Imagine a city where the roads, the plumbing, and the electric grid were all built for free by volunteers—and they work better than anything a corporation could sell you.

In this episode of The Upsiders, we go "under the hood" of the digital world to explore Open Source. We often think of big tech as a series of skyscrapers owned by Apple or Google, but the foundation they sit on is a $20-trillion infrastructure built on a "gift economy."

What we’re diving into:

1. The Blueprint for Civilization: We look at the Open Source Ecology Project and how 50 industrial machines are being designed for free to help anyone, anywhere, build a sustainable society.
2. Medicine for the People: How open-source hardware, like the MIT Emergency Ventilator, can bypass corporate gatekeepers to save lives in low-resource clinics across the globe.
3. The Linux Miracle: Meet our Unsung Hero, Linus Torvalds, the college student who created the "master control program" that now runs 90% of the internet’s cloud servers.

We also break down the Word of the Week: Kernel, and hit our Reality Check to bust the myth that open source is just for "hobbyists." It turns out, the most secure and powerful code in the world isn't a trade secret—it’s open for everyone to see.

Show Notes:

Open Source Initiative

How open-source is shaping the future of innovation | Dev Ops Online

Open Source Ecology Project

Machines: Global Village Construction Set | Open Source Ecology Project

MIT Emergency Ventilator Project | MIT

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection | John Green

Open-Source Hardware May Address the Shortage in Medical Devices for Patients with Low-Income and Chronic Respiratory Diseases in Low-Resource Countries | National Library of Medicince

Once a leading killer, tuberculosis is now rare in rich countries — here’s how it happened | Our World in Data

OER Commons

Made by educators, for educators | Moodle

Welcome back to The Community Curiosity Collective! In a time of massive political and economic inequality, the ultimate question is: Can we use the Constitution—the foundational document of our democracy—to truly make our country a better place for average and poor Americans?

This week, we explore the revolutionary efforts to enact New Constitutional Amendments aimed at correcting glaring American issues. We dive into two major movements:

1. Political Equity: The push to Overturn Citizens United to limit political spending and the movement to Establish a Right to Vote for all citizens, ensuring a voice for low-income and marginalized communities.
2. Socio-Economic Rights: The bold campaign for an Economic Bill of Rights, inspired by FDR, which would constitutionally guarantee rights like adequate medical care, a decent home, and a good education.

We introduce our Word of the Week: Entrenchment, and in our segment, That's Actually an Upside!, we flip the biggest frustration on its head: Why the difficulty of amending the Constitution is actually its greatest strength, promoting stability and broad consensus.

Finally, we recognize Ralph Abele, the Unsung Hero who championed the environmental rights amendment in Pennsylvania, and hit our Reality Check to prove why the effort to amend the Constitution is a foundational change that fuels movements, not stops them. This episode is about using the ultimate tool to achieve the ultimate upside: a more equitable, just, and durable future.

Show Notes:

28th Amendment Proposed | Congress.gov

American Promise

Move to Amend

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly about The Electoral College | Monmouth University

Equal Rights Amendment

Ralph W. Abele | Charles River Watershed Association

Biden declares Equal Rights Amendment ‘law of the land’ in probably symbolic statement | PBS News

Welcome back to The Upsiders! You've heard the complaints: Gen Z is lazy, disloyal, and hops jobs every year. But what if those behaviors are actually smart, pragmatic responses to a difficult labor market—and are helping companies become more dynamic?

This week, we debunk the pervasive myths about Gen Z in the workforce. We turn conventional wisdom on its head, starting with our segment, "That's Actually an Upside!", where we argue that job-hopping is now a feature, not a bug, that helps Gen Z find the right fit and avoid burnout.

In this episode, we dive into the data showing that even though Gen Z has already worked at an average of 2.7 companies in 2.8 years, they are also the generation most consistently driven by long-term career goals.

We also define our Word of the Week: "Coffee Badging," and reveal why 70% of bosses caught their employees doing it, yet nearly 60% "didn't mind." Plus, we recognize Alexia Cambon from Gartner as our Unsung Hero of the Upside for helping companies finally understand their youngest workers.

Join us for a Reality Check as we rapidly fire through seven common Gen Z stereotypes and prove why the generation that grew up online is actually the most ambitious, efficient, and pragmatic workforce we've ever seen.

Show Notes:

Job Hopping Is a Feature Not a Bug For Gen Zers | Revelio Labs

Generational Differences in the Workplace [Infographic] | Purdue Global

Job-hopping Gen Z only stay in each job 1 year and 54% are regularly browsing for their next role—but a report says they’re not disloyal villains | Fortune

Employers, beware: Gen Z is the ‘pragmatic generation’ redefining success, seeing money as just a means to an end, landmark EY survey says | Fortune

What is coffee badging? – a deep dive | OWL Labs

How to Appeal to Generation Z Candidates | Gartner

Alexia Cambon: Organisations are struggling to connect employees to culture in a hybrid world, so how will they overcome this? | HR Review