Best David Bollier Podcasts (2025)

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“Think Like a Commoner" Author David Bollier on the Commons & Why Open Platforms Aren't Enough 57:34

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19d ago57:34

57:34

When a community wants to organize itself, it might decide between private ownership and state control. David Bollier has spent decades arguing that that’s a false binary, and that there is a better way: The commons."The commons is as old as humanity," David says. "It's kind of the default setting for coordination and governance. It's just in the p…

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Chris Smaje's Vision of a Post-Collapse Eco-Localism that Works 44:06

27d ago44:06

44:06

What might the world look like if capitalist growth and carbon emissions continue, and modern civilization collapses? Chris Smaje, a small farmer and writer in England, extrapolates from existing trends to sketch a vision of post-capitalist social economies. His new book, 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age: Sharing Land, Work and Craft,' envisions a wor…

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Jeff Jarvis on the Death of Mass Media, Twitter vs. UberMedia, and Section 230’s Brilliance 1:07:13

5d ago1:07:13

1:07:13

In books like The Web We Weave and podcasts such as Intelligent Machines, journalist and educator Jeff Jarvis — formerly the director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York — has traced the history of media from the Gutenberg press to AI. And he says that today’s attempts to clamp down on the inte…

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Harper Reed on Building for Obama, Social Media for Bots & Why Tech Isn't Always the Solution 1:12:48

12d ago1:12:48

1:12:48

2389 Research CEO Harper Reed was previously the CTO of President Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, where he helped redefine modern political technology. Before that, he was CTO of Threadless, the crowdsourced T-shirt company that accidentally invented crowdsourcing. Harper has spent his career building systems that bring people together onl…

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“The Etymology Nerd” Adam Aleksic on Algospeak, AI Slop, and the End of Writing 58:48

25d ago58:48

58:48

Adam Aleksic, known to his social media followers as the “Etymology Nerd,” has built a massive audience by decoding the origins of words, accents, and memes. In his new book Algospeak: How Social Media is Transforming the Future of Language, he talks about the ways our social media algorithms have accelerated the “context collapse” that changes the…

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Rudy Fraser on Blacksky, Mutual Aid & Reclaiming Social Media 1:04:56

1M ago1:04:56

1:04:56

Rudy Fraser is the founder of Blacksky, a community-driven project building on top of the AT Protocol while remaining independent of Bluesky, where that protocol originated. At Blacksky, he and his team are applying the principles of mutual aid and community ownership to algorithms, moderation teams, and governance tools for the Black community, gi…

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Techdirt’s Mike Masnick on Growing Bluesky, Clueless Regulators & the Case for Optimism 1:14:48

1M ago1:14:48

1:14:48

Techdirt founder & editor Mike Masnick has long argued that the internet’s power should lie with its users. In his landmark 2019 essay, Protocols, Not Platforms, he laid out a vision for how decentralized systems could preserve free speech while avoiding the pitfalls of centralized control. That vision has since helped inspire Bluesky, where Mike n…

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Bonus: Cory Doctorow on Sci-Fi Influences & the Social Media Bill of Rights 20:33

1M ago20:33

20:33

We had more to talk about with Cory Doctorow than we could fit in this week’s episode. In this bonus ep, the science fiction author and internet rights activist talks to Rabble about being raised by science fiction in Toronto, and his one objection to the social media bill of rights: the right to “own” your connections to other people. “I think own…

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Cory Doctorow on Escaping Big Tech, Privacy Battles & “Enshittification” 1:08:42

2M ago1:08:42

1:08:42

Sci-fi isn’t about hypothetical technologies, but rather about challenging the social impact of that tech, says author and activist Cory Doctorow. And in the real world, we must be just as conscious of the societal impact of the tech products we use. “Apologists for Big Tech would like you to think that all of the properties of their platforms are …

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Taylor Lorenz on Moral Panics, Tech Villains & Protecting Free Expression 1:04:58

2M ago1:04:58

1:04:58

Journalist and Power User host Taylor Lorenz has reported on the fall of Vine, influencers who accept "dark money," and the proliferation of far-right content on Substack, just to name a few.Today on Revolution.Social, she joins Rabble to talk about why governments, including the U.S., are advancing laws to restrict free speech online; the misleadi…

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Isabel Carlisle, Bioregioning as a Response to 'Gaia on the Move' 53:54

2M ago53:54

53:54

As climate change and other crises makes the economy and everyday life more precarious, innovative forms of bioregional action are needed to respond to 'Gaia on the move," says Isabel Carlisle, founder and director of the Bioregional Learning Centre (BLC) in Devon, England. Carlisle describes the importance of building local ecological expertise, p…

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Chris Messina on Hashtags, Google+ & the Unintended Consequences of Building Social Media 1:05:39

2M ago1:05:39

1:05:39

Chris Messina is best known for co-founding BarCamp and giving Web 2.0 the hashtag. Now on Revolution.Social, he joins Rabble to talk about the bigger picture of what has gone right, and wrong, with social media. In this episode, he and Rabble unpack why Google+ failed, the unintended consequences of hashtags, and how algorithms have reshaped our d…

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Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine on AI Slop, Quality Content & Social Media Fragmentation 1:11:38

2M ago1:11:38

1:11:38

After the introduction of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, the blogging platform Medium got ten times busier, says CEO Tony Stubblebine — and that was not a good thing. "Most of it was slop," he says. "Our job got a little bit harder on the filtering side. Actually, a lot harder on the filtering side." Luckily, Medium had already built human-ru…

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"Invisible Rulers" author Renee DiResta on Propaganda, Disinformation, & Online Abuse 1:17:17

2M ago1:17:17

1:17:17

Renee DiResta has spent a decade tracking how small groups can hijack global conversations — and why the same tactics still work today. The author of "Invisible Rulers" and a leading academic researcher on online influence, she joins Rabble on Revolution.Social to unpack the hidden forces shaping what we see — and believe — on social media. Drawing…

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Substack CEO Chris Best on Democratizing Media, Content Moderation & Freedom of Speech 56:04

3M ago56:04

56:04

"If you're a consistent advocate for freedom of the press, you will unfortunately have occasion to quarrel with every party and every side of the political spectrum," says Substack CEO Chris Best. As one of the most important platforms for independent writing online, and one of the only ones not reliant on advertising, Substack has sometimes attrac…

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Why We Need a New Social Media Bill of Rights 20:50

3M ago20:50

20:50

Thanks for listening to Revolution.Social! in this bonus episode, recorded live at Web Summit Vancouver in May 2025, Rabble speaks with Penny Daflos, reporter for CTV News Vancouver. They discuss Rabble's work as part of the founding team at Twitter, why we need to reframe and create social media 'rights' for both developers and users, and how to c…

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Rabble Evan Henshaw-Plath: How Network Protocols Enable Digital Commons & Open Marrkets 57:42

3M ago57:42

57:42

Evan Henshaw-Plath, better known as Rabble, is a pioneering programmer for social media platforms and decentralized technologies. Here, Rabble explains how network protocols are critical infrastructure for enabling -- or impeding -- commons and open markets, not to mention privacy, free speech, and community control. Their ambition is a future in w…

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Yoel Roth on Banning Trump, Battling Bots & the Difficult Job of Trust & Safety 56:48

3M ago56:48

56:48

"Content moderation decisions are like assholes," says Yoel Roth, the former head of trust & safety for Twitter. "Everybody's got one." The underrated challenge of working in trust and safety is that every decision could affect millions of users, and the reasons for those decisions are often opaque. Today on Revolution.Social, Yoel and Rabble talk …

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Kara Swisher on Tech Founders' Flaws & Why Social Apps Are the New Cigarettes 49:21

3M ago49:21

49:21

The founders of social media companies like Facebook and Twitter never cared about the lofty ideals they claimed, says longtime tech journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher. "I never thought they were idealistic. I thought they were there to make money," she says.Swisher, who co-hosts Pivot and also hosts On With Kara Swisher, likens tech giants to t…

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Jack Dorsey on Selling Twitter, Leaving Bluesky & What He's Building Next 50:04

3M ago50:04

50:04

Twitter never should have been a traditional tech company, says Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Instead, it should have been designed as a protocol — like email, or podcasting.“That was the pure expression of it from day one,” Dorsey says. “And it was never really allowed to be that because it was on this fast track to becoming a pub…

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The Internet Doesn’t Have to Be Like This 3:35

4M ago3:35

3:35

Revolution.Social is a podcast about the future of social media and reclaiming our digital communities, hosted by technologist and community advocate Rabble, a.k.a. Evan Henshaw-Plath — who was Twitter’s first employee. Guests will include Twitter's former CEO Jack Dorsey, journalist & podcaster Kara Swisher, science fiction author Cory Doctorow, a…

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Gustavo Salas of Cecosesola: Prioritizing Commoning in a World of Capitalist Markets 32:59

4M ago32:59

32:59

Gustavo Salas describes the remarkable culture of commoning at Cecosesola, a federation of 30 rural and urban cooperatives in Venezuela that serves hundreds of thousands of people with fresh produce, healthcare, funerary services, and many other goods and services. Cecosesola's priority is to create spaces of trust, togetherness, and self-improveme…

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Jack Kloppenburg on Sharing Seeds in a World of Proprietary Agriculture 45:07

5M ago45:07

45:07

Jack Kloppenburg has been a leading figure in the fight to protect seed-sharing commons over the past forty years. It's a struggle that began in the 1980s as large ag-biotech companies have sought to make seeds privately owned and proprietary using all sorts of legal, technological, and market restrictions. Kloppenburg has been a professor at the U…

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Tom Llewellyn on the Many, Innovative Spheres of Organized Sharing 37:38

6M ago37:38

37:38

Tom Llewellyn, Executive Director of Shareable, describes the countless varieties of organized sharing that it supports through its journalism, organizing, and partnerships. In recent years, Shareable has helped amplify the work of mutual aid networks, expand the Libraries of Things concept, championed new forms of urban commoning, and develop new …

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Commoning within Arts Collectives, Episode #61 53:23

7M ago53:23

53:23

What are some of the distinctive ways that precarious arts collectives share resources, support each other, and make art? This episode hears from artists' collectives in three countries to learn how they organize their commoning practices. The three collectives are the "-" (dash) collective in Iran (with an artist who goes by the pseudonym "M" for …

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David Bollier on His New, Updated Edition of 'Think Like a Commoner' 39:59

8M ago39:59

39:59

Radio Kingston host and executive director Jimmy Buff interviews David Bollier about his new, updated and revised edition of 'Think Like a Commoner,' originally published in 2014. This popular introduction now includes material on the commons as a living, relational organism, bioregionalism and the relocalization of economies, governance of digital…

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Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Samuel Bollier 26:54

8M ago26:54

26:54

Ever think of running away from mundane existence to join the circus? Imagine if, one day, after watching the circus, the circus director comes over to recruit you for an unusual role in the spectacle and pageantry you have just witnessed. This is what happens in Jurj Salem’s “At the Circus” from our Winter 2025 […]…

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Future Natures: On Seeing Commons through Popular Genres 36:07

9M ago36:07

36:07

Anthropologist Amber Huff, coordinator of the Centre for Future Natures at the University of Sussex in England, explains how popular genres like comic books, zines, social media, podcasts, and video, among others, can illuminate contemporary commons, enclosures, and the disorienting crises of capitalist modernity. What does this moment of crisis an…

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Pirate Care as a Revolutionary Act: Valeria Graziano & Tomislav Medak 43:31

10M ago43:31

43:31

Pirate Care is a term used to describe creative, public acts that challenge the "organized abandonment" of people in need. In the tradition of civil disobedience, pirate care activists intervene to show compassion and social solidarity for ordinary people. Pirate Care also highlights how the state, markets, or patriarchal families have politicized …

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Yuria Celidwen on Applying Indigenous Wisdom Traditions to Modern Challenges 49:40

11M ago49:40

49:40

Yuria Celidwen, an Indigenous researcher in the Department of Psychology at University of California Berkeley, discusses how contemplative practices in Indigenous traditions can expand mindfulness, heartfulness, compassion, and planetary flourishing. Her new book, 'Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Foundations for Collective Well-Being,' argues that rela…

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Zoe Gilbertson on Bioregional Fibersheds & New Fashion Commons 44:33

12M ago44:33

44:33

Zoe Gilbertson is a British fashion ecologist who is re-imagining the fashion industry from the ground up, literally. In an effort to curb the ecological harms of fast fashion, global supply chains, and relentless consumption of clothes, Gilbertson is figuring how fiber crops like hemp and flax could be grown bioregionally to produce textiles and, …

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Stefan Gruber's Global Portfolio of Urban Commons 42:36

1y ago42:36

42:36

Stefan Gruber, a Carnegie Mellon University professor of architecture and urbanism, sees cities as a prime site of struggle between capitalism and commons, and therefore an important incubator of just, regenerative, self-determined communities that move beyond the market/state paradigm. The traveling international exhibit, 'An Atlas of Commoning,' …

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Brandon Letsinger on Cascadia and Bioregional Activism 53:07

1y ago53:07

53:07

Brandon Letsinger, a Seattle organizer and cofounding director of the Cascadia Department of Bioregion, discusses the history of bioregional activism in Cascadia and current challenges and strategies. Cascadia consists of three watersheds in the Pacific Northwest extending from British Columbia to northern California. For more than 40 years, Cascad…

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Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Jamal Saeed 26:42

1y ago26:42

26:42

Join us today for a heartfelt conversation with exiled Syrian author Jamal Saeed, author of the 2022 autobiography My Road from Damascus (ECW Press, Toronto). Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak recently sat down with Saeed, now based in Canada, to discuss his devastating short story, a highlight of our recent Summer 2024 edition. Written amidst the ongo…

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Bram Büscher: Bridging the Human/Nature Divide through Convivial Conservation 51:32

1y ago51:32

51:32

Bram Büscher, an activist-scholar in sociology at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, has launched an ambitious international project to invent noncapitalist forms of land conservation. He calls it "convivial conservation." Instead of locking up land as wilderness or using it to make money through ecotourism and genetic patents, "convivial co…

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Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Dan Beachy-Quick 39:58

1+ y ago39:58

39:58

To American poet and translator Dan Beachy-Quick, translations of Greek poets from the lyric and philosophical traditions are an opportunity to “use the eye to break apart the mind and remind us that we have a mouth to sing another’s song.” In this new Asymptote podcast episode, Beachy-Quick and Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak discuss the ongoing res…

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Safouan Azouzi: Lessons of Desert Oases for Eco-Resilient Transformation 49:46

1+ y ago49:46

49:46

Safouan Azouzi, a Tunisian scholar of the commons and participatory social design, discusses how cultural traditions in desert oases hold important socio-ecological lessons for the world. For the Global South, long victimized by colonialism and capitalist extraction, oases culture embodies an eco-friendly, alternative vision of development. For the…

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Camila Vergara's Vision of Plebeian Constitutionalism 53:28

1+ y ago53:28

53:28

Chilean political philosopher Camila Vergara boldly argues in her book 'Systemic Corruption' that decay and corruption are inevitable even in liberal, representative systems because oligarchs end up capturing state governance and law. Ordinary people rarely have their own plebeian institutions to express their interests and curb the abuses of the e…

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Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Matthew Landrum on Faroese Writer Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir 25:04

1+ y ago25:04

25:04

In today’s thrilling conversation with author and translator Matthew Landrum, Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak explores the compelling poetry of Anna Malan Jógvansdóttir and the renaissance of Faroese literature as spotlighted in Asymptote’s Spring issue. Nine Faroese authors from multiple generations are represented in our Special Feature organized i…

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Cooking Sections Serves Up Art, Eco-Activism & Local Food 47:00

1+ y ago47:00

47:00

The artistic duo known as Cooking Sections -- Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernández Pascual of the Royal College of Art in London -- use their virtuoso visual, performance, and installation artworks to jolt people into new understanding of local ecosystems, capitalism, and food. Their work, shown at prestigious venues around the world to great acclaim,…

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Asymptote Podcast: Nabokov and the Butterflies

1+ y ago

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The third Asymptote Podcast episode for 2024 explores a chapter in the life of Vladimir Nabokov during his time in the United States (where he became a citizen in 1945). With his spouse, Vera, and son, Dimitri, he travelled across the America West at the dawn of the mid-nineteenth century. It’s estimated that Nabokov chalked […]…

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Nathan Schneider on Building Democratic Governance on the Internet 50:18

1+ y ago50:18

50:18

To counter the "implicit feudalism" that is the norm on the Internet, activist-scholar Nathan Schneider explains the potential of democratic governance in online life and its importance to "real world" democracy. A professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, Schneider argues that "online spaces could be sites of creative, radi…

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Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with Kristin Vego

1+ y ago

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In the second podcast episode centering on contributors to Asymptote’s landmark 50th issue, Danish-Norwegian author Kristin Vego joins Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak in conversation. Her story, “All Things Lovely,” as translated by Jennifer Russell, represents her debut in the English language. Vego’s story also arrives at a moment when Norwegian li…

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WIll Ruddick on 'Commitment Pooling' to Build Economic Commons 52:00

1+ y ago52:00

52:00

Will Ruddick, development economist and founder of Grassroots Economics, has spent the past 16 years in Kenya developing innovative "community inclusion currencies" for dozens of poorer communities. By combining ancient mutual aid practices with credit vouchers (circulating as a kind of money) and digital ledger technologies (to expand the scale of…

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Asymptote Podcast: In Conversation with David Unger

1+ y ago

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Esteemed translator David Unger joins our new Podcast Editor Vincent Hostak for a conversation with readings of the poetry of Jaime Barrios Carillo. Born in Guatemala City in 1954 and living in Stockholm since 1981, Carrillo is known principally as a writer and columnist. His Two Poems from the Spanish Language volume Ángeles sin dios (Angels Witho…

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Kathryn Milun: Sharing the Sun's Energy through Solar Commons 42:25

1+ y ago42:25

42:25

Kathryn Milun, a community-engaged scholar, writer, and energy democracy advocate at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, has spent the past 15 years developing the innovative Solar Commons model. This powerful prototype uses decentralized solar arrays to generate steady revenue streams to build community wealth. Through partnership agreements, fou…

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Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann's Project to Reimagine Economics Education 40:11

2y ago40:11

40:11

Appalled by the dismal state of economics education for young people, Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann, an international secondary school educator, has launched an open, collaborative project to develop a comprehensive Regenerative Economics syllabus. Instead of framing "the economy" as a growth-obsessed machine standing apart from society and nature,…

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Aaron Perzanowski on Bottom-up Creativity & the Right to Repair 51:04

2y ago51:04

51:04

Professor Aaron Perzanowski of the University of Michigan Law School explains how many artistic communities flourish as commons, without copyright protections that privilege private ownership and marketization. Tattoo artists, fashion designers, chefs, and stand-up comedians are among the communities that don't strictly own their primary creative w…

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Shane O'Donnell: The Breakthrough Insulin Device Developed by Commoners 41:09

2y ago41:09

41:09

Shane O'Donnell, a sociologist and researcher, has been at the forefront of the "device activism" and #WeAreNotWaiting movement, a globe-spanning community of techies and people living with diabetes who have pioneered patient-led innovations in medical devices and healthcare. Outflanking a stodgy, risk-averse medical device industry, the movement h…

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Mihnea Tanasescu on the Need for 'Ecocene Politics' 43:40

2y ago43:40

43:40

The best term for this era of geological history is not the Anthropocene, says Mihnea Tănăsescu, a research professor at the University of Mons in Belgium, but the Ecocene. "The increasingly frequent intrusion of ecological processes into political life” requires us to shed our anthropocentric notions, and recognize our deep, entangled relationship…