Americans Reconnect: Talking Across the Political Divide

Americans Reconnect: Talking Across the Political Divide is a radio program focused on solutions to political polarization. The production team spent more than a year researching and reporting on how people can maintain relationships despite stark political differences, offering hope for a divided electorate that Americans can still come together.

A partnership with the national nonprofit organization Braver Angels is central to the reporting. The group uses family and marriage therapy techniques to help people bridge political divisions. The insights of Braver Angels co-founder Bill Doherty deeply inform the radio special and are woven throughout.

In one story, Doherty uses his therapist and bridge-building skills to help Chris LaTondress and his father Andre have a conversation about a topic that had become a third rail in their relationship: Andre’s support for President Donald Trump.

Finding common ground over the war in Gaza can seem like an impossible task. But Palestinian activists Moneer and Emma Rifai are doing just that with two Jewish Americans, Rabbi Jill Avrin and Steve Lear. As one of the stories in our program demonstrates, their conversations can get heated, but they still manage to show respect and care for each other. They hope others can learn from them that such dialogue is possible.

Another segment in our program explores the work of the Police and Black Men Project of Minneapolis. Years before George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, this group started meeting regularly to discuss the issue of distrust between Black men and cops. MPR News host Angela Davis travelled with the group to Montgomery, Alabama, which was once the state’s capital of the domestic slave trade. Davis tells Nina Moini, host of Americans Reconnect: Talking Across the Political Divide, how this cohort of Black men and police officers are trying to mend relationships and build trust.

To hear these and other stories in the program, click the “listen” icon above.

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