But It’s Free

[rynling]

I told my husband about My Favorite Murder, and now he's obsessed with it too. He teaches a class about new religious movements and has a bizarre fascination with New Jersey, so he got hooked on Episode 172, which is about a supposedly Satanic murder at the Devil's Teeth quarry in Springfield, a suburb of Newark (which is itself a suburb of New York).

I also told him about some of the wild shit people say about this podcast, and my husband, who is blessedly innocent of internet ragebait fuckery, was like, "But it's free?"

I was doing some research, and apparently My Favorite Murder is one of the top five highest grossing podcasts in the United States in terms of total revenue from various sources, including ad spots and live shows. (If you're curious, the other top-earning podcasts are right-wing or libertarian.) So apparently My Favorite Murder makes money, but I'm still disinclined to believe that any given podcast is going to have a lasting cultural impact outside of its subculture. And like my husband says, nobody's forcing anyone to listen to a free podcast about murder.

Comments

[runicmagitek]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: god DAMN I love your husband. What a guy. I hope he has an excellent day and so do you.

[rynling]

I'm going to admit something embarrassing. It's a common teenage fantasy to want a romantic partner who is very cool and popular (whatever that means) and who for some reason has chosen you, thus elevating you to high social status by association. I now, in my thirties, occasionally fantasize about having a romantic partner who's internet-famous and has tens of thousands of followers on social media and can boost my work and maybe even defend me when people are shitty.

And that's a fun fantasy, but the truth is that it's much better to have a partner who is sane and normal and very offline. It helps keep things in perspective, and I appreciate that.

Also I don't need an internet-famous partner, since my friends (present company included) are already more than sufficiently talented and amazing. Even if it's just by association, every day I feel like a cool kid on the internet.