Mallory Johns works at Popular Science by day, and produces music at night

6 min readDec 6, 2017

A series of interesting conversations with interesting people.

Whether Mallory Johns is composing her latest electronic track, curating a playlist for A Song A Day, or managing audience engagement for Popular Science, a social medium thread runs throughout. We caught up with the social butterfly to learn more about what drew her to the world of social media, how she ended up tweeting for Lindsay Lohan, and what she has been reading and finding interesting lately.

You wear many hats, and one of them is your role as the Engagement Editor at Popular Science. What does your work entail? And what does a typical day look like for you?

As Popular Science’s first engagement editor, it’s my job to ensure all of popsci.com’s amazing articles are not only optimized for SEO, mobile, and social, but that our content is reaching audiences at-scale across social, our newsletters, Pocket, Apple News, Flipboard, and more. That said, no two days are the same! One day, I could be crafting epic tweet threads to promote our series about the EPA and the next I could be working with scientists to highlight their work over on PopSci’s Instagram or Snapchat accounts. In a nutshell, I’m PopSci’s biggest cheerleader, and it’s my job to ensure as many people as possible see our site and print magazine’s award-winning work.

Prior to your career in online media, you studied the intricacies of audio waveforms and video game soundtracks at New York University. How did you go from that to where you are now?

I’ve been a musician since I was 10, and both my undergraduate and graduate study was devoted to the art and production of music. I’ve always been drawn to communities and have been intrigued by groups of people brought together to share their passions. If you think about it, music could be classified as one of humanity’s first purely social mediums. The line from personally loving music to fostering and managing online communities was an easy one for me to traverse.

If you think about it, music could be classified as one of humanity’s first purely social mediums.

You are also a music curator for A Song A Day, an algorithm-free selection of music sent to its subscribers’ inbox each day. How do you decide which songs to send? And what have been your favorites as of late?

I’m constantly listening to music. I listen to music during my commute and at work. On Sunday mornings, I exclusively listen to music on vinyl while plowing through my Pocket queue. If I’m not listening to music, I’m scrolling through the music blogosphere to find out about new artists, shows, and releases. During my undergrad years I studied jazz and classical music, but when I moved to NYC, I fell in love with house, techno, and bass. I tend to curate songs that fall into the electronic music category, but regardless of the genre, I’m looking for songs that give me the chills, make me invincible, or put me in the mood for dancing. Lately, I’ve been listening to a Parisian producer called Darius — he just dropped his debut album last week — this jazz/house producer called Crackazat, and a badass rapper from Minneapolis called Lizzo.

When you’re not busy curating other people’s music, you write your own for film, commercials, and video games. What does your composition process look like? And do you have a favorite medium to write for?

My Bachelor’s degree is in music theory, so my approach to composition is pretty rooted in traditional song structures, instrumentation, and chord progressions. But since moving to the city, I’ve focused on electronic music production and my process is completely focused on textures, and manipulating sound to make it melodic. For one of my recent pieces, I recorded a running faucet and used that sample as the focal point for 5-minute dance track. I’d definitely say my favorite medium to write for is film, and while at NYU, I got to score student films and write for string orchestras, which was amazing!

For one of my recent pieces, I recorded a running faucet and used that sample as the focal point for 5-minute dance track.

Random but true: you ghost-tweeted for Lindsay Lohan. How in the world did that come about?

Oh boy, yes, this is true. In between stints at ad agencies, I worked as the Community Director for a music app called Just Sing It — which billed itself as “Instagram for your voice.” Lindsay’s brother was pretty close with our CEO, and we ended up signing Lindsay as our “creative director”. As part of the deal — and in the ramp up to the app launch — I was given access to her Twitter account to drum up publicity and exposure for the app. I wrote a series of viral tweets (as Lindsay) promoting the app, and I executed a viral stunt between Lindsay and Snoop Dogg, where he challenged her to a duel in the app. And before you ask, I had a chance to meet LiLo herself and I spent some time in her swanky SoHo apartment — so there’s that.

What, in your opinion, is the most powerful social media tool right now and why?

Snapchat and Instagram have had the most profound effect on how we consume media in 2017. Both platforms have ushered in a whole new way for us to create, share, and interact with content on social, and even news organizations are trying to copy the “tap ahead” approach.

Snapchat and Instagram have had the most profound effect on how we consume media in 2017.

What have you been finding interesting lately / what have you been saving and recommending about recently?

This is a tough one, because I come across so. much. content. on the regular.

Here are just a few of the stories I’ve been recommending lately on Pocket:

And here are the latest stories I’ve added to my queue that I’ll read over the weekend:

What are your go-to places — sites, apps, people, etc — for finding new stories to read and watch in Pocket?

I’m a big newsletter subscriber. Every morning I read three newsletters from the NY Times: NY Today, the Morning Briefing, and the Evening Briefing. I also live on Twitter — my Tweetdeck is something like 14 or 15 columns deep — so I find a lot of stories scrolling through my Twitter feed or via Twitter Moments. I also find a lot of stories via Instagram Stories and Snapchat Discover — I exclusively read Vice and a few other publications that way, because I already spend so much time there, so why not.

If you had the chance to escape and read all of your current Pocket saves where would you go to do it?

Lately, I’ve been OBSESSED with our National Parks — even though I’ve never been to one. If I had it my way, I’d go off to Grand Teton or Yosemite National Park for a week to completely disconnect, catch up on my reading, and compose new music.

Who would you want to see us interview next?

I’ve really looked up to Stacy-Marie Ishmael for years. I admire her work ethic, her amazing newsletter, and her drive to continually innovate digital media. I even met her at a coffeeshop a few years back when she was at Percolate as a product manager. I’d love to hear what she has to say about how she finds and consumes media.

Follow more of what Mallory is reading and finding interesting in the quiet corner of the internet here.