Articles by: Hanna Brooks Olsen

Brands and advertisers are forever trying to capture new and different demographics. Younger, more diverse, more male (or sometimes more female, depending on the product), more "urban" (or any other number of polite euphemisms that refer to the race or ethnicity they're trying to woo) -- whatever ways you divide up your personality, someone is trying to get you to buy something you wouldn't normally, according to their data, buy.

[caption id="attachment_11720" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Flickr[/caption] Here is a truth that is perhaps unpopular to speak but is, of course, extremely accurate: Being in a band basically means owning a small business. You have finances, you have marketing, and you have the understanding that in addition to making great music, you hope to drum up a little bit of cash, as well.

[caption id="attachment_11690" align="alignnone" width="620"] Marc Maron of the WTF podcast. Image via Flickr[/caption] Though the success of This American Life's first spinoff, Serial, dominated the headlines in 2014, it would be a shame to rewrite podcasting history entirely; before there was Sarah Koenig and the great mystery of Adnan Syed, there were hundreds of individuals, sitting behind USB microphones or talking into ISDN lines or webcams, recording their own podcasts.

[caption id="attachment_8028" align="aligncenter" width="620"] David Lachapelle in his studio.

[caption id="attachment_11614" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr[/caption] In 2014, NPR ran an April Fools' Day experiment. They posted an article to Facebook with the headline "Why Doesn't Anybody Read Anymore?

[caption id="attachment_11512" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr[/caption] Freelancing has a multitude of benefits -- flexible schedule, command over your income, the ability to work almost anywhere -- but ask anyone who's worked as a contractor what the hardest part is and, just after exhaling a mammoth sigh, they'll whisper cautiously: "Taxes. " Oh, Taxes.

[caption id="attachment_11470" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo via Flickr[/caption] Facebook is notorious for frequently changing up their algorithm -- so much so that there are entire websites devoted just to telling marketers and businesses how they can best ride out the alterations and ensure their engagement doesn't take a dive. In the most recent round of alterations, the behemoth social networking site has made it even more difficult for brands to push their products without also offering some kind of content.

[caption id="attachment_11386" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Lee Scott[/caption] Depending on which jobs reports you read, the month of December was either totally flat or. .

[caption id="attachment_11312" align="alignnone" width="598"] Image by Felix Kunze via Instagram[/caption] New Year's Resolutions are nothing if not ubiquitous; the idea to resolve to make a change is such a popular one that the US Government even tracks it as a metric. There are industries and ad campaigns and millions of dollars of investments made in the notion that people need to change and that January is the time to do it.