(Full transcript at FollowFridayPodcast.com)

When he set out to make a podcast, Emmy-winning writer and TV producer Gavin Purcell thought about the last time he took a chance on a new medium, in the early days of blogging and YouTube.

"I was really interested in Japanese TV," he says. "YouTube was like this weird wild west where like all this stuff was getting uploaded, and I started paying attention to it. And then I started a blog and the blog got really successful and it almost became like a completely separate part of my life."

The blog didn't become his career, but creating it taught Gavin the value of following our passions, because "they will open up so much more in our brains and introduce things that could be something, a bigger part of our lives." His podcast, Way Too Interested, unites his friends and celebrity guests — the people who are "way too interested" in a passion or hobby — with experts who can answer all their burning questions about that obsession.

Today on Follow Friday, Gavin talks about some of the fascinating people he follows online: Writer and poetry lover Zito Madu; Twitch streamer and "VTuber" Code Miko; bestselling author and podcaster Shea Serrano; and NFT artist and educator Bryan Brinkman.

You can get bonus episodes of Follow Friday every week — including a bonus follow from Gavin, coming early next week — when you back Follow Friday on Patreon, starting at just $1 a month.

And, if you're in the US and you're pledging $5 or more as of October 31, you will get a handwritten thank-you note and a sheet of Follow Friday stickers, which are not available anywhere else! Visit patreon.com/followfriday to get started.

Follow us:

- Follow Gavin on Twitter @gavinpurcell and listen to his podcast, Way Too Interested

- Follow us @followfridaypod on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok and find clips from the show on our YouTube channel

- Follow Eric Johnson on Twitter @heyheyesj

Theme song written by Eric Johnson, and performed by Yona Marie. Show art by Dodi Hermawan.

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Shinri, and Elizabeth