Collecting ideas in art and ancient history 🎨 Julia Lu, The Collector

10/26/21 • 33 min

“I want to democratize the idea of collecting so that it's not only for people who have a lot of money who collect ancient artifacts or shoes or expensive watches. You can collect ideas, artists, and favorite things...” — Julia Lu, The Collector

If you spend any time on Flipboard, you’ll likely see The Collector’s Storyboards pass through your feeds. And if they don’t catch your eye visually, they’ll for sure pique your intellectual curiosity. With over 700 of these collections, curated around themes ranging from Banksy’s political art to Greek myths you probably don’t know, The Collector presents fascinating angles on ancient history, art, artists and philosophy.

TheCollector.com Editor-in-Chief Julia Lu takes us behind the scenes on the site’s editorial operations, where we learn how a collective of experts works together to curate information that has become a trusted resource for scholars, classrooms and enthusiasts.

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

How Julia got involved with The Collector
Her relationship to collecting
How collecting differs from curating
Gaining consensus when a collective is curating
What makes for an ideal contributor to The Collector
How you might take a collective of experts and form a big picture for a brand
How The Collector thinks about sourcing
Things to consider when curating an artist’s life
What to consider when curating historical artefacts for a modern digital audience
Curating against — or revising — the historical record
What’s hard about running The Collector
Pitfalls of Wikipedia as a source
How Flipboard fits into The Collector’s content strategy

👋 Say hi to Julia!
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode itself, plus Julia’s own picks in the arts.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

How Julia got involved with The Collector
Her relationship to collecting
How collecting differs from curating
Gaining consensus when a collective is curating
What makes for an ideal contributor to The Collector
How you might take a collective of experts and form a big picture for a brand
How The Collector thinks about sourcing
Things to consider when curating an artist’s life
What to consider when curating historical artefacts for a modern digital audience
Curating against — or revising — the historical record
What’s hard about running The Collector
Pitfalls of Wikipedia as a source
How Flipboard fits into The Collector’s content strategy

Previous Episode

“I am the algorithm” 👨🏻‍💻 Dave Pell, NextDraft

“It has to feel like it's a creation, not just a collection. That keeps you from getting burned out, because if you're passionate about what you're making, then you wake up the next morning and you just need to push that publish button.” — Dave Pell

If you’re a news(letter) connoisseur, then you likely already know — and love — NextDraft. Every weekday, at around 12pm PT, a new edition delights the ol’ inbox: 10 of the most fascinating stories of the day, lovingly ensconced in a writeup filled with biting observations and funny quips.

That voice belongs to Dave Pell — “the internet’s managing editor” and author of the book “Please Scream Inside Your Heart: Breaking News and Nervous Breakdowns in the Year That Wouldn’t End” (out in November 2021). Dave is a lean, one-man operation who’s been curating email newsletters well before they were a trend, and he had much to share about his daily curation process, why he sees himself as a columnist, self-care for news curators, and where he gets all those puns.

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

Origins (and meaning of) NextDraft
The power of email: it’s asynchronous and is one feed you have control over
How the Trump years and news cycles impact(ed) his readership
How Dave puts together NextDraft, including sourcing stories, building the email, and any help he gets
How he comes up with such punny copy — and his favorite pun he’s ever written (oh, it’s good)
The joys and hazards of being the internet’s managing editor
Dealing with burnout as a news curator
What’s challenging about working on The Next Draft
A peek inside his first book, an overview of the surreal year that was 2020
How writing a book is different from writing a newsletter
What it’s like being in a two-curator household (his wife, Gina, is a founder of The What)

👋Say hi to Dave!

🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode itself, plus all the non-news media that Dave loves. He says he’s a TV addict, so he’s got a lot of cool recommendations to share.

➕This podcast was created by Flipboard, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.

Next Episode

A subscription service centered on surprise 💌 Steve Watson, Stack

“We're not trying to pick something that fits our subscribers’ tastes and interests. In a way, we're sort of doing the opposite: the point of Stack is that you come to us because you want to be exposed to things that you wouldn't have come upon yourself.” — Steve Watson, Stack

Steve Watson is the ultimate magazine curator. As the founder and curator of Stack, he is responsible for curating the world’s periodicals, carefully selecting the most original and interesting ones for his online shop and subscription service. It’s high-stakes curation: he must continually outdo himself so that subscribers are regularly surprised and delighted by his selections.

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

Geeking out over print magazines
Looking for something not seen before
Remember “Raygun”?
The art of magazine making in the digital age
How he curates the Stack magazine service
How much of an editor’s imprint is visible in magazines
Which magazines belong in a hall of fame
Which countries are the best at magazine making
Could a machine do his job?
What’s challenging about running Stack
Magazines: keep, recycle or something else?

👋 Say hi to Steve!
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode itself, plus links to the magazines Steve talks about in the show as well as his own culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.