Dot Social’s Mike McCue talks to PJ Vogt, host of the Search Engine podcast. PJ is also a co-founder of the Forkiverse, a Mastodon instance launched with the Hard Fork team as an experiment in community and a concrete way to show how a decentralized social network can work.

The conversation is a timely reminder that the internet is still something we can — and should — build together.

Highlights include:

01:50 The Forkiverse origin story
06:37 “The best way to talk about this is to try it”
14:30 Reactions to The Forkiverse
19:52 Social media as IRL social gathering
22:13 RSS podcasting: strengths and how fediverse helps with hard parts
25:08 Thinking about further integrations
27:52 Great promises of the fediverse
30:04 Slowing down and trying new things
33:04 Next steps for The Forkiverse
36:20 PJ’s answer to the “media apocalypse”
39:22 How PJ got discovered
42:10 Search Engine’s amazing sound design
45:00 The quality of media now
46:46 Reasons for creators to join the fediverse

Mentioned in this episode:

The Forkiverse social network
“How do we survive the media apocalypse” podcast episodes
“The Chairs Are Where the People Go” book

🔎 You can find PJ @pj@theforkiverse.com

✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.

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