Every day, vast amounts of online content gets filtered, labeled, downranked, removed, or left up.Those decisions shape what we see, what spreads, and who gets harmed. Let’s look at what it means to “keep the internet safe” at scale: the ethical tradeoffs behind moderation policies, the limits of automation, how bias and context slip into supposedly “neutral” rules, and what real accountability could look like when platforms move fast and consequences occur unevenly. Who makes these calls, what gets missed, and what would a better system require?

False stories move fast online, but not always because some people are careless. These falsities are built—whether intentional or not—to travel. They tap into emotion, reward attention, exploit our trust in familiar voices. They thrive in systems that favor speed over verification. Why does misinformation work so well? How does coordinated manipulation differ from everyday rumors? What helps in the moment when something feels urgent or too perfect to be true? What changes end up strengthening an environment beyond fact-checks? We’ll be investigating the psychology, the incentives, and tactics behind online lies, plus clear steps for spotting them and slowing their spread.

The Moderate asks what it takes to keep the internet “safe,” and what that work does to the people doing it. This talkback goes inside the making of a production that treats digital life as a stage language. Projections, Zoom, and FaceTime are built into the storytelling, shifting their scale, location, and presence in real time as performers move through space. How do live and mediated performance get choreographed together, how does sound and light help to create the feeling of always being clocked-in to our digital realm, and how does the production handle the unsettling reality of what moderators are asked to witness? This conversation will deconstruct these questions, and more.

What does it take to carry a heavy story seven shows a week, and still keep it truthful, safe, and alive? Our signature Artists and Audiences conversation brings the cast together with the audience for a look at the making of The Moderate from the inside out: the work of a short rehearsal schedule, the choices that shape the performances, and the realities of staging a show with not just difficult material, but a complex, multimedia, hybridized theater piece.