Panel 1
Ideas Into Movement : Enter the Fringe, Move Our Public Consciousness
August 13, 2026
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Ideas rarely emerge fully formed into the mainstream. They circulate first through underground scenes, niche communities, online subcultures, art, journalism, and cultural production before eventually shaping broader public life. Some become liberatory movements. Others become mechanisms of fear, control, or reaction.
This panel explores how ideas travel from the margins into dominant narratives, and the role artists, writers, journalists, and cultural workers play within that process. How does culture act as a testing ground for political and social transformation? How do aesthetics, storytelling, and media amplify certain ideas while suppressing others? And in an era shaped by algorithms, virality, and ideological fragmentation, who ultimately controls the narrative?
Speakers:
Tsering Asha Leba
Jess Arcand
Sam Hester
Moderator(s):
Paul Brooks