Village SquareCast

As we barrel toward America's 250th, one could argue that if we crack up before we get there (some bad days we'd take even odds), it'll have something to do with the complexity of being in charge of executing one of the founders' biggest ideas — that the church and the state were to be separate in this new nation of theirs. (It had been so much "easier" when the king told all us peasants what reli...

Friends since middle school, Berny Jacques and Geston Pierre are both children of Haitian political refugees who fled political instability that put their families at risk – with Geston's parents arriving a little earlier than Berny's.  Despite their friendship and shared family immigration story, they have reached very different conclusions about politics and social issues in the United States to...

Drawing on decades of experience addressing volatile disagreements surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Resetting the Table  works to transform toxic polarization and destructive political conflict in the U.S. We'll be joined by Resetting the Table's Co-Founding CEO, Melissa Weintraub, a veteran peacebuilder and social entrepreneur who has spent her career building transformative communic...

In a culturally, religiously and racially diverse society like ours — with a single public school system designed to educate America's children — maybe we shouldn't be surprised that the culture wars have Officially Hit Our Schools. When you clear away the noise, at the core of the struggle is this: what should our schools teach our children—and who decides?  Joining us for this conversation are s...

We were honored to hang out with our intellectual hero, Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a few weeks before the release of his recent book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Unsurprisingly, the book became an instant #1 New York Times bestseller. If you have kids, if you know kids — heck, if you've ever seen a kid — you're just going to have to...

Find the program online here: https://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/soul-of-civility/ While our special guest Alexandra O. Hudson, author of "The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves," finds the challenges to civility today dire, she thinks they're not new — and they're most definitely not about being more polite. Lexi brings a deep and fresh appreciation for the wisdom...

"Fragile Neighborhoods is an essential and engaging read for everyone who wants to better understand the challenges facing our cities, towns and our nation at large." Richard Florida – Bestselling Author of "The Rise of the Creative Class" Find the full program online here —  https://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/fragile-neighborhoods/ As we continue our "Join or Die" year—exploring how we build live...

Find the full program online here — and meet The God Squad: https://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/canceled/ .  We're living in a time when a bad choice of words (much less a deeply held countercultural opinion) can tank your career, in a media environment where some are doing a near-professional job of elevating being offensive to an art form—almost begging to be "canceled" by those who care about ma...

We wanted you wonderful SquareCast listeners to know that we didn't plan for this episode to drop on Leap Day and we didn't plan on it being (we kid you not) Episode 100. But both things just happened . At the very least, we think that's a sign that you really ought to listen. Were we "the universe has a plan" maximalists, though, we'd say it means you need to quit your day job and follow bridge b...

Pulitzer Prize finalist journalist Bill Bishop joins The Village Square for Dinner at the Square. (See photos from the event here .) Turns out Americans have been sorting ourselves in every aspect of our lives – in the news we watch, the books we read, the churches we attend, even the neighborhoods we live in. Our special guest Pulitzer Prize finalist journalist Bill Bishop stumbled on this worris...

In this episode of SquareCast Village Square Founder & CEO Liz Joyner let Village SquareCast Corey Nathan talk her into being the guest in an episode. It's hard to get away from the doom scroll that typifies our life and times right now — we're clobbered with toxic sludge when we turn on the  news, catch up with friends on social media or just try to live life without someone forcing us to choose...

In this episode of SquareCast we're joined by the extraordinary Rachel Brown, the Founder of  Over Zero —named in reference to the "zero sum game" that exists in sporting events, but becomes dangerous when it overtakes a society, as it has ours. Over Zero was founded to prevent identity-based violence and other forms of group-targeted harm around the world—and here at home. Rachel is one of the wi...

In this age of deep and growing civic divisions, perhaps it's time to revise the comic strip Pogo's iteration of U.S. Navy Master Commandant Oliver Perry's quote from the War of 1812: "We have met the enemy and it is us." From our special Dinner at the Square guest Stephen Kiernan's masterpiece book Authentic Patriotism : "The problems America faces are not going to be solved by either political p...

Americans are sad and lonely, and we don't feel like we belong. With depression and "deaths of despair" on the rise, over half of us say that no one knows us well—a truly alarming statistic that doesn't bode well for our future. As if matters weren't bad enough, we're not just sad and alone—we're becoming more mean to each other, and it's likely part of the same cycle of pain. With fewer human con...

With our culture wars at a full rolling boil, apparently all it takes to send our enmity over the edge is…a good old-fashioned country song?? The furor over Jason Aldean's " Try That in A Small Town " (and then there's Oliver Anthony's " Rich Men North of Richmond ") is reminiscent of the old furor over The Dixie Chicks—only the "sides" have switched up.  As The Village Square embarks on a plurali...

At the core of the deep societal divisions we navigate every day is an assumption that we share little with "those people" with whom we share a country—a belief that leaves us on dangerous ground as a nation. But author and entrepreneur Dr. Todd Rose says we've got that all wrong. According to Dr. Rose, not only do we agree more often than we think but we're making terrible assumptions about what...

"Our national myths often exaggerate the role of the individual heroes  and understate the importance of collective effort. —Robert Putnam This is when you meet a living legend  and get the benefit of his thinking on the topic he's been brilliantly, prophetically  right about  for more than three decades: the deterioration of our connectedness with each other across almost every demographic and ev...

"A remarkable combination of scientific insight, practical guidance, and grounded hope." —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN Toxic polarization and conflict is  exhausting . Whether it's in your family, at work or in our perpetually acrimonious civic life, it's like a suitcase full of big ole rocks we lug around while we try to get the usual tasks of life-y-ness done. ...

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you a feed drop episode of Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other —a podcast we loved so much , we convinced its host to also be our host (that's fandom). Along with Village SquareCast, TP&R is also a proud member of The Democracy Group , a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to...

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you a feed drop episode of  When The People Decide, a podcast about how everyday people are shaping democracy. Along with Village SquareCast, they're a member of The Democracy Group , a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Listen to When The People Decide Here.   This episode, Librari...

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you a feed drop episode of the  "How Do We Fix It?" podcast , from the coolest podcast hosting dynamic duo we know and love,   Richard Davies  and  Jim Meigs . These two have real fun together and with their guests—and we all get to listen. This episode of How Do We Fix It? " The Middle 70%: In This Together " features Bill Shireman , host of the podc...

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you a feed drop episode of the "Let's Find Common Ground" podcast , from the extraordinary national leader in bridging divides Common Ground Committee .  (Shout out to the co-founders Bruce Bond and Erik Olsen. We're groupie fans.) Meet them: With polarization dominating public discourse, can we find a path back to the common good? Tune in as journali...

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you an episode of one of the best podcasts in the democracy space— Democracy Works .  Meet them: The Democracy Works podcast seeks to answer that question by examining a different aspect of democratic life each week — from voting to criminal justice to the free press and everything in between. We interview experts who study democracy, as well as peopl...

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer our very favorite listeners (you) this feed drop of one of our very favorite podcasts (that isn't Village SquareCast)—Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other—with its host the one and only Corey Nathan. (Corey just happens to also be our co-host too we like him so much.) In this episode of TP&R Corey interviews Bob Cusack of THE HILL. ...

The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. —Abraham Lincoln. This episodes tells the story of one group of people who have risen. Built by patriotic volunteers, Braver Angels is a national movement to bridge the partisan divide, equally balanced between conservatives and progressives at every level of leadership. They work in communities, on college campuses, i...