How My View Grew

If you’re weary of political polarization, nothing is more refreshing than nuanced thinking: ideas that reveal the complexity of what’s wrong in the world and how to make it better. But where does such thinking come from? Often, it’s from someone changing their mind—letting go of an old perspective and growing into a new one. Join executive coach Amiel Handelsman as he interviews nuanced thinkers about the origin stories of their big ideas. Each story offers a window into one of humanity’s greatest challenges like climate change, democracy, the culture wars, the wealth gap, Ukraine, and Israel. In weeks between interviews, Amiel offers tips for training your mind to navigate complex topics and difficult conversations.

The Final Five Minutes 01/20/2026

Reclaiming Power and Agency When Everyone's Depressed (with David Storey) 11/12/2025

Six Ideas for Democrats Who Have Not Given Up 10/08/2025

Status Differences Matter 09/24/2025

Five Thoughts That Are Not Profound Or Useful 07/31/2025

David Storey (Part 2): Alpha Energy Plus Economic Populism Plus Christianity Equals? 07/16/2025

David Storey (Part 1): Raw Egg Nationalists and the Rise of the Manosphere 07/02/2025

No Kings Protest—Kudos and Disappointment 06/18/2025

Greg Thomas: Can Injustice Catalyze a Hero's Journey? 05/28/2025

Two Audacious Ideas for a Post-Trump America (Really) 05/16/2025

Seven Causes of Trump Mafia State Fatigue 05/08/2025

Ten Bright Spots in the First 100 Days 05/02/2025

Nine Suggestions For Facing An American Warlord 04/16/2025

"They Would Never Do That" 03/26/2025

Ari Weinzweig: Can Workplace Dignity Prevent Political Tyranny? 03/19/2025

Ari Weinzweig: Can Workplace Dignity Prevent Political Tyranny? The first two months of the new Administration in Washington DC have brought shocking degrees of chaos and disruption. Many people who didn't vote for the current President feel like they've been punched in the face and knocked to the ground. How in a situation like this do you get back up? What actions can you take to lift your mood and make things in the world better? This week's guest on How My View Grew, which launches season three of the podcast, is no stranger to this dilemma. Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the Zingerman's Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, knows something about getting crushed by a global shock and then finding a way to get back up. In his case, the event was Russia's brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. How he got back up was by learning about Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and then using this as inspiration to bring dignity into the workplace. Ari's story offers a lesson about how to respond to disturbing and horrific events. It also raises a startling question: if millions of people felt a sense of dignity in the workplace, would they vote for demagogues claiming "you've been screwed" and promising to "fix it" for them? Or might they instead say, "No thanks. I'm good. If you want to be an autocrat, move to Russia?" **Key takeaways** 5:00 When Ari was unconsciously competent at dignity 10:00 "Putin isn't going to call me for advice" 14:00 Inspiration from Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity 25:00 Honoring dignity doesn't take more time 27:00 Being authentic without dumping on others 32:00 Showing employees the financial numbers 36:00 "Maybe it's not because they're lazy." 43:00 Slipping daily and then gamefilming 45:30 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928360

How to Escape the Drama Triangle 01/22/2025

Kim Stanley Robinson: How can humans reverse climate change? 01/08/2025

Kim Stanley Robinson: How can humans reverse climate change? Kim Stanley ("Stan") Robinson is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular science fiction novelists, first famous for his Mars Trilogy. For the past two decades, Stan has been telling vivid stories in which climate change is catastrophic yet people invent ways of reversing it. What he imagines is so bold it takes your breath away, then fills you with hope and resolve that you didn't know existed within you. In his Science in the Capital trilogy, a Washington DC thriller, National Zoo animals roam the capital after a massive flood. The Gulf Stream shuts down. Then a tiny U.S. government agency with bold leadership funds massive global climate projects. That plus the election of an inspiring everyman new President saves the day. Two decades later, Ministry for the Future tells a very different heroic tale. Here the protagonist is a new international agency based in Zurich led by an Irishwoman. After a massive heat wave in Indian kills millions, she gets kidnapped by one of its survivors and eventually answers her captor's challenge to do more. She persuades central bankers to back a "carbon coin" that changes the rules of the economic game. Companies now earn money by keeping oil in the ground, slowing Antarctica's melting, and investing in other projects on a scale commensurate with the climate catastrophe. What led Robinson to dramatically rethink his bold ideas for reversing climate change? What can we learn from this about climate economics and the financial rules in capitalism? How might this learning shift us into more constructive moods as we face seemingly insurmountable challenges? Join me in exploring these questions in this new episode of How My View Grew. **Key takeaways** 4:00 A DC thriller: the Gulf Stream slows down. Washington floods. Science and government save the day 12:00 Stan gets criticized about economics and responds by reading more deeply. The virtues and limits of nationalizing banks. 18:00 A new view of money and lessons from the 2008 financial crisis 23:00 Paying companies to green the planet, changing the economic game 28:45 Stop asking "Is it to late?" Focus instead on better versus worse 33:30 Telling good stories that our culture ignores 35:00 Stan's message to the Left: get over it 40:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928370

Depolarize Politics by Escaping the Drama Triangle 12/25/2024

Lene Rachel Andersen: Can Teaching History Prevent Authoritarianism? 12/11/2024

Lene Rachel Andersen: Can Teaching History Prevent Authoritarianism? As Donald Trump returns to the White House, many American citizens are willing to tear everything down. Where did these destructive inclinations come from? Might they partly reflect the way that voters learned history back in school? How well are we teaching history through the eyes of people living then so we can learn from their experiences? To what extent are we introducing students to their culture's proud traditions so they feel inspired to defend them rather than throw everything away? In this episode of How My View Grew, we explore these questions by hearing from someone from outside the United States. Lene Rachel Andersen is a Danish author, futurist, and economist. As a student, she knew history was important. However, when challenged by a classmate, she couldn't explain why. Lene sensed the disjointed nature of the history curriculum but couldn't pinpoint what was missing. Years later, as the result of a TV series she created that went awry, she discovered answers to both questions. Then postmodernism entered the scene, and Lene wondered: should we be teaching deconstruction to third graders—or can this wait until later? Lene's story reveals deep lessons for avoiding authoritarianism and meeting other challenges of our time. **Key takeaways** 8:00 A classmate's question about history stump Lene 12:00 Put yourself in the shoes of people in history 14:00 To avoid authoritarianism and stupid wars, understand history and humans 18:00 Pitfalls of the postmodern approach to history 24:00 An exciting pilot project in a Danish public school 27:00 Third grade teachers shouldn't be teaching deconstruction 32:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928380

Beyond the false choice between despair and hope 11/27/2024

The day liberals became small "c" conservative 11/13/2024

The day liberals became small "c" conservative When new political leaders promote disruptive and even violent change, then people accustomed to pressing the gas pedal on change may choose instead to hit the breaks. Liberals become small "c" conservatives. In this episode of How My View Grew, I suggest that after November 5, 2024 every liberal in the United States became a small "c" conservative. Instead of pushing for change in society, liberals now have good reason to slow it down. That's because the changes coming with the new Trump Administration threaten to destroy or disrupt many things worth preserving, from liberal gains of the past 90 years to basic Constitutional protections we've had for two and a half centuries. Much that we Americans take for granted, everything from childhood immunizations to Constitutional freedoms to the rule of law, is now at risk. Someone needs to stand up and shout, "Stop." For decades, liberals associated this stance with Republicans, and for good reason. But today's Republican leader doesn't have a small "c" conservative bone in his body. His Administration will be about rapidly disrupting and destroying much that liberals—and all Americans—value. So, who will fill the void of slowing down change and preserving that which we hold most dear? Liberals. After making this case, I describe five steps liberals can take to embody such small "c" conservatism. **Key takeaways** 2:00 The reactionary changes coming 5:30 The two forms of conservatism: small "c" and big "C" 8:30 Big "C" conservatism, the ideology, is whatever the Republican Party currently stands for 13:30 Five steps liberals can take to conserve liberal gains and American traditions **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928395

5 Election Scenarios and 3 No-Matter-What Commitments 10/30/2024

Stephen E. Hanson: Can Mafia-like States Spread to the West? 10/16/2024

Stephen E. Hanson: Can Mafia-like States Spread to the West? In the upcoming U.S. presidential election, democracy, many say, is on the ballot. But is democracy versus autocracy the best description of the stakes? Not according to Stephen E. Hanson, co-author with Jeffrey Kopstein of the new book The Assault on the State. The democracy/autocracy distinction is about how people come to power. It doesn't address how leaders rule their staffs and administrations once they are in power. In the West, we've long managed states based on professional expertise and the rule of law. It's so common that we take it for granted. Yet, in recent years a different form of rule has taken root, first in Russia, then in Eastern Europe, and now in England, the U.S., and other parts of the West. Here the method of rule resembles the mafia. It's based on loyalty to a single leader, typically a man, and characterized by attacks on professional experts and power centralized in a ruling household. For many years, Hanson, an expert on Russia and Eastern Europe, didn't think that strong mafia-like states were possible in the 21st century. And he was far from alone in this. Then, when Putin defied the odds by building one in Russia, Hanson didn't think this model of rule would spread elsewhere. And yet it has. In this episode of How My View Grew, we explore why it made sense to bet against the rise of mafia-like states and why such bets turned out to be misguided. **Key takeaways** 5:30 Steve's prediction that Russia wouldn't build a state after communism 8:30 How Putin built a state with loyalists 14:00 Why nobody thought Russia's mafia-like rule would spread 17:00 An epiphany during the pandemic sparks an "aha" 20:00 Three warning signs 24:00 Democracies can be run like the mafia. Autocracies can be run by experts based on the rule of law 28:00 The "unholy alliance" leading the assaults on the expert-run state 33:00 How an assault on the state in Israel contributed to the country's lack of preparedness for Hamas's massacres on October 7, 2023 39:30 We only notice government when it fails 41:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928410

Man Up For Good 10/02/2024

David Storey: Can A Liberal Democrat Be Conservative? 09/18/2024

David Storey: Can A Liberal Democrat Be Conservative? Why might a liberal Democrat with progressive values hold a conservative disposition? Could it make sense to both advocate for positive change and honor traditions and the social cohesion they foster? Might this represent the twin challenges facing today's Democratic Party? In this 30-minute episode of How My View Grew, Boston College philosophy professor David Storey explores these questions through his own personal and professional experience. How did someone who dismissed the Republican Party as simplistic and repellent learn to recognize the virtues of the conservative disposition, even as Republicans themselves abandoned this disposition? What does this tell us about MAGA, Mr. Trump, January 6, and the the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election? Who are the "barstool conservatives," and why are they anything but conservative? If you believe in the gains brought by liberalism and progressivism, aren't you acknowledging that these are traditions you want to conserve? **Key takeaways** 3:00 The thick culture and Fox News habits of a childhood friend's family 5:30 Discovering positive patriotism on 9/11 9:00 Learning from Andrew Sullivan that traditions are complex, involve pruning, and were built by people 12:00 Why the Iraq War violated conservative principles and climate activism can piggyback on them 17:30 The primal ethnocentric energies of George Wallace and Patrick Buchanan—also not truly conservative 20:00 How these primal energies broke through to the mainstream in the form of MAGA and Mr. Trump 22:30 The "barstool conservatives" who are angry they can't watch cheerleaders or call things "gay" 25:00 The January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is what happens when you abandon the conservative disposition 27:00 The important contributions of the Never Trumpers 28:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928420

The Surprising Lesson of History 06/19/2024

Marci Shore: How to Improve the World Amidst Evil? 06/12/2024

Marci Shore: How to Improve the World Amidst Evil? In a Soviet-era bunker in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier reads books by the late historian Tony Judt and wonders: Is it possible to make the world better amidst evil? Not long after, Yale historian Marci Shore, a former peacenik, finds herself pleading to the German government to send lethal weapons to Ukraine. What's happening here? How does one historian's words support a courageous defense of democracy that, in turn, inspires another historian to step outside of her comfort zone and into a debate about war? In this week's episode of How My View Grew, the second-to-last of season one, Marci Shore joins me to explore these questions. The story she shares is about choosing to take moral responsibility rather than ignoring evil or rationalizing it away, even if this means risking friendship, status, or your own sense of identity. Her story is also about tapping the lessons of history to see future scenarios you otherwise might miss or consider impossible. And it's about postmodernism—both the new capacities it offers and, when stretched to an extreme, the disasters it produces. The episode draws from Shore's book, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution, as well as Judt's books, Thinking the Twentieth Century, written with Timothy Snyder, and Past Imperfect. **Key takeaways** 6:00 Judt's harsh critique of French intellectuals' silence about the show trials and other Soviet terror 17:00 The alternative to silence and rationalization: taking moral responsibility 20:00 There is a difference between good and evil, and between truth and lies 25:00 A Ukrainian soldier reading Judt's books in a bunker 30:00 Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump, and the evasion of responsibility 33:30 Why liberals struggle to grasp nihilism and mass murder 40:00 World War I was, before it occurred, unimaginable 46:00 Historians can't predict the future, but they describe what can happen 50:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928435

The Clarifying Question 06/05/2024

Einat Wilf: What Do Most Palestinians Actually Want? 05/29/2024

Einat Wilf: What Do Most Palestinians Actually Want? Do most Palestinians want their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, one that co-exists with the state of Israel? Is the conflict between Israel and Palestinians primarily about territory and the solution therefore simply to trade territory for peace? For many years, as an advisor to Israel's top leaders and member of its parliament, Einat Wilf thought so. Then she started to listen deeply to what Palestinians were saying, and what she heard stunned her. What Palestinians wanted was a land to themselves so they could return to the homes their families once occupied in Israel proper. What they didn't want was a Jewish state. This discovery, coupled with extensive research into the century-long history, left Einat with a dramatically different view of the conflict. Palestinians' dream of "return" and the world's support for this dream constituted as big an obstacle to peace as Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Engaging with this possibility may be painful, but it opens new possibilities for long-term peace in the region. If Israel and the United states take Einat's story seriously, they will approach the conflict dramatically differently than they have been doing for decades. **Key takeaways** 4:00 Why Einat believed that the conflict was simply about territory 9:39 The purpose and flaws of constructive ambiguity 16:00 The shock and meaning of the Second Intifada 19:00 Listening deeply to Palestinians and taking seriously what they say they want 22:30 The settlements are Israel's most wasteful project 28:30 The Jews want a state. The Arabs want the Jews to not have a state 31:00 What the Arabs of Gaza did and didn't do when they finally controlled the territory 37:30 Why Israel's Labor Party declined 40:30 When Arabs say two states, do they mean two Palestinian states? 44:00 A clarifying question to a Palestinian student reveals a great deal 45:00 The one question Israeli negotiators should ask before entering the room 50:00 No refugees anywhere else in the world have had a "right of return" 54:00 Amiel's reflections **Resources** **Subscribe to the podcast** To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. **Share the love** Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. /episode/index/show/d98480fe-a00a-4d03-9224-6e78599451c0/id/39928450

My Assessment, Your Assessment 05/22/2024

How My View Grew

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