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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 Opening 04:32 Minneapolis: Dinner at the Guthrie 13:56 Colum McCann: 8,000 Miles by Bicycle 17:59 Building Narrative 4 22:22 Inside a Story Exchange 26:26 Youth, Loneliness, and Optimism 29:24 Stories Are Tough: The Power and the Danger 34:43 The Disease of Certainty 40:09 Reflection 44:01 Summit Week Ahead About the 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 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.org Colum McCann, Co-Founder, Narrative 4 Colum 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.community Heylo Heylo 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.

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 Introduction 00:47 Balloons, Minneapolis and an incident at Target 11:56 Welcome, Mike 12:48 Origin Story: Small Family, Big Friend Network 16:29 From Tech and Philosophy to Community Work 21:56 Founding Community Forge 24:37 Buying the School 28:52 Who Rented the Space 31:34 Four Elements of a Healthy Community 36:29 Social Hall: Third Space for This Generation 42:05 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Mike Skirpan, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Community Forge Mike 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.community Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

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-Up 01:51 Today's Interview 02:58 Connected Cities Summit Update 07:11 August's Origin Story 11:44 Inside an Intentional Community 15:19 Building the Neighborhood Village Project 19:55 Three Steps to Start on Your Block 27:39 August's Vision for the Future 31:54 Reflection 34:55 Drumbeat of Community 39:51 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org August Elliott, Co-Founder and Program Director, Neighborhood Village Project August 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.community Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

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 Introduction 01:55 Priya Parker: The Art of Fighting 07:20 Best Day Ever in Hillman City 09:25 Paddleboard Rave on Lake Union 15:20 Meet Saum: Build IRL 19:20 Saum's Origin Story 22:00 What is Build IRL? 25:55 The Build a Club Playbook 27:10 Club Building Role Play 40:15 Scale is a Myth 42:45 Club of Club Builders 48:05 Closing 48:55 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Saumya Gupta, Co-Founder, Build IRL Saumya 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.org Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

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 Connected 06:17 Sharpening the Chamber's Message 14:18 Meet Jessica Gifford 16:35 From Social Work to Project Connect 22:15 The Arthur Aron Aha Moment 25:50 Six Conditions for Connection 31:16 What Makes an Organization Invest 36:29 Advice for Leaders 46:04 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Jessica Gifford, Founder and Chief Connection Officer, ProjectConnect Jessica 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.com Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

Gina Phillips grew up in a family of introverts. When they went out to eat, everyone brought a book. As a kid, she was shy and had hearing problems. Making friends didn't come naturally. But if she made the thing happen, she had a role to play. She still calls herself your friendly neighborhood introvert. Gina won't be the life of the party, but she'll make sure it happens. That carried her from founding Seattle Startup Week to WeWork, where she led global member experience. Her training for community teams included a rule Chumstock fans will recognize: a line is an opportunity. If people are waiting in front of you, introduce them to each other. Now she's bringing all of it to Pickle at the Palms, a 20-court indoor pickleball center in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood. She's hiring for warmth.  Gina's big goal for the decade isn't a full house. It's a wedding. She wants couples to meet at the Palms and she's gunning for the Best Matchmaker trophy! At the Chamber, Charlotte closes out the summer, making noises at her baby niece at the Colorado cabin. Aaron pitches a quick pickling station at Pickle at the Palms, brine, jars and all. 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Catching Up 03:50 Meet Gina Phillips 08:47 Scaling Beyond Events 17:32 Gina's Origin Story 21:39 Community Building at WeWork 27:45 Inside Pickle at the Palms 40:25 Matchmaking 43:12 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Gina Phillips, Director of Operations, Pickle at the Palms Gina grew up in a family of introverts who brought their books to restaurants. She learned young that if she makes the thing happen, she has a role to play. She founded Seattle Startup Week in 2013. Then came WeWork, where she rose to Global Head of Member Experience. Now she's building Pickle at the Palms, a 20-court indoor pickleball center in Seattle's Interbay neighborhood, backed by the family that owns the Seattle Storm. She plays ultimate frisbee for a team called Jazz Picnic and has her eye on the Best Matchmaker trophy. Her motto: it matters less who you know than who knows you. Learn more: pickleatthepalms.com Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

An hour before the first-ever Girls Who Walk Baltimore, it was raining, and Emily Trageser had a choice to make. She pushed the walk back an hour and hoped. Women started messaging: I was there; I walked without you. 60 women showed up. Emily and Summer had cases of water, hair ties, band aids, and a paper sign-in sheet. Walks now draw up to 500 women, and Under Armour hosts a Women's History Month walk at its new campus. There’s a larger mission: rewrite the story people tell about Baltimore. City developers call it the last uncut gem of the East Coast. Her secret weapon is a team of vibe curators. When a new walker arrives, the vibe curator rings a cowbell and starts cheering. Walk leaders play matchmaker before anyone takes a step. There are smiley stickers for women who want to chat. Some come to zone out, which is fine too. Meanwhile, Aaron records from Baltimore at the end of a five-city week that included dropping his youngest at Michigan. Charlotte signs off to catch the final Duck Dodge sailboat race of the Seattle summer. 00:00 Introduction 01:07 Charlotte and Aaron's Week 06:01 What Is a Vibe Curator? 07:45 Meet Emily: Her Roots in Community Building 11:59 First Walk: 60 Women in the Rain 15:52 Scaling Up, Local Business Partners 17:37 Emily's Favorite Walks 21:26 Invitation, Welcoming and Who Shows Up 27:48 Burnout, Balance and the Wellness Break 30:55 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Emily Trageser, Co-Founder, Girls Who Walk Baltimore Emily has been gathering the troops her whole life. Before the walks, she organized wellness gatherings at a local yoga studio, from sound baths to cacao ceremonies. Then her friend Summer called with a vision for a walking club. They planned a route they knew, made a graphic on Canva, and invited every woman they could think of. It rained bu sixty women showed up anyway. That was March 2024. Today Girls Who Walk Baltimore draws up to 500 women per walk and a team of vibe curators making sure nobody walks alone. Emily is showing off the city she loves, one waterfront promenade at a time. Learn more: www.instagram.com/girlswhowalkbaltimore Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

Every day, a 90-year-old nana opens Marco Polo and records a weather report. She's sitting outside. It's sunny, and that's just about the whole message. Some of her grandkids reply and some don't. It's not the point. Her family gets to see her face and know she's alive and well. Our guest this week is Vlada Bortnik, who co-founded Marco Polo. In Soviet Ukraine, Vlada was a leader in her classroom. She was a kid who stood up for the bullied new girl. Aged 11, she landed in Kansas, and the roles reversed: she was in a new country, with wild curly hair and a name nobody could pronounce. What hurt most wasn't the teasing. It was that this time, nobody stood up for her.  Vlada set out to build the thing she didn't have: a place where people feel seen. On Marco Polo, you can't interrupt. You talk, they watch when they can, and both of you feel heard in a way even video calls can't manage. Vlada's fully remote employees say they feel closer to each other than when they sat in neighboring cubicles. And when Vlada's team matched total strangers into groups, they became friends. Some even planned vacations together or flew to each other's weddings.   Meanwhile, at the Chamber, Aaron savors a last family weekend before dropping his son at college, complete with birthday cake for his 15-year-old dog. Charlotte paddleboards her slowest crossing ever to a dock rock concert. 00:00 Welcome and Weekend Recap 05:33 Seattle's Play Problem 12:26 Meet Vlada: Ukraine, Kansas, and Being Bullied 17:04 Engineering, Art, Building Things Together 21:03 Building Marco Polo 30:37 Founder Burnout and Separating Self from Company 40:33  --- 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Vlada Bortnik, Co-Founder and CEO, Marco Polo Vlada was born in Ukraine and came to Kansas at age 11. She went from classroom leader to bullied new kid without an ally. It an experience that shaped everything she's built since. She double-majored in computer engineering and art at Northwestern. She was the first student her counselor had ever seen combine the two. Then she spent five years at Microsoft, where she met her husband Michał. Together they founded Joya Communications in 2012 and dug into happiness research. Then came Marco Polo, the video messaging app that helps millions of people feel close by letting them talk face to face without interruption. This year she launched Marco Polo Circles to help people make friends, not just keep them. Her rule for showing up, on the app and off: messy hair, we don't care. Learn more: www.marcopolo.me Heylo https://www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

At a Seam retreat, even the meditation is a relay. Whoever's leading snaps their fingers three times and someone else takes over. Nobody holds the mic for long. That's the point. It's how a murder mystery game about birders became a campfire musical by the second night. It's also how another gathering produced a seven song musical about a fight over the center of a cinnamon roll. Micky Wolf co-founded Seam, a values based community rooted in Baltimore. It now has people all over the country. He's been rehearsing his whole life. In high school he was Prime Minister of Parliament at Winston Churchill High School and led an attempt to break the world record for the longest chain of shoes. The record was 24,962. They collected 17,000 and donated every pair. Micky's retreats run on something they call lended trust. You don't need to know everyone. Just one person who vouches for the rest. Aim for roughly half familiar faces then balance what Micky calls float and flow: enough of a plan for the weekend but enough drift to let a musical break out. Meanwhile, Charlotte reports back from her husband's rave on top of a mountain, where you could see a forest fire burning. Aaron returns from Provence ready to start a Friday night dinner tradition of his own. 00:00 Intro 01:42 Catching Up: Mountaintop Raves, Provence, and Chamber News 07:54 Meet Micky Wolf: Origin Story 11:05 Vulnerability, Adult Sleepovers, and Spirituality Exposed 14:02 What Seam Is: Values-Based Community 16:40 Inside a Retreat: Float and Flow 22:28 The Money: Pricing, Access, and Who Says Yes 27:12 How to Get Fiscal Sponsorship 29:36 Micky's Vision for Baltimore 31:20 Debrief: Sleepovers, Shabbat, and a Break from Tech --- 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Micky Wolf, Co-Founder, Seam Micky has been bringing people together since he was a ring bearer at age three. As Prime Minister of Parliament at Winston Churchill High School, he led an attempt on the world record for the longest chain of shoes, collecting 17,000 pairs and donating every one. He's the co-founder of Seam, a values based community rooted in Baltimore that hosts retreats and gatherings built on co-creation, from relay meditations to campfire musicals. His day job is CEO of Dent Education, a Baltimore nonprofit running paid innovation programs where young people launch ventures and careers. He also co-founded the Baltimore Youth Innovation Coalition. His rule for any gathering: enough flow to carry the weekend, enough float to let a musical break out. Learn more: https://www.denteducation.org Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

When Sandra Slater knocks on your door, she has a script. “Hi, I'm Sandra, and I live across the street.” She points to her house so you know she's a neighbor, not a stranger selling something. Then the invitation: come to my home for a gathering, not a meeting, so we can get to know each other better. More than half the people she invites say yes, partly because everyone secretly wants to see inside the house across the street. Sandra is Aaron Hurst's aunt and in many ways the inspiration for the US Chamber of Connection. Her Cool Block program set out to help neighbors cut their carbon footprints. She learned that leading with the planet is a nonstarter. What people are actually hungry for is each other. There's someone sleeping 10 feet from your head that you've never met. So connection became the way in, and when COVID hit, her blocks already had masks and supplies and knew who had a generator and who was a doctor. There's a surprise, though. The topic people can't stop talking about isn't carbon. It's trash. Show neighbors the three bins and what goes where and they'll happily debate it all evening. Meanwhile, Charlotte returns from trekking Mont Blanc with fresh lessons on hosting, and Aaron reports back from being the awkward plus one at a pickleball party. 00:00 Intro 02:32 Charlotte's Mont Blanc Trek 06:25 Guest Introduction: Sandra Slater 14:15 Sandra's Origin Story 15:07 People for the American Way 17:28 Environmental Awakening 18:28 The Cool Block Challenge 23:25 How to Run a Cool Block 30:45 Scale and Impact 32:32 The Cost of Community Building 34:28 Obstacles and Politics 36:06 Palo Alto Forward and Housing Advocacy 42:00 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Sandra Slater, Northern California Director, Cool City Challenge Sandra has spent more than 30 years turning environmental conviction into neighborhood action. She began her career at the United Nations Environment Programme and worked closely with Norman Lear to help found People for the American Way. She later built her own design firm focused on green building. Her Palo Alto home, designed as a showcase for sustainable living, has welcomed 4,000 visitors on tours. As leader of the Cool Block program, she helped neighbors across Palo Alto and beyond cut their carbon footprints by first getting to know each other. She's also a co-founder of Palo Alto Forward, a grassroots group advocating for more housing and better transit. Her real specialty is the knock on the door. Learn more: coolblock.org/cool-city-challenge Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

When you arrive at Chumstock, Aaron Altabet hands you a sardine tin. On it is your name, and inside are business cards shaped like fish. They’re simple: your name, personal phone number and email address. There are 14 cards: you get a stack of salmon and one orca. It’s based on how many friendships Aaron thinks you can build during the four-day weekend. You have to choose. The salmon can be traded but you have to save the orca for the one person you’d be sorry to lose touch with. Chumstock is Aaron’s answer to a climate conference: four days, three nights at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs. At the conference are 120 startup founders, funders, operators, and researchers. It’s an unconference, so there’s just one 10-minute speech on opening night. There’s something surprising though: Aaron surveyed everyone after Chumstock and found that the number one place people met was in line. All Aaron’s careful planning came down to people waiting for food or for the ferry, or sometimes for the trivia to start. That and a culture where it’s ok to go up to someone and say hi. Aaron also gets deep into his social math: why six is the largest table you can have to maintain a conversation and why you owe your friends a note at least once a year. Hosts Aaron and Charlotte wonder how to build lines into their conference! 00:00 Introduction 02:29 Two Aarons, One Podcast 04:59 Becoming a Connector 06:35 The Origin of Chum Stock 09:28 Shelf-Stable Friendships 13:21 Social Media vs. Real Connection 15:54 What Chum Stock Actually Is 19:22 The Sardine Tin Business Cards 23:58 The Social Math of Group Size 25:48 The Surprising Power of Waiting in Line 30:16 Wrap-Up and What's Next --- 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, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, is a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Aaron Altabet, Chumstock www.chumstock.com Aaron is the founder of Chumstock, a four day unconference for people working on climate that he hosts at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Labs in the San Juan Islands. He came to it sideways. He rowed crew and took a dual degree in biology and history at the University of Puget Sound, spent four years teaching science and running wilderness trips in Maine, earned a master's at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and recruited scientists for biotech before an MBA at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business pulled him toward climate and venture capital. He built Chumstock after watching two friends throw big multi-day gatherings and realizing he could do it too. He's 33, based in Seattle, and he sends a lot of holiday cards, most of them late. Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

Aaron's in France for his sister's 50th birthday, so this one was recorded ahead of time. Before the interview, he and Charlotte get into why life transitions are at the center of the Chamber's work. Transitions are when people are most at risk of drifting into isolation. They're also when people are most willing to build new relationships.  This week’s guest is Chip Conley, who founded MEA. Chip was a shy kid who preferred his imaginary friends to real ones and now calls himself a mixologist of people. After 24 years running a boutique hotel company and four years as Airbnb's head of global hospitality and strategy, he co-founded MEA, the world's first midlife wisdom school. MEA has drawn more than 9,000 people from 60 countries. He walks through the three vaults of communication: the head, which holds the facts of your life, the heart, which holds your stories, and the gut, which holds what's unfiltered and unplanned. Chip calls this his Roto-Rooter for the soul. 00:00 Introduction 04:03 Meet Chip Conley 05:22 Chip's Roots in Connection 07:41 Inside the Modern Elder Academy 11:01 The Three Vaults of Communication 17:05 Connection, Community, and Boundaries 26:40 Reflections and Closing Thoughts 29:33 Wrapping Up --- How We Connected explores the conversations that power communities across the United States. Aaron Hurst and Charlotte Massey share what they’re building at the US Chamber of Connection and speak with leaders whose work strengthens local connection. Episodes offer human stories, practical insights, and ideas you can use in your own community. Aaron Hurst, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, is a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Chip Conley, MEA www.meawisdom.com Chip is a co-founder of MEA, the world's first midlife wisdom school, with campuses in Baja California Sur and on a 2,600-acre regenerative horse ranch outside Santa Fe. He founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality at 26 and spent 24 years building it into the second-largest boutique hotel operator in the United States. He later joined Airbnb as head of global hospitality and strategy, where the founders called him their modern elder, someone as curious as he is wise. He's a New York Times bestselling author, has given three TED talks, and writes a daily blog called Wisdom Well. He was a founding board member of Burning Man, serves on the board of the Esalen Institute, and spent nearly a decade on the board of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

Aaron and Charlotte recorded this one early, since Charlotte's about to be off the grid and overseas. She's heading out to host a Women Who Explore trek on the Tour du Mont Blanc, hiking the circuit around Mont Blanc through France, Italy, and Switzerland with a group of women she's never met. There's a guide on the ground handling the trails, which leaves Charlotte in charge of what she calls the vibes: making sure everyone bonds, feels looked after, and comes home with the kind of friendships that outlast the trip. This week’s guest is Shasta Nelson, the Chamber of Connection’s Chief Friendship Officer and the author of Frientimacy and The Business of Friendship. Shasta traces her path from a childhood shaped by her parents' divorce to a first career as a pastor building community to launching one of the first friendship-matching sites, all of it feeding her work on what makes people bond.  Since 2013 she's hosted 20 international trips, starting with a begrudging group trip to Cuba that drew 200 responses and turned her into a self-described scientist in the friendship lab. She shares the recipe she's refined over a decade: ground rules like you don't have to be friends with everyone, but you do have to be friendly; two prep calls before anyone boards a plane; and an owner's manual prompt where each traveler names the one thing that'd help the group support them better.  00:00 Introducing Shasta Nelson, Chief Friendship Officer 04:09 Welcome Shasta 05:20 Origin Story: From Divorce to Friendship Expert 07:23 Charlotte's Trip Details 08:57 How Shasta's Group Trips Began 14:06 Managing Group Dynamics 16:26 Lasting Bonds, Repeat Travelers and Reunions 19:17 Gender Dynamics in Group Travel 26:03 Planning Trips: Strangers vs. Friends 28:42 Why Group Travel Builds Deeper Connections 31:35 Aaron's Dream Trip: Biking Italy --- How We Connected explores the conversations that power communities across the United States. Aaron Hurst and Charlotte Massey share what they’re building at the US Chamber of Connection and speak with leaders whose work strengthens local connection. Episodes offer human stories, practical insights, and ideas you can use in your own community. Aaron Hurst, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, is a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Shasta Nelson www.shastanelson.com Shasta is a keynote speaker, one of the country's leading experts on friendship and belonging, and the Chamber's Chief Friendship Officer. A former pastor with a Master of Divinity, she launched GirlFriendCircles in 2008 as one of the first friendship matching platforms in the US, and she's since studied more than 10,000 friendships through surveys, interviews, and lived experience. She's the author of three books, including Frientimacy and The Business of Friendship, and her framework of positivity, consistency, and vulnerability has reached millions through two TEDx talks. Her work has shaped connection at companies like Google and LinkedIn and been featured from Harvard Business Review to The New York Times. Each year she also hosts international friendship trips around the world. Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

Aaron Hurst and Charlotte Massey of the US Chamber of Connection discuss initiating invitations despite fear. Meanwhile, Charlotte enjoyed a trip to Minnesota for a family reunion and Aaron helped an Amazon delivery worker stuck behind a gate. This week's guest is Seattle-based friendship and social skills coach Alexandra Friedman, who is a lifelong connector. Her work has evolved from hosting dinner parties, to 125 curated events for 2,700+ people, and into coaching on social skills and friendship. Alexandra coaches Aaron and Charlotte on capacity, group building, travel, and hosting, emphasizing a focus on invitation. 00:00 Introduction 00:29 Weekend Catch-Up 14:30 Introducing Alexandra Friedman 15:45 Childhood Roots of Connection 23:53 College, Yelp, and Career 30:09 Connection at Work and AI 33:11 Becoming a Friendship Coach 35:36 Live Mini Coaching Session 48:24 The Power of Initiation 51:06 Wrap-Up and Credits --- How We Connected explores the conversations that power communities across the United States. Aaron Hurst and Charlotte Massey share what they’re building at the US Chamber of Connection and speak with leaders whose work strengthens local connection. Episodes offer human stories, practical insights, and ideas you can use in your own community. Aaron Hurst, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, is a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Alexandra Friedman, Connection Feast www.connectionfeast.com Alexandra is a friendship and social skills coach and the founder of Connection Feast, a Seattle company she started in 2018 to cure her own loneliness after moving home. What began as rooftop dinner parties for strangers she'd meet at crosswalks and in Facebook groups has grown into 125 curated events and coaching that's reached more than 2,700 people. A self-described social artist, Alex helps adults build real community without giving up who they are, teaching the skills most of us were never taught: how to initiate, ask good questions, handle rejection, and turn a first hello into a lasting friendship. She works one on one, in groups, and through immersive experiences, all aimed at helping people connect more deeply with themselves and each other. Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.

From the US Chamber of Connection, Aaron Hurst and Charlotte Massey catch up after the Fourth of July. At the Chamber there’s planning for Welcome Week, the Best Day Ever program with five partner events, an August Seattle volunteer potluck, and Aaron’s National Night Out block party collaboration  In Memphis and Nashville, Aaron met leaders exploring a Nashville chapter and observed common tensions around newcomers and inequality.  This week’s guest is Magalie Remy of Soul Sisters Hike Too, who talks about building a women-over-40 mindful hiking community during the pandemic. It’s focused on rest, forest bathing, meditation, and tree hugging, emphasizing small, intimate hikes that reduce overperformance/overthinking. 00:00 Catching Up 05:49 Charlotte's Block Party 09:01 Aaron's Memphis and Nashville Trip 16:10 Magalie Remy: Soul Sistas Hike Too 18:04 Starting Soul Sistas Hike Too 19:08 What is Mindful Hiking 20:13 The Art of Tree Hugging 28:38 Rest, Isolation and Overperformance 31:31 Inside a Hike: The Full Experience 35:34 Community Growth and Future Plans 40:28 Reflection 42:34 Rest vs Activity Reflection 45:23 Podcast Milestones --- How We Connected explores the conversations that power communities across the United States. Aaron Hurst and Charlotte Massey share what they’re building at the US Chamber of Connection and speak with leaders whose work strengthens local connection. Episodes offer human stories, practical insights, and ideas you can use in your own community. Aaron Hurst, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, is a longtime entrepreneur focused on purpose and community. He founded Imperative and the Taproot Foundation and wrote The Purpose Economy. Charlotte Massey, Co-Founder of the US Chamber of Connection, 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 Us www.chamberofconnection.org Magalie Remy, Soul Sistas Hike too www.heylo.com/g/f80507f9-e6d6-4b3c-a98c-1969598787cd Magalie is the co-founder of Soul Sistas Hike Too, an Atlanta-based mindful hiking community for Black women that's grown to about 500 women. A Brooklyn native and self-described introvert who grew up reading in the corner at parties, she rediscovered nature during the pandemic, when a birthday hike with a friend turned into something she couldn't stop doing. Together they built a practice they call mindful hiking, where women slow down on two to four mile trails to meditate, hug trees, forest bathe, and reconnect with themselves and each other. The heart of it is making space for rest and sisterhood while pushing back on the "strong Black woman" narrative that leaves so many women overperforming and burned out. A photographer and fibre artist herself, Magalie keeps each hike intentionally small so the connection stays real, and the work now reaches into wellness workshops, retreats, and experiences for organizations. Heylo www.heylo.com Heylo 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.