{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The General Podcast","title":"Chris Best (Substack) x Andrew Mayne (OpenAI) on the economics of culture","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2320,"description":"Chris Best is the co-founder and CEO of Substack, the platform powering the rise of independent writers, podcasters, and thinkers. At Substack, Chris has reimagined what sustainable media looks like, putting creators at the center.\nAndrew Mayne is the host of the OpenAI podcast and was previously the company’s first prompt engineer and science communicator, where he helped shape how people interact with and understand large language models in the earliest days of GPT-3. 3. He’s also a mystery-thriller novelist and the founder of Interdimensional, a company helping organizations deploy AI.\n\nTogether, they unpack how technology rewires culture, creativity, and even capitalism—from the birth of ChatGPT to the flood of “AI slop,” from the evolution of media business models to what makes human expression irreplaceable.\nIt’s a conversation that circles around the economics of culture and the future of originality as creating art becomes more and more accessible. \nIn this conversation, you’ll learn:\nThe inside story of ChatGPT’s creation \nWhy frictionless product experiences matter more than technical breakthroughs\nHow Substack’s “do everything but the hard part” philosophy for building products empowers creators \nWhat happens when business models consume products, and how to resist that gravity \nHow AI is accelerating Substack’s core bet: that authenticity will always outperform algorithms \nWhy AI-generated content won’t replace human stories \nWhy “all economics are downstream of culture”\nWhy Substack made subscribers portable and what that decision meant for trust\nWhy writers should see AI as an amplifier instead of a threat\nThe case for optimism: why artists, technologists, and media builders should embrace our emerging cultural renaissance.\nReferenced in this episode:\nBrandon Sanderson’s record-breaking Kickstarter\nThe Industrial Revolution\nIndia’s License Raj\nAvatar 2\nReboot, the TV show\nMechanic’s Institute\nMesopotamia and the invention of the plow\nWhere to find...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/N-1p3XIEyEjCUxWdYitTH0E15NVtmrVv5g7qxd9tinc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80Yjhh/ODEyMDcyZDY5OTE4/NDhiMzFlY2Y3N2E2/MTNiYi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}