show about how everything is posting. It's hosted by Hussein (@HKesvani), Phoebe (@PRHRoy) and produced by Devon (@Devon_onEarth).

If you think you've been seeing more X-rated content on X lately, you're not alone. Elon's social media platform has long been permissive about suggestive material, but as Musk cut his content moderation teams, there seems to be more of the stuff floating around—and in more prominent places. This week, John Herrman of New York magazine, who recently published a story about a strange, particularly viral type of post, joins the Elon, Inc. panel to talk about X and porn. But first, Tesla sales numbers. They are not good. Not good at all. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's the first major social media IPO since 2017. CNN's Clare Duffy breaks down what is at stake, and New York magazine's John Herrman explains why Reddit may not survive it. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by David Herman, and guest-hosted by David Pierce. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In December, the New York Times sued OpenAI for allegedly using the paper's articles to train chatbots. On this week's On the Media, a look at how media outlets are trying to survive in this era of generative AI. Plus, why New York's oldest Black newspaper is joining forces with an AI startup to address biases in the technology.  1. Kate Knibbs [@Knibbs], senior writer at Wired, on AI clickbait flooding the internet. Listen. 2. John Herrman [@jwherrman], tech columnist for New York Magazine, on the love-hate relationship between AI companies and journalism. Listen. 3. Elinor Tatum [@elinortatum], editor in chief of The New York Amsterdam News, on a push to make AI technology and data diverse. Listen. 4. Abbie Richards [@abbieasr], misinformation researcher and a senior video producer at Media Matters, on the AI-generated conspiracy theories multiplying TikTok. Listen.  

When you think of “hard news”, a company that once published an article called “13 Potatoes That Look Like Channing Tatum” probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Yes, in this episode Hannah and Maia are tackling Buzzfeed - the millennial fluff aggregator that managed to be on the cutting edge of digital journalism for a bit there. And in the process, changed the way we consume news, and maybe even the societal flow of information altogether. Journalism is in crisis… and is Buzzfeed to blame? Listen for riveting discussions such as: the digital media gold rush and its inevitable demise; is Trump the attention economy personified? Is Justin Bieber one of the four horsemen of the news apocalypse? And… does Anna Wintour really have a f*ck ass bob?  SOURCES: Jill Abramson, “Why BuzzFeed and Vice Couldn't Make News Work” Vanity Fair (2023). Domagoj Bebić, “Viral journalism: The rise of a new form” Medij. Istraž, vol. 22, (2016). David Elliot Berman, “The Spaces of Sensationalism: A Comparative Case Study of the New York Journal and BuzzFeed” International Journal of Communication, vol. 15 (2021). Ken Bensinger and Miriam Elder, “These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia” Buzzfeed News (2017). Kathryn Bowd, “Social media and news media: Building new publics or fragmenting audiences?” in Making Publics, Making Places, ed. Mary Griffiths and Kim Barbour, University of Adelaide Press (2016). Bob Franklin, “The Future of Journalism in an Age of Digital Media and Economic Uncertainty” Journalism Studies, vol. 15 (2014). Josh Gerstein, “BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser” Politico (2021). David A. Graham, The Trouble With Publishing the Trump Dossier” The Atlantic (2017). John Herrman, “The News Went Viral: The media bet its future on Facebook. Did it learn from that mistake?” New York Mag (2023). Nathan J. Robinson, “The Collapse of BuzzFeed News Shows Why For-Profit Journalism is a Disaster” Current Affairs (2023). Rachel Sanders, “BuzzFeed Doesn't Deserve Its Newsroom” The Nation (2022). Mia Sato, “The unbearable lightness of BuzzFeed” The Verge (2022). Alyson Shontell, “Inside Buzzfeed: The Story Of How Jonah Peretti Built The Web's Most Beloved New Media Brand” Buzzfeed Insider (2012). Ravi Somaiya, “BuzzFeed Restores 2 Posts Its Editor Deleted” The New York Times (2015). J.K Trotter, “BuzzFeed Deletes Post Critical of Dove, a BuzzFeed Advertiser” Gawker (2015).

Today on the flagship podcast of the laserdisc resurgence:  While Netflix's DVD.com service shuts down later this week, The Verge's David Pierce chats with Bill Rouhana, the CEO of Chicken Soup for The Soul Entertainment, about the potential of Redbox and physical media in 2023.  Netflix's DVD service shuts down: here's the complex tech behind it Later, David and Alex Cranz talk with New York Magazine's John Herrman about his recent story on social media metrics and what they actually mean.  Lies, Damned Lies, and Social-Media Metrics Keep listening for this week's Vergecast hotline question.  Email us at vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Herrman is a contributing editor at New York Magazine. He joins Ranjan Roy and Alex Kantrowitz to break down the week's news. We cover 1) NVIDIA's Blowout quarter 2) The emergence of Temu and Shein — in great depth.  -- Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice. For weekly updates on the show, sign up for the pod newsletter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6901970121829801984/ Questions? Feedback? Write to: bigtechnologypodcast@gmail.com

Welcome to a science and tech edition of Midday, with guest host Ashley Sterner sitting in once again for Tom Hall. Earlier this month, four unidentified flying objects were spotted moving across U.S. airspace. The first object was eventually identified as a surveillance balloon deployed by the Chinese government, and was shot down once it had floated over the Atlantic coast. The other three objects are believed to have been launched by private companies conducting research or recreational activities. In a press conference yesterday, President Biden clarified why we are seeing more aerial phenomena and how he plans to address the matter. If you thought spy balloons were new and unusual, think again. These high-altitude tools have been in use since the 1950's and are now in use by governments and private companies for surveillance and a multitude of other reasons. Will the new radar tracking of U.S. airspace lead to findings of more aerial objects and phenomena? Joining Ashley is John Herrman, a staff writer for New York Magazine, and the author of a recent piece for the mag called “Spy Balloons Are a Growth Industry.” John Herrman joins us today on Zoom from Brooklyn, New York. Artificial Intelligence, or "AI" is all around us, affecting our daily lives through iterations like Siri, Alexa and Roomba. But an emerging field called generative AI made a major splash recently with the release of Chat GPT, a computer program or chatbot that uses AI to respond to questions and compile information as a human would. Here to discuss the promise — and potential perils —of generative AI is Tinglong Dai, Professor of Operations Management at Johns Hopkins University's Carey Business School. Professor Tinglong Dai joins Ashley on Zoom. In our final segment today, Ashley turns to the subject of human-robot interaction. Different types of robots have become familar features in our lives, such as Roombas, self-driving cars or robotic children's dolls. But will robots ever evolve to become friends that will laugh, hug and cry with us? Joining Ashley to discuss this is Kathryn Hulick, a science writer who wrote an article for Science News Explores called “Can A Robot Ever Become Your Friend?” She's also the author of numerous educational books for children. Her most recent book about science and technology is called “Welcome to the Future: Robot Friends, Fusion Energy, Pet Dinosaurs and More.” Kathryn Hulick joins us on Zoom from Hopkinton, Massachusetts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First there was the Internet. Next, there was the Metaverse. And this the Furious Curious. "Are We in the Metaverse Yet?" (New York Times, John Herrman and Kellen Browning, 07/10/2021), "Factbox: What is the 'metaverse' and how does it work?" (Reuters, Joori Roh, 09/07/2021), "Mark in the Metaverse" (The Verge, Casey Newton, 07/22/2021), "Balenciaga Joins Fortnite in the Metaverse" (GQ.com, Rachel Tashjian, 09/20/2021), "China's Metaverse gold rush is on but practitioners differ over how these virtual, digital worlds should operate" (South China Morning Post, Josh Ye, 09/19/2021), "Razer CEO says Covid-19 has accelerated path to the ‘Metaverse', where content, commerce and networking exist in true virtual world" (South China Morning Post, Josh Ye, 08/28/2020), "Why the ‘metaverse' will prove to be more than a buzzword" (Fast Company, Nick Pringle, 09/06/21), "The Metaverse Is Coming And It's A Very Big Deal" (Forbes, Cathy Hackl, 05/07/2020) MUSIC: "Madskillz (Mic Chekka Remix)" (BT). ©2021 Charlie Quirk, Britton Rice.

  7:31 Wrestling in High School 17:31 Sports Page 32:53 NovaVax CLO John Herrman See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The New York Times’s John Herrman, who covers tech and media for the Styles section and the Magazine, joins us to discuss his recent piece, “Life Without Amazon (Well, Almost).” Herrman looks at the rising trend of people who are trying to boycott Amazon, but who are finding it difficult to avoid using the company’s services in one way or another.

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban.Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner.After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times.Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service.Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban.Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner.After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times.Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service.Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban.Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner.After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times.Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service.Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban.Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner.After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times.Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service.Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban.Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner.After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times.Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service.Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban.Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner.After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times.Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service.Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban. Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner. After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times. Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service. Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

TikTok gives US taste of its medicine, California's 2035 gas car ban. Jameson Dow from Electrek wonders why California's new ban on gas-powered vehicles is set for 2035 and not sooner. After years of tech dominance, the US is getting a taste of its own medicine with TikTok according to John Herrman from the New York Times. Remember Quibi? Adam Epstein from Quartz lists a number of reasons why even two Emmy awards isn't likely to save the streaming service. Will Oremus from OneZero feels that the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma is good at illustrating the problem, but ineffective at offering any real solutions. Hosts: Jason Howell and Mikah Sargent Guests: Jameson Dow, John Herrman, Adam Epstein, and Will Oremus Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/tech-news-weekly. Sponsors: MySudo.com/twit Melissa.com/twit bit.ly/salesforceforservice

Former Elkhart Resident, John Herrman stops by to talk about his life after leaving Elkhart.This is a Back Home Media production, recorded and produced in Phoenix, AZ. https://www.patreon.com/fatkidazhttps://www.backhomemedia.com/elkharttapes

Former Elkhart Resident, John Herrman stops by to talk about his life after leaving Elkhart. This is a Back Home Media production, recorded and produced in Phoenix, AZ. https://www.patreon.com/fatkidaz https://www.backhomemedia.com/elkharttapes

Former Elkhart Resident, John Herrman stops by to talk about his life after leaving Elkhart.

John Herrman is a long time friend of Derek and Sarah. He chose the military life and the the last 17 years he has been killing it. Come hang out while we catch up with an old friend.

John Herrman is a long time friend of Derek and Sarah. He chose the military life and the the last 17 years he has been killing it. Come hang out while we catch up with an old friend.

In this two-part series we explore the international phenomenon and emerging social media platform: TikTok. From the failing Shanghai tech company that created Musical.ly to ByteDance’s $1b acquisition in 2017, we explore how TikTok became the highest-valued startup to date now totalling over $75b. Part 2 will examine the way TikTok has changed our perception of content production, how its paying the most popular users, and breakdown what exactly is going on between the new controversy regarding Mark Zuckerberg and the US Gov. plan to investigate the app’s Chinese background. We also realize over the course of recording, that this may be our most important episode to date!  Eating For Free is a bi-weekly gossip podcast reporting from the edge of the internet! We're a new wave of celebrity reporters at a time when pop culture is increasingly chaotic and media lacks the ability or moral direction to make sense of this capitalist nightmare! Do you have a tip for us? Got some hot gossip? Need to get any questions off your chest? Call our hotline at Call 1-810-EAT-FREE (1-810-328-3733) or send us an email at questions@eatingforfree.com! Become a Patreon backer for exclusive access to weekly bonus episodes and more! You can also find us on our website, Twitter, and Instagram. For behind-the-scenes gossip and access, join our exclusive Facebook group: Girls & Gays (G.A.G.S.)!  Joan Summers: Twitter, Instagram. Matthew Lawson: Twitter, Instagram. Sources:  Meet the Head of TikTok, a 35-Year-Old Who Makes Employees Do Push-Ups if Their Videos Don't Get Enough Likes - Money, Julia Glum (2019) How a failed education startup turned into Musical.ly, the most popular app you've probably never heard of - Business Insider, Biz Carson (2016) Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market: Home or Everywhere Else - NYT, Paul Mozur My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao - Technode, 2017 Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (Paul Mozur) - NYT, 2017 Who’s Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits - NYT, John Herrman, 2016 The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok - The Verge, Dami Lee. (2018) These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly - Money, Gabriela Fernandez AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News - Forbes, Bernard Marr A Look at Toutiao: China’s Artificial Intelligence Powered News Platform - Wei Chun Chew, Medium The Hidden Forces Behind Toutiao: China’s Content King - Ycombination, Anu Hariharan (2017  The History of TikTok (TeenVogue) How TikTok is Rewriting the World (NewYorkTimes) TikTok, Explained (Vox) How TikTok Holds Our Attention (NewYorker) 32 Biggest Stars on TikTok (Business Insider) How 7 Brands are Using TikTok (HugSpot) TikTok and Activism (BBC) Meet the Head of TikTok (Money.com) How A Failed Startup Became Musical.ly (Business Insider) Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market (NewYorkTimes) My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao  (Technode) Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (NewYorkTimes) Who’s Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits (NewYorkTimes) The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok (The Verge) These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly (Money.com) AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News (Forbes) How TikTok Took Over Music (Rolling Stone) Record Labels Demand More Money for Songs on TikTok App (Bloomberg) U.S. Army Looking Into National Security Concerns Over TikTok After Using It to Recruit Troops (Gizmodo) U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok (Reuters) TikTok national security inquiry (CNBC) US investigating TikTok owner ByteDance (South China Morning Post) Before Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Kill TikTok (BuzzFeedNews) TikTok has moved into Facebook’s backyard (CNBC)

In this two-part series we explore the international phenomenon and emerging social media platform: TikTok. From the failing Shanghai tech company that created Musical.ly to ByteDance’s $1b acquisition in 2017, we explore how TikTok became the highest-valued startup to date now totalling over $75b. In part 1 we’ll break down the app and its powerful machine learning technology, and how its Chinese roots are critical to understanding the future of the company. Eating For Free is a bi-weekly gossip podcast reporting from the edge of the internet! We're a new wave of celebrity reporters at a time when pop culture is increasingly chaotic and media lacks the ability or moral direction to make sense of this capitalist nightmare! Do you have a tip for us? Got some hot gossip? Need to get any questions off your chest? Call our hotline at Call 1-810-EAT-FREE (1-810-328-3733) or send us an email at questions@eatingforfree.com! Become a Patreon backer for exclusive access to weekly bonus episodes and more! You can also find us on our website, Twitter, and Instagram. For behind-the-scenes gossip and access, join our exclusive Facebook group: Girls & Gays (G.A.G.S.)!  Joan Summers: Twitter, Instagram. Matthew Lawson: Twitter, Instagram. Sources:  Meet the Head of TikTok, a 35-Year-Old Who Makes Employees Do Push-Ups if Their Videos Don't Get Enough Likes - Money, Julia Glum (2019) How a failed education startup turned into Musical.ly, the most popular app you've probably never heard of - Business Insider, Biz Carson (2016) Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market: Home or Everywhere Else - NYT, Paul Mozur My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao - Technode, 2017 Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (Paul Mozur) - NYT, 2017 Who’s Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits - NYT, John Herrman, 2016 The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok - The Verge, Dami Lee. (2018) These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly - Money, Gabriela Fernandez AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News - Forbes, Bernard Marr A Look at Toutiao: China’s Artificial Intelligence Powered News Platform - Wei Chun Chew, Medium The Hidden Forces Behind Toutiao: China’s Content King - Ycombination, Anu Hariharan (2017  The History of TikTok (TeenVogue) How TikTok is Rewriting the World (NewYorkTimes) TikTok, Explained (Vox) How TikTok Holds Our Attention (NewYorker) 32 Biggest Stars on TikTok (Business Insider) How 7 Brands are Using TikTok (HugSpot) TikTok and Activism (BBC) Meet the Head of TikTok (Money.com) How A Failed Startup Became Musical.ly (Business Insider) Chinese Tech Firms Forced to Choose Market (NewYorkTimes) My conversation with Zhang Yiming, founder of Toutiao  (Technode) Musical.ly, a Chinese App Big in the U.S., Sells for $1 Billion (NewYorkTimes) Who’s Too Young for an App? Musical.ly Tests the Limits (NewYorkTimes) The popular Musical.ly app has been rebranded as TikTok (The Verge) These Teens Are Making Thousands a Month With Karaoke App Musical.ly (Money.com) AI In China: How Buzzfeed Rival ByteDance Uses Machine Learning To Revolutionize The News (Forbes) How TikTok Took Over Music (Rolling Stone) Record Labels Demand More Money for Songs on TikTok App (Bloomberg) U.S. Army Looking Into National Security Concerns Over TikTok After Using It to Recruit Troops (Gizmodo) U.S. opens national security investigation into TikTok (Reuters) TikTok national security inquiry (CNBC) US investigating TikTok owner ByteDance (South China Morning Post) Before Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Kill TikTok (BuzzFeedNews) TikTok has moved into Facebook’s backyard (CNBC)

En este primer episodio me indigno porque se rumorea que van a quitar la cuenta de likes del feed de Instagram. Así que, para calmarme, me monto todo un cuento sobre casas de cristal, utopías y exhibicionismo moral. Las citas leídas fueron extraídas de: "Nadja" de André Breton (traducción de José Ignacio Velázquez), Ediciones Cátedra; "El arte de la novela" de Milan Kundera (traducción de Fernando de Valenzuela y María Victoria Villaverde), Tusquets Editores. Artículo de John Herrman en el New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/style/are-likes-and-followers-the-problem-with-social-media.html Música de https://filmmusic.io: "Chill Wave"; "Airport Lounge"; "Too Cool"; "Dream Catcher"; "I Feel You", "Intractable"; "Acid Trumpet"; "Magic Scout". Todas las canciones son obra de Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licencia: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

I’m deeming this year the year of the push notification solely because of the disaster that was Hawaii’s accidental ballistic missile alert. On this week’s Why’d You Push That Button, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I look into why people turn push notifications on, especially for news. Are they masochists? What makes us turn them off? I don’t hate push notifications, so much as I wish they were more targeted and accurate. Kaitlyn resolutely hates them, and that’s fine. This episode packs a lot of content and interviews into 40 minutes, so settle in with enough water and snacks to make it through. We first talk to two women and friends who were in Hawaii when that terrible push was sent — Emily and Meghan. Then we talk to New York Times writer John Herrman about his feelings on pushes, as well as his essay on red dots. Once we get out all our thoughts, we take it to two experts: Eric Bishop, who also works at The New York Times and strategizes its push strategy, and Christopher Dean, CEO of the company Swrve, which specializes in push notification technology. He explains how push technology might get more sophisticated in the near future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're all processing this election together. We want to create a nurturing, constructive space to do that. Please take a minute and listen to Manoush's short audio message to you, dear listener. We believe this is the beginning of a rigorous and critical conversation between us, you and your fellow listeners.  So we move forward. And whoever you voted for, chances are you're still thinking about the surprise of the results.   The fact that no one picks up their phone anymore meant pollsters were WAY off. The way we get our media and journalists do reporting contributed to one of the biggest political surprises in history.   Donald Trump became our president. It would be weird to pretend things here in podcast land are just "business as usual." Yes, we are grappling. Sure, we're asking ourselves: "What does this election mean for the country?" But we're also asking: "What does this election mean about me? About how I live my life? About how I connect to human beings and information?" As a way to start processing all of this: we curated a list from the archive... 7 Episodes For Your Post-Election Reality There is no right way to deal with the election aftermath. It's time for me to get out of my social media echo chamber. We click on things we agree with already. Here are some concrete steps to get out of our comfort zone and expose ourselves to different people, opinions, and voices online.  How can I deal with the hatred or racism in my social media feed? There's a formula for a productive conversation about tough topics. Please. Get me some Zen. Kindness would be nice too. Chade-Meng Tan, Silicon Valley's mindfulness coach, is making meditation accessible and he's got tips to incorporate it into our everyday lives. I need to rethink my information intake. Information overload. Enough said. How can I deal with the confusion I'm feeling without hiding beneath a large duvet? In a time of racial tension, how do you manage the storm of news online when paying attention is painful? Two friends find their answers. Should I have paid closer attention to the nuances of the election? We dive deep into the modern media diet with theSkimm co-founders Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, and John Herrman, media reporter at the New York Times.  I need to escape to a galaxy far far away. Failed 2016 presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan (convincingly) explains why you might live forever and vote for him in 2040. Support Note to Self by becoming a member today at NotetoSelfRadio.org/donate.    

Think about where you go to find news. Podcasts? WNYC? The New York Times? Facebook? Twitter? Newsletters? Do you want us to stop asking questions? Welcome to the Attention Economy. There is fierce competition for your eyes and ears — (thank you for choosing correctly). Media companies know that a good way to find an audience is to write and speak like the people they're trying to reach. It's the reason Buzzfeed, Vice, Mashable and so many others are popular with Snake People. Identity Media is a big part of why theSkimm — a newsletter that targets Millennial women by rounding up the day's news from Kanye West to Ban Ki-moon — has over 3.5 million subscribers. You might be one of them. This week we talked to theSkimm co-founders Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg about how they go about presenting the news. Identity Media is more than just a business model, it's changing how we consume the news. To try and sort out why this "Skimm" approach to serious stories made her feel a little queasy, Manoush talked to John Herrman. He reports on the media for the New York Times. Together, Manoush and John embark on a mission to answer that age-old question: Do Justin Bieber and Hiroshima belong in the same sentence? Here's a rundown of links to supplement this week's episode: The Skimm issue that mentions President Obama's trip to Japan The New York Times article about the same trip How the Japan Times covered the same trip How Buzzfeed covered it, and then went in a different direction The Politico playbook A silly guide to generation gaps In a way, this whole conversation ties into — you guessed it — our Infomagical project. (Did you catch last week's boot camp?) How we consume media and our goals for reading the news can influence our ability to think and communicate. If you want to get in on the project, it's still around for a limited time. For more Note to Self, subscribe to Note to Self on iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn, I Heart Radio,Overcast, Pocket Casts, or anywhere else using our RSS feed.

Tomorrow really lives up to its title this week as John Herrman and Matt Buchanan (co-editors of The Awl) sit down with Josh to discuss the present and future of news reporting, social media, and technology — especially in the context of recent developments involving Uber and Gawker. Buckle up and grab your doxxing stick — because this ride makes The Fast and Furious look positively sluggish and tepid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Awl's John Herrman and BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti swung by our studio for a Very Special Episode this week. We asked them about the future of the internet. Like websites, what's the deal? Is everything going to be Facebook in the future? Is Myspace ever coming back? All that... and more!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices