Martín Carcasson
@mcarcasson.bsky.social
Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. I direct the CSU Center for Public Deliberation (www.cpd.colostate.edu), which is a nonpartisan organization focused on improving the quality of public discussion and local problem-solving.
I'm hosting a NCDD/Deliberative Journalism Project webinar next Wed (11/12), 10am MTN/12 eastern with several journalism leaders to talk about how local newsrooms should talk about democracy, partly responding to new research on the need to avoid the word. Register here: www.ncdd.org/news/upcomin...
Upcoming NCDD Webinar: Talking Democracy (or Not): How Local Newsrooms Choose Their Words
The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) will co-host a webinar with Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation, titled “Talking Democracy (or Not): How Local...
www.ncdd.org
November 4, 2025 at 9:27 PM
I'm hosting a NCDD/Deliberative Journalism Project webinar next Wed (11/12), 10am MTN/12 eastern with several journalism leaders to talk about how local newsrooms should talk about democracy, partly responding to new research on the need to avoid the word. Register here: www.ncdd.org/news/upcomin...
Enjoyed my conversation on Democracy Innovators, a Civic Tech podcast out of Europe. Recorded a few weeks ago, but the topic has only become more important across the globe. democracyinnovators.com/martin-carca...
Martín Carcasson about the Center for Public Deliberation and overcoming toxic polarization
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Automatic transcription of the interview with Martin Carcasson, it may contains errors.
Host: Alessandro Oppo
Guest: Martin Carcasson, Director of Colorado State University Center...
democracyinnovators.com
September 24, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Enjoyed my conversation on Democracy Innovators, a Civic Tech podcast out of Europe. Recorded a few weeks ago, but the topic has only become more important across the globe. democracyinnovators.com/martin-carca...
Would be nice...
The agreement tasks a committee of RTD, CDOT and Front Range Passenger Rail District officials with developing a plan for a passenger rail line from Denver’s Union Station through Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont, Loveland and Fort Collins // Story by @katielang.bsky.social
RTD board gives tentative yes to pursuing Front Range passenger rail between Denver, Fort Collins
The Regional Transportation District’s Board of Directors voted unanimously – if tentatively – on Tuesday to explore building a Front Range passenger rail line connecting Denver and For…
www.denverpost.com
June 25, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Would be nice...
Enjoyed my conversation with Nathanial Pearlman for his Great Battlefield podcast, talking about the work of the CPD and bringing people together to address their shared problems. Check it out (and his earlier conversations with lots of interesting guests).
greatbattlefield.com/episode/coll...
greatbattlefield.com/episode/coll...
Collaborative Problem Solving with Martín Carcasson - The Great Battlefield Podcast
Martín Carcasson joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career in academia and his role as Director at the Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation, where he trains stud...
greatbattlefield.com
June 23, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Enjoyed my conversation with Nathanial Pearlman for his Great Battlefield podcast, talking about the work of the CPD and bringing people together to address their shared problems. Check it out (and his earlier conversations with lots of interesting guests).
greatbattlefield.com/episode/coll...
greatbattlefield.com/episode/coll...
local journalism matters.
Local newspapers don’t just inform. They deter abuse of power. A study found that in districts that lost a major daily, federal corruption charges rose 6.9% and cases filed jumped 7.4%. When no one’s watching, accountability fades.
via @columjournreview.bsky.social: www.cjr.org/analysis/loc...
via @columjournreview.bsky.social: www.cjr.org/analysis/loc...
When Local Newspapers Die, Corruption Festers
Our study also found that digital media sites didn’t make much of a difference.
www.cjr.org
June 12, 2025 at 10:17 PM
local journalism matters.
Listening to Cornell West and Robert George start off the UCCS Conference on Civic Discourse in Colorado Springs.
June 5, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Listening to Cornell West and Robert George start off the UCCS Conference on Civic Discourse in Colorado Springs.
Somehow haven't heard "No news is bad news." I'll have to remember that.
No news is bad news for NJ. Fund the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium! This is very important. www.northjersey.com/story/opinio...
No news is bad news for NJ. Fund the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium | opinion
The Legislature must restore the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium’s funding level to $3 million to enable democracy to thrive in New Jersey.
www.northjersey.com
June 4, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Somehow haven't heard "No news is bad news." I'll have to remember that.
Been reading more lately about how new tech platforms & apps are developed to flip the script from the typical "outrage industrial complex" workings of most social media & actually work to bring people together and incentivize quality engagement. This essay provides a nice summary of those efforts.
Recently, a number of New_ Public's friends published a smart position paper on how AI might be effectively marshaled in service of healthier conversation online.
There are some great ideas here, including community-trained LLM moderation that support stewards and facilitate dialogue!
There are some great ideas here, including community-trained LLM moderation that support stewards and facilitate dialogue!
Exploring How AI Might Enhance Our Digital Public Squares
In April 2024, Jigsaw convened leading experts from civil society, academia, and the public and private sectors to consider how emerging AI…
medium.com
May 30, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Been reading more lately about how new tech platforms & apps are developed to flip the script from the typical "outrage industrial complex" workings of most social media & actually work to bring people together and incentivize quality engagement. This essay provides a nice summary of those efforts.
I keep on playing with the word choices, and added a new bullet this morning, but getting pretty close to locking these in for my book.
May 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
I keep on playing with the word choices, and added a new bullet this morning, but getting pretty close to locking these in for my book.
As I work on my book, I wrote up a bit of my intellectual history, thinking about the academic disciplines and practitioner specialties I've bounced around for the last 20 years. Part of this was also thinking about the most influential books during that journey.
May 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM
As I work on my book, I wrote up a bit of my intellectual history, thinking about the academic disciplines and practitioner specialties I've bounced around for the last 20 years. Part of this was also thinking about the most influential books during that journey.
Seems like he could have just had AI write the books really quickly to cover up the mistake.
May 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Seems like he could have just had AI write the books really quickly to cover up the mistake.
Reminds me of the Paul Harvey and his “and now for the rest of the story” bits.
www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...
www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...
Why The Qataris Are Happy To Dump Their 747 On Trump
The president may be thirsting for a new four-engine jumbo jet, but many governments and royal families are unloading their fuel-guzzling palaces in the sky.
www.forbes.com
May 15, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reminds me of the Paul Harvey and his “and now for the rest of the story” bits.
www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...
www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...
Pretty sure my favorite warning in pharmaceutical commericials is "do not take if allergic."
May 10, 2025 at 2:47 AM
Pretty sure my favorite warning in pharmaceutical commericials is "do not take if allergic."
Reposted by Martín Carcasson
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I reread it today; nothing in the law allows a president to defund PBS and NPR. In fact, Congress specifically sought to insulate public media from political pressure.
May 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I reread it today; nothing in the law allows a president to defund PBS and NPR. In fact, Congress specifically sought to insulate public media from political pressure.
Reposted by Martín Carcasson
Citizens’ assemblies have earned a significant new seal of approval.
The UK's top political podcast „The Rest is Politics“ stands out as a running indictment of electoral representation as a system of government, implicitly at least.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/citize...
#CitizensAssembly
The UK's top political podcast „The Rest is Politics“ stands out as a running indictment of electoral representation as a system of government, implicitly at least.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/citize...
#CitizensAssembly
April 29, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Citizens’ assemblies have earned a significant new seal of approval.
The UK's top political podcast „The Rest is Politics“ stands out as a running indictment of electoral representation as a system of government, implicitly at least.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/citize...
#CitizensAssembly
The UK's top political podcast „The Rest is Politics“ stands out as a running indictment of electoral representation as a system of government, implicitly at least.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/citize...
#CitizensAssembly
Great webinar about the civic assembly the CPD is assisting with here in Fort Collins. I'm not very involved -- I'm on sabbatical -- but my colleagues Katie Knobloch & Sabrina Slagowski-Tipton have been killing it working w American Public Trust & Healthy Democracy www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxc3...
Civic Assemblies in Action: Lessons on Civic Engagement from Fort Collins
YouTube video by New America
www.youtube.com
April 25, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Great webinar about the civic assembly the CPD is assisting with here in Fort Collins. I'm not very involved -- I'm on sabbatical -- but my colleagues Katie Knobloch & Sabrina Slagowski-Tipton have been killing it working w American Public Trust & Healthy Democracy www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxc3...
Reposted by Martín Carcasson
Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.
April 23, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.
Really enjoyed my conversation with Michael on his podcast.
The conversation focused on something I've been developing for awhile, important both to college campuses and our communities: making some distinctions between the terms debate, dialogue, and deliberation www.buzzsprout.com/2311101/epis...
The conversation focused on something I've been developing for awhile, important both to college campuses and our communities: making some distinctions between the terms debate, dialogue, and deliberation www.buzzsprout.com/2311101/epis...
Listening and Asking Good Questions - When We Disagree
Martin Carcasson, the director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University, shares a debate about the value of, well, debate. While debate at its best sharpens ideas and e...
www.buzzsprout.com
April 10, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Really enjoyed my conversation with Michael on his podcast.
The conversation focused on something I've been developing for awhile, important both to college campuses and our communities: making some distinctions between the terms debate, dialogue, and deliberation www.buzzsprout.com/2311101/epis...
The conversation focused on something I've been developing for awhile, important both to college campuses and our communities: making some distinctions between the terms debate, dialogue, and deliberation www.buzzsprout.com/2311101/epis...
Interesting to think about how much classified ads and local businesses subsidized so much (small d) democratic capacity until the internet took all that money away.
April 6, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Interesting to think about how much classified ads and local businesses subsidized so much (small d) democratic capacity until the internet took all that money away.
Such important work from More in Common. So many focus on what divides us (and so many people profit from it, unfortunately), a key part of our work has to be to focus more on where we agree and how do we lean on those areas to take on the harder work of where we disagree.
Dr. Linda Tropp of UMass Amherst writes about our new #SocialConnections report in The Fulcrum:
Want to Bridge Divides? You’re Not Alone—Most Americans Do Too
thefulcrum.us/bridging-com...
Want to Bridge Divides? You’re Not Alone—Most Americans Do Too
thefulcrum.us/bridging-com...
Want to Bridge Divides? You’re Not Alone—Most Americans Do Too
Americans are exhausted—by our divisions, our politics, and a media landscape that thrives on tearing us apart. When asked to envision our ideal future, Americans say they want to connect and be unite...
thefulcrum.us
April 1, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Such important work from More in Common. So many focus on what divides us (and so many people profit from it, unfortunately), a key part of our work has to be to focus more on where we agree and how do we lean on those areas to take on the harder work of where we disagree.
Enjoying @leedrutman.bsky.social talk as part of the CSU Democracy Summit. Important ideas about rebuilding our democracy. Focused on the case for proportional representation and fusion voting as key reforms.
March 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Enjoying @leedrutman.bsky.social talk as part of the CSU Democracy Summit. Important ideas about rebuilding our democracy. Focused on the case for proportional representation and fusion voting as key reforms.
Don't think I ever shared this video here. Connects my initial training in argumentation to my current work on deliberation to help us talk about values with more nuance. Newish material, so thoughts very welcome as I refine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7M...
Talking about values with nuance
YouTube video by Martin Carcasson
www.youtube.com
February 14, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Don't think I ever shared this video here. Connects my initial training in argumentation to my current work on deliberation to help us talk about values with more nuance. Newish material, so thoughts very welcome as I refine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7M...
Always liked Steve Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From, particularly to help me think about the value of collaboration and how to tap into human creatiivity. Just realized there is a RSA Animate video of his Ted Talk about the book.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugR...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugR...
WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson
YouTube video by RiverheadBooks
www.youtube.com
January 25, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Always liked Steve Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From, particularly to help me think about the value of collaboration and how to tap into human creatiivity. Just realized there is a RSA Animate video of his Ted Talk about the book.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugR...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugR...
When you have a good sense of the research on how to make high quality tough decisions on complex problems, and you compare that to how our national politics functions, the gap somehow keeps growing and growing. At some point might it hit bottom?
December 20, 2024 at 4:54 PM
When you have a good sense of the research on how to make high quality tough decisions on complex problems, and you compare that to how our national politics functions, the gap somehow keeps growing and growing. At some point might it hit bottom?
Very nice short piece by my friend @willfriedman.bsky.social, identifying some of the "shoots of democratic revival" he is seeing that we all need to nurture.
My piece on “countertrends to the politics of resentment” focuses on democracy-renewing trends/developments that are actually happening rather than NEED to happen. The latter can build on or complement the former. thefulcrum.us/democracy/de...
#democracy #democraticrenewal
#democracy #democraticrenewal
Amid the rubble, shoots of democratic renewal
In the most black-swan election of our lifetimes, the politics of resentment and strongman rule rose to the apex of American power. As a result, our democracy is in danger of being degraded to a flims...
thefulcrum.us
December 18, 2024 at 5:58 PM
Very nice short piece by my friend @willfriedman.bsky.social, identifying some of the "shoots of democratic revival" he is seeing that we all need to nurture.