Infinite Scroll – Details, episodes & analysis

We’re continuing our experiment with audio with episode two of the Infinite Scroll Podcast. This time we’re chatting with Moly of Chinese Doom Scroll. As always, I’m curious to know if you enjoy the occasional audio post - let me know!

Chinese Doom Scroll is a blog with a very simple mission - translate all the most viral posts from Chinese social media to English. And it’s utterly fascinating to see the differences in how the Chinese internet operates. Moly and I discuss why the CCP frowns on fan-fiction, why Chinese netizens are the best at puns, why there’s so many scam warnings on Weibo, and much more.

This was an incredibly fun interview and I highly recommend Moly’s blog. Free subscribers get just a tease, paid subscribers get the full episode. Subscribe today!

Hey there! This week we’re trying something new here at Infinite Scroll with our first ever episode of the Infinite Scroll podcast. Please let me know if you love it, hate it, or are indifferent. My rough goal is to chat with interesting folks and learn more about what makes people behave they way they do.

Today I’m sitting down with the author of the excellent Substack Cartoons Hate Her to talk about her history as one of the biggest trolls in Reddit history. She’s behind several viral (and fake) stories on Reddit like “Am I the A*****e for wanting to have an anime themed wedding?” and “Help! My boyfriend labels everything in our lives as Virgin or Chad”. We talk about why people post fake stories on the internet, what kind of stories reliably go viral, and what it says about us that we believe these stories anyways.

This episode is going out to all free subscribers, but in the future I might paywall this kind of thing. I’m working it out as I go, you know? The blog is coming up on 200 paid subscribers, so thanks to all of you who subscribe to Infinite Scroll. If you’re looking to jump in, now is a great time! I deeply appreciate all of your support and god willing one day I’ll make this into a real job.

Hey you! A paid subscription is the best way to support the blog! Succumb to peer pressure and do it today!

As a companion to this weekend’s post about Russia’s fascist youth movement, I interviewed professor Ian Garner, author of the book Z Generation and expert on Russian propaganda.

This was originally recorded for my other gig as host of the New Liberal Podcast, but I think it’s absolutely worth sharing here at Infinite Scroll as well. We talk about how Putin has gained total control over Russia’s media, how the Russian state uses social media and influencers to win over young people, and why so many kids in Russia’s youngest generations whole heartedly support the war in Ukraine.

As a follow up to my article from a few weeks ago Should We Ban Gambling on Smartphones?, I’ve invited Isaac Rose-Berman on the show to talk about gambling policy. He’s a fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men and writes the Substack How Gambling Works. We talk about how we got the point we’re at now where gambling seems to be everywhere, whether or not we need to do something about it, and what options we would ultimately have.

My other job besides writing here at Infinite Scroll is hosting The New Liberal Podcast, and this week I’m sharing an episode I recorded with Derek Thompson of The Atlantic. Together with Ezra Klein, he’s the author of the new book ‘Abundance’. We talk about the abundance movement - why it matters, the history behind it, and how it can succeed politically. This is one of my favorite episodes in a while, and I hope you enjoy it!

We’re back with another edition of the Infinite Scroll podcast. My guest this time around is Substack’s co-founder Hamish McKenzie. Even if you’re not a ‘podcast person’ most of the time, I think this conversation was fascinating. We get into the guts of what Substack is: Is it a neutral piece of technology that just sends out emails? Is it a new kind of social network? Does that distinction imply different strategies for content moderation? With the decline of mainstream publishing, what is the total addressable market for Substack? And is it a mistake to think of Substack as just ‘newsletters and blogs’?

Some extra podcast content for you - the show Left, Right and Center did a entire segment on my recent article How Gay Marriage Ruined Democratic Activism. Segment discussing the article begins around 33:00-35:00 depending on your platform.