As Mastodon celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2026, the open source platform’s new Executive Director, Felix Hlatky, is focused on what it’ll take to make the next 10 years even more impactful.

That vision includes an overhaul in version 5.0, a new feature called Collections, and continuing its critical role at the heart of the fediverse.

Highlights of the conversation include:

00:56 What Felix is most excited about right now

02:11 Felix’s Mastodon history

04:16 Mastodon’s growth and organizational change

08:10 Getting set up for success

10:27 Collections — a major new feature

15:18 Lesson to learn from Bluesky

17:05 Weaponization, privacy, nuances around collections

19:35 Making social media more manageable

21:00 Groups

23:44 Power of building at the protocol level

25:40 Collaborations across platforms and protocols

27:27 Bridging technologies and standards work

31:15 Mastodon’s backend infrastructure

33:56 Funding and the EU

37:27 Governments use of Mastodon

40:05 The Forkiverse

45:05 Podcasts in the fediverse

47:14 Custom feeds on Surf, ex dotsocial.surf.social

49:58 Vibrant creator communities on the social web

51:20 Mastodon 5.0, FASPS

53:59 Entering a new era

Mentioned in this episode:

🔎 You can find Felix at @felix@mastodon.social
✚ Connect with host Mike McCue at @mike@flipboard.social and @mmccue.bsky.social.
🌊 Catch the wave! Surf the open social web and create your own custom feeds at surf.social, a new product from the people at Flipboard. https://about.surf.social/