How to have curious conversations in dangerously divided times (w/ Mónica Guzmán)
How to Be a Better Human
TED
4.1 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When was the last time you really connected with someone who disagrees with you? Or saw a post on social media that challenged your views? Or listened to a newscast from across the political aisle? Modern life places us in all kinds of echo chambers – so what happens when these divides stop us from actually seeing and understanding one another? Today’s guest, journalist Mónica Guzmán, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted –twice– for Donald Trump. Now the chief storyteller for “Braver Angels”, an organization dedicated to political depolarization, Monica shares the tools she uses to find common ground with her loved ones. She talks about why interacting with (and listening to) different points of view is critical work – and how through curiosity we can achieve the seemingly impossible task of understanding those we tend to think of as our enemy. Her book, “I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times” is out now.
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| 0:00.0 | Ted Audio Collective. |
| 0:02.0 | Audio Collective. |
| 0:04.0 | You're listening to How to Bea |
| 0:09.0 | You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. |
| 0:11.0 | I'm your host Chris Duffy. The episode of |
| 0:14.7 | this podcast that has the very worst reviews that we've ever gotten in the two |
| 0:18.2 | years we've been making this show is an episode that we did on how to talk to |
| 0:22.2 | people across a political divide. |
| 0:24.0 | And that was no fault at all of our guests. |
| 0:26.0 | Our guest was fantastic. |
| 0:28.0 | The negative reviews were basically because every single one of the questions that I asked was some version of |
| 0:33.5 | how do I convince conservatives to realize that they're wrong and I'm right? And look |
| 0:38.3 | it's certainly not lost on me that there's a hilarious irony in me trying to |
| 0:42.2 | host an episode about communicating across a political divide, |
| 0:45.6 | and then managing to alienate every single person who is on the other side of the political divide from me. |
| 0:50.7 | So much so, that they felt compelled to give us zero stars and tell me that I am a condescending |
| 0:55.3 | jerk. And worse, they're not wrong. I was being a condescending jerk. So today, let's see if maybe I can do a little bit better this time. |
| 1:05.0 | Today's guest, Monica Guzman, is an expert in curiosity. |
| 1:09.0 | She's the author of the fantastic book, I never thought of it that way how to have fearlessly |
| 1:14.0 | curious conversations in dangerously divided times here's a clip from her |
| 1:18.4 | TEDx talk after the election in 2016 I found a foolproof way to stop conversation. I would |
| 1:28.7 | tell groups of my fellow Seattle liberals that my parents who I love to death and see every weekend |
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