Joanna Walsh: Amateurs Made The Internet

Joanna Walsh: Amateurs Made The Internet

Author: Kollo Media, Caitlin Schiller August 10, 2026 Duration: 41:39
What did you make on the internet, back before anyone was paying you to?This time around, Ben takes the interview chair. He's talking with Joanna Walsh, writer, artist, arts activist, author of twelve books, several of them co-written with AIs she coded herself (badly and on purpose <3). Her new book Amateurs! is a philosophical history of the internet we all built for free: the Tumblrs, the blogs, the aesthetic wikis, the momentary flashes of hilarity. Her starting point is the French sense of the word—amateur, from amour. Not a beginner or someone who isn't any good, but someone who does the thing for love, without expecting to be paid.Joanna and Ben get into what happened to the braided conversation of early Twitter, the difference between paying attention online and performing it, and why Joanna's answer to "should we just log off?" is an immediate and emphatic no. There's a thread about vulgarity—she means it as a compliment—and what it revealed when people started mashing up Girl with a Pearl Earring.Then there's the dead internet: how we'd know we'd arrived, and whether we'd know at all. Joanna's image for it involves the sea, and it's the best thirty seconds in the episode.Her advice for anyone starting out right now isn't optimism. It's a union card.ResourcesGuest's book: Amateurs! How We Built Internet Culture and Why It Matters by Joanna Walsh (Verso, 2025)Ben's Rec: New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future by James Bridle. Also worth your time: Ways of Being.Caitlin's Rec: What to Save and Why: Identity, Authenticity, and the Ethics of Conservation by Erich Hatala Matthes (Oxford University Press, 2024)New: we're putting outros and bookends up on video. Find the Simplify page on YouTube and tell us what you think — we're experimenting with all of it.Let us know what you thought of this episode! Find us on Instagram at @simplifypod. Subscribe to our newsletter on beehiiv here. Also, you can email us at info@kollomedia.comThis episode of Simplify was produced by Caitlin Schiller, Ben Schuman-Stoler, and Molly Hart. Engineered by João Lucas in Berlin, Germany, for Kollo Media. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hosted by Ben Schuman-Stoler, the Blinkist Podcast is a series of conversations that feel more like a focused chat than a formal interview. The premise is straightforward: take the expansive concepts from psychology, business strategy, and personal development and translate them into practical, personal terms. Each episode sits down with a thought leader or entrepreneur, not just to recap their ideas, but to unpack the real-world application behind them. You’ll hear how these principles actually function outside of a book or a theory, focusing on the lessons that can be directly applied to your own growth and daily challenges. The discussions naturally weave through topics like productivity systems, the psychology of decision-making, and the nuanced realities of building a business. This isn't about abstract inspiration; it's about finding actionable insight. By making big ideas personal, the podcast serves as a companion for anyone looking to cut through the noise and extract meaningful, usable knowledge from today's leading minds. Tune in for thoughtful dialogues that prioritize depth and clarity, offering a tangible takeaway from every conversation.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Simplify
Podcast Episodes
Amy Key: Romance Isn't Everything [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:57
In 1971, Joni Mitchell released Blue, an album teeming with stories of a life shaped by romance, desire, longing, and the default path of sharing life with another person. The ideal might persist to this day, but what ha…
Amy Key: Romance Isn't Everything [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:56
In 1971, Joni Mitchell released Blue, an album teeming with stories of a life shaped by romance, desire, longing, and the default path of sharing life with another person. The ideal might persist to this day, but what ha…
Steven Petrow: Get Old With Grace [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:43
We might say that “age is just a number,” but if we're really honest with ourselves, a lot of us still think of “old” people as stubborn hoarders who eat dinner (too) early and are forever talking about their aches and p…
Katherine Morgan Schafler: Perfectionism is a Gift [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:31
What do people mean when they say, 'I'm a perfectionist'? The colloquial and widespread opinion would sound like this: A perfectionist is someone who desires everything to be perfect at all times and becomes upset when t…
Katherine Morgan Schafler: Perfectionism is a Gift [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:31
What do people mean when they say, 'I'm a perfectionist'? The colloquial and widespread opinion would sound like this: A perfectionist is someone who desires everything to be perfect at all times and becomes upset when t…
Minaa B: Heal Through Connection [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:19
When we experience a traumatic event or decide to pursue healing, what often follows is the tendency to isolate and hide from the world. Shame, exclusion, and the feeling that no one understands remain intertwined with t…
Minaa B: Heal Through Connection [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:19
When we experience a traumatic event or decide to pursue healing, what often follows is the tendency to isolate and hide from the world. Shame, exclusion, and the feeling that no one understands remain intertwined with t…