Fresh Fusion
A lively show where we discuss the business, the art, the ethics of content creation on the open web & the fediverse. Hosted by Jared White.
Episodes
Eight Years of Fresh Fusion
Today, Fresh Fusion turns 8 years old, and I figured this would be a good opportunity to reflect on the history of the show, step through some of the highlights and a low point or two, and consider how I feel about podcasting now that I've got 130 episodes of the show in the can. And friends, you'll be treated to the sounds of my CRAZY CAT as he goes trilling & scampering through the
Like How Am I So Prolific?
I'm often asked how I get so much done, and it always surprises me because I usually feel like I'm chronically behind in everything. But after a month of significant progress on a bunch of projects and getting a whole lot accomplished, I'm in the mood to discuss productivity. 😎 Oh yeah, let's get into the weeds with…timeboxing, and work logging, and outlining! It's gonna be totally great.
Betting All My Chips on LinkedIn (wink lol)
New year, new grumpy cat (!!), new recording setup (hint: not using an Apple OS!), and so much more. Welcome to the soft-reboot of Fresh Fusion, and a state of the [fill in the blank] rundown: from social networking to desktops to music streamers along with some praise for a software ecosystem I never expected to be this jazzed about in 2026…Ruby. All that and a bag o' chips (different ch
Hey, So For How Long Has Open Source Been a Nazi Bar?
As folks may know, I try to avoid deep-dives into "programming" topics here on Fresh Fusion. But as many recent events have proven, the slow creep of edgelord dank meme cosplay-fascist culture online has affected all kinds of communities, and unfortunately the world of open source technology is not immune. This episode is in part about Ruby, Ruby Central, Rails and the various players the
Living in Portland 4.0
In what has apparently become an ongoing series, this installment of Living in Portland has our intrepid hero (me, that's me!) sharing all about the journey of personal discovery he went on as part of his real-world journey through the Pacific Northwest as a digital nomad. In addition, time to spill the beans and talk about what it's like to move into a new place as a Portlander once more
125: …or at Least, “a Voice of a Generation” (Z)
Props if you know that very Millennial reference! We’re here to talk about Gen-Z and what it’s like to be a teenager in this screwy world. And by “we”, I mean me and my very special guest: Mike. Like all pundits worth their salt, when I want people to know more about the plight of today’s youth, I ask the only youth I know well. Yes that’s right: today I’ve put on my Mr. Dad hat. Enjoy th
124: Uh, We Already Live in Gilead, So…
We need better stories. The “Hero’s Journey” isn’t going to help us. No plucky band of rebels is going to land a blow and take the fascists out in one punch. The cycle of Republic vs Evil Empire will continue forever—unless we break that cycle. Our imaginations and our ideas must expand.
Deep thoughts as I watch through the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale and ruminate on the ever pro
123: Life on the Road! It’s As Easy As…
As Fern, the protagonist of Nomadland (an incredible award-winning film), says: I’m not homeless, I’m houseless. There is a difference!
So, I said in the last episode of Fresh Fusion that I was getting ready to move, and also travel a lot. When I didn’t say was that my traveling a lot would be happening after moving out…and before moving in! 😅
Listen as I explain my four reasons why I’v
122: Digital Nomad Once Again
I’m a ramblin’ guy, I’m ramblin’ ramblin’ ram…BLIN’!
Just like Steve Martin apparently, I’ll be ramblin’ around a lot this year, so it’s time to take my mobile workspace seriously and bid adeiu to being tethered to a desktop Mac (and, well, macOS in general). How will I get things done while I’m on the road? Who knows—I mean, yes, this episode will explain everything!
Update: the origin
121: Happy New Year to You! (Not You Zuck)
(Note: I want to provide a Trigger Warning as this episode contains examples of hate speech targeted at LGBTQ+ people and women. Take care of yourselves, and proceed with understanding.)
It’s 2025 y’all, and everything’s going great so far! 😜 But seriously, I have some good news to report (really, I do!) even while expressing my supreme frustration that yet another commercial social medi
120: My 2024 Nerd Thanksgiving List
It’s that time of year again in the U.S. of A.—time to take stock of where we’ve been and find all of the silver linings. And it’s time for this podcaster to geek out over some very special blessings, from weird quirky indie horror films to weird quirky indie web browsers as well as weird quirky indie…OK, I think you get the idea. 😄 Also some thoughts on why there’s value in staying engag
119: Good Vibes, Fediverse Rising
Why has the mood changed so suddenly on Threads? How has Meta dropped the ball at this pivotal moment for the nascent social network? Meanwhile, other social networks and the Fediverse as a whole are kicking some serious ass. It’s a real shift in a short amount of time from just earlier in the summer, and I’m here to talk all about it…and how much I just love Mastodon 4.3 + Tangerine UI 2
118: Midsummer Vibes Check
It’s the summer of our content, as we take time to enjoy the great outdoors and spend quality moments IRL with friends and family.
At least, that’s what I’ve been doing, as well as making structural changes in my day-to-day such as a studio move and an email newsletter move from ConvertKit to Buttondown. But even as the sun is shining and the birds are singing, what’s happening on social
117: There’s a Great Deal of History That You Should Know…
Some people say that RIVEN: The Sequel to MYST is the greatest computer game of all time. (That’s me. I say that.)
Perhaps YMMV. But there’s no doubt that Riven is the G.O.A.T. of puzzle adventure games as pioneered in the 1990s, and this year we’re blessed with the tremendous opportunity to fall in love with Riven all over again, as Cyan has developed and published a modern remake in gl
116: Those Who Can, Teach…Those Who Can’t, Influence
I’ve often found that most of the people out there who have genuine talent and real success are more than happy to pass their well-founded wisdom on to others. Unfortunately, those experts who have a proven track record, having made predictive claims grounded in reality over time, are often not the popular figures in our society. With alarming frequency, many “influencers” with high follo
115: Embrace Generative Art, Reject Regurgitated Slop
Generative art, aka artistic output that’s produced by a sophisticated set of parameters, cycles, connections, and yes, even algorithms, has been around for decades—especially in music—and has a prestigious and invigorating history. More importantly, generative art tools have helped usher in countless new art forms.
Contrast that with…well…y’know. 😂
In this so-called “Age of AI” we find
114: Threadiverse / Threadsadverse?
A tale of two Threads: one—the Threadiverse—is a subportion of the Fediverse dedicated to replicating the kind of experiences we’re familiar with on Reddit, Hacker News, and the like; the other is Meta’s fast-growing competitor to X. Not confusing at all! 😂
In this episode I break down what the Threadiverse is and how I’ve been using and enjoying Lemmy, and then cover the latest developm
113: The “Irrelevance” of Alternative Social Networks Was Always a Fallacy
Sigh. It’s frustrating to still feel like an early adopter of open web technology. How many years has it been? 25? 30? But here we are, trying to convince the masses that you can use open protocols, networks, and software to build lasting publishing businesses and outlets for your creativity. And who better to show us the way than…Donald Trump? Perish the thought! 😱 (But seriously, it’s a
112: The Subtle Art of Giving a Toot
Microblogging is an artform, just like any other creative endeavor people publish on the web. In this episode, I talk about one of the subtle techniques I sometimes use to microblog which increases the likelihood of engagement and boosting—but beware! You can definitely overdo it, and you can also manipulate people with it if you’re a bad actor. Use responsibly. 😅
And in the Fusion+ segm
111: The Ethical AI Layer Cake
In this episode, I dive deep into how I might be willing to acknowledge an ethical approach to using generative AI tools, and why virtually all tools in widespread use today fall wildly short in the morality department—which makes the embrace of these tools by corporations incredibly disappointing. But can we thread this needle? Is there a viable path forward? Let’s discuss.
Links &
110: Fediverse Goes Mainstream
Folks have been talking about different terminology and ways of describing this brave new world of decentralized social networking. But with Threads’ staggering growth to 150 million MAU (Monthly Active Users), combined with its embrace of the colloquial term “fediverse”, I make the case that fediverse is here to stay. I also touch on the recent news around Google’s flailing leadership ca
109: Sneak Preview of The Internet, Reviewed (Push Technology in the 90s)
People will remember the “browser wars” of the 1990s, but they may not remember the “webtop wars” — that is, the battle for who will control the Push Technology which transforms your OS desktop into a tuner for live web channels. Learn about this fascinating blip in early internet history which eventually gave rise to a much simpler technology still in use today…one might even call it Rea
108: Podcasts to Listen to in 2024
It’s a new year, I’m moving my business away from HEY (to Fastmail) & Basecamp (to GitHub & Email), and I’m listening to a lot of podcasts! I talk about all of that in this episode as well as my latest blogging kick due to a small but mighty design tweak on my website.
And in the Fusion+ segment: Is podcasting still as great as it ever was? For the “big shows” with major sponsors
107: From YouTube to Your Tube
After some follow up around switching from Glass to Pixelfed and importing new photos into my site from there, I dive into the heart of the episode: how do we deal with YouTube? As fediverse-aware content creators, YouTube remains a major hurdle, but there are still ways to route around it—either partially or completely. I walk through some of the possible solutions in this episode, and t
106: The Internet Review’s Rebirth in 2024
Call it a reboot, a resurrection if you will. A new chapter in my history as a blogger. And—literally for the first time ever—a mostly-complete chronicle of all my tech blogging during a span of almost 30 years. Get ready for The Internet Review.
I haven’t been a general “tech blogger” in some time. This year, that all changes. I regret I never had the discipline in the 2000s to become a
105: Sam Altman is Gone! Er, Back!
Despite ch-ch-ch-changes every minute it seems, Jared attempts to analyze the shocking power struggle going on at OpenAI and what the this all means for Microsoft—because let’s face it, they’re really the ones in charge. In addition, some conversation regarding Apple’s incredible speed gains over the past several iterations of Apple Silicon and the appeal of M3 MacBookPros. And for Fresh
104: I, For One, Do Not Welcome Our Robot Overlords
Jared is feeling a wee bit down in the mouth that his career is nearly over, apparently, due to AI coming for us all. The programmers. The musicians. The designers. The this, and the that. Or…is all of that largely utter nonsense and the artists are fighting back? (Hello WGA & SAG-AFTRA!) Let’s talk about AI and how true AGI is probably centuries away and OpenAI is trying to pull a fa
103: Passions from a Common Spring
I’m a die-hard Ivory for Mastodon user and “ambassador” of the Fediverse. So then, why am I on Threads? Well, it’s all about who you follow, and you can follow many interesting sorts of accounts there which aren’t all on Mastodon. Once Threads enables ActivityPub, I intend to follow all these accounts from Mastodon, but in the meantime, I must be on Threads. In this episode, I break down
102: Living in Portland 3.0
Some reflections after a year of podcasting since the “reboot” of Fresh Fusion, growing success in blogging and the importance of owning your own domain name and platform, the joys of belonging to a local creative community and feeling inspired by your locale, and more. All the feelz in this episode!
Links & Show Notes
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101: Cruisin’ on the Redwood Highway
Like ‘em or hate ‘em, the BBC is here and has joined the fediverse. In this episode I talk about what this means and more broadly why it’s a good thing to see another large news organization launch their own Mastodon instance—even while I fully defend other instance admins’ right to defederate due to content moderation policies. And on the Fusion+ segment—available for free today!—I talk
100: Rebuilding the Internet, with Mariya Delano
We made it folks. ONE HUNDRED EPISODES! 🎉 On this 100th installment of Fresh Fusion, it is my extreme pleasure to welcome writer, founder, and marketing expert Mariya Delano to the show for a lively conversation about the growth of the internet and social media, when things started to go terribly awry, the cultural shift that’s happening RIGHT NOW, and where she believes this is all heade
99: Aggregators Gonna Aggregate
We’re here to herald the return of the aggregator-style link blog—at least for me. Listen while I break down the recent launch of That HTML Blog, the rise and fall and rise again of the blogosphere, and the occasional value of moving quickly and not overthinking new creative projects.
Also: Countdown to 100! Don’t miss the very next episode which will be rather special, celebrating the 1
98: Let's Talk About Talking About Threads!
The episode wherein I opine on all the latest news on Threads by way of highlighting others of interest who are talking about Threads and have stood out to me during my time scrolling through my Mastodon feed. Am I excited about Threads? Do I dread the rise of Threads? Has the trajectory of the Fediverse changed forevermore? Well…yes! Let’s dive in.
Links & Show Notes
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97: What if the Fediverse Goes Bust?
Countdown to 100! 💯 We only have a few episodes left until the 100th episode of Fresh Fusion…and in addition, we’re also celebrating the 5th anniversary of the launch of the show! In this episode, I muse on what I might do if my efforts to accelerate a career in content creation come to naught because the Fediverse doesn’t go anywhere. Will I…gasp…embrace Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram on
96: Digital Ecological Collapse
We are witnessing the total meltdown of the commercial internet. Enshittification (thanks Cory Doctorow!) of social media and other large Silicon Valley-style products & services, combined with the specter of “AI” (ChatGPT, etc.) infecting every company’s efforts, has led to a rather scary inflection point. It’s getting harder and harder to work with corporations and use internet serv
95: Those Memes are Not for Me
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Wherein I share my thoughts having tried out Bluesky, the performative nature of (some) social media, the trail of questionable decision-making regarding this platform, good art isn’t always popular, cheerleader buses, and why when it comes to the Fediverse, I
94: Federation Wars
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Is the end game of the internet really that a bunch of algorithms slurped up a subset of popular human-created & curated content and then can regurgitate it out as if the AI is clever enough to think for itself? Meanwhile, folks in the fediverse are up in
93: Leave Your Comments Down Below
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In this episode, I comment on recent links—articles, news, toots—I’ve posed on my blog and on Mastodon. From the iPad celebrating its 13th birthday to dreaming of a better metaverse, from ethnic stereotyping to A.I. B.S., there’s never a dull moment here on Fr
92: ActivityPub Everywhere All at Once
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Everything Everywhere All at Once won big at the Oscars, but it’s not the only ’verse-spanning creation making it big this year. ActivityPub is having a moment, and we’re here to chronicle the rise of numerous new instances, applications, and networks—includin
91: 90s Internet Nostalgia Trip
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As Arnold would say, I’m back, baby! Yes, I am rebooting my first blog ever, and this new daily weblog all about tech and nerd culture news with a dash of fun 90s nostalgia on the side will feature archives reaching all the way back to 1996. Are you excited ye
90: iPad TV & Putting YouTube in Perspective
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How can one feel like an intellectually fulfilled citizen of the open web & fediverse and still consume regular YouTube content? Here’s what I have done to corral this monster into a cage…and in the process unlocked a whole new environment for computing &a
89: Care to Comment?
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Blog comments are BACK, and this time it’s not about software people have to use on your blog or on their blog or even over on corporate social media…it’s all about the fediverse. Using Mastodon’s API, it’s possible to find the right “toot” (that is, published
88: An Interesting Reflection on the Nature of the Podcast
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Or in French, une réflexion intéressante sur la nature du podcast. Yes, a très intéressante discussion ensued on Mastodon over the past few days: what is a podcast? What is the medium of podcasting? What is the format of podcasting? What is the history of podc
87: It’s a Bird! It’s a Blog! No, It’s a…Newsletter?
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Where do you put the stuff that you write? Where do you post your posts? How do you publish things online now that Twitter is imploding and the Fediverse is rising? Has blogging made a comeback? What’s the different between a blog and an email newsletter that’
86: My Yearly Theme and 3 Words for 2023
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In this episode, I recap all my “3 words” in previous years which helped set the tone for what I hoped to accomplish throughout the year and the values to focus on most. And then I share with you my yearly theme and “3 words” for 2023, why I chose those words,
85: My Top 10 Genre Movies & Shows of 2022
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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
84: Harry & Meghan, Taylor Lorenz, and the Campaigns of Hate
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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 ho
83: E-Scooters & the News with FeedBin
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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 r
82: Pocket Casts: Best Podcast Player in the World?
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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 supp
81: Who Gives a Toot?
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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 th
80: Heat Death of the Social Media Universe
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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
79: Midnight in Portland
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!)
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78: Living in Portland 2.0
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.
Links & Show Notes
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77: Catch-2022
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
76: Back to The Matrix
“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?
Lin
75: Twitter vs. Meta (A Tale of Two Social Networks)
My kids are obsessed with “Squid Game” — even though they’ve (obviously!) never seen the show. “You” has taken over Netflix Top 10. Twitter vs. Meta: I’m amazed at the shockingly different trajectory these two companies are taking. The social media landscape is fracturing and it’s no longer Facebook/Twitter as a monolithic duo. Let’s do a deep dive into just how much Twitter has grown and
74: MaxBook Pro & The Podcasts I Love
Apple’s latest and greatest M1-powered MacBooks (MaxBooks?) are here, and Jared wonders if there’s anything left for Mac nerds to be upset about when it seems like Apple has fulfilled all their wishes. (For a hefty price of course!) Plus a special rundown of all of Jared’s favorite podcasts he frequently listens to and why they’re worthy of your attention. Hmm, sounds like…a Fresh Fusion
73: Dawn of a New Era (New Website, Newly Single)
Yes my friends, it’s time to pull back the curtain and share about some events which have transpired in my personal life—things which have been among the most challenging moments of my life. But first, an announcement: I have a newly redesigned website! Woo hoo! =)
Links & Show Notes
Brand-new Website Design!
Goals for the new site design (episode 70)
Essay: Hello Single
72: Sex Appeal, Heteronormativity, and White Supremacy in Algorithms
In today’s episode, I step through some follow-up and a few items of note I’ve been tracking (such as the gorgeous Nikon Z fc retro-style camera!) before kicking off a rant about the ways algorithms privilege the already privileged instead of favoring content off the beaten path. Apparently you’re likely to do quite well on YouTube if you’re young, white, cis, “attractive”, and so forth…b
71: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Tweeter
Jared returns with a brilliant solution to the woes of maintaining a deep podcast content pipeline: read tweets! 😅
So contained herein is the riveting, rousing, and really rad reading of Jared’s Top 7 Tweets of July. Or something like that. From Bosch to LG 4K, remote work to news feed readers, there’s a little something for everyone. Enjoy!
Links & Show Notes
Leave a review on
70: The Personal Website in 2021
I’ve embarked on a huge restructuring and visual overhaul of my website, and as I thought about it more and more, I started asking the Big Questions such as:
What even is a “personal website” in 2021?
How do we evolve from the mental model of the circa-2005 “blog”?
How can you integrate with other mediums such as social media, newsletters, and the like?
Does the world really nee
69: When Your World (as a Content Creator) Falls Apart
The last two weeks have been devastating for me—on multiple fronts, both as a huge fan of the #VanLife community as well as a figure in the Ruby programming community. This podcast episode is my catharsis, as I try to work through the heartache and find something meaningful to hold on to at the end of the day. As content creators, it’s only natural that a huge part of our identity is wrap
68: Why I Started Creator Class (a Newsletter)
Creator Class is my new newsletter all about the challenges and rewards of being an underpaid content creator building an audience one connection at a time. In today’s episode of Fresh Fusion, I talk about why I decided to rebrand and refocus my newsletter and why it’s so important to highlight conversations around motivation and ethics in content creation. (Also why I’m ditching YouTube
67: O Patreon, You Done Me Wrong
I opened the Patreon mobile app on my iPhone. I looked at the feed. Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, POOF! A bunch of the creators I follow vanished. Gone. Out of this world. Did they suddenly shut down all their accounts? Was there a rapture and I wasn’t notified? No, it was none of those things. Patreon just had a temporary snafu billing my debit card, and because of that, I was un
66: Meet the New Normal, Same as the Old Normal?
This is me stumbling my way through an episode all about systemic racism in zoning laws and white supremacist policies harming disenfranchised minorities, and how I was raised to believe affluent suburban neighborhoods are the American Dream. While the global pandemic has been horrifying and so very hard to stomach, perhaps we can also see it as a much-needed opportunity to accept just ho
65: Portland: Paradise or Perdition?
Subtitle: Rumors of Portland’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
This is a deeply personal episode. I spent most of my life within a 60 miles radius of where I was born. That all changed when I relocated to the Portland, Oregon metro area. I came here on a fact-finding mission in 2017 and fell head-over-heels in love with the place. It’s no accident in the slightest that the most creative pe
64: Is There a Place for Tumblr in 2021?
Tumblr is a social media platform heralding from a different time…the era of “Web 2.0”, when oodles of visual customization features were a given and open functionality like RSS feeds were compulsory. Yahoo! and Verizon nearly drove Tumblr to an early grave, but with the acquisition by Automattic, there is hope yet. Can Tumblr survive—nay—thrive in 2021? Jared White investigates.
Prior d
63: bluesky’s Smiling at Me
The vital necessity of competence in leadership and governance, life imitating art imitating life, and a megadose of fascinating news regarding Twitter’s forays into decentralization and open moderation tools…all on the latest installment of Fresh Fusion.
Links & Show Notes
Buy American Act: Biden will sign order aimed at strengthening American manufacturing - CNNPolitics
Can Y
62: Big Tech is Too Powerful. So…Now What?
In the wake of last week’s horrific events at the United States Capitol where domestic terrorists stormed into the building and nearly toppled a duly-elected Congress, one of the top questions on everyone’s minds is: what is the role of Big Tech in the face of such extremism and anti-democratic conspiracy theories? What should Twitter, or Facebook, or Amazon, or Google, etc., be doing abo
61: Masto-done and the Return to Birdsite (aka Twitter)
This is it! Tune in for all the juicy details of why I walked away from Mastodon and the “Fediverse” after a year of fanboyism, and what needs to change in open social networking protocols before I let go of Twitter and Discord. Also some Fresh Picks of the day!
Links & Show Notes
Google avoids updating iOS apps as Apple adds privacy labels- 9to5Mac
20 Macs for 2020 – Six Color
60: Insanely Not-Great, and Yet, Not-Not-Great
My year in review episode. What a year! What a review! Ooo boy. Tune in to hear how my “3 Words for 2020” went and what I’m looking forward to in 2021. Surely everything’s going to get better, right? RIGHT??!!
Watch as Video
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Vimeo
59: Retreat! Why Getting Away is the Way to Go
I just came back from a retreat. Wow! The saying is true: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective. As creators, we’re always working in one of two modes: the nose to the grindstone, going through the motions of daily output mode; and the 20,000 feet, blue sky thinking mode. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to get into that second mode in the same physical environment as
58: Product Placements & Ethical Advertising
Do you ever find yourself watching a video on YouTube from your favorite creator, only to find that—as the video plays—it slowly dawns on you that the whole story arc of the video was simply a pretense for a sponsored product promotion? Sucks right? Because as a content creator, if you lose the trust of your audience, what do you have? Nothing. Let’s talk about that. Also: I only use Roll
57: Process Beats Outcome
You can enjoy the process, and optionally you can enjoy the outcome of that enjoyable process, but you can’t enjoy the outcome if you hate the process. The ends never justify the means. Also on today’s episode: my spoiler-free review of Seduced, the shocking sex cult documentary now playing on Starz.
Share your Fresh Pick of the day with the hashtag #freshpick on Twitter, and your link j
56: Yes, Users DO Care About the Tools You Use
It’s the first official new episode of Fresh Fusion, and it’s a doozy! There’s an oft-expressed notion rooted in misguided pragmatism that says your users/customers/audience don’t care about the tools you use behind the scenes. They only care about the final product. I fundamentally reject such a notion, and I’m here to tell you why. Users DO care about the tools you use, because you MAKE
55: Fresh Fusion Synergy
As the Year from Hell heads towards its inevitable conclusion, Jared is back from a retreat born from desperation, fully recharged, and ready to (gasp!) reboot the podcast in a new form. And so a hearty hello and welcome to Fresh Fusion, the new weekly show by Jared focused squarely on the business and art of content creation. Whether you write, record, code, produce, teach, or perform, t
54: Whatever The Hell This Is
Greetings, fellow citizens of the internet refuge from the global pandemic! How are you surviving Crisis? I am, to echo the words of Morpheus, STILL HERE! 💪
In this episode I bring you up to speed on what I’ve been up to…some fun things, some rewarding things, and one terrible, horrible, no good, very bad thing I’ve been battling with for a couple of months now (predating the coronavirus
53: iPadOS 13.4, Photoshop for iPad, Remote Work, and Staying Home
What a strange and frightening time to be alive! But I’m here and I’m back to try to lighten the mood a bit with talk of the brand-new cursor and trackpad support for iPad in iPadOS 13.4, as well as speculation on how the sudden transition to remote work might change the business landscape for good as we look ahead. I also convey my impressions using Photoshop for iPad now that the new cu
52: A Conversation with Nathan Kontny on Becoming a YouTuber, Privacy in Tech, Startup Culture, and Being a Dad
Kicking off our Creator Series, Nathan joins Jared to talk about his journey from software developer to YouTube content creator, the challenges and rewards of presenting your authentic self, ups and downs in entrepreneurship, what’s the deal with privacy and the tech industry, centralized vs. decentralized social media, diversity in startup culture, and introducing children to an engineer
51: The State of Social Media in 2020
I haven’t talked much about the general state of social media on the show in a while, so it’s high time we revisit this topic! Here are my latest thoughts on all the top contenders large and small—what they’re getting right, or wrong, and what is coming down the pike. You might be surprised where my head is at these days…
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