Democratised Storytelling

Storytellers change the world, but the channels they depend on are owned by a handful of billionaires who decide which stories get told and which don't. This series is about changing that for good, and with it, what it's like to live in that world. It starts in Hollywood, where Michael Topic watched gifted editors and crew work in precarious conditions, while the rewards flowed elsewhere. Around the turn of the century, he and a small team set out to fix it with NeoPixSys: freelance collaboration, built-in rights protection, direct-to-audience distribution, and Mediex, a money issued for value created, not debt. It never shipped. The patents stalled. The world wasn't ready. Twenty-five years on, the idea looks bigger than video. What if there were a technical architecture that preserved human agency, dignity, meaning and joy, instead of squeezing every last drop of profit from the people the network is meant to serve? We've all watched enshittification play out: customers and suppliers get less and less, shareholders more and more. That's not sustainable. Eventually, users simply walk away. Part memoir, part manifesto, and honest about the wreckage, the series retells a project that failed in its ultimate goals and asks whether its time has finally come. Along the way: rewilding the internet, federated networks governed by sortition, and why storytelling is a crucial life skill. It's a stick in the ground, offered to anyone who can make it fly, or show exactly why it can't. Cover art: Clare Topic – Copyright 2026 – All rights reserved. Editor: Alex Topic Music: composed and produced by Michael Topic Buy me a Ko-fi