Artist and entrepreneur Alma Cooker, actor and Braver Angels social media manager Greg Steinbrecher, and Stacia Wilson of the Unity 2020 Movement join John Wood, Jr. to talk about the shifts in American political life on the eve of the election, and to survey the growing movement towards unity and political depolarization in American political life. Get ready for a forward looking conversation on the most important and most undercovered social phenomena in America. www.braverangels.org Twitter: ...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 83
Braver Angels' holds as its ethos the ability to be opposite colors, emphasizing one's values, vocalizing beliefs and opinions, and be more than civil. Meet and hear Ms. Julie Boler, Braver Angels' Partnership Specialist, and a Blue. Hear Mr. Jim Allen, Red, also a specialist of a different sort - a retired US Special Forces warrior, Christian Pastor, and Guard1 Leadership Coach. #Hold AmericaTogether
Nov 03, 2020•51 min•Ep. 82
Stand-up comedian and entrepreneur Mike Casentini and Chris Paul, (host of Be Reasonable: with Your Moderator, Chris Paul), join John Wood, Jr. to have a real conversation about the 2020 election. Is President Trump corrupt? Can we trust the outcome of the vote? And can we get along regardless of the outcome? Mike and Chris trade fascinating personal stories in taking their stands for and against Trump and Biden in this episode of The Braver Angels Podcast. Join Braver Angels at www.braverangels...
Oct 30, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 81
Think swing voters don't exist? These two lifelong conservatives have decided to vote Biden this year. Join us to find out why. Braver Angels member Peggy Wardlaw is a former TX Republican congressional candidate, a mother, and an entrepreneur from a ranching family. Across the country member Andrew Stegmaier is a millennial, libertarian software developer living in Seattle, WA. Their stories are very different, but both they've both landed in the unexpected place of changing their vote in this ...
Oct 22, 2020•54 min•Ep. 80
Author Thomas Chatterton Williams is a unique and insightful voice out in the American cultural landscape. Contributor at New York Magazine and author of Losing My Cool Williams racial commentary emphasizes the need to transcend racial categories to help depolarize American racial life. In this conversation he and John Wood, Jr. discuss their biracial upbringings, talk about the meaning of "Blackness," chat about antiracism as an ideology, the writings of Ibram Kendi and more. Learn about Braver...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 79
Rick Gates is a former aide to the Trump campaign who is best known for being charged with money laundering as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between the campaign and Russia. In 2018, Gates pled guilty to lying to investigators and became a cooperator by helping the investigation that led to the convictions of Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign manager, and Roger Stone, his longtime advisor. In this episode of the Braver Angels Podcast, Ciaran pres...
Oct 12, 2020•59 min•Ep. 78
David French, Senior Editor of The Dispatch, has a new book called “Divided We Fall” about why America is so polarized, how it could tilt into civil war, and ways we can stop that from happening. On this episode of the Braver Angels Podcast, he talks to Ciaran O’Connor and Greg Steinbrecher about his book, how and why polarization has gotten so bad, and what our government and we the people can do to make things better. He also explains why everyone is too quick to blame the media for our proble...
Oct 09, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 77
Lydia Cornell is an actress, producer and writer known for her work on shows ranging from Love Boat and Full House to Curb Your Enthusiasm. She is the author of the book How to Talk to Ann Coulter, If You Must. You may know Roxanne Beckford-Hoge from shows like A Different World and films including Father of the Bride II and Something's Gotta Give. More recently, Roxanne was the Republican nominee for State Assembly in the 46th district of California. These two wonderfully talented women are ful...
Oct 05, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 76
Daniel McCarthy, editor of the venerable journal of conservative cultural commentary Modern Age , has been observing and commenting on Republican politics and intellectual trends in conservatism for decades now. How does someone who once deeply supported Ron Paul go on to deeply supporting Donald Trump? In this episode of the Braver Angels Podcast, co-hosts Luke Nathan Phillips and Silas Kulkarni press McCarthy on the shifting currents inside conservatism in the Age of Trump-- among libertarians...
Oct 01, 2020•57 min•Ep. 75
"Why do you support Trump, and what reservations do you have about him?" Five conservative-leaning Braver Angels members join co-hosts Ciaran O'Connor and Carlos Hernandez for a lively discussion on President Trump, Joe Biden, and the Supreme Court vacancy. Featuring guests Iris Diaz, Larry Gutman, Joe D'Aura, Mark A Reinecke, and Ruth Littmann-Ashkenazi.
Sep 28, 2020•54 min•Ep. 74
Host of Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren, and former host of Fox New's On The Record, Greta Van Susteren has been one of the most visible anchors in American political media for many years. But how did Greta's media career begin? And what did it have to do with a Toga party in 1976? Hear Greta recap her whipsaw career in broadcast journalism, her time at Fox News, the one time Roger Ailes told her what not to report, and weigh in with her thoughts on media bias and what it's like to inte...
Sep 21, 2020•39 min
Many Americans are deeply concerned about the culture of shaming and silencing that some see as becoming dominant on college campuses and increasingly in major American institutions and cities. No one has more reason to be concerned about this than Heather Heying - former professor of evolutionary biology at Evergreen State College and noted member of the "Intellectual Dark Web." But in this conversation with April Lawson, a conservative feminist and Braver Angels Director of Debates and Public ...
Sep 14, 2020•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 72
Bill Fry is retired Military, a Tea Party activist, and an avid Trump supporter. He's also a longtime Braver Angels leader who is co-organizing "No Ballot No Buck," a bipartisan campaign finance reform initiative in Ohio with his liberal counterpart Rob Weidenfeld. Bill talks to host Ciaran O'Connor about Braver Angels, Donald Trump, and working together to find surprising areas of convergence amidst a wider climate of acrimony.
Sep 10, 2020•46 min•Ep. 71
Carol Swain may not reflect the image some people have in mind when they think of an elite university professor. She is an African-American Christian Conservative who grew up in severe rural poverty to achieve success at the top of the academic ladder. Her story of personal accomplishment shines light on the power of perseverance in face of adversity. The values Carol pulls from her experience also lend a foundation to understanding her politics, her Christian faith and even her support of Presi...
Sep 08, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 70
Carlos Hernandez is a Latino Braver Angels leader from San Francisco who supports President Trump. In this episode, Carlos talks to host Ciaran O'Connor about what it's like to be a conservative in San Francisco, why he supports the President, and how he believes Braver Angels' work can build trust and understanding between those who plan to vote differently in November. This conversation is a part of Braver Angels 2020, a national campaign to help Americans "Fight Right" by debating painfully d...
Sep 01, 2020•46 min•Ep. 69
Dominique DiPrima is a former co-host of the Steve Harvey Morning Show and is the host of The Front Page with Dominique DiPrima. A “leading-edge” progressive activist, she has challenged the political status quo from the airwaves of KJLH in Los Angeles as LA’s most popular Black morning show host. Kira Davis is the editor at large of Red State, a non-conforming voice who challenges Democratic orthodoxy while championing the values of faith, family and independence. Dominique and Kira are politic...
Aug 27, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 68
The philosophy of Nonviolence guided the moral leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in a struggle for freedom and justice that inspired the world. Dr. King's philosophy birth a vision for American society that still challenges the conscience of the nation. And yet the true substance and practice of Nonviolence is largely forgotten today. How can we understand Nonviolence? How do we apply it in our current struggle? Veteran of the Civil Rights Movement Professor Harry Boyte of Augsburg University...
Aug 17, 2020•50 min•Ep. 67
There is a movement underway to depolarize American politics. It is a movement committed to transforming the way we interact with and think about each other as Americans. And guess what? It is bigger than just Braver Angels. John and Ciaran welcome National Conversations Project and Listen First founder Pearce Godwin, Bridge Alliance founder Debilyn Molineaux and founder of The Village Square Liz Joyner to a conversation on the work of building bridges over the raging floods of American division...
Aug 11, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 66
The Braver Angels Songwriting Contest is over! And we've emerged with three incredible winning songs. In this episode of The Braver Angels Podcast John Wood, Jr. and Sage Snider speak to Jon Baker and Donna Elaine Miller (writers of the "A United States of Humanity," performed by Donna), Thomas Prasada-Rao ("Even You") and Scott Cook ("Say Can You See") to discuss the inspiration behind and to listen to excerpts from their winning songs. Each of these artists shines a wonderful light upon the sp...
Aug 06, 2020•50 min•Ep. 65
Fashion stylist and cultural commentator Ayishat Akanbi is a uniquely refreshing voice in the social discourse of the United Kingdom. Increasingly however Ayishat's following is growing in the United States where people of widely differing background are drawing value from her empathetic and deeply perceptive approach to communicating across ethnic and political differences. Ayishat joins John Wood, Jr. to talk about the parallels of their owns experiences as people of African descent and strong...
Jul 28, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 64
Why has America struggled so mightily to control the coronavirus compared to other countries? Is there something about American identity or culture that renders us uniquely ill suited to managing this crisis? What do we mean by "cancel culture?" And how can we promote the values of free speech while making sure marginalized voices are heard? Ciaran O'Connor hosts a deep and candid roundtable with April Lawson, Monica Guzman, and Greg Steinbrecher.
Jul 27, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 63
What are the forces driving the breakdown in our media system? How do media polarization, hyperpartisanship, and disinformation threaten our values and democracy? And what can we do about it?? Ciaran O'Connor talks to the leaders of two organizations working to free people from filter bubbles so they can better understand the world, surmount the business model challenges that have driven the news media towards hyperpartisanship, and help Americans forge a shared reality in which to understand an...
Jul 21, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 62
Can gay rights activists and proponents of religious liberty build the trust and understanding needed to find common ground? Or is this divide destined to be a zero-sum fight? Jonathan Rauch is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He's also a gay man who helped lead the movement to legalize same-sex marriage. Glenn Stanton is the Director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, a senior contributor to The Federalist, and an oppo...
Jul 13, 2020•55 min•Ep. 61
In different ways, Joy Donnell and Maleena Lawrence are on the front lines of the cultural and political struggle against "White Supremacy." The idea of white supremacy holding sway over the dominant institutions and culture of American life strikes many Americans as outrageous whereas for many other Americans this truth is almost self-evident. But what do people actually mean by white supremacy? Joy Donnell, founder of the Center for Intersectional Media and Entertainment, and Maleena Lawrence,...
Jul 10, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 60
This is a conversation like few others. Bob Woodson and Hawk Newsome are among the most important voices in black America today, but their politics couldn't be any more different on the surface. Hawk Newsome is the chairman and former president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York. Bob Woodson advised the Reagan administration, the Bush administration and is a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. Woodson is an independent black conservative and frequent Fox News contributor w...
Jul 06, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 59
How can America move from a politics of hate to a politics of love? Ciaran O'Connor interviews Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig.
Jun 25, 2020•47 min•Ep. 58
A columnist at Quillette Magazine, a contributor to Citi Journal and a person who has testified before the House of Representatives on the subject of reparations, Coleman Hughes is a writer and public commentator who has been celebrated for his sober analysis of issues relating to race in America. He joins John Wood, Jr. to talk about the statistics illustrating the nuanced reality of police violence towards African-Americans and the ways in which experience may help shape our viewpoint of socia...
Jun 22, 2020•53 min•Ep. 57
Tara Isabella Burton, one of the most interesting rising commentators on religion (broadly-defined!) in the American public square, joins April Lawson and Luke Nathan Phillips on the Braver Angels Podcast to discuss her new book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World. Why do Americans in a secularizing age seem to find spiritual fulfillment in corners as dark and strange as Bronze Age Pervert and SoulCycle? To what degree are America's polarized and identitarian squabbles about politi...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 56
Braver Angels leaders John Wood, Jr. and April Lawson are joined by author, social psychologist and Braver Angels board member Jonathan Haidt to discuss the historical and psychological paths by which the United States has found itself looking over the cliff of chaotic social divisions – and wrestle with how we forge a positive path into the future.
Jun 15, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 55
Political commentator and author Sally Kohn returns to the Braver Angels Podcast to talk about her personal path to social justice advocacy, her empathy for conservative America and the battle to be aware of our own prejudices.
Jun 11, 2020•42 min•Ep. 54
