The Importance of the Disagreement

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Is the disagreement real and is the topic important enough? Yeah. And then the fourth on the list is about the reasons why the parties are engaging in the disagreement. So, imagine another person is just coming in to hurt your feelings or to vent or to pick a fight. That's a moment to say, hey, I'm not engaging in this disagreement with you if that's the reason why you're coming into it. There may be other ways to talk about the issue. It may be that I just hear you out if what you have to do is vent but we're not going to have a disagreement about this.

World champion debater Bo Seo knows how to win an argument. He’s made it his mission to teach everyone to disagree better. Bo walks us through how to apply the most effective strategies from competitive debate to improve our disagreements at the dinner table. Bo and Maya also discuss how to determine whether an argument is worth having in the first place.

For more on Bo’s work, check out his book, “Good Arguments: How Debate Teaches Us to Listen and Be Heard.”

If you enjoyed this episode, we recommend this one from the archives: "A Black Musician Takes on the KKK."

For a behind-the-scenes look at the show, follow @DrMayaShankar on Instagram.

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