Free Daily Podcast Summary
How We Connected: Daily Summaries Delivered
by US Chamber of Connection
The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection. Aaron Hurst is the Co-Founder and CEO of the US Chamber of Connection and a long-time leader in the movement to strengthen community through work. A serial entrepreneur and social innovator, he previously founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation, two organizations that reshaped how companies think about purpose, service, and meaningful work. His book The Purpose Economy helped define a new era in which connection, meaning, and relationships stand at the center of business value. At the Chamber, Aaron focuses on reconnecting America by mobilizing community builders in every town and city. Known for turning big ideas into practical action, he works at the intersection of business, civic life, and community leadership. Aaron co-hosts How We Connected, bringing thoughtful perspective, personal stories, and a clear belief that human connection is a skill every organization can cultivate. Charlotte Massey is the Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection and Executive Director of the Seattle Chamber of Connection, where she leads strategy, programs, and partnerships dedicated to strengthening the connective tissue of communities in Seattle and nationwide. Her background spans political organizing, digital marketing for large-scale nonprofits, and venture-backed entrepreneurship. She is a Forbes 30 under 30 awardee, a Thomas J Watson Fellow, and a Tory Burch Fellow. Charlotte creates environments where collaboration is natural and accessible. Charlotte started her career in political and civic organizing, later serving as a digital marketer for major nonprofits and advocacy organizations, helping them mobilize supporters and scale their impact. She co-founded Gnara, a venture-backed outdoor apparel company that developed patented zipper technology to make clothing more functional and accessible for women, earning national recognition and viral reach. A lifelong community builder, Charlotte also founded the Seattle Picnic Society, a 2,000-plus-person open-invite community that gathers for creative, joyful events across the city. As co-host of How We Connected, Charlotte brings grounded, practical insight and a keen sense for the moments that reveal how connection actually happens – in workplaces, neighborhoods, and local ecosystems.
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- 2 days ago38 min
The First Invite Is the Hardest: Matthew Fraijo, Co-Founder, PGH Social Club
Matthew Fraijo is a classic introvert who loves his alone time. He’d also never needed to make a friend: through school and college he always found his core group and settled in. Then he graduated, moved to Pittsburgh, looked around, and realized he didn’t know anyone.Scrolling Instagram, he spotted OC Social Club from Orange County, where he grew up, and thought, 'That's it.' He and his co-founder made a graphic, posted it and told friends they’d be at a bar. The first few events were just friends of friends. The moment it became real was when strangers started arriving from Instagram and TikTok. Now PGH Social Club runs six to eight events a month, with 100 to 120 people at the big ones.His craft is the welcome. The first two to three minutes of someone’s experience matter most. The hardest part isn’t hosting 120 people. It was one invitation. After an event he asked someone to go get a drink, just the two of them, which meant admitting, ‘I’m lonely and I need friends.' They’re still friends.Meanwhile at the Chamber, Charlotte goes to a Halloween party as a park ranger with her husband, Sam the Bear. Aaron reports that a friend’s students are funding college by raising injured goldfish for koi collectors at $10,000 a fish.00:00 Welcome00:30 Halloween and Host Banter11:10 Meet Matthew13:20 Starting the Social Club15:15 The Art of Welcoming17:50 Events and Programming20:45 Growing as a Leader25:10 Building for the Future35:10 ReflectionAbout the Chamber of ConnectionThe most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a long-time entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Learn more: www.chamberofconnection.orgMatthew Fraijo, Co-Founder, PGH Social ClubMatthew is an unlikely host for parties of 120. He grew up in Orange County, studied at Trinity University, went into hospitality, and moved to Pittsburgh after college knowing nobody. He spotted OC Social Club on Instagram and realized Pittsburgh needed one too. With his co-founder Avi Moses, he started posting invitations to a bar. PGH Social Club now runs six to eight events a month, from 120-person bar nights to craft clubs, trivia teams and pickup sports. It’s the things you’d do with friends, for people who haven’t met them yet. He staffs every big event with a welcome committee trained to find whoever’s standing alone. His dream is a reimagined Elks Lodge for this generation, a clubhouse where you go on a Tuesday night just to see who’s there.Learn more: https://www.pghsocialclub.comHeyloHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms.Learn more: www.heylo.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 1 weeks ago42 min
What Is Love: Christopher and Ceci Phillips, Co-Founders, Socrates Cafe
In 1996, Christopher Phillips put out a handmade announcement for his new philosophy gathering at a coffee house in Montclair, New Jersey. He perched on a bench and waited for the masses. One person came: Ceci. The question that night was what is love? Thirty years later, they’re married. Socrates Cafe is about 500 groups and 40,000 members around the world.The method is the opposite of debate. Ask whether a war is justified and people dig into their trenches. Ask what is a just war, and people who disagree on everything discover they share a philosophy. Christopher calls it uncommon common ground.When The New York Times wrote about the gathering, 250 people tried to cram in. Christopher refused to become a cult of personality. He gave the model away free instead.But they never monetized the group. It’s still a mom and pop nonprofit, living on a wing and a prayer. Christopher’s answer is a question: how do you charge for creating community?Meanwhile, at the Chamber, Charlotte preps the State of Connection in King County launch. Aaron heads off to see his Knicks, somehow 0 and 3 after a national championship.00:00 Welcome 02:32 Check-In: REI and Seattle Events 09:15 Interview: The Socrates Cafe 10:32 Connection Growing Up 14:50 The Socrates Cafe Method 19:46 Growth, Polarization and Belonging 22:50 Keeping It Grassroots 28:13 The Cost of Not Monetizing 32:01 ReflectionAbout the Chamber of ConnectionThe most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Learn more: www.chamberofconnection.orgChristopher Phillips and Ceci Phillips, Co-Founders, Socrates CafeChristopher is a self-described socially awkward wallflower who disappears the moment an inquiry begins. The son of a Greek Orthodox father and an Appalachian mother who left her faith because it couldn’t answer questions, he started Socrates Cafe in Montclair, New Jersey in 1996 and has written six books, translated into some 20 languages, that seeded groups from the Middle East to his grandmother’s Greece. Ceci is his opposite: a people person from Mexico who has spent her life making sure everyone feels included, from the new kids at school to the indigenous community in Chiapas where she taught. She was the only person who showed up to Christopher’s gathering one Tuesday night, and the question was what is love. Together they’ve grown Socrates Cafe to about 500 groups and 40,000 members worldwide, all without charging a cent. Their method in one line: ask why, like a child, until the very end of your days.Learn more: www.democracycafe.orgHeyloHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms.Learn more: www.heylo.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago50 min
Teams Sell Belonging: Todd Rogers, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Every Sunday 100 million Americans watch football. Half of them watch alone. Todd Rogers and his team at Harvard tried something simple: they asked people who planned to watch by themselves to invite someone. That’s it. Watching with others jumped by more than 40 percentage points, people enjoyed the game more than they expected, and weeks later people who’d been nudged were still watching with company every week.Todd is a lifelong Eagles fan who lives in Boston and hosts a party for every game. He’d never thought of it as infrastructure. Then he read a book called Fans Have More Friends. Three quarters of Americans root for a team. Fandom gives them an excuse to gather, a ritual that repeats every season, something to talk about with anyone, and a shared identity. Almost every man would text a new acquaintance to watch a game. Far fewer would suggest dinner. The activity men are least comfortable proposing turns out to be a walk. This is awkward, because Todd and Aaron met over coffee, which turned into a four-and-a-half-hour walk around Seattle.Before the interview, Aaron and Charlotte unpack the Connected City Summit, where 250 leaders from 25 cities co-wrote a blueprint for connected cities.00:00 Welcome01:08 Inside the Connected City Summit09:03 Why Sports, Why Todd10:24 Meet Todd Rogers13:21 Why Sports Is Hidden Infrastructure15:59 Four Engines of Fandom19:08 NFL Watch-Together Experiment21:44 Masculinity and Invitations33:25 Where the Kraken Fit In36:09 What Teams and Cities Should Do Differently44:46 ReflectionAbout the Chamber of ConnectionThe most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Learn more: www.chamberofconnection.orgTodd Rogers, Weatherhead Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolTodd is a behavioral scientist. He’s spent earlier chapters scaling research on civic participation, communication and student absenteeism, with work published in Science, Nature Human Behaviour and the American Economic Review. His latest chapter is social connection. One of the biggest social infrastructures Americans already have: more than three-quarters of them root for a sports team. He now leads the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at the Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, a research lab supported by FOX Sports, where his experiments have shown that one simple prompt to invite a friend can turn solo viewers into regular hosts. His next goal is to get every team and league to see that what they’re really selling, alongside entertainment and winning, is belonging.Learn more: https://shorensteincenter.org/research-initiative/fandom-social-connection/HeyloHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms.Learn more: https://www.heylo.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 3 weeks ago45 min
You Tell My Story, I’ll Tell Yours: Colum McCann, Co-Founder, Narrative 4
Colum McCann came to America at 21 to write a novel. He failed miserably. So he got on a bicycle in Boston and rode 8,000 miles over 18 months, all the way to San Francisco. Everywhere he went, people asked if he was mad. They invited him into their homes and told him their stories. The failed novelist learned the power of listening. It’s a conviction that has carried him through 13 or 14 books since. He’s lost count, but he knows that the shortest distance between two people is a story.That conviction became Narrative 4, which Colum co-founded with Lisa Consiglio. The method is simple and strange. Two young people pair up, swap stories, and then each tells the other’s story in the first person. Hearing your own life in a stranger’s voice is where the magic happens. The organization now works in more than 30 countries.Colum insists this is not kumbaya. Stories are dangerous. They can take your house, your vote, or your country. That’s why Narrative 4 trains its teachers so carefully. He’s wary of what he calls the disease of certainty.At the Chamber, Charlotte reports from the Best Day Ever in Fremont, home of a troll so beloved the fire marshals attend its birthday. Aaron preps for a summit week that will be either really awesome or a great story.00:00 Opening04:32 Minneapolis: Dinner at the Guthrie13:56 Colum McCann: 8,000 Miles by Bicycle17:59 Building Narrative 422:22 Inside a Story Exchange26:26 Youth, Loneliness, and Optimism29:24 Stories Are Tough: The Power and the Danger34:43 The Disease of Certainty40:09 Reflection44:01 Summit Week AheadAbout the Chamber of ConnectionThe most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Learn more: www.chamberofconnection.orgColum McCann, Co-Founder, Narrative 4Colum was born in Dublin and came to America at 21 to write a novel. He failed, so he rode a bicycle across the country instead. The strangers who took him in taught him the power of listening. The novels came after, including Let the Great World Spin, which won the National Book Award. There’s Apeirogon, the story of an Israeli father and a Palestinian father united by loss. Twelve years ago he co-founded Narrative 4 with Lisa Consiglio. Its story exchange, where two young people each tell the other’s story in the first person, now reaches more than 30 countries. He teaches writing at Hunter College and lives in New York. His conviction, learned on the bike: the shortest distance between two people is a story.Learn more: https://www.forge.communityHeyloHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms.Learn more: https://www.heylo.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Oct 6, 202650 min
We Bought a School: Mike Skirpan, Executive Director, Community Forge
In 2017, Mike Skirpan and seven friends bought an elementary school. Johnston Elementary in Wilkinsburg, Pittsburgh had been closed for five years. They negotiated the price, took out a loan, and scraped together some collateral. Mike's share was lent to him by a former student with one condition: please get out of tech and do this.Why does a tech ethicist buy a school? Mike grew up in a small family with a single mom. Friends were his emotional safety net. He became the ultimate socialite, hanging with the chess club and captaining the soccer team. Years later he watched his hometown split into silos while his own industry accelerated the isolation. The mantras from day one: relationships first, break down Pittsburgh silos.They fixed the building themselves. Friends sanded staircases and laid floors. Community Forge was solvent within a year and threw more than 100 events annually. It grew into a nonprofit built on four pillars: social capital for everyone, pathways into the economy, training in the tools of the future, and wellness.The next act is a modern-day Elks Lodge. The ground floor is becoming a social hall with a 130 seat theatre, coffee shop, and social clubs. The question behind it all: what is the third space for this generation?Charlotte reports from the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, where one pilot flew a cluster of party balloons to 20,000 feet like the movie Up. Aaron comes clean about the day he was shown the door at Target.00:00 Introduction00:47 Balloons, Minneapolis and an incident at Target11:56 Welcome, Mike12:48 Origin Story: Small Family, Big Friend Network16:29 From Tech and Philosophy to Community Work21:56 Founding Community Forge24:37 Buying the School28:52 Who Rented the Space31:34 Four Elements of a Healthy Community36:29 Social Hall: Third Space for This Generation42:05 Reflection: Third Spaces---The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Connect with Uswww.chamberofconnection.orgMike Skirpan, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Community ForgeMike grew up in a small family in the Mon Valley outside Pittsburgh. He became the ultimate socialite of his school. He studied philosophy and economics, earned a PhD in computer science, and teaches technology ethics at Carnegie Mellon. In 2017 he and seven friends bought a shuttered school. They renovated it themselves. Today Community Forge is a hub where neighbors find social capital, pathways into the economy, training, and wellness support. Next year the ground floor becomes a social hall with a 130 seat theatre and cafe. He met his wife swing dancing, so there will be dance classes.Learn more: https://www.forge.communityHeylohttps://www.heylo.comHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Sep 29, 202641 min
Heartbeats, Not Lightning Bolts: August Elliott, Co-Founder, Neighborhood Village Project
A man in a rural California town joined the Neighborhood Village Project and threw a potluck. Nobody came. So he asked what his neighbors actually cared about. The answer was the dried brush ringing their homes in a wildfire zone. He put up a new invitation. People who'd never spoken cleared 8,000 pounds of brush together, then stayed for dinner.That's the method, according to August Elliott, co-founder of NVP. His own path to it started in Boulder's intentional communities, where a weekly open potluck called family dinner taught him that agreements, not intentions, are what let messy humans go deep.When his co-founder Savannah moved into an ordinary apartment building and found neighbors averting their eyes in the hallway, she started knocking on doors. Within a year people had fallen in love and somebody noticed when a 91-year-old’s life alert ran out of batteries.Charlotte asks for advice on her own street and gets three steps: start and forget perfection, attune to what's happening on your block, and think in heartbeats rather than lightning bolts. She shares her own breakthrough, knocking on a stranger's door with a measuring cup to borrow sugar and walking away with a standing invitation.00:00 Welcome and Weekend Catch-Up01:51 Today's Interview02:58 Connected Cities Summit Update07:11 August's Origin Story11:44 Inside an Intentional Community15:19 Building the Neighborhood Village Project19:55 Three Steps to Start on Your Block27:39 August's Vision for the Future31:54 Reflection34:55 Drumbeat of Community39:51 Wrap and Gratitude---The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Connect with Uswww.chamberofconnection.orgAugust Elliott, Co-Founder and Program Director, Neighborhood Village ProjectAugust has spent more than a decade helping people build the community they wish they had. After civic organizing in Memphis, he's lived in intentional communities in Boulder for close to 15 years. With founder Savannah Kruger, he now runs the Neighborhood Village Project, a free six-month program that gives participants the guidance, accountability and peer support to turn their own streets into villages. Neighborhood stewards have built childcare networks, painted murals and cleared wildfire brush together in 171 neighborhoods across 10 countries. His advice for anyone starting out: ask for help as quickly as you can, because the second someone helps you, it's their neighborhood too.Learn more: https://nvp.communityHeylohttps://www.heylo.comHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Sep 22, 202652 min
Gardener, Not CEO: Saumya Gupta, Co-Founder, Build IRL
Saumya Gupta was six months postpartum when she read a statistic she couldn't digest: one in three teenage girls feels persistently lonely, and one in four has considered suicide. She'd worked in health her whole life. She left her full-time job without a plan.That question took her and her co-founder Colton Heward-Mills around San Francisco, asking the people who host clubs how it was going. Everywhere they heard the same answer: I'm burnt out. I love this work and I can't keep doing it. So they built Build IRL, an accelerator for social clubs. Three cohorts and more than 100 clubs later, they've open-sourced everything they learned as 12 hot takes at buildaclub.org.Aaron wants to start an e-bike club and Saumya coaches him through her three ingredients: the who, the rhythm, and co-creation, because if you're doing everything, it's not a club. Saumya insists that scale is a myth. There is no club of 5,000 people that works. Relationships don't scale, they deepen.Meanwhile, Aaron and Charlotte debrief a rare shared weekend: Priya Parker at Town Hall, a Best Day Ever in Hillman City, and a thousand paddleboarders raving on Lake Union.00:00 Introduction01:55 Priya Parker: The Art of Fighting07:20 Best Day Ever in Hillman City09:25 Paddleboard Rave on Lake Union15:20 Meet Saum: Build IRL19:20 Saum's Origin Story22:00 What is Build IRL?25:55 The Build a Club Playbook27:10 Club Building Role Play40:15 Scale is a Myth42:45 Club of Club Builders48:05 Closing48:55 Reflection---The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Connect with Uswww.chamberofconnection.orgSaumya Gupta, Co-Founder, Build IRLSaumya has been a community builder all her life. She grew up in India throwing the biggest Diwali parties in her neighborhood and was social secretary of her hostel in undergrad. She spent a decade in health, from Google to healthtech, but the turn came six months after becoming a mom, when she read that one in three teenage girls feels persistently lonely. She left her job without a plan. With co-founder Colton Heward-Mills, she built Build IRL, an accelerator that helped more than 100 San Francisco social clubs get started, funded, and running. This year they open sourced everything they learned as the Build a Club playbook. She hosts the Loneliness Busters podcast, and she'll tell you her guilty pleasure is talking about how to build clubs. Her mantra for founders: you're the gardener, not the CEO.Learn more: https://buildaclub.orgHeylohttps://www.heylo.comHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Sep 15, 202651 min
Friendship Isn't Magic: Jessica Gifford, Founder, ProjectConnect
Jessica Gifford grew up in a tiny community of hippies, peace activists, and draft dodgers who built their own one-room schoolhouse. From kindergarten through eighth grade she was with the same 15 kids, so she never learned how to meet people. Her fix came at college: become the RA. It's easier to create the community you want than to break into one that already exists.Years later, as a social worker on college campuses, a survey crossed her desk showing loneliness rates off the charts. What they were doing wasn't working. So she built ProjectConnect, a program now used by more than 100 organizations, on the idea that friendship isn't magic. Jessica boils it down to three practices: sharing, caring and repairing. And the conditions matter: an hour of icebreakers between strangers who never see each other again is, in her word, pointless.Jessica's newest program is a 30-day challenge of acts of social courage. Do the awkward thing on purpose, because awkwardness is often the first step to connection.Over at the Chamber, Aaron and Charlotte workshop the Chamber's new message out loud, and Aaron previews Pickle at the Palms, where his Oura ring ruled that a pickleball session had earned him a couple of extra desserts.00:00 Welcome to How We Connected06:17 Sharpening the Chamber's Message14:18 Meet Jessica Gifford16:35 From Social Work to Project Connect22:15 The Arthur Aron Aha Moment25:50 Six Conditions for Connection31:16 What Makes an Organization Invest36:29 Advice for Leaders46:04 Reflection---The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection.Aaron Hurst is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection. He’s a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey is the co-founder of the US Chamber of Connection and leads community programs nationally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and former organizer and founder, she works at the intersection of civic life and entrepreneurship.Connect with Uswww.chamberofconnection.orgJessica Gifford, Founder and Chief Connection Officer, ProjectConnectJessica grew up in a small community of hippies and peace activists, sharing a one-room schoolhouse with the same 15 kids from kindergarten through eighth grade. She learned to make community by creating it, first as an RA at Antioch College. She became a social worker, earned her master's at Smith College, and spent years leading mental health promotion at Amherst College. When campus surveys showed loneliness off the charts, she built ProjectConnect, a six-week program that turns Arthur Aron's research into a repeatable recipe. More than 100 organizations have used it, from colleges to corporations. Her latest challenge invites people to commit 30 days of acts of social courage, because awkwardness is often the first step to connection.Learn more: https://projectconnect-us.comHeylohttps://www.heylo.comHeylo is a community-management platform built for real-world groups of every kind, giving leaders a clean, branded home base to run events, manage members, communicate clearly, and handle payments without friction. It brings scheduling, RSVPs, waivers, announcements, topic-based chats, and membership tools into one place so clubs, teams, and interest groups can stay organized and connected without the noise of traditional social platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Conversations with cultural figures and experts explore the art and importance of authentic human connection in everyday life.
About How We Connected
The most creative artists in America right now aren’t in galleries. They’re in your neighborhood. How We Connected is a front-row seat to the social artists rebuilding human connection. Hear inspiring stories about roller skating crews, bad art clubs, jousting societies, city saunters, Georgian dinner parties, catch-playing challenges, midnight runners, and picnic societies. Hosted by Charlotte Massey and Aaron Hurst, co-founders of the US Chamber of Connection. Aaron Hurst is the Co-Founder and CEO of the US Chamber of Connection and a long-time leader in the movement to strengthen community through work. A serial entrepreneur and social innovator, he previously founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation, two organizations that reshaped how companies think about purpose, service, and meaningful work. His book The Purpose Economy helped define a new era in which connection, meaning, and relationships stand at the center of business value. At the Chamber, Aaron focuses on reconnecting America by mobilizing community builders in every town and city. Known for turning big ideas into practical action, he works at the intersection of business, civic life, and community leadership. Aaron co-hosts How We Connected, bringing thoughtful perspective, personal stories, and a clear belief that human connection is a skill every organization can cultivate. Charlotte Massey is the Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection and Executive Director of the Seattle Chamber of Connection, where she leads strategy, programs, and partnerships dedicated to strengthening the connective tissue of communities in Seattle and nationwide. Her background spans political organizing, digital marketing for large-scale nonprofits, and venture-backed entrepreneurship. She is a Forbes 30 under 30 awardee, a Thomas J Watson Fellow, and a Tory Burch Fellow. Charlotte creates environments where collaboration is natural and accessible. Charlotte started her career in political and civic organizing, later serving as a digital marketer for major nonprofits and advocacy organizations, helping them mobilize supporters and scale their impact. She co-founded Gnara, a venture-backed outdoor apparel company that developed patented zipper technology to make clothing more functional and accessible for women, earning national recognition and viral reach. A lifelong community builder, Charlotte also founded the Seattle Picnic Society, a 2,000-plus-person open-invite community that gathers for creative, joyful events across the city. As co-host of How We Connected, Charlotte brings grounded, practical insight and a keen sense for the moments that reveal how connection actually happens – in workplaces, neighborhoods, and local ecosystems.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Podzilla's How We Connected daily summary?
It's a free AI-powered email that summarizes new episodes of How We Connected as soon as they're published. You get the key takeaways, notable quotes, and links & mentions — all in a quick read.
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When a new episode drops, our AI transcribes and analyzes it, then generates a personalized summary tailored to your interests and profession. It's delivered to your inbox every morning.
Is this an official How We Connected product?
No. Podzilla is an independent service that summarizes publicly available podcast content. We're not affiliated with or endorsed by US Chamber of Connection.
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How often does How We Connected release new episodes?
How We Connected publishes weekly. Our AI generates a summary within hours of each new episode.
What topics does How We Connected cover?
How We Connected covers topics including Science, Business, Culture, Society & Culture, Social Sciences, Non-Profit. Our AI identifies the specific themes in each episode and highlights what matters most to you.
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