EPISODE

We can all see the disruption and tragedy that COVID has brought to our lives since 2020…but what about the good it has brought?  Esther Dyson, an economics innovation expert and the executive founder of the nonprofit Wellville, talks with Dave about the good.  Dyson’s work focuses on advising local leaders to think long term about the community they want to be and then to become the best version of themselves. Dyson is one of the world’s leading thought-leaders on the role of technology in society. As well as a philanthropist and investor, Dyson brings a lifetime of experience around (real and imagined) “disruptive” technology to the interview. In this in-depth discussion, Dyson and Dave also chat about technology privacy, education around these complex issues, and how collectively, we can help make our corner of the world a better place.

“People who came together to fight with COVID, are now coming together to provide child care, to bring meals to kids who can’t go to school and were relying on the daily lunch at school for a lot of the nutrition. So it’s brought huge devastation and it’s been a tragedy for so many people and it’s been a huge blow to mental health, but at the same time, some of this disruption is really positive.” – Esther Dyson

“If you tell someone, “Oh my gosh, your hair is so great, I love your haircut!’ Their immediate reaction is not ‘Oh how nice!’ it’s ‘Oh my gosh, I must have looked awful before.’ That reaction is part of why people resist change. . . . Because they have to acknowledge that what they did was not good enough.” – Esther Dyson

“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” – Margaret J. Wheatley, writer