In Part 2 of this conversation, Anita sits back down with Hank Green to pick up where they left off, and the conversation gets more personal, more urgent, and more honest than ever.

They start with the platforms. Hank has a clear-eyed view of why the algorithm puts us in silos: it's not because the technology is bad. It's because the technology is very, very good at keeping us watching. The problem isn't incompetence. It's incentives. And Hank isn't sure the platforms are going to fix it, but he does think people will eventually change, the way they did during the yellow journalism era of Hearst and Pulitzer. Newsrooms that once competed on salience eventually had to compete on credibility. He thinks something similar has to happen now. He just can't work out exactly how.

From there, the conversation turns to X, and what it has become. Hank goes there to check on cancer drug research and ends up scrolling past videos of people dying. That's not a platform problem anymore. That's something else.

And then: the cancer diagnosis. In 2023, Hank was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and shared his journey publicly. He talks honestly about his first reaction (annoyance that he didn't get a choice), and how he made peace with it by realizing he actually wanted to talk about it because he cared about his audience. He also talks about the moment he stopped being afraid and started getting curious. He was taking four different chemo drugs simultaneously, each with its own discovery story. One of them can only be made from Madagascar periwinkles. Science, he says, is just cool.

The conversation closes with AI: how he uses it, how he doesn't, why he hates that it gives opinions, and the AI flattery moment that made him want to put his laptop through a wall. Plus a lightning round that includes his worst internet take ever, what he would say to the algorithm if it were a person, and the retirement of 6-7.

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Produced by Anita Sharma and Phoebe Dunn.

Edited by Carmine Mattia.

Social Media Strategy by Maureen Lloren Sedlak.

Signed Theme Music by Carmine Mattia.

Hank Green has been building on the internet since before most people knew what it was. He co-created Vlogbrothers, co-founded VidCon, co-founded Complexly (home to Crash Course and SciShow), and has spent nearly 30 years figuring out how to turn curiosity into something scalable, sustainable, and genuinely meaningful. He is, by any measure, one of the architects of the modern creator economy. And in this conversation, he is remarkably honest about what that means.

In Part 1 of this episode, Anita sits down with Hank to talk about what the internet looks like after nearly three decades of building on it, and what it has cost. When Hank started, there was no money to make and no status to chase. Collaboration was easy because there was nothing to lose. Now, he says, everyone has become islands. The scene that once felt open and weird and creative has collapsed a little under the weight of its own value. That's not entirely a bad thing, but it is a real thing.

From there, the conversation moves into the mechanics of what it actually takes to break through as a creator today. Hank's answer is honest to the point of being uncomfortable: raw exceptional talent, ungodly luck, or a kind of ruthlessness. Often some combination of all three. He shares the piece of advice nobody gives - watch content outside your genre, or you'll look exactly like everyone else in it - and makes the case that the most important decision a creator makes isn't the title or the thumbnail. It's the topic.

Hank and Anita also dig into the difference between platforms that treat creators like business partners and platforms that run like casinos, why storytelling is the only reliable way to keep people watching, and what it means to be authentic when the algorithm is only rewarding certain kinds of authenticity. Hank's take: the algorithm is just the weather. Complaining about it is like being surprised it rained.

This is a conversation about creativity, longevity, and what happens to an industry when it grows up.

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

FOLLOW HANK GREEN YouTube: @HankGreen YouTube (Vlogbrothers): @vlogbrothers YouTube (Complexly): @Complexly Instagram: @hankgreen TikTok: @hankgreen X: @hankgreen

FOLLOW SIGNED Instagram: @signedthepodcast TikTok: @signedthepodcast LinkedIn: Anita Sharma YouTube: @signedthepodcast Listen everywhere you get your podcasts

Produced by Anita Sharma and Phoebe Dunn.

Edited by Carmine Mattia.

Social Media Strategy by Maureen Lauren Sedlak.

Signed Theme Music by Carmine Mattia.

In Part 2 of this conversation, Anita sits back down with Victoria Bachan, SVP of Creators at Wasserman, and Rana Zand, Partner in Digital at Range Media Partners, to get into the nuts and bolts of what it actually takes to build a lasting career as a creator today.

The conversation opens with a question creators and their teams are always asking: what actually gives you leverage at the negotiating table? Victoria and Rana don't sugarcoat it. Professionalism matters. The creators who treat their business like a business, show up to deadlines, build real relationships with brands, and never stop generating ideas, are the ones whose careers compound. Having had a job before becoming a creator, they agree, gives people a leg up that's hard to replicate any other way.

From there, Anita, Victoria, and Rana dig into where the deal market is heading. One-off brand deals are giving way to longer-term, multi-layered partnerships, the kind where a single piece of content gets rolled out across paid media, digital out-of-home, point of sale, and beyond. The profit margin on deals structured that way, Victoria explains, can be substantial for talent who understand what they're actually signing. And as traditional entertainment turns its attention to the creator space, the deals are only getting more complex.

The conversation also turns to the long-form vs. short-form debate, the emotional demands of talent representation that rarely get talked about publicly, and what Victoria and Rana would be doing if they hadn't built careers in this industry. The episode closes with a lightning round, and a final realization that the three women at this table are all first-generation Americans who helped build this industry from the ground up.

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by Anita Sharma and Phoebe Dunn

Edited by Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy by Maureen Lauren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music by Carmine Mattia

Follow us on socials: @signedthepodcast

Before the creator economy had a name, these two were already building it.

This week, Anita Sharma sits down with two of the most respected women in creator representation, Rana Zand, Partner at Range Media Partners, and Victoria Bachan, SVP of Creators at Wasserman. These are Anita's colleagues, her friends, and her fellow OGs in a business they all joined before anyone knew what to call it.

In Part 1, Victoria and Rana take us back to the beginning, from Victoria's summers on the Vans Warped Tour and her accidental start managing Doug the Pug, to Rana's early days in the WME mailroom staring down a seven-year promotion timeline and deciding to bet on digital instead. Together, they trace the evolution of an industry that went from "begging people to care" to becoming the most talked-about sector in entertainment.

The conversation gets into the real business of creator management: what makes them want to sign someone, why a strong POV matters more than follower count, and how they think about building careers that could survive if TikTok disappeared tomorrow. Victoria breaks down the difference between an agent and a manager using a corporate org chart analogy, while Rana offers the quarterback and football version. Both land perfectly.

They also get into the art of having hard conversations with clients about evolving their content, why burnout is a real and constant concern, and how Victoria once told a client posting eight times a day that her business model was not going to last, and why that was the wake-up call the creator needed to start treating content like a career.

Part 2 coming next Thursday. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it.

Follow Signed socials: @signedthepodcast

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lauren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia

In this special solo episode, Anita Sharma flips the script on Signed: Conversations with Digital Mavericks. Instead of interviewing guests, she's answering the top 10 questions she gets about entertainment law, working with creators, and building a practice in the digital media space.

Anita opens up about her unconventional path to entertainment law, from that lightbulb moment seeing "production legal" in movie credits during law school, to leaving a big law firm in New York, actually quitting law altogether to attend film school, becoming a producer, and eventually founding her own practice representing digital creators.

She tackles the questions she gets most from creators, law students, and industry professionals: Why entertainment law? What were the key moments (including "cliffs she drove off") in building her firm? What did she see in 2013 when she started representing YouTubers that others missed? Her first YouTube client was getting more views than Canada's #1 TV show, and that's when she realized digital creators had all the leverage that her indie film clients never had.

Anita shares practical advice for law students (her networking philosophy: "be nice to everyone, that law student could end up running a studio someday"), insights about the constantly changing digital media landscape, and why entertainment law in the creator economy isn't just about talent agreements anymore, it's about understanding that each creator is their own media company.

She addresses when creators should hire lawyers (when you're signing contracts, and please don't feed them into ChatGPT), whether she tells clients to walk away from big money (it's about fit, not just the amount), and what the hardest part of representing creators really is (no precedents exist, you're making them up as you go, plus the mental health concerns when clients face online harassment).

The episode concludes with myth-busting: entertainment lawyers' lives aren't an episode of Entourage, they're sitting at desks reviewing contracts and filing trademarks, with the occasional fun screening or party as a bonus.

This episode offers honest insights about failure, persistence, relationship-building in entertainment, and why sometimes you have to quit law to become a better lawyer. Essential listening for anyone interested in entertainment law, the creator economy, or understanding what really happens behind the contracts.

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Creative Producer: Khairi Williams

Script Editor: Mac Montandon

Technical Production Support Provided By: Seth Richardson

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lloren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia

Follow us at @signedthepodcast on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube!

In Part 2, Nadya Okamoto continues her conversation with Anita Sharma, diving into family reconciliation on social media, the recent TikTok ownership change, and evolving from solo creator to strategic business leader.

Nadya opens up about going no contact with one of her sisters for three years, and how they navigated that journey publicly as content creators. She discusses the decision to finally set boundaries around what to share online, the unexpected community they found from others experiencing family estrangement, and why all three sisters being full-time TikTokers complicated (and eventually helped) their reconciliation.

In this episode, Nadya shares her approach to content strategy, revealing she recently hired managers for the first time after years of posting with zero strategy, just "quantity, quantity, quantity" treating the algorithm like a lottery. We explore her evolved role at August where her co-founder now runs day-to-day operations while she focuses on her unique strength: leveraging her 6+ million follower platform for business growth. She shares her thoughts on the TikTok US ownership change two days after it happened, why she thinks it was rooted in xenophobia rather than data privacy concerns, and her strategy to diversify platforms by growing her 700K YouTube subscriber base.

This episode covers her advice to young creators (know yourself offline before going online, your digital footprint never goes away) and entrepreneurs (build a team, find co-founders with complementary skills), plus the lightning round reveals her coffee order, why she's terrible at cycling, and her surprising alternative career: NBA dancer.

This episode is about evolving your role as you grow, setting boundaries while staying authentic, and adapting when platforms (and algorithms) change overnight.

Follow Nadya: @nadyaokamoto

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Creative Producer: Khairi Williams

Script Editor: Mac Montandon

Technical Production Support Provided By: Seth Richardson

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lloren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia

Follow Signed on socials: @signedthepodcast

Founder and bestselling author Nadya Okamoto joins Anita Sharma for a conversation about building purpose-driven businesses, using social media intentionally, and destigmatizing periods for 6 million followers. In Part 1, Nadya shares how she went from teenage activist to entrepreneur, founding both a nonprofit and a thriving period care brand.

Nadya opens up about discovering period poverty at 16 when she learned people in her community were using toilet paper, socks, and cardboard to manage their periods. She discusses founding PERIOD.org in high school, leading it for six years while building 800 chapters across 50 states and 40 countries, and her time at Harvard (including graduating remotely during COVID).

In this episode, Nadya talks about the frustration that led her to start August, wanting to create sustainable period products while changing culture through a brand, not just activism. She shares her early social media strategy using Facebook to organize volunteers, learning that social posts had "currency" through sponsorship deals, and going all-in on TikTok during the pandemic. We explore how she keeps herself separate from the August brand (the anti-Paris Hilton approach), going viral for wearing a pad at Electric Forest, and why hate comments motivate her rather than discourage her.

This episode is about turning teenage passion into sustainable impact, using your platform with purpose, and staying authentic while building a brand.

Part 2 coming next week!

Follow Nadya: @nadyaokamoto

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Creative Producer: Khairi Williams

Script Editor: Mac Montandon

Technical Production Support Provided By: Seth Richardson

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lloren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia

In Part 2, Drew Binsky continues his conversation with Anita Sharma, diving into the realities of full-time travel content creation, the stories that didn't perform as expected, and what visiting all 197 countries actually taught him about humanity.

Drew opens up about balancing documentation with experience, why he gets more fulfillment from filming than just experiencing moments, and how Anthony Bourdain remains his biggest inspiration. We discuss getting stuck in Pakistan for a week when India attacked Kashmir, creating a high-stakes story that didn't perform well, and the wettest city on Earth story in Meghalaya, India that hit 7 million views.

In this episode, Drew talks about handling burnout with two weeks on, two weeks off, why Iran is his favorite country (the most misconceived place on Earth), and getting stuck in a coup in Guinea, his least favorite destination. We explore what cultural values he wishes America would adopt, his future plans including having kids and starting a tennis channel, and why his travel superpower is finding the good anywhere.

Plus: the lightning round covers his best street food (Bangkok pad thai for 35 cents), the craziest things he's eaten (live octopus, dog, snake), his essential travel gear (headlamp and bug spray), and the ultimate airport hack for avoiding checked bag fees.

This episode is about finding humanity in the hardest places, managing burnout while chasing stories, and why family culture matters more than we realize.

Follow Drew: @drewbinsky

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Creative Producer: Khairi Williams

Script Editor: Mac Montandon

Technical Production Support Provided By: Seth Richardson

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lloren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia