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Hearing the Humanity: Cortico’s Collaboration with NPR

Rooted in Conversation, Built on Trust

Cortico was founded on a simple yet powerful idea: the transformative impact of a good conversation. As polarization and hostility surged online during the 2016 presidential race, it became clear that the path forward required a return to the fundamentals of healthy dialogue—listening, understanding, and connection.

The word ‘conversation,’ in its etymology, reflects the essential role it plays in how we live and build community together. Expanding on this idea, Cortico developed a platform and methodology designed to record conversations centered on sharing experiences rather than opinions—ensuring every person has the chance to speak, be heard, listen, and learn from one another.

We were inspired by the work of Dr. Kathy Cramer—now a Cortico advisor—whose research for her 2016 book The Politics of Resentment relied on meeting people where they were, facilitating small-group conversations in rural Wisconsin communities. The early days of Cortico evoke scenes of conversations unfolding over coffee, in libraries, diners, or public parks.

Many of these early partners were local journalists who saw how traditional reporting missed the nuances of community sentiment in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Aiming to overcome growing division they found new ways to build trust and surface meaningful insights from the people they serve through small-group dialogue.

Flash Forward: Tech-Enhanced Journalism with NPR

Flash forward to today and we’re revisiting our roots–but this time with a proven conversation platform, 200+ partnerships under our belt, and the 2024 presidential election around the corner. 

These conditions primed us for a landmark project with National Public Radio. Titled “Listening Across Divides,” the goal is to use Cortico’s conversation approach and platform to better understand the issues that matter most to communities around the 2024 presidential election. The project is an experiment that seeks to address two key questions:

What happens when journalists adopt a new method—focusing on community conversations instead of traditional interviews—and, how can technology enhance the way we collect, understand, and share these voices?

With generous support from the Knight Foundation, we began to explore this in August, 2024 at the home of our close collaborators, the MIT Center for Constructive Communication. Representatives from 10 NPR member stations joined us to explore how surfacing insights from community conversations could help journalists expand their understanding of their communities to help shape their coverage priorities. 

The Cortico team also had the opportunity to get to know the participating member stations, each representing a different pocket of the country, each with their own challenges and aspirations. 

These varied greatly, ranging from a three-person station in Abilene, Texas with a Content Manager with a daily commute of two hours who visits rodeos to meet her audience, to KQED in San Francisco with a team of over 300 that already uses innovative tech platforms in their community engagement efforts. 

Together, we explored how tech-enhanced conversation campaigns could be molded to fit these unique contexts and bring community-first journalism to life. 

“I think we are hopeful and we are putting together ideas on how best to get the listening sessions pulled together. A big takeaway for me was the focus on experience rather than opinion—I’m really curious to see how that changes people’s attitudes and responses versus traditional ‘gun and run’ reporting when you need your sound bite and need to get back to the desk.”

Justin Hicks, Data Reporter at Louisville Public Media

Listening Across Divides: A Return to Our Roots

As each station gears up to launch their conversation campaigns, they’re focused on bringing together people who don’t often hear from one another. The goal is to share stories and experiences—not just within the community, but also with decision-makers—to improve understanding and build greater connection.

These journalists have started a journey that mirrors Cortico’s earliest days—venturing into communities to meet people where they are and surface what real people are thinking and feeling. In this pivotal election year, “Listening Across Divides” is a homecoming to our founding principles, leveraging modern tools to fulfill a crucial idea: hearing the humanity of others is essential for democracy to function.

Stay tuned for updates on this project throughout fall 2024.