On Track
How environment shapes perspective
The mission of Route 24 is to assess possible avenues that restore public trust. It’s a space for policy debates, immersive storytelling, and social innovation. Read more about our 2025 direction here.
Scenic Route parks in your inbox on Fridays to merge the lanes of immersive storytelling and politics and help you find a better view.
Explore your blindspots! Here’s what a Route 24 subscription gives you:
A safe zone to explore what’s driving the issues behind the latest headlines.
Immersive stories that test drive people-powered solutions.
Interdisciplinary insights that shift your gears on key policy debates.
An innovative vehicle to accelerate pathways for community restoration.
Paid subscriptions to Route 24 help us to reach our Q1 fundraising goal of $25,000, which supports building the creative team and a playable prototype for Probable Cause, our civic education gaming experience that puts you in the driver’s seat during a routine traffic stop. It also helps to keep this newsletter accessible to all of our riders.
We welcome one-time contributions or monthly subscriptions to help us sustain and advance this project. Thank you for joining us on this road!
In this issue: I recently wrote about milestones in early automotive advertising and their implications in this political moment. Here’s another interesting trend: despite accounting for upwards of 85% of consumer spending and purchasing 62% of all new cars sold in the U.S., only 27% of women actively serve as auto industry professionals, with 43% of women lacking trust in the industry-at-large.1 While women-led coalitions help to course-correct from the realities behind these statistics, emerging formats in competitive motorsports are challenging existing norms globally. In a consumer-driven approach, McLaren’s “Women at the Wheel” initiative pairs female drivers with a professional race coach to sample the latest car models and learn tips and tricks on the race track. Similarly, the Extreme E racing circuit is becoming parity-driven: men and women drivers now compete on the same track and are given equal driving time.2 The cultural gear shift happening in women’s automotive representation internationally collides with a domestic rollback of DEI initiatives, signaling the importance of a recurring theme in Probable Cause: how environment shapes perspective.
Want to read more from Route 24? Join us on Notes and Bluesky.
Full Circuit
As an independent filmmaker, I’m often spinning my wheels on how best to realize impactful stories with limited access to resources. It’s an exciting challenge, but what I enjoy most about the process is how the minutiae of everyday situations can capture an audience in one page, one sequence, or one moment. Think of how French New Wave and Nordic Noir filmmakers use the nuances of silence to speak volumes. It’s powerful.
If you’ve been paying attention to recent developments, then it’s likely you’re cognizant of the public safety concerns a Project 2025 criminal justice agenda poses and the degree of procedural oversight apparent in revoking key policing reforms. Probable Cause is a hybrid project designed to create lanes of discovery — to imagine possible avenues for community restoration within existing and emerging policy frameworks.
This week I’m sharing one of the working drafts of the game’s “sizzle” — a teaser that invites you to buckle up and prepare to swerve…
Enjoy this first look!
MIND OVER MATTER
INT. - COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS LAB - STANFORD - AFTERNOON
A team of researchers convene with participants at their designated testing stations.
A white overhead light flickers and half-eaten containers of Chinese takeout are scattered across a few of the tables.
The participants are listening to anonymized audio clips of escalated police encounters.
RESEARCHER:
Let it play.
EXT. - I-95 EXIT RAMP - YONKERS - DUSK
REMY MATTHERS drives a red Honda Civic. It’s that time of day that makes it practically impossible to read road signs. She almost misses her exit and swerves. Just in time.
Then she’s on high alert. Sirens. Had she forgotten to signal? She pulls over.
INT. - COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS LAB - STANFORD - AFTERNOON
OFFICER:
(agitated)
Let me see your hands.
DRIVER:
I didn’t do nothing. I didn’t do nothing.
OFFICER:
Jesus Christ..Keep your fucking hands on the wheel.
One of the researchers stops the audio clip. She turns towards the group of participants.
RESEARCHER:
Now imagine you’re in the driver’s seat. How do you feel?
EXT. - I-95 EXIT RAMP - DUSK
REMY:
The first 27 words an officer speaks determine whether a traffic stop will escalate.
I only had one on my mind.
On the screen:
18.7 million drivers are stopped by police each year in the United States.3
They rarely know why.
Rest Stop
Arcade Alley
Arcade Alley gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at some of the gaming features and design approaches that have informed our creative process on Probable Cause.
Across zip codes and school zones, the dominant discourse on public safety often reflects the social and cultural tapestries of the communities that reside in that radius. Look no further than Mo’s Houston neighborhood or the portrait of Trayvon Martin being followed home through a residential area in Origin or the jurisdictional disputes between tribal police and federal agents in Dark Winds to understand the power of environmental impact on perception.
As someone who grew up in Florida, I’m all too familiar with the state’s stand-your-ground and concealed carry law limitations. Two recent projects offer additional perspective. The Perfect Neighbor is a documentary from director Geeta Gandbhir that uses body cam footage and investigative interviews to chronicle the case of Ajike Owens, who was murdered in an escalated neighborhood dispute. From a different situational context, The Final Exam is a 10-minute video game from Change the Ref that puts you in the headspace of a student surviving a school shooting.
Probable Cause also utilizes real-life situational context to demonstrate the linguistic nuances that shape personal choice during a routine traffic stop.
If you’ve discovered an immersive story that’s in alignment with what we’re building, let us know in the comments.
ICYMI — Recommended stops on Route 24:
Tread Lightly
Tread Lightly gives Route 24 readers a comedy pit stop.
I usually use this space to share hilarious road signs I’ve either been sent or have stumbled across. If you see something, say something: route24@substack.com.
With Super Bowl Sunday around the corner, these commercials meet the moment.
As always, thanks for taking a drive along Route 24!
Stay the course,
Sam
Looking for ways to collaborate with Route 24? Consider cross-posting or restacking your favorite Route 24 read. We also welcome sponsorship and guest post inquiries.
For more information, contact route24@substack.com.
Route 24, published twice weekly on Monday and Friday evenings, is a civic education project powered by Millennial Ethics Productions.
Source: E.H. Rho, M. Harrington, Y. Zhong, R. Pryzant, N.P. Camp, D. Jurafsky, & J.L. Eberhardt, Escalated police stops of Black men are linguistically and psychologically distinct in their earliest moments, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 120 (23) e2216162120, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2216162120 (2023).