By Darren Johnson
Campus News
This week in podcasting, I give the inside scoop as to how the April issue of Campus News was made (and then rant about a recent “Silver Alert” on the highway — what am I supposed to do about a missing dementia patient who also happens to be driving a car?!!). Also, I wonder what is art?, and then describe the various people I see in the library (none of them are reading).
I also wonder why The Playboy Club keeps sending me invites (well, I am a press member), and riff on the history of Playboy Magazine.
Find these recent podcasts on iTunes or go to CampusXM.com for older broadcasts!
Shane Dawson?
I listen to other podcasts, as well, and one that I listened to recently kind of stuck with me.
It’s on “Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend” and features a YouTube influencer named Shane Dawson. You can hear it here.
I like Rosen’s podcasts, including her new one on parenting with sometimes blue comic Greg Fitzsimmons called “Childish.” But normally she only does an hour.
The one with Dawson is a whopping two hours and is just Rosen and him, and apparently he doesn’t do a lot of interviews, and is somehow famous. I’d never heard of the guy before, and a two-hour podcast is usually not my thing, but I found myself listening to this whole interview.
Like “Childish” and this interview with Dawson, I think my favorite podcast format is just two people, riffing on topics. Though I’m tired of hearing comedians talk to other comedians on podcasts. Who cares about what it’s like to play Yuk-Yuk’s in Akron?
People who are podcast guests too often tend to get to the point where they don’t say anything of substance.
I’m also sick of B-celebrities (and C, and D, etc.) trying to make their lives seem important via podcasts. It usually comes off as vapid and name-droppy. There are so many TV shows nowadays, who isn’t a celebrity?
That’s why I was surprised I made it through influencer Shane Dawson’s two-hour talk with Rosen. I never really held YouTube celebrities in high regard — they have their own audience over there. And YouTube celebrities never translate well to more mainstream venues, like TV, stage, movies, etc. Dawson can be charming, in the same way the kid from “Bates Motel” is.
Albeit the typical millennial influencer narcissist, Dawson was candid about what it takes to be a YouTube star. These tenets seem very foreign to me, as a human being:
- You pretty much have to be a sociopath. You know, they also are the kind of people who run for office. Negativity doesn’t affect them. This guy was accused of being into pedophilia and bestiality by Internet trolls, and it bounces right off him.
- You can’t listen to the trolls. In fact, you can turn their negative energy into a positive, if you play it right.
- You don’t have to be liked to be popular.
- Though being too provocative can lose you advertisers.
- Do crazy things and then apologize and feign anxiety later. Cry a little. Promise to reform. And then do more crazy things. It’s all feeding the machine.
So, if you want to hear some techniques to up your hit counts, and lose your conscience, hear the marathon interview with Rosen and Dawson.
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