Dylan Marron has built a reputation for sharp social justice commentary ever since he arrived on the internet’s radar with “Every Single Word,” a blog that drew attention for cutting Hollywood movies down to just the lines spoken by people of color (Spoiler alert: they ended up being VERY short movies.) Marron, who was born in Venezuela and moved to New York City with his family at age five, has since built on the activism-driven work that characterized those first videos. As a writer and correspondent for Seriously.tv, he created viral-ready web series tackling contemporary social issues, including Sitting in Bathrooms with Trans People, Shutting Down Bullsh*t, and the Unboxing series. Now, Marron is launching a new podcast focused on an issue that many social advocates in the public eye face today: hateful Internet trolls.
Aptly called Conversations with People Who Hate Me, Marron’s podcast finds him engaging with people whose anger has led them to spew obscenities his way online. “We are in an age when it’s easier to share an opinion on a topic than it is to have a conversation about it,” said Marron, explaining why he felt this was an urgent project for our increasingly polarized world. “Often the more extremely we present our opinion, the more likes, shares, or retweets we get for them. We are essentially rewarded for our fiery opinions on an issue, but not necessarily held accountable to converse about them.”
Marron voiced similar concerns when he sat down to talk about diversity in media right here in Remezcla alongside Julio Salgado, telling the Bay Area illustrator that it was “in the comments you really crack open and see what some people really think.” With the promise of episodes focused on the 18-year-old Texan who called Marron a “moron,” the Australian teen who called Marron “the most pathetic person on the internet,” and the Midwestern, Christian college student who says he loves Marron but hates his sin of homosexuality, Conversations with People Who Hate Me may be exactly the kind of cross-ideological dialogue we’re in dire need of in 2017.
Check out a video trailer for the podcast series below.
Conversations with People Who Hate Me premieres July 31, 2017, as the first nonfiction podcast from the Night Vale Presents.