This week on Tech Can’t Save Us, hosts Maya Dharampal-Hornby and Savena Surana speak to Ariana Alexander-Sefre, founder and co-CEO at Spoke, a music-based mental wellness app. 

SPOKE hires artists, who are trained by psychologists, therapists and neuroscientists, to produce music that supports mental wellbeing. Through this, SPOKE provides an aggregated platform for people who can connect with young men and other underrepresented young people - musicians, cultural leaders, influential voices - to use their voice in the most impactful way.

They discuss how artists and mental health practitioners collaborate for SPOKE, and the need for a restructured approach to artist compensation and community building within the music industry.

Ariana also shares challenges she has encountered in growing SPOKE, the connection that exists between mental health and activism, and the importance of speaking out against systems of oppression–even when investment gets pulled as a result. 

Find more about SPOKE here: https://spoke.world/

Download SPOKE here (and use it!): https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/spoke-music-meditate-sleep

Follow Ariana here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianasefre