Korn, Glee, and questioning authority: I was interviewed on the Katalyst podcast

KATALYST

Kyle Poissonnier of Katalyst had me on his podcast this week. You can listen to it here. It is the first of two podcast interviews I will appear in this week, as I have apparently become the Dom Deluise of Maine-based Internet talk shows.

Along with my wife, I recently modeled a limited edition hoodie for Katalyst, which was used to augment and support Maine-based suicide awareness efforts. Kyle was recently recognized at the Blaine House for his efforts—the Blaine House is the Governor’s residence for any non-Mainers reading—and invited me to accompany him. Our conversation in the podcast is a re-hash of many of the topics we covered on the trip to and back from Augusta. We talk about Maine Youth Leadership, the emergence of Glee, and how totally not-masculine we both were in high school. I embarrassingly bring up the band Korn, and then we talk a lot about the Internet.

This is cleaned up a bit, but in the context of discussing suicide, substance abuse, and confession online, I told Kyle the following, which I have been thinking a lot about both overtly and in the back of my mind. It sums up the overall subtext of our conversation, and it is 100% free of any Korn or Glee references:

There is a popular criticism of social media that focuses on how people present their lives in a better way than how they really are. They show better pictures or inflated statuses or whatever. But we have shown that as a people we’re not really that great at letting people be themselves, so it’s not surprising that people show off this “best of” version. When someone is offering something about themselves, it is generally wisest—unless they are coming right at and attacking you—to just consider that they’re as flawed and messed up a human as you are. Maybe give them the benefit of the doubt and give them some space to be themselves because most people often don’t have that space a lot of the time.

If you have a little over an hour, please consider giving it a listen.

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.