The Digital Void Podcast

What is the true potential of AI text-to-video generation?

Director of Curiouser Institute and award-winning AI games designer Reed Berkowitz discusses OpenAI's Sora, an AI text-to-image model that will soon be made available to the public. As Hollywood rolls back studio investments and executives project up to 90% loss in animation jobs, how can we separate hype from reality in the space? And what are the best ways to use AI te...

How will creators and tech companies grapple with the decline of journalism?

On this week's episode, Jamie and Josh discuss the relationship between creators, platforms, and journalists, the ongoing shift from legacy news sources to platforms like TikTok and YouTube for news consumption, and how venture-backed outlets built on the promise of digital advertising contributed to journalism's current crisis. Additionally, they highl...

How can we separate hype from hallucination in AI games?

Award-winning games designer and Director of Curiouser Institute Reed Berkowitz discusses why it's so difficult for mid-to-large studios to create AI NPCs, the brand safety risks associated with AI in games, and why AI games might require more writers rather than fewer.

🕹️ You can play Grilling Molly Stone now.

📰 You can read AI Powered NPCs — Hype, or Hallucinatio...

Where can creators turn after they’ve been cancelled? 

Internet culture writer Steffi Cao discusses why cancelled creators turn to right-wing values to grow their businesses, the difficulty audiences have determining authenticity, and why it all matters – from economics to real-world action.

📖 Read Influencers are pandering to conservatives to salvage their post-cancellation careers in Fast Company.

About Steffi Cao

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How did Palantir develop a meme-obsessed fanbase of retail traders — and what does it mean?

Business Insider senior correspondent Katie Notopoulos discusses the livestreaming, meme-making community behind Palantir's stock and the company's CEO Alex Karp.

📖 Read How Palantir stock developed a weird, passionate, meme-crazy fan base on Fast Company.

About Katie Notopoulos

Katie Notopoulos is a senior correspondent at Business...

How can we explore visions for a better internet as it undergoes a monumental evolution?

Media literacy influencer Kelsey Russell, award-winning journalist Kat Tenbarge, digital culture journalist Steffi Cao, and moderator Rachel E. Greenspan explore the role of surveillance and the rise of panopticontent, the importance of trust and safety on healthy platforms, and why youth voices need to be included in conversations about soc...

How do reboots and IP fueled universes prevent us from ever feeling nostalgia?

Author of Foreverism Grafton Tanner discusses how the practice of keeping things alive prevents us from ever feeling nostalgia.

📚 You can order Foreverism by Grafton Tanner now!

About Grafton Tanner:

Grafton Tanner is the author of Foreverism, The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia (Repeater Books, 2021), The Circle of the Sn...

How does creative misuse of social media platforms inform the future of social media at large?

Director of Curiouser Institute Reed Berkowitz highlights five popular ways people are engaging, interacting, and using social platforms - ranging from Life360 to Roblox - and what it means for how we imagine and create a social media future that enhances our social capacities.

📰 You can read Everything About Social Media Is About ...

Washington Post tech columnist and author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet Taylor Lorenz explores the social history of the internet. How did Mommy Bloggers shape the creator economy? What is Vine's influence on today's social media ecosystem – and how can its demise be a lesson for creators and platforms? Plus, why is it important to remain optimistic about social media platforms ...

Cores are everywhere. From the film-inspired Barbiecore to Cottagecore – but how does a new core threaten to surveil everyday people?

On today’s episode, Jamie provides us with a dispatch about the differences between Cores and aesthetics, the ways Cores present themselves online and offline, and why #humancore should be viewed with a critical eye.

Show Notes & Resources:

Once upon a time, there was cottagecore - Rebecca J...

How did an early YouTube vlog style return to popularity after a generation of TikTok and YouTube creators including Emma Chamberlain and Charli D'amelio went mainstream?

On today's episode, Jamie and Josh discuss how early YouTube creators like Tyler Oakley pivoted from creating content for family and friends to developing a public personality that came to define influencer culture at-large – and how a new generation of creato...

How will AI, algorithms, creators, and data transparency shape the future of Hollywood?

On today's episode, Jamie and Josh dive into the key issues behind the SAG-AFTRA strike. How do major studios plan to use AI – and how can they come to an agreement with unions to ensure actors and writers are fairly compensated? How does a lack of data transparency from streamers and studios influence residual structures and the development ...

How did Barbie and Oppenheimer become a highly anticipated double feature audiences have named Barbenheimer?

This week, Josh and Jamie explore the history behind one of the summer's most anticipated box office weekends. How did a falling out between Christopher Nolan and WBD lead to this weekend's double feature? How have studios done an effective job allowing audiences to be creative and have fun with the film releases – and ...

Meta’s primary Twitter competitor Threads earned more than 100 million downloads in its first five days - but what are the three key components required for the platform’s long-term success?

On today’s episode, Jamie and Josh discuss the factors that led to the platform’s successful launch, how trust and safety protocols gave it an edge, and if Threads will allow Meta to shake off some of its negative reputation.

This episode...

How can we be critical of fear-based AI hype cycles? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently made headlines when he issued a 22-word statement warning of extinction due to the threats posed by AI - but what is Altman referring to, and what did he omit from his argument?

This week, Jamie and Josh offer a critical discourse about the current AI hype cycle, the push for regulation by the most influential tech companies, and how the public's...

What does it mean to be a rebel in a digital age? PEN Award-winning author Mitch Horowitz provides us with three strategies to move forward. Recorded live at Digital Void's Meme in the Moment Festival in New York City on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.

🎟️ You can see Mitch and an incredible lineup of speakers including Shannon Liao, Allegra Frank, Douglas Rushkoff, Ena Da, and Ryan Broderick at Memes, Myths, and Magic on Wednesday...

How did one of Broadway’s newest shows become a cringeworthy TikTok trend that earned tens of millions of views?

Rolling Stone internet culture reporter CT Jones discusses how Bad Cinderella became an ironic trend for audiences. How did the show’s development and debut on London’s West End hurt the Andrew Lloyd Weber production? What does cringe mean in the context of trends and why does it drive discourse? How can we diffe...

How can creators avoid being creatively trapped by the audiences they worked to build? Where is there space for creators to take risks?

Zine writer Matt Klein discusses his first-ever printed edition: Audience Capture. Klein explains the social theory behind the phenomenon, what happens to creators and audiences when audience capture is taken to its extreme, and how creators can resist becoming stuck. Klein’s insights help to em...

How has a Type 2 diabetes drug become a go-to for celebrities and influencers looking to lose weight — and what are the damaging effects of its popularity?

This week, we invited Buzzfeed reporter Kelsey Weekman to discusses her article, The Oscars Were a Nightmare For Fat People at Every Turn,. Weekman discusses how this year’s Academy Awards highlighted the stigmas fat people face in Hollywood and influencer culture — and why s...