Charlie Harding says he "procrastinates" by watching YouTube videos about sound design. But it's not an aimless hobby, because Charlie is a musician and the co-host of Switched on Pop, Vulture's podcast about the making and meaning of popular music.

"Reporting on music, I'm like, 'I need to understand every little thing about how the songs are made,'" he says. "I frequently will actually recreate songs before I think about how to report on them, because I almost want to get inside the creative mind of the person making it."

Today on Follow Friday, Charlie talks about four of his favorite people he follows online:

• Someone who makes the internet a better place: Scary Pockets, @scarypockets on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
• Someone he's jealous of: Cat Zhang, @CatZhang1 on Twitter
• Someone he has a crush on: Bess Kalb, @bessbell on Twitter
• Someone who's an expert in a very specific niche he loves: Dan Worrall, @DanWorrall on YouTube

Thank you to our amazing patrons: Jon, Justin, Amy, Yoichi, Elizabeth, Sylnai, and Matthias. On our Patreon page, you can pledge any amount of money to get access to Follow Friday XL — our members-only podcast feed with exclusive bonus follows.

That feed has an extended-length version of this interview in which Charlie talks about someone he doesn't know, but wants to be friends with: Musician and comedian Reggie Watts.

Also:

• Follow Charlie @charlieharding on Twitter and listen to Switched on Pop
• Follow us @FollowFridayPod on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Eric @heyheyesj on Twitter

This show is a production of Lightningpod.fm, hosted and produced by Eric Johnson

Music: Yona Marie

Show art: Dodi Hermawan

Social media producer: Sydney Grodin