MIT Center for Constructive Communication

🗣️ realtalk@Boston came to life through collaboration. 11 community organizations, 50 hours of dialogue, 253 participants, and 47 themes that reveal what it means to live, work, and belong in Boston.

This is part 2/2 of our partner shoutout, highlighting:

👂 Joint Family
👂 ArtSpark Boston
👂 Circus Up
👂 Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts
👂 Primary Source
👂 The Loop Lab

These organizations helped surface the stories and voices that form the foundation of realtalk@Boston. Explore them all at realtalk.boston, a new public listening portal where you can hear directly from Bostonians in their own words.

Join us Nov 10 at Artists for Humanity for Boston’s Stories, Unscripted, a night of art, reflection, and community inspired by these conversations.

🎧 realtalk@Boston is built on the work of 11 incredible community organizations, who opened doors to deep, honest conversations across the city.

Together, they helped record 50 hours of conversation with 253 Boston residents, uncovering 47 themes that paint a textured portrait of life in Boston, and its struggles, joys, and hopes for the future.

This is part 1/2 of our partner shoutout, starting here with:

👂Boston CASA .casa
👂 Chica Project
👂 Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ)
👂 Disability Law Center .con
👂 Greatest MINDS Boston

These partners helped create the spaces where people could speak from the heart. And those voices now live on at realtalk.boston, a new public listening portal where you can hear directly from Bostonians in their own words.

Join us Nov 10 at Artists for Humanity for Boston’s Stories, Unscripted, a night of art, reflection, and community inspired by these very conversations.

🎧 What does Boston sound like when you stop to listen?

Today, realtalk@Boston invites you to do just that.

Explore a new public portal created by the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, where you can hear hundreds of Bostonians—in their own voices—share what life in the city really feels like: the joys, struggles, and hopes for the future.

With over 250 conversations across 11 communities, realtalk@Boston blends deep human storytelling with innovative AI-assisted tools to reveal the themes and connections that shape Boston today.

Start listening, reflecting, and sharing at 👉 realtalk.boston

🎧What does Boston sound like when you stop to listen?

Today, we’re thrilled to launch realtalk.boston — a new digital portal where you can listen to hundreds of Bostonians, in their own voices, share stories about their neighborhoods, hopes, frustrations, and dreams for the city’s future.

Developed by the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, this living record weaves together 250+ conversations across 11 communities — revealing a Boston that’s proud, complex, and still striving to make space for everyone.

And next month, we’re bringing those voices to life.

🎤 Boston’s Stories, Unscripted
🗓️ Nov 10 · 6:00 PM
📍 Artists for Humanity

Join us for an evening of conversation, art, and performance — featuring local leaders and artists inspired by the voices of Boston, including Rev. Chris Hope () Erika Howard (), Paul Bologna (), George (Chip) Greenidge (), Poetic Artiste , J. Andrés Ballesteros and Tyler Donkoh-Halm

A special thank you to the community organizations who have collaborated to make the realtalk project and this event possible: ArtSpark Boston , Boston Independent Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ), Boston CASA .casa , Circus Up , Disability Law Center .con , Family Nurturing Center of MA , Greatest MINDS Boston , Joint Family, Primary Source , The Chica Project , and The Loop Lab .

🔗 Listen now at realtalk.boston

🌟 We're Hiring at MIT!

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication is seeking a passionate and organized Instructional Designer and Program Manager to help shape realtalk@MIT, a new dialogue initiative that combines digital tools with human facilitation to build better communication across campus.

This hybrid role blends instructional design with project management—ideal for someone excited by inclusive learning, stakeholder collaboration, and turning big ideas into meaningful experiences.

📍 Based in Cambridge, MA (hybrid schedule)
💼 Learn more at ccc.mit.edu/.jobs and apply at https://hr.mit.edu/careers → Search Job ID #25107

Come be part of a team reimagining communication and designing for connection.



MIT Media Lab MIT Center for Constructive Communication Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Can AI help save democracy?

MIT CCC Director Deb Roy sits down with Life With Machines podcast host Baratunde Thurston to make the case for how new dialogue networks, unlike social media, can build rather than break trust.

"It's not about more or less tech," says Roy, "but rather about building better tech to help us hear each other and help us to build community and civic muscle.

Watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKTS0mfXRCk

🗓️ Deadline extended to April 25, 2025 🗓️
T-2 Days to Apply!

🎨 Call for Artists: Bring Boston’s Stories to Life 🎨

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication is partnering with local organizations for realtalk@Boston, a citywide civic listening initiative that amplifies the diverse voices of Boston. Over the past year, conversations from across the city have been recorded, capturing moments of love, grief, struggle, hope, and visions for the future.

Now, we need you to help bring these powerful stories to life through art! We are inviting a select group of Boston-based artists to create original works that interpret these conversations and spark public reflection.

What we provide:
- A creative stipend of $3,000-$5,000 (depending on scope of work and supplies needed)
- Access to intimate conversations recorded from across Boston 📜🎧
- Opportunities to collaborate with a dynamic research team and showcase your work in public spaces 🌍

We welcome all artists, especially those focused on community storytelling, participatory engagement, and dialogue-driven work.

🌟 Learn more and apply: https://www.ccc.mit.edu/eventopportunities/call-for-artists-bring-bostons-stories-to-life/ 🌟

For questions, please email Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou, Head of Translational Research & Practice, MIT Center for Constructive Communication ([email protected]) with the subject line: Listening City Artist Proposal.

The deadline to apply is 04.25.2025

🎨 Call for Artists: Bring Boston’s Stories to Life 🎨

The MIT Center for Constructive Communication is partnering with local organizations for realtalk@Boston, a citywide civic listening initiative that amplifies the diverse voices of Boston. Over the past year, conversations from across the city have been recorded, capturing moments of love, grief, struggle, hope, and visions for the future.

Now, we need you to help bring these powerful stories to life through art! We are inviting a select group of Boston-based artists to create original works that interpret these conversations and spark public reflection.

What we provide:
- A creative stipend of $3,000-$5,000 (depending on scope of work and supplies needed)
- Access to intimate conversations recorded from across Boston 📜🎧
- Opportunities to collaborate with a dynamic research team and showcase your work in public spaces 🌍

We welcome all artists, especially those focused on community storytelling, participatory engagement, and dialogue-driven work.

🌟 Learn more and apply: https://www.ccc.mit.edu/eventopportunities/call-for-artists-bring-bostons-stories-to-life/ 🌟

For questions, please email Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou, Head of Translational Research & Practice, MIT Center for Constructive Communication ([email protected]) with the subject line: Listening City Artist Proposal.

The deadline to apply is 04.25.2025

🤝 The MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC) organized our second tech-enhanced and student-focused version of a Deliberative Assembly!

🌱 Over the course of three days, participating MIT undergraduates were asked to collectively deliberate and answer the central question: “What do students wish to see prioritized in the future of sustainability actions at MIT?”

🗣️ Members engaged in the typical experiences of Deliberative Assemblies, including discussions with experts in the field, including Julie Newman, Steven Lanou, Joe Higgins, Chris Rabe, Megan Lim, Jeremy Gregory, Leela Velautham, Kate Trimble, Hessan Farooqi, and Miranda Dotson.

🌟 New tools were added this year including personalized lapel mics, data comics, and demos to increase transparency over data use, and live AI-transcription, which served to review the conversation and suggest perspectives overlooked by the delegates.

❓Such tech helped us answer: How do we want AI tools to assist in deliberation and sensemaking? Read more about the Assembly: https://www.ccc.mit.edu/pressmedia/ccc-hosts-its-second-tech-enhanced-student-assembly/

A big THANK YOU! to all CCC staff and graduate students who supported the event: Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou, Marina Rakhilin, Cassie Lee, Maya Detwiller, Ali Klemencic, Katie Morrell, Matthew McKenna, Leila Carter, Julia Matthews, Elinor Poole-Dayan. Suyash Fulay, Michael Wong, Shrestha Mohanty, and Zaria Jalan.

Photos by Artemisia Luk.

➡️ Bridging Dictionary Featured Word: "Deep state"

“Deep state,” a term most associated with right-wing conspiracy theorists for years, has now moved into mainstream political discourse–but with very different connotations depending on your political viewpoint. Want to see for yourself?

Visit the Bridging Dictionary, the MIT Center for Constructive Communication’s dynamic prototype that compares the different ways words are used in American politics today. And once on the site, we welcome your comments as we continue to look for ways to improve.

🔗 Visit the Bridging Dictionary: https://bridgingdictionary.org/
💬 Share your feedback here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScw1PieLmt_tAfdKd3WIq7YutaTlAYU-xeIRJ-q21cjCEXCig/viewform
📝 Learn more in our blog: https://www.ccc.mit.edu/pressmedia/introducing-the-bridging-dictionary/