How To Train Your Algorithm

How To Train Your AlgorithmA podcast about teaching AI systems what vulnerable people actually need.Coming 2025 · 12 EpisodesThe PremiseEveryone talks about AI safety. Nobody talks about AI trained by people who've actually survived unsafe systems. Dunja Lazic spent three years stabilizing bipolar disorder, six years in intensive therapy, and a lifetime surviving systems designed to break people. Now she's training AI algorithms to do better. Each episode documents her real conversations with AI systems — not polished, not edited for perfection.The InvestigationThis isn't tech journalism from the outside. This is someone inside the system, actively training it, documenting what works and what fails.

Can AI learn to not interrupt?

Can it match someone's pace instead of rushing them?

Can it understand that processing differently isn't processing wrong?

Does the algorithm replicate patterns of abuse, or can it be trained to recognize them?

Season One — 12 EpisodesWeeks 01–04: Neurodivergence — Training the algorithm to understand different ways of processing.Weeks 05–08: Displacement — Teaching AI about refugee experiences and survival.Weeks 09–12: Accountability — Can algorithms learn to recognize and prevent harm?The Host — Dunja LazicWar survivor. Refugee. Comedy performer. Copyright claimant. Someone crossing her own chasm while training machines to help others do the same.SubscribeJoin the newsletter at dunjaparty.substack.com for behind-the-scenes updates, early episode access, and insights from the investigation.© 2025 Dunja Lazic