This TED Talk features journalist Yakin Wegener recorded live at TED Summit 2019.

Now, this is Joanna. Joanna works at a university in Poland. And one Saturday morning at 3 a.m.

She got up, packed her rucksick, and traveled more than a thousand kilometers,

only to have a political argument with a stranger.

And his name is Christoph, and he's a customer manager from Germany,

and the two had never met before.

They only knew that they were totally at odds over European politics,

over migration, or the relationship to Russia or whatever.

And they were arguing for almost one day.

And after that, Joanna sent me a somewhat irritating email.

That was really cool, and I enjoyed every single minute of it.

Tom from the UK and Niels from Germany,

they also were strangers and they are both supporters of their local football team, as you may mention, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspurs. And so they met on a very spot where

football rules were invented in some field in Cambridge.

And they didn't argue about football, but about Brexit.

And after talking for many hours about this contentious topic,

they also sent a rather unexpected email.

It was delightful, and we both enjoyed it very much.

So in spring 2019, more than 17,000 Europeans from 33 countries signed up to have a political argument.

Thousands crossed their borders to meet a stranger with a different opinion,

and they were all part of a project called Europe talks.

Now, talking about politics amongst people with different opinions has become really difficult,

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