Episodes
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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.
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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 her artwork. That's where she found thousands of obsessed fans just like her.
But it wasn't until she attended a U.S. anime convention in 1999 that her mind was blown by the power of cosplay - super fans who sewed elaborate costumes and dressed up as their favorite characters. Yaya's focus immediately shifted from drawing to fabrics, and she never looked back.
Today, her stunning costumes from anime and video games are adored by millions online, and she appears regularly as a speaker and contest judge at fan conventions around the world. She's partnered with global brands to release cosplay fabrics, sewing patterns, and even her own sewing machine.
Yaya joins Matt to share her inspiring immigrant story, why online fandom is so powerful, her creative process, building her business in the early days of social media, the difference between re-creation and inspiration, how anime (literally) saved her life, and how she deals with online haters. She also takes the trivia challenge about some cinematic costume history!
Follow Yaya: https://www.instagram.com/yayahan/
Check out her website: https://www.yayahan.com/
And buy her book! https://www.amazon.com/Yaya-Hans-World-Cosplay-Costume/dp/1454932651/
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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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 conversations have changed the platform, often in subtle and unexpected ways. But even when her work seems "invisible," she takes great pride in empowering creators to do what they do best: make more amazing stuff for the people who love it.
This week, Hayley and Matt chat about her sage advice for starting a Patreon, the surprising ways educators use the platform, the "death of the follower," why she sometimes feels like an Internet "piñata," and that time Neil Young convinced her dad that she's pretty cool.
If you're a Patreon creator, join their official Discord community! https://discord.com/invite/patreon
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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 with them?
Links from this week's discussion:
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/10/adobe-unveils-ai-video-generator-trained-on-licensed-content/
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24271338/adobe-sneaks-project-know-how-content-credentials
https://www.theverge.com/c/24238422/podcast-etymology-term-history-tech-vergecast
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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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 changed our perceptions of what intellectual property can be in an age where remix culture is the lifeblood of the Internet.
This week on INFLUENCE, Duke University law professor Jennifer Jenkins joins Matt to unpack the differences between copyright, trademark, patents, fair use, and why Creative Commons and the public domain are so vital for online creativity.
We also dig in on the ContentID algorithms that "police" copyright on large social platforms, and what the hell to do about generative AI that synthesizes new content from billions of copyrighted works.
Learn more about Jennifer's work here: https://law.duke.edu/fac/jenkins
And subscribe to her Public Domain Day blog! https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2024/
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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 small for more than a decade.
But as friends referred friends, the circle of vetted, honest players grew. And in the age where you can Google or ChatGPT nearly any answer, honor remains a cornerstone of the League's values.
Today, tens of thousands of players (including some [REDACTED] celebrities!) compete in seasonal, head-to-head challenges, where knowing your opponent's track record is a huge part of the strategy. The community is so dedicated and insular that it has broken off into smaller sub-tournaments during the off-season. But you actually can't join LearnedLeargue ... unless someone on the inside invites you.
What ran as a passion project for Shayne has turned into his full time job. He joins Matt to discuss the humble origins of the League, what makes for a great trivia question, the punishment for cheaters (spoiler: It's death), the value of knowledge in the age of the Internet, and why he has no reason to promote the League to new players.
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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Jamie Baldanza has always been an animal lover. When the ad agency art director started posting her photos of local New Jersey horses online, the world took notice.
Then, on a trip out to the American West, she brought back more than just stunning pics for the 'Gram. A life-changing passion for documenting and protecting wild horses took root.
Since then, she's built a large online community of horse enthusiasts and conservation advocates who work to raise awareness around the plight of wild horses, whose existence is constantly threatened by land development in the region.
Her work has culminated in the documentary film @WildLandsWildHorses which beautifully articulates the biology and ancestry of wild horses, and the conflict between ranchers, the U.S. government, and wildlife. The film is available on YouTube.
Jamie (known online as @ThisMustangLife) sits down with Matt to discuss the family dynamics of wild herds, the epic challenge of tracking and photographing stallions, the terrible fate of horses rounded up for removal, why well-meaning horse advocates often go overboard on the Internet, and what it's like to build trust and companionship with these sentient creatures.
Watch "Wild Lands Wild Horses" in its entirety on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lftvyrj4PY
Follow Jamie on Instagram and TikTok:
https://www.instagram.com/thismustanglife
https://www.tiktok.com/@thismustanglife?lang=en
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YouTube recently announced two new features.
"Veo" will allow users to create AI-generated clips and backgrounds for Shorts. And "Hype" is a new way for fans to support small and medium-sized channels.
The former seems like a bad but inevitable feature that will flood YouTube with synthetic, low-effort content. But the latter could be a major leap forward in audience-first content discovery.
Hype gives all users 3 votes every week. When cast for small creators, they earn points (and potentially revenue) that puts them in a global leaderboard. It's a non-algorithmic, human-powered way to surface the platform's best content, and divert some of the attention economy away from YouTube's 1% of large creators who dominate the home page and suggested videos.
Plus: The FTC notices that social media business models are horrible, and the MrBeast lawsuits have begun.
Links referenced in this episode:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/19/24249073/ftc-data-retention-privacy-report-facebook-meta-youtube-reddit
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/18/youtube-shorts-to-integrate-veo-google-ai-video-model/
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/18/24247995/youtube-hype-creators
https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/mrbeast-amazon-sued-beast-games-contestants-class-action-1236148181/
https://newsletter.tubefilter.com/p/roblox-youtube-add-yours-shopify
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Matt Hobbs was a working musician and the "house band" for an improv theater in Atlanta. Then the pandemic hit in 2020. With live performance on hold and life getting boring, he looked for musical inspiration at home. Luckily, his two adorable chihuahuas, Lenny and Mar-Pup, delivered.
On a whim, he began writing short and ridiculous songs from the dogs' perspective and posting them on Instagram. The creative exercise got laughs from family, friends, and a small community of pet owners looking for fun at a dark time. In an effort to improve his skills, he wrote hundreds of these "Puppy Songs" while waiting to get back on stage.
Then, TikTok happened. Puppy Songs exploded across the Internet, and Matt realized he was onto something. Some of his biggest hits, like "Cheese Tax," "Air Jail," and "Where the Heck Is Mom?" have been streamed nearly 100 million times across platforms.
This week, Matt Hobbs joins Matt Silverman (2 Matts!) to talk about the craft of songwriting, what inspires him to make new videos, how social media is changing music, and turning Internet virality into a sustainable music career.
PLUS: Ancient puppy trivia and an EXCLUSIVE announcement about Hobbs' upcoming project.
Follow Puppy Songs:
https://www.youtube.com/@UCp5Ytwj_TkbbfztidjFtXrw
https://www.instagram.com/PuppySongs/
https://www.tiktok.com/@puppysongs
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The Internet Archive, a non-profit repository for BILLIONS of pieces of media, has been lending digital books from its library since 2011 without a hitch. But in March 2020, they made one crucial mistake that now poses an existential threat to the online "Library of Alexandria."
This week, The Internet Archive lost its appeal in a lawsuit brought by the 4 major publishing conglomerates. And while the publishers are *technically* right in their copyright infringement complaint, the consequences of the suit could be catastrophic for the Archive.
Plus: Your responses to the blind gamers episode, and get ready for some Puppy Songs!
Links referenced in this episode:
What is Happening to the Internet Archive? (All Things Lost): https://youtu.be/bp2aowF0jUw
The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case: https://www.wired.com/story/internet-archive-loses-hachette-books-case-appeal/
For more on the Internet Archive, check out our 2G1P episode with Jason Scott: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-archive-wayback-machine-and-discmaster/id1285444706?i=1000589825934
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SightlessKombat is a video game streamer and reviewer, who also consults on some of the industry's biggest titles: "God of War," "Sea of Thieves," "Horizon: Forbidden West," and more. Yet he has never seen a single pixel.
That's because he was born blind — completely without vision. But he was drawn to video games from a young age because ... well, they're awesome.
So, how does he actually *play* them? The answer is, it depends. Game and Internet accessibility has come a long way since the '80s and '90s. But many in the blind community still rely on volunteers to mod screen readers into games. The process is tireless, collaborative, and very community driven.
This week on INFLUENCE, Matt sits down with 3(!) guests to talk about video game accessibility. Aure is a German programmer who recently released a screen reading mod for the wildly popular deck-building poker-like "Balatro," allowing blind players to enjoy the game for the first time. SightlessKombat is the aforementioned streamer, game reviewer, and Accessible Gaming Officer at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK. And Ohylli is a legally blind accessibility advocate (and "Balatro" enthusiast!) based in Finland.
They discuss the amazing tools that make wildly complex games like "Factorio" and "Stardew Valley" accessible to blind players, how 3D action games like "Sea of Thieves" and "Star Wars: Outlaws" are played without sight, and why studios that make games more accessible can reap unexpected profits.
Follow Aure's modding work: https://github.com/Aurelius7309
Subscribe to SightlessKombat: https://linktr.ee/sightlesskombat
Follow Ohylli: https://x.com/ohylli
Special thanks to u/matrheine on Reddit
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Most people can agree that protecting children from harmful online content — self-harm, disordered eating, gore, disinformation, extreme social pressure — is a good idea. Much of that falls on parents.
But algorithms are disturbingly good at showing us extreme content we never searched, but can't look away from. Addiction (and thus more ads) is social media's business model. And keeping up with the Web wormholes that teenagers find themselves in is an impossible task, especially when these platforms are integral to their social lives.
In response to the growing mental health crisis among teens (especially girls and young women), the U.S. Senate found bi-partisan support in two bills: COPPA 2.0 — which would expand the scope of 1998's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act to block data collection on minors aged 13-17 — and KOSA (The Kids Online Safety Act), which would turn OFF algorithmic recommendations and auto-play videos, and turn ON maximum privacy settings by default for kids.
This seemed like a rare bi-partisan win. But as always, the truth is much more complicated. That's why we've called on Paul Singer to return for his 3rd appearance on the show to explain WTF is going on.
Paul is a partner at the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren, where he specializes in consumer protection issues. Previously, he worked in the Texas Attorney General’s office, with a particular focus on data protection. He even worked on the very first lawsuit brought through COPPA 1.0's enforcement back in 2000.
He breaks down what's in these bills, why they have some good ideas, the fatal flaw that makes KOSA problematic (especially for marginalized communities), and what Congress (and courts) could do instead to protect all citizens from abusive tech platforms.
Check out Paul's work here: https://www.kelleydrye.com/people/paul-l-singer
And subscribe to his legal blog about these issues and much more: https://www.kelleydrye.com/viewpoints/blogs/ad-law-access
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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The flood of allegations around the world's most famous influencer range from petty YouTube drama to serious (and possibly illegal) safety issues. MrBeast is very popular in our household, but the raft of controversy makes us question whether our kids should keep enjoying their favorite YouTube channel.
This week, I break down why The Beast is under fire, and how the controversy snowballed in recent months, leading to a parenting moral quandary.
Plus: Fake and AI-generated product reviews are officially BANNED in the U.S. But can it be enforced? And details about some fantastic upcoming guests.
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It's a busy week here in my house, so while I'm lining up fresh interviews for you, please enjoy this feed drop from my other show, where we interviewed two wonderful video game speedrunners who race through one of the chillest games ever made: "Stardew Valley."
- Originally published on January 13, 2023 -
Where RUSHING into marriage is a good idea!
Speed running Super Mario Bros. is a straightforward endeavor. Whoever saves the princess fastest gets the record. But what about open-ended sims, where you set your own goals?
This week, we were so mesmerized by Stardew Valley speedrunners on GDQ that we had to invite them on the show. Lee (@atwentysomethingloser) and Lisa (@lichatton) are Stardew-obsessed Twitch streamers who have dissected the game to find the fastest ways to marry specific villagers, complete Community Center bundles, catch every fish, and other in-game milestones, often achieving these runs in mere hours.
Their strategies involve animation canceling, min/maxing gifts, and a lot of sleep! Lee and Lisa share how they got into the wild world of speeding through one of the chillest games of all time, how it has increased their love for it, and share what else they play after thousands of hours of Stardew.
Follow and subscribe to Lee and Lisa!
https://www.twitch.tv/atwentysomethingloser
https://www.twitch.tv/lichatton
For more video game community conversations, subscribe to "Colette & Matt Have Entered the Chat," wherever you get podcasts: https://haveenteredthechat.com/
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You and everyone you love will die. There's no way around it. Yet we rarely talk or think about the topic until we have to. For the first time in human history, we are "living longer and dying slower." That's good news, but it also creates a cultural disassociation with the reality of death.
But there's a growing movement - online and IRL - around death literacy. It advocates for ongoing conversation and education about this universal part of life. Just like exercise, finances, or playing piano, how can we be successful at something if we don't learn, practice, and grow?
That's the mission of Bevival, an online community and resource devoted to changing the cultural conversation around death. It's the brainchild of Caren Martineau, an entrepreneur who suddenly realized she has more time behind her than ahead.
Jade Adgate is a death midwife, who supports people with terminal diagnoses and the families left behind. She also empowers a large community on social media by sharing her work and insights to help grievers she can't reach in person.
Together, they produce the Exit Interviews podcast, a regular conversation with leading authors and philosophers about how we can make meaning from "the final frontier."
This week, Caren and Jade sit down with (a reluctant) Matt to discuss their calling around death literacy, their mission to engage the Internet on difficult topics, how death has become commercialized in the 20th and 21st centuries, and why that dehumanizes mortality.
Connect with Caren at http://bevival.com
Follow Jade on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.farewell.library
Subscribe to the Exit Interviews podcast: https://www.bevival.com/books-podcast-death-literacy
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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The surreal machinima "Skibidi Toilet" has been viewed 65 BILLION times across platforms, attracting the attention of Hollywood explosion enthusiast Michael Bay. The mega producer (Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean) has licensed the bizarre web series to make a feature length film or TV series.
The Gen Alpha meme generator is more than just a flash in the pan - it has real narrative structure, and the Skibidiverse has been rapidly expanding over the last year. Even if your kids have never seen a Skibidi video, they are definitely talking about it on the playground. I break down whether toilet heads make any cultural or financial sense in a theater near you.
Meanwhile, two extraordinary online child safety bills are making their way to the U.S. Senate with bi-partisan support. If passed, they would dramatically reduce the data collected on kids, and cut off the algorithmic content that is so damaging to their mental health. What would social media actually look like if we could make it safe for minors? And could these regulations help adults, too?
Plus: Would you quit your job to be an influencer? 50% of adults would if they could. Many of those are already trying.
And YouTube's biggest stars are pissed that AI is learning from the captions on their videos. Where is the philosophical line between fair use and theft when it comes to large language models? And how will we protect creators who may soon be out-matched by "synthetic" video content?
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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When we report a spammer, a scammer, or online harassment, where does it go? Who decides what gets removed or banned? Bots can do some of the work, but when it comes to messy online emotions, we need human expertise for context and judgement.
So who are these heroes? What do they see all day? And how does content moderation work on a global scale, where the ethics, laws, and cultures of different platforms are so subjective?
This week on INFLUENCE, Alice Hunsberger breaks down this complicated world. She's the VP of Trust & Safety and Content Moderation at PartnerHero, a company that staffs some of our favorite social media apps with specialized teams that weed out bad actors to ensure everyone has a safe experience online.
Alice explains why this crucial work is often unnoticed or deeply misunderstood by the public, why viewing humanity's worst behavior for a job is so punishing, the impossible tasks for regulators, and why she remains optimistic about the Internet despite the constant flow of harmful content.
For more on the Trust & Safety industry, subscribe to Alice's newsletter and podcast: https://alicelinks.com/
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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When Catie Osborn ( @Catieosaurus ) had a medical emergency, she thought she was losing her mind — perhaps experiencing early onset dementia. But after further evaluation, she got a much different diagnosis: ADHD.
Suddenly, her entire life snapped into focus: Intense fixation and extreme boredom, difficulty maintaining friendships, the crushing burden of everyday tasks, and in her own words: "I didn't know how to People."
She deeply educated herself about the spectrums of ADHD, autism, and their corollaries like anxiety and depression. Then, when she lost her job as a Renaissance fair director during COVID, she began educating the Internet about the struggles and triumphs of the neurodivergent. Her deeply personal videos on TikTok and Instagram caught fire. 3 million followers later, she now works full time as a speaker, author, podcaster, and social media advocate for neurodivergence and mental health.
Specifically, she observed a unique connection between ADHD and intimacy. And when no one was talking about neurodivergent sex online, she became a unique advocate for that as well.
This week, Catie and Matt talk about the rapid rise in ADHD awareness, its ongoing stigma and misrepresentation, the empowering (and sometimes life-saving) impact her content has on her audience, how to make a living as a science communicator, her unique brand of adult "spicy" content, table-top RPGs, answers to your questions and voicemails, and why getting doxed by online trolls brought her closer with her mom.
Follow Catie and learn more about her work:
https://catieosaurus.com/
https://www.tiktok.com/@catieosaurus
https://www.instagram.com/catieosaurus
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At the age of 7, Jacob Simon set out to become a world-class figure skater. He competed around the world and was training for the Olympics when a dislocated shoulder derailed his career. Devastated but not defeated, he made a conscious choice to focus on the positive.
His other skills as a writer and artist came in handy when he started sharing short, personal videos on Instagram and TikTok about the climate crisis. But these were not about rising temps or dire warnings.
All of Jacob's stories feature GOOD news about climate progress and hope for the future: animals bouncing back from extinction, governments passing green laws, renewable energy breakthroughs, and regular people making a huge impact on their communities.
Turns out, the Internet was also exhausted from two decades of doom scrolling. Jacob's daily stories of progress have garnered him millions of views and hundreds of thousands of followers, who rely on him to cut through the darkness of our media diet.
This week on INFLUENCE, Jacob and Matt discuss his new life as a science communicator, why social media (and news media) bias toward "bad" news, the rigorous research he puts into every video, the stories that most-inspire his audience, the ingenious way he makes a living, and what we all can do to help the climate, even when it seems futile.
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
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I'm on vacation this week, but very happy to share this interview we did on another show, with Norman Caruso (The Gaming Historian) back in 2021.
If you enjoy games as much as we do, check out "Colette & Matt Have Entered the Chat," wherever you get podcasts: https://haveenteredthechat.com/
-- Original Show Notes from May 28, 2021 --
Norman Caruso, aka The Gaming Historian, has been meticulously documenting the history of video games (and their weird peripherals!) on YouTube since 2008. It took him 7 years before this passion project became a full-time job. More than 90 million views later, his channel is among the most rigorous and well-respected in the world of games journalism. Norman has covered topics as ubiquitous a Tetris and Super Mario Bros. 3, all the way down to failed tech like the Sega Mega Modem and an IRL fishing module for the Game Boy.
We chat with Norman about how he got his start, why primary-source historical research takes so long, how he chooses topics, why it's OK to be wrong sometimes, and why you may never see a Pokémon video on his channel.
Subscribe to The Gaming Historian on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbvPS_rXp4PC21PG2k1UVg
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