Building in Public: 3AM at Target, Dreaming an Institute

In this episode, I reflect on how Podcasting An Institute came into being—and why now is the moment to build it. After fourteen years working across nonprofit and social justice spaces, I trace the threads that led me here: a three-month sabbatical, time spent in Portugal opening up my thinking, receiving the Frank Karel Scholarship at ComNet, and realizing—again and again—that audio does something democracy work desperately needs. It holds memory. It builds trust. It carries nuance. And yet, there’s been no real infrastructure behind the intersection of audio and democracy. No institute. Just fragments.