What is Dent?

Jenny Stefanotti
3 min readSep 11, 2020
Images of the stack of books that provoked the Dent inquiry

Twice a week, I host a conversation called the Dent Forum. I liken it to a grad school seminar meets a live podcast, where we explore important topics such as capitalism and inequality, universal basic income, and social media and democracy.

It started in June with me organizing a few dozen friends on Zoom, but then moved over to a new app called Clubhouse in late July. Clubhouse enabled me to scale the conversations, because there’s a clear speaker vs. audience in its design. Also, Zoom fatigue is real. I like to say when you get off Zoom and get on Clubhouse, it’s like moving from the office to the bar.

It’s been stunning to witness the growth of Dent over the past six weeks since making that transition. It now reaches nearly 750 people! It’s much more than just the Forum; it’s a peer learning community with a shared desire for deep social change. Each week I experiment with new ways to help us connect with each other and further our shared mission.

I don’t know why, but as soon as Dent started to snowball in early August I instantly felt compelled to pen a description that hinted at what it could become, alongside a set of shared values for the growing community. It was instinct. The idea of writing a mission or vision literally never even occurred to me, but the description and values felt essential. I wrote a first draft and sent it to the handful of people who…

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