Dear Sam, wow, thank you for reading my book - how wonderful to read about your journey! The way you started diving down the rabbit hole, checking network spread and reach of messages - that's how we began to make sense of the crazy design of social media that has turned our world upside down. I also love that you were - first - a storyteller - a narrative designer, you said - which forms the foundation of your work as an AI content designer! So much more - and throw in the jazz. You're a left-brain, right-brain thinker! First, let me share our deep dive into the US information ecosystem - 3 years of data, structured and unstructured, which we first rolled out in April 2024 and kept updating leading to the Nov elections. The findings explain a lot of why the US is where it is today: https://www.rappler.com/technology/us24-study-united-states-information-ecosystem-2024/

I have many friends inside technology companies who have similar feelings... hard to leave the stability ... the few things I know about are fledgling compared to that stability, an NGO called ROOST (Robust Open Online Safety Tools) which we incubated inside the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University before we were able to raise $28m to spin it off - the ability to set a floor of safety among professionals in all the tech companies: https://roost.tools/ this was largely the effort of my co-lead at the Technology and Democracy Initiative, Camille Francois. Needless to say, the academe in America has its woes now. Let me think more about your interests and will come back to you if something pops up. We're truly living through creative destruction. I keep thinking that governments/companies will build a public tech stack but ... nothing yet. So let's see. Thank you for your message.

Hello from Rio de Janeiro, where we landed Sunday - in time for the last day of BRICS, and their agreements (especially on technology, these agreements give far more safety measures than the ones we see from the West. (BRICS is an unlikely grouping - Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa ... but its ambition is to try to unite the global south ... Indonesian President Prabowo attended then went on to meet President Lula at Brasilia. https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/justica/noticia/2025-06/court-social-networks-must-be-held-accountable-illegal-content

Thanks Maria for these resources, I'll dig in and see what resonates. While I do have technical acumen, as you noted my primary foundational skill-set lies in various forms of Storytelling, so I think I'll probably look to contribute to these movements in that form if/when there's ever a need. Most of my work the past few years is focused on figuring out how to communicate complex technical concepts simply. I think, especially in this proposed space of creating public tech stacks, one challenge we'll encounter is explaining to the public why it's important and what it even is in a way they understand and relate to. Here's my linkedin profile for a more granular sense of my experience. Hope all's well, appreciate the thoughtful response! 🙏

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-asher-friedman/
sammyasher@gmail.com