Never Post

Welcome to my hometown. First episode in early 2024.

Become a member at https://neverpo.st

Thanks to our guests Michael, Rob, Amanda, Vanessa, Tara, Jason and Bijan
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Creators & Guests

Host
Mike Rugnetta
Host of Never Post. Creator of Fun City, Reasonably Sound, Idea Channel and other internet things.
GH
Producer
Georgia Hampton
Producer
Hans Buetow
Independent Senior Audio Producer. Formerly with Terrible, Thanks for Asking and The New York Times
JO
Producer
Jason Oberholzer

What is Never Post?

A podcast about and for the internet, hosted by Mike Rugnetta

I love … the internet.

[sound collage]

I know this is probably a complicated thing to say, today – given, you know, everything.

[sound collage]

But it’s true. I do. I really love it. I’ve been telling people, for years, it’s sort of like … my home town. [sitcom music] It’s where I grew up, it’s where I work, it’s where so many of my friends are and in a lot of ways it’s where THEY’RE from, too. And I guess … y’know, [sitcom music fades to INF] as much as you LOVE your hometown, you’re also probably critical of it, and more than a little embarrassed by it. So, this all checks out -- the internet is my home town.

I love the internet as a place, a piece of technology and also, conceptually [music begins]: as a set of protocols that … link stuff. That connect things; massive numbers of things in surprising, illuminating, confounding, and yes occasionally ENRAGING ways. The human experience is vast and so I guess of course it is vast also … online [music is interrupted by a Windows Error sound]

I wanted to make a show about all of this; I have for a long time: [music begins again] a show not just about the internet specifically, but for the internet – demonstrating and sharing a love of it through its complexity, and all the ways it puts vastly different things in close proximity. Taking that idea, and making it a piece of media – that does the very thing it is about.

[music swells a bit]

This is that show. It’s called … Never Post.

[music ends, and picks back up with a different beat]

We’ve conceived of Never Post as a kind of … local newspaper for the internet. Not really a place for breaking news, but nonetheless, a place to talk about whats going on and why … an outlet that gives a voice to all the weirdos that make a town. A way for a locality – however amorphous – to talk to itself about … all kinds of things. Current events:

MICHAEL: The thing that’s been happening over the last 12 months in the world of AI law is the same thing that’s been happening in the last 12 months in the world of AI in everything else.

ROB: A lot has changed over the past five or six years, as streaming has become the sort of dominant fashion of the kind of content creation conglomerate.

local infrastructure:

AMANDA: you trust that the algorithm is there to give you the best information, when maybe the algorithm is there to make the most money.

and public opinion

VANESSA: I think influencer is a dirtier word than sellout.

We’ll challenge, and surprise one another, of course

TARA: There is also this feeling of anxiety; I don't know how I'm supposed to feel!

But I think there’s a lot we’ll see eye to eye on:

JASON: What if …they’re right?

BIJAN: I think it’s an unfortunate consequence of living on an internet that needs to make a ton of money.

[MIKE]: I don’t want to … show you the internet. You’ve already seen it. I don’t want to … explain it to you. You already understand it. And I don’t want to bring you things from it, like they’re strange artifacts from some distant, weird, foreign place… because it’s not. I want us to look at the internet … and try to understand whats happening with, and on, and to it … together. So that we can … complain about it, so that we can make it better. And occasionally for no reason other than its … fun.

I hope you’ll join me.

Oh! I’m Mike Rugnetta, by the way. Nice to meet you.

Welcome to my home town.