Hard Fork — “Can We Build a Better Social Network?”

Date: January 13, 2026
Hosts: Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, with PJ Vogt (Search Engine)

Episode Overview

In this special crossover episode, Hard Fork and Search Engine team up for an audacious real-world experiment: can three journalists build a healthier, user-centric social network using the principles of the Fediverse? Over twelve months, Kevin Roose, Casey Newton, and PJ Vogt journey from skepticism to server launch, offering a revealing inside look at the challenges and possibilities of a more open, federated social web.

This episode details their attempt to build “The Forkaverse,” a Mastodon-based server designed as an antidote to the toxicity and control of mainstream social media. Along the way, they wrestle with set-up headaches, confront the nostalgia baked into “better Internet” dreams, and consider whether the Fediverse is truly the answer or just a fond throwback.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origin of the Experiment & The Problems with Social Media

• State of the Internet in 2026: The hosts lament how a handful of profit-driven social media giants control much of online discourse, shaping user behavior and monetizing outrage.

  “We’ve all experienced the kind of gooners remorse after we’ve spent more time than we meant to, mindlessly thumbing a feed that makes us feel worse about ourselves, our friends, the world.” — PJ Vogt (04:00)

• The Fediverse as Hope: Recalling a May 2024 conversation, Casey Newton highlights the “dorky answer” that the Fediverse could be a more hopeful, grassroots Internet.

  “The Fediverse is a way for people to take back the Internet for themselves...” — Casey Newton (04:39)

• Listener Demand: Overwhelming feedback shows the audience craves alternatives, sparking the team’s resolve to go from abstract critique to hands-on construction.

2. What Is the Fediverse? (And Why Is It Hard to Explain?)

• A New (Old) Vision: PJ details how, unlike traditional social networks, the Fediverse is decentralized—no single company owns your data or rules the feed.

  “…if your home platform does get bought by some temperamental tech mogul, you can leave. And… you’ll have all of the followers you did before.” — PJ Vogt (08:04)

• Technical Realities: Despite passionate volunteers, setting up or even understanding the Fediverse is not easy—something even seasoned tech journalists admit.

3. Planning the Forkaverse: Goals, Doubts, Guardrails

• Experiment Goals:
  • Can rules and vibe make a social platform healthier?
  • Will better tech tools enable better communities, if the hosts themselves can’t make it work?

  “If you just put the right guardrails and boundaries and guidelines in place, if you cultivate the vibe of this space, it can actually be good.” — Kevin Roose (12:26)

• Skepticism: Casey wonders if this just recreates the failings of old forums, with annoying posters or trolls driving away good conversation (11:57).
• Fediverse's Unique Power: Casey’s main hope is interconnection—that users can link up to news sources, other networks, and publishers in new ways not possible on closed platforms (13:05).

4. Building the Forkaverse: From Naming to Technical Hiccups

• Server Setup: Kevin (with some AI help) buys a domain and hosting for Mastodon, choosing the “Galaxy Plan” ($89/month, 2,000 users, 400GB storage, “high federation capacity”). (21:00–23:13)
• AI Assistance: Kevin uses OpenAI’s “Operator” tool to (surprisingly effectively) automate much of the setup.

  “I told [Operator] about our project and I said, go out, buy me a domain name, set up a whole Mastodon server, and configure all the settings… I came back like 20 minutes later, and it had done most of what I asked it for.” — Kevin Roose (21:52)

• Accidental Barriers: The NYT firewall blocks access to the new server; registering for accounts is needlessly complicated (25:16–28:34).

  “So we don’t know who’s in charge of the social network you built, Kevin.” — PJ Vogt (28:34)

5. Launching: The Blank Slate & The Power of Federation

• The Pristine Feed: Upon first login, the Forkaverse is “pristine… like in the morning when it snows—the social network right now.” No posts, no hashtags, no trending news.

  “It’s so beautiful to just see it, you know, without any misinformation, any sort of toxic hate speech or bullying.” — Casey Newton (26:26)

• Ecstatic Calm vs. Apprehension: The clean start is briefly euphoric, but everyone anticipates the familiar decline as content and users arrive.

  “It’s very zen. There’s zero active users.” — Casey Newton (26:38)

• First Federation: Forkaverse, though new, can immediately connect to content across the wider Fediverse—Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, even Meta’s Threads (32:32–33:36).

6. The Real Lesson: Nostalgia, Portability, and the Need for Something New

• Nostalgia for Old Twitter: The first users notice that much Mastodon/Fediverse culture is backward-looking, centered on recreating the “magic” of old platforms (36:41).

  “So much of it is just people trying to recapture the magic of old Twitter. A lot of it just does feel very backward looking… I think we need a new thing.” — Kevin Roose (36:41)

• Practical Upside—Portability: Casey recounts losing 200,000 Twitter followers by necessity, but being able to move his community from Substack easily due to openness—a key promise of the Fediverse (38:57–40:10).
• Skeptical Optimism: Everyone sees potential, but also feels the weight of past failures and the difficulty of convincing people new approaches online are worth the disruption.

7. Opening the Doors: What Happens Next?

• Forkaverse Board of Directors: The trio assign themselves tongue-in-cheek roles (moderator, CTO, growth officer) and prepare to launch.
• Official Opening:

  “Are we ready to open this thing?” — PJ Vogt (40:52)
  “Let’s open it.” — Casey Newton (40:54)
  “All right, it’s open.” — Kevin Roose (40:55)

• Community Invitation: Listeners are encouraged to join the experiment—until the server hits its 2,000 user limit—or to start their own, federate, and help build a new digital commons.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• PJ’s Aha Moment on Listener Demand:

  “Just the whisper of a notion that some better Internet was out there…was something people were very curious about.” (05:09)

• On the Fediverse’s Philosophy:

  “The dream they held was that they could take control of social media out of the hands of the Musks and Zuckerbergs and reroute it back towards more open Internet…” — PJ Vogt (07:56)

• First-Impression Wonder:

  “This is what, like, it’s weird to think there was a day where, like, they turned on Twitter and nobody had posted yet. Like, it’s kind of cool to see an unfilled universe.” — PJ Vogt (26:15)

• Casey’s Portability Story:

  “I left X… at the time, I had more than 200,000 followers… Then I left Substack... I took almost 200,000 email addresses to a brand new platform… For my subscribers, it was as if nothing had ever happened.” — Casey Newton (39:25)

• Kevin on Federation’s Promise:

  “…if you are part of a server that does make some kind of rule that you disagree with, you can pack up and move without losing all of your followers and all of your feeds...” (38:37)

• On the Forkaverse’s Purpose:

  “If you don’t like the social media that exists, build your own. You don’t have to fill it with people because you can connect to existing little planets people have built for themselves.” — PJ Vogt (38:30)

• Community Vibe:

  “You remember when Dua Lipa said, I’m levitating? Well, we’re federating.” — Casey Newton (41:59)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• What’s Wrong with Social Media / Why the Fediverse?
  • [04:00]–[08:14]: The state of Internet in 2026, nostalgia, and hope for alternatives.
• What is the Fediverse?
  • [04:38]–[08:14]: Casey and PJ attempt to explain the Fediverse in layman’s terms.
• Starting the Forkaverse – Planning & Naming
  • [10:03]–[17:44]: The trio debates goals, worries, and chooses a name.
• Technical Setup & AI Automation
  • [20:13]–[23:42]: Kevin describes the technical process, AI’s surprising help.
• First Log-in, First Fails, First Joy
  • [24:28]–[26:48]: The team’s first impressions of an empty social network.
• On Federation and Content Flows
  • [32:08]–[33:36]: Explaining how feeds and accounts work in the federated universe.
• Nostalgia and the Challenge Ahead
  • [36:41]–[38:30]: Discussion on whether the Fediverse is new, or just nostalgic.
• Portability Lesson
  • [38:57]–[40:10]: Casey’s personal migration stories.
• Official Opening
  • [40:52]–[41:00]: The Forkaverse is live.
• Community Call
  • [41:59]–[42:51]: Invitation to listeners and future plans.

Conclusion

This episode is a lively, candid, and hope-tinged journey into the mechanics—and psychology—of building a better online home. While the technical hurdles are real and nostalgia is a dangerous lure, Roose, Newton, and Vogt make clear that open standards and federated networks give individuals, not megacorps, the chance to shape their digital spaces.

Final thought:

“Maybe, maybe, possibly—it might surprise Casey and point the way towards something else.” — PJ Vogt (40:26)

Whether or not the Forkaverse soars or fizzles, this collaborative Hard Fork/Search Engine episode leaves listeners with a deeper understanding of how the future of social networking might—just might—be up to us.