We thought we’d jump back on mic and talk through the weirdness of 2023, our first year since COVID that we didn’t put out a podcast every week. Luke thinks 2023 feels weird because millennials are no longer relevant. Ryan thinks 2023 feels weird because the internet has reverted back to what it was like in 2010. Maybe both theories are correct! Or maybe it was some other third reason. Either way, we spend a lot of time arguing about TikTok. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss...
Dec 25, 2023•1 hr 18 min
We’re back with another outside episode. We sat on a park bench and talked about Threads, NPC streamers on TikTok, and AI. Ryan also got chased by a wasp and a dog came by to say hi. Then we went and watched some cricket. A perfect summer afternoon. We’ll be back in a few months, probably. Bye bye! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecontentmines.com...
Jul 28, 2023•50 min
Ryan was in London so we did a little recording session out in a park last week. We wanted to talk about something other than Twitter and AI, but, let’s be real. That’s all we talked about. Also, perhaps most importantly, Luke finally watched all of Ted Lasso . And he’s real pissed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecontentmines.com...
May 01, 2023•47 min
Well, all good things must come to an end. Also, this podcast. At least for a while. We’re going on indefinite hiatus! So this will be our last episode for a while. Why is this happening? A combination of reasons, which we explain in excruciating detail in this episode. But the main thing is that we just don’t want to be a show where we talk about whatever’s happening on Twitter every day and it feels like that’s what we’ve been turning into. Oh, we also talk about the new Avatar movie for a whi...
Jan 13, 2023•1 hr 8 min
This week we’re talking about ChatGPT, the text-based A.I. that everyone loves sharing screenshots of right now. We also go over the new viral hero of the UK, a man named Tom Skinner. And, finally, we cover the first drop of the #TwitterFiles, which is not really as exciting as Elon Musk seems to think it is? Oh, and, remember crypto? We’ve got some updates on the FTX collapse! SHOW NOTES: The YouTube comment about A.I. translation The great Embedded piece about how boring text A.I. are Tom Skin...
Dec 09, 2022•51 min
Andor is so good that it almost makes it impossible to watch other Star Wars properties. We waited until the season had wrapped to really dive in and, boy, was there a lot to cover. So many layers to unpack! Also, Andor finally answers to very important questions for the franchise: What would a droid do at a funeral and what do kitchens look like in the Star Wars universe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ww...
Dec 02, 2022•27 min
This week, Luke admits that the US World Cup team is doing really well. Then we do a catch up on all the bad stuff that happened on Twitter this week. Though, we did record this before the Kanye West stuff, which means, there’s likely been even more bad stuff that’s happened since. We also took at a look at the podcasts that are performing the best on Spotify right now. And, finally, we take a tour through the weird Gen Z men’s rights world of TikTok. Oh, also, we go over The Content Mines’ Spot...
Dec 02, 2022•48 min
This week, we went through all the links in Facebook’s new Widely Viewed Content Report. We also do a catchup on Musk Twitter drama and run through the complexities of World Cup viral content. And here’s the Everton fans video , here’s the Wall Street Journal article about Facebook’s “Content Quality War Room,” and here’s this quarter’s Widely Viewed Content Report . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thec...
Nov 25, 2022•48 min
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a fantastic and heartfelt tribute to Chadwick Boseman. It is also a bit messy and suffers from a lot of the same problems that other Phase 4 MCU movies are having. Also, its script doesn’t make a ton of sense, but would have probably made a lot more sense if it had a real villain in it. Maybe even a certain Latverian despot?? Either way, we can all agree that Namor is absolutely cool as hell. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other...
Nov 17, 2022•22 min
We have three huge topics of equal importance to cover on this week’s show. First, we catch you up on the latest with Musk Twitter — fired employees, weird confusing product decisions, bugs and glitches, and hallucinogenics, apparently. Then we run through the bizarre story of what happened with Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. And, then, finally, but perhaps most importantly of all, we talk about why the UK treasury has a Discord now. Also, this episode has some extremely good new Producer Alan lore....
Nov 17, 2022•32 min
This week Ryan and Luke sat down in their favorite pub in London and hashed out what is, perhaps, the greatest debate of our time: Whether or not paid verification on Twitter is good or bad. Luke thinks it’s fine. Ryan thinks it’s disgusting. All things considered, this stayed pretty civil. Also, literally right before we finished editing this episode Elon Musk seemingly ended the paid verified, at least temporarily. Which makes this whole conversation a bit more philosophical that practical, I ...
Nov 11, 2022•30 min
This week Ryan and Luke are in Lisbon, Portugal, for (the) Web Summit! They learned all about the metaverse and the blockchain and artificial intelligence and the highkey art of crushing deals. We also talked, of course, about the Elon Musk-ification of Twitter. Weirdly, Luke wants to pay for Twitter Blue. Ryan thinks it’s for class traitors, but also will probably end up paying for it. No bonus episode this week, but we’ll see you at our live show in London next week and be back with a whole bu...
Nov 04, 2022•38 min
This week we kick things off with a look at Google’s very bad earnings report and a bombshell Reuters report that revealed that Twitter seems to be hemorrhaging users. Then we take a dive into the exploitative and uncomfortable world of British “dangerous places” YouTubers. You know the ones. Those posh guys that go vlog in failed states and turn human misery into clickbait. And, finally, we take a long and comprehensive look at the rise of the TikTok stay-at-home girlfriend. Ryan says stay-at-h...
Oct 28, 2022•48 min
Soooo this week’s big topic was about the currently-unraveling political situation in the UK. And while we were editing the episode British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned. But other than that, thanks to how weirdly slow-fast British politics moves, not much else we talked about this week has changed, so this should all still be pretty relevant! We also talked about the current trend of weird rich guys buying social networks and Ryan shares a theory he has about Netflix. Also, come to our live...
Oct 20, 2022•50 min
This week we’re checking back in on Twitch, the livestreaming platform that just can’t quite seem to figure out how to fit in with the rest of the internet. We’re going through the latest controversies from TwitchCon, including the cursed foam pit. But we’re also, more broadly, talking about why Twitch remains a somewhat niche thing. There was this assumption years ago that Twitch would eventually replace ESPN somehow, but that moment never happened, leaving the platform in a bizarre gray area w...
Oct 14, 2022•46 min
This week we’re talking about what was revealed by Elon Musk’s texts about Twitter. It turns out Elon Musk is not the deep thinker a lot people think he is. It’s not clear he understands how Twitter works or why people use it. And he definitely doesn’t know what two-factor authentication is. Also, Luke gets really mad about a New York Times tweet about cooking breakfast but then tries to act like he’s not actually mad. Also, come to our live show in London next month! SHOW NOTES A full transcrip...
Oct 06, 2022•44 min
This week we’re talking about the very dark times that appear to be fast approaching the world of digital advertising. That may sound kind of boring, but it’s going to have ramifications all over the internet. What happens when the internet’s largest platforms — which are basically just advertising companies — stop being able to effectively sell ads? Also, we spend a lot of time trying to reverse engineer MrBeast’s formula for successfully psychologically torturing random people for ad revenue. ...
Sep 29, 2022•50 min
This week we’re looking forward at the US midterms and the upcoming Brazilian presidential election by looking back at how Meta’s platforms played a role in both four years ago. It may feel like nothing’s changed, but it also feels like we’re in a completely new online world. So we’re curious whether apps like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have the viral power to impact an election in 2022. And if you’d like to vote for us for a Lovie Award, you can do that here . Please help us realize our ...
Sep 23, 2022•51 min
We’re talking about the Queen of England’s death this week. We’re talking about the totally bizarre reactions the American media had and the even more bizarre reactions British society had. Also, yes, we also talk about Tumblr’s reaction. Luke also breaks down the difference between the magic hats and the magic stones and what they mean. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecontentmines.com...
Sep 15, 2022•56 min
You’ve definitely seen these guys. They take what would normally be one very boring LinkedIn post, but turn it into an even duller Twitter thread. What’s the deal? Is it a growth hack? (Yes, probably.) Is it because they crave attention? (For sure.) Is it evil? (Maybe.) But most importantly, what does it say about Twitter as a platform? Also, yes, we talk about the Harry Styles spit video. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus e...
Sep 08, 2022•52 min
We’re talking about A.I. this week! It’s finally gotten good enough that we can actually talk about what a world of “A.I.-based content” might look like. We’re looking into real A.I., extremely fake A.I., and the ethics of making content with A.I. that is normally made by human creators. Is it unethical? Is it even worth worrying about considering we may have already missed a chance to even argue about it? Lot’s of questions this week. Also, speaking of A.I., we should build one that can remove ...
Sep 01, 2022•52 min
We’re back from vacation and all fired up about content! This episode is a big catch-up. We’re talking about the John Fetterman campaign, Dark Brandon, British Four Loko, why millennials love to write serious news stories about fun memes, and, unfortunately, also Andrew Tate, the kickboxer and former Big Brother contestant who was just summarily deplatformed from the internet. We’re asking the question: Will it matter if his fans can still post content about him? If you’re looking for our previo...
Aug 25, 2022•51 min
It’s the end of our summer minisodes! We’ll back to our normal nonsense the week of August 22th. Until then, enjoy our look back at foursquare. Turns out Luke was a Foursquare mayor guy and Ryan really loved using it to get slightly cheaper brunch. We also discovered that Foursquare stopped being fun in both New York and London for the exact same reason — hyper-obsessive weirdos started using it too much. (Cover art courtesy of the Midjourney AI.) This is a public episode. If you would like to d...
Aug 12, 2022•17 min
Welcome to our third vacation episode. We’re talking about the best social media platform ever created, which is Vine, of course. It was like animated GIFs, but with sound. It changed everything. RIP in peace, Vine. Also this is the dog in the car Vine that Ryan was babbling about. (Cover art courtesy of the Midjourney AI.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecontentmines.com...
Aug 05, 2022•13 min
We’re back with another vacation minisode. We’re talking about the dead platform to end all dead platforms. The one, the only Myspace. It’s responsible for more bad haircuts than another other website possibly. It also profoundly altered the way we think about the internet and in many ways set the stage for the TikTok takeover of the 20202s. Stay tuned to see which weird old dead website we’ll resurrect next! (Cover art courtesy of the Midjourney AI.) This is a public episode. If you would like ...
Jul 28, 2022•17 min
Remember Periscope? It was a quirky little livestreaming app that either was or wasn’t part of Twitter depending on the day? There were hearts. There were riots. People streamed their fridges. It was a simpler time. We’re on vacation for the next few weeks, but we’ll be releasing a little miniseries called Dead Platform Summer. The first one is all about Periscope. Stay tuned to see which weird old dead website we’ll resurrect next! (Cover art courtesy of the Midjourney AI.) This is a public epi...
Jul 21, 2022•20 min
We’re on vacation! So this week we’re putting our usually paywalled episode out for free for everyone. Hope you enjoy! We’re talking about the frustrating mess that was Thor: Love And Thunder. We really really wanted to like this movie but boy was it hard to watch. Don’t worry we did try and make this a bit more interesting and talked about the current state of streaming content as a whole in case you don’t care about Marvel. But the episode does have a lot of Marvel talk lol. Also, keep an eye ...
Jul 16, 2022•37 min
This week TikTok is full of videos of Gen Z guys dressing up in suits to watch Minions: The Rise of Gru . The trend is called #Gentleminions. Is it irony? Is it nostalgia? Is it boredom? Why does Gen Z love doing stuff like this so much? And how does it connect to the Binley Mega Chippy and the Summer of Morbius ? As you can see, we have a lot of questions. Press play and find out if we end up with any answers! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or...
Jul 07, 2022•56 min
This week we went deep into a network of news accounts on Twitter called BNN. It turned out to be an insanely confusing rabbit hole and we still have a lot of questions about exactly why the BNN accounts were created and what they’re actually meant to do. But, excitingly, right when we were about to finish this episode a big update happened! So listen to the end to get at least some closure about this very strange pocket of Twitter. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this wit...
Jun 30, 2022•1 hr 10 min
We’re back with one more installment about NFT scammers and hijacked Twitter accounts. We learned a heck of a lot over the last week. We heard from all kinds of people who have lost access to their social media accounts this way and have a few more answers about what’s actually going on here. Also, Ryan has a tense email conversation with a source. SHOW NOTES The crone video The @conspirator0 thread This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access ...
Jun 23, 2022•50 min
