How Do We Fix It?

Partisanship is up, trust is down and social media encourages us to believe we're right and everyone else is either ignorant, stupid or evil. But avoiding difficult conversations with those we disagree with is a big reason why our nation is so bitterly divided.Journalist Mónica Guzmán set out to discover what was blinding us and learned that the best tool we have we're not using: Our own curiosity. In this episode we learn about her personal story as the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who strongly support Donald Trump. We hear how Mónica discovered ways to overcome divisions that hurt our relationships and society.Mónica Guzmán is the author of the highly praised new book "I Never Thought Of It That Way". She serves as an advisor and storyteller at the depolarization organization, Braver Angels. "The anger and the rage that we see out there that defines our division doesn't actually exist that much on the one-to-one level," Monica told us.In this episode, Monica discusses how we can put our natural sense of wonder to work, finding the answers needed to work with people, rather than score points against them. Bridging the gap involves asking questions that help you get across the difficult divides that are causing so much pain in our families and communities. We also learn about the work of Braver Angels and hear why this month's America Talks is a good place to start when learning how to help depolarize America, one person at a time.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reform advocates are full of good intentions and worthy goals— from ending hunger to improving access to healthcare and limiting the impacts of climate change. But good intentions are not the same as good results. The efficient delivery of services is important for all citizens. In this episode, we look at how to design technology that makes the government smarter, much more efficient, and even friendlier.Amanda Renteria is CEO of Code for America, a non-profit group that uses coding and other forms of tech expertise to ensure the delivery of equitable digital tools and services. Amanda grew up in California's Central Valley, the daughter of Latino farm workers. She spent years in public service, as former National Political Director for Hillary Clinton, chief of staff for two Democratic Senators, and chief of operations for California’s Attorney General. "Nearly $60 billion in government services go unclaimed each year by people who are eligible," says Amanda. "We often talk about technology in terms of making things faster and easier but the first thing is to treat people with dignity... We try to create a welcoming front door. "In our discussion, we go under the hood to examine Code for America's work to improve government delivery of services to those who need it most— from food, income, and housing assistance to help with filling out taxes or getting something as simple as a new driver’s license. Recommendation: Both Richard and Jim enjoy games and puzzles, including Wordle and Guesstures. They're a lot of fun!Note:We are doing something special with our Patreon fundraising account, where we ask listeners for support. Until now we've been spending the money to expand our reach and gain more subscribers. But for the next 6 months, we're giving it to Ukraine relief efforts. The funds are going to charities such as Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. Please help us help people who need our money most. Here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our brains are prediction machines: How we frame everyday tasks and challenges of our lives can have a profound impact on their outcomes. In this episode, we learn about new discoveries in science that reveal the many ways our expectations shape our experience.Author and science writer David Robson is our guest. His latest book, "The Expectation Effect" cites findings from well-over 400 "robust experiments" and takes readers on a tour of cutting-edge research that uncovers new techniques to improve our fitness, productivity, intelligence, health, and happiness.We learn why people who believe aging brings wisdom live longer. Reappraising stress as something that's energizing increases your creativity under pressure.Cultivating an indulgent attitude to food may help you lose weight. Taking a placebo, even when you know it is a placebo, can still improve your health."What the latest research has just done is to tell us that if the placebo effect is happening in a doctor's office or hospital maybe it's happening all the time in everyday life," David tells "How Do We Fix It?". "Our expectations are shaping our life every minute of every day."Unlike many best-selling self-help books, David's writing and reasoning are based on years of careful research. David was surprised by what he discovered. You cannot think your way into a pile of money or out of a cancer diagnosis. But just because magical thinking is nonsense doesn’t mean rational magic doesn’t exist. Pointing to accepted psychology and objective physiology, Robson gives us practical takeaways that may well improve our fitness, productivity, intelligence, and happiness.Recommendation: Jim is reading "Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World", by Simon Winchester.Note:We are doing something special with our Patreon fundraising account, where we ask listeners for support. Until now we've been spending the money to expand our reach and gain more subscribers. But for the next 6 months, we're giving it to Ukraine relief efforts. The funds are going to charities such as Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. Please help us help people who need our money most. Here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine made Europe's energy dependence painfully clear. "We are supporting and actually financing the war by purchasing oil and gas and other fossil fuels from Russia," Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin bluntly put it.Fossil fuel energy is vital for Russia's economy, accounting for almost half of its exports. One-third of Europe's oil and as much as 40% of natural gas imports come from Russia. In this episode, we discuss how the war in Ukraine is changing the debate over fossil fuel dependency. Our guest is climate economist and Bloomberg News columnist Gernot Wagner of NYU and Columbia School of Business.The invasion has already prompted a dramatic rethink by European policymakers. The EU has pledged to sharply reduce and ultimately phase out purchases of Russian oil and gas. In an abrupt about-face, Germany halted the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline project. The unprovoked attack on Ukraine "certainly provides the moral clarity that tells us to get off fossil fuels now," Gernot tells us. "This is a fossil fuel war." As they do in almost every episode, Richard and Jim put the spotlight on solutions. Among the topics covered here:- The prospects for carbon capture technology to remove significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.- The case for a new carbon tax plus a proposed ban on natural gas in new apartment building construction.- Why building many more homes in big cities would reduce carbon emissions.- The role of nuclear power, solar, and wind in reducing the world's reliance on fossil fuels.Recommendation: Richard enjoyed watching the Danish six-part HBO series, "The Investigation". We are doing something special with our Patreon account, where we ask listeners for support. The usual appeal is: give us a few dollars each month to help boost the audience for our solutions journalism podcast. Until now we've been spending all of the money to expand our reach and gain more subscribers. But for the next 6 months we're sending all the money to Ukraine relief efforts. The money will go to charities like Doctors Without Borders and the International Red Cross. Help us help people who need our money most. Sign up here. https://www.patreon.com/howdowefixit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Democracies around the world are under threat from populist movements, demagogues, and dogmatic extremists who use disinformation, conspiracy theories, cancel culture, and shaming to weaponize social media and challenge our ability to distinguish truth from falsehood.Most recently, the Russian government has used lies and fake news to justify its attempted land grab in Ukraine. In "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth", best-selling author, journalist, and public intellectual, Jonathan Rauch, offers a stirring defense of the social system of checks and balances that is crucial for turning disagreement into verifiable facts."This global network of people hunting for each others' errors is far and away the greatest human technology ever invented," Jonathan tells us. The constitution of knowledge "is a global conversation of people looking for truth, and more especially, looking for error."In this episode of "How Do We Fix It?", Jonathan arms listeners and advocates of truth with a clear understanding of what they must protect, and how to do it. He makes a clear and moving argument for how all of us can help defend truth and free inquiry from threats that come from as far away as Russia and as close as our cellphones.Here's one of our recommended reviews of "The Constitution of Knowledge".Movie recommendation: Richard enjoyed "The Leopard", a 1963 Italian period drama by director Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, and Alain Delon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shock, surprises, and suffering are the most immediate results of all wars. Russia's brutal, yet deeply flawed invasion of Ukraine has profound implications for the West, global democracy, and the future of Europe and Russia. We hear the perspectives of two prominent thinkers, Jane Lytvynenko and Robert Kagen. Richard and Jim also share their analysis of the unexpected early outcomes of the war. This episode has extracts from an interview with Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. He spoke with podcast producer and host Jenna Spinelle of "Democracy Works". We also share part of an interview from the current episode of "Democracy in Danger" with journalist Jane Lytvynenko, who covers technology, disinformation, and now, Ukraine. She was born in Kyiv. Jane is also a senior research fellow at Harvard University's Technology and Social Change Project at the Shorenstein Center.  This podcast is produced with the generous help of the Democracy Group podcast network and the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. "I actually believe in the long run we will come out of this," says Robert Kagen. "Unfortunately, the long run may be longer than we want and we may be in this for 20 years.""Had the West stood up against the torture of protesters in Belarus, Russia would not have been able to put tanks there today," says Jane Lytvynenko. She argues for a more robust response by the West to attacks against democracy in other nations.Recommendation: Jim is reading “Mercury Rising. John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War" by Jeff Shesol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The war in Ukraine and the global response to Russia's invasion are dominating the news. But missing in much of the coverage is a sense of the country and its people. In this historic moment, we hear a riveting account of the country's recent political awakening and why Ukrainians are prepared to resist and fight.In the past century, Ukraine suffered massively during two world wars, Nazi occupation, famine, and the Chernobyl disaster. Eight years ago, during the "Revolution of Dignity", Ukranians stood up against corruption, brutality, and Russian dominance. A new democracy and civic bond were formed. The country profoundly changed."Ukranians are fighting for all of us," says our guest, Yale University historian Marci Shore, the author of “The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution.” She is a scholar of Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet era. "I'm terrified for my friends," Marci tells us. "The Ukrainians will not give up... I'm desperately hopeful that as difficult as the odds are, they are going to prevail."Recommendations for further reading about the war and today's Ukraine: Yarolav Trofimo, the Wall Street Journal’s Chief foreign correspondent, now in Kiev. Phil Stewart of Reuters and his newsfeed on Twitter, coverage from CNN's Clarissa Ward, Anderson Cooper, and Alex Marquardt in Ukraine. Background and perspective in The Economist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The invasion of Ukraine is a shocking reminder of what's at stake for democracies around the world. This moment is a stunning reminder of the vital importance of what we so often take for granted— personal freedoms and the rule of law. Despite well-advertised flaws, our constitutional system of governance is infinitely preferable to dictatorships or thuggish autocracies. In this episode, we share a conversation that touches on the relationship between voters and those who represent them, and what is meant by "representative democracy". The interview is shared with us by our friends at the "Democracy Paradox" podcast.Lisa Disch, author of the book, “Making Constituencies: Representation as Mobilization in Mass Democracy” is this week’s guest. She is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan and an elected member of the Ann Arbor City Council. She is a committed member of the Democratic Party, but her views and research should be of interest to listeners from across the political spectrum.Lisa makes a spirited defense of multi-party representative democracy as an engine for change and progress. Justin Kempf asks the questions in this interview. His podcast, “Democracy Paradox” and ours are members of the Democracy Group network, where you can hear challenging, fascinating, and sometimes difficult ideas about democracy and governance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Partisan gerrymandering— where one party gains an unfair advantage by redrawing political maps to favor its candidates— is unpopular with voters, but widespread in many states. We examine why this process devalues democracy, and how data science is being used across the country to expose many of the most egregious examples, and help voters advocate for fair and transparent redistricting. Every decade, legislators across the country come up with maps for state and congressional districts. The latest round of changes, due to be finished well before primaries are held before the 2022 midterm elections in November, is facing widespread criticism. Redistricting reformers also see strong ties between partisan and racial bias.Our guest in this episode shows citizens how they can fight back against local examples of gerrymandering by both Democrats and Republicans. Professor Sam Wang oversees the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, which runs an informative website that helps voters in every state decide if they live in an unfairly drawn legislative or Congressional District."A sense of fairness is a fundamental principle of our democracy," Professor Wang tells us. But "these fundamental principles are hard to keep sight of when a lot of the ways we talk about democracy have started to break down a bit." Additional listener resources on political reform: Dave's Redistricting App, and RepresentUs. Daily news coverage of democracy reform at The Fulcrum.Richard's recommendation this week: Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes. The book, first published in 1605, is often called the first modern novel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Best-selling author Daniel Pink admits he's pedaling against the wind. His new book, "The Power of Regret" takes on the longstanding and deeply ingrained doctrine that paying attention to our regrets is foolish. In this episode, we ask him why this notion is wrong."No regrets" is the name or theme of countless books and popular songs. Bob Dylan, Angelina Jolie, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg all advised us to live without regrets. "We think that it's courageous to say I have no regrets, but it's not," Pink tells us. "What's courageous is staring your regrets in the eye, confronting them, and doing something about them".Almost everybody has regrets. And if we acknowledge them in fresh and imaginative ways, we can enlist our regrets to make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and deepen our sense of meaning and purpose. In our solutions podcast, we hear that examining what we regret the most helps us understand what we value the most.Pink draws on research in psychology, neuroscience, economics, and biology to challenge widely-held assumptions about emotions and behavior. He also questioned people about their regrets and conducted his own World Regret Survey, which has collected regrets from more than 16,000 people in 105 countries.Recommendation: Jim often listens to the podcast, "Blocked and Reported", hosted by journalists Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.