What, Exactly, Is Hearing Progressive Voices?

Thanks for asking. Hearing Progressive Voices is an interview series launched by me, Nancy Scola, on the political blog MyDD back at the start of 2007. The mission of the series is to hear first-hand from thinkers, activists, organizers, and creators with three main aims: (2) to learn about their work, their motivations, and their dreams, (2) to draw connections between their efforts and what's going on elsewhere in the wide world of progressivism, and (3) to entertain us all in some small way.

One detail that perhaps makes Hearing Progressive Voices somewhat unique, as far as interview series go, is that the interviewing is conducted using instant messenger software. (Gmail Chat, AIM, MSN Messenger, it doesn't matter; here at HPV, we're platform agnostic). Using IM seems to allow for more fluid and detailed discussions than those that happen face-to-face. As a quite valuable added benefit, IM produces instant transcripts. Some degree of editing and reworking goes into turning a transcript into a finished interview, but the very fact that a complete text record is captured as the interview takes place still carries significant pluses. For the interviewer, knowing that computers are handling note taking allows for the discussion's focus to rest on the interviewee, where it belongs. And for that subject, that electronic record gives some degree of assurance that the words they share here will be their own.

Please don't hesitate to contact me at nancyscola at gmail dot com if you have questions about the Hearing Progressive Voices interview series, if want to suggest a potential interview subject, or for any other good reason I've forgotten to mention.

Thanks for reading.

-Nancy Scola