What I Learned From Bowling Alone...

Last?week, I had an opportunity to?talk to one of the most influential people in the world of community building in America. This project was?part of my work with Paragon.

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Professor Robert Putnam literally wrote the book on community. It's called Bowling Alone.

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Bowling Alone tracks the decline of Americans' participation in clubs and groups over the last 70 years.?This includes every type of group, from churches to Boy Scouts to soccer leagues to home poker games!

There's a fantastic new documentary?called Join or Die that?delves into the concepts found in Bowling Alone.

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Join or Die is currently making the rounds on the film festival circuit, and we used it to jumpstart a conversation?about community building for public radio and television programmers. In addition to Professor Putnam, I had an entire group of panelists, each of who are experts in the field:

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• Rebecca Davis, who co-directed and co-produced Join or Die
• Carrie Melissa Jones, who also wrote an excellent book (along with Charles H. Vogl), Building Brand Communities
• Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a public health official and host of the America Dissected?podcast
• Mike Henry, the founder and CEO of Paragon, who has been consulting public radio stations for four decades

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While the audience for the panel discussion is public media program directors, it is available on YouTube for anyone to see. If you are interested in building a community, you may enjoy the conversation.

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If you would like to watch Join or Die, the film that inspired this discussion, your last chance to do so is this weekend. We're arranged for an encore at-home screening of the film for anybody who wants to see it. You can get all the details here:

https://www.communitymarketingrevolution.com/beyond-the-broadcast