Disagreeing Well: The Podcast About Polarization

At the heart of polarization is an unwillingness to engage seriously with those who hold different perspectives from our own. Although we often think of polarization in political terms, it can extend to other areas including religion. In our secular society, people of faith are often dismissed as misguided, superstitious, or trying to impose their beliefs on the unwilling. Even between followers o...

In this episode of  Disagreeing Well , I sit down with Shlomit Broder, CEO of the Canadian organization Digital Public Square, to explore how technology is reshaping the way we engage with each other. Although the “digital public square” can be a place for meaningful dialogue, digital spaces can also fuel polarization. Shlomitt and I discuss the nature of polarization in Canada today and the chall...

Is the media fueling polarization or is it helping to defend truth and hold our battered and bruised society together? In this episode of  Disagreeing Well: The Podcast About Polarization , I sit down with Bill Killorn, Executive Director of Journalists for Human Rights, to explore the relationship of the media and polarization from both a Canadian and global perspective. Drawing upon his experien...

In this episode of  Disagreeing Well , I sit down with Alex Evans, author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough and founder of Larger Us , a UK organization focused on reducing division. Together, we explore why polarization remains so difficult to overcome—and what we may be missing in our efforts to address it. Drawing on his experience in the British government...

In this episode of Disagreeing Well: The Podcast About Polarization, I explore one of the basic challenges of combatting polarization – truth itself. In a world where competing viewpoints all claim that the facts are on their side, understanding the nature of truth is crucial to the discussion. To help us explore “truth”, I am joined by Jeffrey Dudiak, a Christian philosopher and Professor at The...

In talking about Israel–Palestine, there are so many loud and certain voices – and so little listening. In this episode of Disagreeing Well: The Podcast About Polarization , I take on one of the most polarizing topics we face—not to resolve the conflict - but to explore how we talk about it. Discussion of Israel–Palestine too often becomes a winner-take-all situation —framed as right versus wrong...

What if the problem isn’t that we disagree—but how we disagree? In this episode of Disagreeing Well: The Podcast About Polarization , I am joined by Kiera Phyo and Jo Alstott from London, England, to talk about the Church of England’s  Difference  Course, a growing global effort to help people use their faith to navigate deep divides more constructively. The five-session course doesn’t ask people...

In this episode,  Disagreeing Well  turns its attention to the United States as I speak with Katie Hyten, Co-Executive Director of Essential Partners, a U.S.-based organization which has been working to address polarization since 1989. We discuss the causes and dangers of polarization as well as the current situation in the United States. Katie highlights the important work her organization is doi...

How Polarized is Canada… And Should We Worry?” In this episode of Disagreeing Well: The Podcast about Polarization, I speak with political scientist Eric Merkley, author of the new book Polarization Eh? The Causes and Consequences of Affective Polarization in Canada. We discuss the rise of “affective polarization” in our country – the tendency to dislike or even hate those on the other side of pol...

I am joined by social psychologist Anne Wilson to explore the psychology of polarization. What’s really happening in our minds—and in the minds of those we disagree with—when polarizing issues arise? Is there something about human nature that’s preventing us from listening to the other side and pushing us further apart? We discuss misperceptions, why facts alone rarely change minds, and the role s...