Fay Johnson is an expert in the field of Trust & Safety. Johnson’s tenure combines deep expertise in behavioral science with hands-on experience in product development, content moderation, and online safety at leading technology companies including Meta, Twitter, and Nextdoor.

Johnson has designed and implemented systems that promote respectful interactions, fairness, and community trust, shaping how billions of people engage online. While at Meta, Fay was the product lead on designing and building the Oversight Board, and its integration into the broader Facebook ecosystem.

She is currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Institute for Internet and Society where she is doing applied research and product development focused on depolarization and increasing civility in online discourse.

During our chat, we discussed Meta’s decision to cut back on Fact Checking, which includes both long-term and short-term consequences.

We also dove into the roles of platforms like Meta, Twitter, and Nextdoor – specifically, if they have any moral or ethical responsibility with their Tenants and Conditions.

We then talked specifically about some of the lessons she learned while running her product teams, and what the future may hold for these platforms with technology and systems like AI and Community Notes as possible remedies for what ails our online communities.

I hope you learn as much as I did from Fay.

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Tobias Rose-Stockwell is a writer, technologist and media researcher who explores the effects of social media on society and democracy. His work has been featured in major outlets such as FastCompany, Quartz, Medium, NPR, the BBC and many others. As a media researcher, he has advised the directors of Gannett, one of the largest news organizations in America, as well as local news outlets in the US, on digital strategy. Tobias was previously a guest lecturer at Stanford University on the topic of social enterprise design and technology ventures. He is currently a strategic advisor to Jonathan Haidt's organization, OpenMind, which focuses on depolarizing communities online.

During our chat, we talked at length about his new book: Outrage Machine: How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy―And What We Can Do About It.

The topics discussed include all of the usual suspects: Are our phones hurting our children? Has social media retrained our brains? Have algorithms remapped our chosen content? How is technology changing the industry of journalism and our democracy at large?

I had a wonderful time learning from Tobias, and I hope you also enjoy hearing about his story…and his decades-long focus on how technology is changing our world.

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Joe Hack spent 12 years as a senior advisor in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, including more than six years as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (NE).

Prior to that, he worked for Senate Whip Jon Kyl as Communications Director and chief spokesman. Joe is also a veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant for Rep. J. Randy Forbes (VA-04). He began his career in the office of Senator George Voinovich (OH)

During this episode of Joey Squared, we talk about The Alphabet People, our beloved LGBTQ+ community, and why they are not a monolith, nor should they be treated as one.

We then talked at length about one of my favorite journalists, Nellie Bowles and her new book, Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History - and why it was such a romping good read.

Nellie’s collections of stories proved to be a wickedly funny treatise about the ideological capture of her former colleagues and editors at The New York Times. And Joey and I use her witty and engaging stories as a cursor to our discussions about the fringe left of my party, and how their narratives and messaging are being widely rejected by the majority of Americans today.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. 

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Nick Quested is a British filmmaker and producer of documentary films, music videos, and TV commercials. He is the executive director and owner of Goldcrest Films. 

Quested has produced over 40 films, including several war documentaries directed by Sebastian Junger. Prior to producing, he was an award-winning music video director. Quested directed more than 100 music videos and commercials, working with artists including Dr. Dre, Jay-Z and Sting. 

Nick has won two Emmys and a DuPont-Columbia Award, and has been nominated for an Oscar and a PGA Award. His company, Goldcrest Films, has won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice.

Leading up to and during the 2021 United States Capitol Attack, Nick had been embedded with the Proud Boys, a far-right organization involved in the attack. In June of 2022 Nick testified – under subpoena on live television – to the US House of Representatives January 6 committee. As part of his testimony, Nick revealed that his crew had filmed a garage meeting between Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes on January 5, 2021, the night before the attack.

During our chat, we talked about why Nick chose to live his life behind a camera, how he pivoted from shooting hip hop music videos to war documentaries, where he literally put his life on the line. 

We then discussed how he found his way into the inner sanctum of The Proud Boys – and how and why Enrique Tarrio allowed him to film the illegal activity of his Boys, and how this footage in his new film, 64 Days, helped put many of these Jan 6th rioters behind bars.

I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

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Check out 64 Days:

Website: www.64daysfilm.com 

IG: @64daysfilm

Stream the film: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/64days

Brad Berens wears a few different hats: he's a strategic advisor and senior fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg, Principal at Big Digital Idea Consulting, serves on a variety of boards, and has spent many years working in digital media. He's also a science fiction novelist and writes a weekly newsletter, The Brad Berens Weekly Dispatch on Substack, and also on LinkedIn. He has a Ph.D. in Shakespeare studies from U.C. Berkeley, where he was an award-winning teacher.

Brad joined me to discuss Dr. Jonathan Haidt’s newest book, The Anxious Generation, How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. 

Brad is a longtime friend and colleague from my time in the world of advertising. And over the years, he has made it clear that he is “Less than impressed” with Dr. Haidt’s many books and conclusions in the field of social psychology. 

In today’s chat, Brad quickly points out that Dr. Haidt’s title alone is flawed - because there is no “Epidemic of Mental Illness” nor is there any causal data to back up this very controversial claim. 

During our time together, I admit my biases… and do my best to defend my years-long intellectual crush on Dr. Haidt…in spite of Brad’s cogent and valid concerns about the book’s lack of unidirectional causality, specific to its title and theoretical positioning in the field of social psychology. 

As usual with my time with Brad, I had a blast, and learned a ton. I hope you enjoy this episode, too.  

Brad Berens’ Socials:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradberens/

And The Brad Berens Weekly Dispatch:

Joe Hack spent 12 years as a senior advisor in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, including more than six years as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (NE). 

He was recognized by The Hill as a Top Lobbyist in 2022 and 2023. He is also a 2022 Maverick PAC Future40 Awardee.

And Joe (one of my favorite all time Republicans) was recognized by The Hill as a Top Lobbyist in 2022 and 2023. 

Today on Joey Squared, we talked about Dana Bash’s CNN interview with Vice President Harris and Governor Walz and why our politicians refuse to answer questions. 

We then discussed the wave of excitement around the Harris/Walz campaign since Papa Joe stepped aside: whether or not Kamala has EVER been a Moderate or not, how and why progressive ideology derailed her Presidential campaign in 2020. And we ended our chat by discussing the choice of JD Vance and Tim Walz as our VP candidates in 2024.

I hope you enjoy this episode of Joey Squared!

Yumi Wilson is a longtime San Francisco State University professor and a guest lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She is a former reporter and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press in Los Angeles, where she helped cover the aftermath of the Rodney King beating by LAPD officers.

In addition to teaching, she has taken on numerous side gigs, mainly to stay current in her ever-changing field. In 2012, she was hired by Linkedin, where she learned how to show journalists and other communicators the tips and tricks necessary to get their LinkedIn profiles to “all-star” status.  She has since written a book called Social Media Journalism.

This summer, Wilson taught two courses in the Journalism Minor program.

When she’s not teaching or working at one of her side gigs, Wilson loves to write fiction, travel to faraway places, and watch Paw Patrol toy videos with her four-year-old grandson.

During our chat, we talked about why she chose journalism as her career; why she chose to stay in California, and why she is now enjoying teaching her craft to future generations.

We then talked about the realism and possibilities of Objectivity in journalism today – is it possible - or was it ever possible? We opined about the New York Times poor handling of an op-ed from Senator Tom Cotton, and why that was a watershed moment for this august publisher. 

We also discussed the business model of journalism, and why audience capture is influencing what stories get published and when – and how this is only exacerbating the divide between fellow Americans.

We ended our chat by talking about the future of AI and Social Media in the realm of journalism.

Yumi is a treasure to the industry of journalism, and I hope you learn as much as I did from her. 

Check out Yumi’s podcast here: https://yumiwilson.me/podcast/

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Tom Morris holds a double Ph.D. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Yale University. 

Morris is a former professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is a founder of the Morris Institute for Human Values, and author of over 30 books. He is also a business and motivational speaker, applying philosophical themes and concepts to business and professional life.

During our chat we discussed his newest book, Stoicism for Dummies, and why it is such an important book for our politically divided culture.

We talked about the founding fathers and their love and understanding of philosophy; the beauty, simplicity and reasons that philosophy matters today more than ever.

I was thrilled to have Professor Morris back on the program to share his decades of wisdom and experience. I hope you learn as much as I did from our time together.

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Check out some of Tom’s books:

The Everyday Patriot

Stoicism for Dummies

The Art of Achievement Silver Anniversary Edition

Joe Hack is a government relations specialist, political consultant, and former U.S. Senate Chief of Staff with more than 16 years on Capitol Hill.

As Senior Vice President of The Daschle Group, Joe is known for his expertise in Senate politics and procedures. Notably, Joe served as a lead Republican consultant in securing passage of The Respect for Marriage Act and played a key role in shepherding The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act following the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol.

Previously, Joe spent 12 years as a senior advisor in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, including more than six years as Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (NE).

Prior to that, he worked for Senate Whip Jon Kyl as Communications Director and chief spokesman. Joe is also a veteran of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as Press Secretary and Legislative Assistant for Rep. J. Randy Forbes (VA-04). He began his career in the office of Senator George Voinovich (OH)

Joe was recognized by The Hill as a Top Lobbyist in 2022 and 2023. He is also a 2022 Maverick PAC Future40 Awardee. In 2017, Joe was named by POLITICO as a top Senate operative in the “New Guard” Power List, a guide described as “crucial to understanding the players who are breaking through in the all-consuming era of Donald Trump.”

Joe is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Georgetown University and the George Washington University School of Law.

Joe and I talked at length about the origins of the TikTok bill, and the legislation drafted to ban the Chinese-owned app for over 170M Americans. We talked about the young man named Bijan Koomariaie. 

Joe then shared a story about how he met and interviewed a young lawyer named Bijan Koomaraie, who he introduced to Congresswoman Cathy MacMorris Rodgers of Washington State – a top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee – to be her legal counsel. Shortly thereafter Steve Scalise, House Majority Leader – based on Bijan’s acumen as counsel – poached Bijan to be HIS technology counsel overseeing all that’s going through the house Republican conference. 

This same TikTok bill was passed by the House and the Senate, and signed by President Biden on April 24th of 2024. 

We then moved on to talk a bit about RFK and his ascendancy as an Independent candidate – a candidate who pledges to be on the ballot in all 50 states before the November election – and how and why RFK is making some real waves for both parties in 2024. 

We ended our talk by discussing the possibilities of Mr. Trump’s growing stable of VP candidates – and which ones we believe have a chance – and those we deemed unworthy of future discussions.

This was my first interview with Joe Hack, but we had so much fun (both on and off camera) that we are going to continue our conversation under the heading of Joey Squared moving forward.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did.

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Rich Klein is the Managing Partner of McLarty Media. He was part of the 1992 Clinton/Gore presidential campaign, helping to craft policy and messaging on emerging global issues. Rich was subsequently appointed by President Clinton to head the speechwriting staff and be part of the policy planning office at the Department of Commerce, reporting directly to Secretaries Ron Brown, Mickey Kantor and Bill Daley successfully. From the Commerce Department, Rich was appointed by President Clinton to serve as Special Assistant for International Affairs at the Department of State, the bureau charged with monitoring and enforcing international economic sanctions.

During our chat, we talked about Rich’s purview of geopolitics as a former member of the State Department, the hot wars in Russia and Israel/Palestine, past administrations foreign policy - both good and bad - why NATO matters more than ever - and the continuing dysfunction of our current Congress.

It was my honor to have Rich join me on the program and I truly enjoyed every minute of his storied history, tenure, and storytelling of all things Washington D.C.

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