What do you think of people who you totally disagree with about politics? Can you listen to their point of view and have a constructive conversation? Do you dismiss the other side as evil or deplorable?

In this episode we hear from Wilk Wilkinson, a Christian conservative who voted for Donald Trump. He has working class roots and grew up poor. A decade ago Wilk was enraged at liberals, but today he’s working closely with both reds and blues at Braver Angels to turn down the volume on loathing and distrust.

“There’s no reason why I can’t have civil conversations with people on the blue side”, says Wilk. “We cannot get stuck in this idea that just because politically we don’t see eye-to-eye we are enemies.”

Wilk’s podcast is “Derate the Hate.” He’s had “guests from all over the spectrum and talked about gratitude, forgiveness, and personal accountability” with authors, journalists, life coaches, and psychologists.

“I’ve taken away incredible things from people who I disagree with vehemently on politics and most other things”, Wilk told us. “We’ve all got our blind spots, but not one of us is not worth talking to.”

Wilk works in the trucking industry in central Minnesota. He describes himself as a devoted husband, a loving father, and a steadfast Christian conservative. He came from humble beginnings and as a child lived in small towns across the upper Midwest. Wilk started working at the age of 10 and hasn’t stopped.

Through his podcast and personal experiences, Wilk shares candidly about the power of personal accountability, gratitude, and civility. He firmly believes that our reactions to life's challenges define us more than the challenges themselves. In his view, civility entails recognizing the humanity in everyone, regardless of our differences, our differing opinions, and/or backgrounds.

Wilk says his journey from adversity to success in his career, marriage, and parenting exemplifies the transformative power of perseverance and self-improvement. His podcast and work as a volunteer leader with Braver Angels, offer hope, guidance, practical tips and tools for positive change. Wilk was recently named to the Board of Advisors at the Prohuman Foundation.

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In the five years since the COVID pandemic began, trust in public health institutions and vaccines has plummeted. According to a new opinion poll, just over half of the public now says they trust the Food and Drug Administration to make the right recommendations on health issues at least “a fair amount,” down from nearly two-thirds (65%) in June 2023. 

About 1 in 4 Republicans parents now say they’ve akipped or delayed some children’s vaccines.

"Why Should I Trust You?" is a new podcast about why so many Americans have lost trust in science and public health. We hear from two of the show's co-hosts, journalists Brinda Adhikari and Tom Johnson. They speak about what they've learned from a remarkably broad range of skeptics, scientists and doctors who have different opinions about vaccines and public policy on healthcare. 

"How Do We Fix It?" reports on the people, projects and ideas of Braver Angels, America's volunteer-led cross-partisan movement working to bring people together across rigid lines of partisan division. 

Braver Angels' Truth and Trust Project was featured on episode 414 of "How Do We Fix It?". This work aims to bridge divides among people with different views on official responses to the pandemic. Braver Angels helped Brinda and Tom as they launched their podcast.

Tom Johnson is an award winning producer with experience in documentary series, digital, cable and network news. Brinda Adhikari is the former executive producer of The Problem with John Stewart.

This episode also looks at the changing public comments from Robert F Kennedy Jr., who may be the most powerful voice in US public health today. As we release this episode he's set to become President Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary. 

Kennedy's Senate nomination hearings have been highly contentious. To critics he's a destructive vaccine skeptic and spreader of conspiracy theories. Many Trump supporters see Kennedy as a hero and a fighter, willing to take on a broken healthcare system. 

We also learn more about the remarkable contrast between the high level of distrust over the introduction of vaccines against COVID, and what happened during the 1950’s after the polio vaccine was introduced. Then there was a huge amount of acceptance. Some thought the vaccine was almost a gift from God. The vaccine reduced fear and increased trust of doctors and public health officials. 

Thank you to Braver Angels for help with making this episode.

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How Do We Fix It? raises questions about solutions to divisive topics of politics and public policy: Decidedly secular matters. In this episode we look at how religious groups and institutions can help bring people together across divides. Braver Faith is our focus. The Right Rev. Mark Beckwith is our guest.

Braver Faith is one the newest and most vibrant groups within Braver Angels— America's largest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement that works to push back against rigid polarization. Led by faith leaders from many different religious backgrounds and beliefs, Braver Faith is a civic organization that develops educational tools to build bridges between people who are divided over politics.

Mark Beckwith speaks with us about the group's goals and principles. "So many people that I talk to within Braver Angels tell me their commitment emerges from their particular faith", he tells us.

Ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1979, Mark Beckwith has served parishes in Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Elected Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, he served in that capacity for 12 years before retiring in 2018. Bishop Beckwith is a liaison for Bishops United Against Gun Violence, and is the co-founder of Faith Leaders for Ending Gun Violence, a national ecumenical group of diverse leaders. He is the author of "Seeing the Unseen: Beyond Prejudices, Paradigms and Party Lines."

Braver Faith organized an online gathering the evening before President Trump's inaugural January 20. Here's a link. Three speakers shared their thoughts about how faith can play a role in building bridges. Prayers from a range of faith traditions were offered. We include short extracts in this podcast. 

"How Do We Fix It?" publishes frequently. We report on the projects, people, and ideas of Braver Angels.

Host: Richard Davies.

Producer and sound designer: Miranda Shafer.

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In the fall 2024, a young British filmmaker jumped in a small car and drove across America, asking more than 200 strangers the same two questions: "How did we lose connection with our neighbors, and how do we get it back?" Many of the answers and explanations are fascinating.

"I am a firm believer that developing a curiosity or a curiosity in strangers is the cure for a polarized and isolated world," says Joseph Sim, the director and producer of the new documentary, "A Road Trip Across a Divided America."

In this podcast we also hear from experts, everyday citizens and members of Braver Angels, who gave Joseph renewed hope that America can overcome the toxic divides that currently poison so many friendships and family relationships. 

Part of the message of Joseph's documentary is to encourage curiosity. "There is an adventure to be had. There is knowledge to be gained if you get curious about the people around you," he told us. "You honestly can't prepare yourself for what you'll find if you do that."

Want to watch Joseph's wise and entertaining video? It's easy. The documentary is available at https://www.jojofilm.co.uk/

Watch Joseph's TedX talk as he makes the case for curiosity and speaking with strangers.

Our podcast— "How Do We Fix It?"— makes shows about the people, ideas and projects of Braver Angels, the nation's largest volunteer-led citizens movement that's pushing back against rigid and destructive polarization. Braver Angels helped Joseph make his film. Everyday there are Braver Angels local, regional, or national workshops, debates, and events.

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The holiday season is here, but many people across the country may dread sitting down with their nearest and dearest— all because of politics.

In this episode we share down-to-earth advice from two wise experts who have thought deeply and creatively about how to minimize conflict and maximize cooperation with parents, family, and friends.

Tania Israel is a Professor of Counseling Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and award-winning author of "Beyond Your Bubble: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation".

Arthur C. Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public and NonProfit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. We discuss the findings of his book "Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From the Culture of Contempt".

We make podcasts about the work, ideas, and projects of Braver Angels, the volunteer-led, cross-partisan network of American citizens who are working together across divides to push back against toxic polarization. This episode is very much in the spirit of what Braver Angels are working to achieve.

This show is released just weeks after the election of Donald Trump to serve a second term as President. Divisive rhetoric by both sides during the campaign added to recent bitterness and division. Polarization is "not only hurting our connections with other people, it's hurting our health and our democracy," says Tania Israel. She argues that Americans "need to strengthen our connections with other people and tolerate, even embrace differences". A longer version of the interview with Tania was first published by the podcast, "Let's Find Common Ground".

In the second half of this podcast we hear about the radical ancient teachings of Jesus, Buddah and many religious leaders— love your enemies." This is a "subversive, sort of crazy-sounding idea", Arthur Brooks tells us. But it can have a profound impact on how we live. "It's pretty easy to love your friends, but to love your enemies is something entirely different," he says. "You see them in an entirely different way. You change your own heart."

Our "How Do We Fix It?" interview with Arthur Brooks was first recorded in 2018. Richard Davies and his co-host Jim Meigs asked the questions. 

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Some wore red hats, others wore blue. Outside scores of polling places in many states across the country, pairs of Democrats and Republicans sat together in a radically simple experiment called the Braver Angels Election Day Initiative.

The contrast between dire media forecasts of violence, and calamity during the election and what actually happened was stark. The day passed by calmly with minimal reports of disruption. There was a sense of quiet majesty that day.

In this episode we hear about the experience of three Red/Blue pairs of Braver Angels volunteers. For all of them the experience of presenting themselves in public as liberals and conservatives who could get along was uplifting. We also get reactions and reflections about the results and what they mean for our democracy.

Our guests are: Liberal Don Goldberg and conservative Elizabeth Doll who were outside the King County Election Headquarters in Renton, Washington on Election Day. Dorsey Cartwright, who voted for Harris, and Roger Haynes who backed Trump, spent several hours together close to a polling station in Austin, Texas.  The third red/blue pair Martin Hunke (Blue) and Tarleton Ferrin (Red) in Tucson, Arizona. 

Braver Angels volunteers had posters that said Vote Red, Vote Blue, We're All Americans Through and Through.

"People were really warm about it," said Elizabeth. "They seemed sometimes surprised, sometimes amused, but everyone was really receptive." Don said the experience in Renton "was really kind of delightful".

Our Blue volunteers, as expected, were deeply saddened by the election result. "I felt some sadness," said Martin Hunke. "I realized that we live in very different worlds. We can't agree on what truth is."

"In elections people win and lose, but we as Americans are left with moving forward together," conservative Roger Haynes told us. "We have to learn to win and lose with grace and understand how to be more empathetic with people whose side didn't win... Do we take this as another gotcha moment or do we try to step outside of our tribe and ask what's it like for them?"

This episode was produced with the help and encouragement of David Albright, Jessica Jones, and Mónica Guzmán at "A Braver Way" podcast. Our deep thanks to them.

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Do you believe what you see in newspapers, websites and on TV? Most Americans don't trust the people who are supposed to truthfully report the news. A new Gallup poll says Americans have record-low trust in mass media. Only one-in-three adults has a "great deal" or a "fair amount" of confidence in the media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly."

More than 150,000 readers each day turn to Tangle, a website read by liberals, conservatives and independents. Every day Tangle tackles one current debate in American politics, and summarizes arguments from left, right, and center. All Sides Bias Checker gives Tangle a "middle" rating, which means the site neither leans left nor right.

Our guest, politics reporter Isaac Saul, started Tangle in 2019 as an independent, ad-free, nonpartisan newsletter. He grew up in Bucks County Pa. — one of the most politically divided counties in America — where he was exposed to a huge range of political opinions and values. As a young journalist, Isaac learned the media ecosystem was broken when he found that he wasn’t being judged based on his writing, but where it was being published. 

On Tangle "you will encounter a wide range of views, including some you really disagree with," Isaac tells us. 

"We're trying to be a big tent news organization and we are succeeding at that... Our readership is split almost evenly between conservative and liberal readers." 

"I'm working from the premise that the reds and blues don't understand each other," he says. "I really do want to bring people under one roof with a shared set of arguments to analyze and talk about, and a shared set of facts to work from."

About this show: Every couple of weeks we release a new episode hosted by Richard Davies about the work, the ideas, and the people of Braver Angels, a remarkable band of brothers and sisters who get together across political divides in person and online: Reds and Blues who do battle against toxic polarization. In this show we speak with a fellow traveler of this effort. 

Links to news sites that feature a range of opinions on a single issue:

Tangle, All Sides, and Ground News.

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Are you fed up with politics and especially the presidential campaign? On How Do We Fix It? we're reporting on the people, projects and ideas of Braver Angels. This nationwide citizen-led movement is a growing coalition of liberals and conservatives working to restore hope and co-operation to our politics. 

In this episode we speak with a second pair of Red-Blue volunteers who will be working together and meeting voters outside a polling site on November 5th. It's all part of the nationwide Election Day Initiative. Our guests are Elizabeth Doll and Don Goldberg. On election day, they will be outside King County Election HQ in Renton, Washington.

"The other is not necessarily the enemy", Don tells us. "They just happen to be another side." Elizabeth agrees and hopes that one result of the Initiative is that Americans "recognize people can be friends... talk about politics with each other, disagree about politics, and still be in relationship with each other."

Elizabeth Doll is Director of Braver Politics at Braver Angels. She's been a volunteer, and a consultant for political campaigns in the Pacific NorthWest. Don Goldberg is a writer and political social satirist who now helps transcribe the podcast, "A Braver Way".

This episode is a reminder that America's voting system differs across the country. Washington state votes by mail. All voters receive paper ballots. They put them in drop boxes, or hand in their ballots to the local county elections department on or before election day. 

You can find out more about the Election Day Initiative on the Braver angels dot org web site. Braver Angels also have local in-person and online events all across the country. Look for one at the "Find an Event" prompt here. 

This show was put together with help of the production team at "A Braver Way", a podcast about how Americans of all viewpoints can disagree about politics without losing heart. Thanks to their team David Albright, Jessica Jones and show host Moni Guzman.

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These final days before the election are tense times. Today’s toxic politics are hurtful and heart breaking for many of us.

Maybe we all need a hope vaccine. An injection of kindness, curiosity and understanding for those who see the world differently than we do. 

In our latest report on the work, ideas, and people of Braver Angels, the nationwide citizen-led campaign against political polarization, we learn more about its Election Day Initiative: A volunteer-led effort to push back against political climate change— the hurricane of hate resentment and disdain that many on the left and right feel for the other side.

Our guests in this episode are liberal Dorsey Cartwright and conservative Roger Haynes. They are two of many red/blue pairs of citizens who will sit and stand together outside polling places across America.

M. Dorsey Cartwright is a retired marriage and family therapist in Austin, Texas. She travelled internationally leading workshops for couples, individuals, adult children and parents, as well as for communities. Valuing the healing of relationships, Dorsey has turned her attention to America’s political environment. First as an active member of No Labels and its mission to depolarize the House and Senate, and then Braver Angels, with its mission to depolarize our citizenship. Her politics lean blue.

Red-leaning Roger Haynes is a retired Chief Master Sergeant with 23 years of active military service and he recently left a civil service appointment with the government.  He has served in his community in various roles including HOA, City Commission, and is also active helping local Friends of NRA committees raise grant funding in areas such as youth education, women-focused clinics, law enforcement training, hunter safety, range improvement, firearms and marksmanship training and safety. He’s passionate about the First and Second Amendments.

Learn more here about Braver Angels “American Hope Campaign”.  

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Elections are vital to all democracies: The authority of the government comes solely from the consent of the governed. But millions of Americans don’t trust the electoral process and have highly negative views of politics.. Many have little or no confidence that all votes will be fairly and accurately counted. 

What should be done to improve our elections? We discuss reforms that both conservative reds and liberals blues can endorse. Some may surprise you, including ending gerrymandering and the unanimous recommendation on requiring ID to vote.

The Braver Angels Trustworthy Elections Initiative held 26 workshops with nearly 200 evenly-balanced Red and Blue participants. Together, they found 727 unanimous points of agreement.

Our guests are Larry Mayes and Walt McKee— the Blue and Red Co-Chairs of the Trustworthy Elections Leadership Team. They discuss their recommendations and what they learned together during the past four years.

Larry Mayes has over two decades of experience working with elected municipal, state, and federal government officials and community leaders, focusing on driving human development and social capital.  He is Senior Vice President for Government and Community Relations for Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston. In 2014, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh appointed Mayes to the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel. The Panel for several years reviewed Boston Police Department Internal Affairs cases that were on appeal from citizens as well as random investigated cases.

Walt McKee lives in Maryland with his wife, Juliana. They have been married for 40 years and have three adult children. He worked as a business entrepreneur and, in addition to Braver Angels activity, Walt serves on two nonprofit boards: Steadfast, which serves homeless youth, and the Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery. 

In this episode, we also learn more about how Braver Angels will send red and blue voters to polling places across the country on election day, to show Americans that no matter who we’re voting for, we can— and must— get along.

It’s easy to take part. Learn more and sign up here at the Election Day Initiative. 

This episode of “How Do We Fix It?” is our latest report on the work, ideas, and people of Braver Angels, America’s largest volunteer-led citizen group that’s working across the country to push back against polarization.

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Braver Angels is addressing a huge threat that could disrupt the future of our democratic republic: The rigid, often bitter, divisions between reds and blues. While nearly four in ten voters identify as "independent", more than nine in ten Americans fall into one of two broad categories. They identify as either conservative or liberal leaning and tend to vote for either Republicans or Democrats.

"If this country breaks apart, if violence increases to the point where we are killing each other, it will be because of those two groups and the extreme leaders of those two groups," says Braver Angels co-founder and President David Blankenhorn. "That's the division we are looking at. That's the bridge we want to build. That's what's threatening the country."

This episode is part two of our "How Do We Fix It?" podcast interview with David. We discuss Braver Angels bridge building by young people. Our conversation also explores America's political divisions and the Braver Angels approach to reforming and rebuilding American political discourse one conversation, one debate, one workshop at a time. In part one— our previous episode— we began by discussing the movement's origin story.

Before co-founding Braver Angels, David Blankenhorn led the Institute for American Values, a think tank on civil society. He founded the Mississippi Community Service Corps, the Virginia Community Service Corps, and the Committee for Economic Change at Harvard University. David co-founded the National Fatherhood Initiative, and is the author of five books including his most recent, "In Search of Braver Angels: Getting Along Together in Troubled Times.”

This podcast mentions the work Braver Angels is doing on college campuses. One example is how campus free speech debates encourage open minds at Denison University in Ohio.

Recommendation: We give shout outs to "A Braver Way" and "Derate The Hate". Móni Guzman of Braver Angels is the host of "A Braver Way", A podcast about how you - yes YOU - can disagree about politics without losing heart. Another fine bridge building show to listen to is "Derate the Hate" ,hosted by Wilk Wilkinson.

This episode is the fifth in a series of podcasts about work, ideas and people of Braver Angels. We’re grateful for their inspiration and support. All our podcasts are available for free here

Note: Please Subscribe to “How Do We Fix It?" Rate us and review us wherever you get podcasts. This helps spread the word about these shows and the work of Braver Angels.

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