The Village Is Gone, But We Can Build It Back

There's a specific kind of loneliness that comes not from isolation, but from being overwhelmed by infinite options. Everyone's connected. Nobody knows each other.

D.A. Wallach spent his career at the intersection of art and economics. He was the frontman of Chester French, signed to Interscope during the last era when that still meant something. Then he met the founders of Spotify and became the artist-in-residence tasked with convincing other artists the platform was the future, not the death of music. Now he's a biotech VC, betting on cures for diseases that affect specific patient populations.

Kate Bradley Chernis spent twenty years as a radio programmer learning the craft of how to make millions of listeners feel like you were talking to them alone in the room. She moved from Triple A radio (aka "adult album alternative") to XM's the Loft to founding Lately, a generative AI platform built on the principle that if you understand the words that make people feel seen, you can make them feel anything.

Both understood something most of us seem to have forgotten in our online eras. Like how culture used to have a pulse. How shared references are part of what makes a village a village, because it's where we run into new ideas just by hanging out.

The Backline is Kate's bet that we can resurrect the village without going backward. Audio only, no video, mysterious topics, intentional silence. FM radio logic applied to Zoom. Participants cry. They report feeling seen. They DM afterwards asking for connection. In a moment when workplace loneliness is costing employers billions, maybe that's not nostalgia. Maybe it's just paying attention to what people actually need.