Story

Last March, Arnie Niekamp fell through a portal behind a Burger King, stumbling into the magical land of Foon. Fortunately, he had his podcasting equipment with him and a weak wi-fi signal from Burger King. So he started Hello from the Magic Tavern, a weekly podcast set at the Vermilion Minotaur, a local inn where he interviews the enchanted residents of Foon. Join Arnie, Usidore the Wizard, a shape-changing badger named Chunt, and friends for a special live performance at XOXO. (Try the spiced potatoes.)

You Look Nice Today is an “audio-based Journal of Emotional Hygiene,” an extremely-sporadic podcast from three friends who met on Twitter and talk about stuff. After a two year hiatus, YLNT re-emerged in May for a new episode, making life worth living again. We’re not willing to wait another year, so we’re blackmailing Adam Lisagor, Scott Simpson, and Merlin Mann into performing at XOXO.

20 years ago this month, two anonymous writers started posting a column online every weekday, a proto-blog that critically examined Internet culture and skewered the hype of the dot-com boom. Suck.com quickly grew to become the touchstone for a generation of writers and bloggers, paving the way for modern descendants like Gawker, The Awl, and Today In Tabs. The first new Suck collaboration since 2001, founders Carl Steadman and Joey Anuff exchange highlights from their top secret download diaries of the post-Suck years. “A timeline and walkthrough, 2001-2015.”

While working for On the Media in 2013, Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt started a podcast called TLDR that quickly gained a reputation for finding the most fascinating stories happening online and telling them in a compelling way. Last year, PJ and Alex left to launch Reply All, a weekly show for Gimlet Media about “how people shape the internet, and the internet shapes people,” an essential listen for anyone who cares about internet culture.

While working at HotWired in 1996, Derek Powazek launched Fray, a pioneering online community devoted to personal storytelling. Raw and emotional, the website soon expanded to live storytelling events and then to a series of independently-published books. Now, for the first time in over a decade, Derek returns to the Fray to host a night of your true personal stories. Want in? Join #fraycafe in Slack.