2024-11-25
38 分钟It's not a good feeling to be stuck in an argument with someone who doesn't seem to be listening to your point of view, especially when that someone is very important to you. So how can we strive to have deeper conversations with more respect, understanding, and open-mindedness with those who have different opinions? Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the chief storyteller of "Braver Angels", an organization dedicated to political depolarization. She shares the tools you can use to find common ground with your loved ones this holiday season. She discusses why interacting with (and listening to) different points of view is critical work – and how through curiosity we can achieve the seemingly impossible task of understanding those we tend to think of as our enemy. This episode was previously released on 11/21/22.
TED Audio Collective.
You're listening to how to Be a Better Human.
I am your host, Chris Duffy.
This is an episode of the podcast that we're pulling back out from our archives, an episode that we previously aired, but it feels really relevant to this particular moment in time here in the United States.
It is right on the heels of a really contentious presidential election, and we are about to go into the Thanksgiving holiday, which is a holiday where many people are traveling and seeing family and having a meal with people who they often don't agree politically with.
That can be really charged time.
And the reason we wanted to play this episode again is because the guest, Monica Guzman, is the person who has really made me think the most about what it looks like to have a conversation with someone who you disagree with, even on a really fundamental issue.
Because how do we have a conversation with someone when we don't even agree on something as fundamental as reality about what is true and moral and good?
How do we have those conversations?
And Monica has convinced me that it's actually really not a productive or even possible way to go through your life and to have a society operate if we only talk to people who we agree with and we just completely write off people who we don't agree with.
But that's something I struggle with, right?
Because it feels like we shouldn't do that.
We shouldn't be able to engage with people who think things that we think are really wrong.
However, I'm excited to play this episode for you because we recorded it after the 2016 election and it felt very relevant then, but I think it feels even more relevant now.
Today's guest, Monica Guzman, is an expert in curiosity.
She's the author of the fantastic book I Never Thought of it that Way.
How to have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.
Here's a clip from her TEDx talk.
After the election in 2016, I found a foolproof way to stop conversation.
I would tell groups of my fellow Seattle liberals that my parents, who I love to death and see every weekend, are not just Mexican immigrants like me.