Flying Pig Academy: Walk Away from That Box OR Why Fixing Civil Discourse Requires Less Politics, not more
Village SquareCast
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. The Flying Pig Academy is kind of an insider's how to. This Flying Pig Episode: Politics are a mess, the American electorate is fed up. So what do we do about it? Way too many of us doom scroll through the latest political news from the comfort of our couch in the suburbs. Rightly...
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UNUM Series: Our Common Purpose with Dr. Laurie Patton
Village SquareCast
As we begin our reflections of the 250th year of our shared experiment—in the 5th season of our UNUM series—we are truly honored to bring you the current president of The American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Fresh from the founding of a brand new country with a Big Idea (but still in the throes of the Revolution), John Adams was among the founders of the storied . Devoted to bringing diverse thinkers, professions and talents to the task of creating and communicating knowledge to serve this new nation, the earliest members of the Academy included George Washington and Thomas Jefferson....
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Flying Pig Academy: Core Catalyst Model OR What Old Trees Have to Teach Us About Rebuilding Civic Life
Village SquareCast
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. This Flying Pig Episode: So how in the world do you build a community of people who look and think differently at a time when birds of a feather are not only flocking together, but not really caring too much for different kinds of birds? It’s easier than you thought if you begin with...
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Flying Pig Academy: Criss Cross Applesauce OR Complexity Changes Everything
Village SquareCast
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. This Flying Pig Episode: If you’re trying to build community in this fractured time (for anything), have we got a hack for you. At a time when binaries rule the day (you’re either with “us” or “them,” with us or against us), “complicating the narrative” between groups...
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UNUM: Invisible Rulers, with Renee DiResta
Village SquareCast
We’re making our way through a time of extreme disruption, led by rapid transformation in technology, especially in how we communicate information. According to our special guest Renée DiResta, the way power and influence have been profoundly transformed reveals how a virtual rumor mill of niche propagandists increasingly shapes public opinion. By revealing the machinery and dynamics of the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds, DiResta vividly illustrates the way propagandists deliberately undermine belief in the fundamental legitimacy of institutions that make...
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God Squad: America Fourth?
Village SquareCast
We’re wondering if the secret to a healthy America is to… wait for it… put “America Fourth!” Perhaps too much of our lives are now wrapped up in this life or death, us v. them struggle for us to be happy people. According to political scientist Eitan Hersh, this is making us who need to get a life? What if we can rediscover other higher loves — faith, family, art, travel, Star Wars trivia, whatever floats your particular boat. And in finding our loves again, maybe we even find each other? Facilitated by Pastor Latricia Scriven of St. Paul's United Methodist Church...
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Flying Pig Academy: Carom Shots OR how to become a civility pool shark
Village SquareCast
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. The bigger, gnarlier and more all-encompassing a conflict grows, the more we naturally rush right to its epicenter to try to break it up. It demands so much attention it’s hard to look away. But we’re going to give you our hottest tip for handling the most difficult...
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Flying Pig Academy: How Jonathan Haidt Wrote THE Book for Pigs with Higher Aspirations
Village SquareCast
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address. The second in the series, after "Location, Location, Location" is an homage to our intellectual hero (and lucky for us, our friend and colleague) Dr. Jonathan Haidt who - literally - wrote the book for Pigs With Big Dreams. Miss the first Flying Pig Academy Episode? . Oh and if you...
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UNUM Series: OUTRAGED with Dr. Kurt Gray
Village SquareCast
Why does it feel like those on the “other side” are not just different but dangerous? According to our special guest UNC psychologist in his new book the conflict lies in our human instinct to protect ourselves and the ones we love from harm. Find the program . This program is part of the series in partnership with Florida Humanities — “UNUM: Democracy Reignited,” a multi-year digital offering exploring the past, present and future of the American idea — as it exists on paper, in the hearts of our people, and as it manifests (or sometimes fails to manifest) in...
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God Squad: Ten Paces at High Noon
Village SquareCast
We have become a most tediously offended people. We’re not talking about the big stuff — it’s the “little” things we wonder about. “Sticks and stones may break my bones” and “water off a duck’s back” seem quaint and anachronistic in today’s culture of maximal aggrievement. Provoked by even the slightest offense — that, mind you, we seem to be on constant vigilance to find — we’re on a hair trigger that sends us into conjuring up “us vs. them” and “good vs. evil” thinking and language. Scholars have written that this sad state of affairs reflects a...
info_outlineFind the full program online here — and meet The God Squad: https://tlh.villagesquare.us/event/canceled/.
We’re living in a time when a bad choice of words (much less a deeply held countercultural opinion) can tank your career, in a media environment where some are doing a near-professional job of elevating being offensive to an art form—almost begging to be “canceled” by those who care about maintaining at least a kindergarten-level decorum. Our culture wars have blinded us—gone are the deepest underpinnings of pluralism, where legitimately held beliefs are respected, even when they clash fiercely with our own. Never mind being canceled, this environment has many of us self-editing—choosing simply to not express ourselves so as to avoid risk altogether. So how’s a person to live free in a culture that’s this hostile and toxic to diverse opinion?
We’re going to call on the better angels of our nature — and The God Squad — to see if we can get back to a generosity of spirit where we support each other’s right to live free by our conscience and beliefs — no matter how profoundly we disagree.
Joining us for this God Squad are Father Tim Holeda of St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral, Latricia Scriven of Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church, Betsy Ouellette Zierden former Pastor at Good Samaritan UMC, Gary Shultz of First Baptist Church, and Rabbi Paul Sidlofsky of Temple Israel. Facilitated by Stefanie Posner of Temple Israel.
The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This program is part of a larger project "Healing Starts Here" funded by New Pluralists. Learn more about our project, and other inspiring grantees here.