AI Summary
5 min readUp a Creek: Jakob Shockey on DarkHorse
Jakob Shockey, founder of Project Beaver, nearly lost his nonprofit over a single decision: he refused to publicly condemn a friend who had written positively about his work. The friend was Bret Weinstein's wife, Heather Heying, and the demand came from Shockey's own board after they discovered her Twitter feed contained views they disagreed with. "I said, well no, we're an organization with the mission to empower people to partner with beavers, and I failed to see how what anyone writes on their personal Twitter page has anything to do with that." The organization came one vote away from dissolving. Funders pulled out. Colleagues left the room when he entered. Six years later, they still do.
The painful upgrade
Shockey calls what happened "the painful upgrade." He lost people he did not expect to lose, but they were people he was better off without. "The trial by fire reveals who they are and reveals who you are," he says. The organization rebranded as Project Beaver, and Shockey says they have been more effective since the cancellation "by just orders of magnitude because all the bullshit left."
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What you'll learn
- 1 Timestamped Outline
- 2 (00:04) **Opening and Introduction** - Bret welcomes returning guest Jakob Shockey, founder of Project Beaver, for a discussion on beaver ecology and the challenges his nonprofit has faced.
- 3 (09:10) **The Painful Upgrade** - Shockey describes how surviving the cancellation attempt ultimately strengthened his organization.
- 4 (15:48) **The Nonprofit Fundraising Gala as Currency Exchange** - Shockey explains how nonprofit fundraising often becomes a social networking event rather than a mission-driven activity.
- 5 (23:22) **Pornelli's Law and the Life Cycle of Nonprofits** - Shockey describes how mission-driven organizations inevitably get taken over by administrators who prioritize funding over purpose.
- 6 (29:06) **What Beavers Are and What They Do** - Shockey gives a primer on beaver ecology for listeners who missed the first episode.
- 7 (34:42) **The Gold Rush Was Driven by Beavers** - Shockey explains how beaver dams concentrated gold for millions of years, then fueled the California Gold Rush after the fur rush ended.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Bret Weinstein speaks with Jakob Shockey on the subject of cancel culture in the nonprofit world, raising money, and beavers.
Find Project Beaver at https://www.projectbeaver.org
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Theme Music: Thank you to Martin Molin of Wintergatan for providing us the rights to use their excellent music.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Beavers? Bret Weinstein Speaks with Jakob Shockey on the Darkhorse Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBmKwQ9SPt0
Just How Busy Is the Beaver? https://naturalselections.substack.com/p/beaver
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