A Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Conversation

solana sits down with ben smith and kmele foster for a conversation about the rise and fall of new media, internet censorship, threads vs. twitter, and the future of the press

A little over a month ago Pirate Wires launched a weekly news program, and right out of the gate it was a ton of fun to produce. But this is the week we really hit our stride, and while I don’t typically blast the show to all of our subscribers, I want to spotlight this conversation with Ben Smith and Kmele Foster. Quick note before we get into it: if you like what we’re doing here, it’s important you subscribe to our channel on YouTube. Rate us, comment on the video, and share this with your friends. If you’re more of a soundcel, check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen to your pods.

Now, onto the mostly peaceful conversation.

Ben is the former editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News, author of the book Traffic — a history of New Media’s birth and crash — and the founder of Semafor, a new new media company of a quite different sort. Kmele is a cofounder of Freethink, and hosts a great show called the Fifth Column.

TOPICS: the New York Times’ stunning, total victory over the new media darlings (Gawker, Buzzfeed, and every gender in between (Vice)); the improbable rise of subscriptions; algorithmic homogenization (or, every writer at every dumb new media company sounds like the same idiot because they’ve been trained to sound like the same idiot by a robot); trump is unfortunately very funny; elon; threads vs. twitter; the importance of a social media platform that stands apart from the One Party (or not, ben v. solana on the topic); a heated pivot to January 6th (we made it out okay I think); and the future of media.

I’m embedding the entire video here because I care about you folks and know a lot of you find a click exhausting, but if you love me you’ll raise the flag on YouTube. Again — last plug I promise — your subscription to our show actually does matter, as it influences the trolls that live in our machines, and floats our show to the top of the heap. Subscribe, or die. I’ll be answering comments all day.

Onward.

-Solana