Description

Welcome to Ink vs Algorithm: The Writers' Pod, a conversational laboratory where the creative mind and the digital machine collide. Hosted by Mookie Spitz, a novelist, podcaster, and manic ranter, this show dissects what it means to write, publish, and survive as an artist in the algorithmic age. Each episode showcases writers, thinkers, and creative bon vivants to explore the tension between raw human imagination and the cold precision of AI.

In the flagship episode, Mookie sits down with Julianne Webb — writer, opera singer, and daughter of Ziggy cartoonist Tom Wilson — to unpack a life steeped in creativity, chaos, and litigation. From growing up in a greeting-card empire to navigating family dysfunction, lawsuits, and a legacy of art and humor, Webb’s story is a masterclass in artistic survival.

Their conversation veers from the 1970s suburbs to the frontlines of digital storytelling. Listen in for deep dives into process, mental health, memoir, and meaning — plus plenty of tangents involving baldness, babysitting certificates, rotary phones, and opera arias.

What They Cover

• Creative lineage: Growing up the daughter of Ziggy creator Tom Wilson and a writer mother who was part of the design team for Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, and Holly Hobbie
• Art & dysfunction: The beautiful chaos of a creative family that loved, fought, drank, and eventually sued each other
• Childhood in the 70s: Rotary phones, Schwinn bikes, babysitting certificates, and pre-digital independence
• The lost art of growing up: What kids today miss without streetlights, landlines, and neighborhood tribes
• Writer’s block & imposter syndrome: Finding validation and courage through writing groups and creative community
• Memoir vs. fiction: The blurred line between lived experience and art — exploring roman à clef storytelling
• Acting and authorship: How opera performance informs writing — embodying characters and directing emotion
• The tortured artist myth: Why struggle, madness, and pressure can fuel creativity
• The publishing grind: The unfiltered reality of self-publishing, marketing, and the social media hustle
• TikTok epiphany: Going viral, getting hate, and learning that engagement beats perfection
• Creative risk & controversy: The backlash that follows provocation — and why it’s worth it
• The core writing philosophy: Eliminate pretense, abandon ego, and — in Mookie’s words — “STFU and let your story tell itself.”

The Guest

Julianne Webb is a classically trained singer, instructor of voice and piano, mom, wife, knitter, and writer currently residing north of Cincinnati. Her new memoir spans decades and chronicles such heady experiences as familial chaos, emotional thrill rides and questionable parenting, as well as fat farms, pennyfarthings, talking parrots, boarding school, culottes and serial killers. She sincerely hopes you will follow her on socials, listen to Mookie’s podcasts and buy Famous Father, Unknown Daughter, slated for release in May 2026.

Her Socials

TikTok

Instagram

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