This is the second episode of a ten episode season of The Beacon Project Podcast. In this season, Daniel Yudkin describes this podcast as a public workshop for Potentialism. Daniel is a social psychologist and researcher and his new political philosophy, called Potentialism, is built around a simple but surprisingly radical idea: everyone has something to offer. Potentialism asks what it would look like to build our communities, institutions, and even our politics around the belief that everyone has gifts worth discovering, developing, and sharing and that we all have a part to play in helping one another flourish.

The second guest is Matt Shinners.

Americans are exhausted by politics, frustrated with both parties, and hungry for something different. But what would it actually take to build a political movement that brings people together? Daniel talks to Matt, former chief of staff for Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign and co-founder of the Forward Party, to explore what he learned trying to create an alternative to politics as usual. Matt shares why organizing independents is harder than it sounds, why political reforms alone won't fix what's broken, and why Americans may have more in common than our political divisions suggest. Together, they consider whether a shared commitment to rights, responsibilities, and contribution could offer the foundation for a new kind of politics and what it might take to turn that vision into a movement.

Resources:

• Forward Party — The political party Matt helped found with Andrew Yang, focused on building an alternative to the two-party system.
• Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape — More in Common's landmark research identifying the Exhausted Majority, a central theme of the conversation.
• More in Common Research — Research on Americans' underlying values, political identities, polarization, and shared aspirations, including the work Daniel references.
• Andrew Yang's Freedom Dividend — Yang's 2020 universal basic income proposal, which Matt uses to illustrate how political policies can be rooted in shared values.
• Ranked Choice Voting — FairVote — An explanation of the electoral reform Matt discusses as an example of a good idea that can struggle to connect with voters.
• Open Primaries — An organization advocating for primary election reforms that would allow more voters, including independents, to participate.

For years, the Common Good Podcast has explored the significance of place, the structures of belonging, and the gifts that emerge when people are invited to contribute to their communities. Today, we're introducing a new podcast that shares many of those same interests. Daniel Yudkin is a social psychologist and researcher who's developing a new political philosophy called Potentialism, built around a simple but surprisingly radical idea: everyone has something to offer. Potentialism asks what it would look like to build our communities, institutions, and even our politics around the belief that everyone has gifts worth discovering, developing, and sharing and that we all have a part to play in helping one another flourish.

For the remainder of the year, we'll share ten episodes of The Beacon Project Podcast, which he describes as a public workshop for Potentialism. In these episodes, Daniel talks with people who are helping him explore and develop Potentialism.

Our first guest is someone many of you already know: Sam Pressler.

What happens when people have something to offer but nowhere to offer it? In this episode, Daniel talks with Sam about his research on friendship, isolation, and purpose among men without college degrees, many of whom feel disconnected from their communities and unsure of where they belong. Together, they explore the relationship between belonging and contribution, the importance of rites of passage and meaningful relationships, and the ways our political divisions can obscure the complexity of people's lives. Along the way, Sam challenges Daniel to think more deeply about potentialism and what it would take to build a society where everyone has the opportunity to discover their gifts, contribute to something bigger than themselves, and know they're needed.

Resources:

• Nobody to Call
• Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life
• Connective Tissue newsletter
• Sam Pressler's projects
• More in Common
• Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape — the research behind the term "Exhausted Majority."
• The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy — Christopher Lasch's critique of the growing separation between educated elites and the rest of society.
• Democracy's Discontent — Michael Sandel's book about citizenship, community, and American democracy.
• Rob Henderson and luxury beliefs — The concept Sam references when discussing family and social class.
• After Virtue — Alasdair MacIntyre — Daniel mentioned MacIntyre in the conversation about life as a narrative quest.

In this final episode of the miniseries, Tristan and Rashid step back to reflect on what seven episodes of storytelling from Cape Town have revealed. They revisit the arc of the series, from grounding ourselves in our bodies with Bongeka and Aphiwe, to the critical hope of Ashley and Helene, the courage of Ncedisa, the radical imagination of Leila, and the belonging found at Charlie and Barry’s dinner table.

They explore the power and danger of stories, drawing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “the danger of a single story” and James Cone’s call for a global analysis of liberation. They ask what it means to tell stories from the Global South without claiming to speak for it, and challenge the ways resources and power are still gate-kept by those claiming to want change. The episode opens and closes with collectively written poems on the role of stories in making a new world.

THEMES

Reflection. The danger of a single story. Global South and Global North. Collective liberation. Interrogating our own narratives. Stories as world-making. Power and resources. Invitation to the listener.

FEATURED VOICES

Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town.

Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town.

CREDITS

| Produced by | Rashid Epstein Adams
| Music by | Rashid Epstein Adams (AKA Arkenstone) and Pursuit
| A collaboration between | The Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space Podcast

LINKS

| Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod
| Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com
| Instagram | @theliminalspacepod