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PODCAST

INFLUENCE

What does it really take to make a living (and an impact) on the Internet today? Join Matt Silverman (who has been covering online culture for 15+ years) in conversation with YouTubers, musicians, podcasters, streamers, journalists, TikTokers and more about turning creativity into a job, building community on ever-changing platforms, and their complex relationships with huge online audiences. INFLUENCE is the relaunch of 2 GIRLS 1 PODCAST, a weekly comedy/interview show about fascinating online

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All Episodes

67:09

39 Billionaires Destroyed the Web, But Rebuilding...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/02/12

Social media platforms have become the “default” for most of the world’s 5.5 billion Internet users, which means everything we see and post online is controlled by billionaires and squeezed for maximum profit – shredding democracy, mental health, and human rights in the process.But what if it didn’t have to be this way? In fact, the Web wasn’t this way until very recently. So how did we get here? And how can we claw it back? The bad news is it will take a LOT of work, investment, and convincing

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77:29

38 Why the Weirdest Parts of Medieval Life Are Not In...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/02/05

By day, Jason Kingsley is the CEO of Rebellion, an independent video game developer that’s been cranking out hits since the '90s. But in 2017, he noticed a shift in the media landscape. YouTube - once a bastion of cat videos and reaction vlogs - was emerging as a destination for longform educational content.Jason’s obsession with medieval history, background in raising horses, and love of fantasy role-playing games compelled him to start Modern History TV, a channel with rigorous and delightful

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48:55

37 Why DeepSeek Is Making Tech Billionaires Shit...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/01/29

This week U.S. tech companies lost nearly $1 trillion in "value" after a Chinese startup called DeepSeek released its R1 large language model, which was reportedly developed for WAY less than Silicon Valley is pouring into the AI bubble.And while it is fun to laugh at tech billionaires losing money, DeepSeek's innovation (if real) could change the model for AI deployment - allowing LLMs to run on local machines (like your home computer) rather than in massive data centers owned by 3 companies. I

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104:39

36 Fostering Shelter Dogs Is Easier & More Rewarding...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/01/22

Adopting a rescue animal is a noble pursuit, but dogs who live in a stressful, chaotic shelter may not put their best paw forward when potential owners come to visit.That’s where fostering comes in. It’s the often-overlooked step between rescue and adoption, and it can be transformative for many dogs. Even while young and broke in New York City, Isabel Klee took up this calling, and it changed her life forever. Today, she educates her enormous online audience about the foster process through

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82:17

35 This Is the Worst (and Also Best) Advice to Anyone...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/01/15

Gary Arndt ignored all the advice for new podcasters. Instead of focusing on a specific topic, he made a show about literally everything he could think of: history, geography, quantum physics, games, technology, and more. Instead of pacing out episodes weekly or monthly, he decided to publish every single day. 1,600 episodes later, his show “Everything Everywhere” has a community of 1.5 million monthly listeners.This success story leaves out that Gary is uniquely (and perhaps exclusively?)

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93:20

34 The Internet Is Obsessed With His Tiny Video Game...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/01/08

When Sky Burkson was a kid, he had two obsessions: drawing and video games. He went on to pursue a career in set design, but his love of games never faded. And when life threw his family a curveball, he knew it was time to recombine his passions.These days, his painstaking recreations of video game architecture and environments delight thousands of fans around the world, including some of YouTube's biggest gaming influencers, who regularly commission new work. His sculptures, which are made

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105:47

33 How They Beat All 800,000 Remaining "Mario Maker"...

INFLUENCE ·

2025/01/01

Happy Nude Year, one and all! I'm still on holiday break, but wanted to check in with out about the YouTuber(s) who exposed the Honey browser extension (owned by PayPal) as a massive scam, my upcoming guests, and sharing an encore episode from my other show, Colette & Matt Have Entered the Chat, about a small but mighty video game community that did the impossible, just in the nick of time! Exposing the Honey Influencer Scam, by MegaLag: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4yL3YTwWk Original Show

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74:37

32 The Internet Has Been Searching for the Name of...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/12/18

In 1984, a German teenager recorded a moody new wave song from the radio. The mystery song, with crunchy guitars and English lyrics, was preserved on a cassette and forgotten. That is until 2007, when his sister discovered the tape, and began a 17-year quest to identify it.From Usenet groups, to music identification forums, a Discord server, a popular YouTuber, and a dedicated subreddit called r/TheMysteriousSong, thousands of Internet sleuths have been decoding clues and comparing notes for

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75:09

31 WikiProject AI Cleanup: Why Humans and Bots Make...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/12/11

Wikipedia continues to be a modern miracle. Unlike social media platforms — which are rife with misinformation and grift — Wikipedia's openness and non-profit status are key to its two+ decades of value and accuracy. But a new threat is looming. Generative AI now touches everything we read, watch, and listen to on the Web. And some Wiki editors have begun experimenting with it, with mixed results. Where do large language models fit into the pursuit of accurate, reliable knowledge, if at all? And

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90:22

30 Skip the Script: How Karen Cassady Built an Improv...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/12/04

Karen Cassady had finally made it. She was working full time as a comedy performer and teacher, with weekly shows at Atlanta's top improv theater. Then March 2020 happened.She and her comedy cohorts tried to translate their shows to Twitch live streams, but the "lulz" in the chat just didn't cut it. Unemployed and painfully bored, she put on some wigs and began riffing other people's videos on TikTok. But it wasn't until she began improvising an original Rom Com (and playing every character) that

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48:44

29 Upcoming Episodes & Happy Thanksgiving!

INFLUENCE ·

2024/11/27

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

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80:46

28 My Doctor Fat-Shamed Me, but TikTok Knew It Was...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/11/20

Amanda Lee was a passionate wedding photographer whose business was booming - that is, until, February 2020. Covid canceled her job and income, and to make matters worse, severe stomach pain was preventing her from eating (and pooping).When she finally got an appointment to see a doctor at the height of the pandemic, instead of offering scans or tests, he said it was "a blessing" that she hasn't eaten solid food in weeks, since she could stand to lose a few pounds. Distraught and in tears, she

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62:51

27 Whoopsie: These "Wicked" Dolls Have a Naughty...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/11/13

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. This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod Listen & subscribe wherever you

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126:41

26 From Immigrant to Icon: How Yaya Han Built a...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/11/06

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

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65:54

25 How Patreon Fosters Creative Diversity in an...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/10/30

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,"

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44:21

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

INFLUENCE ·

2024/10/23

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

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88:41

23 From Napster to Midjourney: Why Copyright & the...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/10/16

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

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70:00

22 Thousands of People Are Playing Trivia Online and...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/10/09

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

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68:44

21 Her Viral Photos of Wild Horses Just Might Save...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/10/02

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

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62:21

20 Why I'm REALLY Hyped for YouTube's New "Hype"...

INFLUENCE ·

2024/09/25

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

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