This Must Be The Place

On November 6, 2022, Mimi Parker of the band Low died of ovarian cancer. I, like many fans of the band, found myself grieving and struggling to process this event, so I invited an old friend Bruce Adams to join me on the podcast. Bruce was the co-founder of Kranky Records, who released 3 albums and 2 EPs by the band, as well as being a huge fan himself. Together we talk about Low and what made them so special and why they struck such a chord with their fanbase. We also talk about Kranky's founding and why Chicago was and continues to be such a special place for music and community.

Special Guest: Bruce Adams.

Links:

• You're With Stupid: Kranky, Chicago, and the Reinvention of Indie Music
• Episode 15 Playlist - Low and Kranky artists
• Kranky Records
• Low

Matt Scott is the founder of Lets Care, where he passes the mic to those who often go unheard in social change, and was the global community lead for the world’s largest global hackathon, NASA’s Space Apps Challenge. In this episode we talk about managing a global community of over 100,000 people, why storytelling is important in building community, and how pro wrestling is a force for the social change.

Special Guest: Matt Scott.

Links:

• Let's Care
• 20s & Change: San Francisco
• Matt Scott on Twitter
• Wrestling RHAPUp on Rob Has A Podcast
• Project Drawdown
• NASA Space Apps Challenge

Rosie Sherry is the Community Lead at Orbit, a startup which builds software to measure community engagement. She also runs Rosieland, a newsletter and website which covers topics around community management. In this episode we talk about turning community into career, how to scale, and what to do when you realize your heart is no longer in the community you founded.

Special Guest: Rosie Sherry.

Links:

• Rosie Sherry on Twitter
• Rosieland
• Orbit
• Ministry of Testing
• Indie Hackers

Shelby Lorman is a writer, illustrator, and comedian who created the Instagram account and book Awards For Good Boys. In this episode Shelby and I discuss building community as an artist and commentator, how that relationship changes as your following grows, and the challenges of creator and fandom in the age of social media.

Special Guest: Shelby Lorman.

Links:

• Awards For Good Boys newsletter on Substack
• Awards For Good Boys book on Bookshop
• Awards For Good Boys on Instagram
• Awards For Good Boys merch
• Trolls And Clapbacks - Are They The Trolls Or Am I?

Margot Bloomstein is a freelance content strategist and the author of Content Strategy At Work as well as the upcoming Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. In this episode we talk about how trust has failed in the modern day, a framework for organizations to build trust, and how trust can empower your community.

Special Guest: Margot Bloomstein.

Links:

• Margot Bloomstein on Twitter
• Trustworthy website
• Preorder Trustworthy
• The Markup
• Buzzfeed - Helping You See Outside Your Bubble
• Penzey's
• America's Test Kitchen

Jess Sand is a freelance digital experience expert and the group host of the Content + UX Slack, a digital community of web professionals which currently stands at just under 10,000 members. In this episode we talk about how this community formed, the unique challenges surrounding communities of practice, and how the needs of a community change as it scales.

Special Guest: Jess Sand.

Links:

• Jess Sand on Twitter
• Jess Sand's website
• The Content + UX community

In 2010, two-time Survivor player Rob Cesternino began Rob Has A Podcast, a podcast network dedicated to in-depth coverage of scripted and reality TV shows. In this episode, Rob talks about the community that has grown around RHAP, what has led to its success, and what the future holds.

Special Guest: Rob Cesternino.

Links:

• Rob Cesternino on Twitter
• Rob Has A Podcast website
• Rob Cesternino on the history of Rob Has A Podcast
• Survivor Diversity Campaign on Twitter
• Tribes by Seth Godin

Jasmine Sun is a writer exploring social and information ecosystems. In this episode we talk about cities as platforms, how the gig economy has replaced social infrastructure, and what our communities can learn from city planners.

Special Guest: Jasmine Sun.

Links:

• Jasmine Sun on Twitter
• Jasmine Sun on Medium
• Reboot - a tech and newsletter series on tech, humanity, and power.
• Cities and Ambition - an essay by Paul Graham
• Palaces For The People - a book by Eric Klinenberg
• Eric Klinenberg on the podcast 99% Invisible

Angie Byron is a Senior Director Of Product And Community Development at Acquia, but she's arguably best known for being a contributor and core maintainer for the open source content management system Drupal. In this episode Angie talks about her journey through burnout, and what people can do to help identify and prevent these issues from happening in their own communities.

"Randy Fay and I used to get into little spats about this where I was big on like, 'I love Drupal, because everybody's just a blue nickname and we all treat each other the same.' He's like, 'Yeah, but you don't, because you know that chx is this big name programmer, but someone new to the community has no idea, and will talk to them in a in a certain way. And they get lambasted off the planet, because they were rude to a core developer. But how are they supposed to know?" It took me a while to kind of come around to that idea of like, the tyranny of structurelessness and things like that. That there actually is value in defining those roles and defining what the procedures are for getting into and out of those roles and things like that. So I think I've learned to appreciate good governance a lot more now than I had kind of in the earlier days." - Angie Byron

Special Guest: Angie Byron.

Links:

• Angie Byron on Twitter
• The Tyranny of Structurelessness
• You Matter More Than The Cause

Meg Bolger is a facilitator and co-author of Unlocking The Magic Of Facilitation.. In this episode we talk about ways to approach topics of social justice in our communities, whether or not memes are useful, and how we can work together to create a more beautiful and just world.

"I think we underestimate how destructive, or rather how motivational connection and community is. I think it's one of the most important things that people will do almost anything to ensure that they have a community and that they have people who think that they are like ... you're with us. You're one of us. You're one of our people. I mean, I personally think people will become neo-nazis, just to ensure that they have community, not because it's what they deeply believe." - Meg Bolger

Special Guest: Meg Bolger.

Links:

• Meg Bolger
• Facilitator Cards
• The Safe Zone Project
• Unlocking the Magic of Facilitation
• The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible