INFLUENCE

Domination and humiliation aren't new in the world of fetishes, but one online sex worker has found a particularly compelling niche: Shaming and belittling Trump supporters to change their votes to Biden. Empress Delfina has a multitude of clients who get off on being told how wrong they are to support the current administration — and she thinks the trend is growing. Alli and Jen chat with the Emp...

Back in the day, if your computer or an appliance broke down, you could pop open the case, unscrew the faulty part, and order a replacement from the manufacturer for a few dollars. But increasingly, companies are more secretive about their proprietary tech. They keep their parts and schematics hidden, and when your iPhone or tractor breaks down, you’re forced to pay exorbitant repair costs, or wor...

Grief is never easy, but it's especially hard if you can't be with your loved ones in person. COVID-19 has made funerals incredibly complicated in recent months, but the online service Gathering Us has been planning for this for a while. Its founder, Noha Waibsnaider, explains why virtual memorials are the next-best thing (and in some cases, even better than in-person events). Waibsnaider chats wi...

The Internet empowers everyone to find a like-minded community online. It also facilitates misinformation and conspiracy thinking at breakneck speeds. QAnon, the belief that government insiders have foretold the Biblical cleansing of liberals, has morphed from a handful of conspiracy theories on 8chan to a full-blown cult that is tearing families apart. In response, the Internet has birthed suppor...

We're working on something big for next week, so here's another one of our favorite encore episodes from back in the day. Original Notes: If you've ever sought a soundtrack for your home movies that wouldn't get removed by YouTube, chances are you've come across Kevin MacLeod's music. He's composed thousands of original tracks, in every imaginable genre, that he gives away under a Creative Commons...

Matty Benedetto is a product designer by training, but his sense of humor led him to a life of hilarious content creation instead. Benedetto builds Unnecessary Inventions, ingenious products that solve urgent problems you don’t actually have — like a drink holder for your shoe, or an alarm clock that snoozes itself so you won’t be bothered in the morning. His fake products (and their crisp photos...

Global K-pop music sensation BTS’ charity efforts with Unicef and other foundations has empowered fans to make positive change in the world. The BTS fandom is known as an “ARMY,” and the global volunteer collective One In an ARMY has become an engine of charitable giving, cause awareness, and social change. When One In an ARMY mobilizes for a cause, K-pop stans flood social media with micro-donati...

While traveling alone in Mexico, Amanda Black was robbed. She felt violated, scared, and didn't know where to turn in a foreign county with no friends or family. That's when she realized the need for an online support network -- a place where women traveling alone can get advice, and in some cases, urgent help. She founded the Solo Female Traveler Network in 2016, and thousands of women joined imm...

Email, texting, and social media have made our world smaller. But have we lost something in the age of instant messages? Maksim Jovovic created the website Get A Pen Pal, a place to match with someone interesting from anywhere in the world and engage in slow, deliberate letter-writing. Sure, the communication is still digital, but these "letters" take days to go back and forth, use collectible sta...

Online communities (sometimes the only communities we have during a pandemic) can be magical places. Friendships forged, insights shared, and fun had by all. They can also become toxic, shouty cesspools. Why do some succeed while others devolve into chaos? Alli and Jen talk with Anika Gupta, a journalist who studied online community structures for her book How to Handle a Crowd: The Art of Creatin...

This episode was originally published on August 20, 2018 (2 years ago, whoa!) For countless historical and social reasons, most of the people editing Wikipedia are white men. This has led to broad bias across the world's de facto repository of online knowledge. But a loose affiliation of women are making up the ground by writing and editing the biographies of historically significant women and min...

Alli and Jen speak with Jason Marshall, a veteran player of the MMO 'EVE Online' about the game's 15-year-old player-run space graveyard. The Molea cemetery has been operating since 2004, and not only contains the frozen corpses of killed space pilots, but graves that mark the deaths of lost loved ones in real life — friends, family members, pets, and other players. In June of this year, the devel...

We all use Wikipedia on a daily basis, but do you really know how humanity’s largest organized body of knowledge gets made? Alli and Jen talk with Bill Beutler, a longtime Wikipedia editor and the author of The Wikipedian, a blog about Wikipedia culture. He’s also the CEO of Beutler Ink, a consultancy which advises clients and public figures on the ethical way to address inaccuracies on Wikipedia....

Alli and Jen speak with Tim Jacobs, the founding minister of The Church of Universal Suffrage, a legally recognized religion that hosts “weekly meditation on the nature of voter suppression,” and observes every voting day in the U.S. as a religious holiday, which — legally speaking — affords church members some handy privileges, like the right to take the day off from work. Jacobs explains how the...

eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Mercari, Craigslist ... there's no shortage of apps to buy and sell random stuff. But if you live and breathe these marketplaces, you can identify opportunities to buy low and sell high. What starts as an exhilarating hobby can turn into a full-time job if you know what you're doing. That's how Rob and Melissa Stephenson make their living. By leveraging their knowledge...

Alli and Jen talk with Jack Rhysider, the creator and host of the hit podcast Darknet Diaries which tells “true stories from the dark side of the Internet.” Or as Matt likes to call it, This American Life for hackers. Rhysider worked in information security (infosec) and was searching for a podcast that tells the stories of hackers and digital heists. It didn’t exist, so he made his own. These day...

Screenwriter and games journalist Gary Whitta joins Alli and Jen to talk about his experimental late night celebrity talk show "Animal Talking," which is live-streamed entirely inside of Nintendo's "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," and why a world in quarantine can't stop watching. Whitta discusses the show's impromptu beginnings, its technical complexity, what it's like sitting on a virtual couch...

Matt is still on vacation, but we have a great encore episode for you. How Tay Zonday survived being 'Patient Zero' of viral YouTube. Originally Published: October 15, 2018 Way back in 2007 Tay Zonday uploaded the original song "Chocolate Rain" to YouTube, and nothing happened. Then Digg and 4chan found it. And then Zonday was on CNN and Jimmy Kimmel trying to explain his music on national televis...

Matt is on vacation this week, so we're re-sharing one of our favorites from last year. Enjoy! Bird watching probably conjures images of an old, retired guy sporting binoculars behind his country home. But Jason Ward is rapidly dispelling that stereotype. He's been an avid birder since his childhood growing up in The Bronx, NY, and has brought his passion to social media. His #TrickyBirdID Twitter...

Cybersex is as old as the Internet itself. But as virtual spaces become more sophisticated, so too has sex work. Second Life is more of a "technology playground" than a video game -- a place where your digital skills can be traded for real money. Many players make a healthy living by providing custom goods or services, including sex work. This week, Alli and Jen speak with Meela Vanderbuilt, the c...

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Alli and Jen talk with Elizabeth Finkelstein, a preservation expert and the creator of Cheap Old Houses, a wildly popular Instagram account that shows the dream of home ownership may not be as hard as we think, depending on your priorities. Finkelstein explains the inspiration for the account, her love of DIY home repair, the history carried in old houses (and why we should preserve them), the pas...

With more than 14 million followers across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, WeRateDogs is on a mission that everyone on planet Earth can get behind: Rating cute doggos from the internet on a (dubious!) 10-point scale. This blend of adorable dog pics, comedic captions, and obsessive fan-submitted content has catapulted the novelty account (and its creator, Matt Nelson) into a massive online brand,...

On the Internet, nobody knows if you're a dog. Or, an ant for that matter. And there are nearly 2 million people, all working together, pretending to be ants in a giant ant colony, in one special Facebook group. "A group where we all pretend to be ants in an ant colony" has exploded in popularity thanks to its imaginative premise, and because honestly what else are you going to do in quarantine? A...

There's a lot to laugh at on the Internet, but standup comedy — a distinctly in-person art form — is facing challenges in a time of self-isolation. But "virtual" comedy clubs, powered by Zoom, Twitch, and YouTube, are increasingly popping up in quarantine. But as expected, the tight 5 that kills on stage may need adjustments for an audience that can only laugh in emojis. This week, Alli and Jen ta...