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Happy New Year everybody! I meant to record this show last week, but I was sick for most of the holidays. Oh well. I’m just glad I have a top ten list like this because honestly, I thought a lot of geek entertainment fare earlier this year rather sucked (quite a few disappointments coming from Disney in particular). Thankfully, things picked up as the year progressed, and we were able to finish out 2022 with an excellent list of some of my favorite properties not just in 2022 but ever. Let’s dive in!

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Today, we are all John Mastodon. And in this episode, I talk about the explosive docuseries concerning Prince Harry & Meghan Markle and the outrageous, toxic relationship between the British tabloids and the Royal Family, and the even BIGGER story about how online mobs form to target victims whether they be celebrities or journalists or creators and how we need to push the reset button on online discourse because the vitriol has gotten completely out of control!

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In this episode, I follow up on some of the continuing Mastodon/Twitter zaniness as well as some interesting takes around the web on “generative AI”, then dive right into my review of the Anyhill UM-2 e-scooter and an initial look at FeedBin for managing and reading news feeds. As Captain Pike would say, hit it!

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In this episode I take a deep dive into (my) history of playing podcasts over the decades, and how I eventually arrived at using Pocket Casts as my preferred podcast player of choice. Pocket Casts is chock-full of great features, not the least of which is support for playing videos (apparently not a universal feature of third-party podcast players). Listen to how I use Pocket Casts from day-to-day, as well as my thoughts on the UI design of this multi-platform (and now partially open source!) software.

CORRECTION: in the episode I talked about Nebula offering RSS feeds for their video channels, but unfortunately these are just standard “news” feeds to let people know about new releases. They are not true video podcasts (aka you can’t subscribe to them in your own podcast player). Bummer!

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You won’t want to miss this episode wherein I pull back the curtain into major new developments for the future of this show, follow up on my 2019 social media predictions and compare with how current events are playing out, share specific thoughts on how to think about Mastodon instances and the health of the network, and challenge the veracity of the claim that Americans are growing more and more lonely. It’s an action-packed episode, so let’s get started!

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In this episode of Fresh Fusion, I share some of my raw and unfiltered feelings about the meltdown of Twitter, how there’s never been a time like right now to focus squarely on “the business, the art, the ethics of content creation on the open web” (which is the tagline of this show!), my minimalism bent and desire for a Star Trek-like post-money future, reluctantly taking steps to build a “paywall” to house some of my content, and more. Buckle up folks and enjoy the ride!

Alternate title: How to Be Productive and Successful as a Content Creator. (Yeah, I know…it’s cringey…but I have a bunch of pent-up thoughts and some helpful tools/workflows to share with you all and figured now is as good a time as any to dive into all that. Also feeling all the feelz after a tweet actually went viral. Imagine that!)

Could it be? Maybe? Yes! Fresh Fusion is BACK, and in this episode I catch you up on the last couple of months as I recovered from Covid and moved across town to a new home! And not just Fresh Fusion, but the vlog (Essential Life with Jared) is also in the process of making a comeback. Listen for the inside scoop.

In this possibly final episode of the show, I candidly share my struggles with creative identity and finding success in the “wrong” genre. I contemplate whether I should cancel Fresh Fusion and put greater effort behind other projects. And I wonder what makes sense as a creator in a year when I expect to be on the road more often than not. Should I stay or should I go? Let me know! Thanks for listening. :)

“After all these years, to go back to where it all started…back to The Matrix!”

And that, my friends, is exactly what we’re doing today. A fireside chat about my off-the-charts excitement level at entering back into the world of The Matrix—my favorite movie of all time—and how much the real world has changed over the past 20+ years. Will The Matrix Resurrections live up to the hype?

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