Creative Control

‘The Witcher’ TV show might not seem like the most natural inspiration for enthusiastically queer romance writing, but for some fanfic authors, it’s a world rich with creative inspiration. Fanfic writers, especially those missing authentic representation in mainstream media, have long used their own writing to make stories that speak to them. And fandom communities, once niche conventions and now massive online archives and popular forums, offer welcoming spaces to explore and build friendships.This is the first of our special series about the many worlds of fandom. To see the (explicit!) fanart of Gulliver’s Travels mentioned in the episode, head to the Met Museum’s archives.

Next week, we’ll be back with a special series of episodes about fandom—covering fanfic, fan art, cosplay, and all the passion that goes into building these communities. We’ll also be unpacking the hurdles fan creators face, from harassment to legal issues, and how these challenges affect the wider creator economy.

Since the last time we discussed the efforts to ban Tiktok, we’ve been hearing more about future legal challenges to these restrictions and the international impact they would have.So to get some different perspectives on Tiktok’s actual security risks and the courtroom sagas already shaping up, we talked with Timothy Edgar and Anupam Chander. Timothy is a professor at both Harvard and Brown, specializing in cybersecurity, and Anupam is a law professor at Georgetown who focuses on global regulation of new technologies. Both experts emphasized how banning Tiktok opens up a lot of new questions about how tech companies, specifically social media platforms, are treated in the U.S. and other countries. Because, while other countries including China and India have banned certain apps in the past, an American ban on Tiktok would send an entirely new message about how we do—or don’t—want to communicate with the rest of the world.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, a genre that’s gone from a niche art form to a cultural and financial powerhouse across the world. But with that huge burst of growth, are the true hip-hop creators getting their due? And what role will AI play in hip-hop in the next 50 years?To help us unpack hip-hop’s history and future, we talked with Sacha Jenkins. Sacha is a filmmaker, musician, and the creative director of the media company, Mass Appeal. He’s also the cocurator of Hip Hop: Conscious Unconscious, a photo exhibit presented by Fotografiska New York and created in partnership with Mass Appeal.

As Montana becomes the first state to pass a bill banning TikTok on all personal devices, discussions about why and how to restrict the Chinese-owned platform are circulating everywhere. TikTok creator V Spehar, @underthedesknews, has amassed 3 million followers with their clear, brief explanations of current events, and they believe that the communities and conversations on TikTok play a vital role in how we engage with each other across the globe. So when TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress a few weeks ago, V went to listen in, and see firsthand how politicians are talking about the controversial app.

To jumpstart season 3 with an overview of the creator economy, we’re featuring a roundtable conversation with some experts, recorded a few weeks ago at SXSW.Our panel of experts—Julie Haleluk, global head of video creator program at Amazon Live Shoppable Videos; Adrienne Lahens, global head of operations at TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions; Julian Reis, founder and CEO of SuperOrdinary; and Brent Weinstein, chief development officer at Candle Media—chatted with KC about the ups and downs of the creator economy. Given the huge influx of creators who entered the space in 2020 and the economic concerns that emerged last year, how is the creator economy maturing? And how do political conflicts play out, with so many creators staking their livelihoods on TikTok and other platforms?

Next week, Creative Control is back with Season 3! Some of the topics we’re unpacking this season include the push to ban TikTok, how hip-hop has undeniably shaped social media, and why it’s so difficult for adult content creators to monetize their work. Also, we’re diving into how the creator economy is challenging our norms around copyright, ownership, and originality.

While we’re on break, working on the next season of Creative Control, we’re revisiting this live episode from Fast Company’s Innovation Festival last fall. Content creator and comedian Brittany Broski gave her candid take on the creator economy and how she’s building a career beyond that kombucha meme that made her famous.

In between seasons, we’re taking another listen to this interview with Emma Chamberlain, one of YouTube’s undisputed royalty.Since starting her channel in 2017, Emma has amassed more than 11 million YouTube subscribers, in large part because of her wry comedic tone and signature lo-fi editing style. Her vlogs aren’t overproduced or too slick, instead she’s candid with her fans—which means being honest about needing a break from YouTube.Emma’s shifted her focus to building out her podcast, Anything Goes, and her coffee company, Chamberlain Coffee. We talked about how she’s redefining her relationship with YouTube and finding her place in the coffee industry—potential haters and all.

We’re working on the next season of Creative Control. In the meantime, we’re revisiting this still-relevant topic: doctors on platforms like TikTok and Twitter making medicine less of a mystery for people—and becoming celebrities along the way.But the ethics of being a medical influencer are a bit hazy. We’ve seen how misinformation can run rampant on social media, and it doesn’t take much for anyone to gain a following, no matter their credentials. So what are the implications of doctors being influencers, and is it actually making us healthier?