The Braver Angels Podcast

Why has America struggled so mightily to control the coronavirus compared to other countries? Is there something about American identity or culture that renders us uniquely ill suited to managing this crisis? What do we mean by "cancel culture?" And how can we promote the values of free speech while making sure marginalized voices are heard?    Ciaran O'Connor hosts a deep and candid roundtable with April Lawson, Monica Guzman, and Greg Steinbrecher.

What are the forces driving the breakdown in our media system? How do media polarization, hyperpartisanship, and disinformation threaten our values and democracy? And what can we do about it?? Ciaran O'Connor talks to the leaders of two organizations working to free people from filter bubbles so they can better understand the world, surmount the business model challenges that have driven the news media towards hyperpartisanship, and help Americans forge a shared reality in which to understand and analyze our nation's most important issues. John Gable is the Cofounder and CEO of AllSides, which provides daily news and issues from all perspectives -- left, center, right, and everything in between, to provide a fuller picture of what is really going on. Nathaniel Barling is the Cofounder and CEO of Knowhere, a news organization dedicated to establishing the facts as they are, on the global, national, and local stories that matter, and integrating machine learning deeply into the newsroom.

Can gay rights activists and proponents of religious liberty build the trust and understanding needed to find common ground? Or is this divide destined to be a zero-sum fight?   Jonathan Rauch is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He's also a gay man who helped lead the movement to legalize same-sex marriage.   Glenn Stanton is the Director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, a senior contributor to The Federalist, and an opponent of same-sex marriage.    Jon and Glenn are longtime ideological adversaries -- and good friends.   In this episode, Braver Angels co-founder Bill Doherty leads a passionate and candid discussion between the two men on the topic of LGBTQ rights and religious liberty in the context of recent Supreme Court decisions relevant to the divide.

In different ways, Joy Donnell and Maleena Lawrence are on the front lines of the cultural and political struggle against "White Supremacy." The idea of white supremacy holding sway over the dominant institutions and culture of American life strikes many Americans as outrageous whereas for many other Americans this truth is almost self-evident. But what do people actually mean by white supremacy? Joy Donnell, founder of the Center for Intersectional Media and Entertainment, and Maleena Lawrence, founder of Deeprooted Entertainment, take us deep into their own perspectives and experiences with white supremacy in this special Braver Angels sit-down. With Monica Guzman and John Wood, Jr. www.braverangels.org Follow on Twitter @braverangels @doitinpublic [Joy Donnell] @MaleenaLawrence @moniguzman @JohnRWoodJr

This is a conversation like few others. Bob Woodson and Hawk Newsome are among the most important voices in black America today, but their politics couldn't be any more different on the surface. Hawk Newsome is the chairman and former president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York. Bob Woodson advised the Reagan administration, the Bush administration and is a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Woodson is an independent black conservative and frequent Fox News contributor while Newsome is considered one of the most radical voices in today's social justice movement. Yet both men have fought their way up from modest beginnings to become leading voices in the conversation over racism and the future of black America. Newsome and Woodson collide in spectacular fashion in a conversation that is at times explosive and at times converges in profound agreement. John Wood, Jr. moderates as Newsome and Woodson represent the wide range of social, political and generational perspectives of the Civil Rights Movement, addressing black history, racism, the future of black America and their own striking life experiences. This back and forth that is guaranteed to give you an understanding of the range and depth of black perspectives in America that you did not have before. This conversation is brought to you as a part of Braver Angels 2020. Learn more and get involved at www.braverangels.org Follow: Twitter: @IamHawkNewsome @BobWoodson @JohnRWoodJr @braverangels

How can America move from a politics of hate to a politics of love? Ciaran O'Connor interviews Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig.

A columnist at Quillette Magazine, a contributor to Citi Journal and a person who has testified before the House of Representatives on the subject of reparations, Coleman Hughes is a writer and public commentator who has been celebrated for his sober analysis of issues relating to race in America. He joins John Wood, Jr. to talk about the statistics illustrating the nuanced reality of police violence towards African-Americans and the ways in which experience may help shape our viewpoint of social realities. You'll hear some viewpoints here you won't hear many other places. www.braverangels.org Twitter: @coldxman @JohnRWoodJr @braverangels

Tara Isabella Burton, one of the most interesting rising commentators on religion (broadly-defined!) in the American public square, joins April Lawson and Luke Nathan Phillips on the Braver Angels Podcast to discuss her new book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World. Why do Americans in a secularizing age seem to find spiritual fulfillment in corners as dark and strange as Bronze Age Pervert and SoulCycle? To what degree are America's polarized and identitarian squabbles about politics something akin to theological conflicts and religious revivals? Is there anything we can learn from America's history of religious experimentation to help us cope? Listen in for an engaging conversation on some extremely eccentric, incredibly human, and quintessentially American ways of understanding the social and spiritual world.

Braver Angels leaders John Wood, Jr. and April Lawson are joined by author, social psychologist and Braver Angels board member Jonathan Haidt to discuss the historical and psychological paths by which the United States has found itself looking over the cliff of chaotic social divisions – and wrestle with how we forge a positive path into the future.

Political commentator and author Sally Kohn returns to the Braver Angels Podcast to talk about her personal path to social justice advocacy, her empathy for conservative America and the battle to be aware of our own prejudices.