Our Great Experiment aims to bring people together

Amid a current tense political environment in the U.S., University of Missouri graduate student Daniel Egemo is trying to bridge the gap between political viewpoints through his platform, Our Great Experiment. It takes form as a YouTube channel, social media page and Spotify podcast in which Egemo interviews people with all sorts of political viewpoints.

Egemo started the platform about two and a half months ago, but has been interested in politics well before then. Since following the 2016 election heavily as a 14-year-old, Egemo has been right, left and center on the political spectrum.

As the U.S. sees very polarizing politics right now, Egemo emphasizes the need for embracing differences and open discussion to find a peaceful path forward.

“I think we’re headed in a very dangerous direction as a country, and if we don’t do something about it, we’re not gonna like the outcome,” Egemo said.

Egemo’s friend Emily Cook, a fellow political science graduate student, helps him out with Our Great Experiment from time to time. She appreciates Egemo’s emphasis for free speech on the platform.

“I like how he’s trying to, like, encourage freedom of speech and encourage, like, communication across different, like, political platforms, ideas,” Cook said. “And I think generally, like, people don’t feel like they can talk to other people that, like, are different from them politically. And I think that the reality is a lot of us have way more in common than we have differences.”

On his platform, Egemo’s interviews take different forms, ranging from long-form one-on-one interviews with professors to short interviews with students in Speakers Circle.

When Egemo goes to Speakers Circle, he holds a sign with a prompt for students to talk about. The prompts ask questions such as “Can you say one kind thing about the opposite political party?” and “Give me a positive political take.” He gets a variety of student perspectives, and in asking those questions, he hopes to make people stop and realize they have more in common than they think.

“If I convince one person that maybe they should look at the world a little bit differently, then I will have done my job,” Egemo said.

From the Young Democratic Socialists to Turning Point USA, Egemo tries to get a variety of viewpoints on his platform. When doing his interviews in Speakers Circle, he has noticed a tendency for conservative students to be less likely to speak up about their political opinions. Regardless, he still reaches out to everyone.

“And so (it’s) just doing your part to make sure that you are, you know, throwing that olive branch out to all groups, not just, you know, those that agree with you,” Egemo said.

One goal of Our Great Experiment is to show people that there is more to a person than just their politics.

“It’s okay to, you know, be friends with someone that doesn’t believe the same things as you,” Egemo said. “It’s also okay to not be friends with people who don’t agree with you, but you have to maintain respect for all people, regardless of their beliefs, because the moment we stop viewing each other as fellow humans, fellow citizens, fellow whatever, is when violence becomes acceptable and violence is never acceptable, and free speech is the best anecdote to violence.”

Another goal is to get people to reconsider their own viewpoints.

“There’s people that have, like, microchasms of other people that think the same things that they do, and I don’t think necessarily that that’s good for society,” Cook said. “So pushing your own boundaries is something that I think is essential in order for us to move forward as a society and politics, I think is a boundary that a lot of people aren’t willing to push.”

Egemo plans to continue to build Our Great Experiment. He wants it to be a place where people of all viewpoints can disagree and still get along.

“Can we all coexist? I think the answer is yes. And so leading with that, you know, our differences make us beautiful. They don’t make us any less human,” Egemo said.

Edited by Erin Hynes | [email protected]
Copy edited by Anna Catlett and Ava Mohror | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]