Jake Shapiro

[jakeshapiro]

S-Town – Chapter I – 53:00

“If you keep your mouth shut, you’ll be surprised what you can learn.”

[jakeshapiro]

Oh man, tasty treat for my 13 year old Eddie-worshipping self. 

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More mainstream economists now find that the income mal-distribution reflects the political sway of elites, not economic imperatives.

[jakeshapiro]

Chris Rock’s Opening Oscar Monologue: A Transcript

The host of the 88th Academy Awards asks, Is Hollywood racist?

[jakeshapiro]

It’s also, I would say, the mission of public broadcasting to tell us stories that help us empathize and help us feel less crazy and less separate. And just, you know, go straight to your heart. [Music swells and ends.]

http://current.org/2016/02/tips-from-ira-glass-on-better-radio/

[jakeshapiro]

If personalization risks exacerbating political polarization, where can constructive cross-partisan exchange occur online? One of my favorite discoveries while researching The Filter Bubble was that constructive cross-partisan conversations occurred in two unlikely places: message boards for sports teams and fan space for the television series Lost. The fact that people shared something in common, e.g., they were all Giants fans, created a trusted space for open disagreement about race, class, and other delicate social issues. When united by a common reference point, people are more apt to engage with ideas than in an adversarial, debate-focused context.

http://blog.fastforwardlabs.com/post/137812811593/eli-pariser-on-the-ethics-of-algorithmic-filtering

[jakeshapiro]

New Ways Into the Brain’s ‘Music Room’

M.I.T. researchers have devised a radical approach to brain imaging that reveals what past studies missed about neural responses to music.

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Grieving David Bowie, a True Rock Star in Life and in Death

Our music critic mourns the loss of David Bowie, a rock star so committed to his post that he soundtracked his own death.

[beingblog]

How can you not be inspired by Aretha? She’s still carrying the mantle…

[jakeshapiro]

Why is the media so afraid of Facebook?

This year, in lieu of the traditional Best Of Lists, we thought it would be fun to throw our editors and writers into a draft together and have a conversation. Here are Nilay Patel and Casey Newton...

“Maybe democracy will be just fine if all of us ignore politics and just keep scrolling through Mustang pics forever — but if you’re Facebook, is that really an A/B test you want to run?”

[jakeshapiro]

The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2015

Just in time for your holiday travel needs

Great list - and many from @radiotopia-blog

[jakeshapiro]

[continuations]

Crowdfunding Is More Likely to Replace Ads Than Micropayments

The rollout of iOS 9 and along with it adblocking plugins for mobile Safari has re-ignited the debate over the ethics of removing ads from pages. Marco Arment who released the paid Peace adblocker previously wrote a piece laying out his views arguing that publishers have crossed a line with ads and trackers that are too intrusive and disruptive. In response there are now pieces bemoaning the end of independent publishers and the web altogether. And inevitably micropayments are proposed as an alternative to ads.

I continue to be skeptical though that micropayments are the right way to finance content. The reason can be found in Kenneth Arrow’s work on the “information paradox” from 1962! I don’t know how much a piece of content will be worth to me, so I am not willing to pay for it until I have read it. But then of course I have already consumed the content and now my willingness to pay for it drops radically.

This insight explains why it is so difficult to charge for small pieces of content. Their value will vary widely across readers and ex ante any one reader doesn’t know the value. It also explains why it is a lot easier to charge for say a blockbuster movie or a big production value video game – there are enough potential customers who anticipate enjoying the content enough that they are wiling to pay the price *before* experiencing the content. Finally, this also explains why charging for a subscription bundle is a superior strategy for some types of content, such as Netflix and HBO – for some math see this paper by Yannis Bakos and Erik Brynjolfsson.

All the talk about how the actual costs of making a payments are the reason why micropayments haven’t taken off is therefore likely a red herring. Even newfangled super low transaction cost blockchain based systems do not get around Arrow’s Information Paradox.

How then is journalism to be financed? As I wrote in 2014, I continue to believe that crowdfunding is the answer. Since then great progress has been made by Beaconreader, Kickstarter’s Journalism category, and also Patreon. Together the amounts are still small but it is early days. Apple’s decision to support these adblockers may well help accelerate the growth of crowdfunding and that would be a good thing – I don’t like slow page loads and distracting ads but I will happily support content creation directly (just highly unlikely to do so through micropayments while reading). All of this provides one more reason to support Universal Basic Income – a floor for every content creator and also more people who can participate in crowdfunding.

Update: Follow-up post on subscriptions and micropayments

[jakeshapiro]

One-Tap Giving? Extra Steps Mire Mobile Donations

Mobile apps can be used to summon a car or order food with a simple tap, but making a charitable donation is not as easy.

Glad to see this given another look by NYT

““I have had hope, and still do, that Tim Cook will bring more of a philanthropic orientation to the company,” said Jake Shapiro, chief executive of the public radio distributor PRX, who has written about the issue himself.”

[jakeshapiro]

Radiotopia, a public radio podcast network, nets $1M to expand

A year and change after launching, the public-radio-style podcasting network Radiotopia has netted a $1 million grant from the Knight Foundation to expand its operations.