Building a Podcast That Outlives the Algorithm

Now, first, we've gotta get the history right.

Postmortem photography was a real mourning practice in the nineteenth century.

Families sometimes photographed loved ones after death, especially children.

Photographs could be expensive and rare, so for some families, that photograph was the only image they would ever have of that person.

These were not necessarily creepy souvenirs.

They were, they were mementos of love and loss, something we take for granted in the iPhone age.

And the internet, well, we made this history stranger than it ever needed to be because not every old stiff-looking Victorian person is actually dead.

Early photography required people to sit still for long exposures.

The stories about every corpse being propped upright with wires or given painted eyes are heavily exaggerated.

Now, why does that nuance matter? Because creators should be allergic to a story that gets more viral by getting less true.

If the real story is quiet, human, and complicated, like all of us are, but the fake version is more shocking, tell the real one anyway.

Trust is built in those choices.

Now, first, we've gotta get the history right.

Postmortem photography was a real mourning practice in the nineteenth century.

Families sometimes photographed loved ones after death, especially children.

Photographs could be expensive and rare, so for some families, that photograph was the only image they would ever have of that person.

These were not necessarily creepy souvenirs.

They were, they were mementos of love and loss, something we take for granted in the iPhone age.

And the internet, well, we made this history stranger than it ever needed to be because not every old stiff-looking Victorian person is actually dead.

Early photography required people to sit still for long exposures.

The stories about every corpse being propped upright with wires or given painted eyes are heavily exaggerated.

Now, why does that nuance matter? Because creators should be allergic to a story that gets more viral by getting less true.

If the real story is quiet, human, and complicated, like all of us are, but the fake version is more shocking, tell the real one anyway.

Trust is built in those choices.