If US politics is rigged, can we build a new civic internet?

If US politics is rigged, can we build a new civic internet?

Author: BKBT Productions June 15, 2026 Duration: 37:53
What if the problem with American democracy isn't that the system is broken, but that it's working exactly as intended, just not for you? Travis Misurell, founder of FiNC (Future is Now Coalition), has spent years watching civic tech efforts try to fix democracy by building better tools. Every one of them failed. His argument: they got the sequence wrong. You don't build the technology and hope a movement follows. You build the movement first and let the technology follow. In this episode, Travis walks us through the FiNC framework — the Digital Politics Hub, the Up/Down lens, the citizen survey, and the long-term vision of a citizen-owned civic internet where no billionaire, party, or corporation can ever take control. One share per person. No exceptions. But we also push on the harder questions. If the system is rigged by design, what does building inside it actually accomplish? When AI aggregates open-ended citizen responses into actionable insights for candidates, what gets lost in that translation? When you surface every candidate with equal presentation, are you being neutral or are you making a choice about what equivalence means? Travis comes back to the same place: intention. Not left or right. Not the policy. The intention. Whether a candidate is in it for you, or in it for the people writing the biggest checks. FiNC is betting that if citizens can actually see that distinction clearly enough, the rest follows. It's an ambitious bet. This is the conversation around it. Learn more about the Future is Now Coalition: * https://futureis.org/ * Discord community [https://discord.com/invite/yFNB2XqWtA] * Digital Politics Hub [https://hub.futureis.org/] Mentioned: •  • OpenAI donating to stop Alex Bores's campaign for NY congressional seat [https://www.theverge.com/policy/937650/ai-alex-bores-openai-anthropic-ny12]

There’s a lot of noise in the world of technology talk, but Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks cuts through it with a focus on the people behind the products and the societal currents shaping our digital landscape. Hosts George K and George A steer conversations that are less about specs and hype, and more about real-world consequences. You’ll hear them dig into topics like the messy rollout of new AI tools, the often-invisible backbone of digital infrastructure, and why communities adopt or reject certain technologies. This podcast regularly features guests from various fields who offer unvarnished opinions on what’s genuinely functional and what’s fundamentally flawed in our tech-saturated lives. The discussions move beyond simple commentary to challenge the standard narratives promoted by the tech industry, examining the cultural and social ripples of every new development. It’s a show for anyone who feels that technology coverage often misses the human element-the frustrations, the adaptations, and the ethical dilemmas. Tune in for a grounded, critical, and consistently engaging dialogue that connects the dots between code and culture. This production from BKBT Productions lives up to its name, getting down to the brass tacks of how technology is built and used, with a bare-knuckle honesty that’s increasingly rare.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks
Podcast Episodes
Using focused AI to help small farmers and reduce food insecurity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:46
What if narrow #AI, rather than imagined AGI through scaling will be what changes the world? In some places, that's already happening. El Mahdi Aboulmanadel founded DeepLeaf [https://deepleaf.io/] after watching smallhol…
Deep Learning vs Intuition: AI models and venture capital investing [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:14
What if the best investment decision is one where no human is involved? Brant Meyer, partner at Trac VC [https://www.trac.vc/] joins the show this week to talk about the firm's approach, where algorithms — not partners i…
Best Of: What are we building? And the future of human flourishing... [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:10
We've spent the last several months talking to people who live at the intersection of technology and the humans on the receiving end of it. A data privacy attorney. A corpus linguist. A clinical psychologist. A performan…
Why cybersecurity is broken and time is the enemy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:55
Why do your friends and parents still get breach notification letters from companies they've never heard of? John Watters aka "The Cowboy" joins the show this week for a hard look at information security. In the early 20…
What leaders get wrong about AI rollouts and employee adoption [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:33
What if your AI rollout isn't failing because of the technology, but because no one asked your employees how they feel about it? Dr. Marissa Alert is a clinical psychologist who works with organizations scaling AI. Her a…
The art and Science of grit, ambition, & betting on yourself [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:57
The voices telling you it won't work usually belong to people who never tried. Nobody gives you permission to take a chance. You just do it. Chris built a 50K MRR business without a formal education, a tech background, o…
Finding meaning and community in tech-fueled hustle culture [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:47
What happens when you get everything you thought you wanted and still feel empty? Tychon Carter won Big Brother Canada, gained fame and followers overnight, and felt completely lost. The success arrived before he was rea…