Follow Friday

Full transcript here

Alexis Gay is one of those rare cases you hear about: For seven years, she was a tech worker who wanted to do comedy; then, she posted a video on Twitter in April 2020 that took her from under 1,000 followers to more than 15,000. Several viral hits later, she's now pursuing comedy full-time and hosting the podcast Non-Technical, where she interviews people from the tech world about everything that's not on their résumes.

Today on Follow Friday, Alexis shares the love and talks about four of the coolest people she follows online:

• Someone she's jealous of: Evan Ross Katz, @evanrosskatz on Twitter and Instagram
• Someone who makes her think: Mike Isaac, @MikeIsaac on Twitter and @mike_isaac on Instagram
• Someone who makes her laugh: Kylie Brakeman, @deadeyebrakeman on Twitter and TikTok
• Someone who's an expert in a very specific niche she loves: Tobin Mitnick, @jewslovetrees on Instagram and TikTok

And on our Patreon page, you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows. That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Alexis talks about someone super-talented who is still under the radar, the musician and comedian Sarah Dooley.

Also:

• Follow Alexis @YayAlexisGay on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow us @FollowFridayPod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric @heyheyesj on Twitter

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Elizabeth, Sylnai, and Matthias

Radio journalist Shima Oliaee, known for her many contributions to podcasts like Radiolab and for co-creating the award-winning series Dolly Parton's America, is also an avowed fan of poetry and taking time offline to sit and read ... but like the rest of us, she's online, and today on Follow Friday, Shima shares four of her favorite people to follow:

• Someone she just started following: Nina Ansary
• Someone super-talented who's still under the radar: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
• Someone who makes her laugh: Kiese Laymon
• Someone who makes the internet a better place: Roxane Gay

And on our Patreon page, you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows. That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Shima talks about someone she's jealous of, the writer and professor Imani Perry.

Also:

• Follow Shima @ShimaOliaee on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow us @FollowFridayPod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric @heyheyesj on Twitter

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Elizabeth, Sylnai, and Matthias

(Full transcript here)

Follow Friday is one year old today, so happy birthday to us! To celebrate, Garbage Day writer Ryan Broderick — one of the first-ever guests on the show — takes the reins and interviews Eric Johnson about four of his favorite people to follow online:

• Someone he doesn't know in real life but wants to be friends with: Video essayist Patrick H. Willems
• Someone who's an expert in a very specific niche he loves: Kevin Perjurer, founder of Defunctland
• Someone he is embarrassed to admit he follows: Korean a capella group MayTree
• Someone who makes the internet a better place: Engineer Simone Giertz

And on our Patreon page, you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows. That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Eric and Ryan talk about why the history-comedy podcast Something True needs to come back for a third season.

Also:

• Follow Ryan on Twitter @broderick and listen to his podcast The Content Mines
• Follow us @FollowFridayPod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, Elizabeth, Odette, Jay, Danny, Lauren, and Sylnai

(Full transcript here)

Today on Follow Friday, YouTuber and educator Tom Scott talks about the wild places his videos take him, the challenges of science communication, and four of his favorite people to follow online:

• Someone super-talented who is still under the radar: Rollie Williams from Climate Town
• Someone who's an expert in a very specific niche that he loves: Linguist Gretchen McCulloch
• Someone who makes the internet a better place: Writer and video producer Jon Bois
• Someone he just started following: Science fiction author Becky Chambers

And on our Patreon page, you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows. That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Tom talks about the profanity-fluent music of Tom Cardy.

Also:

• Follow Tom on YouTube at TomScottGo and TomScottPlus
• Follow us @FollowFridayPod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, Elizabeth, Odette, and Jay

(Full transcript here)

Today on Follow Friday, The New New Thing founder and Pop Culture Mondays writer Brooke Hammerling talks about the broadening definition of "pop culture," her French bulldog Potato's Instagram fame, and four of her favorite people to follow online:

• Someone she has a crush on: George Hahn, @georgehahnnyc on TikTok
• Someone who has stopped posting but needs to come back: Josh Brown, @downtown on Twitter
• Someone who makes the internet a better place: Christina Najjar, @tinx on TikTok
• Someone she doesn't know but wants to be friends with: Ben Stiller, @redhourben on Twitter

And on our Patreon page, you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows. That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Brooke talks about why you should follow PR expert/investor Ashley Mayer.

Also:

• Follow Brooke on Twitter @Brooke and on Instagram @Brooke
• Read her newsletter Pop Culture Mondays and follow/subscribe to her upcoming podcast, Pop Culture Mondays on Thursdays
• Follow us @FollowFridayPod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, Elizabeth, Odette, and Jay

Today on Follow Friday, Eric Johnson looks back at four of his favorite follows out of the 183 discussed on the show in 2021. They are:

• Alie Ward's "someone you have a crush on," Jarrett Sleeper / @jarrettsleeper
• Alexandra Petri's "someone who's an expert in a very specific niche you love," Josh Fruhlinger / @jfruh
• Mark Chrisler's "someone you just started following," Froot of the Loom / @frootoftheloom1
• The Auralnauts' "someone who makes you laugh," Michael Cunningham / @Michael1979

Also:

Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter and Instagram

Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, and Elizabeth

Today on Follow Friday, Planet Money co-host Amanda Aronczyk talks about how she and her colleagues find so many entertaining stories about the economy, and recommends four of her favorite online accounts:

• Someone who has stopped posting but needs to come back: The Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, @carmeldcj on TikTok
• Someone she's followed forever: Stacey Vanek Smith, @svaneksmith on Twitter and Instagram
• Someone who inspires her: Kathy Liu, @joeywingsorg on Facebook and @joeyswings on YouTube and Instagram
• Someone who she doesn't know, but wants to be friends with: Gbenga Ajilore, @gbenga_ajilore on Twitter

You can get bonus episodes of Follow Friday every week — including a bonus follow recommendation from Amanda, coming next week — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Also:

• Follow Amanda on Twitter @Aronczyk and Planet Money @PlanetMoney on Twitter and TikTok
• Read or listen to Amanda's 2015 story about Kathy Liu and donate to Joey's Wings
• Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, and Elizabeth

(Full transcript)

Today on Follow Friday, journalist and podcaster Bijan Stephen talks about his new history podcast Eclipsed and recommends four of his favorite accounts to follow online:

• Someone he'd like to be friends with: Tim Rogers, @actionbutton
• Someone he's followed forever: Hrishikesh Hirway, @hrishihirway
• Someone super-talented who's still under the radar: Nicole He, @nicolehe
• Someone who makes the internet a better place: Leon Chang, @leyawn

You can get bonus episodes of Follow Friday every week — including a bonus follow recommendation from Bijan, coming next week — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Follow us:

- Follow Bijan on Instagram @bijancakes and on Twitter and Twitch at @bijanstephen

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips and full episodes on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, and Elizabeth

(Full transcript here)

After three years of reporting out stories that originated on Reddit, the WBUR podcast Endless Thread parted ways with the social app this year, and started asking, "What else can we say about the internet?"

"Follow Friday is a great example of how there's so much out there, and we felt like we had more work to do," says Endless Thread co-host Amory Sivertson. "So that's where we are now, telling stories that paint a broader picture of our online interactions and the communities that are formed."

And most recently, Amory and her co-host Ben Brock Johnson have been tackling the history of some of the internet's greatest memes, including Rickrolling, Scumbag Steve, and "Woman Yelling At Cat."

"A lot of times the image kind of speaks for itself, or at least it brings a vibe that — as long as people put a caption on it — is understandable to you, you can enjoy it and you can pass it on," Ben says. "But there are multiple layers to memes."

Today on Follow Friday, Amory and Ben recommend four of their favorite accounts from across the internet: A cinematic and pastoral YouTube channel about food in western China; a curated and approachable collection of women's art on Twitter; a pragmatic meme expert who's making the internet a better place; and a Kenyan nonprofit protecting elephants, rhinos and more. Plus: What are their favorite memes?

You can get bonus episodes of Follow Friday every week — including two bonus follows from Amory and Ben, one of which is already out — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Follow us:

- Follow Amory on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @AmoryMusic

- Follow Ben on Twitter and Instagram @TheBrockJohnson

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips and full episodes on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, and Elizabeth

(Full transcript at FollowFridayPodcast.com)

Supporters of the Follow Friday Patreon page get a shout-out on the podcast, exclusive previews of who's coming up on future episodes, and — most importantly — bonus podcasts, with follow recommendations from our amazing guests that didn't make it into the main episode.

Today on Follow Friday, we're unlocking four of those bonus episodes, which were originally available only to Patreon supporters. They feature ...

- Comedian Alasdair Beckett-King, recommending "aspiring philosopher" Liam Bright

- NBC News reporter Morgan Sung, recommending journalist/roller dancer Liz Brazile

- YouTuber and bestselling author Lindsay Ellis, recommending YouTuber Kat Blaque

- Way Too Interested host Gavin Purcell, recommending Glitch CEO Anil Dash

If you've been on the fence about joining the Patreon page, then today's show will give you a good idea of what to expect. You can pledge any amount you want, starting at just $1/month, at patreon.com/followfriday.

Follow us:

- Alasdair is on YouTube @ABeckettKing and on Twitter @MisterABK

- Morgan is on Twitter @morgan_sung and on Instagram @ratsoverflowers

- Lindsay is on YouTube @LindsayEllisVids

- Gavin is on Twitter @gavinpurcell

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter and Instagram

- Eric is on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, and Elizabeth