Hey, How TO listeners, Happy holidays.
This is Carvel Wallace and we're off for the rest of the year.
But we did want to leave you with this audio treat that hopefully makes spending time with your family a little easier this holiday season.
You'll learn how to talk politics with your parents without yelling and you'll get to hear our listener navigate a real life conversation with her dad and actually get somewhere productive.
So I'm going to turn the mic over to our former host, Amanda Ripley.
Enjoy.
You know, there's a desire to connect and we do have opinions and want to talk about the world and yet we can't do it in a way that doesn't end up with yelling, hanging up, you know, swearing the other person off or overall just feeling crappy and feeling, I mean, angry is one thing, but also just sad, I think disappointed that we can't find a way to talk about this.
Welcome to how to.
I'm Amanda Ripley.
I don't know about the rest of you, but sometimes it can get pretty annoying when I get added to a big group chat or email chain and my phone just starts blowing up with memes and forwards and jokes.
But for our guests this week, that sound fills them with an extra dose of dread.
I have a family situation, a pickle, you might say, that I'm hoping y'all can help us out with today that deals with political emails and fathers.
Jen Brandell.
She's a friend of mine who I've worked with on a couple different projects.
She's also a journalist from Chicago who co founded Harken, a company that helps organizations listen and connect better with their audiences.
Which is to say Jen is a pro at communicating.
One of the best I know, which is why it is so frustrating to her that she and her brother Todd get these email forwards from their dad that leave them occasionally baffled and frequently fuming.
Hi, I'm Todd.
I'm 45 years old, married, with a daughter.
I'm in software development and very much have strong political opinions and find myself getting into passionate and dispassionate arguments with family and friends all the time.