walking and listening with strangers in pittsburgh

what happens when you step outside your social bubble and walk with a stranger who trusts you with their story?

ourstories took place between march and may 2024 across pittsburgh and the surrounding western pennsylvania region. the inquiry emerged in a moment of deep political tension. pennsylvania, a key swing state ahead of the 2024 election, was saturated with national narratives about division, fear, and the impossibility of meeting across political difference.

I wanted to know what lived beneath the headlines. how people were actually feeling. how they were making sense of their lives. and whether walking side by side, outside of structured debate and identity performance, could shift the atmosphere between strangers.

the question was not only what people believe, but how it feels to be them. what emotional climate they move through each day. and how the air changes when someone listens without trying to change or fix the other person.

invitation

flyers were designed and placed across pittsburgh, pennsylvania. each invited strangers to take part in a slow, listening-led walk focused on their lived experience.

• flyers placed in coffee shops, climbing gyms, libraries, community boards, and independent living facilities
• no incentives; participation was entirely voluntary
• people joined because they were curious, lonely, overwhelmed, hopeful, or simply wanted to be heard by someone outside their world

the walks

• each person chose a location meaningful to them, such as a park, neighborhood, or familiar route
• walks lasted two hours on average
• conversations were audio recorded with permission
• participants remained anonymous throughout the process
• my role was to hold an atmosphere of curiosity, safety, and openness while the participant spoke at their own pace

research practice

• recordings transcribed through otter.ai
• transcripts coded for themes, emotional patterns, contradictions, and turning points
• stories mapped in mural to surface shared needs and patterns across age, race, gender, and political identity

this was the first iteration of the listening and atmosphere-based method that later evolved into masa.

layer 1: the experience

the conversations became the intervention.

participants did not experience this as data collection. they experienced it as a rare chance to be fully heard. many described feeling lighter, less alone, or simply grateful that someone had held space for their story without trying to correct, debate, or fix them.

layer 2: the conditions

certain conditions kept appearing as essential to the atmosphere of trust:

• no phones
• curiosity
• vulnerability
• no judgement
• participants spoke most of the time
• anonymity reduced performance

layer 3: the insights

the intervention revealed a real unmet need for connection across identities, beliefs, and lived experiences.

people longed to be heard, understood, and seen outside the roles and narratives imposed on them.

trust did not require sameness. it emerged from presence, curiosity, and the willingness to sit with another person’s truth without trying to fix or debate it.

the research became the design. the conversations were not “data collection.” they became an experience that gave people the very thing they were describing they lacked: human closeness, recognition, and belonging.

layer 4: the next question

the method itself produced knowledge that no survey or external analysis could. what emerged was not an abstract insight but a felt, shared understanding of what it means to be human in a polarized world.

this raised a new set of questions:

• how can this be scaled to a group setting?
• can difference be used as a way to bring people together?
• what conditions must remain in place for trust to emerge?

the project is replicated in seattle, washington and evolves into masa, where the method is extended into a two-phase experience that brings strangers together across difference.