INFLUENCE

Latest Episodes:

148 Unnecessary Inventions Sep 28, 2020

Show notes

Matty Benedetto is a product designer by training, but his sense of humor led him to a life of hilarious content creation instead.

Benedetto builds Unnecessary Inventions, ingenious products that solve urgent problems you don’t actually have — like a drink holder for your shoe, or an alarm clock that snoozes itself so you won’t be bothered in the morning. His fake products (and their crisp photos and videos) are so popular that he’s garnered 4 million followers across social media, and a vast community of invention enthusiasts who either really want to buy these ridiculous items, or can’t stop suggesting bad inventions. Alli and Jen talk to Benedetto about where his weekly inspiration comes from, why it’s so hard to think of a problem that doesn’t exist, and what happens when real brands get involved in the fake product business.

https://www.unnecessaryinventions.com/

https://www.instagram.com/unnecessaryinventions/

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147 One In an ARMY (BTS / K-Pop Fandom Charity) Sep 21, 2020

Show notes

Global K-pop music sensation BTS’ charity efforts with Unicef and other foundations has empowered fans to make positive change in the world.

The BTS fandom is known as an “ARMY,” and the global volunteer collective One In an ARMY has become an engine of charitable giving, cause awareness, and social change.

When One In an ARMY mobilizes for a cause, K-pop stans flood social media with micro-donations and hashtags, raising thousands of dollars for the Syrian refugee crisis, Iraqi civilians, coral reef preservation, and the Black Lives Matter movement.

In all, they’ve raised more than $2 million for “actionable causes” — organizations that turn donations into tangible results. The fandom is so powerful that it often overwhelms charitable organizations, breaks non-profit websites (in a good way!), and swoops in to solve problems even governments are unable (or unwilling) to address.

This week, Alli and Jen talk with Erika, an admin from One In an ARMY, about how a fan community became a massive non-profit operation, and why the BTS singers themselves are key in turning their fandom toward important causes.

One In An ARMY: https://www.oneinanarmy.org/

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146 Solo Female Traveler Network Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

While traveling alone in Mexico, Amanda Black was robbed. She felt violated, scared, and didn't know where to turn in a foreign county with no friends or family. That's when she realized the need for an online support network -- a place where women traveling alone can get advice, and in some cases, urgent help.

She founded the Solo Female Traveler Network in 2016, and thousands of women joined immediately, sharing similar stories of vulnerability. Today, the Facebook group and website count more than 420,000 members, and it's become a place of empowerment for women traveling the globe.

Alli and Jen talk to Black about the unique challenges women face when traveling, the discouraging responses from friends and family when women decide to travel, and some amazing stories of how this online community saved the day in an IRL crisis.

https://thesolofemaletravelernetwork.com/

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145 Get a Pen Pal Sep 07, 2020

Show notes

Email, texting, and social media have made our world smaller. But have we lost something in the age of instant messages?

Maksim Jovovic created the website Get A Pen Pal, a place to match with someone interesting from anywhere in the world and engage in slow, deliberate letter-writing. Sure, the communication is still digital, but these "letters" take days to go back and forth, use collectible stamps, and encourage rich communication, rather than just, "sup?"

Alli and Jen ask Jovovic about his inspiration for the site, the community that's growing there, and why now is the perfect time to rekindle the magic of corresponding with pen pals.

https://www.getapenpal.net/

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144 What Makes a Great Online Community? Aug 31, 2020

Show notes

Online communities (sometimes the only communities we have during a pandemic) can be magical places. Friendships forged, insights shared, and fun had by all. They can also become toxic, shouty cesspools. Why do some succeed while others devolve into chaos?

Alli and Jen talk with Anika Gupta, a journalist who studied online community structures for her book How to Handle a Crowd: The Art of Creating Healthy and Dynamic Online Communities.

Gupta shares the key to healthy moderation, the social norms of different platforms, why scale makes things complicated, and what online platforms can do to help communities thrive and protect vulnerable members.

Follow Anika: https://twitter.com/digitalanika

Get the Book: https://www.amazon.com/How-Handle-Crowd-Creating-Communities/dp/1982132310

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[Encore Episode] 46 The Women Editing Thousands of Wikipedia Articles in a Quest for Gender Parity (Originally Published Aug 20, 2018) Aug 24, 2020

Show notes

This episode was originally published on August 20, 2018 (2 years ago, whoa!)

For countless historical and social reasons, most of the people editing Wikipedia are white men. This has led to broad bias across the world's de facto repository of online knowledge. But a loose affiliation of women are making up the ground by writing and editing the biographies of historically significant women and minorities who might otherwise be overlooked by academic or popular culture. Alli and Jen speak with Rosie Stephenson Goodknight, a lauded Wikipedian with more than 4000 articles to her credit.

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143 The space cemetery in 'EVE Online' Aug 17, 2020

Show notes

Alli and Jen speak with Jason Marshall, a veteran player of the MMO 'EVE Online' about the game's 15-year-old player-run space graveyard.

The Molea cemetery has been operating since 2004, and not only contains the frozen corpses of killed space pilots, but graves that mark the deaths of lost loved ones in real life — friends, family members, pets, and other players.

In June of this year, the developers of 'EVE' formally recognized this player accomplishment by adding a massive, permanent memorial to the system. Marshall explains how the cemetery got started, why players care so much about transporting their clone corpses to virtual graves, how the team fended off attacks from the notorious Goonswarm Alliance, and the first time a player requested a grave for a real person.

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142 How Does Wikipedia Actually Work? Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

We all use Wikipedia on a daily basis, but do you really know how humanity’s largest organized body of knowledge gets made? Alli and Jen talk with Bill Beutler, a longtime Wikipedia editor and the author of The Wikipedian, a blog about Wikipedia culture. He’s also the CEO of Beutler Ink, a consultancy which advises clients and public figures on the ethical way to address inaccuracies on Wikipedia.

Beutler explains the dynamic and rigorous process that happens behind the scenes of controversial Wikipedia articles, how Wikipedians are handling information about COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, the ever-present specter of bias, and how the entire Internet would be different if Wikipedia operated as a for-profit company.

The Wikipedian: http://thewikipedian.net/

Beutler Ink: https://www.beutlerink.com/

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141 The Church of Universal Suffrage Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

Alli and Jen speak with Tim Jacobs, the founding minister of The Church of Universal Suffrage, a legally recognized religion that hosts “weekly meditation on the nature of voter suppression,” and observes every voting day in the U.S. as a religious holiday, which — legally speaking — affords church members some handy privileges, like the right to take the day off from work.

Jacobs explains how the church was inspired by a Reddit discussion about several states stifling vote-by-mail efforts. Since then, the non-profit organization has spread to all 50 states and many countries around the world, with all of its holy worship done online through community and voter advocacy efforts. We also discuss how easy it is to create a real religion in the U.S., why we don’t celebrate voting enough, and how you can get involved to ensure your friends, neighbors and community have access to the vote.

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140 Flea Market Flippers (With Rob & Melissa Stephenson) Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Mercari, Craigslist ... there's no shortage of apps to buy and sell random stuff.

But if you live and breathe these marketplaces, you can identify opportunities to buy low and sell high. What starts as an exhilarating hobby can turn into a full-time job if you know what you're doing.

That's how Rob and Melissa Stephenson make their living. By leveraging their knowledge of certain product categories (home exercise equipment, heavy machinery) and tapping into the internet's 24/7 global marketpalce, they've been able to "flip" a wide variety of items, often for 10-20x profit.

Rob and Melissa join Alli and Jen to discuss their journey from a work-a-day family to full-time flippers making six figures from the comfort of their smartphones. They share practical advice on how to get started, the rise of the flipping community, and the explosive market demand while everyone's stuck at home during a pandemic.

Follow Rob & Melissa: https://fleamarketflipper.com/

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