America is bitterly divided. We’re divided over COVID, climate, and seemingly every important issue we face as a nation. This division is a problem not just because it leads to civil conflict, but also because — echoing Abraham Lincoln — a house divided against itself cannot stand. We can't address our most important issues if we’re so staunchly on one side or the other that we fail to integrate the kernels of insight we all hold. We can't address COVID, for example, if we don’t integrate the perspectives of public health and the economy. How might we redraw the lines so that public health and the economy are on the same side?

How might we transcend polarization through integration?

Synthesis Media is a trans-partisan, non-profit production studio devoted to integrating different perspectives — in order to transcend polarization and leverage the ingenuity of all worldviews. To address the challenges faced by humanity, we believe in ‘no insight left behind.' We produce media, events, and other content that speak not just to one tribe, but instead integrate their insights. We prototype and scale new forms of public discourse — from a debate format that incentivizes “steel-manning” to social media tactics for waging peace in the culture war. In Hegelian terms, we move culture from thesis versus anti-thesis to synthesis. In this way, Synthesis Media strives to transform viewpoint diversity from a source of weakness to a source of strength, especially in advance of the 2024 election.

We're actively fundraising for 3 projects to be launched in 2023:

• The Anti-Debate — a new format for debate designed to incentivize “steel-manning” and the integration of different perspectives.

• Faces of X — a series of short videos that star cultural influencers articulating a "synthesis perspective" on different social issues, like Liv Boeree in Faces of Capitalism.

• Memes from the Masters — a project to develop depolarizing language with two prominent experts in political communication, one on the left and one on the right.

Synthesis Media is led by award-winning producer and cultural strategist, Stephanie Lepp. Our advisors and partners include creatives, philosophers, and experts such as viral storyteller Jonah Sachs, social impact leader Rebecca Lendl, and cultural entrepreneur Greg Thomas.

If you or anyone in your network might be interested in supporting Synthesis Media, please be in touch: stephanie@infinitelunchbox.com

Project Director Bio:

Stephanie Lepp is an award-winning producer and the creator of Synthesis Media. She now leads Synthesis Media — a trans-partisan, non-profit production studio devoted to integrating different perspectives.

Stephanie is the former Executive Director at the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a non-profit think tank devoted to transcending the polarization that threatens American democracy. Before that, she was the Executive Producer at the Center for Humane Technology, the organization featured at the heart of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. Stephanie is now launching Synthesis Media – a trans-partisan, non-profit production studio devoted to integrating different perspectives — in order to transcend polarization and leverage the ingenuity of all worldviews.

Stephanie’s work has been covered by outlets from NPR to the MIT Technology Review, supported by institutions such as the Mozilla Foundation and the Sundance Institute, and exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. She won two Webbys for Deep Reckonings — a series of explicitly-marked deepfake videos that imagine morally courageous versions of our public figures.

You can follow Stephanie on Twitter: @stephlepp