The Hardest Part Isn't Getting Sh*t Done. It's Knowing When to Stop — Dream.org CEO Nisha Anand

I'm really interested in understanding your... internal calculus as you are trying to find these moments of common ground, especially when you talk about, okay, criminal justice reform.

We brought on Jared Kushner's dad, and we brought on, you know, protesters, rioters from the January 6th.

Like, these are very divisive folks and people who I imagine you have real disagreement with.

Was there a moment where, in the spirit of finding common ground— looking back after you achieved what you wanted to achieve you thought maybe i i went too far maybe i bent on certain values that i shouldn't have to justify the end i was looking for

yeah that question comes up a lot and i tell my staff because my staff comes from the similar background as me and there's always questions about some of our partners that we'll work with on these things and how we feel and are we compromising? And what I tell them, I'll tell you the like surface answer first.

And then the personal answer is that we go in and we say who we are.

We come from progressive values.

We will always make sure equity is up front.

And we try to find that intersection when we're working with those.

It's like a Venn diagram, progressive values, equity, and then like as inclusive as possible, radical inclusivity.

We're right in that center.

And that does not mean we ever sell those things out.

We try to find that narrow set, that small intersection that we can work with.

And that if you come to the table and say, this is who I am and these are my values and I'm not compromising on it, tell me what yours are and what you're not compromising on.

It's a different conversation than saying my way or the highway.

It's like, these are important to me.

What's important to you? There was one example that was really hard during that first step back battle is there was a lot in there around increasing home monitoring, right? If you release people who are cancer, elderly, et cetera, from prison and they go on home monitoring, there becomes more of a, the word is escaping me.

Surveillance state? Yes, surveillance state.

And what are you doing around privacy? And this is what I always tell folks is who are we doing this work for? Keep them front of mind.

No, I don't want to have more surveillance.

I don't want us to have invasion of privacy.

I absolutely think that it could lead to bad outcomes.

And there is not a single person in prison that has said, keep me in prison instead of letting me have an ankle monitor at home.

Nobody.

And so you have to really think about who you're doing this for and what they want more than anything.

I'm really interested in understanding your... internal calculus as you are trying to find these moments of common ground, especially when you talk about, okay, criminal justice reform.

We brought on Jared Kushner's dad, and we brought on, you know, protesters, rioters from the January 6th.

Like, these are very divisive folks and people who I imagine you have real disagreement with.

Was there a moment where, in the spirit of finding common ground— looking back after you achieved what you wanted to achieve you thought maybe i i went too far maybe i bent on certain values that i shouldn't have to justify the end i was looking for

yeah that question comes up a lot and i tell my staff because my staff comes from the similar background as me and there's always questions about some of our partners that we'll work with on these things and how we feel and are we compromising? And what I tell them, I'll tell you the like surface answer first.

And then the personal answer is that we go in and we say who we are.

We come from progressive values.

We will always make sure equity is up front.

And we try to find that intersection when we're working with those.

It's like a Venn diagram, progressive values, equity, and then like as inclusive as possible, radical inclusivity.

We're right in that center.

And that does not mean we ever sell those things out.

We try to find that narrow set, that small intersection that we can work with.

And that if you come to the table and say, this is who I am and these are my values and I'm not compromising on it, tell me what yours are and what you're not compromising on.

It's a different conversation than saying my way or the highway.

It's like, these are important to me.

What's important to you? There was one example that was really hard during that first step back battle is there was a lot in there around increasing home monitoring, right? If you release people who are cancer, elderly, et cetera, from prison and they go on home monitoring, there becomes more of a, the word is escaping me.

Surveillance state? Yes, surveillance state.

And what are you doing around privacy? And this is what I always tell folks is who are we doing this work for? Keep them front of mind.

No, I don't want to have more surveillance.

I don't want us to have invasion of privacy.

I absolutely think that it could lead to bad outcomes.

And there is not a single person in prison that has said, keep me in prison instead of letting me have an ankle monitor at home.

Nobody.

And so you have to really think about who you're doing this for and what they want more than anything.