America is deeply divided.

There are only two sides to every issue, and there is no interest in finding common ground,

not even with members of your own family.

But as the 2024 presidential election looms on the horizon, there has never been a more important time to have the necessary conversation.

Welcome to another episode of The Necessary Conversation. This is a show that involves myself

and my sister, who are both liberal-leaning, having conversations with our parents parents who are both Trump supporters, complete

Republicans, complete right-winger. And usually to do this show, I go through the news and I

pull four topics from the week that seem to have very different coverage or viewpoints

coming from the right and the left.

But dad, last week, we opened the show with a thing called the opening complaint.

Your complaint was that this show itself, the very show that you're on, is not fair to you in that I'm always coming from the left and making you defend yourself and defend your position

as a Trump voter and a right-wing person generally.

So I told you anytime you wanted to produce the show you could.

And that is what has happened this week.

This week, you, yes, this week, my mom and dad have come up with the topics and my mom has written the little paragraphs,

or if you want to call them that sentences, I suppose, outlining the topic.

So we're going to be going through these topics that my mom and dad have selected.

And we're going to be asking the questions that they want to ask.

But before we get to any of that, as we always do on this show, one person gets a complaint to talk on without an interruption.

You can ask questions if you want to later.

So far, I'm the only person who hasn't gotten one.

So I'm going to give myself the opening complaint.

...