Kate Davis, KC Ifeanyi, and Amelia Hemphill discuss the biggest stories at Fast Company this past year and share their favorite moments from Fast Company podcasts. Kate highlights The New Way We Work's 4-part miniseries "Ambition Diaries," which examined the effects of the pandemic on women's progress in the workplace. KC reviews some of the biggest trends in the creator economy. Amelia explains some of the most innovative approaches to sustainability, including a toilet that incinerates your bo...
Dec 29, 2022•47 min•Season 2Ep. 14
It’s been another destabilizing year across the board. But the creator economy has surprisingly held strong—despite a looming recession, increasing pressure from lawmakers to ban TikTok in the U.S., and Elon Musk being Elon Musk at Twitter. The creator economy is currently valued at $16.4 billion, a 19% increase from 2021. So will that energy carry over into 2023? To get a better understanding of where the creator economy is heading next year, I interviewed Stephanie Smith, head of talent strate...
Dec 22, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 13
This interview has been a long time coming because Shavone Charles is someone I’ve known for quite a few years now. When I met her, she was the head of global music and youth culture communications at Instagram. Prior to that, she held a similar position at Twitter. And last year, she became TikTok’s first head of global diversity and inclusion communications. Shavone is one of those people who has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to help creators of color gain more visibility and recog...
Dec 15, 2022•35 min•Season 2Ep. 12
You might have noticed that more and more social media platforms are offering paid versions of their services, like Twitter Blue, Snapchat Plus, and Discord Nitro. But what you may not have noticed is that this is nothing new. Social media platforms in China have had a huge head start in getting users to not only pay for features, but in creating features that truly are innovative. In this episode, Connie Chan, general partner at the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, analyzes what Western companies s...
Dec 08, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Back in 2018, Tumblr banned all nudity, which, unsurprisingly, led to a massive dip in page views as well as adult creators being forced off the platform. But earlier this month, Tumblr, under new management, announced it would be relaxing its “no porn” rule to allow some adult content back onto the site. In this episode, Tumblr CEO Matt Mullenweg breaks down the fine print of what this means for creators and the future of Tumblr.
Dec 01, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 10
We're taking a break this week and wishing everyone a warm holiday! When we come back, we'll be talking about what's changing in content policies at Tumblr and the effect of the Facebook Papers one year later.
Nov 24, 2022•1 min•Season 2Ep. 9
A few weeks ago, Elon Musk, Twitter’s new CEO, tweeted a poll asking if he should bring back Vine, the short-form video app Twitter purchased in 2012 but shuttered in 2016. Nearly 5 million votes later, 70% of people had voted to resurrect Vine. There were a number of factors that led to the app’s downfall. So if Vine were to come back, what would it need to do differently? More importantly, could it compete with the reigning short-form video juggernaut that is TikTok? To help me unpack this, I ...
Nov 17, 2022•27 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Most creators know they won’t reach the level of getting insanely lucrative brand deals or tens of millions of followers—and that’s perfectly fine. The overall sentiment from creators is that they just want stable and reliable income, i.e. a more robust middle class. It's a reasonable request but one that hasn’t been so easy to attain. A perfect vehicle to explore this right now is Twitch. In case you missed it, there’s been a few changes at Twitch that the company says are in the best interest ...
Nov 10, 2022•34 min
When you think about what you’re already shelling out for on-demand entertainment with Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Apple Music, HBO Max, how do content creators fit within your budget? We conducted a poll to get some answers. And to help me unpack these results, I reached out to Anthony Iaffaldano, VP of sales, marketing, and insights at Fandom.
Nov 03, 2022•33 min
We’ve explored how algorithms and content moderation can make some creators feel targeted on social platforms. One way creators are getting around being flagged is through algospeak, e.g. using “unalive” instead of dead, “seggs” instead of sex, “corn” instead of porn, etc. Coded internet language has been around for decades, most commonly known as leetspeak. But no matter what you call it, massaging words to sidestep moderation raises some interesting questions we’re exploring in this episode.
Oct 27, 2022•27 min
If you’re on TikTok, Michael Le has undoubtedly landed on your For You page at some point with his dance videos, which have earned him 52 million followers and more than 10 billion views. Now Michael is launching Joystick, a gaming ecosystem that aims to empower users and content creators to become business owners. According to Michael, the key to his success has been adapting and experimenting both in the content he creates and in his business pursuits. But how do you translate 52 million follo...
Oct 20, 2022•34 min
In this special podcast episode, hear the latest on what’s taking place in edge computing and hybrid cloud from a top industry executive at AWS. Also learn how these innovations can ultimately help you transform your business.
Oct 18, 2022•26 min
You think you know where a skit from Antonio Baldwin (aka Tony Talks) is headed until the punchlines start hitting you in the most unexpected places. It’s the kind of random comedy that forces you to pay attention—and it’s certainly caught the attention of his growing audience. Tony landed a spot on Fast Company’s inaugural Creator 25 list, and you need only watch his content (and listen to this episode) to understand why.
Oct 13, 2022•35 min
A lot of people say success in the creator economy is democratized: You put in the work, stay consistent, and you’ll find your audience and revenue. That may be true for some, but for many marginalized creators success feels like a steeper hill to climb than it should be. Discoverability is crucial to any creator’s career online. But what happens when the algorithms powering discoverability seem to be working against you or don’t see you at all?
Oct 06, 2022•33 min
Brittany "Broski" Tomlinson turned her 15 seconds of fame as "the Kombucha girl" meme into a full-fledged career. In this live episode of Fast Company's podcast Creative Control, Tomlinson gives her candid take on the creator economy and explains how she's building a name for herself offline.
Sep 29, 2022•27 min
Here is a sneak peek of Season 2! Creative Control premieres next week, and be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss new episodes every Thursday.
Sep 22, 2022•1 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Sep 15, 2022•33 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Sep 08, 2022•38 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Sep 01, 2022•42 min
Every company’s success is tied to its talent - recruiting and retaining the employees needed to deliver high-level customer experiences that support the bottom line. Yet rapid transformation has disrupted many things that organizations used to do to maintain great company cultures. So how can business leaders reimagine their employee experiences to meet the needs of their workforces? How does that translate into better customer experiences? In this thought-provoking podcast episode, FastCo Work...
Aug 25, 2022•25 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Aug 25, 2022•33 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Aug 18, 2022•41 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Aug 11, 2022•40 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Aug 04, 2022•45 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Jul 28, 2022•36 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Jul 21, 2022•48 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Jul 14, 2022•50 min
We’re hard at work developing season 2 of Creative Control coming this fall. In the meantime, enjoy this throwback episode to keep your creative juices flowing!
Jul 07, 2022•48 min
Over the past 15 episodes, we covered a lot of ground within the creator economy. For the season one finale, we're revisiting some of these topics with Kaya Yurieff, a reporter with The Information who's also been sorting through the ups and downs of this space. In this episode, Kaya gives her opinion on burnout, the creator middle class, and government regulation of social media, as well as her forecast for the creator economy’s next chapter.
Jun 23, 2022•42 min
Last week, we profiled a talent agency working specifically with deaf and disabled creators. This week, we're going even further into the space of marginalized creators with Annelise Campbell. Annelise is the founder of the CFG, an influencer marketing agency geared toward BIPOC creators like Monica Veloz, a lifestyle and beauty creator of nine years who, since linking up with CFG, has gained an entirely new perspective on value as an Afro-Latina creator. In this episode with Annelise and Monica...
Jun 16, 2022•50 min
