Lessons Learned, Survey Results, Season 2 Update, and More!

Jul 25

Introduction:
Welcome. You've got…Digital Folklore.
Perry Carpenter:
I'm Perry Carpenter.
Mason Amadeus:
I'm Mason Amadeus.
[Digital Folklore glitchy sounds throughout Perry and Mason doing these next intro bits]
Perry Carpenter:
This is something about Digital Folklore, the podcast.
Mason Amadeus:
This is the people who make the Digital Folklore podcast.
[Audio glitch sounds stop. No further sound design other than transitions to ad breaks]
Perry Carpenter:
We are here. We're going to try to talk about Season One, what we learned. Try to talk about what we're going to do in Season Two. And then, we're also going to talk about survey responses that we got from that call that you put out.
I'm interested, Mason, from the time that we started development of this show through the launching of Season One, through the mid of Season One, and the end of Season One, what did you learn?
Mason Amadeus:
It was... We had quite a bit of a roller coaster. Also, my personal life throughout the entire run of it was a bit of a rollercoaster. Because, over the course of starting Season One and... From the point where we started Season One to the end of Season One, I changed jobs. I had someone who was in a bit of a medical situation living with us and we were caretaking for them. And then, I moved states. And, all of that was over the course of producing and releasing the first season. It was an absolute chaotic whirlwind and I learned a lot about folklore throughout the process and also a lot about just how much goes into making a show of this level. It's just you and me.
Perry Carpenter:
Right.
Mason Amadeus:
It's just me and Perry. I write and then, obviously, co-host in edit, sound design. Perry, you are scheduling all of the guests, maintaining the social media, you are going to conferences, you're making all of these connections.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. There's a ton of moving parts. And, I think when people see, "Oh, this is distributed by a network," they assume that there's a lot of stuff that comes with that. But, in reality, the benefit of having a network behind us at this point isn't that they're investing money, because they're not. It is that they open up a few relationships and they open up a few potential advertising possibilities. But, like you said, you and I are the ones doing a hundred percent of the lift of producing this. If I were to ask you for the story driven episodes, the ones with all the sound design and everything else, how many hours... to put in, let's add the scheduling of the guests and everything else onto that. It's usually-
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. I mean, editing down one of those interviews, I think a good one that runs pretty smoothly and the audio quality we got was really good, say the person had a good microphone, like Paul Prater. Being a guy at a stage show has had a decent microphone, so I didn't have to do a ton of restoration work and he was very used to public speaking. So, that, probably 20 hours to cut down his interview that was about an hour long. Maybe I'm a little too picky or a little bit too slow, but each interview... I feel like that's the bit that takes the most time is trimming down these very long interviews to try and make sure that we're getting a salient point, but that it's not too long. I really don't want to misrepresent what these people say because they know their stuff far more than we do. And then, the sound design itself is a bit of an adventure in time as well. I should really track it because I bet you an episode of Digital Folklore probably creeps up on the a hundred hour mark.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I would believe that. That's what I would think.
Mason Amadeus:
The show I was producing before at a high level of sound design is five minutes at a time. This show is an hour. I didn't realize that the curve of investment of time and energy would be exponential rather than linear.
Perry Carpenter:
The other thing that people may not realize, and I know you said that you always try to represent what people did actually say and, I think more than anything, what their intentional meaning was and that we're not making somebody sound stupid or their comment is fully out of context. But, there were a couple of times when you manufactured words from people's speech. I'm thinking specifically about the Carter Hall interviews where we're exchanging business cards and we never actually had that part of a conversation.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. We didn't have Season One written before we recorded the interviews. In fact, we recorded most of the interviews before we really knew exactly how we were going to structure everything. That's when it gets tricky. Yeah, that whole Carter Hall interaction was manufactured out of... I think the call dropped for a second, and also there was just some chatter between us all at the end. So, I chopped up that and then you cut lines and then I made them match. It worked out okay. It's a little bit stilted. When we talk about Season Two, one of the things that I'm doing right now is plotting all of the narrative stuff out so that, when we interview these people, we can at least get some lines that we'll be able to use to transition them into and out of. I would say the biggest lesson learned for me was I really need to break this down and try and stay really organized. And, also, just a lot of small lessons. We can make things a little bit shorter, a little bit tighter. What was big for you?
Perry Carpenter:
Outside of all of the great conversations we had and networking that we're able to do, the biggest thing that I realized I think is that doing a podcast at this scale is more of a marathon than a sprint. But, it's a marathon that also has lots of very intensive sprints within it. You're fully exhausted all the time while you're doing it. At the same time, because we're in this every two week production schedule, there is the PR, marketing, social media, scheduling, all of that stuff that comes into it. And then, it's just following up with emails and everything else. I mean, there's tons and tons of, quote unquote, business stuff that has to go into this just to get this podcast off the ground to the point where, when you are investing hundreds of hours and stuff, you know that it's getting to at least a base level of listenership that can potentially appreciate the fact that you're putting hundreds of hours in.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. All the admin and business side of it is overwhelming. I can't express how thankful I am for you tanking so much of that. Because, that's the kind of stuff that I don't... It just makes my brain hurt. I have a hard time.
Perry Carpenter:
The other thing that I've seen, and we hear people talk about it all the time, is just that in the business of podcasting, getting the right level of exposure is really, really difficult. The big pushes that we've had where we've had a doubled listenership from an episode to another episode have been because we put marketing behind those. It really is, it's marketing and PR that got us featured in Apple Podcasts and got a lot of the chart placements. That's great, but we still never hit that tipping point where word of mouth has taken over. Goal for Season Two, get it to where we have to spend less money on marketing and word of mouth takes over.
Let's transition a little bit and talk about the post-Season One survey that we put out. First of all, thank you to everybody that filled out the survey. I will say with the number of respondents that we have, this is typical of a show four to five times our size from the people that I've asked about that, so it's really good to see. We asked people how much of the season have you listened to? Over 87% of people said that they've listened to all 10 episodes of Season One, which is huge. Everybody else listened to at least seven episodes. So, super cool stuff there. Any thoughts there on your side, Mason?
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. I think that first question was, has listening to Digital Folklore changed what you think folklore is? I wanted to figure out, with the answer to that, how many people listening to our show were academic folklorists versus people like you and me on the same journey of, "Oh yeah, folklore. Creepy old stories." And then, realize, "Oh, it's a whole lot more than that." The majority of the respondents said, "Yes, this show changed the way they think about folklore." That says, to me, that we are reaching people who were, like us, completely unaware of the wide world of folklore, but had a passing interest in it. And then, fell in love with what it is and discovering how fascinating it is to study. That does feel like a big mark of success to me too.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I think that the tipping point for that... Again, that was another 87%. Over 87% of people listened to all 10 episodes. Over 87% of people said that this changed the way that they think about folklore and what they thought folklore was. When it gets to this other question about what was the most memorable thing that people learned, some fairly... I don't mean this in a negative way, but fairly obvious things came up for people that are new to folklore, things like ostension and monster theory, things that we were really fascinated with and brought out more than once through this.
Mason Amadeus:
What that says though is that our expressing interest in those ideas and exploring them really did stick and really did resonate with people. Like you using the word obviously, it's funny because I feel like when we did that episode, it wouldn't have been obvious. But, now we've talked so much about it and explored it so much we're like, "Yes." You saying that just now made me realize how much foundational knowledge I personally have built up around folklore over the course of doing the show and learning about it. I feel like our goal with the show is to trick people into being interested in learning about folklore.
Perry Carpenter:
That is exactly the goal.
Mason Amadeus:
Because, you come into it thinking dark, spooky stories. You get a little bit of dark spooky stories and you're like, "Wait, this is actually really societally interesting and huge."
Perry Carpenter:
Societally interesting and huge and important and relevant. Because, it does get into really the fundamentals of what makes or breaks a society.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. No, it really does. Because, it's just so much about the communication we do as humans.
Perry Carpenter:
Any other comments in that, what was the most memorable thing that stood out to you?
Mason Amadeus:
One of the stories that we did that stuck out with me the most was the mini light story from Mark Muncy. It was interesting to see that a lot of people mentioned that as well in the most memorable thing.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I think that that was chilling for a lot of people because it showed really the ugly side of how folklore works.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. It's also, I think, a perfect micro encapsulation of exactly what this show can be at its best. Not only was the story that Mark told compelling and important because it was talking about this legend being rooted in this horrible, horrible thing. It was also told very compellingly. So, we have this combination of Mark telling this story, the bookmark falls out that has the advertisement for the alligator farm. When you combine a narrative with facts and information, it helps things really stick in your brain in a way. Narratives are sticky. That's a big thing we talk about too, obviously. That's why folkloric misinformation is dangerous. Using the narrative framing device of our show to explore all of these concepts, the hope in a way with that is also just to make sure that all of these things that we're learning are extra sticky in the brains of the listeners. Because, you get a sense of place, you get this build that's compelling and it helps you make all these connections in your head.
The thing I was really excited to see was comments like this when people were asked why certain episodes were their favorite. Multiple people echoed this sentiment. But, one of them is, "I think the storyline of the episode made it memorable. I don't think I could tell what happened in which episode without that kind of narrative." Because, the narrative element has been a bit of an interesting thing to grapple with people's expectations, as we've talked about in the show. But, a lot of people saying things like... This person said their favorite episode, a good mix of storytelling and information, "Episodes 10 and Eight feel just like an interview. While there was lots of interesting information, not fully what I come to the podcast for. On the other hand, Seven and Nine feel like pure storytelling, which is also not what I come to the podcast for. I like the ones where there's both and they merge cohesively."
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I think that's really good critical feedback as it shows us the expectations that we set up. Because, early on with the show, we were hearing a lot from people who listened to the show and they didn't really know what to expect. So, we were getting some people that were like, that's not really why I am here. I would rather just listen to an interview show, or I'd rather just listen to a fiction show. Now, we've really set audience expectations and when we divert from that in a significant way and we go too hard one way or too hard the other, now we hear from people going, "No, I'm actually here for the thing that you created. I want you to lean more into that," which is really cool.
The other really encouraging thing, one of the survey questions was, basically, what kind of format do you like the most? We did see far and above that the use of the narrative device within this that was so controversial at the very beginning is the favorite thing that people have.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. That is very cool because it was dicey. I got to admit. I had my feelings hurt from some of the early reviews that were like, "These hosts have no personality. They have no banter. They have no business being actors." That's not fun to hear. I was feeling discouraged about that, but we muddled through it. I think it was worth it because, to me... For what it matters, for me personally, consuming content like this is the best way for me to learn. If I can take these facts and information and place them inside of something that keeps my silly little squirrel brain interested-
Perry Carpenter:
How do you create a Trojan horse for the thing that you want to put out there?
Mason Amadeus:
I really love it. It's cool to see that we're reaching other people who really love that. One of the big goals... I don't have a lot of experience in writing. I have a lot of experience as an improvisational actor, as an actor in general, but not a lot of experience in long form narrative writing. So, in between seasons, I've been doing a lot of research and practice and reading ways to become a better writer, trying to make the characters more compelling, make the narrative more cohesive. Hopefully, in Season Two, you will see what I have been working on there. And, maybe some of the people who were a little on the fence about it will be more excited.
Perry Carpenter:
I think when we look at it, people really like the fictional narrative. They really like it when we explore dark topics. The favorite episode by and far was Episode Seven, so the Analog Horror one, followed closely by Episode One, which was very dark in nature. And then, also Episode Three, the Pawn Shop one, was a favorite of a lot of people. And then, people really liked those little opening vignettes. What was the one that had Brooke do the narration on the video game?
Mason Amadeus:
Oh yeah. That was Episode Three. This-
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. Episode Three. I think that hit really well for a lot of people.
Mason Amadeus:
That was like a little creepy pasta that I remembered reading ages ago. And then, as we were planning that episode, that story just popped back into my head. So, I was like, "This would be a great little tone setter because it's melancholic, it fits the theme." I want to try and incorporate more of that into Season Two as well.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. It's a great tone setter. I think what people have come to appreciate is that creativity is an inherent part of the way that we're going to run this show. There's a little bit of an ADHD nature. Like you mentioned, if you have a brain that has a tendency to dart off and do other things, we want to do everything that we can to grab attention and pull it back into the area that it needs to be in order for somebody to focus on the show.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. And, who knows? Maybe when I find a psychiatrist and I get medicated for my ADHD again, maybe our storyline will become a little bit more cohesive.
Perry Carpenter:
You never know. All right. We asked some people to describe the podcast in one sentence. I'll just highlight a couple. Here's a fun one because it shows the podcast lifestyle. It says, "It's light enough to listen to while cleaning, but too interesting to fall asleep to."
Mason Amadeus:
Yes.
Perry Carpenter:
I always thought, as a creator, I don't want somebody to fall asleep to my stuff. I want them to stay awake and engage. So, I understand the value of a peaceful voice putting you to sleep. But, I'm glad that we are too interesting to fall asleep to.
Mason Amadeus:
There's one that was written by someone who I must assume writes articles or something. Because, they said, "Digital Folklore is a unique hybridization of audio drama, expert interviews, and educational deep dives, which provides playful humor, unnerving tension, and illuminating perspectives on the nature of belief in such unbelievable times."
Perry Carpenter:
That's going on the website. All right. Here's one you'll have to bleep. Masterful mind [inaudible 00:16:38].
Mason Amadeus:
That's very good. This one I don't think was meant to be positive, but I kind of like it. It says, "It's like if American Hysteria and Welcome to Nightvale had a baby that wanted to be an interview podcast."
Perry Carpenter:
That's actually true though.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. I think that's really good.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I think I followed that one through and I believe that that person had a few other interesting remarks. Right?
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I think that that was the one about two white guys can start a podcast without knowing anything about what they're talking about.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. They said... What was your biggest takeaway from the show? And, they said, "White dudes really will start entire podcasts without having a basic grasp of the fundamentals of any part of their primary topic." Amazing roast. Incredibly funny. Yes, I really agree with where this person is coming from. I think perhaps we misrepresented ourselves in some of the interviews we did elsewhere when we say neither of us knew anything about folklore when we decided to start this podcast. I think that is what that is a direct response to.
Perry Carpenter:
Probably is. They maybe not have known all the other research and reaching out to people and trying to get some low level mastery of the subject before we went forward. I did go take a class at Harvard on folklore and did a number of other bits of research around it. So, we didn't come in totally cold.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah, but the whitest thing you could possibly do is go to college about it.
Perry Carpenter:
That is true. That's a very white, entitled thing to do. It's like, "I shall go to Harvard and learn a little bit about folklore so that I can now put that in my podcast."
Mason Amadeus:
Which is why it's like-
Perry Carpenter:
It's so true though.
Mason Amadeus:
Very good commentary. Honestly, I don't disagree with you. The white dude audacity, but we're trying our best to be useful and helpful and good. Something we want to do too is amplify other voices that are not white dudes.
Perry Carpenter:
Exactly. Yeah. That's a thing, is we try to find voices. We do try to intentionally break out of our own bubbles a little bit. So, we are always trying to ask people who else we should be speaking to so that we can find new voices, find new people, find new perspectives, and get those reflected out there. But, if anybody does have criticism, whether it's well-intentioned or not, we would love to hear that. You can always reach out to us. We don't want to be so stuck into our own ways that we're not willing to listen to correction.
Mason Amadeus:
Well, CIS white dudes are the last people who need grace given to them. We're not asking for that. We're just going to try and show you that we can do better on that.
Perry Carpenter:
Exactly.
Mason Amadeus:
We'll try and challenge those assumptions as we move forward.
Perry Carpenter:
All right. Let's cover a couple more questions real quick. And then, we'll get to some announcements on Season Two. There is another question here on anything else that people would like to tell us. One of the themes that came out of that, that I think we both talked about before we hit record, was that there was numerous people that said that this is a show that they love to listen to in the car with their kids, which I think is super rewarding for me. Because, when we were putting together our plan for the show, we had this little pyramid of intended audience. And, one of those sets was parents that are looking for safe things to listen to as a family on vacations and in car rides. We actually saw that reflected back out to us.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. There was someone... I'm trying to find the exact quote so I can read it verbatim. But, they said something along the lines of, "I really liked the fact that there's a narrative to these episodes because my kids will pay attention, and then I can also listen."
Perry Carpenter:
Exactly. Yeah. The kids aren't distracting from the thing. They're actually brought into it, which is one of the reasons that we have these weird little side things going on. We have characters like Digby that come into it. It all makes it something that is very, very approachable by somebody, regardless of their age, as long as they're willing to entertain things in a non strictly interview format. There are tons of great folklore shows for people that only want an interview. And, there are tons of great fiction shows for people that only want fiction. There are very, very few shows that try to approach these kind of topics like we do.
Mason Amadeus:
Also, I feel like not everybody knows that there are audio dramas that they might like. Whereas, that's sort of my realm of the podcasting that I like to consume the most. If you are listening and you're like, "Man, I should just listen to some regular audio fiction," the people we have on voice actors largely are people who are also in fiction podcasts. You can go to the credits of the episode, find those people and find some great fictional shows. Also, the people we interview are often interviewed on other podcasts or have a podcast of their own. We're going to be talking a lot with Mark who runs the Folklore Podcast.
Perry Carpenter:
Mark Norman.
Mason Amadeus:
Mark Norman.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah.
Mason Amadeus:
And then, his show is great. If you want to listen to an interview show that dives deeper on these concepts, I would love for our show to be your gateway to other things in this realm, whether that is audio drama or interview shows about folklore.
Perry Carpenter:
Exactly. Any other comments in this last responses section that really stuck out to you?
Mason Amadeus:
There is one person who said kind of what I was just talking about, was, "I've learned so much about folklore as a discipline from you and your incredible guests. I've gone on to dig deeper into a lot of their work. Please, keep the episodes coming."
Perry Carpenter:
Very cool.
Mason Amadeus:
That's probably the most rewarding thing from that. Also, there are... Sorry, there is one comment from anything else you'd like to tell us that I absolutely have to bring up. It was a respondent on June 19th, 9:40AM my time. They wrote in and said, "I love rats a lot." I think there's wisdom in that.
Perry Carpenter:
With that, we did promise that the first 50 people to do the survey would get some stickers. We do have those 50 names and addresses collected and I will be addressing envelopes and doing all of the mail runs and everything for that over the next couple of weeks. Please, be patient. It does take a little bit of time since it's all manual work. We also do have our winner of the Digby plush toy. That is-
Mason Amadeus:
Yes, we do.
Perry Carpenter:
I'm not going to say the last name, so don't be afraid when you hear the first name come out. The name is Carla, last name starts with C. Carla, you will have a Digby plushie headed your way very soon as well. Thank you for your responses there.
Mason Amadeus:
Yes. The Digby plushies are so great. I have one. Perry has one. He's got a cute little shirt. It's great.
Perry Carpenter:
They're not for sale on the website. We are going to start an underground Digby plushie economy.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. We're going to sort of... It's kind of like crypto, but fluffy and... It's like the opposite of crypto.
Perry Carpenter:
It's a Digby NFT that's not an NFT. It's in real life.
Mason Amadeus:
It's a nominally fuzzy toy is what NFT stands for and it's backed by rat coin.
Perry Carpenter:
I think you've improvised yourself into a corner.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah, I have.
Perry Carpenter:
That's... All right. We made that announcement. Let's talk a little bit about Season Two, and then we got to give people some time back and I got to go to another meeting.
Mason Amadeus:
Oh yeah. We've run along.
Perry Carpenter:
As we think about the next phase of the Digital Folklore podcast, there are basically a couple of different ways we're going to try to give everybody a lot of the things that they really loved about the show and also create a little bit more separation so that people know what they're getting whenever they hit play. With that, we heard a lot of people do value some of the straight interview episodes. It's not the primary value for the show, but there are a lot of people that were like, "I just want that every now and then."
We are going to continue some of these unplugged episodes that you've seen as we've been giving. We've been doing those as bonus episodes between seasons. You'll have more and more of those. There's another format that we are going to start very soon called Folklore Curious. These are going to be very quick hit episodes, about 15, 20 minutes, where we both talk and break down a specific folklore related concept, giving a little bit of research, some anecdotes, anything interesting that comes up with that. And then, quickly out.
So, if you want to know a little bit about a concept, a little bit about something that we thought was interesting, that'd be a really quick and easy format for us to get those out so you can scratch that folklore itch. And then, we will continue to have our flagship Digital Folklore episodes. All 10 episodes in this next season will be narrative driven rather than oscillating back and forth between high production, low production, high production, low production, and so on. What can you tell us about Season Two?
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah, I think that you just highlighted something that I don't think was actually clear to anybody but us. And, it was that in Season One we tried to alternate between big production episode and then a smaller one that usually took place in my studio. Originally, every other episode wasn't going to be sound designed. But then, we started creating this whole fictional studio and universe around it, so it ended up being blurry.
Season two people said they wanted more actual storytelling and cohesive narratives. They thought it was a little bit hard to follow the way the narratives were structured in Season One. Guess what? Season Two, I have an A, B, and C plot for you through all 10 of those episodes. This bad boy can fit is... Picture I'm slapping the podcast right now. You can fit so much narrative in this bad boy. Season two, we are talking memes, we're talking meme warfare, we're diving into misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy, how those things work. We touched on them a little bit in Season One, but we're diving deep. We have a great interview about deprogramming people who are too far down the rabbit hole.
We're going to be exploring different folk groups and online communities and their specific implications like looking deeply at Tumblr and why Tumblr is its own specific flavor of weird. Going to talk about Goncharov as we alluded to in the trailer. We're going to talk about the Mandela effect, folk belief and false memory. We're going to talk about artificial intelligence and the implications that has on folklore. We'll be talking with folklorists about their favorite contemporary legends. We'll be diving into the back rooms, looking at the folklore of absurdity. Creepy clowns are going to be involved.
All of this is wrapped up inside of a very exciting narrative that I'm very, very pumped to share with you because it's tropey, it's silly, it's fun, and there's a lot of arcs. I think you'll be happy with all of the character development and other stuff that goes into that. We have a lot of cool interviews lined up because at the ISCLR, Perry, you talk to a lot of people.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. There's so many things that were at that conference that are on point for themes that we're going to be diving into in Season Two. It was extremely fortuitous that I was there, and a lot of fun people that we still have to reach out to. But, we do have a date for Season Two that we've semi mostly kind of I think in fact committed to, which is September four. Right?
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. I mean, we told Jeff Bezos that's when it comes out.
Perry Carpenter:
No pressure.
Mason Amadeus:
As much as I don't mind lying to Jeff Bezos, I do think we should aim for that.
Perry Carpenter:
I think we should.
Mason Amadeus:
Amazon Music has this thing where you can submit your podcast to be featured. If you have a podcast and you want to do that, you should check it out. Because, I think you still can.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. I think I've mentioned that same date to several other people since then who have been asking for follow up. So, we're targeting that date.
Mason Amadeus:
In the interest of trying to set expectations, I want to say that we still have to figure out some of the kinks of it. But, I think it would be ideal if every other week we had a shorter... either an Unplugged or a Folklore Curious. And then, biweekly, you get the big episodes and biweekly you also get those little fellows.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah, so that every week there's something in the feed. And then, with us going live on September 4th, that means we will also be releasing seasons right around Halloween as well. If there's something cool that we can do around the time where everybody wants to be scared, then we'll see what we can fit in.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. It's going to be creepy. It's going to be silly. It's going to be really fun. As we get closer to Halloween, some things are going to be really cool. I think we'll have something that's pretty immersive and spooky.
Perry Carpenter:
Awesome. All right. Well, let's wrap up. Mason, thank you so much for spending hundreds of hours editing together my incoherent voice as well as the voice of others who are not experienced speakers or actors.
Mason Amadeus:
Perry-
Perry Carpenter:
Thank you for all your help with this.
Mason Amadeus:
... a hard stretch to call yourself not an experienced speaker. You literally just gave a talk.
Perry Carpenter:
Not an experienced speaker with any kind of eloquence.
Mason Amadeus:
Nah. That's not true. Thank you for bringing me in and keeping me involved in this. This is an incredibly rewarding and fun thing to be a part of. Thank you for being patient as I am way too meticulous with stuff. But, I think we're setting ourselves up good. I think Season Two's going to be knocking it out of the park. Thanks to everybody for listening and supporting us.
Perry Carpenter:
If you really, really want to go the extra round, again, mention it to friends, family, people, random people on the street, anybody with a podcast player or smartphone. If you haven't yet and you've been on the fence, we would love for you to join us on Discord. If you have the inclination and a few extra bucks, we would love support on Patreon. Everything that we do costs money. We're not at the point where we're recouping everything that we're putting in yet. Sustainability is one of those things that we want to get to.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. Also, if you are a podcaster or a voice actor and you have an interest in cutting some lines, there are a lot of little ancillary characters in this second season that have some one-off lines. I'd love to put your voice in and then throw a credit in the show notes. That'd be really fun.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. Or, if you work for a big company, a brand, and you're looking to sponsor a show, or you work for an educational organization and you want a shout out, we'll always shout out folk or education programs for free. If you're a company that has deep pockets and you want to support a couple of crazy folks doing a podcast, we would be happy to talk to you about that and see what we can do to help each other.
Mason Amadeus:
Lastly, if you just inherited a bunch of money out of the blue and you're on a manic bender and hyper fixating on this podcast and you want to just donate most of that inheritance to it, that's also something that you can do.
Perry Carpenter:
Cool.
Mason Amadeus:
Send us an email.
Perry Carpenter:
We also have a thousand dollars a month Patreon level that you can subscribe to.
Mason Amadeus:
I forgot about that.
Perry Carpenter:
And, I'm not lying about that. It is limited to one subscriber. You get a voice part on the show for an episode. You can subscribe for one month and then cancel. You also get what we're calling the unNFT, which is a printable certificate.
Mason Amadeus:
I forgot that you made that.
Perry Carpenter:
That you could hang on your wall.
Mason Amadeus:
Yeah. If you really want to commit to the bit with a big old chunk of your wallet, please, by all means.
Perry Carpenter:
But, thank you so much for everybody that's been listening. Whether you can support or not, that doesn't matter. We love just knowing that we're connecting with you. Thank you to all of our previous guests, all of our future guests, people that have been wanting to get in touch. Please, do so. Never hesitate to reach out. We will be filling your ears with tons of fun soon.
Mason Amadeus:
Yes, we'll catch you on the flip side.

[Transition to Season 2 trailer]
[Sound of VHS tape starting up… the soundtrack sounds old and slightly warped… like the beginning of an old Disney trailer but the tape has been left in a car trunk in the hot sun for a few years]
[Generic 90’s family movie announcer voice]
Announcer:
Coming soon to RSS.
Perry Carpenter:
I'm telling you, we are in the wrong timeline. None of this is right. This isn't real.
Lauren Shippen:
I'm going to quickly describe what the Mandela effect is. Kazaam is a real movie, Shazam is not. But, a lot of people do remember seeing a movie with Sinbad, but it doesn't exist. We are all occupying slightly different universes.
Announcer:
Pack your bags and jump in the Volkswagen. The crew of Digital Folklore returns for a new season.
Digby:
I just Googled it.
Mason Amadeus:
How?
Digby:
With my brain.
Mason Amadeus:
I'm sorry.
Perry Carpenter:
What?
Mason Amadeus:
What?

[Whooshing transition sound]
Perry Carpenter:
All of it. It's all AI generated.
Mason Amadeus:
That's spooky.
Perry Carpenter:
Yeah. AI's kind of spooky in general.
Dr. Lynne McNeill:
AI really is divining the syntax of our folk belief in a lot of ways that we may be wholly unconscious of.
Announcer:
New insights, new interviews, new topics.
Mason Amadeus:
Astroturf… It's the name because it's like the fake grass that's in a football stadium, AstroTurf.
Digby:
Wait, hold on. That grass is fake?
Mason Amadeus:
Always has been.
Perry Carpenter:
No, it hasn't.

[transition sound]
Mick West:
Misinformation and disinformation are a little bit too close. One of them is just information that is wrong. The other one is information that is deliberately wrong.
Announcer:
From misinformation to the cultural significance of memes and beyond.
Perry Carpenter:
Two words, meme warfare.
Mason Amadeus:
Meme warfare?
[Sound of a riffle cocking]
Digby:
Meme warfare.
Mason Amadeus:
Where did you get that?
[Explosion sound / transition]
Announcer:
Dive into the nuance of specific online platforms.
Lauren Shippen:
Goncharov is a movie by Martin Scorsese. It's the greatest mob movie ever made, and it doesn't exist.
Dr. Diane Rodgers:
It's haunted by the specter of memory of a different time.
Announcer:
And, follow along as a new legend emerges.
[Desolate wasteland background… wind howling]
Mason Amadeus:
What the... Mark lives here.
Perry Carpenter:
That's what the GPS says.
Mason Amadeus:
No, no, there's no way. I think I would've noticed a straight up wizard tower behind the Kroger.
Perry Carpenter:
That is what I've been saying. Memory can't be trusted.
Announcer:
Digital Folklore, Season Two.
[Transition… campfire, crickets, sounds of night]
Todd – the creepy pawn shop owner:
Man, have I get a story for you.
Announcer:
Coming soon to RSS and podcast players worldwide.
[VHS tape ejects]
Digby:
What'd you think?
Mason Amadeus:
Pretty good, little guy. I mean, it's a bit cheesy, but-
Digby:
Cheesy? Coming from you? From you?
Mason Amadeus:
Okay. Hey, Digby-
Digby:
Oh, I'd like to see you try and make a good trailer in Windows Movie Maker. Oh, I mean, seriously, man.
Click to download a fully formatted PDF version of this episode’s transcript.

Sit down with Perry & Mason as they discuss the state of Digital Folklore!

On today’s episode, our hosts pull back the curtain to talk candidly about season one of the podcast, the results of our survey, and the plans for season 2.

We're always looking to hear from you, too! If you have ideas, topics you'd like to see covered, feedback, or anything else - drop us an email!

Hello@8thLayerMedia.com

Season two will launch on September 4th, 2023.

If you're hungry for more Perry & Mason content before then, you can check out their other shows:

Perry hosts and produces 8th Layer Insights, a multidisciplinary exploration into how the complexities of human nature affect security and risk. While it is ostensibly about cybersecurity, 8LI takes a unique and accessible approach; specifically exploring the human element of security, deception, and risk. You don't need to be a 'computer person' to enjoy it! From interviews with social engineers who get paid to break into high-security areas, to spy stories and hacking legends - if you're a fan of Digital Folklore, you'll probably love 8th Layer Insights.

Mason co-hosts and produces PodCube™, an immersive, surrealist sketch comedy podcast. Every episode is short, around five minutes long. It's absurd, satirical, and deeper than you'll expect. You can listen to any episode in any order - it's the perfect show for when you need a good laugh break. The sound design and acting combine to create an experience like listening to an audio-only cartoon. If you love the silly side of Digital Folklore, you'll really enjoy PodCube™.

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