Posting sh*t and riding it out
My monkey brain can't handle all this content
In addition to the regular podcast content, I’m also using this new home on Substack to spill out whatever is in my mind and share some things that don’t go into the podcast either because they are too dark or they maybe just don’t make any sense.
Something I’ve talked about briefly on air is my working theory that one reason social media and technology-at-large feels increasingly dehumanizing is because its growth accelerated faster than our monkey brains could have ever hoped of keeping up. Our favorite products are designed to get us hooked—which is especially crippling if you are predisposed to get addicted to things like I am and have to be super careful with anything you end up liking. The applications feed our worst instincts by design, and if it destroys your self-awareness and humanity than congratulations you are what we call in the biz an “end product.”
We log on and wait for moments of hilarity and inspiration, and kill the time with self-congratulatory navel gazing. But that’s not me! Sure, bub. It’s all of us here.
I’ve been listening to a new album from Pup that Luke O’Neil’s newsletter turned me on to. Specifically, I’ve been fixated on the song Scorpion Hill.
And if the world is gonna burn
Everyone should get a turn to light it up
This album, Morbid Thoughts, captures a certain dread shared by many people my age. We’re “killing” industries because we’re so damn poor and every time we ask for maybe some better wages or healthcare or something to maybe help us out a little bit we’re “seeking handouts” (or even worse, s o c i a l i s m). There’s a certain disbelief to the whole scenario. It’s hard to understand how things got here or where they could possibly go. But for now, I’m just going to complain a little bit and we’ll all enjoy some posts together.
For all the existential dread, the internet provides us some great nibbles of greatness. A group chat I’m in on Twitter, for example, received the endorsement of a presidential candidate. How was your weekend?
The internet also keeps us safe.
And Twitter did grant me a blue check mark over the weekend, which means my experience is mostly the same but now I’m additionally hated because there is an icon attached to my name. But overall, it’s net positive I guess, since I’m able to get the website to take threats against my life more seriously now.
People are getting famous for weird things now, but perhaps they always had been. Folks have embraced their inner cowboys and cowgals (this is almost certainly not what they call themselves). And hey, I have a newsletter now.
We’re dropping the latest episode of the podcast tonight and we’re talking about Canadian politics and white nationalism. Who knew Canada was also so broken with the same kind of far-right trash we’ve got in America? They were supposed to be the polite ones!
We’re still in the formalization stages of getting this whole Substack thing worked out. If you like what you read, or listen to the show, I’d appreciate if you—
*begins rattling tin cup*
—subscribed to this podcast and paid the $5 a month for the bonus content: newsletters, extended interviews, monthly Discord group chats, etc. You can also pay $50 per year and save a few bucks if you’re a real Holt Head™. The first few editions of this newsletter will be free, but it will be extending longer and hiding behind a paywall beginning in May.
Maybe I’ll kill one less industry if you subscribe. Maybe I’ll order some avocado toast. Or maybe, I’ll keep making content for you so that you can occasionally enjoy some time off of these websites without fear of missing out.
Contact me here, if you’d like: shtpostpodcast@gmail.com