Open Gardens: A Quick Note From the Team

We’ve been genuinely blown away by the response to Open Gardens. The readership has grown faster than we ever expected, and the conversations it’s sparked have been both humbling and energizing.

The truth is, my frustration with the pace and inflexibility of legacy media started long before the fires. Working on my own shows and movies, I began to develop theories—and eventually strategies—about how to better engage people. Not as passive audiences, but as communities. I started asking: how can legacy media look and feel more like social platforms, without losing the craft and emotional resonance that make it special?

I tried implementing those ideas in my work, and saw as much success as one can without the full support of traditional infrastructure. To be fair, legacy systems have their own incentives and timelines—and change isn’t easy. But I started seeing opportunity everywhere. This shift in mindset opened new paths for how to create, connect, and build.

Then came the fires.

They di…