Last week, we released the talks from the final XOXO.
In the eight years that Andy McMillan and I put on XOXO, we had so many wonderful talks—you can peruse the featured tag for some of our favorites from the full archive—but I think we both agreed this was the single best day of talks we ever had.
The consistency was so high, it was clear every speaker understood the assignment. Every talk is worth watching.
The Talks
“We can build the web we want to see.” Molly White kicked off XOXO 2024’s conference with a hopeful talk about building Web3 Is Going Just Great and how we can “push the web back towards the wonderful, joyful, beautiful place it used to be.”
Returning to the XOXO stage ten years after his satirical “How I Won the Lottery” talk, Darius Kazemi reflects on the compromises that come with being “indie” and the toxic systems that coerce us into betraying our values.
“I used to dream of labor… but now I dream of different things.” Aftermath cofounder and journalist/critic Gita Jackson on surviving the collapsing media landscape and the rise of worker-owned, subscriber-funded online journalism.
“We have to fix the fucking networks.” Writer/researcher Erin Kissane on how her work on the COVID Tracking Project was made possible by social platforms now hostile to real human connection, and why we need better, safer networks for our collective survival.
“This did not define me.” Two years after her XOXO 2016 talk, Sarah Jeong became the target of a massive right-wing harassment campaign. Six years later, she returned to share a message of hope for others going through similar experiences.
“Envy. Impatience. They’re the monster I struggle with, but they are ultimately a part of me.” Folding Ideas’ Dan Olson on measuring himself against the work of others, a sometimes-debilitating pressure that also drives him to make new things.
“You can monetize a hate video, but there is no hazard pay for harassment.” Sweet Baby Inc. founder/CEO Kim Belair shares what happened when a conspiracy theory about “woke-ifying” video games spawned a year-long coordinated hate campaign against her 16-person studio.
“I have achieved every professional accolade that I could have ever dreamed of and more, and it completely broke me.” Ed Yong earned global acclaim and a Pulitzer for his critical reporting on the pandemic for The Atlantic, but it came at a personal cost.
“Appreciate everything endlessly.” A pit stop on a Seattle road trip at McDonald’s in Centralia, WA sent Cabel Sasser down a deep and magical rabbit hole into the undiscovered life’s work of a nearly-forgotten artist, bringing everyone at XOXO along for the ride. (After watching the talk, don’t miss Cabel’s newly-launched Wes Cook Archive.)
“Community is made out of the ephemeral.” Closing out the final XOXO, Charlie Jane Anders talked about how inclusive communities are key to our survival: building a consensus reality, defeating learned helplessness, and connecting to others with joy and kindness.
Thanks to Ian Linkletter for the photos of Molly, Erin, Dan, and Ed.
Since it started in 2012, my primary responsibility for XOXO has always been booking the lineup—all the fun stuff like the video games, tabletop games, music, live podcasts, weird internet projects, videos, meetups, and more. But the conference is the heart of the festival, and requires special care.
This year, for the first time, we went from two days of conference talks to just one day: seven new speakers, and three former speakers revisiting their old talks. After five years away, with one last festival, and only one day, I felt an intense pressure to make it count.
But I’ve never wanted to micromanage speakers, and have always given a tremendous amount of creative freedom to the people we invite to speak about whatever they want. I invite creators whose work I love and, I think, will have something interesting to say. We always have a call where we talk about what the festival is about, the type of people who attend, and the kinds of talks that work well and those that don’t.
I usually explain that the conference is about, more than anything, the emotional experience of being an artist or creator on the internet, often covering the dark, difficult, painful challenges that they’ve dealt with, or are still struggling with, as a creator. “Big idea” TED-style talks don’t work well, and we avoid anything practical or industry-specific because the audience is so interdisciplinary.
But after that, I let them loose unless they ask for additional guidance. When I decide the speaker order a few weeks before the festival, I only have a broad idea of what they’ll speaking about, so it’s always a bit magical to see themes emerge throughout the day, as one talk flows into the next.
Many of this year’s themes were familiar to past XOXO attendees: mental health and burnout, exploitation under capitalism, harassment and online abuse, the important of community. Several speakers covered events that happened in the five years we were away: namely, the effects of the pandemic, the failures of legacy social networks, and the rise of alternative models for social media and journalism.
Appropriately for our last festival, the last two talks talked about legacy: how we’ll be remembered after we’re gone and the ephemeral nature of communities, from Cabel Sasser and Charlie Jane Anders respectively. Somehow, it all came together.
As the last speaker at the last XOXO, Charlie Jane got the final word:
“Connecting with other people is really pleasurable, even though it’s also really hard. And it is the thing that gives me hope for the future. Human connection fundamentally is the thing that makes me believe that we can survive.
“So I’m here for gentle absurdity and tender weirdness. And I just don’t trust any version of the future where we don’t party and goof off and act ridiculous and rejoice, and just rejoice together.
“So my final thought: I don’t believe in utopias. I don’t believe in dystopias. What I do believe in is people taking care of each other. So please, take care of each other. Thank you.”
My endless thanks to all the speakers, who were willing to be so vulnerable on stage, and the XOXO audience for being such a kind, empathetic audience for it.
More than anything, thanks to Andy for all his dedication and passion and endless work to make sure we proper closed the doors on a project we started 12 years ago, finally ending it on our own terms. It was an exhausting, life-affirming bundle of anxiety and wonder, and I’m going to miss it.