This week on Under the Radar:

TikTok, the Chinese-owned app known for popular dance videos and creative tips for everyday tasks, has changed the way people go viral on social media.

The video-sharing platform exploded in popularity during COVID becoming the world’s most downloaded app in 2020. With school buildings shut down, a generation of young people looking for connection and entertainment found it on TikTok, as did others captivated by the clever and amusing short films. Just this month, TikTok announced that more than one billion people use the app globally.

TikTok has produced thousands of social media influencers — content creators who attract large numbers of followers and views. Some of them have now joined forces to establish TikTok Houses with members living and posting content together full time. And one local Tik Tok House is getting a taste of fame by posting about all-things Massachusetts. The ultimate goal: lucrative brand deals and celebrity.

Is this trend the next wave of social media? And what does it mean to be TikTok famous?

Kyle Gove, the owner and manager of “The Mass House” says his collaboration started a year ago and has grown to almost 100,000 followers in just one year.

"We just enjoyed making content with each other under one collective page, it’s bigger than us individually," he says. "It represents something more than our individual selves, we want to represent the state on that platform."

Guests:

Rebecca Jennings, senior reporter covering internet culture at The Goods by Vox.

Kyle Gove, owner and manager of local TikTok group “The Mass House.” Kyle is a freshman at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

This week on Under the Radar:

The art world has been turned on its head this year. Visitor numbers to galleries plummeted as the pandemic forced shops to close their doors. The art world had to shift, kicking off a digital art craze. Back in March, a new record was set when a piece of digital artwork, by the artist Beeple, sold for $69 million dollars. The art was sold as a digital file, called an NFT, which stands for “nonfungible token” — a term that can apply to any digital collectible.

Many underrepresented artists who haven’t been given broad access to mainstream galleries think that crypto-traded art could be a viable avenue to sell their work. But will this new frontier offer more opportunities than obstacles?

Guest:

This week on Under the Radar:

Netflix is reeling from backlash against comedian Dave Chappelle’s latest special, which critics say contains transphobic material. Plus, Hollywood celebrities from Adele to Jonah Hill speak up against fan obsession over their weight loss. And The Rolling Stones remove one of the most popular songs from their tour setlist over lyrics referencing slavery.

Those stories and more on our Pop Culture Roundtable!

GUESTS:

Michael Jeffries is the dean of academic affairs and professor of American studies at Wellesley College.

Rachel Rubin is a professor of American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

This week on Under the Radar:

The MacArthur Foundation named its Class of 2021 “Genius Fellows" earlier this month. The recipients join an exclusive group of previous Fellows who have demonstrated outstanding talent in their fields. The award acknowledges the Fellows’ demonstrated talent and potential as leaders in their fields.

MIT professor Taylor Perron is a geomorphologist who studies the evolution of landscapes on Earth and other planets. He is one of the 2021 MacArthur Fellows, and one of three based in the Boston area. We talk with professor Perron for our series, “The Genius Next Door.”

This week on Under The Radar:

Pop the champagne! October is the most popular month to get married, according to The Knot, the nation’s leading wedding marketplace. And the wedding industry sure is on the rebound after more than a year of postponed pandemic weddings. That includes increased consumer demand for diamond engagement rings.

Diamond sales shot up 30 percent from last year. Consumer demand coupled with COVID-19 restrictions led to global diamond shortages, and something else: a more vocal movement calling for a move away from mined diamonds toward so-called ethical or conflict-free diamonds.

But... it’s complicated. For example, where do lab-grown diamonds fit into the picture? And how do millennials who support sustainability navigate potential "greenwashing" in the jewelry industry?

GUESTS:

Raquel Alonso-Perez, curator of Harvard University’s Mineralogical and Geological Museum.

Craig Rottenberg, president of Long’s Jewelers in Boston and vice chair of Jewelers of Americas Board of Directors.

This week on Under The Radar:

Few would dispute that The New York Times has elevated the age-old tradition of the wedding announcement to an important status symbol. Why, in these times, when many other social traditions have gone the way of the polar ice cap, do the announcements still draw enthusiastic readers?

Author Cate Doty shares her insider’s view in her book, “Mergers and Acquisitions: Or Everything I Know About Love I Learned from the Wedding Pages.”

Guest:

When thinking about “fine art,” many minds immediately envision paintings by the likes of Monet or Van Gogh.

But one artform – quilting – is finally being recognized as fine art, rather than just craft. African American quilters, in particular, are reclaiming the artform's history, after having been mischaracterized by scholars for decades.

A new Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibition, “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories” features over 300 years of American quilts, and other visual and tactile artworks. It especially focuses on works by an underrecognized diversity of artistic hands and minds from the 17th century to today.

The exhibition opened on October 10th and runs through January 17th, 2022.

GUESTS:

Jennifer Swope, associate curator of textile and fashion arts at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and exhibition curator of the MFA’s “Fabric of a Nation: American Quilt Stories.”

Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi, author, curator, quilter, and founder of African American Quilt Guild of Los Angeles and Women of Color Quilters Network. Dr. Mazloomi’s work “Strange Fruit II” is featured in the MFA’s “Fabric of a Nation” exhibition.

Gio Swaby, a Bahamian visual artist whose work centers on Black joy as a radical act of resistance. Her work “Love Letter 5” is featured in the MFA’s “Fabric of a Nation” exhibition.

The Tokyo Paralympics were held this summer and American elite athletes, who have physical and neurological disabilities, medaled in competitions from archery to swimming. Paralympians like Breanna Clark who is autistic, the first female U.S. athlete to win gold for 400m track in 2016 and who broke a world record this summer in Tokyo.

But had Breanna not been an athlete with access to custom training, she would likely not have been able to work out in a gym.

Typical gyms normally don't accommodate people like her with autism, Down syndrome, or cerebral palsy, conditions known as neurodiverse. Not only are the flashing lights and sounds in typical gyms often disorienting, but also many physical trainers haven’t worked with neurodiverse people.

But one local gym is changing that – Greater Boston’s Inclusive Fitness is creating both a workout space and a community.

GUESTS:

Greg Austin, founder, president, and coach at Inclusive Fitness, a Boston-based gym that specializes in training neurodiverse people.

Kristin Abendroth, director of client experience and head neurotypical coach at Inclusive Ftiness.

Barbara Baker, parent of Mary Gwen, an Inclusive Fitness athlete.

Two bonus questions with author Wil Haygood!

This week on Under the Radar:

From the moment D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” became a film sensation, racist portrayals of African Americans have been embedded in film history. Author Wil Haygood begins his history of Black films with white filmmaker Griffith’s movie, documenting the setbacks and triumphs within the context of American Black history. His new book,“Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World” reveals surprising and shocking details left out of most film histories.

Haygood is currently the Boadway Visiting Distinguished Scholar at Ohio’s Miami University, following a 3-decade career as a correspondent both at the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. The Pulitzer Prize finalist has written eight other books including, “The Butler: A Witness to History” made into a feature film. “Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World” is our October selection for “Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club.”