Ring a Republican: Payphones linking San Francisco and Texas aim to bridge US political divides

A Matter Neuroscience project lets callers in liberal San Francisco and conservative Abilene speak across party lines

Two experimental payphones - one placed in San Francisco and the other in Abilene, Texas - are connecting strangers across party lines, allowing callers to speak directly with Democrats and Republicans in two of the US's most ideologically opposed cities.

The project is the work of Matter Neuroscience, a Boulder, Colorado-based biotech company and is fashioned out of old payphones bought off Facebook. One phone sits outside Black Serum Tattoo parlor in San Francisco's Mission District - and the other is in downtown Abilene by the bookstore Seven and One Books. Each phone is marked with a sign explaining that callers will be connected to someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum.