In January 2021 armed rioters stormed the US Capitol in a harrowing and politically fomented insurrection. It was an apex of years of divisive and condemnable rhetoric and fear-mongering used to stoke insecurities and desperate action. How do we ensure this never happens again? Or how do we dismantle the social structures that feed hate, fear, and contempt? What this event, and on the flip side, our celebration of Martin Luther King jr. Day (when we recorded this episode 1/18/21), reveal is that understanding what leads to social conflict and how to manage and resolve conflict is more essential than ever. Today Adam Gamwell and Astrid Countee talk with conflict management expert and author Jeremy Pollack about healing a divided nation by learning to talk with our neighbors more. We dig into:

Why humans need help managing conflict
Cognitive and perceptual biases that prevent us from communicating clearly with one another
How to communicate clearly around fears and intentions to find common ground
How to understand and disarm Worldview defense
That we need to start talking to our neighbors more!
The importance of local leadership in modeling intergroup communication and shared goals

Jeremy Pollack is the Founder of nationwide conflict resolution consulting firm Pollack Peacebuilding Systems and author of the new book Conflict Resolution Playbook: Practical Communication Skills for Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict. Jeremy is a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Conflict and Negotiation, and an expert on human conflict with an academic background in social psychology, evolutionary anthropology, negotiation, conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremypollack1/
https://www.facebook.com/pollackpeacebuilding/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3K6m_0bO31lD7JUc0th_vQ/featured
https://pollackpeacebuilding.com/


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