Brian Droitcour is a professional art critic, and a Yelp user. In 2012 he started using the popular review site to post his reactions to galleries and museums, using a distinctly un-art world-y voice. This week, Brian sits down with TLDR to talk about art, online criticism, parties and his unusual project. To read Brian's Yelp reviews, click here . To check out Fifteen Stars, Brian's project for the New Museum, click here . If you like our show, please subscribe and review us on iTunes , or wher...
Mar 05, 2015•10 min•Ep. 49
CJ Philips and Charlie Rainwater bought JebBushforPresident.com back in 2008 -- but not because they're huge Bush fans or want to sell the address at a markup. With the 2016 election approaching, the pair have launched the site as a place for discussion, with a focus the URL might not suggest. This week, CJ and Charlie tell TLDR about what inspired their initial purchase, their plans for JebBushforPresident.com, and what a CJ and Charlie presidency would look like. To join the discussion at JebB...
Feb 26, 2015•13 min•Ep. 48
The last episode of TLDR was titled "Quiet, Wadhwa." It concerned a man named Vivek Wadhwa, but we did not ask him for comment. The episode was later removed. This week we look at the controversy we've become a part of and our role in it. To read Amelia Greenhall's original blog post, titled "Quiet, Ladies. @wadhwa is speaking," click here . To read Greenhall's post-podcast removal follow up, titled "I wrote about Vivek Wadhwa and you'll never guess what happened next!," click here . To read Viv...
Feb 19, 2015•24 min•Ep. 47
Charlotte Shane writes a TinyLetter called Prostitute Laundry, writing frankly and lyrically about her feelings, her relationships, her body and her sex lives -- both personal and professional. This week TLDR looks into women writing personal, voice-driven newsletters, sitting down with Charlotte, as well as writer Meaghan O'Connell, to talk about the kind of writing that you want delivered straight to your inbox. To sign up for the Prostitute Laundry TinyLetter, click here . Meaghan O'Connell's...
Jan 29, 2015•10 min•Ep. 46
"Sweepers" are people who spend their free time entering hundreds of online sweepstakes -- the contests most of us skip because we're sure they're all scams. It turns out, we're wrong. Some people win big. Sandra Grauschopf is About.com's Contests and Sweepstakes Expert. You can visit her website, http://contests.about.com , to learn all you need to know about sweepstakes, and to check out what other sweepers have to say in About.com’s contests and sweepstakes forums. You can order Don Cruz's bo...
Jan 22, 2015•9 min•Ep. 45
If you've ever been a bridesmaid, in a sorority, or just been friends with two or more women, you have probably received an off-the-wall planning email or two. Caroline Moss and Michelle Markowitz have been parodying these chains for The Toast since August 2013, in a series called Hey Ladies . This week on TLDR, the cast of Hey Ladies Live comes together to show us how much effort goes into organizing one, simple St. Patrick's Day on the town. Thanks for listening. You can find Caroline and Mich...
Jan 16, 2015•14 min•Ep. 44
When Will Rogers discovered GodTube.com, he was bothered by the idea of Christians segregating themselves from the larger cultural conversation. So he set out to start a dialogue. Meredith talks to Will about his GodTube.com videos, what he wanted to communicate, and the people he met. Thanks for listening. You can read Will's essay about Godtube at The Kernel. If you like our show, please subscribe and review us on iTunes , or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Meredith and TLD...
Jan 08, 2015•13 min•Ep. 43
Susan Miller, proprietor of Astrology Zone , is the biggest name in internet astrology. Her fans are many and devoted, and among them are both Meredith and Laura Mayer (this week's co-investigator). This week marks Miller's 19th year reading the stars online. Meredith and Laura look into her enduring appeal with the help of Emily Gould, Jon Methven, and Kate McKean. Thanks for listening. Emily , Jon , and Kate are all on Twitter. If you like our show, please subscribe and review us on iTunes , o...
Dec 18, 2014•9 min•Ep. 42
The first message you send to a Tinder match can determine the rest of your relationship. To ease this pressure, some men on the internet have taken to their favorite forums to crowdsource the perfect opening line. Meredith evaluates their results. Thanks for listening. You can see the article this episode was based on at The Daily Dot . If you like our show, please subscribe and review us on iTunes , or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also follow Meredith and TLDR on Twitter....
Dec 11, 2014•8 min•Ep. 41
For the past three years Alanah Pearce has been reviewing video games on YouTube. Like other women doing just about anything publicly online, she gets harassed, and in the past she just hasn't replied. But recently Alanah got fed up with not responding at all, and did some digging, which led her to a whole new way to deal with her harassers.
Dec 04, 2014•7 min•Ep. 40
In the late nineties Leah Reich was working for the video game website IGN, which was the most popular website on the internet for 13 to 18 year old boys at the time. She started reading and responding to the site's mailbag, and before she knew it she had become the trusted advisor for thousands of lonely teenaged boys. This week PJ (who was one of those boys) talks to Leah about the trials and rewards of being a counselor to confused, budding nerds....
Oct 15, 2014•15 min•Ep. 39
In the late nineties Leah Reich was working for the video game website IGN, which was the most popular website on the internet for 13 to 18 year old boys at the time. She started reading and responding to the site's mailbag, and before she knew it she had become the trusted advisor for thousands of lonely teenaged boys. This week PJ (who was one of those boys) talks to Leah about the trials and rewards of being a counselor to confused, budding nerds....
Oct 15, 2014•15 min•Ep. 38
On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Police released a video of some unidentified suspects in a brutal attack on a gay couple . Within a few hours, a Philly sports fan and his online friends had identified some of the people in the video without the blizzard of false accusations that usually accompany an online investigation. Alex speaks to "Fan Since 09" about how he managed to corral a online mob into potentially solving a crime....
Sep 17, 2014•7 min•Ep. 37
Rapper Childish Gambino (A.K.A actor Donald Glover) famously claims to have received his rap pseudonym, "Childish Gambino," from an online Wu-Tang Name generator. But investigating whether this story is true or not led TLDR host Alex Goldman on an odyssey of discovery.
Sep 15, 2014•12 min•Ep. 36
This week, hackers stole and published naked photos of female celebrities. Forbes reporter Kashmir Hill has covered stories like this before, but she says that this latest example has completely changed her mind about who to blame for these thefts and how to prevent them.
Sep 03, 2014•7 min•Ep. 35
Steve Terrill is a journalist who works in Rwanda. Or at least he worked in Rwanda, until he accidentally got the office of Rwanda's president Paul Kagame to implicate itself in a long-running online harassment campaign. Alex talks to Steve about inadvertently exposing the Rwandan government's most prolific troll, and being banned from the country as a result.
Aug 18, 2014•13 min•Ep. 34
A few weeks ago, writer Katie Notopoulos created a holiday called Unfollow a Man Day , wherein everyone (women and men) was encouraged to Unfollow a Man on social media. Men's rights activists were enraged, cable news was intrigued, and a lot of people felt quiet relief. This week PJ talks to Katie about her mission and her manifesto.
Aug 07, 2014•9 min•Ep. 33
This week, dating site OK Cupid put up a blog post describing experiments it conducted on its users. In one experiment, the site told users who were bad matches for one another that they were actually good matches, and vice versa. Alex and PJ talk to OK Cupid President and co-founder Christian Rudder about the ubiquity of online user experimentation and his defense of potentially sending OK Cupid's users on bad dates....
Jul 31, 2014•14 min•Ep. 32
Whether you think the internet is a great or terrible place is partly a reflection of which parts of the internet you choose to visit. It's also a reflection of who you are, and how people online react to you. Mikki Kendall is a writer who deals with an extraordinary amount of trolling and vitriol online. Mikki is a black woman in real life, and she created an experiment to see how her online life would change if she were a white man.
Jul 17, 2014•10 min•Ep. 31
Last month, documents surfaced that showed a company called the Internet Research Agency was paying people in Russia to go to an office and post pro-Kremlin comments all day . Alex talks to Buzzfeed's Max Seddon about why they do it, and how successful they actually are at swaying public opinion.
Jun 26, 2014•11 min•Ep. 30
Rob Dubbin accidentally built a teenage girl named Olivia Taters who lives on the internet. She may not always communicate in complete sentences, but she's convincing enough that teenagers actually converse with her. Also, she's very, very funny. PJ talks to Dubbin about how Olivia came into existence, and what she's been talking about lately.
Jun 18, 2014•10 min•Ep. 29
In February of this year, Philip Welsh of Silver Spring, Maryland, was murdered. His murder remains unsolved , largely because he didn't use the internet, and left no digital trail. Alex talks to Philip's family and reporter Dan Morse about the case.
Jun 05, 2014•10 min•Ep. 28
A couple weeks ago, Matt Haughey, the founder of TLDR's favorite website, Metafilter , announced that his website is dying. And he says it's because Google algorithmically stopped directing traffic to the site over a year ago . Alex tries to figure out what you do when Google's algorithm decides it no longer likes you.
Jun 02, 2014•11 min•Ep. 27
Most people use social networks to present themselves as happier than they really are - it's hard to get an honest read on anyone. But writer Charlie Warzel believes there's a secret method you can use to find out how someone is actually feeling online. On TLDR this week, we try to use Charlie's method to divine the secret heart of Drake, the rapper.
May 23, 2014•8 min•Ep. 26
Kim Correa loves the online game DayZ, which lets you interact with other humans during a zombie apocalypse. DayZ's appeal is that it allows weird, spontaneous interactions between players. It also allows really terrible ones. Kim talks about her experience of being raped in a virtual world -- something she doesn't quite know what to do with. We also talk to writer Julian Dibbel, who wrote about how one online community dealt with a virtual rape back in 1993.
May 08, 2014•11 min•Ep. 25
In 2005, Alex Tew was a 21-year-old entrepreneur who wanted to make a million dollars before college. The only problem was he had literally nothing of value to sell. So he made The Million Dollar Homepage -- possibly the most ambitiously garish website ever created.
May 01, 2014•7 min•Ep. 24
When Wired reporter Andy Greenberg read Newsweek's cover story claiming to have found mysterious Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, he was disappointed. Not so much that the mystery had been solved, but that the answer to the search was not all that interesting. But then, as the Newsweek started getting picked apart, he got a tip about another possible Bitcoin creator: a very ill, very brilliant cryptographer named Hal Finney. Andy Greenberg is the author of This Machine Kills Secrets : How WikiL...
Apr 24, 2014•11 min•Ep. 23
Earlier this week, a commenter named Y. Woodman Brown posted his online passwords in the Washington Post comments section to show just how little his online security mattered to him. It was quickly picked up by the press as an example of online security hubris. Naturally, we had to find him. Alex talks to Y. Woodman Brown and the person who hijacked his Twitter account after the passwords were posted....
Apr 18, 2014•12 min•Ep. 22
Continuing our expose into the very hush-hush world of Silence, we look at an app that promises to deliver you four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence. PJ talks to Larry Larson, who helped design the 4'33" app.
Apr 10, 2014•9 min•Ep. 21
Update: Vulfpeck received an email from Spotify asking the band to remove "Sleepify" from Spotify. See our update here . A band called Vulfpeck has asked fans to stream an entire album of silence on Spotify while they sleep, so the band can use the royalties to tour without charging for their shows. So far, the scheme has worked. We talk to Vulfpeck's Jack Stratton about hustling as a musician on the internet....
Apr 03, 2014•7 min•Ep. 20
