Originally published by Andrew Yang on the Venture For America Forbes Blog.
The week of the election, I was in an Uber in Detroit when a Hillary Clinton ad came on the radio. The driver, a white single mother in her 40s, scoffed in reaction to the ad. “After all that she’s done?” I didn’t ask her to elaborate. I figured best not to get into a conversation about something that we might not agree on.
Then – the election. Confusion. Bewilderment. Disillusionment. A friend said to me, “I am pretty much unable to function this election has made me so sad.” This wasn’t a 22-year old college grad, but a 50-year old successful film producer and executive.
So many people I know feel the same way and wonder what the election means for our country. More than that, they wonder how people could see the same choice so differently; it has made them feel like they really don’t understand the perspective or experience of half the country.
Just two days after the election, I was talking to Dillon Myers, a young Venture For America entrepreneur who had started a videochat company, Potluck, to connect people in alumni and affinity groups. I said to him, “You know, I have to admit. I travel throughout the country more than most of my friends in New York. But I still feel like I don’t talk to many people who are from completely different walks of life than I am. Like, if I could sit down and talk to someone in Mississippi who works in a field I know nothing about and we could just get to know each other as people. Then, I’d at least have a sense of what he or she goes through each day and there’d be a renewed sense of shared experience and humanity. And they’d get to talk to an Asian guy in New York.”
Dillon, being both super-enterprising and patriotic, said, “That’s a phenomenal idea!” And now, just a few weeks later, he’s brought this idea to life.
He has launched Still One Nation – a way for people to get outside of their bubbles and connect with folks that they wouldn’t ordinarily meet every day. It’s a simple videochat platform – you sign up to chat with people individually or in small groups. You’re given a time. You show up.
That’s it. So simple. Yet so potentially transformative. If you used it once per week, you would have talked to at least 52 different people around the country. You’d understand things better. And so would they. Like Dillon says, we’re Still One Nation. Let’s make the most of the country we all share by talking to each other through platforms like this.