Making the business case for curation 💼 Robyn Kerkhof, Blinkist

“We aren't constantly swimming in trauma. We're a joyful people. I want to make sure that the way we present the work is reflective of an expansive and nuanced understanding that we can hold pain but we can also hold a lot of love, joy and happiness.” — Kalyn Fay Barnoski, Philbrook Museum of Art 

When you’re a gatekeeper to a world that’s still unfolding for mainstream audiences, the pressure must be…intense. Kalyn Fay Barnoski, an interdisciplinary artist, musician, curator, and educator from Oklahoma, who is a Cherokee Nation enrollee and of Muscogee Creek descent, confirmed that the responsibility is a big one that they don’t take lightly. 

What does that feel like? How does one begin to curate from such a vast and varied universe? What happens when the job also means retelling history? And what's the importance of the land a museum sits on when thinking about curation?

Listen in as Kalyn shares details about how they approach such a sacred role, what they’re excited about — and what work still needs to be done — when they ponder how Indigenous culture is presented in museums in 2023.

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings from the conversation:

• How their life as an artist impacts their approach as a curator
• What people don’t get right about native art and culture
• Honoring all parts of yourself as a curator
• Indigenous creatives more people should know
• Making space for creativity

👋 Say "hi" to Kalyn. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Kalyn’s favorite culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“I'm really interested in curators who have done the work of healing through their deep curiosity and then are thinking about what they can curate to help others on their journey. I can't think of anything that's more worthwhile and more meaningful than extending that vulnerability of your own healing journey and trying to support others on theirs.” — Scott Shigeoka, author of “Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World”

In talking to curators about what it takes to be successful, one word that keeps coming up again and again is “curiosity.” Being curious — and pursuing curiosity with an open heart — is a superpower when it comes to curation. Turns out it’s also a superpower in life. 

Scott Shigeoka wrote the book on curiosity (coming out on Nov. 14) and says we’re all born with it. He adds that curiosity is like a muscle: with practice, any of us can get better at it, and when we do, the effects are profound. In this conversation, Scott shares his research, philosophy and practical exercises on how to become a more curious person and why it matters in the first place.

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

• The definition of curiosity
• His DIVE model for building your curiosity muscle
• How curiosity fares in an AI world
• What curators should know about curiosity and how they can leverage it

👋 Say "hi" to Scott. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Scott’s own picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“I just love creating these really hyper specific titles where, after reading these few words, you really have an understanding of the context of the playlist itself…It's crazy how being that specific makes people so compelled to actually listen because it feels relatable.” — Kasey Gelsomino, Kasey’s Playlist

You don’t have to press play to know what you’re going to get on a playlist called “Oat Milk Lattes in the Mountains.” It’s pretty clear from just the name that this playlist is serving up indie folk, cozy comfort, and granola vibes. It also has a huge following on Spotify. 

The mastermind behind this hyper-specific, contextual curation is Kasey Gelsomino. A record executive at Nettwerk in her 9-5, Kasey lives and breathes music in all hours of the day. You can see her personal tastes and curation style via her “Kasey’s Playlist” TikTok and Spotify channel, both of which have formidable followings. 

How does a music curator think about making the perfect playlist? How does one grow on Spotify and TikTok? And what do curators need to know to be successful on these platforms?

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings from the conversation:

• How songs get featured on Kasey’s Playlist
• The ingredients of a great playlist
• The art of hyper-specific playlist naming
• Deconstructing her TikTok and Spotify success
• Qualities of the best music curators

👋 Say "hi" to Kasey. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Kasey’s own picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“[Mixtapes were] the ultimate love letter because it’s like saying: ‘This is me looking at you and trying to understand where your taste lies and also imparting some of my taste. This is where we intersect.’ Maybe I can introduce you to new things while recognizing that I'm here in a context that I think you will appreciate.” — Hrishikesh Hirway, musician and podcaster

Being a musician led Hrishikesh Hirway on a quest to understand how songs are born, bit by bit. If he detected a cool sound or curious lyric, he wanted to know why it was there and how it was made. These excavations now form an impressive — and impeccably curated — body of work in his Song Exploder podcast and Netflix show. 

Hrishikesh is also the creator, (co-)host and producer of multiple podcasts, including “The West Wing Weekly” and “Home Cooking” with Samin Nosrat. His TED Talk on how to listen to people to connect more deeply with them and their stories is a must-watch, and The New York Times called him “a devoted connoisseur of the creative process.”

What does Hrishikesh think about curation, creativity and taste? What is the right balance between imposing your own likes and catering to an audience? Is human taste still a thing? And what did we lose out on when we stopped making mixtapes?! 

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings from the conversation:

• Which songs get the Song Exploder treatment (and why)
• How he excavates an artist’s creative process
• How any of us can cultivate our listening skills
• What he’s learned about curation from being a musician and podcasting
• His criteria for good curators

👋 Say "hi" to Hrishikesh. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Hrishikesh’s own favorite culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“It's not like you press a button and you get to see art. You have to go there to know there…You have to be in front of it, obviously, and then you have to have a relationship with it. You have to see it again and again. And sometimes it takes years.” — Dereck Mangus, Baltimore Museum of Art

In 2022, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) turned over the curation of one of its exhibits to 17 security guards on staff. Called “Guarding the Art,” the show was a wide-ranging display of individuals’ tastes and the art that spoke to them. It was a radical idea that generated media attention and inspired other shows like it. 

And why not? Museum guards spend hours and hours with the artifacts they watch over, so of course they’re going to have opinions about such things. It was thrilling to get to know two of those guards, Dereck Mangus and Jess Bither, and learn about their deep appreciation for art and how they approached curating the BMA show. 

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings from the conversation:

• The life of a museum security guard
• Which pieces they picked for “Guarding the Art” and why
• How to curate a group show with other 15 other people
• How participating in “Guarding the Art” changed them
• What they learned about the art of curation from this experience

👋 Say "hi" to Dereck and Jess. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Dereck’s and Jess’s own favorite culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“The internet demands that everyone be a kind of curator: you're a curator of your own Instagram, of your opinions on Twitter, of what playlists you listen to on Spotify. There's a lot of curation going on but it's more in the sense of selecting between stuff. Curation, to me, is a much more deep-seated act that has more to do with the caretaking of culture, building context, and creating histories that might be overlooked.” — Kyle Chayka, Author, “Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture”

If you’ve heard of things like Instagram face or the Brooklyn coffee shop effect, you know the tremendous power algorithms have in shaping our lives. Journalist Kyle Chayka has been tracking this phenomenon for years and has concluded that algorithmically mediated digital platforms are not making our experiences better. In fact, he says, they are flattening our culture. 

You don’t have to wait for his book, “Filterworld,” to come out in January 2024 to explore how this “algorithmification” of our social feeds is having profound effects on our media, communication, physical spaces, aesthetic preferences, consumer habits, and more. 

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings from the conversation:

• How algorithms can be simultaneously flattening and expanding culture
• How to detox from algorithms
• What makes a human curator worth following (and if journalists have a leg up)
• The influencer backlash and de-influencing trend
• How generative AI is impacting culture

👋 Say "hi" to Kyle. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Kyle’s own favorite culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“Good writing is simple writing. I think that goes for the curation part, as well. I will try and strip myself from the equation as much as possible. You’re like a spider with your tentacles out everywhere, looking and pulling in things from different reader recommendations, dashboards and things you know about the company, and trying to spin it into something really interesting.” — Hannah Ray, Substack 

The firehose of great things to read has only become more overwhelming since Substack came on the scene in 2017. The platform is home to so many excellent newsletters on topics like the history behind today’s politics, inspiring images and ideas, music and culture, and even beloved pets. As of May 2023, Axios reported over 17,000 writers earning money there, with the top 10 making more than $25 million annually.

With so many editorial options, it’s helpful to have a guide to help you find the worthy stuff. Inside of Substack, that’s Hannah Ray, Storytelling Lead. Hannah’s job is to find and elevate amazing writers, especially the ones who might not naturally toot their own horns. Hannah brings experience from The Guardian and Instagram to the role.

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings from the conversation:

• How Hannah approaches curating newsletters for Substack
• Tools she uses to discover writers
• Her advice for how writers can grow and get featured
• Curation guardrails at Substack
• Why having an editorial background can serve in-house curators

👋 Say "hi" to Hannah. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Hannah’s own favorite culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“Back in the day, curation was mostly a job in museums and art galleries. It took the Spotifys, Twitters and Netflixes of the world to really popularize curation as a valid business need. I’m proud to say that we were amongst the first ones to identify the business need for that discipline.” — Robyn Kerkhof, Blinkist 

Curation has long moved out of the ivory tower of the art world. These days, anyone with taste and the will can be a curator. Sometimes curation is automated with a “human in the loop” providing oversight. Sometimes there’s no oversight at all. 

However the sausage is made, the goal is usually to get the right content to the right person at the right time. When you make connections like this, the results are powerful.

Robyn Kerkhof, the Director of Content Discovery at Blinkist, knew that a curation function could impact her company’s bottom line, so she made the case for it internally. How did she do it? How did she measure success? And what did she learn along the way?

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

• The art of curation at Blinkist
• Mixing AI and human talents
• Balancing personal taste when curating for a brand
• The qualities of the most effective curators
• Robyn’s culture picks

👋 Say "hi" to Robyn. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Robyn’s own favorite culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more

.

“The problem is more to find what one wants to curate because, well, you have to find your way…[Mastodon] is a great place because you have incredible choice and a rich and creative crowd out there.” — Sabine Stoye, Mastodon art and photography curator

You may have heard about a Twitter alternative called Mastodon. The service is a decentralized social network made up of independent servers organized around specific themes, topics or interests. It’s one of the largest platforms in the Fediverse — a space that Flipboard cares deeply about and sees as pivotal to the future of social media.

What’s it like being a curator in this new world? Ask @ViewFinderCurator, aka Sabine Stoye. A linguist with a passion for the arts, Sabine shares why she’s made her curatorial home on Mastodon and what she looks for when boosting artists and photographers on the platform. 

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

• The Fediverse, explained
• How she thinks about curating on Mastodon
• Juggling identities as a curator
• Why the Fediverse is a good place for curators
• Sabine’s culture picks

👋 Say "hi" to Sabine. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Sabine’s own favorite newsletters and his curated picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world’s first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more. 

“In the history of human culture, we've never had a time that’s been better for learning about photography. There are images everywhere, and hopefully somebody like me can help you see some of the good stuff.” — Andy Adams, FlakPhoto Projects

In an era flooded with so much photography, usually without context, it’s a relief to have Andy Adams as a guide. Based in Madison, WI, Andy is the founder, curator and director of FlakPhoto Projects, a hub focused on conversations about photography and visual culture. Andy’s built a formidable community of people who revel in his curation of images and ideas. 

In this episode, you’ll learn about the art of curating imagery in 2023 and how the art of seeing can be a form of meditation.

Other highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

• What he looks for as a photography curator
• Andy’s curatorial “tech stack”
• How he builds community as a curator
• The impact of AI on photography curation
• How each of us can become more observant
• Andy’s favorite photography books and podcasts

👋 Say "hi" to Andy. 
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Andy's own favorite newsletters and his curated picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the world's first social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more

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