Baratunde learns more about experiments in digital democracy. He speaks with Pia Mancini, cofounder of Open Collective, a platform empowering collectives and mutual aid groups with new transparent, decentralized financial tools that make local grassroots efforts more feasible than ever. It is a powerful example of how the use of technology can change the power dynamics and help people citizen together where they live and across the globe.
Guest: Pia Mancini
Bio: Democracy activist, open source sustainer, co-founder & CEO at Open Collective and Chair of DemocracyEarth Foundation.
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We are grateful to Pia for joining us! Follow her @piamancini on Twitter, or find more of her work at Opencollective.org.
ACTIONS
PERSONALLY REFLECT
Cultivate Optimism
Take a moment to reflect on when you feel most positive, most optimistic in your week? What are you doing, who are you around, what media/info sources are you consuming? Work on adding more of these elements to your weekly routines. The world needs more clear-eyed optimists for us to reach our collective potential. It’s hard to citizen when you’re only cynical.
BECOME INFORMED
Who in your life needs Open Collective
Take a moment to wrap your mind around this NEW community infrastructure that is truly revolutionizing the way local initiatives and groups work together around the world. We bet you know of a local project or informal group that could benefit from it! Take the time to learn more https://opencollective.com/. Also check out Pia’s TED talk, How To Upgrade Democracy for the Internet Era, for more about her beliefs and journey.
PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE
Join in with other locals
Support open-source and move away from private mega-malls like Facebook by adopting the Signal app, an open source, end-to-end encrypted, not-for-profit messaging platform. And if you use open source to build the product that is making you money, give back to open source, because open source is not free. It was paid for by someone else's time. So make sure you give back to the developers.
Trying to decrease your carbon footprint can be complicated. You use metal straws, recycle your paper, and bring your own grocery bags to the store, but everything you buy is part of a supply chain that's simply way out of your control. That lack of control is central to Amitav Ghosh's retelling of an ancient Bengali myth of a nature goddess setting calamity after calamity on a merchant who's only concerned with money. In today's interview, Ghosh tells NPR's Ari Shapiro that writing his 2019 novel Gun Island based on old legends allowed for a full response to the scope of climate change.
It's been 150 years since the first article was published about the molecule key to life as we know it — DNA. With help from researcher Pravrutha Raman, Short Wave producer Berly McCoy explains how DNA is stored in our cells and why the iconic double helix shape isn't what you'd see if you peeked inside your cells right now.
Curious about all the other biology that defines us? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org — we're all ears ... and eyes and toes and ... a lot of things. Thanks, DNA!
Genocide expert Arnesa Kustura joins us to discuss how a relatively prosperous multi-ethnic socialist state was destroyed by ethno-nationalists and how their rampant propaganda allowed them to carry out a genocide while Europe cheered.
Sen. Josh Hawley discusses the "crisis" of manhood in the United States with The Daily Signal. Hawley suggests that liberal messaging on "toxic masculinity" has driven able-bodied men to forsake their masculinity and withdraw into idleness. The Missouri Republican calls for a new message to be sent to the men of America: one that focuses on what men can accomplish if they orient their masculinity towards the good.
A new Amazon Fresh grocery store housed at the former Dominick's grocery in Morton Grove will open Thursday. The store will join others that offer “Just Walk Out” and other new technology that allow customers to skip a checkout line altogether.
Reset brings on an expert to discuss how this might change the grocery store landscape.
Following the Columbine shooting in April of 1999, top leaders of the National Rifle Association huddled in private to discuss their public response to the tragedy.
Secret tapes of those deliberations were obtained by NPR investigative correspondent Tim Mak. He explains what's revealed in the tapes: that the group considered a much different stance than the one it ultimately took — a stance that would help set the stage for decades of debate about gun violence in America.
We’re joined by Nick Chavez, a mechanical engineer working in R&D, to discuss his incisive essay exploring the capitalist origins and purpose of engineering, the class position and labor process of engineers, and the role of engineers before, during, and after communist revolution.
Read Nick’s essay: The Present and Future of Engineers | Brooklyn Rail https://brooklynrail.org/2021/10/field-notes/THINKING-ABOUT-COMMUNISM
Music in this episode is from Nick’s glitch group: https://glitchdotcool.bandcamp.com/album/glitch-with-friends-compilation-vol-2
Subscribe to hear more analysis and commentary in our premium episodes every week! patreon.com/thismachinekills
Grab your TMK gear: bonfire.com/store/this-machine-kills-podcast/
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (twitter.com/braunestahl)
New statistics show a 6.2% rise in the consumer price index (CPI) year over year for October. On today’s episode, NLW breaks down the news, discussing:
How the 2020 inflation debate set up the current bitcoin bull run
The debate around “transitory” inflation in 2021
How the inflation debate is impacting U.S. politics
Why bitcoin is achieving new all-time highs
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Dark Crazed Cap” by Isaac Joel. Image credit: sbayram/E+/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk.
