thanks!

There ought to be a dedicated IMDb for podcasts, just as there is one for books

Apple doesn't have a list of the 1,000 best episodes all-time

Apple also doesn't offer any sort of community around individual episodes/shows

It does have a smaller list of best this week, month etc.

Certainly true of many episodes.

But still think there could/should be a top 1,000 all-time list — filterable by category.

Moderately successful but not a smashing hit in my book

That sounds very similar to what we're considering building for v2!

Agreed. We'd be happy to host a conversation on that topic!

Thanks! I think The Economist used to have a point/counterpoint series. Perhaps FT too.

I think there's definitely a fun angle to explore here.

Right now, everything is asynchronous. (Authors post at their own convenience.) But I wonder what would happen if we tried to host an event once a week. Something, say, for an hour or two one evening. It could be the top two people in a field, but it'd probably be interesting to bring in a few different types of folks as well.

Right now, the format on Pairagraph is 4 entries, each 500 words, created by alternating authors. But we've recently thought about what it would look like to facilitate dialogues with more than 2 participants.

Do you have any ideas for how contributors might get paid? Could crypto facilitate something like that?

Well, we definitely have a difficult path ahead!

I don't expect platforms like Pairagraph and Letter to change the world over night. But I really do believe that they could have a profound impact. As Carter and I have said in the past, our dream is to live in a society where it is commonplace for people who disagree to make genuine efforts to have conversations with one another. Our goal with Pairagraph is to create a place on the web that facilitates this.

If we get there, it will be inch by inch.

What do you think are the reasons that people don't already make genuine efforts to have conversations? And what are you doing to diminish them?

Culture + Tribalism + Most internet forums reward the opposite (outrage, insults, lack of nuance)

We recognize we're fighting an uphill battle.

Here's why I'm hopeful: All across the web, I see people trying to have conversations. Really trying to engage. I think we just need better platforms. Twitter is good for some things, but it tends to lack nuance and amplify outrage. Reddit is good for other things, but it's noisy.

I may be delusional but I think there's room for another Internet community to emerge. One where nuance, civility, and substance are incentivized and rewarded.