The Internet Promised Creative Freedom. What Happened?

About this episode

Mack Hagood and Julie Shapiro discuss the evolution of creativity in relation to the internet and the challenges faced by creatives in the digital age.

Creativity doesn’t come out of thin air–it evolves in relation to the communities around us and the tools available to us. Some of the most common forms of everyday creative works–memes, podcasts, vertical videos–barely existed a couple of decades ago. And obviously, we can’t ignore the changing economics of creative industries, which wield an outsized influence over what kind of work gets made. Today host Mack Hagood talks to legendary podcast executive Julie Shapiro’s about what it means to be creative in the year 2026, particularly from an audio perspective. Given their shared history in 20th century indie music scenes, they also talk about the ways that indie music and fan culture shaped them–and how practices like zine making shaped the internet as we know it. But does the current shape of the internet promote good creative work and a fulfilling life? In this frank conversation, Mack and Julie discuss the challenges of making a living as a creative and doing fulfilling work when the digital system does its best to prevent those things. In our members-only version of the podcast, Mack and Julie discuss the turn to video podcasting and in the What's Good segment, Julie…

People in this episode

Host: Mack Hagood

Guest: Julie Shapiro

Topics covered

• creative freedom
• internet culture
• audio creativity
• indie music
• fan culture
• digital economy

Keywords

• creativity
• internet
• podcasting
• indie music
• fan culture
• digital economy
• zine making
• audio perspective

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection, Ear Hustle

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