STORIES OF HOPE
Below we feature stories from around the web that illustrate and animate big ideas about combating polarization.
From RadioLab: The Ashes on the Lawn
This episode of RadioLab tells a profound story of the contradictory motives and dilemmas faced by activists struggling to make our world better.
From The Journal: A Church Tries to Bridge Its Political Divides
This episode of The Wall Street Journal’s podcast, The Journal, follows the efforts of a Michigan church to bridge political divides through conversation.
From Time: We Need More Good Conflict In Our Lives—Here How it Works
Journalist Amanda Ripley profiles an interfaith dialogue project between liberal members of a New York City synagogue and conservative rural Michiganders.
From On Being: Befriending Radical Disagreement
Listen to the story of an unlikely friendship between Derek Black, godson of former KKK grand wizard David Duke, and Matthew Stevenson, the Orthodox Jewish host of a weekly campus Shabbat dinner.
From TED: Megan Phelps-Roeper on Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
Megan Phelps-Roeper shares her personal experience of extreme polarization, along with some sharp ways we can learn to successfully engage across ideological lines.
From TED: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the Importance of Multiple Stories
Adichie talks about “the danger of a single story.”
From The Atlantic: The Least Politically Prejudiced Place in America
Journalist Amanda Ripley profiles Watertown, NY, rated the “least politically prejudiced” town in America.
From Dare to Lead: “The Heart of Hard Conversations” at Work
Aiko Bethea and Brene Brown on fostering inclusivity at work by having the courage to have hard conversations.
From TED: Adam Grant on “thinking again”
Adam Grant on “what frogs in hot water can teach us about thinking again.”
MIT’s New Center for Constructive Communication
Explore resources from MIT’s new center focused on improving communication across divides and increasing opportunity for underheard communities.
Read more about Congress’ New Select Committee on Modernizing Congress
The Select Committee is one of the only truly bipartisan committees in Congress, with an equal number of Republican and Democratic members. This Committee, established in January 2019, is tasked with making Congress more effective, efficient, and transparent.
From One America Movement: The Science of Polarization
Listen to Mayim Bialik and Andrew Hanauer in conversation on what neuroscience has to teach us about the roots of polarization.
Essential Partners’s resource page for the Boston Abortion Dialogues
Learn more about the groundbreaking, multi-year dialogue process between pro-choice and pro-life advocates in Boston in the wake of a series of deadly clinic shootings in 1994.
From On Being: The Political Values Library
The podcast On Being with Krista Tippett offers a rich library of conversations with thought leaders across fields—including writers, activists, scientists, theologians, artists—that address the political values that animate our lives and civil society. I highly recommend taking the time to explore this expansive and insightful resource.
From On Being: The Civil Conversations Library
The podcast On Being with Krista Tippett also offers a library of essays and conversations with multi-disciplinary thought leaders that relate to the topic of civil conversations—what they are, what they look and feel like, and how we can cultivate the will, skills, and insights they require.
America Talks: What we can learn from King and Reagan about bridging our patriotic divide
Explore and Participate in Story Corps’ One Small Step Project
Story Corps is matching strangers from different points of view for conversations about who they are. Anyone, anywhere can sign up to have the opportunity to be paired with a stranger for a One Small Step conversation.
From Princeton University: Bridging Divides Initiative
Explore a map of bridging organizations across the United States, and learn more about opportunities to connect to violence mitigation and community building efforts near you.
From Greater Good Magazine: What Can We Learn from the World’s Most Peaceful Societies?
A multidisciplinary team of researchers is discovering what makes some societies more peaceful than others.
From Computers in Human Behavior: All the News that You Don’t Like: Cross-cutting Exposure and Political Participation in the Age of Social Media
From Just Security: America’s Democracy Moment
As Americans prepare to celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, it is crucial to recognize the gravity of the threats still facing U.S. democracy, even after Donald Trump left the presidential stage. And it is more vital – and possible — than ever to mobilize a powerful movement in response.
Watch the Film Breaking the Cycle
This film argues that we are stuck in a Cycle of Competitive Detachment where we feel disconnected from others and even ourselves, while at the same time feeling we have to compete for anything worthwhile. There is a way, not only to break this cycle, but to create a new cycle, one that reclaims our humanity and helps us heal ourselves and our culture. We can create a cycle of connected, cooperative companionship.
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