A Braver Way
Done with the divisiveness in our politics and ready to do something about it? Host Monica Guzman is joined by guests from across the political spectrum to unearth tools, insights, and messy real life stories that can guide you over the divide in your everyday life. So whether you’re Red, Blue, or something entirely different, “A Braver Way” will help you hear and be heard by people who confound you.
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Ask me anything
01/23/2024
Ask me anything
Mónica is joined by four friends in bridge building to answer your toughest questions about our shared mission of connecting across the political divide. Angel Eduardo, April Lawson, Manu Meel and Wilk Wilkinson get real about the challenges, opportunities, and misconceptions about our movement - are we all just a bunch of squishy centrists that brush deep concerns under the rug? And how can we possibly be expected to talk to someone who doesn’t even think we have a right to exist? These are questions with no easy answers and we tackle them head on. Finally, find out what Superman, Taylor Swift and Kirk Cousins have in common as we cap off the first season of A Braver Way. - Article by Angel Eduardo - Gangstagrass in the New York Times Apply to attend the Braver Angels National Convention: Learn more and apply to attend Submit a question: If you’ve found yourself mulling on a concern or reflection as you’ve listened, turn it into a question and share it with us in a quick email to [email protected]. Subscribe: If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review! Show Notes and Trascript: https://braverangels.org/a-braver-way-episode-10/
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Can we fix what COVID broke? (Part 2)
01/09/2024
Can we fix what COVID broke? (Part 2)
In Part two of this two-part story, Dr. Francis Collins, former head of the National Institutes of Health during COVID, and Travis Tripodi, a strong conservative critic of the US COVID response Dr. Collins helped shape, attempt the impossible — sparring on everything from vaccine mandates to natural immunity freely, fully, and without losing it. What does their collision achieve? And what does it leave hanging? April Lawson joins Mónica to break down this extraordinary conversation and figure out what it takes for the rest of us to tackle the hardest political disagreements we face… without getting burned. Study: (December 31, 2020) Study: (August 25, 2021) (April 9, 2021) Additional Background: Additional Background: (May 7, 2021) Braver Angels Debates: Learn more and register here: Submit a question: If you’ve found yourself mulling on a concern or reflection as you’ve listened, turn it into a question and share it with us in a quick email to . Mónica and friends will be answering questions on an upcoming episode. Subscribe: If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review! Share this episode: Follow us: | | |
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Can we fix what COVID broke? (Part 1)
01/09/2024
Can we fix what COVID broke? (Part 1)
How do you talk about a monster of an issue when the two sides are so far apart? Mónica brings together two unlikely guests to find out: Dr. Francis Collins, a man who helped shape the U.S. COVID response (and was Dr. Fauci’s boss!), and Travis Tripodi, a New Hampshire resident who believes that response was deeply wrong and misguided. In Part one of this two part story, Francis and Travis describe how they weathered very different challenges during the pandemic, their radically different perspectives on what went wrong during the crisis, and the extraordinary way that their perspectives first collided last summer in Gettysburg. What makes COVID disagreements so painfully divisive in the first place? Mónica and April follow up to unpack the giant barriers that complicate these conversations, and how their experiences both during the pandemic and in its aftermath have shaped their own novel perceptions on power, truth and morality. Additional Background: Additional Background: (May 7, 2021) Braver Angels Convention Panel: Submit a question: If you’ve found yourself mulling on a concern or reflection as you’ve listened, turn it into a question and share it with us in a quick email to . We love hearing what our episodes are bringing up for you! Subscribe: If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review! Share this episode: Follow us: | | | Become a member of Braver Angels at
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How can we cure our social blindness?
12/19/2023
How can we cure our social blindness?
Mónica welcomes David Brooks, author and New York Times columnist, to break down an essential and endangered skill for talking politics - hearing deeply and being deeply heard. David shares a bounty of tips and stories from throughout his career, including a public discussion where he says he failed both at understanding another person and at making sure he could be understood. Then April joins Mónica to ask what it all means for liberals and conservatives, and we hear from a man who runs a Pennsylvania barbershop where debating diverse viewpoints is on the house. Submit a question: If you’ve found yourself mulling on a concern or reflection as you’ve listened, turn it into a question and share it with us in a quick email to . Mónica and friends will be answering questions on an upcoming episode. Subscribe: If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review! Show notes, transcripts and other episode details Follow us: | | |
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How do we bridge the class divide?
12/05/2023
How do we bridge the class divide?
Mónica asks author Chris Arnade how he’s bridged one of the trickiest divides in America by going to parts of the country that others dismiss. Chris shares what he sees differently now and what both our big political “sides” are missing when they claim to fight for the working class. Then we hear from Corrie, a wife and mother who shares what the class divide looks and feels like for someone in her position as she struggles to make ends meet. : An initiative from Braver Angels. We the People’s Project is a working-class coalition of conservatives, progressives, and independents working to build a house united in America. • Submit a question: If you’ve found yourself mulling on a concern or reflection as you’ve listened, turn it into a question and share it with us in a quick email to . Mónica and friends will be answering questions on an upcoming episode. • Subscribe: If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review! • Share this episode: • Follow us: | | | Supporting Partners: All of our supporting partners are members of . • : empowers everyday people to work within their communities and members of Congress on climate change solutions.
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How can you handle being ‘triggered’?
11/21/2023
How can you handle being ‘triggered’?
Mónica talks to Luis Mojica, a therapist who’s learned loads from his patients about how we physically react to intense political disagreement… and what we can do about it. Luis sheds light on what happens to us when we feel “triggered” by something someone says, and the two share tips and bold ideas on everything from how you can feel more secure in tough conversations to where that all-important line might be between what’s painful and what’s harmful. Then Mónica, a liberal, joins her conservative friend April to break down where Reds and Blues seem good and not so good with these strategies… and Moni recounts a tense exchange with a critic where all the trauma responses Luis talked about — fight, flight, freeze, and fawn — showed up big. Submit a question: Send questions for our ask me anything episode to Subscribe: If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, and leave us a 5 star review! Share this episode: Follow us: | | | Supporting Partners: All of our supporting partners are members of .
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How can we disagree better?
11/07/2023
How can we disagree better?
Spencer Cox, the Republican governor of Utah, and Troy Williams, the activist at the head of Utah’s most active LGBTQ rights organization, don’t buy the notion that a good way to stand for the ideas on your side is to attack the people on the other. Reflecting on their sometimes contentious relationship, the two talk with Mónica about how they’ve both been able to advance their sides through honest dialogue and good-faith engagement, resulting in some surprising win-win policy outcomes for the people in their state. Featured Song: - Hillary Rollins and Michele Brourman A Braver Way is a production of . We get financial support from the and Reclaim Curiosity. If you’ve found yourself mulling on a concern or reflection as you’ve listened, turn it into a question and share it with us in a quick email to . Mónica and friends will be answering questions on an upcoming episode. If you like what you’ve heard, hit subscribe, give us that 5 star review, and share this episode with your friends all across the political spectrum and, um, any elected representatives you happen to know? We’d love to hear from them! Follow us on Instagram at @abraverway - National Governor’s Association Chair’s Initiative - LGBTQ Civil Rights Organization - Artists in Residence
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How can you talk politics in a divided family?
10/24/2023
How can you talk politics in a divided family?
In this special episode, Mónica — a liberal — joins the two people she’s argued with most — her conservative parents — for a candid conversation about one family’s struggles with a political divide that cuts right through their own home. Looking back on the biggest disagreements that tested their relationships, like Moni’s pro-choice stance on abortion and her parents’ votes for Donald Trump, they open up about the strategies that keep them talking. *** A Braver Way is produced with financial support from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and Reclaim Curiosity.
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How do you bridge a legacy of pain?
10/24/2023
How do you bridge a legacy of pain?
Mónica talks to two friends whose lives changed in profound ways when they discovered that the family of one had owned the family of the other as slaves. Exploring our racial and religious divides as well as our political ones, their conversation takes on tough questions about how we honor past and future in our shared story, and the role repentance and forgiveness can play in relationships burdened by pain. *** A Braver Way is produced with financial support from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and Reclaim Curiosity.
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How did Lincoln do it?
10/24/2023
How did Lincoln do it?
Mónica talks to historian Ron C. White to find out how our nation’s most renowned bridge builder disagreed fully and freely with those around him while leading the nation through the Civil War. Taking a closer look at private notes Lincoln wrote to himself, the two explore everything from how to approach deep moral disagreements to what to do with your anger with the injustice you see. *** A Braver Way is produced with financial support from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and Reclaim Curiosity.
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A Braver Way - Trailer
09/27/2023
A Braver Way - Trailer
Done with the divisiveness in our politics and ready to do something about it? Host Monica Guzman is joined by guests from across the political spectrum to unearth tools, insights, and messy real life stories that can guide you over the divide in your everyday life. So whether you’re Red, Blue, or something entirely different, “A Braver Way” will help you hear and be heard by people who confound you.
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