Local Common Ground: Dinner and a Fight. Simon Miontlake, Ted Wetzel, Tom Hach

Let's Find Common Ground

USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future

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5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Want to know one of the most exciting and innovative ways to find common ground? Get people out of their political bunkers and move them beyond rigid polarization in our divided nation. Consider local grassroots efforts, such as the one we profile in this podcast episode. Journalist Simon Montlake of The Christian Science Monitor tells us about his reporting on a lively grassroots effort in northeast Ohio to help people of all political stripes disagree constructively. Participants meet first over dinner at a community center and then debate a hot topic. The audience is invited to discuss a controversial proposition, listening to different points of view. It’s called Dinner and a Fight with the word "fight" crossed out and replaced by "dialog". Event organizers Ted Wetzel and Tom Hach explain how the evenings work and why they can be part of a broader effort to rebuild civic bonds. Ted is the founder and executive director of Fighting-To-Understand, a nonprofit group that encourages people to be more skilled at healthy disagreement. Former IT program manager and retired Navy Reservist Tom Hach is the Director of Ohio Freedom Action Network (OhioFAN). Please tell us what you think! Share your feedback in this short survey. For every survey completed we’ll plant 5 trees. Common Ground Podcast Feedback Survey (qualtrics.com)

Transcript

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0:00.0	How do we bring people together and get Americans of different viewpoints,
0:04.0	ethnic, racial and social backgrounds in the same room,
0:07.6	talking and listening to one another about some of the most divisive issues of the day?
0:12.2	That's what this episode is all about.
0:20.0	This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Ashley Melntite.
0:24.0	And I'm Richard Davies. Dinner and a fight
0:27.0	is the playful and provocative name for a series of grassroots events in Northeast Ohio.
0:33.7	This local series of meetings on controversial topics may be one of the most innovative ways
0:39.4	to get people out of their political bunkers.
0:42.7	Find Common Ground and move beyond rigid polarization.
0:46.7	We'll speak with the organizers, but first we're going to hear from journalist Simon Montlake
0:51.3	of the Christian Science Monitor. He went to one of these dinners and dialogues
0:55.8	and spoke with those involved. Let's find out more about them and why they're needed.
1:01.5	Welcome and thank you for joining us. It's a pleasure to be here.
1:06.0	How divided are we right now in America? Let's kick off with that question.
1:12.6	It's a high one to answer. I mean, very divided in terms of people's political preferences,
1:18.2	and particularly when they're primed by hot moments, hot coverage, animated conversation,
1:25.4	but on the other hand, I've sat in groups of people who disagree, who manage to get along just
1:32.4	fine talking both about those issues and then turn to things that they do like.
1:36.8	I always find it fascinating if you just listen to sports coverage in this country and people
1:42.8	are obsessed with sports. People feel very passionately about their team, their players,
1:48.2	but they can also discuss with partisans from other teams about the sport itself and about
	...

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