Exploration #143

Hi all. I know it’s a dark week for a lot of us. Knowing that federal defunding of public media isn’t really the will of the people just feels unjust. Let that feeling of outrage free your mind. We can do things differently….

But First…

Given the events of last week, I think our July webinar on Uncertainty was way more relevant than we ever imagined when we booked Maggie to talk to us. If you missed any part of it or want to see it again, the video is now live. More than ever, you’ll feel the urge to gravitate toward anyone who presents a certain view of the future but, as we learned from Maggie, uncertainty can be ripe with possibility. For the foreseeable future, beware anyone who offers you a vision of a certain future for public media. Watch, and Maggie will explain why.

We also announced our August webinar (which will be back in the usual ‘3rd Thursday’ slot. You can register now for Creative Hustle (and find the full description in the webinar section below).

Is PBS Punk? Now, It Must Be.  

With apologies to the late British PM Margaret Thatcher - ‘if you have to tell people you are [punk], you aren’t.’

I understand the impulse to appropriate the punk iconography used in the officially licensed “PBS is Punk” merch from Two Crow Collective, which was getting a lot of buzz earlier this week. I appreciate that people who identify as punk may have an affinity for the PBS brand and want to support us (some of the proceeds from the sales will go to the PBS Foundation). But I had mixed feeling on seeing the merch and it ultimately led me to the conclusion that we have yet to live up to the aspirations embedded in the cheeky design.

I wish PBS was punk. I would be proud if PBS was punk. Those of us working in public media should aspire to be more punk (and hip hop…but that’s not my essay to write). Punk is anti-authoritarian. Punk is local. Punk is DIY. Punk is authentic. Punk is kindness supporting community.

When you look at what punk is - at the values of punk - PBS should be punk. And after this past week, we need to embrace that punk spirit and those punk values more than at any point in our history.

We can do things differently. We don’t have to be bureaucracies that keep trying to execute the same work with fewer and fewer people. The status quo is dead. But the values of public media transcend content types, platforms and experiences. We need fresh leadership that understands that vision and helps us build a future that supports that vision. If you’re reading these words, it’s time to step up.

So, a challenge: Make punks proud. Do your part to make public media punk. Help your station elevate voices that rise against the status quo - both creators and those who don’t know how to create yet - and that can’t be heard because their voice isn’t profitable to a corporation. Find those people with a fire inside for DIY culture in your area and help channel their experience to a wider audience. Climb your wall of cringe as a station and show your local communities just how authentically local your love of your community can be.

And while you’re organizing yourselves, if you want to really want to let your punk flag fly, you could do worse than wear the Arthur-fist t-shirt being sold by GBH. (Bonus points if you also rip out the collar or sleeves.)

Okay, on to the links.

Webinars and Tutorials…

Creative Hustle (Thursday, August 21, 1pET/10aPT)
Join Creative Hustle authors Olatunde Sobomehin and sam seidel from the Stanford d.school for an energizing conversation about charting your own creative path — one that connects your gifts, goals, and the communities you care about. Whether you’re an educator, producer, or strategist, this session will offer tools and frameworks to help you think differently about ambition, values, and impact. Expect real talk, practical inspiration, and ideas you can use to reignite your own creative hustle.

The Neuron Prompt Tips of the Day—June 2025 (Grant Harvey - The Neuron) - The Neuron continues to be one of my go-to sources for day-to-day updates on advances in the world of AI. The copy editing is a bit lax, but the ideas behind the prompts are good and if you are looking to get better at generative AI prompting this is a good place to start.

Thoughts on Public Media…

What to Do Now About Public Broadcasting (Richard Tofel - Second Rough Draft) 
Key Line: "I worry especially that too many in and around public broadcasting are reacting to this watershed moment by repeating the critical error made by those metro papers: trying to preserve as much of what has gone before as possible, rather than seizing the moment to reinvent a system, and many of its components, that for far too long had remained unvarying and poorly adapted to a changing media landscape."
Why It Matters: The drop line speaks to me as well: "Rescission needs to be followed by innovation, not just restoration." He's talking about you...the person reading this newsletter. I’ll repeat what I said above, the status quo is dead. Without federal funding, I’m not even sure we can call ourselves “public” media any more. We may just be non-profit media now. Same values. Fresh perspective.

Clawback of $1.1b for PBS and NPR Puts Rural Stations at Risk – And Threatens a Vital Source Of Journalism (Allison Perlman & Josh Shepperd - Katie Couric Media) 
Key Line: “Why is public media necessary when there’s news on the internet? As journalism revenue has plummeted, public broadcasting has remained a vital source for news in communities across the nation. This is especially true in rural communities, where economic and political pressures have threatened the survival of local journalism. In addition, with much online news coverage placed behind paywalls, public radio and television plays an important role in making quality journalism available to the American public.”
Why It Matters: Friends of the newsletter, Allison and Josh originally penned this piece for the website The Conversation (if they sound familiar, you saw them in our February webinar on the history of public broadcasting). I'm including it as a way of showing how wide and deep the message is spreading.

Thousands of BBC jobs at risk as broadcaster considers major outsourcing drive (Michael Savage - The Guardian) 
Key Line: "The plans being considered include the offshoring of jobs currently carried out in the UK, with the BBC understood to be talking to US tech giants as potential partners. It is said to include the outsourcing of recommendation algorithms, which direct users to content."
Why It Matters: When things get bad, one of my mom's favorite phrases is, "Things are tough all over." This certainly applies here. I know I often think of Auntie Beeb as be a very wealthy aunt indeed. But the world is changing for all of us in media.
Related: On the other hand, in BroadbandTV News Julian Clover reports Record revenues for BBC Commercial 

Games…

‘Streak mechanism’ found to be key with Gen Z on gamified news app (Alice Brooker - PressGazette) 
Key Line: "Newsreel provides a similar experience to language-learning app Duolingo, offering three stories per day with an emphasis on politics and foreign affairs. The reading experience includes articles broken into small chunks, interspersed with videos and quizzes to test whether the user is taking in the information. Users log a “streak” by using the app on consecutive days and reading every story."
Why It Matters: The "infinite scroll" and "the streak" are key ways games have boosted engagement for years. How can tactics from the world of game design boost our engagement and impact?

UNO goes clubbing: Inside Mattel’s wild new plan to reinvent game night (Emily Price - Fast Company) 
Key Line: "These aren’t family-friendly sit-downs with juice boxes—they’re designed with Gen Z sensibilities in mind. Attendees can win custom Uno merch, product packs, and exclusive giveaways while battling it out over classic Uno and its variations. The point is less about who wins and more about the connection and memories made along the way. Mattel chose venues specifically for their Gen Z appeal—places that already host game nights, trivia, or other community events—so Uno fans don’t have to shift their habits to show up."
Why It Matters: IRL ways to reinforce community be a huge boon. Anyone with a talented outreach department already knows this. So, can you begin hosting your own station-sponsored or station-hosted game night in your core service area(s)?
Related: It's not all casinos either, as reported by Scott Stump on the Today Show website.

AI + the Internet…

How Google AI Overviews is fueling zero-click searches for top publishers (Charlotte Tobitt - PressGazette) 
Key Line: '“The inverse relationship suggests that users are increasingly getting answers directly on the results page, without clicking through to publishers. For news organisations, this shift marks a critical inflection point: visibility alone may no longer translate into traffic, challenging long-standing assumptions about the value of ranking in search." Websites that choose to opt out of Google’s AI scraping must also opt out of being shown in search results, unless they choose to be shown in only the less attractive “no snippet” format that shows users less information.'
Why It Matters: While the idea of "Google Zero" (i.e., the end of referral traffic from Google) is an exaggeration, the fears underpinning it are based in real data. It will only get more difficult to monetize web traffic in the future. So, you'll need other options for increase time on site (might I suggest games?).

Publishers facing existential threat from AI, Cloudflare CEO says (Christine Wang - Axios) 
Key Line: "The future of the web is going to be more and more like AI, and that means that people are going to be reading the summaries of your content, not the original content."
Why It Matters: Cloudflare has created some buzz in recent weeks for vowing to level the playing field for its creator clients with the rapidly increasing number of bots crawling sites. Compensation for content is going to continue to be a hot topic for conversation for the remainder of this decade.
Related: Also from Axios, Scott Rosenburg's AI leaves web in the lurch.
Also Related:

NotebookLM adds featured notebooks from The Economist, The Atlantic, and others (Sarah Perez - TechCrunch) 
Key Line: "The initial collection, which includes notebooks from The Economist, The Atlantic, as well as professors, authors, and even Shakespeare’s works, is designed to offer users working examples of how NotebookLM can be used to delve deeper into subjects of interest. NotebookLM users will be able to read the original source material, but also ask questions, explore topics, and get answers that include citations, according to Google. You can also listen to pre-generated Audio Overviews or browse the notebook’s main themes with the app’s Mind Maps feature."
Why It Matters: This feels ripe for our educational mission and, for me, takes NotebookLM from being a "gadget" to being a platform.
Related: Try featured notebooks on selected topics in NotebookLM 

AI + Content Creation…

Adobe’s new AI tool turns silly noises into realistic audio effects (Jess Weatherbed - The Verge) 
Key Line: "The Generate Sound Effects tool that’s launching in beta on the Firefly app can be used with recorded and generated footage, and provides greater control over audio generation than Google’s Veo 3 video tool. The interface resembles a video editing timeline and allows users to match the effects they create in time with uploaded footage."
Why It Matters: This is one of those advances which doesn't seem very sexy but could be incredibly useful. Pro foley artists and sound designers will poo-poo and tut-tut, but this is going to help a lot of budget strapped creators who don't have resources to hire a pro.
Related: Andy Stout of Red Shark News reports on some of the other product announcements from Adobe in Adobe adds increasingly powerful video capabilities, Topaz, Moonvalley, and more to Firefly AI

Google adds image-to-video generation capability to Veo 3 (Ivan Mehta - TechCrunch) 
Key Line: "Google said that users can generate a clip by selecting the “Videos” option from the tool menu in the prompt box and uploading a photo. You can also add sound by describing the audio in the prompt. Once the video is generated, you can download it or share it with others."
Why It Matters: In Nebraska, we're doing some tests around this very tech, so Google's announcement was timely. I hope to have a more detailed report out on those experiments later this summer, but for now we're watching this space closely.

Agentic AI…

OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Agent can control an entire computer and do tasks for you (Hayden Field - The Verge)
Key Lines: "The model behind ChatGPT Agent, which has no specific name, was trained on complex tasks that require multiple tools — like a text browser, visual browser, and terminal where users can import their own data — via reinforcement learning, the same technique used for all of OpenAI’s reasoning models. OpenAI said that ChatGPT Agent combines the capabilities of both Operator and Deep Research, two of its existing AI tools...Before ChatGPT Agent does anything “irreversible,” like sending an email or making a booking, it asks for permission first, Fulford said."
Why It Matters: This new product dropped late in the week (possibly in reaction to Perplexity's Comet browser) and immediately generated a lot of buzz. Agentic AI is still only about where generative AI was in early 2023. Lots of press but lots of users trying to figure out what is the true value.
Related: Read Dan Shipper's review of ChatGPT Agent at: Vibe Check: OpenAI Enters the Browser Wars With ChatGPT Agent 

Perplexity launches Comet, an AI-powered web browser (Maxwell Zeff - TechCrunch) 
Key Line: "Comet’s headline feature is Perplexity’s AI search engine, which is pre-installed and set as the default, putting the company’s core product — AI generated summaries of search results — front and center. Users can also access Comet Assistant, a new AI agent from Perplexity that lives in the web browser and aims to automate routine tasks. Perplexity says the assistant can summarize emails and calendar events, manage tabs, and navigate web pages on behalf of users. Users can access Comet Assistant by opening a sidecar on any web page, which lets the AI agent see what’s on the web page and answer questions about it."
Why It Matters: I'm undecided on whether agentic AI will conquer the web, the desktop, or the mobile device first. My money is on mobile, but of course the three aren't mutually exclusive. The rollout of Comet was getting a lot of buzz up until OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT Agent. And they are rumored to be readying a browser for launch as well. I haven't be able to try Comet yet, but if you have, let me know.
Related: Here's a review from one Alvaro Cintas on X: Perplexity Comet is scary GOOD. 
Also Related: Emma Roth’s piece from The Verge in May: Google has a big AI advantage: it already knows everything about you

AI & Us…

You sound like ChatGPT (Sara Parker - The Verge)
Key Line: "In the 18 months after ChatGPT was released, speakers used words like “meticulous,” “delve,” “realm,” and “adept” up to 51 percent more frequently than in the three years prior, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, who analyzed close to 280,000 YouTube videos from academic channels. The researchers ruled out other possible change points before ChatGPT’s release and confirmed these words align with those the model favors, as established in an earlier study comparing 10,000 human- and AI-edited texts. The speakers don’t realize their language is changing. That’s exactly the point."
Why It Matters: Humans impact the development of technologies, technologies impact human development, and so it goes. TV did this, the internet did this, social media did this (see Aleksic’s article below), and now AI is doing it as well. Some will wring there hands at this, just as some wrung there hands at the advent of the printing press. But this time it's different, they say. No, it's not. We adapt.
Related: The Great Language Flattening by Victoria Turk in The Atlantic.
Also related: Adam Aleksic's How incel language infected the mainstream internet — and brought its toxicity with it (read this one especially if you don't know what "incel" is).

The sound of inevitability (Tom Renner) 
Key Line: "One of my close friends won international debate competitions for fun while we were at university (he’s now a successful criminal barrister), and he told me that the only trick in the book, once you boil it all down, is to make sure the conversation is framed in your terms. Once that happens, it’s all over bar the shouting."
Why It Matters: Here's a contrarian perspective on this AI moment. I agree with his premise on framing, but I also do think that AI -in some form - is an inevitability. It doesn't have to be Zuckerberg's or Musk's or China's or the Emirates', but there's a convergence of computing trends that will only be forestalled by a total Station 11-style breakdown of society.

And finally…

AI videos are tricking tourists into visiting places that don’t exist. That’s just the beginning (Jesus Diaz - Fast Company) - And finally, remember what you mom told you about things that look too good to be true?

Have a creative, productive week!