Is There a Band?

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

i think one of the misunderstandings that we have about how to solve the rips in our social fabric, is that it's like only we could talk better about politics. And i actually think again, when you look at specific spaces we have, they're not made for like, talking with strangers about politics. It's important we do it at town halls. There are protests. But a lot of it is like being together, seeing each other, and just learning to feel ok with each other in this very non charged way. That sense of familiar stranger, it really changes what you feel like about what behaviouris ok. I mean, if we're not trying to solve for one platform

You’ve heard us talk before on this podcast about the pitfalls of trying to moderate a “global public square.” Our guest today, Eli Pariser, co-director of Civic Signals, co-founder of Avaaz, and author of "The Filter Bubble," has been thinking for years about how to create more functional online spaces and is bringing people together to solve that problem. He believes the answer lies in creating spaces and groups intentionally, with the same kinds of skilled support and infrastructure that we would enlist in the physical world. It’s not enough to expect the big revenue-oriented tech companies to transform their tools into something less harmful; Eli is encouraging us to proactively gather in our own spaces, optimized for togetherness and cooperation.