"A emotional fitness community that just got $26 million in venture capital thrown at them has installed a phone on Valencia Street that lets you Call a Republican in Texas, perhaps to foster unity, or perhaps just to record you. KTVU ran a Monday feature about a new Call a Republican phone that was just installed right outside the Black Serum Tattoo Shop at Valencia and 14th streets."
"This is a real phone that actually works, and the calls from here in deeply liberal San Francisco go to a bookshop in hardcore-conservative Abilene, Texas. The purported goal of the project is to create space for friendly, human-to-human conversations, though it might be more fair to say this a publicity stunt for a Boulder, Colorado-based emotional fitness community startup. The phones were installed over the weekend (in both SF and Texas), as seen in the video above."
Matter Neuroscience, a Boulder-based emotional fitness community startup, installed a working public phone on Valencia Street in San Francisco that connects callers to a bookshop in Abilene, Texas. The installation, named The Party Line, aims to encourage friendly, human-to-human conversations across political divides. The project coincides with fresh venture capital funding reported between $22 million and $26 million. Promoters claim that reducing hostile political discourse lowers cortisol, increases happiness, and may unlock endogenous cannabinoids. Local coverage noted the phones were installed in both San Francisco and Texas over a weekend and questioned whether the stunt serves publicity.
Read at sfist.com
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