Listen to Ciaran O’Connor and John Wood, Jr. break down the political and racial divides alongside special guest, Chloe Valdary. Chloe Valdary is a writer and the founder of the Theory of Enchantment, a curriculum which confronts polarization through the use of pop-culture. Chloe’s written work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Quillette.
Learn more about Chole:
https://theoryofenchantment.com/
Twitter: @cvaldary
A native of Boulder, Colorado, Mia didn’t know many Trump supporters—and she was nervous to engage with them. “I was like, ‘Don’t they hate women? Don’t they hate black people?’” she said. “That was my initial belief because that’s what I had heard about people who voted for Trump.” But she quickly realized she was wrong. During the first Braver Lens session, Mia was able to connect with conservatives in the group and recognize their points of commonality. “When we met, they showed their pictures, and explained their life stories, and I was able to see where our values overlap,” she said.
As a young man, Daniel’s father emerged from a broken, dysfunctional home looking for direction and found it while attending a Billy Graham crusade in Chicago. There, he “walked forward”—committing himself to Jesus Christ and changing the trajectory of his family. Not long after, he married Daniel’s mom, a Christian convert whose grandparents sought refuge in America after escaping pogroms in Europe.
Twenty-three leaders who disagree on many things said yes to the same thing this month. They agreed to stand together, publicly, behind the idea that Americans can hold fast to their convictions while staying genuinely curious about the convictions of people on the other side. That’s it. That’s the commitment. For more than nine years, Braver Angels has reached people in every state in the union. The ones who’ve engaged have experienced something that surprises them every time: the relief of disagreeing without contempt, and the discovery that the person across the table is not who the feed said they were.
1 thought on “Pop-Culture and Polarization: with Chloe Valdary”
The theme of “love” came up on a few occasions during this podcast. I would just like to articulate a structure, or model, of love for your consideration. It is my belief that love is the fundamental truth of our existence. It’s expression, however, is suppressed to the extent that we are fearful (or are consumed by our various fears). To the extent we can reduce those fears (in the case of Better-Angels, a reduction of our fear of the “other” through structured one-on-one contact) then to that extent, our increased expression of love automatically takes place.
(John, this is part of the conversation I was seeking with you during the recent convention)