News In Context

In this episode, we explore the power of language – both the words we use and the larger context of narratives and stories we tell. My guest is Karen Yin – author of The Conscious Style Guide, and founder and curator of ConsciousStyleGuide.com — which has been called “A timeless, indispensable guide for anyone who wants to communicate with sensitivity and compassion.” (Photo Credit:Paul Beauchemin)

Welcome to News in Context. I’m Gina Baleria. In this episode, we explore how bridging by building relationships and being curious can connect people across differences - as well as provide lessons for news organizations that seek to inform. My guest is Monica Guzman, Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels; and author of I never thought of it that way: How to have fearlessly curious conversations in dangerously divided times.

In this episode, we explore the importance of strong neighborhood and community relationships to the health of nations… and discuss how many neighborhoods in the U.S. don’t have strong local ties and need structural and systemic help. My guest is Seth Kaplan - Author of Fragile Neighborhoods Repairing American Society One Zip Code at a Time. Seth is also an international relations expert whose job is to help fragile states around the world. He consults with organizations such as the World Bank and U.S. State Department, and he teaches international relations at Johns Hopkins University. This is Civity Week on News in Context. Civity is a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different moving from Us vs. Them to We All Belong.

In this episode, we explore how much of the information we get is mediated - edited - and we all get different edits based on what the algorithm thinks we want. This means we see and understand things differently, and that has contributed to polarization and othering. My Guest is Riaz Patel, executive producer and director focusing on reality shows with positive transformations. His show The Connect Effect seeks to counter the edits we all see by bringing people face-to-face, so they can build relationships without labels that define us in the media. This can help reduce polarization and increase connection.

In Part Two of my conversation with Chesa Boudin, we explore how his experiences as a child have informed his approach to criminal justice, and his efforts to seek reforms to how we engage with both the accused and the victims of crime. We also discuss the importance of communicating – both providing data and sharing stories – to help people understand context and demand policies that keep us all safer. And we touch on the challenges of actually implementing change in the face of the status quo. Chesa Boudin is former San Francisco DA and now founding executive director of the newly created Criminal Law & Justice Center at UC Berkeley School of Law.

In this episode, we explore how economic issues are often talked about in ways that minimize the needs of those who may not have the means to withstand recessions, contractions, or other economic downturns. This issue takes on greater urgency in an era of trying to control inflation… and deal with recent regional bank failures. My guest is Lynn Parramore, writer and researcher with the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

In this episode, we explore how engaging across our racial and class divides can help bring us together to care for and nurture our democracy. My guest is Ian Haney López, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, and author of several books, including Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class, and Merge Left: Fusing Race & Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America. López says strategic racism is a deeply corrosive force, and he’s is exploring how to counter its effects by encouraging people to come together across racial divides, so we can focus on our commonalities… develop shared understandings of what we want from democracy and our elected officials, and work together to improve society. López developed the Race-Class Narrative Project and the Race-Class Academy to counter dog-whistle politics and build cross-racial and cross-class solidarity. This is Part Two of our interview. Hear Part One at NewsInContext.net.

In this episode, we explore a massive new study on improving the health of democracy. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge invited more than 30-thousand people to engage with 25 interventions. The goal was to find ways to reduce things like partisan animosity, partisan violence, and anti-democratic attitudes, and increase social trust and a willingness to engage with people across socially salient differences. An intervention from the nonprofit, Civity, was one of 25 chosen from a pool of 250-plus… and it was number 1 at increasing social trust, number 2 in decreasing social distance and opposition to bipartisanshi, and number 4 in reducing partisan animosity. Civity’s relational, story-based intervention also reduced support for un-democratic practices and helped people accept others from across the political divide. We talk with researcher Robb Willer, professor of sociology, psychology, and organizational behavior at Stanford University; as well as Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab… and Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.

In this episode, we talk with Melissa Weintraub, founder & co-executive director of Resetting the Table. Resetting the table focuses on building dialogue and deliberation across political divides, focusing on seemingly intractable differences that are breeding distrust, a lack of empathy, and marginalization. To learn more about Resetting the Table, and to view the film Purple – which uncovers humanity beneath our national conflicts - go to resettingthetable.org/purple.

It’s no secret that polarization is deepening divides across the US. Over the past few years, many people have started or joined what are called bridging organizations to try and bring people together across those divides and help people bridge their differences by cultivating relationships -helping us see each other’s humanity and connecting on commonalities. The hope is that this helps us work together to solve the problems in our communities and society. In this episode, we welcome Graham Bodie, professor of integrated marketing communication at the University of Mississippi, and chief listening officer with the Listen First Project. This is Civity Week on News in Context. Civity is a culture of deliberately engaging in relationships of respect and empathy with others who are different - moving people from us-versus-them to we-all-belong. Listen First also bridges, focusing its efforts on elevating the impact, visibility, and voice of organizations doing bridging work We explore how Listen First brings bridging organizations together, and works to bring more people to the experience of connecting across differences, and scale the work of bridging divides in communities across the U.S. We also discuss the act of listening itself, the importance of learning how to listen, and what listening looks like in different contexts.

In this episode, we continue our conversation with Stanford political scientist Dr. Kathryn Stoner… on the context of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law; Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Political Scientist at Stanford; and Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution. Stoner is also the author of Russia Resurrected. Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order. This is Part Two of my interview with Dr. Stoner… You can hear Part One at Newsincontext.net.

In this episode, we explore the historical and geo-political context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the role and actions of NATO. As we watch and read about Putin’s brutal actions in Ukraine and how they are affecting the people who live there, many of us find ourselves wondering why this is happening at all. Discussing this with me today is Dr. Amir Weiner, Director of the Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at Stanford University.

In this episode, we discuss vaccines – the science that has brought us such an incredible solution to public health crises; the human response to vaccines, mandates, and scientific information; and how misinformation has derailed clear communication. My guest is Greta Keenan, program specialist for science & society at the World Economic Forum. Photo Credit: Wellcome Images