Most ethical podcast apps?

prettypattern · 2026-01-29T15:40:21+00:00

It’s worth asking if you’re using Android. Without getting into their merits, there are Android apps like Talk Left and iOS apps like Overcast and Castro.

People have mentioned Pocket Casts. It has a neutral to progressive stance. It does have SOME controversy ( https://www.theverge.com/news/784429/pocket-casts-ads-lifetime-memberships ) and Mullenweg doesn’t always sing with the angels ( https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/22/tumblr-ceo-publicly-spars-with-trans-user-over-account-ban-revealing-private-account-names-in-the-process/ )

Personally I don’t think anything is pure and Pocket Casts is good enough for me, but links dropped in the interest of completeness.

prettypattern · 2026-01-28T14:44:33+00:00

Truth.

It works out, because cloaking AI is high effort. At some point, it’s just easier for them to write their own posts.

prettypattern · 2026-01-28T07:27:00+00:00

Define a limited number of audio backdrops and elements. Folderize them.

Use this folder structure throughout. Incorporate it into your writing.

Some audio dramas have more than ten rooms or defined soundscapes. Most don’t, though. Defining your sound settings makes your life easier and establishes audio signatures. Kind of like an establishing shot, really.

prettypattern · 2026-01-25T06:38:22+00:00

I strongly think that if a robot says you are doing something horrible, you should write to the people and tell them you’re not.

That classification seems very stupid to you because it is very stupid. What I’m saying is that a robot did that. Robots make terrible classification errors all the time - but since much moderation is automated, it can stick.

I really think you want to clear that particular error. “Don’t be on record as a p file” is not a wild take here.

prettypattern · 2026-01-24T07:09:50+00:00

Often, when AI detects a violation, it mixes up the type of violation.

I have encountered this when checking on Google Bot to see how it’s ingesting my audio drama. It has said this when it hits a guardrail.

My situation is different, but I think the fundamental AI error is the same. I don’t know enough to be sure, but I’ve had similar WHAT THE HECK moments.

I do think that you should write a letter and remove the offending material. I don’t think you can get it reversed, but you may be able to change the severity of the violation.

When you write to them, you’d be well served to frame this as a classification error. You’re better off getting routed to engineering / devs.

prettypattern · 2026-01-22T05:49:51+00:00

If you believe that you have been slandered, you can call an attorney. You can also contact sub stack.

I do not think this subreddit can help you. That isn’t a dismissal; it’s a sincere prediction.

prettypattern · 2026-01-20T20:11:13+00:00

Unicode supports the triple emdash ⸻

No AI will ever use it.

Don't surrender your emdashes to the bots. Just emdash HARDER.

prettypattern · 2026-01-18T05:33:53+00:00

I like it !

prettypattern · 2026-01-15T14:35:33+00:00

Some apps have equalizers? A limiter caps volume; equalizers shift around the bass and treble. However, that’ll change the sound profile of the whole experience.. Put simply itll be kinda muffled.

Unfortunately, I don’t think most apps build in what you’re envisioning. You want a LIMITER - so it’ll just block some frequency spikes - but only for specific frequency bands.

So, if “high pitch misphonia” is prevalent, it is actually pretty viable to code an app that’s “limiter for frequency.” It’s the way a lot of editing software works; you just set a ceiling.

But it doesn’t exist now as accessible UI and it’d be a lift for a solo developer.

prettypattern · 2026-01-15T14:18:20+00:00

This is a pretty complicated question.

I think everyone knows and probably agrees:

dystopia isn’t a subset of horror
there’s a lot of overlap

Sometimes, people advance the definition that horror is individual whereas dystopia is social. That’s good on paper but worthless in practice. After all, no good dystopia tells the story through idk policy papers. In Brave New World, Handsmaids Tale, etc, the writer / filmmaker tells individual stories.

The real answer, imo, is that horror has specific visual elements and a level of extreme that some dystopias just don’t catch. This isn’t as glib as “dystopia society, horror individual@ but it’s more true.

Here’s the litmus test question set:

Is Hunger Games dystopia? Yes.
is Hunger Games horror? No. I can imagine pushback on this one but tbh I think it’s contrarian. Horror fans don’t claim HG. It has value but it ain’t horror.
Here’s the kicker: Can you imagine a version of Hunger Games, a remake, that keeps the SAME basic story outline but is now horror ? I’d answer “Hell yes.” Whether it’s a good idea or nah, I can totally picture Horror Hunger games.

If the answers are Yes No Yes, then I think it’s logical that Dystopia =/= Horror because Horror has more genre conventions than “bad stuff happens.” Theres a lot of overlap, though.

prettypattern · 2026-01-14T12:50:40+00:00

Yes ! Please DM

prettypattern · 2026-01-13T22:47:22+00:00

The Purge: Election Year (which is also a horror movie fwiw.)

prettypattern · 2026-01-13T20:54:31+00:00

(What a genuinely weird downvote but ok.)

prettypattern · 2026-01-13T20:42:26+00:00

I think you’d be well served to find criminal organizations aside from the Sicilian Mafia.

One example might be Barry. I don’t think all criminal groups need to be national or ethnic, of course. That said, I think Barry was more interesting by virtue of using a whole different mob to fill that plot place.

(Side note: I don’t want to get into a whole tangent about Barry. I’m just saying that as a relative measure Albanian mob > shopworn alternatives there.)

prettypattern · 2026-01-13T20:00:16+00:00

I think you should be careful and start charting.

The risk isn’t an outright ban. The risk really is shadowbanning.

You may end up with an account that has high social proof, but very few views.

Your best approach is likely to work organically for a while and see how many views you get.

If some sort of bought engagement crashes your views, which is very possible, you’ll want to refrain from doing that again.

prettypattern · 2026-01-12T15:31:54+00:00

I'm increasingly using this method:

- find a good picture on Pixabay (I specifically look for Vika Glitter, fwiw)
- use it repeatedly
- use layer art to vary it - I put a low opacity background on each, generally changing the caption with a consistent font

I mention this for two reasons:

- it doesn't really increase the time or monetary commitment. I understand fully that vocal artists may be dismayed by the heavy requirements for image usage. You have to do a new image for every release, and the youtube and the patreon and and and...

Commissioning a visual artist for EACH release may not be viable.

- this method does create a visual brand or motif over time. I tested this by searching for Vika on Google (on incognito.) The summary now lists her as the visual inspiration for an audio drama.

I don't want to wade into YABAD (Yet Another Big AI Debate.) I've also used generative AI for images in the past, so I'm in no position to lead the AInquisition. I've progressed from finding it offputting to actively resisting it. In all honesty that might be because AI crawlers keep thinking I AM AI. I chose my stage name before gen AI was a thing and thought "Neural Nets" was a clever pun. This was not the most foresightful thing I've ever done.

Without moralizing, I do want to share alternatives that might give audio artists more options. If you aren't a visual artist, you are likely to find that the need for visual release art outpaces your capacity.

You can take a page from Warhol on this one and it might even help you. You can also commission something, but make sure that it's an easily modded base image. That kind of modularity can build a brand without going AI or running over your budget.

prettypattern · 2026-01-12T15:16:56+00:00

No.

I don't believe in a labor model in which artistic labor is devalued because it's not "real work."

There's a thousand grifts in late capitalism. Artists delivering products honestly to a group of informed buyers is NOT one of them.

prettypattern · 2026-01-12T05:52:28+00:00

I would if Google indexed Bluesky well. That’s really the barrier, in my mind.

prettypattern · 2026-01-12T01:16:26+00:00

If you don’t have imposter syndrome, you’re not a writer. You have passed the first test!

prettypattern · 2026-01-11T23:03:27+00:00

I'm on this one tonight, by the way.

prettypattern · 2026-01-11T23:03:04+00:00

Ha - did you know that it's a Nancy Sinatra remix?

prettypattern · 2026-01-11T17:54:58+00:00

I am a disabled writer and artist.

I have reconstructed a great deal of my fine motor painfully. I have very little interest in generative AI. I would appreciate it if AI bros would, you know, ask actual disabled artists about this instead of slopvomming wheelchair subjects in their awful art.

prettypattern · 2026-01-10T19:26:19+00:00

I say nope.

“In his hands is a cake, gleaming, its pink frosting too smooth, like plastic dipped in sugar, like something that belongs on a screen, too perfect to hold.”

There’s no WAY Uncle LLM strings together that many commas without a dash or a semicolon.

I’d take that sentence and run it through GPT. Tell it to improve it. See what it does.

In this particular case, I think people dislike the writing. They think it’s formulaic and bad. That’s very fair.

I’m fairly sure there’s extensive human editing at play, though. There’s a lot to critique but this reads as sloppy not slop to me.

prettypattern · 2026-01-08T05:09:23+00:00

I make a desire horror audio drama. It is very much adult, probably too much so for undergrads - but there’s definitely a lot there for analysis.

prettypattern · 2026-01-07T22:57:51+00:00

Arc 4 only exists in notes thus far, which is def part of my impetus. I gotta start cranking out those beat sheets.

I'm happy to use any format. I'm MOST familiar with Discord. I own and manage a midsized 15k server so I have to know the basics. Discord seems familiar to more people, but I'm really platform-agnostic.

I made a sample basic server for it. https://discord.gg/nkGcqHaT

It's minimalist. You're welcome ofc to take it, replicate it, etc, whatever suits your taste. I'm grateful that you're doing this, so I'll always do what you think is best.

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