From “I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” by Mónica Guzmán Curiosity is a serious thing, and it’s past time we get serious about it. What we learn relies first and foremost on how open we are to learning, what room we make in our …
From “I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” by Mónica Guzmán Let me tell you about the night I finally started to fall for Seattle. I’d been here all of nine months, and though I loved the city’s culture, its weather was another story. I …
Asking “What am I missing?” is the first step. It’s that doorstop against cognitive closure that comes too early, that hasn’t gotten close enough to know enough at all. So then, who do you ask? What expert should you consult to understand other people’s perspectives? Well, let’s turn that around for a minute. What expert …
At his many talks and conferences, john powell,” the head of the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, likes to tell the story of a pastor who, hearing that he ought to build bridges with people who are very different from him, asked powell a tricky question, “john, are you saying I should bridge …
Understanding people who hold opposing political beliefs is hard enough when you rarely meet anyone like that (sorting), harder when they’re a them to your us (othering), and harder still when the stories that surround you give you little if any reason to take even small, slow steps in their direction (siloing). Add in the …
After the 2018 midterms, a group of researchers took a snapshot of 2,100 Republicans’ and Democrats’ political views (of all genders!), then asked them to estimate what proportion of folks from the other party concurred with several political statements. So for a Republican taking the survey, one question read, “What percentage of Democrats think that: …
So here we all are, folks, Crossing paths in a stuck world that’s ready for something different – but what? I’ve been wrestling with the possibilities for years now without realizing it: stumbling onto people and their bottomless stories, following this compulsion to help us come together and understand each other precisely where it’s hard, …
