Follow Friday

Full transcript: FollowFridayPodcast.com/morgan-sung

Over the past 18 months, internet culture has become, simply, culture. And one of the top writers documenting and explaining the latest trends is Mashable's Morgan Sung.

However, as she explained in one of her most-shared pieces — "Bimbos are good, actually" — Sung also sees the appeal of not being as savvy as she is.

"As someone who's painfully online, I think if you're going to have any sort of online presence or even just engage with online culture at all, you're expected to be on top of the discourse," she says. "You have to know everything at once. It's a lot of reading, and sometimes I'm tired."

On today's podcast, Sung talks about four of the accounts that have defined the pandemic-era internet for her: A food writer and photographer who understands how class and race intersect with our diets; a Dadaist meme account that reminds you you're not crazy; a 34-year-old punk who has become TikTok's cool aunt; and a passionate forager who wants nature to be celebrated, not avoided.

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

Follow us:

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

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- Eric is on Twitter @heyheyesj

Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Leave a review: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

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

Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Leave a review: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

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Hello again Follow Friday listeners! Today's show is another compilation of recommendations from previous episodes. This time, they're all from the weirdest corners of the internet. You can find links to all of them below, along with the original episodes they came from. Enjoy!

• greengiant_es (recommended by Ed Zitron from EZPR)
• George Ice Cube (recommended by Allegra Frank from Slate)
• The Horse Mafia (recommended by Kevin Roose from the New York Times)
• its557am (recommended by Freddie Wong from RocketJump)

Follow us:

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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

Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Leave a review: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

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Hello Follow Friday listeners! I'm on vacation this week, so today's show is compilation of recommendations from previous episodes. All of them are comedians, and are linked below, along with the original episodes they came from. Enjoy!

• Amber Wallin (recommended by Adrianne Jeffries from Underunderstood)
• Patti Harrison (recommended by comedian Zack Bornstein)
• Chris Fleming (recommended by Alie Ward from Ologies)
• Jo Neary (recommended by Helen Zaltzman from The Allusionist)

Follow us:

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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

Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Leave a review: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

Full transcript: FollowFridayPodcast.com/max-miller

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"The beginning of the research process, it's like walking into a pitch black room," says Tasting History host Max Miller. "You don't even know what's there ... Finally, you click on the light and there's something interesting. And then it's like, oh, now I can go down that rabbit hole

Miller's YouTube channel, which releases new food history videos every Tuesday, has taken him down a lot of interesting rabbit holes: Medieval mead, 500-year-old pizza, Aztec chocolate, and even parmesan cheese ice cream (a must-watch for his reaction to the end-of-episode taste test).

On today's Follow Friday, he lets us into what he's watching and listening to in his limited downtime away from the kitchen: A reaction video star with a knack for schadenfreude; a charismatic nerd who answers big questions with energy and science; a music scholar who explains the history of the art; and a "boring in a good way" finance expert who taught Miller how to succeed on YouTube.

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

Follow us:

- Max is on YouTube, TikTok, and Patreon @TastingHistory, on Twitter @TastingHistory1, and on Instagram and Facebook @TastingHistoryWithMaxMiller

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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

Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Leave a review: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

Transcript: FollowFridayPodcast.com/liana-finck

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As a graphic novelist and cartoonist whose work regularly appears in The New Yorker, Liana Finck mostly follows other artists and illustrators. But she makes an exception when the person she wants to follow has impeccable taste — and maybe a pet tortoise.

"I feel very embarrassed to like stalk/follow people who aren't posting, to like peek into their lives," she says. "I do it with a few people, and then I unfollow them repeatedly because I'm embarrassed ... Instagram is kind of a little bit too close for comfort sometimes."

On today's Follow Friday, however, Liana opened up about four of her favorite follows: A "weird" animator whose cartoon sketches straddle the line between relatable and absurd; the stylish editor in chief of a prominent magazine; a poet and artist who calls Liana his "Insta-foe"; and a book cover designer who can seemingly do everything.

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

Follow us:

- Liana is on Instagram and Twitter @lianafinck

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- Eric is on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan. Special thanks to Lauren Passell from Podcast: The Newsletter.

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

Back us on Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Review us: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

Full transcript: FollowFridayPodcast.com/alasdair-beckett-king

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"One of my principles is that putting too much effort into things makes them funnier."

So says Alasdair Beckett-King, an award-winning comedian whose videos on YouTube and Twitter have repeatedly gone viral over the past year. They include parodies of Star Trek, spooky podcasts, and "every single Scandinavian crime drama," but Beckett-King is constantly trying new things — sometimes for practical reasons.

"People keep saying, 'When are you doing Captain Picard again?'" he says on today's Follow Friday. "And I'm like, 'I'm not!' Because it took ages to do the bald head, and you've seen it now."

On this episode, he talks about a fellow British comic who he looked up to when he was just getting started; his complicated feelings about people who reply to his tweets; an erstwhile Vine star who perfected short-form video jokes; and an Australian comedian who combines perfect timing with paper puppets.

You can get a fifth follow recommendation from Alasdair — as well as our past and future guests — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Follow us:

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

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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, and Elizabeth

Full transcript: FollowFridayPodcast.com/auralnauts

Back us on Patreon: Patreon.com/followfriday

Review us: LoveThePodcast.com/followfriday

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Craven Moorhaus and Zak Koonce owe it all to Bane. Craven, an audio designer, and Koonce, a comedy writer, teamed up as the Auralnauts in 2012 to dub over scenes from The Dark Knight Rises.

"Because [Bane] had a mask on, and you could make him say whatever we wanted, so we just changed the context of everything that was happening and we turned him into this weird fitness freak," Koonce says. "And then he just raps to this audience who is clearly not expecting it, and is not into it."

Nine years later and 300,000 subscribers later, they've made dozens of videos dubbing over TV commercials, Boston Dynamics' robot tests, and many, many Star Wars movies. On today's Follow Friday, the Auralnauts talk about four great accounts they follow online: A YouTube essayist who unpacks the hidden layers of pop culture; "the most wholesome troll that exists in the world"; a dorky ASMR expert with a "connected universe" of characters; and an Instagram account that curates "so bad, it's so good" music.

You can get a fifth follow recommendation from the Auralnauts — as well as our past and future guests — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Follow us:

- Auralnauts on YouTube

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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, and Elizabeth

Full transcript: https://followfridaypodcast.com/freddie-wong

Back us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/followfriday

Review the show: https://lovethepodcast.com/followfriday

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Podcaster and filmmaker Freddie Wong — the co-founder of RocketJump and co-host of Story Break and Dungeons and Daddies — knows better than anyone that the way we consume media on the internet is constantly changing. And throughout it all, he's been paying close attention.

Today on Follow Friday, Freddie talks with Eric Johnson about why TikTok is funnier than any other social media app, a "terrifying" realization he had recently on Reddit, and four great accounts he follows online: A fascinating TikTokker who appears to be able to float; an anonymous travel vlogger who believes in "illegal freedom"; the most exciting animator on the internet right now; and a brilliant old-school YouTuber whose original videos are now a kind of time capsule.

And you can get a fifth follow recommendation from Freddie — as well as Ann Reardon, Mark Chrisler, and our future guests — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

Follow us:

- Freddie is on Twitter @fwong and he co-hosts the podcasts Story Break and Dungeons and Daddies

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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, and Elizabeth

Full transcript: https://followfridaypodcast.com/mark-chrisler

Back us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/followfriday

Review the show: https://lovethepodcast.com/followfriday

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On The Constant, Mark Chrisler chronicles "a history of getting things wrong" — the many ways that humans have misunderstood the world, or misled others about it. Over the past 100 (!) episodes, Mark's topics have ranged from death rays to forensic science to a submarine that was discovered at the bottom of the Chicago River.

Today on Follow Friday, Mark talks about his years-long podcast feud with the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, his love/hate feelings about a prominent public intellectual, the McElroy brother he wants to be friends with, a fun Twitter account documenting the "Mandela effect," and a YouTube essayist shaping the way we talk about video games.

And you can get a fifth follow recommendation from Mark later today if you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month. Special thanks to our patrons of the week: Jon and Justin!

Follow us:

- Mark is on Twitter @constantpodcast and on Instagram and Facebook @theconstantpodcast

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- 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, and Elizabeth.

Full transcript: https://followfridaypodcast.com/ann-reardon

Back us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/followfriday

Review the show: https://lovethepodcast.com/followfriday

On her YouTube channel How to Cook That, Ann Reardon has shown viewers how to make desserts like an iPad cake, a giant Kit Kat bar, and even a chocolate book. But she's also well-known for debunking viral food videos that purport to show amazing life-hacks, and are often just disinformation.

"If your end goal is simply to get the most views so that you get a bonus, then making up stuff that doesn't actually work is really not an issue," she says. "If that's your mindset, then it's quite a dangerous world, really."

Today on Follow Friday, Ann talks about the debunking series, her new cookbook Crazy Sweet Creations, and four fascinating people she follows: A chocolate sculptor whose creations look completely real; a former NASA engineer who has turned squirrel mazes and glitterbombs into YouTube stardom; a food photographer who can teach you how to take better photos with just your phone; and a Silicon Valley investor whose podcast unlocks the secrets of business success.

And you can get a fifth recommendation later today if you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month. Special thanks to our patron of the week: Elizabeth!

Follow us:

- Ann is on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @HowToCookThat

- This show is on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @followfridaypod

- Eric is on Twitter @heyheyesj

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