05/29/2026
Episode 13 of My Robot Teacher is out now. It's about the discourse, the rather sorry state of discourse, and how we can improve it. Sarah and I talk with April Lawson, co-founder of Insight Debate & Dialogue. She's an expert facilitator of structured conversation on contentious issues, and is exceptionally talented at surfacing the diversity of perspectives within a group, in a way that sheds many of the toxic qualities poisoning the discourse on social media.
I've attended several of these Insight Debates, several about AI in higher education with an audience of faculty and students. And each time, the vibes are just immaculate. Everyone comes away from the event having learned some useful idea or perspective, and there is a real feeling of productive growth. For me, the main thing that recommends these kinds of events over the usual social media slop convos, is the way that talking to other human beings, face-to-face, forces you out of the unfortunate tendency to caricature your ideological opposition. They aren't just trolls or shills or dumbbells; they are acting in good faith, rationally and understandably representing a different point of view, often sharing the same set of values as you! Fact is, whether or not you are pro-AI, anti-AI, something in between, there are often points of agreement which can form the foundation for productive collaboration. Insight Debates are fantastic for surfacing these.
We're hoping to hold more of these in the not-so-distant future. We hope you can make it! And we hope you enjoy the episode. Links in the comments.
