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Martín Carcasson

@mcarcasson.bsky.social
777 followers 267 following 92 posts

Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. I direct the CSU Center for Public Deliberation (www.cpd.colostate.edu), which is a nonpartisan organization focused on improving the quality of public discussion and local problem-solving.

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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The epitome of "conflict profiteers." So many of the loudest voices simply try to divide us. Thankfully, there is growing momentum and developing careers for the opposite - facilitators, conveners, collaborative practitioners equipped with the skills to bring people together across difference.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Published my first article with @us.theconversation.com, telling the story of the CPD (which turned 20 last week!) How students at Colorado State helped teach their community to stop talking past each other and manage complex problems theconversation.com/how-students...
theconversation.com
How students at Colorado State helped teach their community to stop talking past each other and manage complex problems
Research shows that humans are susceptible to simple stories and biased toward arguments that fit their current perspectives. Here’s how to confront those tendencies.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
One of my favorite things about flying was lack of access to the damn internet. Got so much reading and thinking done. Yeah, yeah, I could just have some self-discipline...
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Center for the New Energy Economy @cnee-colostate.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
A big thank you @mcarcasson.bsky.social , from the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University, for a wonderful discussion about the role of hashtag #bipartisanship in developing strong and effective state-level clean energy policy.
Two men stand on either side of a podium.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Ugh, "LLM poisining" is yet another term I probably need to learn more about.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Enjoyed chatting with Bill for his podcast.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I'll be running a workshop next Wednesday as part of a project with National Issues Forum focused on "Talking about our Values with Nuance." RSVP link in the first comment.
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Pew Research Center @pewresearch.org · 05/03/2026
We asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country. The U.S. is the only place we surveyed where more adults describe the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad than good. See our full morality report here: www.pewresearch.org/...
Chart showing in many countries, people see their fellow citizens as morally good.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
A new essay Willow Paul & I wrote for National Civic Review, making the argument for the need for more bridging institutions & introducing a new typology of bonding & bridging groups. "Building Community Capacity in Toxic Times: The Critical Role of Bridging Institutions" (link in 1st response)
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Got to meet @davidmcraney.bsky.social at a conference last summer. Knew his books well before we met. He is a journalist who is great as translating research and practice to broader audiences. Last week I had the chance to chat w him on his podcast about my work. youarenotsosmart.com/2026/01/23/y...
nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
YANSS 331 – The wicked problems that often emerge during debate, disagreement, and deliberation
Dr. Martin Carcasson tells us how he, as the Director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State, trains people how to facilitate deliberation and overcome wicked problems so that they…
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Tim Carvell @timcarvell.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Now seems like a swell time to point out that Frontline just released this excellent 11-minute mini-documentary about what happened inside CECOT.
m.youtube.com
Surviving CECOT (full documentary) | Deported to a Maximum-Security Prison | FRONTLINE + ProPublica
YouTube video by FRONTLINE PBS | Official
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Looking forward to insightful presentations and deep conversations today in Boulder, Colorado with the Greater Good Science Center convening for national bridging organizations.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
Has my vote.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 04/11/2025
I'm hosting a NCDD/Deliberative Journalism Project webinar next Wed (11/12), 10am MTN/12 eastern with several journalism leaders to talk about how local newsrooms should talk about democracy, partly responding to new research on the need to avoid the word. Register here: www.ncdd.org/news/upcomin...
ncdd.org
Upcoming NCDD Webinar: Talking Democracy (or Not): How Local Newsrooms Choose Their Words
The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) will co-host a webinar with Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation, titled “Talking Democracy (or Not): How Local...
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Enjoyed my conversation on Democracy Innovators, a Civic Tech podcast out of Europe. Recorded a few weeks ago, but the topic has only become more important across the globe. democracyinnovators.com/martin-carca...
democracyinnovators.com
Martín Carcasson about the Center for Public Deliberation and overcoming toxic polarization
Donate on PayPal Automatic transcription of the interview with Martin Carcasson, it may contains errors. Host: Alessandro Oppo Guest: Martin Carcasson, Director of Colorado State University Center...
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Would be nice...
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
Enjoyed my conversation with Nathanial Pearlman for his Great Battlefield podcast, talking about the work of the CPD and bringing people together to address their shared problems. Check it out (and his earlier conversations with lots of interesting guests). greatbattlefield.com/episode/coll...
greatbattlefield.com
Collaborative Problem Solving with Martín Carcasson - The Great Battlefield Podcast
Martín Carcasson joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about his career in academia and his role as Director at the Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation, where he trains stud...
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
local journalism matters.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Listening to Cornell West and Robert George start off the UCCS Conference on Civic Discourse in Colorado Springs.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Somehow haven't heard "No news is bad news." I'll have to remember that.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Been reading more lately about how new tech platforms & apps are developed to flip the script from the typical "outrage industrial complex" workings of most social media & actually work to bring people together and incentivize quality engagement. This essay provides a nice summary of those efforts.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
I keep on playing with the word choices, and added a new bullet this morning, but getting pretty close to locking these in for my book.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
As I work on my book, I wrote up a bit of my intellectual history, thinking about the academic disciplines and practitioner specialties I've bounced around for the last 20 years. Part of this was also thinking about the most influential books during that journey.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Seems like he could have just had AI write the books really quickly to cover up the mistake.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Reminds me of the Paul Harvey and his “and now for the rest of the story” bits. www.forbes.com/sites/jeremy...
forbes.com
Why The Qataris Are Happy To Dump Their 747 On Trump
The president may be thirsting for a new four-engine jumbo jet, but many governments and royal families are unloading their fuel-guzzling palaces in the sky.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Pretty sure my favorite warning in pharmaceutical commericials is "do not take if allergic."
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Brian Stelter @brianstelter.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I reread it today; nothing in the law allows a president to defund PBS and NPR. In fact, Congress specifically sought to insulate public media from political pressure.
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Thorsten Sterk @thorstensterk.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Citizens’ assemblies have earned a significant new seal of approval. The UK's top political podcast „The Rest is Politics“ stands out as a running indictment of electoral representation as a system of government, implicitly at least. www.linkedin.com/pulse/citize... #CitizensAssembly
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Great webinar about the civic assembly the CPD is assisting with here in Fort Collins. I'm not very involved -- I'm on sabbatical -- but my colleagues Katie Knobloch & Sabrina Slagowski-Tipton have been killing it working w American Public Trust & Healthy Democracy www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxc3...
youtube.com
Civic Assemblies in Action: Lessons on Civic Engagement from Fort Collins
YouTube video by New America
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Lauren Groff @legroff.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Fellow authors, I love you, and I know it feels like we don’t have a choice, but B&N and Am*zon both scheduled sales this week to preempt Independent Bookstore Day, a hugely vital source of income for indie bookstores. Please don’t promote their sales; please promote your local indie this week.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Really enjoyed my conversation with Michael on his podcast. The conversation focused on something I've been developing for awhile, important both to college campuses and our communities: making some distinctions between the terms debate, dialogue, and deliberation www.buzzsprout.com/2311101/epis...
buzzsprout.com
Listening and Asking Good Questions - When We Disagree
Martin Carcasson, the director of the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University, shares a debate about the value of, well, debate.  While debate at its best sharpens ideas and e...
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Interesting to think about how much classified ads and local businesses subsidized so much (small d) democratic capacity until the internet took all that money away.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Such important work from More in Common. So many focus on what divides us (and so many people profit from it, unfortunately), a key part of our work has to be to focus more on where we agree and how do we lean on those areas to take on the harder work of where we disagree.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Enjoying @leedrutman.bsky.social talk as part of the CSU Democracy Summit. Important ideas about rebuilding our democracy. Focused on the case for proportional representation and fusion voting as key reforms.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Don't think I ever shared this video here. Connects my initial training in argumentation to my current work on deliberation to help us talk about values with more nuance. Newish material, so thoughts very welcome as I refine. www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7M...
youtube.com
Talking about values with nuance
YouTube video by Martin Carcasson
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
Always liked Steve Johnson's Where Good Ideas Come From, particularly to help me think about the value of collaboration and how to tap into human creatiivity. Just realized there is a RSA Animate video of his Ted Talk about the book. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugR...
youtube.com
WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson
YouTube video by RiverheadBooks
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
When you have a good sense of the research on how to make high quality tough decisions on complex problems, and you compare that to how our national politics functions, the gap somehow keeps growing and growing. At some point might it hit bottom?
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Very nice short piece by my friend @willfriedman.bsky.social, identifying some of the "shoots of democratic revival" he is seeing that we all need to nurture.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Don't know if I've ever hated a software "update" more than the new Outlook. Less functional and much slower.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Was hoping to be there, but watching the stream of Repairing the Breach event with Governor Polis and many others from Denver right now. More information here: www.emanueldenver.org/event/repair...
emanueldenver.org
Repairing the Breach In a Time of Toxic Political Polarization - Event - Temple Emanuel Denver
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
In case you are worried about political conversations this Thankgiving, have your Adele ready.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
NCDD’s developing starter pack with dialogue and deliberation orgs and practitioners. go.bsky.app/KTHW9WR
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
For those new to my work, this essay is the best summary right now of what I focus on. publicagenda.org/wp-content/u...
publicagenda.org
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
A couple useful starter packs if you are working on democratic innovation or the deliberative wave.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Has anyone started a starter pack for deliberation/civic engagement/bridging? Or add names here and I'll start one.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
The opening slide for my presentation yesterday giving the closing keynote at the Water in the West Symposium. csuspur.org/witw/ My focus is on local communities, but that word is wonderfully adaptable and can certainly include regional, national, and global communities.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Ok, I’ll start engaging here. Who else should I follow?
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 07/11/2023
Of all the surreal, crazy things that have happened the last 7 years, this may have been the craziest.
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 02/11/2023
Was part of this podcast on the developing idea of deliberative journalism with the Media Diversity Institute in the UK. youtu.be/tFZ2Thn-6rM
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Martín Carcasson @mcarcasson.bsky.social · 20/10/2023
Drew this vin diagram a few years ago (on a napkin at the end of a long conference day, NCDD 2010 I believe). Finally working on writing on article on it, making the case for the importance of deliberative capacity, and the limits (but also necessity) of dialogue and debate. Would love any thoughts.
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