Follow Friday

(Full transcript at FollowFridayPodcast.com)

Let's get one thing clear: Despite what some of her podcast critics might claim, Dana Schwartz is not a monarchist.

"The whole point of Noble Blood is me pointing out that these royals are just normal people," she says. "I think they're interesting people because they've been given unchecked power often throughout history, but for the record, I don't think that that's the best system of government."

And after telling true stories of various monarchs for years on that podcast, Dana has turned her focus to Hollywood royalty in the new show Haileywood. In it, she chronicles Bruce Willis' attempt to remake a small town in Idaho in his own image.

"He wants to be anonymous, but also wants to be famous and have the power of fame, but only on his terms," she explains. "As a character study, if nothing else, it's incredibly fascinating."

Today on Follow Friday, Dana talks about some other incredibly fascinating people, who she follows online: Absurdist comedian Chris Fleming; author and soothing TikTokker Victoria Aveyard; writer and comedian Adam Hess; and journalist/podcaster Michael Hobbes.

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

Follow us:

- Follow Dana on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @DanaSchwartzzz, and pre-order her book Anatomy: A Love Story

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show 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)

When he set out to make a podcast, Emmy-winning writer and TV producer Gavin Purcell thought about the last time he took a chance on a new medium, in the early days of blogging and YouTube.

"I was really interested in Japanese TV," he says. "YouTube was like this weird wild west where like all this stuff was getting uploaded, and I started paying attention to it. And then I started a blog and the blog got really successful and it almost became like a completely separate part of my life."

The blog didn't become his career, but creating it taught Gavin the value of following our passions, because "they will open up so much more in our brains and introduce things that could be something, a bigger part of our lives." His podcast, Way Too Interested, unites his friends and celebrity guests — the people who are "way too interested" in a passion or hobby — with experts who can answer all their burning questions about that obsession.

Today on Follow Friday, Gavin talks about some of the fascinating people he follows online: Writer and poetry lover Zito Madu; Twitch streamer and "VTuber" Code Miko; bestselling author and podcaster Shea Serrano; and NFT artist and educator Bryan Brinkman.

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

And, if you're in the US and you're pledging $5 or more as of October 31, you will get a handwritten thank-you note and a sheet of Follow Friday stickers, which are not available anywhere else! Visit patreon.com/followfriday to get started.

Follow us:

- Follow Gavin on Twitter @gavinpurcell and listen to his podcast, Way Too Interested

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric Johnson 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)

Samir Mezrahi's mind is on the gutters — not in the gutter. As the creator of the Instagram account Zillow Gone Wild and the video series Celebrity Home Shopping, he's seen a lot of gaudy McMansions (and proper mansions), which typically haven't been designed with water removal in mind.

"They just stick out, and so many HOMEies — which is our squad in the show — will send me pictures of terrible gutters they see," he says. "I've awoken people to seeing bad gutters in their neighborhoods, around town, everywhere. So people are always sending me pictures or Insta posts or Reels. And it's always like, 'Why are you doing this to me?'"

On today's episode of Follow Friday, Samir talks about the sort of content he prefers to consume online, including posts from the HGTV stars The Property Brothers; Tesla Technoking (that's his real title) Elon Musk; mansion tour guide Enes Yilmazer; and musical comedian Nick Lutsko.

You can get bonus episodes of Follow Friday every week when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

And, if you're in the US and you're pledging $5 or more as of October 31, you will get a handwritten thank-you note and a sheet of Follow Friday stickers, which are not available anywhere else! Visit patreon.com/followfriday to get started.

Follow us:

- Follow Samir on Instagram @samir, @celebrityhomeshopping and @zillowgonewild

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric Johnson 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)

Poorly Drawn Lines creator Reza Farazmand thought he knew what to expect when adapting his popular webcomic as an animated TV show. After all, he had seen a documentary about how South Park gets made.

"That gave me the sense that making an animated show would be this wild process with late nights and a bunch of fast food," he says. "But it was really more of a slow, gradual process with a lot of emailing and phone calls ... It was a lot slower than I thought, but it was also an extremely gratifying and fun process."

You can watch what came of that process, the Poorly Drawn Lines TV show, on FX on Hulu. And on today's episode of Follow Friday, Reza shares some of his favorite people to follow from around the internet: Salt Fat Acid Heat author and Home Cooking co-host Samin Nosrat; Tuareg guitarist and rock star Mdou Moctar; the design podcast 99% Invisible; and an Instagram account dedicated to Retro Gadgets.

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

And, if you're in the US and you're pledging $5 or more as of October 31, you will get a handwritten thank-you note and a sheet of Follow Friday stickers, which are not available anywhere else! Visit patreon.com/followfriday to get started.

Follow us:

- Follow Poorly Drawn Lines on Instagram @poorlydrawnlines and Twitter @PDLcomics

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric Johnson 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)

"Imagine if NPR went to Comic-Con and decided that's all they ever wanted to cover." That's how Eric Molinsky describes his podcast Imaginary Worlds, which takes science fiction, fantasy, and other "genre" entertainment seriously — and explores the depths that have attracted fans for decades.

"When it gets couched within Marvel or Star Trek or Star Wars, people that aren't into that stuff just laugh and think, 'Oh, it's a bunch of nerds arguing,'" Molinsky says. "It's like, 'No, they're talking about gender, race, representation, capitalism in there. They're arguing over the same things you're arguing over. It's just within a fantasy world.'"

On today's episode of Follow Friday, Molinsky explains why he follows Postmodern Jukebox, a group of cover musicians who filter modern songs through vintage genres; Your Pal James, a dormant art project that parodies action figure photography; Sébastien de Oliveira, who expertly colorizes historical photos; and Terrible Maps, an aggressively unhelpful geographical resource.

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

And, if you're in the US and you're pledging $5 or more as of October 31, you will get a handwritten thank-you note and a sheet of Follow Friday stickers, which are not available anywhere else! Visit patreon.com/followfriday to get started.

Follow us:

- Follow Eric Molinsky on Twitter @emolinsky and Imaginary Worlds on Instagram @imaginary_worlds_podcast

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric Johnson 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 of this episode)

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Some of New York Times writer Kara Swisher's favorite follows are people she has admired, crushed on, and befriended — and also people she has battled with, debated, and investigated. And that's no accident.

"I think people are dying for that in this incredibly partisan time. It's very hard to reach out to people you disagree with," she says, explaining why she comes to the table with people whom others might consider unpalatable. Pushing them away, she says, "plays into all the malevolent people who are trying to take us apart."

Olive branches aside, the Sway and Pivot host also promises to pull no punches in her forthcoming memoir about covering Silicon Valley as a tech journalist for the Wall Street Journal, AllThingsD, Recode, and now the NYT.

"I'm burning it all down," she says. "And then I'm like, goodbye ... I have people, the richest people in the world, the most powerful people, [saying] 'You're so mean to me.' I'm like, 'Are you 12?'"

In this live episode of Follow Friday, recorded at Manny's in San Francisco, Kara explains what she likes (and, in some cases, hates) about her politically incorrect Pivot podcast co-host Scott Galloway; the actor and producer Gemma Chan; Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey; newspaper columnist and "Fire and Fury" author Michael Wolff; and "Full Frontal" host Samantha Bee.

You can get bonus episodes of Follow Friday every week — including an extended conversation with Kara Swisher, coming early next week — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Follow us:

- Follow Kara on Twitter @karaswisher

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show 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 available at FollowFridayPodcast.com)

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Once upon a time, Dallas Taylor remembers, it was a compliment to call someone an "audiophile."

"Traditionally, audiophiles have been people who are super into Hi-Fi and putting together great systems. But over time, it turned into, at least the way that I hear it ... It's kind of a snobbish thing."

But he says his "mission," as professional sound designer and the host of a podcast that celebrates sound design, Twenty Thousand Hertz, is to remind people that we are all audiophiles, even if we wouldn't call ourselves that.

"You don't need extra permission to think and curate sound around you, just like you don't have to with all of your other human experiences and core senses."

And on today's Follow Friday, Dallas has curated four people he follows who represent his diverse tastes: A famous design enthusiast who privately helped him realize the purpose of his show; a beloved ex-podcaster who solved mundane mysteries in beautiful fashion; a filmmaker and composer who has taken his YouTube viewers to the end of time; and a group of off-the-wall artists who are redefining the idea of an art installation.

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

Follow us:

- Follow Dallas on TikTok @twentythousandhertz and his studio on Instagram @defactosound

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show 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, and Elizabeth

Please nominate Follow Friday in the "New/Debut Podcast" and "Interview-Style Podcast" categories in the Discover Pods Awards!

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Click here to read a full transcript of this episode

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For more than five years, Lindsay Ellis has been producing video essays on YouTube, analyzing everything from the Transformers movies to Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals to popular tropes in film and TV.

Last year, after more than a decade of wanting to be an author, she published her first book — the bestselling sci-fi novel Axiom's End, which was informed by that same attentiveness to pop culture. After 9/11, she noticed, popular alien invasion stories had shifted from "goofy" stories to "dead serious" ones, like Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds.

"It's an alternate history that takes place in the late 2000s," she says of the first book, which is getting a sequel in October called Truth of the Divine. "Basically, it's what if first contact happened during the Bush administration? ... It's a thought experiment of how would we react if civilization has to keep on trucking the way we have, but now we have this great existential quandary that, at least in the universe of the book, is heavily politicized."

On today's podcast, Lindsay talks about four people she loves to follow on YouTube: A pop music analyst who breaks down one-hit wonders, band-breaking records, and more; a prolific video essayist who wears her enthusiasm on her sleeve; an aviation expert who explains the history of air disasters; and a former Vine star who cooks up brilliant video ideas like it's nothing.

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

Follow us:

- Follow Lindsay on YouTube @LindsayEllisVids (and don't follow her on Twitter @thelindsayellis, she asks)

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show 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, and Elizabeth

Read the full transcript of this episode at FollowFridayPodcast.com

Please nominate Follow Friday in the "New/Debut Podcast" and "Interview-Style Podcast" categories in the Discover Pods Awards!

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On March 11, 2020, Dave Jorgenson posted a TikTok video of himself, dancing in his apartment. That isn't unusual for TikTok, but it was the first of hundreds he would produce at home while his employer — The Washington Post — tried to protect workers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the ensuing months, Dave's videos have been a much-needed source of levity and absurdity, often mining the Post's straight news stories for hidden deposits of humor. The newspaper's already substantial audience on TikTok has more than doubled in that time, to over one million followers.

"I thought it was going to be a three-week-long thread," he says, referring to the Twitter thread where he has cross-posted all 727 TikToks (and counting). "Now, we were just told yesterday that we're not coming back to the office until January, at least ... I have two minds about it. I don't want to be locked out. I don't want there to be a pandemic, but there's a part of me that's like, '1,000 would be cool.'"

On today's podcast, Dave talks about a TikTok star and astrology lover who turns celebrity gossip into exciting stories; a hilarious Post colleague who has secretly voiced one of the characters in his TikTok videos; a wholesome cartoonist who has made the leap from internet virality to bestselling books; and a former reality TV contestant who now leads a podcasting empire.

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

Follow us:

- Follow Dave on TikTok @washingtonpost and @davejorgenson, on Twitter @davejorgenson, and on Instagram @davetakespictures

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter and Instagram, and on YouTube

- 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, and Elizabeth

Full transcript: FollowFridayPodcast.com/dave-pell

Our new YouTube channel: followfriday.co/youtube

Dave Pell calls himself the "managing editor of the internet," and for good reason: Every weekday, he combs through 75 different news sources and plucks out the 10 most important stories for his popular email newsletter NextDraft.

But it can be hard for anyone — even a voracious news reader — to put the news of the past couple years in context, which is why Pell is about to release a book about the 2020-2021 news cycle called Please Scream Inside Your Heart.

"As I had my friends or proofreaders go over my book, that was the number one response, like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe that happened in 2020. I thought that was another year. I don't remember that happening.'" he says.

On today's podcast, Dave talks about four of his favorite accounts to follow: A 164-year-old magazine that covered Trump and COVID better than anyone; a self-proclaimed "Florida Man" who documents the state's weird news and corrupt government; an inspiring celebrity chef who has fed millions of people after natural disasters; and an old-school tech blogger who's never afraid to "shoot from the hip."

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

Follow us:

- Dave is on Twitter @davepell

- This show is on Twitter and Instagram @followfridaypod and we have a brand-new YouTube channel here

- 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, and Elizabeth