Ethan Zuckerman is the director of the MIT Center for Civic Media and the author of Rewire: Becoming Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, which won the 2014 Zócalo book prize. Before talking about how we can use the Internet to bring people together, he talked writing, the Green Bay Packers, and his favorite thing about downtown L.A. in the Zócalo green room.
If you had one more hour in the day, what would you do with it?
I’d probably write. The main thing missing from my life right now, because I spend so much time teaching and reading student work, is writing for fun. I started writing by blogging and just writing about whatever I cared about, and that’s a form of writing that’s research and writing at the same time, and I’m not getting to do it right now—so that’s almost certainly what I would do.
What BuzzFeed quiz would you be most likely to take?
“What Underrated Green Bay Packers Player Are You?” That would get me in no time. I’m a big fan of the players who sort of stand in the shadows, and when you ask me the question of what I spend too much time on online, it’s obsessing over who the Packers took in the draft. It’s a terrible problem. I know way too much about Ha Ha Clinton Dix, who we picked in the first round. Who names their kid Ha Ha? But he’s supposed to be a hell of a free safety, and we really need one.
What do you wake up to?
When I’m home, I wake up to my 4-year-old, who comes into the room, my wife’s and my bedroom, and says “Boo!” every morning. He has been carefully instructed that he is not to join us before 6:30 a.m., and so I instinctively wake up at 6:27 at this point.
What’s your favorite thing about Los Angeles?
The architecture downtown. I’ve come to Los Angeles dozens of times, but mostly the car Los Angeles, hanging out with friends who live in all sorts of different neighborhoods, going out to see some in Santa Monica, some in Beverly Hills. And the last couple trips I’ve stayed downtown, and every morning I walk for at least an hour, and I just walked today marveling at how beautiful Broadway is, just the sheer architectural quality, and wondering why the streets aren’t just packed with people staring up at art deco buildings.
What cheese best describes you?
I’m going to go with a double Gloucester. I’m going to say sharp, pungent, a little crumbly, but ultimately sort of bright and pairs well with meats and with bread.
What’s your favorite holiday?
Thanksgiving. I love to cook, and I really love bringing people together, and Thanksgiving is sort of great in that it’s not inherently a family holiday—you can sort of invite whoever you want, and as long as you sort of honor the basic ritual of an over-large meal everyone shares, everything else is open to interpretation. Plus, I’m married to a rabbi, and she gives really good blessings, which are always really good for holiday meals.
If you didn’t live in Western Massachusetts, where would you be?
Coastal Maine. It’s funny, Western Massachusetts people go to Maine. Plus, it’s still cold and inconvenient and beautiful, and that’s what we like about Western Massachusetts. I’m speaking for the entire 413 area code.
What weapon would you choose in a zombie apocalypse?
You have no idea how often we talk about this question. So there’s two basic zombie apocalypse theories. There’s the shotgun theory and there’s the blunt instrument theory, and over time I have come over to the blunt instrument theory.
How are you different from who you were 10 years ago?
I have less hair. I think more relevantly. I am finally getting the chance to teach, and I’m finally ready to teach, and it turns out to be some of the most rewarding work I’ve ever done, and I suspect it’s going to be something I look for ways to do for the rest of my life.
What word or phrase do you use most often?
Non-trivial. Non-trivial is a word that computer programmers use to signal that something is actually a serious pain in the ass, but they’ve actually thought about just how big a pain in the ass it’s going to be. So I developed this as a bad habit years and years and years ago when I used to engineer software, of referring to things as non-trivial problems, and I still use it, and people’s eyebrows go up almost every time that I use it.