About Never Post
Welcome to Never Post. We’re a member-supported, employee-owned podcast about and for the internet.
Every other week, we publish an episode with segments about what's happening with, to, and on the internet. Our goal isn’t just to tell you whats happening, but to look – together – at how people are talking about whats happening. We want to search for context; we want to wonder; we want answers, sure, but even more so we want to ask questions about why the world of the internet – and the world, because of the internet – is the way it is.
You’ll hear from our cast of producers about their own experiences living through this current media-and-tech moment, as well as from a wide range of guests: lawyers on the state of copyright and AI, security researchers about how ebooks have become tools of corporate surveillance, and artists about what it’s like to make things for … y’know … *gestures broadly*.
Each episode is fully scored, and sound designed – crafted with love by some of the best and most accomplished audio pros working in podcasting today, in attempt to make a show that isn’t just about the internet, but which feels like it too (in the good, fun way – not the bad, overwhelming way … … … most of the time).
With Time...
Our goal is, first and foremost, to make a fun, interesting and sustainable show. We don’t have any VC funding or startup capital. Like other independent media projects – 404 Media, Defector, Aftermath and more – we’ve seen the limits of what that arrangement produces, and what it does to its workers. We want to try our hand at building something better, from scratch. The people who are making the show also own it, and have invested what they can to get it up and running. That may mean we start with fewer resources, but it also means we get to decide what success looks like.
If things go well, and we’re able to grow, we want to do two things:
First, we want to start accepting pitches from independent producers. We want to publish your stories about the internet. And we want to be able to pay you (a reasonable rate!) for making them.
Second, we want to turn Never Post into an internet-community audio-resource. The show is new, but Never Post producers have, collectively, thousands of hours of experience producing audio for everything from local radio to Fortune 50 companies. We want to teach people how to do this work, and how to do it in a way that‘s not toxic, as so much of the media and content industries can be. We’d love to provide resources for everything from learning how to edit audio, to sound designing a podcast, to running an editorial meeting.
And Your Help...
To get to that point though, we need your help. We don’t have funders, investors, none of us is rich and as of right now we don’t even have advertisers. This means 100% of our operating budget comes from members.
If you love the internet like we do, and want to help us try to make the world of media and content a little less bad overall … please consider joining us. And if you'd like to support us at a level beyond whats listed in the Membership Portal, please get in touch. We have some ideas.
The Team
The folks who make Never Post, in alphabetical order:
Audrey Evans – Researcher, Producer
Audrey Evans is a librarian and researcher based in the Hudson Valley and NYC. Most recently, she led network engagement at Data & Society Research Institute where she built strategies around original, empirical social science research to deepen the public’s understanding of issues arising from data-centric and automated technology and to advance a frame of justice and equity in technology.
She has extensive experience designing impactful, cross-disciplinary programs that bring together academics, computer scientists, civil and human rights advocates, journalists, policy makers, artists, practitioners, and individuals from impacted communities to translate expertise, grapple with the social, political and cultural implications of technology and build more collective, inclusive, and equitable approaches to technology.
Georgia Hampton – Producer
Georgia Hampton is a Chicago-based writer, editor, producer, and culture journalist whose work spans across a wide array of themes. She has published writing in the Chicago Reader, Airship, and has most recently worked as a podcast script writer in Spotify’s Parcast Studio. She has held multiple editorial positions in entertainment, news, and photography, and has been awarded for her work in all three areas.
As a writer, Georgia’s interests include unusual histories, the representation of masculinity on screen, media criticism, and the relationship between entertainment and the culture in which it is made. Her work has covered topics such as fairy belief in 19th century Ireland, the “Highway of Tears” in British Columbia, and the trope of the “sexy psychopath” onscreen.
In addition to writing, Georgia is an award-winning photographer whose work has been published in the Chicago Tribune and F Newsmagazine. She was also the staff photographer at Millennium Park in Chicago.
Hans Buetow – Senior Producer
Hans Buetow is an award winning podcast producer based in St. Paul, MN, who has worked in music and sound for nearly two decades. He has worked as a Senior Audio Producer at The New York Times and American Public Media, where he produced radio and podcast programming which reached millions of listeners.
Hans has launched several shows, including Terrible, Thanks for Asking and 74 Seconds – which won a 2017 Peabody Award and the Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Documentary Gold Award. He has worked on dozens of shows, including Still Processing, Modern Love, The Daily, In The Dark, Smash Boom Best, Decomposed, Awesome Etiquette and Wits.
Hans currently works as an independent producer, editor and audio-storytelling teacher.
Jason Oberholtzer – Executive Producer
Jason Oberholtzer is a producer, editor, and composer who has created audio and written content for Longreads, Tumblr, Medium, Forbes, The Markup, The Awl and others. He is the founder of Charts & Leisure, an audio-first production company, and the popular Tumblr account I Love Charts, which reached nearly a million followers and collaborated with artists, academics, journalists and Obama’s White House.
As a consultant, he develops and manages content ecosystems — building, leading and scaling content production teams. His clients include 2k, Adobe, American Chemical Society, BBC America, Bloomberg, Colgate-Palmolive, The Economist, FuelCell Energy, Future of StoryTelling, IBM, Morningstar, SkillSoft and more. He frequently collaborates with agencies within Dentsu, Publicis and WPP, and with Gather: a collective of independent knowledge workers where he serves as Head Of Content.
Jason is a two-time published author of books related to publishing work on the internet.
Mike Rugnetta – Producer, Host
Mike Rugnetta is a writer, host, producer and sound designer who has been working in digital media since 2007. He’s the former host, writer, researcher and co-creator of the five-time Webby award winning YouTube series Idea Channel, co-produced by PBS Digital Studios. He has hosted two Crash Course series – World Mythology and Theater and Dramaturgy – and he currently produces the actual-play TTRPG podcast Fun City and the sound-studies podcast Reasonably Sound. He got his start as a member of the original cast of the Know Your Meme web series, produced by Rocketboom.
As a producer, Rugnetta has worked with Adobe, Duolingo, IBM, American Public Media, Future of Storytelling, Chanel and more. He has written for Vanity Fair, The National Conference on Citizenship, Complexly and others. He has worked as an independent researcher for Vine and YouTube.
The Mysterious Dr. Firstname Lastname - Producer
Not really a joke: there's an amazing producer who works on the show who can't be publicly named for a couple reasons. Their credentials are impressive, but we can't really tell you what they are because that would kinda give it away.
How many podcasts have a cool, mysterious, totally not at all threatening mystery producer, huh? Not many!
What Is Charts & Leisure?
The short answer is: Charts & Leisure is the production company that makes Never Post.
The long answer is: Mike (host!) and Jason (executive producer!) have been pals for about a decade, and have worked on numerous audio projects under the banner of Jason's production company Charts & Leisure. They also, for example, make RIP Corp with Ingrid Burrington, and other C&L staff.
Never Post will rely on the business infrastructure of Charts & Leisure to responsibly manage your membership fees, and our budgets, expenses, and so on. Charts & Leisure has provided some resources to get Never Post off the ground, but it is not (and could not be) funding the show.
To keep Never Post running, we'll rely on audience support via membership, among other income streams. Once we know what those streams are ... we'll be very open and transparent about them. But it's early days yet.