Blogger, journalist, author and activist Cory Doctorow can embark on a 10-minute monologue about what’s wrong with tech and still leave you hungering for more of his rapid-fire analysis and biting humor. It’s stunning to be presented with the big picture of the mess we’re in — and how to potentially get out of it. In this episode of Dot Social, rec…

In today’s episode, we take a trip to Sleepy Hollow Country — home of Julia McCue. Julia shares how she strives to make her family-owned restaurant, Horsefeathers, a Halloween destination, her favorite spooky spots to visit in the Hudson River Valley, and what her ideal October 31st looks like.By By Pumpkin's Light

From the outside, Bluesky may seem like a Twitter clone. But anyone who’s close to the technology — and the team — knows that they’re building something much deeper: they’re rethinking the internet’s architecture to create a more flexible, user-centric web. Bluesky’s CTO Paul Frazee is the perfect person to explain all this, as he’s fantastic at ty…

Looking for the best way to celebrate halfway to Halloween? Then you’re going to want to check out Jeff DePaoli’s new event, Wicked New England. Mike and Miranda dive into everything about this Salem-based celebration, where Jeff’s love of Halloween originated, and lots of 90s Halloween nostalgia.By By Pumpkin's Light

There’s a hidden spooky gem in historic Santa Ana, CA you may not have discovered yet: The Vogel Victorian. Mike and Miranda get to know its owner, Diana Vogel, and learn how she turned a passion project into her full-time job, hear paranormal secrets of the house, and even discover what will be this year’s Halloween decor theme.…

n 2007, the hashtag was a simple, yet revolutionary, idea that changed the way we organize and amplify content. Today, it is either endangered or more useful than ever, depending on whom you talk to. On the open social web, hashtags are an important unifying mechanism — not just for content but for people too. Why is that? How did we get here? What…

If you’re in need of a solid dose of Halloween feels, come along with us to Los Muertos Cemetery in Santa Clara, CA—home of Señor Scary! Get to know this home haunter who was creating Halloween content back in the days of AOL, came to his love of Halloween later in life, and now celebrates with an over-the-top yard haunt that draws in thousands of …

When you’re building an open source community you’re a part of a collective effort with a common goal. In the fediverse, there are early adopters doing a lot of the heavy lifting now. They’re the voices you want to follow to make sense of the place. One such person is Chris Trottier. Chris describes himself as a “fediverse enthusiast” (he’s also pa…

Whether it’s a broom, a vacuum, or your Roombas, hop a flight to Salem today to talk all things “Hocus Pocus.” Wil Cuthbert and Ally Dubrosky from the podcast The Black Flame Society enter the lair to share their fave memories of the now-iconic Halloween film, how they started their podcast, and what they hope to see in a third installment someday.…

Meet the most peculiar guest we’ve had in the lair to date: Nikk Alcaraz. This author, content creator, and food artist takes us inside his peculiar world in this episode where the cakes may kill you, the houses are haunted, and ghosts are never seasonal.By By Pumpkin's Light

There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago in this episode. Meet Jeff Belanger, a fellow podcaster, adventurer, killer storyteller, and author of “The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and Other Yuletide Monsters.” Jeff tells us a few holiday monster tales while talking about how his love of all …

Unlike traditional social media, the fediverse operates without a central authority. This creates a unique set of challenges and opportunities for how it’s governed. Luckily, there are thoughtful stewards who want to see decentralized social media succeed in the most human — and humane — fashion. Two of the most prominent are Erin Kissane, a writer…

If it’s weird, spooky, unusual, scary, macabre, or haunted, you’ll find Alex Matsuo talking about it. Mike and Miranda get to know the creator of The Spooky Stuff, hear about fun Halloween traditions she enjoyed as a kid living in a military town, and the moment following the death of a loved one that led to her interest in the paranormal.…

We’re REAL professional over here! Mike and Miranda might seem like they have it together when it comes to podcasting, but there have been plenty of blooper moments since starting By Pumpkin’s Light. Sit back, relax, and enjoy these slips and flubs sure to haunt our hosts for the rest of their podcasting days……

We aren’t ready to let Halloween go just yet in the By Pumpkin’s Light lair. Join Mike and Miranda for a guest-less episode where they share the highlights of their 2024 Halloween season…By By Pumpkin's Light

We’re closing out October with a King Size episode with a killer creative guest: Brandon Hardy. He shares how his love of Halloween started — building haunted houses in his childhood garage — and how that eventually led him to becoming an artist working on Broadway. Brandon also shares some behind-the-scenes stories on making his iconic flying Sand…

Don’t let trick-or-treating become a thing of the past! It’s a rallying cry we hear often in the Halloween community…but is trick-or-treating dying? (And is trunk-or-treat killing it?) We’ve invited Danielle Gonzalez from Verona Black and Lindsay Keating from Cabinet of Curious Clay and Darksome Art and Craft Market back for a roundtable discussion…

It’s tough being a media outlet these days. Audiences are fractured, referrals from search engines are dropping, and publishers are at the mercy of algorithms they don’t control. Savvy journalists at forward-thinking newsrooms are not letting this happen to them. Instead, they’re doing the work that arguably has been most critical all along: buildi…

Looking to plan a trip to Salem during spooky season? Start now! Alyse Grimm from ThingsToDoInSalem.com joins us today to talk about all things Witch City, from how she started her resource website by chance to her favorite hidden gems around town. She also shares her favorite way to spend Halloween night in Salem.…

Have we hit the ceiling when it comes to Code Orange season? And…did it happen TOO early this year? We’ve invited Sam Stair from Halloween Happy and Lauren Kula from The Punkin Shop back into the lair to share their thoughts in this first-ever roundtable discussion episode.By By Pumpkin's Light

We’re kicking off October with Halloween royalty today! Lisa Morton — author, screenwriter, and Halloween expert — joins Mike and Miranda to talk about growing up loving Halloween in the 1960s, shares her favorite misconceptions about the holiday, and even gives us a hint at a new project she’s hoping to start.…

There’s a reason journalist and Bluesky board member Mike Masnick calls the platform “the most interesting experiment going in social media.” Originally launched as a project within Twitter in 2019, Bluesky has since become an independent company intent on making social more like the web. What does that mean, exactly, and why does it matter? Bluesk…

There’s no way you love “Hocus Pocus” as much as today’s guest, Wil Cuthbert. Better known as Spooky Wil to the online Halloween community, Wil joins Mike and Miranda to share what Halloween looks like in the UK, how his online shop, October 31st, got started, and all the details on his newest “Hocus Pocus” fan project, The Sanderson Witch Museum.…

Wondering how to make this year the best Halloween ever? We’re betting today’s guests can help! Devin Przygoda and Andrew Noles are the Halloween lovin’ duo behind the blog Your Best Halloween Ever. Get to know them by learning about their own best Halloween nights as kids, what’s ahead in year 7 of their blog, and see who wins our first-ever dueli…

Today we’re chatting with the ghoul behind your favorite spooky cute brand—Kimmy Perez of SpooksieBoo! We hear how SpooksieBoo got started, how Kimmy grew her business and took on the event world, and get a sneak peek of some of the exciting projects she’s working on right now.By By Pumpkin's Light

Are you one of the October children? Then allow us to put author, horror lover, and Halloween enthusiast Patrick Tumblety on your radar. As the creator of the serial podcast, The October Children, he loves sharing spooky stories. We chat about this project, how horror can help us deal with personal trauma, and Patrick’s new novel, “Come Out and Pla…

The fediverse offers an opportunity to rethink how trust and safety works in social media. In a decentralized environment, creating safe and welcoming places relies on community moderation, transparent governance, and innovation in tooling. No longer is one company making — and enforcing — its own rules. It’s a collective responsibility. Samantha L…

She puts the cleaver in June Cleaver. Say hello to Kaci Hansen, aka The Homicidal Homemaker, who loves putting a Halloween and horror spin on recipes. Learn how what started as fun content to share on MySpace (yes, MySpace!) grew to The Homicidal Homemaker website, columns in Fangoria, and even the chance to create exclusive Blu-ray extras for new …

Special episode: this week, we’re welcoming back one of our most popular guests, Philip Hernandez of Haunted Attraction Network, for a preview of the 2024 haunt season! Join us for a chat about 2023 haunt season highlights, the new direction Phil sees haunters taking in 2024 and beyond, and how super early Code Oranges impact the entire industry fo…

Halloween Art & Travel might be THE most unique spooky podcast out there you aren’t listening to…yet! Get to know the host, Kristen Stafford, in today’s conversation as we explore how her love of Halloween collecting started, the coolest spooky places she’s visited, and a peek at a top secret project she told us about first.…

John O’Nolan, the founder and CEO of Ghost, calls himself “the inverse Peter Thiel.” That’s because he wants to build a tech company that bucks the usual narratives, with as few monopolies as possible. His open-source publishing platform is structured as a nonprofit and is integrating with the ActivityPub protocol, giving creators digital sovereign…

In this episode, we take a field trip to Dudleytown with artist Yosiell Lorenzo. He shares a bit about his mom instilling a love of horror movies in him from a young age, which led to his love of Halloween, the origins of Dudleytown, and why he’s always chasing after New England feels in his artwork.…

Welcome back to the lair! Today we’re kicking off summerween with Lauren Kula of The Punkin Shop. In this episode, she shares who inspired the name of her store, tales from her childhood with a Halloween-lovin’ dad, and how she differentiates her brand so well. We also have a VERY serious discussion about Halloween cookies.…

Molly White is a leading cryptocurrency critic, but get to know her and you’ll see she’s anything but cynical. In fact, this researcher, writer and software engineer cares so deeply about free and open access to high-quality information that she’s been a Wikipedia editor since she was a teenager. Now Molly is the force behind the Citation Needed ne…

The beauty of an open system is that anyone can build on top of it and try to make it a better place. In the Fediverse, software engineer Ryan Barrett is one such developer. Ryan’s been building social network bridges and related tools for over 12 years, including Bridgy, which connects personal websites and blogs to centralized social networks, an…

You’ll be hard pressed to find two guys who love horror and Halloween more than Stephen and Lance, the duo behind Toxic Coffin. In this episode, we talk about the influence of horror on their obsession with Halloween, the best horror movies of 2024 (so far), and why launching Toxic Coffin during a pandemic turned out to be perfect timing.…

On March 21, Meta’s Threads entered the fediverse. This means that people on other ActivityPub-powered platforms, like Mastodon, can follow federated Threads profiles and see, like, reply to, and repost posts from the fediverse. (Eventually, you’ll be able to follow other fediverse accounts from Threads, too.) It’s still early days, but Threads’ en…

Looking for some early Halloween DIY inspiration? Today’s guests have TONS for you! Meet Jaimie and Jay, the husband and wife duo behind the highly popular YouTube channel, Wicked Makers. They chat about balancing spooky season with content creation, their biggest DIY wins as Wicked Makers, the projects that didn’t make the cut, and give us a peek …

Do you bleed orange and black? Jeff C. Carter does! The author and podcaster enters the By Pumpkin’s Light lair to talk about the best Halloween costume he’s ever pulled off (it’s epic!), how he got started writing fiction about Halloween, and gives the best defense of candy corn you’ll ever hear.By By Pumpkin's Light

For stewards of the fediverse (they sound like superheroes, right?), FediForum is a key date on the calendar. The third edition of the “unconference” is happening soon, on March 19-20, 2024. With Threads saying it will federate later this year, FediForum comes at a time of growing curiosity and promises juicy topics and demos. What are the issues t…

Meet the ghoul behind one of Miranda’s favorite small businesses, Danielle Gonzalez of Verona Black. In this episode, Danielle shares stories about her foray into home haunt acting, what makes Sleepy Hollow such a special place, and where the idea for her signature split jack-o-lantern bags came from.…

If you’re looking for new music for your old and tired Halloween playlist, you’re going to love today’s guest! Meet George Streicher, the composer and Halloween lover behind “Music of the Macabre.” We dig into how George’s childhood Halloweens influenced recording this passion project, his obsession with LA haunts, and if we’ll be getting “Music of…

In today’s episode, we chat with one of Mike’s favorite artists, Michelle Prebich of Bat in Your Belfry. She shares some of her favorite Halloween costumes she’s ever worn, how she celebrates Halloween as an adult, and talks about her unique art style.By By Pumpkin's Light

Something happened when the internet turned into an ad-driven business. Incentives became oriented around grabbing attention over valuing substance and connection. What’s happening now in the Fediverse gives us a chance to reverse that. To pivot out of the attention economy into something more meaningful. Tony Stubblebine has already emphasized a f…

The Fediverse is not a monolithic place. It’s constantly evolving and being shaped by smart, passionate people who want to make sure that the open social web is better than the social media we’ve had before. One steward everyone should know is Tim Chambers, the co-founder of Dewey Digital out of the Dewey Square Group, a public affairs firm in Wash…

Cheers to a new year with the duo behind the Sips & Spirits podcast, Chelsea and Erick Celaya! We discuss their favorite Halloween memories from childhood, how they are passing traditions on to their own kiddos, and even play a new game, inspired by a Sips & Spirits staple.By By Pumpkin's Light

As they close out 2023, Mike and Miranda share their favorite episodes and answer listener questions. They cover everything often asked of guests from favorite Halloween memories from childhood to what they’re each most proud of accomplishing with the podcast since its launch.By By Pumpkin's Light

It’s been a momentous time for the Fediverse. New versions of Mammoth and Ivory launched. WordPress and Tumblr reaffirmed their commitment to integrating ActivityPub. And then both Threads and Flipboard rolled out their plans to federate. What does this all mean for the Fediverse? How will moderation work as the Fediverse grows in leaps and bounds?…

Just in time for the holidays, meet Jordan Seibert, the artist and creator behind Skelly Paper Co. We hear more about how her gift wrap shop came to be, her early days as a lover of Halloween, and the best thing she did during the 2023 spooky season.By By Pumpkin's Light

The Internet as we know it is now over 30 years old, and author John Battelle says we must get over the ‘extraordinary inertia’ of the system we’ve built. He would know: As a founder of WIRED Magazine and as an entrepreneur himself, John’s been tracking and writing about the evolution of technology and its impact on society for a long time. What ex…