An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm.

Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame.

But then what?

This blew up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media

start and is made. It's a different kind of fame.

It's not always as glamorous as it looks.

From Spotify and the Ring or Podcast Network, I'm Alyssa Bereznek.

You can listen to this blew up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today's episode is about China's turn toward authoritarianism

and the prospects that an invasion of Taiwan could kick off World War Three.

If you don't know a lot about China,

if you are interested in or astonished from afar by its COVID-19 policy

or by its alarming saber-addling toward Taiwan

or its relationship with Russia or its animosity toward its biggest tech founders

or possible collapse of its economic growth story or even by the awkward relationship

between the Chinese Communist Party and TikTok,

the most important social media app in America,

if you are interested in all this stuff,

you kind of don't know where to begin.

You can't see the full picture.

Then you and I are in the same boat.

I am not a China expert at all.

...