Audrey Tang (Taiwan’s first Digital Minister) sits down for a fireside chat with Edge City’s Timour Kosters to talk about digital democracy, the philosophy of plurality, civic technology, and what the rest of the world can learn from Taiwan’s democratic experiments.

Recorded at Edge Esmeralda, held in Healdsburg, CA, from May 24 - June 21, 2025.

LINKS

Audrey Tang: https://x.com/audreyt

Timour Kosters: https://x.com/timourxyz

Edge Esmeralda: https://www.edgeesmeralda.com

ABOUT EDGE CITY

Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe.

Follow Edge City on Twitter: https://x.com/JoinEdgeCity

Learn more about Edge City: https://edgecity.live/ --

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction: Audrey Tang and the Idea of Plurality

(01:53) From Civic Hacker to Minister

(04:48) The Sunflower Movement and GovZero

(09:42) Tech for Collective Action: Open Data and Pandemic Response

(13:01) Democracy as Defense: Radical Transparency in Taiwan

(17:12) Global Applications: Bowling Green, Japan, and California

(26:00) What is Plurality? From Conflict to Collaboration

(31:02) High-Bandwidth Democracy and Civic Muscle

(35:07) Real-World Plurality in Japan and California

(43:07) AI, Education & Civic Competency

(47:50) Q&A: Gen Z, Radical Interoperability and Future Tools

(56:57) Q&A: DAOs, Community Design and the Power of Forking

Glen Weyl builds new social technologies for collective decision-making, plural coordination, and democratic innovation. He leads the Plurality Institute and co-founded RadicalxChange to turn experimental ideas into institutional prototypes.

In this conversation, Glen Weyl and host Timour Kosters explore the intersection of technology, democracy, and civic infrastructure. From Taiwan’s civic tech to new models of money and collective decision-making, this chat covers the intellectual foundations of the Plurality movement.

Recorded at Edge City Austin, held in Austin, TX, from March 2-7, 2025.

Links

Glen Weyl: https://glenweyl.com/

Timour Kosters: https://x.com/timourxyz

About Edge City

Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe.

Follow Edge City on Twitter: https://x.com/JoinEdgeCity

Learn more about Edge City: https://edgecity.live

Chapters

(00:00) Glen Weyl's work and the vision for Edge City

(01:43) The growing chasm between technology & democracy

(04:46) From Star Trek to Snow Crash, the cultural collapse of future visions

(06:18) Two threats to democracy: chaos and control

(09:54) Network societies vs. network states

(12:01) The 3 political ideologies of the 21st century

(15:22) Why Plurality is the most viable path

(18:05) Lessons from Taiwan - GovZero, Pol.is & civic tech

(22:50) Japan’s AI-augmented grassroots politics

(31:53) New models of money

(37:18) Designing experiments at Edge City popup villages

(44:25) Decentralized governance, power vacuums & quadratic voting

(53:04) Community currencies and plural governance models

(58:35) From temporary popup village to permanent city

(01:03:52) Integration, not exit

(01:12:11) Identity and community recovery

(01:15:49) Mathematics and Plurality, final thoughts

Kevin Owocki is the founder of Gitcoin and co-founder of Allo Capital, focused on regenerative crypto economics.

Rena O'Brien is a web3 strategist and DAO builder with experience spanning Gitcoin and global capital networks.

In this episode, Kevin and Rena explore why onchain capital allocation matters—and how programmable money can transform how we fund public goods, startups, and impact at scale. They discuss new coordination tools, the philosophy behind capital as a force for good, and what it might look like to fund “missions not markets” in the years ahead.

If you're curious about the future of funding, DAOs, or the next layer of crypto beyond speculation, this one's for you.

Links

Kevin Owocki: https://x.com/owocki

Rena O'Brien: https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaobrien

Allo Capital: https://www.allo.capital

Timour Kosters: https://x.com/timourxyz

About Edge City

Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe.

Follow Edge City on Twitter: https://x.com/JoinEdgeCity

Learn more about Edge City: https://edgecity.live

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(02:51) Why Tokenized Capital Allocation?

(05:26) The 8 Forms of Capital Explained

(08:59) The Impact of Gitcoin

(10:18) What’s Broken with Capital Allocation Today?

(14:25) The Case for Onchain Allocation Systems

(17:50) Introducing Allo Capital

(21:17) Funding Local Projects with AlloIRL

(28:01) Relevance to Edge City

(39:36) Owocki's New Book: How to DAO

(46:36) Gitcoin as DAO

(54:57) Popup Villages & Human Flourishing

In this conversation, we discuss why building the absurd before it becomes consensus is crucial for a flourishing future. Our guests are Lee Jacobs, Cyan Banister, Arielle Zuckerberg, and Z. Mike Wang from Long Journey VC.

Links

More info on Edge Esmeralda: https://www.edgeesmeralda.com

More info on the Long Journey Residency: https://www.edgecity.live/blog/introducing-the-long-journey-residency-at-edge-esmeralda-2025

This is an edited recording from a live conversation on X Spaces: https://x.com/i/spaces/1LyxBWDQdVEKN/peek

About Edge City

Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe.

Follow Edge City: https://x.com/JoinEdgeCity

Learn more: https://edgecity.live

Socials

Janine Leger: https://x.com/JanineLeger

Timour Kosters: https://x.com/timourxyz

Long Journey: https://x.com/LongJourneyVC

Lee Jacobs: https://x.com/LeeJacobs

Cyan Banister: https://x.com/cyantist

Arielle Zuckerberg: https://x.com/ariellezuck

Mike Wang: https://x.com/zmwang

Chapters

(00:00) Why the Best Ideas Look Absurd (Until They Don’t)

(01:19) The Long Journey Origin Story

(06:19) From Zuzalu to Edge City: Building Experimental Villages

(09:41) What to Expect at Edge Esmeralda 2025

(14:15) Inside the Long Journey Residency: A Pre-Accelerator for Wild Ideas

(18:56) From Crazy to Consensus: How Big Ideas Take Off

(23:10) Why We Need Spaces Like Edge City Now

What does it mean to lead a flourishing life, and how can we create a flourishing society? In this episode, Brink Lindsey dives deep into these fundamental questions, exploring the intersection of individual well-being and societal health.

We discuss the "triple crisis" of inclusion, dynamism, and political dysfunction and its impact on progress. Brink unpacks the tension between material prosperity and true human flourishing, offering insights into how agency, respect, and innovation can guide us toward a better future.

Links

Brink Lindsey: https://x.com/lindsey_brink

Timour Kosters: https://x.com/timourxyz

Edge City convenes people working at the frontiers of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe.

Follow Edge City on Twitter: https://x.com/JoinEdgeCity

Learn more about Edge City: https://edgecity.live/

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(02:05) Brink on "The Permanent Problem"

(04:05) Keynes’ Predictions on Work Hours and Wealth

(11:46) The Crisis of Governance and Social Trust

(17:01) Defining Human Flourishing

(24:33) The Triple Crisis (Inclusion, Dynamism & Politics)

(34:33) Barriers to Technological Innovation

(42:48) Reconciling Environmentalism with Technological Growth

(51:41) Reviving Community in the Age of Individualism

(59:36) Building Decentralized Futures

(01:08:10) Reflections on Edge City Lanna

We chat with Matt Prewitt from RadicalxChange about rethinking communities through intentional design and social technology. The conversation explores various types of intentional communities, including affinity communities, individualist escape communities, and responsible experimenters.

Matt highlights how responsible experimentation can create more sustainable and impactful spaces and argues that mutual vulnerability is essential for building trust and shared identity. This is illustrated by RadicalxChange's use of community currencies like "∈dges" at Edge City’s pop-up villages, an experiment to incentivize local exchange and keeping value circulating in the community.

The chat closes with ideas on how such social technologies can cultivate human flourishing by combining global connectedness with robust, locally supportive systems.

Links

Matt Prewitt: https://x.com/m_t_prewitt

Timour Kosters: https://x.com/timourxyz

RadicalxChange: https://www.radicalxchange.org/

Edge City: https://twitter.com/joinedgecity

Edge City Lanna: https://www.edgecity.live/lanna

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(02:14) RadicalxChange’s Mission and Theory of Change

(06:45) Georg Simmel and the Power of Secrecy in Communities

(14:23) Three Types of New Community Initiatives

(24:53) The Importance of Social Technology

(33:29) Associative Obligations and Mutual Vulnerability

(47:42) Reimagining Money: Community Currencies

(59:35) Lessons from Community Currency Experiments

(1:11:36) Community Currency Experiment at Edge City

(1:21:43) Pop-up Villages and the Future of Intentional Communities

(1:24:53) Human Flourishing

In this inaugural episode of the Edge City Podcast, host Timour Kosters sits down with Devon Zuegel and Janine Leger to explore Edge Esmeralda, a pop-up village experiment they organized in June 2024 that brought together 1,300 people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen.

Devon is an accomplished writer and thinker with a background in software engineering and a deep passion for cities. She’s currently working on Esmeralda, a new town project in Northern California. Janine, Timour’s co-founder at Edge City, previously led the grants program at Gitcoin and was a co-creator of Zuzalu, a pioneering popup city that explored new models of communal living and collaboration.

Links

Devon Zuegel: ⁠https://x.com/devonzuegel⁠

Janine Leger: ⁠https://x.com/JanineLeger⁠

Timour Kosters: ⁠https://x.com/timourxyz⁠

Edge Esmeralda Recap: ⁠https://edgeesmeralda.com/2024⁠

Esmeralda: ⁠https://esmeralda.org/⁠

Edge City: ⁠https://twitter.com/joinedgecity⁠

Edge City Lanna: ⁠https://www.edgecity.live/lanna⁠

Chapters

(00:00) Introduction

(02:40) What was Edge Esmeralda?

(05:30) Inspiration and historical context

(10:37) Building community and culture

(17:41) Highlights of Edge Esmeralda

(29:03) Challenges and learnings

(36:54) Looking ahead: future plans