INFLUENCE

Feeling dismayed by U.S. politics in 2018, J.D. Boehninger (pen name) got advice from a friend who was writing self-published monster fiction for the Amazon Kindle. Many authors were making a good living writing paranormal stories, erotica, and things about Donald Trump. So Boehninger decided to combine all three. The result was "Melania: Devourer of Men," an erotic tale about the first lady who w...

By day, Amber Ivey uses big data to inform governmental policy decisions. Back in 2020, she was invited to tinker with a new tool from a young startup called OpenAI - two years before the public had ever heard the phrase "ChatGPT." She knew right away that the LLM would have huge ramifications for the way we relate to the Internet, and that kids would be particularly enraptured by it. She wrote a...

Brian Hull unlocked his super power at a young age. Mimicking the voices of the world's most recognizable cartoon characters earned him lots of social cred on the schoolyard. In 2014, he uploaded a YouTube video of himself singing "Let It Go" from "Frozen" as a variety of Disney characters. It was never meant to be public. He woke up the next morning to millions of new fans and an exciting career...

Like many of us, the urban planning strategy game "SimCity" was an obsession for Diana Regan growing up. When she published YouTube videos about a modern incarnation -- "Cities: Skylines" and its sequel -- she grew a loyal audience around the games. But she was more interested in using these sims for social commentary about urban design, capitalism, politics, and absurdist online culture. One prob...

Greetings! I am couch/bed-ridden as my entire family recovers from Covid-19 (the BEST Covid!) While I waste away, I think you'll enjoy this episode from my other podcast. - Original Show Notes | August 15, 2025 - https://haveenteredthechat.com/episodes/215-luke-plunkett-games-journalism-aftermath If you've read a video game article on the Internet in the last two decades, chances are it was writte...

Depending on what state or country you live in, logging into Instagram, Reddit, or (dare we say) Corn Hub might prompt you to submit a government ID to proceed. This fresh privacy nightmare is thanks to a variety of "online safety" laws going into effect, or being upheld by courts. They are aimed at protecting minors from accessing harmful content online -- a laudable goal. But requiring all users...

Greg Miller fell in love with Ghostbusters, Superman, and video games — as we all did — at a young age. But when he realized you could make money writing about his favorite things, he declared at age 9, in no uncertain terms, he would become a games journalist. That ambition became a reality during his tenure at IGN, which began with written coverage, and ended with a lot of on-camera work as onli...

Hey friends! I'm bringing an important conversation over from my other feed, as this story has huge ramifications for protected speech, the LGBTQ+ community, and how powerful companies can change what's allowed on the Internet. While certainly alarming, this conversation (and what has transpired since) has made me hopeful. - Original Show Notes from July 25, 2025 - Hundreds of NSFW games were remo...

In August 2005, YouTube was a 6-month-old beta test, the iPhone was still years away, putting music on your iPod required a cable, and MuggleNet was *the* destination for news and conversation about Harry Potter. The books and movies were still coming out, and online fandom was taking shape in novel ways. One of which was a “podcast” — it’s like a radio show, but you download it from the Internet...

I'm taking the week off, but hope you'll check out my new improv comedy podcast for kids and families! Listen to the first episode here, share it with the kids in your life, and subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcasts: https://www.talesfromthecloudsea.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Laina Morris was 20 years old when she entered a Justin Bieber fan contest in 2012. She uploaded a video of herself to YouTube singing a creepy parody song. She didn't win the concert tickets, but when she woke up the next morning, she had won a very different prize. Reddit, a website she had never heard of, got a hold of the video and turned her into the poster child for obsessive, co-dependent r...

When people post online, they usually declare their opinions. And in social media echo chambers, those opinions tend to be validated. But the subreddit r/ChangeMyView *might* be the only place on the Internet where people come in good faith to have their opinions challenged — and perhaps even changed. Topics range from movie fandom to food preferences to history to some of the most challenging eth...

Grace Helbig was cutting tape in her 2006 video editing class when the professor asked everyone to create accounts on a new website called "YouTube." That's where Grace found vloggers, jump cuts, and an emerging alt comedy scene. She became obsessed (in a good way) and immediately got to work. What began as comedic vlogs and absurd sketches with her improv pals blossomed into a 20 year career of m...

Video journalists Joss Fong and Adam Cole are rarely satisfied with the results of scientific inquiry. As self-proclaimed "earnest nerds," they are compelled to unpack the process — to learn HOW experts know the things they know. After more than a decade as science communicators at Vox and NPR, they launched their own home on YouTube called Howtown. Their videos on how to measure animal sentience,...

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz went to school for 14 years to become a gastroenterologist. He loved working with patients, and developed a fascination for emerging research about the gut microbiome -- trillions of bacteria that live in our intestines and digest fruits and veggies. As a young doctor, he realized that public perception of the gut microbiome was lacking. When he gave a talk about colon microbes...

This week on INFLUENCE, the double-edged sword of YouTube's ContentID systems, and the explosion of AI-generated ads and voices which have no shame in cloning content creators for profit. Plus: Some changes to the Patreon so you can get more for less! Links discussed in this episode: How to subscribe to a private Patreon RSS feed: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041347732-How-to-u...

Like many of us, Zoë Ligon worked a retail job after college. But in her case, it was a sex toy shop, where she would have fascinating interactions with customers. Talking sex with random strangers changed her perspective on sex education, and she began writing about her own experiences on Tumblr – back when Tumblr was still a safe haven for NSFW content. Her blogging became paid gigs, which lead...

-Original Show Notes from May 20, 2022- Stuart Duncan is the dad of an autistic son, and he's also autistic himself. So when he learned that autistic Minecraft players were being bullied on popular servers, he set out to create a safe and inclusive virtual space for the autism community. The moment he announced it, parents lined up in droves, hoping their kids could join. Today, the server has 15,...

A peer reviewed study from the University of British Columbia analyzed the most popular ADHD-related videos on TikTok and found that very few of them contain information that aligns with medical diagnostics. Even more interesting, people who consume this kind of content perceive the diagnosis to be far more widespread - and symptoms far more intense - than in reality. Social media is warping our s...

Here’s an idea: Around 2012, YouTube was undergoing a profound transformation from a novelty economy to a loyalty platform. This was largely driven by vlog culture, but another format was emerging: The video essay. But would Internet audiences (notorious for their ShOrT aTeNtIoN sPaNs!!!) watch longform, Socratic discussion of math, democracy, quantum mechanics, and Pokémon? Turns out: Yes. Throug...

Elizabeth Booker Houston got a law degree and a master's in public health, with a focus on pandemic policy. Too bad that wasn’t very useful OH WAIT During the Covid lockdowns, she became fascinated by the health misinformation perpetuated by Trump’s first administration and weaponized by social media. So she took to TikTok (as you do) to share her public health expertise and make fun of anti-vaxxe...

Hi friends! Excited to share this interview from my *other* show, Colette & Matt Have Entered the Chat, where we cover video games and their communities. This one is about the extraordinary legacy of "Minesweeper," which changed the Internet in more ways than you might think. Enjoy! -Original show notes from March 24, 2023- Get the full episode here (or in your favorite pod app): https://haveenter...

If your Reddit feeds seem different lately, you're not alone. Massive "default" subreddits like r/pics — once home to heartwarming photos, hilarious memes, and stunning landscapes — have become a hotbed of anti-Trump and anti-fascist activism. Users there are sharing photos from recent public protests, which you may not have seen on the news, but are tens of thousands strong across every U.S. stat...

True Crime Case Files had 150 videos and millions of views, but not a single true story was real. Also, are we finally seeing real protests thanks to Reddit? https://www.404media.co/a-true-crime-documentary-series-has-millions-of-views-the-murders-are-all-ai-generated/ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/us/politics/trump-musk-protests-50501-presidents-day.html This show is made possible by listene...

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?...