The New Disruptors

Adam Lisagor didn't set out to be the face of app advertising, but his acting and directing style mesh perfectly with the zeitgeist. It's a bit of irony without the snark. It's charming, straightforward, quiet, and informative. You've almost certainly seen his work repeatedly, and once you follow this link to Sandwich Video and watch some of his studio's work, you'll be able to recognize his work from now on. From his first video to promote an app he was co-developing to the massive amount of work done since, Adam has defined a style that others now aspire to. But this wasn't a plan. We'll talk about how he got here.

Erika Moen has been drawing comics since she was a teenager, and found online success with DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary while working full-time jobs. Fortunately, she was laid off, and moved into new chapters of her life, which included an appearance on the Web reality show Strip Search (from Penny Arcade) and the launch this year of Oh Joy Sex Toy, a regularly appearing comic that reviews and recommends adult paraphernalia. We talk about her career and how the Oh Joy project has consumed all of her time and some of her husband's. (This episode contains frank discussions of sex toys and sexuality, a few obscenities, and is marked explicit on iTunes.)

Andrew Huang, known as "bunnie" (lowercase) to his friends, first came to the public eye when, while a graduate computer-science student at MIT, he cracked the proprietary wrapper around Microsoft's Xbox operating system in 2002, which allowed it then to run any software of his choosing. Microsoft didn't like this and MIT told him it wouldn't provide any support if a legal defense were needed. Fortunately, Microsoft quickly realized how embarrassing the situation could be, never pursued legal action, and bunnie published a book on the topic. He went on to design the Chumby, a squeezable interactive personal app device, and now works on a variety of projects for the public good, including an open laptop design and an open design for a radiation detector in the wake of the nuclear plant disasters in Japan.

People dream of the open road, but do they dream of hitting the highway with thousands of pounds of metal type? Kyle Durrie did, and she's spent the last two years crisscrossing America like a Janey Typeseed. She funded her initial excursions almost three years ago through Kickstarter for the Type Truck, a converted packet van from which she teaches about letterpress type and printing. Her Power and Light Press relocated its permanent home last year from Portland to New Mexico, from which state she still takes tours when the roads cooperate. On Twitter: Kyle Durrie

Matthew Amster-Burton is a food writer and host of the podcast Spilled Milk. Matthew has a particular affinity for Japanese food, and that led to a trip to that country he'd promised to his daughter, Iris, who stars in his book Hungry Monkey. Their trip led to a second visit to Japan with Matthew's wife and Iris's mom Laurie, and to a second book, Pretty Good Number One, about eating in Tokyo. He talks about the perils of publishing with a large firm and on his own, and how he's navigated the maze of electronic book production. Matthew on Twitter: @mamster

Chris Hawker invented the PowerSquid, a multi-pronged power adapter that exploded the notion of the old power strip. It's designed for the modern age of power bricks and oversized adapters. With his Trident Design, Chris and his team have created 70 products over 20 years that it licenses to other companies to manufacture. We've talked a lot to first-time industrial designers and producers who've taken advantage of funding and production techniques. Chris offers some insight for the long haul.

Matt Bors is an independent political cartoonist. He's never had a staff job, and he's never drawn a banker holding bags of money where the banker is labeled "BANKER" and the bags of money have giant dollar signs on them. You've certainly seen Matt's work before, but you may not have known that he created it. You'll recognize his style when you visit his site. Matt joins me from Portland, Oregon, to talk about his whole career, with a special focus on the last year and a half. Find him on Twitter @mattbors.

Andy Baio and Andy McMillan simultaneously had the idea for an arts-and-technology conference, and the synchronistic good fortune to wind up in the same city, at the same bar, with the same friend who connected them to talk. The result was XOXO, an event that tore the top of my head right off and led directly to creating this podcast. Hundreds of attendees and tens of thousands of video watchers describe similar enlightenment about what's currently possible — without cynicism, snark, irony, or greed. Andy and Andy talk about the first XOXO in 2012, and preview the second outing, coming in September 2013. (For more, see my photos from 2012 and read an article I wrote for BoingBoing about the event.) Tickets for 2013 will be on sale soon; go to the Web site and sign up for the mailing list to get notified as soon as they are available. On Twitter: Andy Baio, Andy McMillan, and XOXO, as well as the hashtag #xoxofest, still in use.

Max Temkin and seven of his friends created the wildly popular and terribly inappropriate party game Cards Against Humanity (CAH), a pastime that Anne Hathaway referred to as "Crimes Against Humanity" at the last Oscars. Before and after the CAH crowdfunding campaign, Max managed four other Kickstarter projects, all successful. We talk about creativity, games, success, and handling boxcars full of printed material in this episode. On Twitter, @MaxTemkin and CAH.

Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost are the two fellows behind Studio Neat, a three-year-old industrial design and software firm that started with an almost accidental bang on Kickstarter. Several projects later, they've shown they're no flash in the pan. We talk about crowdfunding, inspiration, and design. On Twitter, Tom, Dan, and Studio Neat.

It started as Twitter banter and turned into a blockbuster Kickstarter. The Internet's Jonathan Coulton and the comic world's Greg Pak have known each other since college. And when Greg put the bug in Jonathan's ear about creating a series of comic books based on heros and villains in Jonathan's songs, they began a-plotting. A few months later, Code Monkey Saves World launched as a crowdfunding campaign, blew through its goal, and kept stretching and stretching in a way that might strain even Mr. Fantastic or Plasticman — or even an everyday code monkey. Jonathan and Greg join me to talk about how they planned, executed, and extended their project. On Twitter: Jonathan Coulton, Grek Pak, Code Monkey project

Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) is a essayist, novelist, blogger, and co-editor of BoingBoing, and he is exhausting. The man is a production machine, churning out excellent book after excellent book as if writing were a job instead of something to agonize and procrastinate over. As of this writing, his latest books are Homeland and Pirate Cinema, and, with Charlie Stross, he wrote Rapture of the Nerds. Cory has also long been an advocate for the personal ownership of culture, demanding corporations and governments keep their hands off what we make and their noses out of our individual use and modification of media and hardware. To that end, he has fought endless wars against restrictive legislation.

Marco Arment helped bring Tumblr into existence, founded Instapaper and The Magazine, co-hosted the podcast Build & Analyze, and created the podcasts Neutral and Accidental Tech Podcast with Casey Liss and John Siracusa. He has a lot going on, but less than when we recorded this two-part podcast weeks ago. (This is part 2.) I didn't know it at the time, but Marco and I spoke as he was finalizing a deal to sell the majority interest in Instapaper. Go back and listen to Episode #20: So Successful That He Fired Himself (part 1) for how Tumblr and Instapaper grew. In part 2, we talk about Marco's podcasts, The Magazine, blogging, advertising, and related topics. On Twitter: Marco Arment, Accidental Tech Podcast, The Magazine.

(This is the second half of a conversation with Craig Mod. Part 1 is Episode #17: Everything in Moderation. In it we covered publishing and crowdfunding; in part 2, we talk about how to cope with the multi-platform disruptive future for publications.) Craig Mod writes essays that have the power to change the way you look at everything around you. At regular but somewhat distant intervals, he posts a long bit of writing that retrains your mind to see the world as he does. But he doesn't just talk, he creates projects that demonstrate his points as a designer and publisher of print and electronic work. On Twitter, he is @craigmod.

Topato Corporation, known as Topatoco for short, has spent nearly a decade fulfilling artists' dreams. Started by Jeffrey Rowland to ship out merchandise related to his own webcomics, he expanded in 2007 to take on making and delivering books, T-shirts, and related goods for other cartoonists. Our guest, Holly Rowland, has been working with Jeffrey for seven years, and is in charge of a new effort called Make That Thing!, currently in beta testing, to help run crowdfunding projects. On Twitter: Topatoco and Holly Rowland