We need to talk about the next 5 Presidents of the United States. We need to sit down and reflect on what type of leaders have we chosen in the past. We need to ask ourselves, should the future generations come into being right now, would we want them to be led by our current “role models”?
I bet most of you wouldn’t.
We are entering a new decade, one that made its debut with a near-World War III, a Pandemic, Violent Protests, and crippling democratic systems. Is this the path we want to pursue entering the early stages of the decade?
Our next wave of leaders can make the change. I feel we will make the change. It is already in motion. And it starts with Podcasting.
Podcasting has emerged as a place where long form discussions take place. It gives an opportunity for ambivalence and ambiguity to appear.
Podcasters such as Joe Rogan, Chris Williamson, Duncan Trussell, Eric Weinstein and his brother Brett, and many others have widened the conversation. In consequence, our ability to process dialogue will begin to deepen. It should come without surprise that demand for podcasts has boomed in an age of polarization with difficulties to transmit an idea and receive another.
Many American Presidents emerged during innovations of our media: Franklin Delano Roosevelt had the radio, Ronald Reagan had the TV, and Obama as well as Trump had Social Media.
Who will emerge from this new media?
I have a profile — he will be driven by curiosity, by ambiguity, by humility. He will surround himself with people who radiate virtuosity; people who lift others up and want to devote themselves to public service. The President who emerges from the era of Podcasting will be able to discuss in length ideas and accept, right in the moment of a discussion, if what he said was wrong. He will favor decentralization and democracy.
He will have a spark of libertarianism as he knows no one knows what they are here for so they need to explore their potential as human beings. He will be guided by the methodology of science, rather than Science or Scientism. He will most likely fail and acknowledge his failures. He won’t hide them. He will try to keep interventionism to the minimum because more often than not, as Nassim Taleb puts it, it doesn't involve Skin in The Game.
Someone within the next 5 Presidents will emerge because of podcasting. He will have inherited the biggest bank of information and wisdom. He will have received novel ideas, many of which contradicting his own.
The President who emerges from podcasting will bring back virtuosity to the office. When children are asked who do they want to be when they grow up, he will be such an example that they all put as their three options a Politician, an astronaut, and a doctor. They will once more associate success with being a politician, rather than a source of corruption and of negativity.
This President won’t move his agenda through partisanship. His agenda will be The United States. His only agenda will be to rule by the Silver Rule, as Taleb put it in Skin in the Game.
When we think about our role models and the media we digest, they are connected. The next wave of leaders have been born in an era where long-form discussions are celebrated and listening to them feel like fun. They don’t shy away from listening to a 2-hour conversation between two complete strangers whose agenda is only to speak truthfully about any given subject.
As you see, I am in love with podcasting and all of what this media platform has given me. But I am more in love with the idea it represents — free exchange of ideas between people with no entry-level barriers to access them.
We are just beginning to witness the boom of podcasting, and this boom will lead to a President who embodies honesty, long and thoughtful conversations with their “adversaries”, and genuine curiosity.
If we ask ourselves, should the future generations come into being with that type of president, would we want them to be led by him?
I bet most of you would say yes.
