This is a special episode of TP&R. We're sharing an interview Justin Peters did with Corey Nathan on Justin's excellent podcast The Struggle Is Real.
 
Here are the show notes from the original airing on The Struggle Is Real:
 
Title: How to Talk Politics and Religion Without Killing Each Other | E55 Corey Nathan
 
Description:
I’ve dreaded some recent get-togethers knowing argumentative political conversations are going to be on the agenda and for quite some time, I’ve taken the approach that it is better to avoid these conversations by staying quiet and giving a friendly nod.
That line of thinking is changing for me now. Avoiding participation in these conversations is forgoing the opportunity to learn something new, and maybe even change my mind. Along with that, if I’m not taking the time or initiative to understand someone else’s point of view, I’m only reinforcing the current state of divisiveness between these binary camps of blue and red.
I invited Corey Nathan on the podcast to give us inspiration on how this could be done right. He shares his personal story of making amends with his dad when he decided to leave the Jewish faith.
In the second half of this episode, Corey shares some basic communication skills to help us have more enabling conversations. Some of my favorites include the feel, felt, found framework, the phrase “help me understand”, and changing our mindset from competition to collaboration.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with the stockbroker by day, theater guy by night, Jew from Jersey that became a Christian, and the host of the incredible podcast, Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other…Corey Nathan.
 
More of Corey:
Podcast: Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other
https://www.politicsandreligion.us/
Instagram: @tpandrpod
 
More of TSIR:
Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/
Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

Happy to share some of our favorite conversations from this last year. Subsequent to our talk with Christie Whitman, the former Republican Governor of New Jersey has gone on to join the Forward Party as Co-Chair along with former Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang.
In this conversation with Christine Todd Whitman, the former Governor (of the best state in the union!) and Cabinet Member, we talk about how she started her career in politics by going around the country and actually listening to people. Imagine that! We also discussed how she was able to achieve bipartisan collaboration during her 2 terms as governor of New Jersey; an assessment of how the Biden Administration is doing on climate initiatives; other achievable actions that can have a positive effect on the environment; what she's doing to resist the danger posed by candidates who are brazenly anti-democracy; the encouraging work of States United Democracy Center - "more than a think tank... an action tank"; a sober warning about current governors who are deploying the tactics of dictators; her experience with Donald Trump back when he was screwing over small contractors who built his casinos in New Jersey; and we even get to talk about religion!
Christine Todd Whitman is the Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the States United Democracy Center and she is the President of The Whitman Strategy Group. Governor Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor. Governor Whitman also serves a number of non-profit organizations including as Chairman of the American Security Project, Vice-Chairman of the Trustees of the Eisenhower Fellowships and Advisor on Renew America Movement. Among quite a few other non-profits and causes, she was co-chair of the Commission on the Rule of Law and Democracy at the Brennan Center at New York University. Also during the 2020 election cycle she served as Chair of Republicans and Independents for Biden. And on top of all of that, she is the author of a New York Times best seller called It’s My Party Too: Taking Back the Republican Party... And Bringing the Country Together Again.
statesuniteddemocracy.org
whitmanstrategygroup.com
renewamericamovement.com
https://post.news/coreysnathan

What can happen when people from different "tribes" actually get together in person? We often jump to conclusions based merely on how someone votes. But do we take the time to understand how they arrived at that decision? How can we bring our friends and neighbors from a posture of contentiousness to one of curiosity? To put down the weapons of the culture war and pick up a cup of coffee with someone from the "other side"? Does sharing facts change people's minds? Does the tactic of dropping the perfectly worded factoid actually convince anyone of anything? Is there a line someone might cross where they're no longer a person we can even have a conversation with? We can have conversations about what is true, what is meaningful and what is useful. Is that all the same conversation?
Monica Guzman is Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, an organization working to build a more curious world; and cofounder of the award-winning Seattle newsletter The Evergrey. She was a 2019 fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation and a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. She served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, and is the author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.
https://braverangels.org/
https://www.moniguzman.com/
https://www.moniguzman.com/book
https://twitter.com/coreysnathan

This is a special bonus episode we're sharing of the Village SquareCast. The panel is titled Bridge Building and Bipartisanship.
Bridge building?!  (We’re not talking about the Golden Gate, people.)  An industry that was recently unknown and almost nonexistent has exploded in recent years, as average citizens begin to see the sharp growth in political divisions as an emergency that requires our attention. In the midst of a divisive election season, we’ll take a pause to chat with leaders in the bridge building field about the outlook for cooperation across political differences and potential improvements on the horizon that we can all reach for.
Is there hope of a tipping point where bridge-building is more prominent than the divide-and-(attempt to)-conquer approach of late?  Might average Americans like our heroic guests and listeners have to roll up their sleeves and show our politicians the way?
Speaking of the politicians:  stay tuned until the end to learn about the Common Ground Scorecard where you can find out which candidates on your ballot are interested in bridging divides. #Mavericks
Joining the conversation are Pearce Godwin, Founder & CEO of Listen First Project; Kristin Hansen, Executive Director of Civic Health Project; and Liz Joyner, Founder and President of The Village Square.
Listen First Project leads the collaborative movement to heal America by bridging divides. They elevate the impact, visibility, and voice of the bridge-building field by aggregating, aligning, and amplifying the efforts of 500 #ListenFirst Coalition partner organizations into large scale, national campaigns and strategies. Together these organizations transform division and contempt into connection and understanding.
Civic Health Project is dedicated to reducing America’s toxic partisan polarization and enabling healthier public discourse and decision-making across our citizenry, politics, and media. Through grantmaking, advocacy, and convenings, Civic Health Project supports the most promising research and interventions to reduce political division and foster social cohesion across the country.
This episode is part of The Democracy Group’s 2022 Midterm Series.

In this coversation with columnist, public speaker, recovering attorney and playwright, Wajahat Ali, we discuss what it's like to live in a country you love that doesn't always love you back; representation and how often different folks are portrayed as invisible, the sidekick, the punchline or the villain; how it was to be the only Muslim kid going to a Jesuit Catholic H.S.; seeing the common values and stories in both the Bible and the Koran; what it was like, as a Muslim who was born here and grew up here, after 9/11; the dangers in turning our prophets into nothing more than mascots; the tendency to "sell Jesus" with the selling points being the promise of having white teeth, a mansion and a yacht; and so much more.
Wajahat Ali is a Daily Beast columnist and co-host of the excellent podcast democracy-ish. His first book Go Back To Where You Came From: And, Other Helpful Recommendations on Becoming American was published in January of 2022. He is all about sharing stories that are by us, for everyone: universal narratives told through a culturally specific lens to entertain, educate and bridge the global divides. You may have seen or heard Wajahat on television and podcasts for his brilliant, incisive, and witty political commentary. His essays, interviews, and reporting have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Guardian, and New York Review of Books.
www.wajali.com/
www.dcpofficial.com/democracy-ish
www.amazon.com/dp/0393867978/

In this roundtable discussion, we're joined by two friends of the pod, Lori Adams-Brown of A World of Difference and Will Wright of Faithful Politics. We discuss what we got right (and wrong) about the Midterms? What does it all mean for our Democracy? And we begin to take a look ahead to the coming legislative session as well as to 2024.
Lori Adams-Brown is a combination of international speaker, business executive, podcaster and relief and development expert. She hosts the popular podcast A World of Difference, celebrating humanity’s unique differences and encouraging us all to make a difference around the world.  Since growing up in international schools in Costa Rica and Venezuela, Lori has spent her career working in Indonesia, Singapore and the San Francisco Bay Area.  She worked in disaster relief in the 2004 Indonesian tsunami where she consulted with the UN coordination efforts, and she has spoken to audiences in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, Venezuela and around the US.  Lori speaks 6 languages, and serves on the board of Justice Revival, and volunteers to help resettle Afghan refugees in the SF Bay Area.
Will Wright has been interested in politics his whole life. He elected not to run for any office because in the third grade his teacher told him that Black people could never be president (true story). But in 2001 after the world trade center towers collapsed, Will felt the need to do something, so he enlisted in the United States Army as an Infantryman. His unit was one of the initial pushes into the streets of Iraq, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After leaving the service, Will traveled the world as a consultant which is where he really experienced how the world works and got the idea to start a podcast that centers around faith and politics. His political leanings tend to favor Democratic policies, but he has voted for Democrats, Libertarians, and Republicans. He wishes that problems could be fixed by civil dialogue, and hopes his podcast - which is called Faithful Politics - can exemplify what that conversation can look like in the world.
https://a-world-of-difference.captivate.fm
www.faithfulpoliticspodcast.com
https://justicerevival.org

Robert Draper is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic Magazine. He is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush and his latest book Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind.
In this episode we explore a number of pressing questions: What are some characteristics of the "mass delusion" that currently plagues our country? Who is a part of it? Who's responsible for it? Will the results of these midterms start to dissipate the MAGA movement? How could Republican leaders and Republican candidates manage to win in primaries and keep the MAGA base without turning off the general electorate? Is it even possible? Where did this notion begin and who is perpetuating the idea that Democrats are bad people and possibly even evil? As a journalist who'd been to war zones all over the world, what was it like to witness first hand the events of January 6th? What are the beliefs and motivations that drive people to participate in the kind of violence that occurred on that day? What were some of the revelations and conclusions that came out of Robert's dinner with MTG? Trump isn't the world's greatest deal maker afterall (go figure). But which two great deals did he make that can explain his takeover of the Republican Party? What was it like getting to know a leader affiliated with the Oath Keepers? Many of the answers to these questions may be very surprising.
www.nytimes.com/by/robert-draper
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/688795/weapons-of-mass-delusion-by-robert-draper/
twitter.com/DraperRobert
twitter.com/coreysnathan
 

Which states are the bellwethers in the upcoming election? Which states will give the clearest indication of the direction of the House and Senate? Who is showing up to vote that pollsters weren't expecting? And how will those voters who aren't considered "likely voters" change the results? How does a firm like Decision Desk HQ gather the information needed to make election calls as quickly as they do? (Answer: There are 50 states with 50 different ways to get the information.) What is a model? How are election models different from polls? What factors are considered to develop a model? What are some of the differences between DDHQ's model and other models such as fivethirtyeight's? How should we look at projections? We explore these questions and more with DDHQ's Senior Data Scientist Kiel Williams.
Kiel Williams is a Senior Data Scientist at Decision Desk HQ. Decision Desk HQ collects, organizes, and reports election night results and provides election related data to media outlets, political organizations, and anyone interested in who votes and how they voted. Kiel specifically performs electoral analysis, polling and manages data operations at DDHQ. Kyle has an undergraduate degree in physics and math from Guilford College and earned his PhD in physics from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign.
decisiondeskhq.com/
twitter.com/DecisionDeskHQ
twitter.com/KielTWilliams
twitter.com/coreysnathan