Feat. Daisy Alioto & Francis Zierer

Daisy Alioto and Francis Zierer of Tasteland join us to talk about what happens when two distinct media brands—Dirt and Creator Spotlight—collide. We explore how podcasting has become a creative extension of newsletters, how parasocial dynamics shape audience building, and what it means to build brand and community in a fractured media landscape.

• The “Anti-Scene” Scene: Today’s creative connections often form organically—through mutual respect and shared ideas, not cliquish gatekeeping—giving rise to an “asynchronous salon” of cultural thinkers.
• Design and Taste as Cultural Signals: Design choices and curation practices influence perception and build cultural credibility.
• Building Media That Builds Taste: Tasteland isn’t about telling people what to like—it’s about helping listeners cultivate their own sense of taste, with media that challenges, informs, and inspires.
• "You can notice the difference in the approach… and I do wonder if the pendulum will swing back to more structured storytelling, like Serial or S-Town. – Daisy
• "The biggest problem with culture plus business is it's easy for dishonesty to creep in. And that sucks. Who wants to listen to someone with no point of view?" – Daisy
• "It's like this asynchronous salon of independent figures… where the connections become more connections across them." – Francis
• "If your media diet becomes a closed loop… you’ve basically traded one algorithm for another. Our job is to help people develop their own taste." – Daisy
• "I read SIC Weekly like a poem… and just click on two links. It forces you to choose—and that’s what develops taste." – Francis

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