Think Twice: The Seven Rules of Trust with Jimmy Wales

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At a time when misinformation thrives, institutions crumble, and algorithms mediate truth, trust has become one of democracy’s most fragile foundations. Our team at Open to Debate has been thinking twice recently about trust — how it’s earned, how it breaks, and how it might be rebuilt between one another in a time of deep division. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the Internet’s encyclopedia with an English-language version that has been viewed 11 billion times alone and allows anyone to contribute and edit a page, says that trust is a living treasure that can and must be cultivated. In this episode, geopolitical strategist and Wickett Advisory moderator Xenia Wickett sits down with Jimmy Wales to discuss his new book, "The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last.” In this "Think Twice" episode, the interview explores how Wikipedia leveraged trust to help it become a global authority while the public’s trust in other institutions has faded. Our Guest: Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation; Author of "The Seven Rules of Trust: A Blueprint for Building Things That Last" Xenia Wickett, Geopolitical strategist, moderator at Wickett Advisory, and Trustee of Transparency International UK, is the guest moderator. Substack: https://opentodebate.substack.com/ Visit OpentoDebate.org to watch more insightful debates. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed on our curated weekly debates, dynamic live events, and educational initiatives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.7	Hey everybody. This is John Donvan. Welcome to Open to Debate. Here's a question. When trust is
0:35.9	eroding around the world, what are you supposed to do?
0:38.3	Well, we lean into debate, and it could be argued that our guest on today's episode does the very same thing.
0:44.3	Jimmy Wales is co-founder of Wikipedia, and he sits down with ZenioWicked and tells her all that he has learned and re-learned by embracing an open source, open arms, debate forward
0:56.0	approach on the internet of all places.
0:58.5	This conversation is part of our Think Twice series.
1:01.1	That's where we welcome guests to discuss something that we are very fascinated by,
1:05.3	which is the topic of listening and reconsidering and the changing of minds, including
1:10.2	one's own.
1:11.8	Zena is a global strategist and executive coach with Wicked Industries.
1:15.7	Zena, take it away.
1:17.8	I suspect there's not a person listening who doesn't believe that trust is in decline in society.
1:23.2	The Edelman Trust barometer, one of the most influential global surveys on trust, stands out for
1:28.3	its longitudinal consistency. It's been running since 2000 in more than two dozen countries.
1:36.0	It has documented a significant global decline in trust across major institutions.
1:41.9	In 2001, trust was relatively high, but this year, the global average
1:46.4	trust index had fallen to 55%, with media being the least trusted institution at 50%.
	...

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