Episode 139

I spoke with Evan Ratliff about:

* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast, where he creates an AI voice clone of himself and sets it loose.

* The end of the Longform Podcast and his thoughts on the state of journalism.

Enjoy!

Evan is an award-winning investigative journalist, bestselling author, podcast host, and entrepreneur. He’s the author of the The Mastermind: A True Story of Murder, Empire, and a New Kind of Crime Lord; the writer and host of the hit podcasts Shell Game and Persona: The French Deception; and the cofounder of The Atavist Magazine, Pop-Up Magazine, and the Longform Podcast. As a writer, he’s a two-time National Magazine Award finalist. As an editor and producer, he’s a two-time Emmy nominee and National Magazine Award winner.

Find me on Twitter for updates on new episodes, and reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions.

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Outline:

* (00:00 ) Intro

* (01:05 ) Evan’s ambitious and risky projects

* (04:45 ) Wearing different personas as a journalist

* (08:31 ) Boundaries and acceptability in using voice agents

* (11:42 ) Impacts on other people

* (13:12 ) “The kids these days” — how will new technologies impact younger people?

* (17:12 ) Evan’s approach to children’s technology use

* (20:05 ) Techno-solutionism and improvements in medicine, childcare

* (24:15 ) Evan’s perspective on simulations of people

* (27:05 ) On motivations for building tech startups

* (30:42 ) Evan’s outlook for Shell Game’s impact and motivations for his work

* (36:05 ) How Evan decided to write for a career

* (40:02 ) How voice agents might impact our conversations

* (43:52 ) Evan’s experience with Longform and podcasting

* (47:15 ) Perspectives on doing good interviews

* (52:11 ) Mimicking and inspiration, developing style

* (57:15 ) Writers and their motivations, the state of longform journalism

* (1:06:15 ) The internet and writing

* (1:09:41 ) On the ending of Longform

* (1:19:48 ) Outro

Links:

* Evan’s homepage and Twitter

* Shell Game, Evan’s new podcast

* Longform Podcast

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