My talk at XOXO
My friend Andy Baio was kind enough to invite me to speak at this year’s XOXO Fest. I was completely honored to do so — XOXO is a one-of-a-kind event where some of the most interesting creators on the internet speak about the personal stories behind their creative projects. (My personal favorites: ContraPoints, Open Mike Eagle, and Lisa’s amazing talk from 2015.)
In my talk, I cover a lot of ground – the dark history of Oregon, the origin story of Adam Ruins Everything, and the narrative and argumentative tricks we use on the show to try to change minds. Most importantly, though, I talk for the first time about the limits of our show’s message and method — the times that we’ve failed to convince those who most needed convincing, how that’s made me think differently about the goals of the show, and what the phrase “preaching to the choir” now means to me. That potion begins at 17:27 in the video; click this link to watch starting at that point.