About dLogos

Dialogue, decided by everyone.

Fans name the guest and the show they want to hear, in public. Every vote carries a name, so a host can see exactly who is asking.

  • X · replysomeone get Vitalik on Lex already
  • YouTube · commentHuberman and Naval on attention. I would pay for this.
  • Reddit · r/JoeRoganWhy does nobody ask Saylor the hard questions?
  • X · quote postKathryn Haun on No Priors. Who audits the models?
  • Spotify · commentMagnus Carlsen on Armchair Expert, please
  • Discord · #guest-ideasGet two people who disagree on AI risk in one room
  • Threads · replyMarc Andreessen vs. a teacher on AI in schools
  • X · replyRogan needs a real economist on. Not a pundit.
  • YouTube · commentHas anyone asked Jensen what he'd do differently?
  • Reddit · r/lexfridmanLex should talk to a farmer. A real one.
  • X · replyDiary of a CEO, do one on loneliness in men
  • Apple Podcasts · review5 stars but PLEASE have Brené Brown back
  • Discord · #suggestionsSimone Biles on Modern Wisdom would be unreal
  • Reddit · r/podcastsI want a 3-hour debate where nobody gets cut off

Every one of these is a vote nobody counted. We count them.

The name

Dialogue, with a d for decentralizing.

Dia is through, across, between. Logos is the word: the account a society gives of itself.

A dialogue is meaning that moves between people, not down from a podium. The d is for decentralizing.

The Logos leaves any one set of hands and goes to everyone who wants to hear it.

The lineage

Every era built a room for dialogue. This is the next one.

  1. The School of Athens, Raphael's fresco of philosophers in conversation

    5th c. BCE

    The agora

    Citizens argued in the open, in person, for anyone who showed up.

    Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509 to 1511

  2. A woodcut of printers working a hand press

    1440

    The printing press

    An argument could outlive the room it started in.

    Jost Amman, woodcut, 1568

  3. A painting of a crowded London coffee house

    17th c.

    The coffee house

    Strangers debated across class for the price of a cup. London called them penny universities.

    A London coffee house, about 1700

  4. A studio microphone hanging in its shock mount

    2000s

    The long-form podcast

    Three hours, no editor, no time limit. One person still decides who sits down.

    Photo: Michael Rhys, CC BY 2.0

  5. Now

    Dialogue activism

    The audience calls the conversation before it airs. The room decides who is in it.

Every earlier leap changed the medium. This one changes who calls the conversation.

The conversations that keep not happening.

One had $2.6 million in pledges behind it and still never aired. The rest are waiting for someone to ask first.

Exhibit A · June 2023

The multimillion-dollar conversation that never happened

Peter Hotez
Peter HotezVaccine scientist

$2.6M+pledged in posts

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Then a presidential candidate
  1. Joe Rogan offers $100,000 to charity if vaccine scientist Peter Hotez will debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his show.
  2. Within days, strangers pile on. Founders, investors, listeners. The pledges pass $2.6 million.
  3. The debate never happens. The pledges were only ever posts, and they scrolled away with everything else.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, public domain.

Who decides

Today, a few people. Here, everyone who shows up.

  • Today: A booker's inboxOn dLogos: A named crowd, on the record
  • Today: An algorithm tuned for outrageOn dLogos: A public count a host can see
  • Today: A comment under a clipOn dLogos: Your question on the shortlist

How it works

One fan asks. A crowd shows up. The host gets proof.

  1. Askone fan

    A fan names a guest and a show, and says why. The nomination gets its own public page.

    Live

  2. Rallythe crowd

    Others add their vote, one per person, each with a name on it. A wish becomes a count.

    Live

  3. Shapethe questions

    Anyone can file a question, and the crowd votes on those too. The agenda is argued before the booking.

    Live

  4. Backthe money

    Boosts put a nomination in front of more fans. Pledges, charged only if the episode happens, are rolling out.

    Boost livePledge rolling out

  5. Landthe host

    The host sees the count, the top questions and every name behind them.

Happening now

Right now, in public.

nominations
3,605
votes
8,751
speakers
25,184
podcasts indexed
2,831,422

Live from dlogos.xyz, refreshed every 30 minutes.

Explore every nomination →

Who we are

We have built networks, hosted podcasts and grown communities.

Ankit Bhatia

Ankit Bhatia

Co-founder, CEO

  • 2x founder, 2x podcaster, $14M+ raised
  • Scaled Sapien to the #1 Ethereum dApp
  • EECS, UC Berkeley
Brian Lowenstein

Brian Lowenstein

Co-founder, COO

  • 5x consumer tech founder across crowdfunding, media and blockchain
  • Founded Third Brain, 30+ dialogues
  • MSMS, Kellogg. BS, Northwestern

What we stand for

Our mission

To catalyze valuable conversations.

  • Potlucking

    Every voice brings a dish. No one holds the menu; the community decides what gets served.

  • Intellectual humility

    Curiosity over certainty. We show our sources, invite correction and change our minds in public.

  • Compassionate free speech

    We do not pick which conversations deserve to happen. We show what people ask for, including asks we would argue with.

Accountable to a public benefit, not only to shareholders.

dLogos is legally a public benefit corporation. Its public benefit is the civic infrastructure it builds: giving people agency over which important conversations happen, what gets discussed, and where the resulting economic value flows. Financial returns sustain and scale that purpose.

  • Participatory agenda-setting

    Audiences organize demand before a conversation is recorded, alongside the hosts and guests who state their own.

  • Constructive dialogue

    Incentives for valuable conversations across communities and viewpoints that might otherwise stay siloed.

  • Public-benefit redistribution

    Some of the economic value participation generates can flow to vetted organizations that produce social benefit.

Where this goes

The internet built markets for capital, labor, attention and prediction. Conversation is next.

We call it a discourse market: one network where fans, hosts, guests, causes and sponsors meet around the conversations people ask for.

  1. NowA petition for conversations
  2. NextCrowdfunding for conversations
  3. LaterA market for conversations

Fans bring attention, questions and a name on the record. They get the episode they asked for.

Hosts bring the mic. They get proof an episode will land, before they book it.

Guests bring time and ideas. They get a room that's already listening.

Causes bring a reason to give. They get funding tied to moments people care about.

Sponsors bring capital. They get their name on a conversation people asked for.