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Topic: Ephemera - short stories that could've only happened online.  (Read 31529 times)

chai tea latte

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New episode!

Ephemera 09: EVE Online is Like Vegas for Nerds

I'm hosted on Libsyn now. Your podcast app should have updated automatically, but in case it didn't, the new RSS is here and the direct link to this month's episode is here.

Happy holidays! I'll return to EVE again soon, but in January we'll have a SPLINTERNET episode about the Russian internet, mostly looking at how it's become less free and open since 2012.
Shell Game

chai tea latte

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New SPLINTERNET! I really feel good about this one. Clicking the album art will take you to the RSS.

]
Shell Game Yavuz THE LESBIATHAN GirlKisser420 Mix SHAMBA~1.SBB nuffkins, of all people,

Achilles' Heelies

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Nice! Btw, I really like Ephemera, it is very well done.
Shell Game

chai tea latte

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Nice! Btw, I really like Ephemera, it is very well done.
Achilles' Heelies, January 23, 2019, 01:19:00 pm
Thank you for the kind words.

I think radio (and by extension, podcasting) is the most intimate medium, and that legacy radio and most podcasts arent willing to meet the listener where they are when it comes to the medium of the Internet. It really means a lot to me that people around here have enjoyed it - I don't want to make Internet 101, but I also don't want to get so bogged down in the weeds or academic that I lose my target audience (people who either grew up online or are fascinated by the Web).
Wrought Shell Game

chai tea latte

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🚨new ep!🚨

E10 - if everybody drove motorcycles the government would collapse

Achilles Heelies was kind enough to star in this episode! Give the guy a hand. also I made a zine, which was a lot of fun. details here
Shell Game Achilles' Heelies

chai tea latte

  • TheftBot is, simply put, a fully sentient robot for stealing automatic teller machines
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🚨🚨New episode!🚨🚨
💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃
💃💃💃💃💃💃E11: Emojigeddon💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃
💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃💃

After a baker's dozen episodes of the pod (11 normal, 2 for SPLINTERNET), I feel confident that I'm doing something unique and interesting, and I think I'm doing it pretty well. The format has worked better than my wildest dreams. My deepest thanks to everyone here who's listened, or provided a voice for my greek chorus. The first episode of the podcast dropped off my libsyn feed, and I went back to fix up the audio a little and give it the new, much better theme song, and I was, like, blown away at the increase in quality. I think Ephemera is starting to mature into something I'm going to be really proud of.

Please enjoy.

PS: throw me a reply here, dog, it's dry as a bone.
Mr. Hunky Academia Shell Game

chai tea latte

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I'm happy to announce that as of today Ephemera
-turns one year old
-has a recording engineer so I can get back to doing the writing and talking stuff and not ripping my hair out because I always had an engineer at the radio station so I never learned how to edit audio

I think people will be very happy about the second thing! I'm pretty proud of the first one!
Shell Game RoeCocoa GirlKisser420

chai tea latte

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New episode!
E12: Swatting: Terrorism for Children. I tried to trace the history of swatting and its evolution into something that kills people, looking at a couple significant cases that I think act as inflection points for the harm swatting causes. Don't really know what swatting is? I explain that too!

I also updated the list of music used, so if you liked a track, now you can listen to it at your leisure. Enjoy!
GirlKisser420 Shell Game Mr. Hunky Academia Wrought

ClaraTinSoldier

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Love your show

chai tea latte

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Love your show
ClaraTinSoldier, April 27, 2019, 07:45:47 am
thanks for the kind words! I'd really appreciate if you could go into more detail about which parts you most enjoy, or if you think the show has a coherent aesthetic.

ClaraTinSoldier

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thanks for the kind words! I'd really appreciate if you could go into more detail about which parts you most enjoy, or if you think the show has a coherent aesthetic.
chai tea latte, April 28, 2019, 01:44:15 pm

Wow, I've never had anyone ask me that about  anything after receiving a compliment. That is so cool. You're right, I know as an artist specific feedback is more helpful. The things I like about it: 

Choice of topics: The topics you pick are novel,  peculiar,  or inherently attention grabbing enough to be worth 20 minutes. 

Your clinical  tone: It  adds a lot to the effect hearing about weird, stupid, unusual, etc things hearing it presented objectively and flatly.  While, like you I'm  (obviously) a huge fan of the FPlus, I don't think  that style of mst3k riff fest would work for the topics you pick. It's impossible to tell a joke about Rocco's basilisk because it's already literally the stupidest imaginable idea.  Any attempt to present it in a more foolish manner would fall flat because it's less extreme than the actual content. You just reading off things like this reminds me a lot (positively, since I know the snakes here like to use vice as a punchline) of the vice reporters who interview weird dumb people. Rather than make snide comments when they talk to people who pour piss in their eyes or wear crowns made of bullets, they'll just hold the camera on them for a few seconds after they're done speaking to underline how stupid the person is. The show isn't putting words in anyone's mouth or editorializing, it's just letting the poop in the museum speak for itself. That's one thing that makes your show really funny.

Speaking voice: Even, smooth, I can't hear you breathe, and you're not too close to the mic, NPR style. Audio quality aside (which is pretty good) your evenness and natural pitch is perfect for podcasting. Unobtrusive if I have an ep on to cook or fold laundry,  but good to be the sole point of stimulus on a car ride.

Scope: Each episode is exactly as long as it needs to be. You do a good job of providing the necessary background for niche topics,  but don't assume the listener doesn't know anything. You know the people listening to this are nerds and know basics about computers and otaku shit, so don't spend too much time going over info I could just get off wikipedia. This is why when I see an article on an interesting topic like the kind of thing you might cover in Time or Newsweek or whatever other lamestream media outlet, I don't bother, because it'll be 200 words and 190 of them will be "So you see, a 'computer' is a box you can play games on. Crazy, I know, fellow boomer" You also don't drill down too fractally and get into minutae I don't care about, like in your emoji episode. You know I don't care about the coding or whatever, and focus on the aspects that will be appealing to someone without specialized technical knowledge.

I don't understand what you mean by "aesthetic" in a purely auditory medium. Could you explain? I'd be happy to answer. Please let me know if there's anything you'd like me to go into more detail on. I'd be happy to elaborate
chai tea latte

chai tea latte

  • TheftBot is, simply put, a fully sentient robot for stealing automatic teller machines
  • Paid
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Wow! That is so much more than I was fishing for and I love it.

Re:aesthetic: Phoebe Judge of Criminal and This Is Love, who is definitely the person I'm trying to be when I make Ephemera, has said that her show Criminal always sounds "Criminalesque".

What I meant by that is 'do the episodes, even though they're about different topics and energies, feel like the same show?'

I've tried to make sure that's the case with consistent elements like the theme song/title drop, my tone of voice, and having closing music so the show always leaves you in the same place. The music at the end is something I try to do so listeners can just sit with an episode for a minute and really think about how it made them feel, but I also like the ability to just do a hard and fast ending (like in the most recent episode!) and then not make it feel like whiplash when your next show starts playing.

Thank you again for such a detailed response. Really blown away by it. Super helpful. I don't mind the VICE comparison - they can be good sometimes.

ClaraTinSoldier

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Wow! That is so much more than I was fishing for and I love it.
chai tea latte, April 29, 2019, 07:54:05 am
Great!

Re:aesthetic: Phoebe Judge of Criminal and This Is Love, who is definitely the person I'm trying to be when I make Ephemera, has said that her show Criminal always sounds "Criminalesque".

I'm familiar with her.  I know all podcasters want to be Phoebe Judge because she's the queen of the medium, but you and your method of presentation do specifically remind me of  Criminal.  When I  was writing up my post,  I checked your list of episodes  since I was planning to reference the episode on Edwin Rist and rare bird feather theft to make fishing lures to buy a golden  flute, but found it was actually an episode of Criminal, so you're successful enough at emulating Judge's style that I literally conflated you with her.

What I meant by that is 'do the episodes, even though they're about different topics and energies, feel like the same show?'
Yes, each episode feels like an episode of Ephemera. I don't feel like you are drifting. A heavy one like the suicide one and a light one like the emoji one still read the same because of your clearly delineated structure.

I've tried to make sure that's the case with consistent elements like the theme song/title drop, my tone of voice, and having closing music so the show always leaves you in the same place. The music at the end is something I try to do so listeners can just sit with an episode for a minute and really think about how it made them feel, but I also like the ability to just do a hard and fast ending (like in the most recent episode!) and then not make it feel like whiplash when your next show starts playing.
I find the end music helpful for a podcast  like this so  Iknow when  it's done, like Lemon saying "so FPlus what did we learn from all this?" I know i've got 3-5 minutes left and won't be surprised.

Thank you again for such a detailed response. Really blown away by it. Super helpful. I don't mind the VICE comparison - they can be good sometimes.
You're welcome. I'm happy to do it. Please feel free to ask me more questions if you're interested. Good.
chai tea latte

chai tea latte

  • TheftBot is, simply put, a fully sentient robot for stealing automatic teller machines
  • Paid
  • (ATMs) from nearby convenience stores.
  • 5,766
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big money podcast time, or use your phone. i'm not your real mom. PS big ups to Boots Raingear for being kind enough to record for me while he was getting ready to go on a trip!

this episode is about dudes bein dudes and also inventing internet communities maybe! next month SPLINTERNET about the european union .

Shell Game Achilles' Heelies Agent (gobble, gobble) Coop GirlKisser420 Mr. Hunky Academia

chai tea latte

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hey there, listeners. Ghosts in the machine? It seems early to come up with a demonym.

Do you have a favourite episode of the show? If so, why? I'm talking to my old radio station and might hand them a couple episodes to play in any gaps they really need CanCon for. I'm thinking "just like lost but everyone is Hurley", the EVE online one, and then probably the emojigeddon and swatting ones.

More approachable to less 'online' types than you or I is good. Any suggestions?