CHRIS HUGHES In Conversation with Courtney E. Martin

In 2002, Chris Hughes met Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard, in his freshman year, and the two co-founded what would become Facebook. In 2007, Hughes left Facebook to volunteer for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and went on to found his own non-profit social network organization, Jumo. He later purchased a majority stake in The New Republic and became editor-in-chief of the magazine. In May of 2019, Hughes published an Op-Ed in the New York Times, entitled “It’s Time to Break Up Facebook,” calling for government regulation of the platform, and reflecting on the troubling directions that he believed Facebook to have moved since his departure. Hughes is also the author of Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality, an exhortative book arguing for a guaranteed income for working people, to be paid for by one percenters like himself.

Courtney E. Martin is the author of five books, including Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists and The New Better Off: Reinventing the American Dream. She is the co-founder of the Solutions Journalism Network and has collaborated with a wide range of organizations, including TED, The Aspen Institute, and the Obama Foundation. She won the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics and holds an honorary doctorate from ArtCenter College of Design.