In the Fridge: Is Substack Crowded?

Opinionated chatbots, new tunes, and what was good at Sundance this year

It’s me! With another edition of “What’s in the Fridge”.

The Kitchen Fridge: What’s in the Fridge? 2/2/25

1. Is the arena crowded?:

   Anu Atluru
   ’s article discusses the magic of being in a space before it’s popular. She likens it to sitting in a near-empty arena. The article was sent to me by a Substack friend
   Joe Hovde
   (Hi Joe! Plug for Joe: he writes a great blog analyzing consumer data.) Joe sent me this after a conversation we had about the changing ~feel~ on Substack. Back in 2022 when I started hitting “submit”, Substack felt like a long, sprawling desert where you could shout soundlessly into the void. The vastness and anonymity of the ecosystem felt like a safe place to take risks and make new friends. Now, most of my IRL pals seem to have Substack accounts. This is great for Substack, but I do sometimes miss that empty arena.

   “Everyone who arrives at an arena early is suspended in a time and space of possibility — and suspended from the usual judgments — for a little bit.” - Anu Atluru

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2. Can you change a chatbot’s mind?: Ever ask ChatGPT for an opinion and wonder how it decided? I read this a few months ago about how reputations with GenAI bots are made and now I think about it all the time. Specifically, I’ve been watching this startup Profound which offers A.I.O services to brands (AI Optimization, a play on S.E.O). By feeding news to sites chatbots often reference or by swarming the internet with high-volume content representing a specific perspective, you can, as it turns out, change a chatbot’s mind.

   “A few days after putting secret messages on my website, I noticed that some chatbots seemed to be warming up to me.”

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3. Sundance: I spent this past week with my hand in a bucket of popcorn and my eyes glued to screens. It was heaven. If you know me very well, you might know that one of my absolute favorite things to do is rip a movie solo. The best films? Sophie Brooke’s Oh, Hi! with Molly Gordan and Logan Lerman and Michael Shank’s Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie (who are also married in real life.) Both of these movies are really funny, very creative, and quite thoughtful about how they explore relationship dynamics. Together already sold to Neon for $17M in a bidding war.

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In my ears:

Arcy Drive: A four-piece indie rock band playing, what they call, “Attic-Rock” style. I love their sound and the fact that the drummer also spends time on the mic. She’s living out my childhood band dream. Check out “Time Shrinks” and “Louie”.

My vision for this feature is to have a crowd-sourcing component. If you have articles you’ve discovered or Substack pieces you’ve written that you want to share, reply to this email or submit them anonymously on this form.