This Must Be The Place

A podcast about communities and the people who build, support, and live in them.

About the show

This Must Be The Place is a podcast about communities and the people who build, support, and live in them. How do communities come together? What are the intentional and unintentional decisions that make them who they are? How are they shaped by different styles of leadership and vision? What does community mean to us in our current world? I'll be reaching out to an eclectic group of participants from technology, tv, music and other disciplines to talk about how communities form and why it works (or doesn't.)

Episodes

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    Episode 15: Bruce Adams on Kranky Records and Low

    January 4th, 2023  |  59 mins 46 secs

    Bruce Adams, co-founder of Kranky Records, talks about founding the label and the impact the band Low had on him both professionally and personally.

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    Episode 14: Matt Scott on Building Community Through Storytelling

    June 18th, 2021  |  1 hr 6 mins

    Matt Scott is the founder of Lets Care, where he passes the mic to those who often go unheard in social change, and was the global community lead for the world’s largest global hackathon, NASA’s Space Apps Challenge. In this episode we talk about why storytelling is important in building community, the ways in which modern tools have expanded storytelling, and how pro wrestling is a force for the social change.

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    Episode 13: Rosie Sherry on community as career.

    May 26th, 2021  |  1 hr 17 secs

    Rosie Sherry is the Community Lead at Orbit, a startup which builds software to measure community engagement. She also runs Rosieland, a newsletter and website which covers topics around community management. In this episode we talk about turning community into career, how to scale, and what to do when you realize your heart is no longer in the community you founded.

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    Episode 12: Shelby Lorman on Awards For Good Boys

    January 22nd, 2021  |  1 hr 20 mins

    Shelby Lorman is a writer, illustrator, and comedian who created the Instagram account and book Awards For Good Boys. In this episode Shelby and I discuss building community as an artist and commentator, how that relationship changes as your following grows, and the challenges of creator and fandom in the age of social media.

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    Episode 11: Margot Bloomstein on Trust

    December 28th, 2020  |  42 mins 55 secs

    Margot Bloomstein is a freelance content strategist and the author of Content Strategy At Work as well as the upcoming Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap. In this episode we talk about how trust has failed in the modern day, a framework for organizations to build trust, and how trust can empower your community.

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    Episode 10: Jess Sand on the Content + UX Slack community

    December 4th, 2020  |  52 mins 22 secs

    Jess Sand is a freelance digital experience expert and the group host of the Content + UX Slack, a digital community of web professionals which currently stands at just under 10,000 members. In this episode we talk about how this community formed, the unique challenges surrounding communities of practice, and how the needs of a community change as it scales.

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    Episode 9: Rob Cesternino on Rob Has A Podcast

    November 25th, 2020  |  41 mins 25 secs

    In 2010, two-time Survivor player Rob Cesternino began Rob Has A Podcast, a podcast network dedicated to in-depth coverage of scripted and reality TV shows. In this episode, Rob talks about the community that has grown around RHAP, what has led to its success, and what the future holds.

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    Episode 8: Jasmine Sun on Civic Infrastructure and Online Communities

    November 17th, 2020  |  34 mins 44 secs

    Jasmine Sun is a writer exploring social and information ecosystems. In this episode we talk about cities as platforms, how the gig economy has replaced social infrastructure, and what our communities can learn from city planners.

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    Episode 7: Angie Byron on Community Burnout

    October 27th, 2020  |  48 mins 44 secs

    Angie Byron is a Senior Director Of Product And Community Development at Acquia, but she's arguably best known for being a contributor and core maintainer for the open source content management system Drupal. In this episode Angie talks about her journey through burnout, and what people can do to help identify and prevent these issues from happening in their own communities.

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    Episode 6: Meg Bolger on Discussing Social Justice

    October 14th, 2020  |  1 hr 13 mins

    Meg Bolger is a facilitator and co-author of Unlocking The Magic Of Facilitation. In this episode we talk about ways to approach topics of social justice in our communities, whether or not memes are useful, and how we can work to create a more beautiful and just world

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    Episode 5: Lisa Welchman on Community Governance

    October 2nd, 2020  |  1 hr 3 mins

    Lisa Welchman is a digital governance consultant and the author of Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design. In this podcast we discuss the growth cycles of organizations, changes in governance since Managing Chaos was released, and how corporate governance models can help communities of any size.

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    Episode 4: Shawna Potter on Making Spaces Safer

    September 23rd, 2020  |  51 mins 17 secs
    community, feminism, music, punk

    Shawna Potter is the lead singer for the punk band War on Women and the author of Making Spaces Safer on AK Press. In this podcast we talk about the punk rock community, the importance of all-ages scenes, and how to create safer spaces for everyone.

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    Episode 3: Tenessa Gemelke and Kristina Halvorson on Confab

    September 14th, 2020  |  47 mins 20 secs

    Tenessa Gemelke and Kristina Halvorson are the driving forces behind Confab, a content strategy and user experience conference that has just completed its tenth year. Since its creation, Confab has stood out from other tech conferences by creating a diverse and vibrant community for its attendees and speakers. In this episode Tenessa and Kristina talk about Confab's history, transitioning Confab to an online event, and their brand new conference Button.

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    Episode 2: Lisa Maria Marquis on Private Digital Communities

    September 1st, 2020  |  43 mins 35 secs

    Lisa Maria Marquis is an independent consultant in content-driven information architecture, working to help teams understand, organize, and structure their web content for empowering user experiences. In this conversation, we talk about private digital communities and the place they play in people's lives.

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    Episode 1: David Dylan Thomas on Design For Civil Discourse

    August 31st, 2020  |  40 mins 14 secs

    David Dylan Thomas is a content strategy advocate at ThinkCompany in Philadelphia and the host of the cognitive bias podcast, David gave a talk this year at Confab called Conversation Design To Save Civil Discourse, and it's hard to think of a topic that's more pressing for our communities right now. In this podcast we talk about how the phrasing of questions influences answers, the ways design influences discourse, and how capitalism is ruining everything.