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Speaker 1: I'm off my game today. No, you're not. People are

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Speaker 1: going to have to start making better content. I think

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about this for a long time.

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Speaker 1: When you program for everyone, you program for no one.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a word purpose driven platform. Like we're

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Speaker 1: trying to get to substance? How was that? Are you

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Speaker 1: happy with that? This is marketing therapy right now? And

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Speaker 1: it really is? What's up? I'm Laura Currenti and I'm

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Speaker 1: Alexa Kristen. Welcome back to Atlantia. Episode for I Like

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Speaker 1: even Numbers, Yes, And this week we have podcast O

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Speaker 1: g and Atlas Obscura CEO David Plotts on the show.

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Speaker 1: We like to call him Platsy, Yes, plots and he

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Speaker 1: was okay with it, yeah somehow. So we talk a

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Speaker 1: lot about Alice Obscura with him and how experiences and

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Speaker 1: a media company are coming together, converging and creating audiences

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Speaker 1: that I think people didn't even know existed. Yeah. This

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Speaker 1: whole idea of offline experience built from online discovery is

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Speaker 1: one that we were super fascinated with and really excited

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Speaker 1: to talk to David later in the show. But first

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Speaker 1: we want to have a conversation about some of the

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Speaker 1: things that have been happening with a lot of traditional publishers. Yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: if you've been following at Landia podcast on Twitter, you'll

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Speaker 1: notice a flurry of tweets over the last few weeks

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Speaker 1: that have been focused on this convergence of legacy publishers.

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Speaker 1: So in the news, Fox, Turner and Viacom, who have

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Speaker 1: um come together to talk about the future of measurement

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Speaker 1: as it relates to broadcasting, presumably cable television, and saying

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Speaker 1: that we as an industry need to challenge the way

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Speaker 1: standards have been bought. You know, this is proceeding this

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Speaker 1: year's upfront, which will be interesting to see how the

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Speaker 1: implications and how people think about buying models. When you've

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Speaker 1: got three of the biggest broadcast cable network standing up

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Speaker 1: and saying, we know that our audiences are proliferating across technology,

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Speaker 1: we know that viewing behaviors have changed, and we also

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Speaker 1: know that the whole person becomes a part that a

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Speaker 1: brand and an advertiser want to get to write. And

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Speaker 1: so you've got this interesting tension now happening where you've

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Speaker 1: got a model that is quickly approaching later in the

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Speaker 1: second quarter, which asks brands to commit dollars based on

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Speaker 1: upfront ratings. So, now, how do you ask advertisers to

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Speaker 1: pay premium for a model you just profusely claimed as

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Speaker 1: broken and by the way, on the same platforms that

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Speaker 1: you've been using. So I think it's big media companies

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Speaker 1: are going at audience in different ways. So you've got

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Speaker 1: the Turner Fox Viacom relationship and they're talking about, Okay,

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Speaker 1: we've got to take data, we've got to look at

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Speaker 1: it across the networks, right, and have a different conversation

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Speaker 1: about who the audience is and how we're going to

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Speaker 1: reach them collectively. Right, So you've got that model, You've

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Speaker 1: got the scale game that others are playing with the

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Speaker 1: convergence of NBC, Vox and now Conde nasked coming to

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Speaker 1: the table to reach a wider and presumably deeper audience

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Speaker 1: pool that currently exists in their network. So what does

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Speaker 1: that totally mean? That means you can buy right across NBC,

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Speaker 1: Vox and we say Vox, v X, v o X

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Speaker 1: through the Conde portfolio and totally get why NBC and

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Speaker 1: Vox partnered in early days, right, NBC was looking to

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Speaker 1: go younger, looking for new thought leadership, especially around people

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Speaker 1: like Carrot Swisher and recode and leaning into the super

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Speaker 1: smart micro uh communities are subcultures. And then Conde came

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Speaker 1: to the table. And when Conde came to the table,

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Speaker 1: it's set off that red flag. We call it the

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Speaker 1: f It was like that we describe as the flare

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Speaker 1: going off, and we're looking for a sound effect for

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Speaker 1: the flair and when that happened, right, it's confused, Susian

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Speaker 1: because Connie Nast presumably has the quality of content, but

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Speaker 1: are they really pulling the audience? Are they pulling the audience?

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Speaker 1: And then are you competing with vox You're both going

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Speaker 1: down very niche paths. So that one is a really

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Speaker 1: interesting one and one we need to watch because it

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Speaker 1: signals a couple of things to me, and I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure what direction is going, and I don't know what

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Speaker 1: you think about it. On the other side, the Viacom,

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Speaker 1: Fox and Turner, I find that one to be more

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Speaker 1: interesting because they were the first major networks to say

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Speaker 1: we have to think about this differently, and we recognize

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Speaker 1: that audiences aren't just made up of simple age, sex

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Speaker 1: and location demographics. Right that we've got you're far pasting

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Speaker 1: generations we've got a market to the whole person, and

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Speaker 1: so I think that that one is more interesting about Listen,

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Speaker 1: we know that we've got this audience, but we're gonna

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Speaker 1: get really fucking smart about who they are, right A men,

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Speaker 1: Sister Peace talking about audience and building experiences within a

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Speaker 1: media company. We'll be right back. So welcome back, everybody

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Speaker 1: to a landy. We are so excited to have the

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Speaker 1: O G of podcasting David Plots in the house. Welcome, welcome,

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Speaker 1: thank you. And I just have to say O G

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Speaker 1: of podcasting with gab Fest. You are a co host

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Speaker 1: of Political gab Fest. Correct, I am. We've been doing

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Speaker 1: it since the year the word podcast was coined. We've

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Speaker 1: been podcasting that long, but you've been very long time.

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Speaker 1: Didn't coin it now, but you could have definitely would

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Speaker 1: have coined it had someone else not beaten me to it.

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Speaker 1: So you've become kind of an unofficial mentor to us,

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Speaker 1: and we'll talk about that because I think that's really

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Speaker 1: interesting about podcasting in general. And uh, some of the

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Speaker 1: advice you've given us. If the school oji prayer hands

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Speaker 1: is our sign of the day, yeah, exactly, thank you,

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Speaker 1: thank you. But I think first we got to know

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Speaker 1: you when you were at Slate. You were the editor

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Speaker 1: in chief of Slate, and now you are on the

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Speaker 1: business side. You're the CEO of Atlas Obscura, a new

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Speaker 1: media company, right that is really blending experience and media together. Yes,

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Speaker 1: that is extremely well put. So in I took over

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Speaker 1: what was a beautiful little venture that had been started

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Speaker 1: by Joshua four and Dylan Thurris, and they had created

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Speaker 1: the site called out a Secure, which is where people

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Speaker 1: could share knowledge of the world's unusual places, so like

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Speaker 1: the secret apartment at the top of the Affril Tower

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Speaker 1: or the splunking in New York City subways. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: love that, Yes, subways or do you know if you

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Speaker 1: take the six train past the end? You can take

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Speaker 1: it past the end and you keep going. Legally, they

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Speaker 1: won't kick you off it because it goes and does

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Speaker 1: it turnaround. You can stay on it and you go

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Speaker 1: into this abandoned City Hall station, which is this beautiful

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Speaker 1: station that was built in the early twenty century. It's gorgeous,

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Speaker 1: it's lit and you can just get a glance of

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Speaker 1: it as you just go. Podcast. We're going, actually I

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Speaker 1: think we go on the six. We do a record

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Speaker 1: if we can. Is that considered spunking If you go

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Speaker 1: on a subway spunk and you gotta climb in, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we could do that too. I don't know if you

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Speaker 1: want to see any climbing on this. Do not encourage

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Speaker 1: your listeners to splunk. Nobody's blunk. Nobody Nobody's slunk. But

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Speaker 1: Alice is talking about the unknown, travel and treasures and

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Speaker 1: the idea, and the idea that Dylan and Josh had

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Speaker 1: was that we're all explorers, that everyone's an explorer. You

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Speaker 1: don't might not know what you're an explorer, but around

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Speaker 1: the corner from you is something that is going to

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Speaker 1: surprise you and it's going to light you and amaze you,

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Speaker 1: and we're going to give you that experience digitally. So

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Speaker 1: we created this huge compendium, or rather our users created

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Speaker 1: this huge compendium of these unusual places around the world.

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Speaker 1: That's part of it. But also we created experiences for

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Speaker 1: people so that you can come with us and go

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Speaker 1: hike to the secret fort in the middle of Rock

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Speaker 1: Creek Park in Washington, d C. Or come do a

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Speaker 1: falconry workshop in the desert with us. Work you get

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Speaker 1: to like hunt with a falcon. No way, that's that's cool.

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Speaker 1: That will really brought outside my comfort home. My favorite,

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Speaker 1: my favorite thing that we did at Alice since I've

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Speaker 1: been there, were there so many things, but one is

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Speaker 1: that we took over this bar in green Point one night.

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Speaker 1: So it's had about people in this bar and broken land.

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Speaker 1: You like, kicked out all the hipsters and brought your

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Speaker 1: own We brought our own hips, bring your own. It

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Speaker 1: was the hipsters paid us to be there, and we

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Speaker 1: brought a wolf to the bar and so the door opened.

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Speaker 1: Everyone realized that this is when the wolf comes in.

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Speaker 1: The bar went. It's totally dead silent, and then you

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Speaker 1: hear I can't reenact up with the clatter of these

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Speaker 1: wolf claws on the wooden floor. It was incredible. One

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Speaker 1: of the cool things you've talked to us a bit

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Speaker 1: about is how you've kind of went at this idea

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Speaker 1: of the problem of building brand in the modern media world.

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Speaker 1: You talk about how Google and Facebook on your audience,

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Speaker 1: and it's very deff a goal for you to kind

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Speaker 1: of go and do things cost effectively, right. I think

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Speaker 1: I'm one of the things that you guys, I'm sure

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Speaker 1: experience like all the time is that if you're a

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Speaker 1: media site you think you have an audience, but really

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Speaker 1: your audience is coming to you because that someone has

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Speaker 1: done them a Facebook link or they maybe saw you

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Speaker 1: on snapchack discover Um that the platform owns your audience.

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Speaker 1: You don't own your audience. Your audience doesn't necessarily know

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Speaker 1: who you are. They don't. They follow the link and

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Speaker 1: they see your story and you get to count them

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Speaker 1: as someone who's seen you, but they don't really know

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Speaker 1: who you are. And I think one of the the

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Speaker 1: that's a very deadly position to be in because all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, these people who you think are connected

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Speaker 1: to you the way a newspaper subscriber used to be

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Speaker 1: connected to the newspaper that they paid for, they're not

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Speaker 1: connected to you. They don't care, they don't really know.

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Speaker 1: You're just a flip in the feed exactly. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: haven't used that. That's a good expression. Yeah, And so

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Speaker 1: our premise is that that, um, if we can build

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Speaker 1: genuine liken unity, in genuine sort of real experiences for people,

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Speaker 1: that we can then create a brand that actually has

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Speaker 1: meaning for them. And people are coming so like your

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Speaker 1: community right of of readers or I don't even know

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Speaker 1: what you call them, like explorers right, are contributing to

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Speaker 1: the events, contributing to some of the local points that

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Speaker 1: you guys are talking about. Do you recruit them? Do

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Speaker 1: they just talk to you guys and say, Hey, this

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Speaker 1: is something that's really cool, Like how do you guys

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Speaker 1: find those people? Well, it depends some of some of

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Speaker 1: them find us. There. In every town, there's somebody who

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Speaker 1: knows like here's the weird history, or here's the house

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Speaker 1: that al Capone lived in for seven years when he

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Speaker 1: was a kid, or whatever particular thing it is. There's

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Speaker 1: always someone in town who knows it. And sometimes they

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Speaker 1: have an outlet, but often they don't have an outlet,

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Speaker 1: so so they stumble across us and then they start

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Speaker 1: to contribute. There's this kid, I shouldn't call him a kid.

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Speaker 1: He's a full grown adult in Washington named Elliott Carter

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Speaker 1: who knows more about Washington, d c. And it's distinctive

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Speaker 1: history than anybody. And he kind of found me and said,

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Speaker 1: I took him out to coffee one day and here's

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Speaker 1: this person. Now every time I turned around, he's like

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Speaker 1: pointed out some other incredible thing. There's this uh, like

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Speaker 1: did you know the US Constitution is at the National

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Speaker 1: Archives and every night so you can go see it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever seen it, the Declaration

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Speaker 1: of Independence and Constitution, and every night there's this mechanism,

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Speaker 1: this elevator that lowers it into a safe in the ground.

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Speaker 1: I lived in d C. I can tell you my

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Speaker 1: my tours of DC are different than finding the Constitution.

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Speaker 1: I was there for college. Oh yeah, as far as

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Speaker 1: with great history too, yes, I love this idea of

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Speaker 1: modern folklore. I was actually um on the train the

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Speaker 1: other day going home to Connecticut, and I was on

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Speaker 1: Atlas Obscures website and immediately GEO located me and was like,

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Speaker 1: here are things in Connecticut and there are things like

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Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I live in Stanford, Connecticut home. There

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Speaker 1: were some really cool things that I had never I

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Speaker 1: had no idea about. That's I mean, that's really that's

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Speaker 1: really interesting, Like how do brands? Because I think something

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Speaker 1: that we've talked a lot about, Laura and I have

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Speaker 1: talked a lot about, is this idea of local community

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Speaker 1: becoming more important, especially post election, Like what's happening in

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Speaker 1: your local community? Do you really know who are the voices?

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Speaker 1: Who are the people? You know? How do brand start

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Speaker 1: tapping into something that Alice Obscure is doing in certain

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Speaker 1: communities that are important to them. That's a really good question.

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Speaker 1: Let me think about that. I think one way is

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Speaker 1: and now, and I think eight US cities we have

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Speaker 1: what are called Atlas Obscure Societies, and these are local

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Speaker 1: organizations and they're run by somebody who works for us,

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Speaker 1: usually in a part time basis, and every week they're

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Speaker 1: putting together local experiences. So in Washington, d C. I

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Speaker 1: noticed that we're going to do a tasting of George

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Speaker 1: Washington's whiskey and so they'll be a whiskey tasting down

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Speaker 1: the mountain, getting it to a totally different side of

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Speaker 1: the president. Huge, he was a huge where that somewhere

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Speaker 1: my boyfriend is putting in next trip. Um, it's one

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Speaker 1: way a brand could engage. Right, Well, we've been doing

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Speaker 1: these tours. If you're listening, Johnny Walker, if you're listening, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like a historic whiskey tour be amazing. There's all this

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Speaker 1: kind of great whiskey history through Apple Acchian Kentucky. You

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Speaker 1: could do so much cool stuff. So, David, when you

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Speaker 1: talk a lot about you know, these um new ways

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Speaker 1: of curating experiences in this blend of what we call

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Speaker 1: like mixed reality. Right, you've got the offline thing happening,

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Speaker 1: you've got the online creation of editorial. One of the

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Speaker 1: interesting lines I've heard of late came from Jed Hartman,

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Speaker 1: the c r OH of UM Washington Post. He said,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're at a time when you're always um

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Speaker 1: one click away from somebody never coming back to your site,

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Speaker 1: and in a in a space where you're playing in

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Speaker 1: a world that's blurred. How are you gauging the effect

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Speaker 1: of this and success of Atlas Obscure? What does that

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Speaker 1: look like? Well, we're in a lot of different lines

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Speaker 1: of businesses. So we have published a book. We you know,

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Speaker 1: are piloting podcasts, We do digital media, we do events,

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Speaker 1: we do international trips. So there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: different ways we can measure success. I think, like most people,

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Speaker 1: we look at the kind of top line audience number,

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Speaker 1: but that is not sufficient. I mean that's sort of

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Speaker 1: just like you can get a Reddit spike and all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, your top line audience number looks great.

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Speaker 1: So we are trying to and I could use some advice,

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Speaker 1: and we're trying to get some kind of measurement, which

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Speaker 1: kind of combines the durability of time on site with

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Speaker 1: like user action around events and you know, buying things

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Speaker 1: from us. But because we're a young brand, that's all.

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Speaker 1: It's all kind of I think off earlier about this,

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Speaker 1: I was like, I want to talk to David about this.

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Speaker 1: I want to say, like, why even have a website today?

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Speaker 1: And I think that that's an interesting question for you,

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Speaker 1: and then let's take it further, like I think that

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Speaker 1: you guys are well positioned to do something totally different

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Speaker 1: in terms of how content comes to life via experience

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Speaker 1: and only have that be the centerpiece. You just position

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Speaker 1: Obscure as a parent company that's a collective of different

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Speaker 1: revenue streams, right, and different platforms that exist. Which kudos

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Speaker 1: to you because I think a lot of brands are

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Speaker 1: trying to figure out how they go off platform and

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Speaker 1: so I think you have an advantage there. But the

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Speaker 1: other website, it's like go off of like yeah dot com.

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Speaker 1: But the other part that's interesting is also to your

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Speaker 1: advantage is you don't have audience. You have explorers. So

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Speaker 1: to me, the fact that people can go deep and

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Speaker 1: they're not there to just click on an article and

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Speaker 1: keep moving there there to immerse themselves in experience and

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Speaker 1: potentially then go on one to me things like can

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Speaker 1: version rate to experience or you're a lot closer depth

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Speaker 1: of exploration is more intriguing to me as a marketer,

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Speaker 1: and that Yeah, that's exactly. That's the kind of we

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Speaker 1: don't have like a great CRM tool, but we that's

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Speaker 1: what we need is to figure that out because right

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Speaker 1: now we have we know how many people went to events,

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Speaker 1: we know how many people bought the book, we know

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Speaker 1: how many people are going on trips, we know how

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Speaker 1: many people are the website, but we don't know how

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Speaker 1: one gets to the other and game those things. But

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Speaker 1: I want to actually just to dig into that into

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Speaker 1: the kind of website question is like why I have

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Speaker 1: a website. So one of the things I think why

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Speaker 1: that was obscured in particular as a website is that

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Speaker 1: so much of what we do is actually created by

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Speaker 1: our users. So the entire atlas, this compendium of places,

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Speaker 1: which is much of what we do online, users started

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Speaker 1: all of that. They contributed all of that, and we

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Speaker 1: had this amazing moment with so we published a book

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Speaker 1: this fall, which, by the way, it gets crazy reviews

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Speaker 1: and write crazy reviews. Lena Dunham, like tons of people

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Speaker 1: have said, this reinvented what travel should be. Yeah, it was.

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Speaker 1: It's a pretty good endorsements. I'm not quoting her. I'm

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Speaker 1: just saying that there are so many people who have

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Speaker 1: said to that effect, that's what this is, right. I

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Speaker 1: think Lena's actual line was this is the only thing

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Speaker 1: that makes me get out of my house, which is

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Speaker 1: which I love that. But so that book was a

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Speaker 1: bestseller before it came out because we pre sold we

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Speaker 1: we told our audience about it. We told the people

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Speaker 1: on the website preorder this book. This is a book

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Speaker 1: that our users had written. The things that are in

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Speaker 1: the book are things that they contributed. They bought a

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Speaker 1: book that they had written. Do you start doing a

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Speaker 1: reb stream with them? We should start doing well. The

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Speaker 1: reb stream is that we is that we put out

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Speaker 1: a beautiful book and that we we made it useful,

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Speaker 1: and that that we are giving them you know, we're

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Speaker 1: doing events with them, and we are constantly looking for

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Speaker 1: ways to give them these rich experiences. But there is

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Speaker 1: a sort of virtuous cycle and the web is important

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Speaker 1: part of it because the web is the place we

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Speaker 1: give them to contribute contents that adds to your credibility.

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Speaker 1: It's like this buy me for me sort of UM model,

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Speaker 1: and that there's many travel mags and sites and destinations

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Speaker 1: at a talent and yeah, yeah, I mean everything from

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Speaker 1: Airbnb having the potential to become a content platform to

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Speaker 1: travel and leisure. So the user content is a key

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Speaker 1: part of it. One we have to edit it, so

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Speaker 1: it needs to be improved, so it needs editing. And

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Speaker 1: the other is that we supplement it with professional content

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Speaker 1: and stories that we can go out and find which

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Speaker 1: have made the audience still bigger and made you know,

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Speaker 1: people want to sign up for emails, and it creates

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Speaker 1: a whole new richness to what we're doing. So I

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Speaker 1: think it's I think um the balance that it's a balance.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it does mean our cost of content production

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Speaker 1: is lower than it would be if we were pure

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Speaker 1: professional journalism play and that that's a good position to

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Speaker 1: be in. But I think we need both pieces. I

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Speaker 1: want to see I want to see Alice Obscura have

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Speaker 1: the ability to go from see this cool thing and

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Speaker 1: do it now, like right now, Like if I was

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Speaker 1: four Square, I'd buy Atlas Obscura. Are you listening. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's actually really what they need, right, and that's what

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Speaker 1: they should have become with. Yeah, but I think Airbnb

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Speaker 1: love Airbnb would swallow Atlas Obscura up and make it

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Speaker 1: something that it's not. What I think that you guys

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Speaker 1: could do is have this immediate like I want to

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Speaker 1: do this now. I want to go see a show now,

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Speaker 1: like underground this, I want to take the six train now,

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Speaker 1: I want to do this now, I want to buy

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Speaker 1: the ticket now. And I think like on demand experience

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Speaker 1: is really the next kind of step in also in commerce, right,

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Speaker 1: like having commerce and experience come together for this like amazing,

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Speaker 1: you know, really great idea are you writing? So don't worry,

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Speaker 1: it's reported. We had a we had a kind of

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Speaker 1: like a very beta extremely like soa beta we barely

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Speaker 1: let a thing called we called missions, which was we

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Speaker 1: try to do that, which was it wasn't just here's

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Speaker 1: a place, it was here's something you can go do now.

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Speaker 1: Do you know how many people say all the time

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Speaker 1: like I'm bored. Do you know how many how many

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Speaker 1: times tons if something stopped you in the middle of

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Speaker 1: your tracks and said you can go do this? Now?

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Speaker 1: Here are eight things that you can go do now.

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, that's a that's an extremely good idea. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's why we do what we do so in this

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Speaker 1: in this shared economy, I mean, do you think that

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Speaker 1: the Atlas obscure a model leans into this shared economy?

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Speaker 1: Obviously we have shared services like Uber, the Airbnb, is

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Speaker 1: the world, excetera. We actually from a colleague just learned

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Speaker 1: of this new app called cool Cousin. Are you familiar

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Speaker 1: with coin? So similar to what you're doing, but more

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Speaker 1: from a host than guide standpoint versus like actually immersing

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Speaker 1: yourself in unpacking. It's like an expert down a certain vertical.

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Speaker 1: So like one of our colleagues is food. He's like

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Speaker 1: the foodie of New York City, so that's what he

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Speaker 1: like he does. You know, how do you see styles

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Speaker 1: obscured playing in the shared economy? Do you think it

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Speaker 1: gets to a place where you can exchange experiences for

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Speaker 1: non transactional things or can you see like some of

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Speaker 1: your contributors actually um bartering expartering experiences right exactly creating

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Speaker 1: their own revenue streams off of a Las obscura. There

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Speaker 1: was a great um an example of that, which is

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Speaker 1: that we did an event. Last year, we had this

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Speaker 1: thing called Obscure Day, which is on May six market calendars.

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Speaker 1: On May six all over the world, we it's our

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Speaker 1: International Day of Exploration, so we do two events all

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Speaker 1: over the world on that day. And one of the

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Speaker 1: ones we did in York last year was this person

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Speaker 1: who actually in their apartment has all these Victorian electronics.

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Speaker 1: So I guess during the nineteenth century there was you know,

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Speaker 1: they had electronics. It was early electronics. And because this

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Speaker 1: collection and demonstrated all this stuff in their apartment, um,

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Speaker 1: and it was this idea that there's kind of people

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Speaker 1: with secret knowledge and secret expertise and they want to

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Speaker 1: share it, and we we give it a platform because

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Speaker 1: many of them as possible. But I like the idea

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Speaker 1: that people can start to do it themselves, create it themselves.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you've got a whole sub revenue stream then

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Speaker 1: of people kind of branching off and then becoming their

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Speaker 1: own sort of like self organizing, yeah explorer or obscure evangelists.

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Speaker 1: I guess that that can create. I mean I see

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Speaker 1: a huge partnership with you and meet up with Atlas

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Speaker 1: Obscura and meet up to be able to do something

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Speaker 1: like us can be amazing. I mean, the potential for

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Speaker 1: brands that to do is like totally unlimited in that

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Speaker 1: there are so many ways. So like when you talk

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Speaker 1: about international you know, Explorer's Day, like our brands like

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Speaker 1: Patagonia and go Pro reaching out to you to integrate

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Speaker 1: their products and ways that are actually tangible and useful

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Speaker 1: and an experience versus just badging that day we should

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Speaker 1: be badging means like it. So I'm just curious to

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Speaker 1: get your take. Haven't been in this world for a

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Speaker 1: couple of years, Like what are people most interested in travel? Like?

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Speaker 1: How has it evolved with technology and the sort of

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Speaker 1: platform you've created has it shaped it? Yeah? I think

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Speaker 1: I think, um people are really interested in kind of

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Speaker 1: off the beaten track experiences and and some of it

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Speaker 1: is some of it actually think is slightly one upsmanship.

429
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: There's a lot of like I've been there, look at

430
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: my Instagram where I've been, haven't been there, and so

431
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:24,399
Speaker 1: so part of it I don't like. But part of

432
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:29,520
Speaker 1: it is is the sense that um that thanks to technology,

433
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,560
Speaker 1: thanks to you know, improve travel, you can now get

434
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:35,399
Speaker 1: to places where you couldn't get before. And it's a

435
00:23:35,480 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 1: genuine curiosity of saying like, well, it used to be.

436
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 1: It used to be that everyone thought, I've got to

437
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 1: see the Eiffel Tower and the Tower of London and

438
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:47,480
Speaker 1: Mona Lisa before I die. And now people, I think, don't.

439
00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,640
Speaker 1: I think people you could see that through a digital version,

440
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:53,479
Speaker 1: they don't care. Like going to the Mona Lisa. It's awful.

441
00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:57,680
Speaker 1: It's a terrible experience. It's super crowded, it's terrible. It's terrible.

442
00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,680
Speaker 1: And you you if you, you know that if you

443
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,959
Speaker 1: had an alternative experience in like some weird place outside

444
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 1: of Paris, it would be a better experience. I think

445
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 1: people are looking for things that are more bespoken, unusual,

446
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:12,040
Speaker 1: things that you can't typically get access to. I feel

447
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 1: like it is something that is more valued these days

448
00:24:15,119 --> 00:24:19,560
Speaker 1: than to your point, the mainstream tourist stops, right. I

449
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:21,720
Speaker 1: think that's exactly right. And also one of the things

450
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:25,440
Speaker 1: that's happening is that is that because of Asia's getting

451
00:24:25,480 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 1: so rich, there are these h Yeah, so there are

452
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,440
Speaker 1: tons of I mean there have been tons of Japanese tourist,

453
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,200
Speaker 1: but now Korean and Chinese tourists who are in in

454
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 1: in Europe and so there it's like there's just a

455
00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:41,159
Speaker 1: lot more tourists in places which there where there's been

456
00:24:41,200 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 1: fewer tourists, and so there's a spill on effect where

457
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,240
Speaker 1: where people who who have tourist experience are looking for

458
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:52,000
Speaker 1: really unusual in different places to go, and that that

459
00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:56,399
Speaker 1: we think is a huge opportunity. And like you know,

460
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,800
Speaker 1: and people sometimes say like, well you have outos obscure

461
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: and worried that all these weird places are going to

462
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,359
Speaker 1: be ruined. Argue is like, no, ruined because of what

463
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:07,760
Speaker 1: because suddenly people are going to find them, And it's

464
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: actually much much more. The case of what happens is

465
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 1: that places that don't get visited die, they get it's abandoned, forgotten,

466
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: and disappear. And what you want is actually for these places,

467
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: these wonderful, weird places to be celebrated and found. Did

468
00:25:20,040 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: you guys ever cover This is a totally random but

469
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,119
Speaker 1: I was obsessed with this. So remember finding Sugarman? Did

470
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:29,960
Speaker 1: you remember that? Okay, the musician in Detroit? But I

471
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,880
Speaker 1: was like really obsessed with Detroit culture because of finding

472
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,720
Speaker 1: Sugarman and like just all the stuff that was happening

473
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,680
Speaker 1: some time with like the Chrysler comeback and like all

474
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,359
Speaker 1: of these things I've just moved into brainstorm mode because

475
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:45,359
Speaker 1: you you do this to me. So what Alexa just described,

476
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:49,880
Speaker 1: I think is an amazing product opportunity, and it's how

477
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:53,720
Speaker 1: does Atlas obscurre a move into the search bar of experiences?

478
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 1: That's right? So when Alexa thinks about finding sugar and

479
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:04,119
Speaker 1: I think about finding Tony Soprano, what are the experiences

480
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: that I can go in and ask Atlas Obscura to

481
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:10,120
Speaker 1: curate for me to go after that? And I think

482
00:26:10,520 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: that is the quintessential moment of digital and discovery and

483
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:20,920
Speaker 1: search linking up with real world on demands that I

484
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,159
Speaker 1: can go do tomorrow. That's where I was saying, like

485
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 1: the footh whole four square thing. I was like, if

486
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: I'm right here, what can I do right now? But

487
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 1: I love the like search the search bar for experiences.

488
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: I mean that you just give you a new tagline.

489
00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's really in a lot of ways. Um,

490
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 1: who if I said I want to see Atlas Obscura

491
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 1: become something, I'd say, you become that. So can you

492
00:26:46,320 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about how you're infusing technology

493
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,879
Speaker 1: to that point? So like you are eleven years in

494
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,119
Speaker 1: the making a podcast are and of your own right.

495
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:58,680
Speaker 1: How are things like audio and um other forms of

496
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,560
Speaker 1: things like augmented reality, the artificial intelligence playing into the

497
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: experience world. Because Alex and I are bracing for this

498
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: time in our industry where the interface is going away,

499
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: and so you are poised to be at the forefront

500
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 1: of that. What does technology look like in your world?

501
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a couple of a r apps that

502
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: we've talked to, and we think there's like a great

503
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: you know whatever the Pokemon go is for adults around

504
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,399
Speaker 1: history and experience to replace. There are some apps we

505
00:27:25,480 --> 00:27:27,320
Speaker 1: looked at that seemed really cool that look at sort

506
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,880
Speaker 1: of historical experience and allow you to kind of place

507
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: yourself in places if you have if you have a

508
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,440
Speaker 1: good idea for that people, So you and I want

509
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: to go into a little bit. You said the founders

510
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,359
Speaker 1: said that everyone's got an explore in them. I would

511
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 1: argue that that's not true. I would argue that people

512
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: generally are My mother's lived in the same place for

513
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:51,800
Speaker 1: almost sixty years in the same way like my parents,

514
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,680
Speaker 1: very similar. But I would argue it's not true and

515
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 1: less engaged in the right way. And I would love

516
00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: to know right now when you look at your audience,

517
00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,760
Speaker 1: who are they? Well, do you want to argue You're

518
00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:05,960
Speaker 1: gonna say, I think you're wrong. No, I mean I've

519
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:07,879
Speaker 1: I've lived all my life in Washington, you see. I

520
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:12,280
Speaker 1: grew up there, and I still every not every day,

521
00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 1: but every month I discover something surprising about this place,

522
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 1: which I know intimately. I mean, the reason I ended

523
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: up working at Atlas Obscure taking this job was I

524
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 1: had left Slate and I was just looking around. I

525
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: went for a bike ride with my daughter down in

526
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,159
Speaker 1: a part of Washington I never really spent much time,

527
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,160
Speaker 1: and I saw there's a bike path in Anacostia, which

528
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,399
Speaker 1: is a poorer part of the city. And then so

529
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:34,879
Speaker 1: we went on this bike path and I noticed as

530
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:36,560
Speaker 1: we were on this path, which was kind of like

531
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 1: a crumby path, it wasn't that fun of bike ride, honestly,

532
00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:41,800
Speaker 1: but that everything we passed it was. We went through

533
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 1: Fort DuPont Park and Fort my Hand Park in Fort

534
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,959
Speaker 1: Wallace Park, and I was like, why is everything called Fort?

535
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:49,240
Speaker 1: And so I went back home and I was like,

536
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 1: why is everything called Fort? And I looked and if

537
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 1: you put your finger on the Capitol and then to

538
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 1: draw a circle around Washington, maybe three or four miles

539
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 1: from the capitol. Everything is called fort. There's Fort Totton,

540
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: Fort Stephen, Battery, Kimball, and it's like, oh, these are

541
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: the Civil War defenses of Washington City. But there's no

542
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: forts there. It's like all gone, except there's one spot.

543
00:29:09,960 --> 00:29:12,239
Speaker 1: And so a couple of weeks later, I went out

544
00:29:12,280 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: for a walk with my family in the woods up

545
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 1: a mile from where I grew up, off a very

546
00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 1: busy street, off the corner of Military Road in Oregon Avenue.

547
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 1: You walk into the woods into Rock Creek Park. You're

548
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: in deep woods. You got a couple hundred yards and

549
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:26,920
Speaker 1: there's a tiny little path off to the right. You

550
00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,000
Speaker 1: take this tiny little path off to the right, off

551
00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: to the left actually, and you go another fifty yards

552
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 1: into the deep forest. All of a sudden there's a

553
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: moat and then these earthen walls they're twenty ft high,

554
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: and you climb up on these earthen models and you

555
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,680
Speaker 1: realize that this is a ring and this is Fort Drusie.

556
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,240
Speaker 1: This is like a fort. It's in the middle of

557
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 1: the fucking city, like right where I grew up, and

558
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 1: it's just this incredible plan and it turns out has

559
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: an amazing history. It's where you know, there was a

560
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: very important battle thought that fended off a Confederate invasion

561
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty four, very little talked about, but important battle,

562
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: but nobody knows that, nobody experiences it. So I so

563
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,160
Speaker 1: I think even your you know, your relative, your grandmother's uh,

564
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 1: well you just said, yeah, it's totally inspired. This This

565
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,960
Speaker 1: thought in my head as you're talking is like the

566
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: furthest my mother is explored as the Jersey Shore And

567
00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:22,280
Speaker 1: I say that and it's not a bad thing, and

568
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: it's not a bad thing, but a creature of habit.

569
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,840
Speaker 1: Sixty years same town, born and raised, raised her family there,

570
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: continues to live there. How can brands help reach the

571
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,640
Speaker 1: fruit on the tree that is not low hanging, which

572
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 1: are people like her who don't necessarily have the ambition

573
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: or maybe the financial means or whatever the case may be,

574
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 1: to go to see the mona Lisa, but can get

575
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: out in their neighborhoods and find for and feel and

576
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 1: you know what happens. What did you feel when you

577
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,160
Speaker 1: like discovered this, It was like, yes, it's literally it's

578
00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:03,320
Speaker 1: literally yea. And I now take groups on I take

579
00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: groups to this sport because it's so fun and people

580
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,880
Speaker 1: are like, holy count, I'm seeing the next show, but

581
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: we want bar but Laura's mom to go fuck yeah.

582
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: The other thing is that bar may know. So the

583
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: other piece of it is, like you asked to the audiences,

584
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,920
Speaker 1: and I think the audience is people who are passionate

585
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,240
Speaker 1: about things and that that sense of like they are enthusiasts.

586
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: And I bet that Barb has, like she has some

587
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,640
Speaker 1: deep knowledge of some aspect of her world and her community.

588
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:32,440
Speaker 1: There's somebody who's history she knows, or some place that

589
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: she knows just intimately. And as much as we are

590
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:38,400
Speaker 1: about people traveling to the farthest flung and like having

591
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 1: some like distant remote experience, where also about people like

592
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 1: connecting deeply to any place, like you can connect deeply

593
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 1: to the place that I think fingers right now, because

594
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:55,480
Speaker 1: that right there, to me, brands local communities and making

595
00:31:55,680 --> 00:32:00,320
Speaker 1: people have a sense of life and a sense of

596
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 1: like excitement, pride and pride and pride it is pride

597
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: right that they didn't know even existed. That to me

598
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:14,360
Speaker 1: is like amazingly exciting. So let's pivot into David plots

599
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 1: the podcaster, and I just call you Platsy, one of

600
00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:27,280
Speaker 1: many nicknames, that's the least awful that um, and talk

601
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 1: to us a little bit about eleven years in the

602
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:34,800
Speaker 1: making as a podcaster, what you've seen this industry become,

603
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: and what you're excited about or not excited about. I mean,

604
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 1: I'm incredibly excited about. I love podcasting. I just love it.

605
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: It's one of the things. When I was at Slate

606
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: Andy Bowers, who you guys know and work with, and

607
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:51,920
Speaker 1: Andy created this podcasting world and Slate no one knew

608
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: what podcasting was. I mean, it was literally the year

609
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 1: that podcasting was invented, and Andy saying, this is the future.

610
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,960
Speaker 1: You've got to try this, and we didn't know. We're like, sure, whatever, Andy, Yeah, fine, yeah,

611
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: but he was so absolutely right and prophetic about it,

612
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:11,760
Speaker 1: and and so um to me. Uh, what I love

613
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,040
Speaker 1: and what I think is is profound about it is

614
00:33:15,120 --> 00:33:18,320
Speaker 1: that it is the most intimate medium. It is medium

615
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: where you when you hear someone's voice in your ears,

616
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 1: and when you hear someone's voice in your earbuds. It's

617
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: not even ambiently like like when you listen to the radio.

618
00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: It tends to be sort of ambient around you. But

619
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,840
Speaker 1: the earbuds. First of all, you've made an explicit choice

620
00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 1: to listen, Like you can't not opt into a podcast,

621
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 1: you have opted to listen to it. And with the

622
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,520
Speaker 1: plotsy voice, I mean, how could you not actually just

623
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:44,280
Speaker 1: mee me, want to go like um, And then it's

624
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 1: and it's right in your ears, and so it creates

625
00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 1: this intimacy. And television is a distancing medium. Print you

626
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 1: don't make this human connection with people, um, because it's

627
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 1: whoever writes it. It's like just you know whatever. And

628
00:33:56,640 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: digital is digital is ephemera, Digital is flashing across right

629
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:06,000
Speaker 1: so quickly. Podcasting is unbelievably intimate, and therefore you have

630
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:07,960
Speaker 1: human connections with people. I don't know if this is

631
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:09,839
Speaker 1: starting to happen to you guys yet, but you're going

632
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:11,840
Speaker 1: to meet people who know you because they listen to

633
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,000
Speaker 1: you and they hear your voice, and they'll hear you

634
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,360
Speaker 1: and they'll be like it's Laura, and not because you

635
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 1: know anything about them, but they know you and they've

636
00:34:19,760 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: connected to you, and that is a powerful connection. That's

637
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:24,759
Speaker 1: why the ad rates are so high. Can I ask you?

638
00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: Can we ask you one last thing? So we have

639
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: this thing, this series, and this was actually a piece

640
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: of your advice. And after we talked, I was like,

641
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:33,279
Speaker 1: oh my god, Laura, we got to bring it back.

642
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,399
Speaker 1: So there's this Have you ever heard of the game?

643
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:38,279
Speaker 1: I feel like you're too in a lex Mary kill?

644
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:42,000
Speaker 1: Yeah kidd fuck Mary? But yeah, um we like, yeah,

645
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:46,000
Speaker 1: just a tongue. Oh it's fun Mary kill? Maybe Cam?

646
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:50,279
Speaker 1: Is it fuck? I am well? Cam says fun Mary kile,

647
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 1: We say Mary, And that's our show. So it's my

648
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 1: wife and I played an hour long game of the

649
00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 1: other name. We were walking We're going to a concert.

650
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:01,239
Speaker 1: We were walking to a concert. We're just like, it

651
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,800
Speaker 1: was so much fun. Okay, so we're going to do

652
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:08,760
Speaker 1: that though for marketing brands, technology media with you. Okay,

653
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 1: So it's kill. What would you kill? What would you

654
00:35:11,360 --> 00:35:13,479
Speaker 1: just get rid of? What would you strike from the earth?

655
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: David Blotts, what would you do yourself? Right? And what

656
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:21,800
Speaker 1: would you buy? I mean I would definitely kill Facebook.

657
00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 1: Definitely Facebook was dead. When we've talked a lot on

658
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:28,800
Speaker 1: this podcast about sort of real experiences, I think Facebook

659
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: is the champion of separating you from real experience, that

660
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:36,160
Speaker 1: creates pretend experience when where there should be real experience,

661
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: and it also has had this dire effect I think

662
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,560
Speaker 1: on journalism and media. Okay, I buy that, all right?

663
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:47,000
Speaker 1: What would I buy? Would I buy? I would buy? Uh?

664
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 1: This American life. I think that's American life does what

665
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:53,480
Speaker 1: it does better than anything it has created. We are

666
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:55,680
Speaker 1: all children of this American life in the way that

667
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 1: we're almost children or nothing else. I think it's it's

668
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 1: created how we do stories, how we think about stories,

669
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,239
Speaker 1: how we listen to stories, more than anything. So I

670
00:36:04,239 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 1: would agree with that's a enough answer, and would agree

671
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,200
Speaker 1: with you. And I think a call plots if if

672
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 1: you want to make a deal, and then he could

673
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,040
Speaker 1: buy me actually, and then what what would I do?

674
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 1: What would do yourself? Yourself? Because I would do it better?

675
00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:25,440
Speaker 1: Is um American soccer? Like, I'm a huge soccer fan.

676
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,960
Speaker 1: So disappointed you just hit You just hit a pash

677
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 1: point of miss lor Charanti over here. I played soccer

678
00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 1: at American University, always an eagle. What would you do

679
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 1: differently about American soccer? Well, it's just there's a huge

680
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,879
Speaker 1: fan base, there's a huge participation, there's an enormous love

681
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,880
Speaker 1: for the game, and yet the quality of the league

682
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 1: and of the national of the MLS and of the

683
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 1: national team continues to be low. I think that is

684
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: a huge issue with the MLS organization. You have a

685
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 1: Hispanic Lettie community that turns out for UM international games

686
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,800
Speaker 1: more than they do their own home team. The league

687
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:10,120
Speaker 1: does not understand how to put the right folks in

688
00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,360
Speaker 1: marketing in these pockets of communities that truly understand them.

689
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 1: So I could go on about that I learned, but um, anyway,

690
00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:18,840
Speaker 1: David Plots, thank you for coming. Thank you. If you

691
00:37:18,960 --> 00:37:22,760
Speaker 1: haven't already, please go check out Atlas Obscura. We're expecting

692
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: a lot from Alice Obscure. I hope you know. I

693
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:27,080
Speaker 1: mean I saw you break out the iPhone with some

694
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 1: ideas that we wrote down. We want to come and

695
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 1: and see these happen. So, David, how can people get

696
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,719
Speaker 1: in touch with you if they have more interesting experiences

697
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 1: or ideas they want to share with us? Well, I'm

698
00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 1: on Twitter at David Plots and I'm also David at

699
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: Atlas obscura dot com. Awesome, David Plots, everyone, thank you

700
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 1: so much. Thank you guys. Um that wraps this week's

701
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:48,480
Speaker 1: episode of Atlandia. A few people we need to thank

702
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 1: Cameron Drews, our producer Laura Mayer, Mett Turk, Andy Bowers,

703
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,240
Speaker 1: and our team at Panoply. Thanks very much. Thanks for listening.

704
00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:00,040
Speaker 1: Tweet us at at Landia Podcast, Like us, leave of

705
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:02,399
Speaker 1: us a review, send us your thoughts. We'll be back

706
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:09,560
Speaker 1: in two weeks with another episode. Full disclosure. Our opinions

707
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 1: are our own. H