Podcast appearances and mentions of Eboo Patel

Today's social and political climates feel clouded by fear, distance, polarization and loneliness; why is it that groupthink and conformity seem to rule our neighborhoods, pop culture, friend circles, workplaces and social media feeds? It's time for us to learn how to sit with disagreement, debate better, appreciate our differences, and revel in the diversity of ideas and opinions that reflect our world.  Journalist Jenara Nerenberg has not shied away from taking on complex ideas and opinions, first in her bestselling book Divergent Mind about neurological diversity, and now with her second groundbreaking book, Trust Your Mind, which examines viewpoint diversity and encourages us not to shy away from the deepest forms of connection and insight that can come from uncomfortable conversations, independent thinking, and sometimes even loud, productive and healthy arguing.  While “conflict” feels like a scary word to some, Nerenberg dives deep into her own life experiences as well as the social science research on the psychology of groupthink to understand why our world is in peril in the face of people feeling too terrified to speak their minds. This challenge is not just limited to politics—the power of critical thinking and exiting groupthink has far-reaching impact on how we communicate with spouses, classmates, colleagues, family members and beyond. By understanding how group identity forms and the dangers of self-silencing, we allow our politics and our reasoning abilities to evolve, which leads to healthier societies. Trust Your Mind has received wide acclaim from Interfaith America's Eboo Patel, social psychologists Kurt Gray and Ethan Kross, former ACLU president Nadine Strossen, and many more.  Joining Nerenberg in this special conversation is leading investigative reporter Lee Fang, one of the most daring and sought-after independent journalists of our time. This conversation is not to be missed. About the Speakers Jenara Nerenberg is the bestselling author of Divergent Mind, hailed as “extraordinary, jaw-dropping” by Library Journal; she is an Aspen Ideas Brave New Idea speaker and the author of the new book Trust Your Mind, on the psychology of groupthink. A celebrated writer covering the intersection of psychology and society, Nerenberg's work has been featured in the UC Berkeley Greater Good Science Center magazine, Fast Company magazine, CNN, NPR, BBC and elsewhere. Nerenberg speaks widely on social science topics, including at universities, libraries, companies and organizations around the world. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Harvard School of Public Health; Nerenberg grew up in San Francisco and, as a millennial, can now be found on Instagram. Lee Fang is an independent journalist, primarily writing on Substack at leefang.com. He was an investigative reporter for The Intercept. He writes about civil liberties, interest group lobbying, and other public interest issues. A Grownups Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums. Organizer: Denise Michaud  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Shop Talk, we feature portions of Eboo Patel's powerful talk "Could A Potluck Dinner Save Our Democracy?". Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To comply with a flurry of Executive Orders issued in January, many colleges throughout the country have been renaming, restructuring, or altogether eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programming. These DEI initiatives have been divisive for years. Their proponents see them as essential to ensuring fair treatment for minority students and rooting out prejudice in the academy. Their detractors see them as stifling free speech and academic debate. Emma Green, journalist at the New Yorker, and Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, discuss the genesis of DEI, where it went wrong, and what might replace it in our search to create a flourishing multicultural society.   Links:   What Comes After D.E.I.? by Emma Green   Harvard, Public Trust, and a Warning for the Nonprofit Sector by Eboo Patel

President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated for a second term on Monday, Jan. 20. So this week, Big Books and Bold Ideas asked two historians who've written about America's past to reflect on America's future and give us a broader view of where we are. They point to eras in our past that predict our present. They also discuss what they'll be watching for as Trump returns to the Oval Office.Guests:Carol Anderson a historian and professor of African-American studies at Emory University. She's the author of many books, including “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide” and “One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying our Democracy.”Lindsay Chervinsky is a presidential historian, the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library and the author of “Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic.” If you missed it, be sure to check out Big Books and Bold Ideas 2024 series on the state of American democracy. It kicked off with historian Heather Cox Richardson, the author of “Democracy Awakening,” and included conversations with Elizabeth Cobbs, Frank Bruni, Eboo Patel, Sharon McMahon and others. Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

I want to begin today by extending my deepest sympathies to the people of Los Angeles. To those who have suffered unimaginable losses due to the California fires, please know that my heart, prayers, and thoughts are with you.This tragedy is a stark reminder of the power of community—the strength we find in coming together as one. Fire does not discriminate based on our skin color, our workplace position, or the balance in our bank accounts. It impacts us all, underscoring the importance of unity and compassion.Our guest today, Eboo Patel, is a powerful advocate for building and strengthening communities. He joins us on this week's episode of the Cracking Open podcast to remind us of a profound truth: “We should do social change work because God wants humans to thrive, and it is our job to help that happen.”Together, we explore his upbringing, the concept of pluralism in today's divisive political climate, and his refreshing perspective on America's identity: “America is not a melting pot, and it's not a battlefield. It's a potluck. That means welcoming and being delighted by the distinctive dishes that people bring to the table, finding creative combinations, and engaging in enriching conversations. That's what America is about.” Eboo Patel is an author, speaker, educator, and Founder and President of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. He is a civic leader who believes religious diversity is a vital and inspiring aspect of American democracy. Named one of America's best leaders by U.S. News & World Report, Eboo has worked with governments, universities, corporations, and civic organizations to transform faith into a bridge for cooperation, not division.Some of Eboo's notable achievements:Served on President Obama's Inaugural Faith CouncilDelivered hundreds of keynote speeches worldwideAuthored five books, including We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse DemocracyAshoka Fellow and Rhodes Scholar with a doctorate in sociology of religion from Oxford UniversityEboo's honesty and vulnerability in this episode will inspire you. He shares powerful stories about how religious and educational institutions can foster unity instead of division. His words ignited a fire in me to embrace the "potluck" concept in my own life, celebrating the diversity of people, traditions, and ideas that bring us all closer together.Tune in to discover how you too, can create a more inclusive and thriving community.Love,MollyTo support the Los Angeles community in healing from the devastation and trauma caused by the Kenneth fire, Molly is offering valuable information sessions on how to start the healing process. These are designed to assist companies, schools, hospitals, and other organizations. For more details, please email Molly at molly.rowen.carroll@gmail.com.Learn more about Eboo Patel and Interfaith America hereFollow Eboo on XPurchase We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy hereFollow Molly on Instagram and Facebook6-Week Coaching Program coming May 14th!6-Month Coaching Group coming August 13th!Click here for more details

This episode features Reverend Frederick Davie, who among other roles, serves as the Senior Advisor on Racial Equity for Interfaith America. In this far ranging discussion, we talk about the role of interfaith dialogue in wider public discourse, the shifting understanding of religious freedom, and the relationship between governmental policy and the priorities of religious communities.Show Notes:Interfaith America (https://www.interfaithamerica.org/)US Commission on International Religious Freedom (https://www.uscirf.gov/)Send us a text

At the end of 2024, we mark the end of Laurie Patton's tenure as president of Middlebury by sharing her reflections on conflict transformation, protest, and higher education. In September, President Patton sat down with Eboo Patel, president of Interfaith America, as part of their programing on Teaching Interfaith Understanding.  Their conversation was posted to Interfaith America's podcast and we reshare the episode here with permission. Patel and Patton discuss how Middlebury's campus culture evolved in the years since 2017, when political scientist Charles Murray's visit was met with upheaval. Patton elaborates on Middlebury's conflict transformation efforts, including the successes of the Engaged Listening Project, the challenges of countering a national narrative, and the outcomes of building a resilient culture, evidenced by her community's constructive engagement of tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the spring of 2024. To hear other episodes in Interfaith America's podcast, click here: https://www.interfaithamerica.org/podcast/  Many thanks to Teyonce Allison, Brett Simison, and the Conflict Transformation Collaborative staff for editing and production. Thank you also to Middlebury music professor Damascus Kafumbe for our music. 

Two builders walk into a podcast studio… no, seriously. This isn't the start of a joke, but the beginning of a deeply fascinating exploration into the very architecture of social change. We're talking about the kind of change that doesn't just rearrange the furniture, but rebuilds the house from the foundation up. And that, my friends, is a far more intricate and precarious undertaking.This week on Mission Forward, we're joined by not one, but two remarkable individuals who embody this spirit of courageous construction. Stacey Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, sets the stage  introducing Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, and Iara Peng, the visionary behind JustFund. Together, Eboo and Iara paint a vivid picture of what it truly means to build a more just and equitable world. They share their hard-won wisdom, gleaned from years of experience battling bureaucratic inertia and challenging deeply ingrained biases. Eboo recounts his early struggles navigating the labyrinthine world of philanthropic gatekeepers, a story that resonates with anyone who's ever dared to dream big. Iara, meanwhile, offers a glimpse into the future of giving, where technology empowers donors to align their actions with their values, transforming philanthropy from a passive act of charity into a dynamic force for change.This episode is a call to action, a reminder that we all have a role to play in building the world we want to see. Grab your metaphorical hardhat and join us as we architect social innovation with two of the most inspiring builders of our time.Links & NotesInterfaith AmericaJustFundWe Need to Build by Eboo PatelThe Chronicle of PhilanthropyThis episode is brought to you by Reconsidered Change Hub. You don't have to go it alone. (00:00) - Sponsor: Reconsidered Change Hub (00:37) - Welcome to Mission Forward

What new vision can pluralism bring to today's universities? Today, founder of Interfaith America Eboo Patel, joins John to discuss how pluralism can be a guiding principle in transforming higher education away from rigid ideological confines towards a more inclusive and dynamic intellectual space.Eboo shares his journey to understanding pluralism. He views pluralism as a way to embrace one's identity while valuing others and notes that the approach to anti-racism in some universities is shifting from helpful to controlling. Ebo believes that pluralism can balance extreme views by fostering intellectual diversity and respectful dialogue. He also suggests ways to create "Pluralist Universities," such as starting pluralism fellowships, doing research for future diversity needs, and developing a liberal arts curriculum that reflects a diverse society. In This Episode:Evolution of anti-racism from perspective to paradigm to coercive regimePersonal narratives and pluralism at the Nantucket ProjectPluralism as navigating between "wokeness" and "whitewashing"Implementation of pluralism in universitiesHistorical roots and modern applications of pluralismRoles of intellectual, identity, values, and agonistic pluralism in higher educationCritique of overemphasis on victimhood in diversity discussionsFor further reading, refer to Eboo Patel's co-authored article with Rebecca Russo on pluralism practices at universities.  About Eboo:Eboo Patel is a civic leader who believes that religious diversity is an essential and inspiring dimension of American democracy. Named “one of America's best leaders” by U.S. News and World Report, Eboo is the Founder and President of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. Under his leadership, Interfaith America has worked with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to make faith a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. Eboo served on President Obama's Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote addresses, and has written five books, including We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy. He is an Ashoka Fellow and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz, and their two sons.Follow Eboo on X: https://x.com/EbooPatel Follow Heterodox Academy on:Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Fax5DyFacebook: https://bit.ly/3PMYxfwLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/48IYeuJInstagram: https://bit.ly/46HKfUgSubstack: https://bit.ly/48IhjNF

The election is over and, is spite of Trump's clear victory, America remains as divided as ever. So how to put the country together again? Juliana Tafur, the director of the Bridging Differences Program at UC Berkeley, has been giving this existential question much thought. What all Americans need, Tafur tells me, is the compassion, empathy and humility to understand the other side. But, as I asked her, isn't that just shorthand for a progressive bridge building project in which the left defines the language of a reunited America?Juliana Tafur, the director of the Bridging Differences Program at UC Berkeley Her work focuses on strengthening social connections across lines of race, religion, culture, politics, and more, to foster a culture of understanding and belonging in the United States and beyond. Through partnerships, multimedia content, speaking engagements, and workshops, Juliana is committed to ensuring that bridge-building skills and resources reach people and inspire meaningful change. With experience as a social entrepreneur, workshop creator, Emmy-nominated senior producer, and award-winning documentary filmmaker, she has been working to foster human connection across complex societal divides for more than a decade. A TEDx speaker, she has led and facilitated speaking engagements and training sessions on bridging differences at more than 30 higher education institutions and organizations. Juliana is also a 2021–2022 Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University—a mid-career fellowship that recognized and deepened her work in the bridge-building field, expanding her research on intergroup relations, political polarization, and conflict transformation. She is an honors graduate of Northwestern University, where she earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Journalism and History.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.TRANSCRIPTKEEN: Hello, everybody. The easy bit's over! The election's finished, now the real challenge is bringing America back together. We always hear these terms from politicians and activists, but in practice, of course, it's a very challenging thing to do. My guest today on the show, Juliana Tafur, though, is somebody who's given a great deal of thought to bringing America back together, bridging differences. She is the inaugural director of the Bridging Differences Program at UC Berkeley. She's also very much involved in the Denver Foundation. She's based in Boulder, Colorado, and she's joining us today. Juliana, is that fair? Was the election the easy bit? Now, the challenge is putting Humpty Dumpty back together again?TAFUR: 100%. I love the Humpty Dumpty. Yes, we are broken. How do we come back together and mend those pieces while still acknowledging the brokenness, right? Yeah. With that analogy, there's a beautiful Japanese technique that aims to cover the fractures, but to cover the fractures with a strand of gold so that we're not pretending like the fractures aren't there, but we are making something better as a result of the recognition of those fractures.KEEN: Juliana, we've done a lot of shows about this sort of thing. In fact, I've worked with the Braver Angels group. I'm sure you're familiar with them. I have been to a couple of their conferences. There are more and more of these groups trying to bring Americans back together. Might one suggest that there is now a broader movement in America to bring Americans of different--particularly different political persuasions back together? You're doing it, braver angels are doing it. Many of the thousands of activists and hundreds of groups.TAFUR: Yeah. There is so many of us across the country that work tirelessly day in and day out, around elections and before and after elections to make sure we come together. And yes, Braver Angels is just one of them. I could certainly give you a list that you could attach to the show notes, because a lot of us are doing this work and it's good for people to know that we're out there and that this is possible. But sometimes it takes seeing it in action and understanding how to do it to really trust that you can do it, too.KEEN: Yeah, we've had lots of people on the show. I know you're familiar with the work of Eboo Patel. You've worked with him his book couple of years ago. We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy is another example of this kind of work. Tell me what you do at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. What are you doing that's different or unusual or unique in terms of bringing Americans back together?TAFUR: Yeah, well, at the Greater Good Science Center, we study the psychology, sociology and neuroscience of well-being, or what we'd like to call the science of a meaningful life. And we break the science to the practice. So we take the science of how to have a meaningful life or how to bridge differences, and we translate it in a way that is accessible to people to apply in their own lives or to practitioners to help others apply the science. And in the bridging differences programs specifically, we do this through a series of videos, multimedia pieces that we publish in our magazine, Greater Good. We have a famous podcast called The Science of Happiness. We began in earnest in 2018, I would say, gathering what the science said about how to bring people together across differences. And when we talk about the science, we talk about skills, science-based skills, from compassionate listening to finding shared identities, etc., that have been tested in labs, and we translate them in a way that people understand how some of these skills applied, how they worked in labs, and how they can then work also in kind of real-life scenarios and situations. So we have a bridging differences playbook that has 14 science-based skills for bridging differences. We have an edX course that's free and available for everyone to take that also disseminates some of the science-based skills.KEEN: Tell me a little bit more about yourself. You've been involved in this space for a while. You're also a filmmaker, so you're very much committed on lots of fronts to this. How did you find yourself? Is this a reflection of your own upbringing, your own experience in the United States?TAFUR: Absolutely, yes. What you had up first was the page from the Obama Scholars Program. So a few years ago, 21, 22, I was an Obama scholar at Columbia University--KEEN: And you were the founder, at least at that point, of something called Story Powerhouse. I'm guessing you're still the founder, although you've moved on in a sense.TAFUR: Correct. Yeah. And Story Powerhouse was at the company Listen Courageously, which was a workshop series that I took around to universities and organizations and corporations talking about the power of empathic listening. And I got to that through film that I produced and directed that brought Americans together on opposite ends of the spectrum across the easy topics of abortion, guns and immigration. And the inspiration for this film came after the 2016 election. I felt a big need back then to try to bridge the divide that I was seeing and feeling, very explicitly, for the very first time in our country. And as a Colombian-American, I was beginning to talk to folks in my circles, and I was feeling this this real sense of othering that I had never, ever experienced and wondering and questioning what was my place and that of so many others like me in our country. And that led to to Listen, to this film that brought three sets of participants across these really tough topics together to explore if they could see each other as people and connect on a human level despite their differences. And I had no idea what the outcome would be. I had documented their conversations across a period of time. And I was truly moved by what I saw. I saw that those who were able to connect at a deep, human level were those who were able to listen. So then, that led me to study and explore and understand the power of listening and understood that it was a field. It's an arts, but it's also a science and connected with practitioners, but also researchers in the field of listening. And one thing led to the other, right? As a practitioner and filmmaker in the field of bridging differences, I found myself going back to intergroup relations and conflict transformation and other subjects too, to really understand why. Why was it that my film participants had come together, and how could I then equip others to continue doing the same? Less from a "we know this is possible" and more from a kind of research-grounded way.KEEN: Juliana, some people might be listening to this and...whilst on the one hand being, in a way, impressed they might be scratching their head, maybe listening to you, you use the E-word all the time empathetic, which is quite a kind of ideological character these days. You talk about othering, you're funded by, or you were funded by, the Obama Foundation. Now you head up a greater good institute at UC Berkeley, People's Republic of Berkeley, which is a place I know all too well, I used to live there for many years. Some people might be listening to this and thinking if you scratch the surface of what Juliana's saying, is she suggesting that this is the progressive version of the greater good? And as long as you're in our camp and you use her words like "empathy" and "othering" and love the Obamas and spend time at UC Berkeley, it's fine. But when you start perhaps putting red caps on and talking about America becoming great again or not being particularly sympathetic to immigrants, then you're outside your world. How would you respond to that? Is that a fair criticism or am I wrong, or would one be wrong?TAFUR: Well, obviously, people's criticisms are their criticisms, and that's absolutely okay. And there is no right or wrong. I just want to say--KEEN: Well, there is right and wrong, Juliana, isn't there? There's some things are certainly more right than wrong and some things are more wrong and right.TAFUR: Yes, but we don't judge that. I think, you know, people are right to believe what they believe, vote for who they vote, and be who they are. And we start bridging from the place of: I see you, and I hear you, and I might not understand you, but that's okay. I still don't dehumanize you. And that's the spirit of bridging differences. And yes, I don't hide where I stand. Politically, I am more progressive. And I have been an Obama scholar. And I work at Berkeley. So all of that is who I am. And from that place, I bridge. I bridge from the place of this is who I am, where I stand. I still love you and I still want to get to know you. And I still want to see you. And I just want to say, given that I'm Colombian American and I lived in Miami for the last ten years, I just recently moved to Boulder, Colorado, to lead a statewide initiative here in the state of Colorado called Belonging Colorado to make Colorado a place where everyone feels like they belong. Thank you for popping it up.KEEN: Called Belonging Colorado.TAFUR: Yeah, in Florida, I mean, I've had friends and neighbors who don't think like I do, who don't see the world like I do. And I've appreciated that. And I have not excluded them from our circles, from trying deeply to learn and understand what is it that they believe, what they believe. So I intentionally have made way to understand our country and and to try to tap into, honestly, what at the end of the day, are people's fears of what we need. And I approach them from that place. When you approach others from a place of "we are all walking with our fears in our foreheads," we begin to connect with your fear, my fear. But it's all fear and it's okay.KEEN: You used the term "humanizing differences," Juliana. Some people, again, might be listening and thinking to themselves, well, the guy who just won the election, more Americans voted for him than the other candidate. It's quite a decisive election. He doesn't seem to be in the business of "humanizing differences." In fact, many of the people he doesn't like, he seems, some people believe, I tend to be sympathetic there, he's dehumanizing them. So. So what do we do in an America, where the next president is, or appears to be, very often in the business of dehumanization?TAFUR: Hopefully we take back the narrative.KEEN: What does that mean, "take back the narrative"? He's been elected. It's his narrative.TAFUR: It is his narrative. But as people I don't believe that everyone who voted for him is voting for the dehumanization. I am holding firm to the belief that people are good, and that people have voted for other things and not for that. And I want people who voted for him to still see that we need to humanize each other despite our differences. And I believe that they do. I do not believe people are buying into that narrative and rhetoric. At least not everyone. Some may. But I think when we take back the narrative, we take back the narrative of: yes, right now there's a winning camp and a losing camp, and that's okay. And I would hope that those in the winning camp also want to see across differences and are reaching out to humanize those who are not in the winning camp. And, you know, that is now that is four years. But our country perseveres and continues and we are interdependent and need each other. Absolutely need each other. More than this rhetoric, more than the divisive politics. Politics is just one aspect of who we are.KEEN: There are others. I mean, you acknowledge that you're a progressive. There are other progressives who are preparing to resist the new--what they see as a regime, some people even think that the new president is a fascist. What would you say to resistors, people who don't believe that it's possible to, as you would put it, reshape the narrative or seize the narrative, that that the next president is in the business of dehumanizing many people, particularly people out of America and many people in America. And it's just pointless and that they're going to fight him, they're going to fight him in the courts, and maybe even on the streets.TAFUR: I don't think that's the way. I don't stand for that. And I'm also trying to bring those people along. I think the only way out of hate, sincerely, and I know it sounds cliche, but it's through love. I don't believe in resistance in that way. I am for peace and I will continue to promote peace. And I know that that is hard for people in the far left to also swallow. And I know it takes time and I know not everyone is there right now, especially right now. And not everyone will be there ever. And that's okay, too. We understand that bridging is not the right thing for every person in every situation. We know that a lot of people who feel that their identity is in danger or that they're being disrespected might not be called to bridge differences. And that is also okay. I don't think this is work that you do by demand. And and we know that it's not without risks. We know that it involves exposing vulnerability. And we also know that sometimes bridging work takes small shifts over time. What we like to call small to large, or big, bridges. Sometimes you don't start with the biggest bridge possible bridging across the biggest divide. So we know that it's work that requires the right mindsets and skills and attitudes, and that takes time.KEEN: You've used the word bridge a lot, bridging as a noun, as an adjective. I seem to remember Bill Clinton was very much in the, at least the etymological bridge building business. He would always talk about it. Are examples of American politicians in the past who have successfully built bridges? I mean, Clinton wanted to, of course, he had his own controversial personal narrative that didn't help. But when you look back into the American past, who are the bridging presidents? FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Lincoln?TAFUR: Yeah, those, and I would say, you know, yes, I may I'm totally biased because I am funded, have been funded, by the Obama Foundation. But sincerely, President Obama has taken bridging and pluralism, as he called it, as the work that he is doing, that he is centering on after his presidency, and he runs these democracy summits that happen once a year. And and it is a message that he deeply believes in and is trying to share with others.KEEN: Yeah, I mean, doesn't everyone bridge on their own terms? Obama campaigned aggressively for Harris. And in fact, a lot of people believe that Trump never would have got involved in politics had Obama not given him such a violent roasting at one of the White House correspondence evenings a few years ago. So isn't Obama an example of someone who bridges when they feel like it and when they don't, they accuse other people of not bridging?TAFUR: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I prefer not to get into politics. I do bridging differences work because I am equipping folks with the skills to be able to do this work. And I believe in humans. So so this is really not about politics for me. It never was. It never will be. I happen to be an Obama scholar, but I'd really rather not comment on what politicians are or not doing.KEEN: And I take your point, Juliana. But politics and the founders knew this, the politics in and out of America, is a dirty business. We pursue our own interests. Madison called them the pursuit of faction. That's why we have divisions, that's why we have branches of government which are designed to negate each other. Just as Madison so famously said, so profoundly said, "If men were angels (and he did say, man, he didn't say women as well, of course), if men were angels, there'd be no need for government." And I wonder whether...and again, I don't want a group for your movements or your thinking into one, but I wonder whether this kind of ambivalence, hostility, maybe even contempt for politics is problematic. When I think of someone like Michelle Obama, I have to admit I'm very, very disappointed that she didn't choose to enter into politics. She seems to be political when she feels like it. But not to participate in politics, she was probably the only person in America could have beaten Trump. Again, I don't want to turn this into a conversation about either Obama's. But my question to you is about acknowledging the dirtiness of politics, which reflects the dirtiness of the human condition, the fact that we all are, for better or worse, self-interested. Do you accept that Madisonian version of human nature?TAFUR: I honestly think there is a better future for us when we tap into what we can be and not what we are. And I know it's hard for many to do right now. And it's hard when what we see as reality is what politicians do. And I do see some examples of politics where people are coming together that I'd like to highlight, including Governor Spencer Cox. And he's led a national campaign called Disagree Better. And he's come on ads with Governor Jared Polis from--KEEN: Colorado, yeah?TAFUR: Colorado. And Governor Cox is out of Utah, Republican. Jared Polis is a Democrat from Colorado. And I think we need more of that. We need more examples of that, politicians coming together and showing how they are coming together so that we believe that it's also possible. So I'd like to  hang on to those examples in the political realm. But again, I'm in the business of what we individuals can do at the interpersonal level to begin to cultivate the right skills and mindsets, to be able to come together and at the inter group level with others.KEEN: There's been a lot of conversation, debate after this election, Juliana, like many elections, about why and how people should vote. Should they vote out of self-interest or for the the greater good? Lots of comments about many of the people vote voting for Trump seem to be voting against their own interests, particularly the new American working class. Whereas the coastal elites in voting for Harris seem also in an odd way to be voting against their own--certainly economic--interests by voting for her, in your view, to get to this bridge and this ability to be empathetic and converse with others, do we need to overcome our own self-interest, particularly our own economic self-interest?TAFUR: I don't think you need to overcome your own economic self-interests to bridge. Not at all. Because when we bridge differences, we are not asking honestly people to leave aside any of what they value. It centers on this recognition of, yes, common humanity, which I know is very abstract to a lot of people. But it is not about persuasion and it does not require you compromising your beliefs or values. It just requires the ability for you to recognize that anyone, anyone can teach you something, which is a term called intellectual humility. So, no, not to bridge. I mean, you may be putting your self-interest aside, or some of your self-interests, aside when you're voting for certain candidates. But to bridge, we are just coming together to see each other and to be with each other.KEEN: You talk about intellectual humility. That word again, humility is another fashionable word that goes with empathy. Is there, do you think, a religious context to this? Do you think some of these movements, maybe yours, maybe even yourself, it grew out of a religious tradition. A Christian tradition? Humility, empathy, love, understanding. These are words that are traditionally used in religion.TAFUR: Yes, they are. I will say that we have not necessarily emphasized or called attention to these character virtues and moral virtues in our work. We do talk about them a lot and we will probably emphasize them a bit more moving forward, given interest that we have in doing so, because we do think that when you talk about civil, moral character virtues like respect and curiosity and courage, you are meeting different types of people at different places. And at the end of the day, this is about becoming better people.KEEN: Say that again: this is about becoming better people. So, it's a moral movement. You're suggesting people need to pull their their moral socks up if we're going to put Humpty Dumpty, to extend this rather childish metaphor, if we're if we're to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, we need to pull our moral socks up. Is that fair?TAFUR: Yeah. I mean, we believe that cultivating these virtues is not just about overcoming current societal divides, but about nurturing a deep commitment to, for a lack of a better word, the greater good. This is what this is about.KEEN: I don't know how many jobs you have, Juliana. I'm lucky enough that I don't have multiple jobs, but some people, again, might be watching this and saying this is all very well. Maybe in some biblical fantasy land, we can all put ourselves out and be better people. But most people are really busy. Many, particularly, working class people who perhaps voted for Trumo, they're working 2 or 3 jobs. They're busy. They struggle to pay their rent, feed their families. Does this require to be part of your bridging movement? Does it require, shall we say, moral...concentration? Or could you do it...occasionally?TAFUR: Absolutely. You can do it occasionally. You can do it in the weekend. You can do it with neighbors. You could do it at a school board meeting. You could do it in neighborhood meetings. You could do it wherever you are. You could do it at work. You could do it with colleagues. You could do it with your kids. It does not require more than anything that you are already doing. It's just about how you approach those who are in your circles and in your life.KEEN: What's the most difficult thing? You do this a lot. You run bridging programs. You run a school, essentially, designed to help people bridge. What does the movement most struggle with? When you see people who are open to the idea and say, you're right, I need to be able to talk responsibly with humility and empathy to people who I don't agree with on the other political side, culturally, racially, and all the rest of it. What do people most struggle with, what don't they expect? What would you warn people about who are trying to get into a movement like this?TAFUR: We are very clear that if the other person is dehumanizing you, and if you feel at risk or threatened by this dehumanization, that you should probably be careful in engaging. So that's where we draw the line.KEEN: Yeah, but then you're shifting the responsibility to somebody else. I mean, obviously, if they're dehumanizing you, you wouldn't want to talk to them. But what's hard about changing oneself, that's possible, that doesn't involve the other?TAFUR: I think this just requires the commitment to want to do it and then the right skills. To engage with it in a way that you see works, that feels good, and that invites you to continue trying it out. And all it takes is the willingness to say, "I'm exhausted by this. This is affecting me personally." Because we do know that our divides are consuming us. They're affecting our health, our well-being. We also know our divides are affecting our families and our closest circles. We know that our divides affect our children in schools. So there are many, many reasons for wanting to bridge, for saying, "this is enough. I am exhausted." And if you are, you are not alone. Three. Out of four Americans are. 75% of Americans in the most conservative estimates say they are exhausted by the division.KEEN: Exhausted by just this endless controversy of people not being able to talk to one another?TAFUR: Yeah. Research tells us that three out of four Americans see political hostility and divisiveness as a serious problem and want to live in a less polarized country. So we are just trying to meet that exhausted majority where they are. Because we do know that people value diverse perspectives. Again, research points to this, and a desire to shift the political discourse. So we're telling them: we hear you. We see you. Yes, this division hurts us. Let's do something about it. Do you need some skills? We got you.KEEN: Juliana, I asked you about other examples from American history. What about models from the rest of the world in these kinds of conversations? You often hear about the the reconciliation, the truth and reconciliation movement and Mandela, South Africa. Are there models overseas, which Americans can learn from? Americans often aren't very good at learning from other countries, particularly in Africa. But is the South African model a good one, do you think?TAFUR: Yes. I mean, clearly, they were able to come together across incredible fracture and division, and they were able to persevere and collaborate across differences. There is also the model in Ireland that we can point to. There is division that is hurting countries across the world right now. And I know ,I come from a country that is deeply divided, Colombia. And Colombians have also succeeded in bridging the great divide. But there's been strides, through peace treaties and others, to come together despite differences. So we can certainly learn from other countries that have been deeply divided and in deep conflict and have come together. We are not in a place in the US where our conflict has turned violent, thankfully, at least not openly. We are seeing signs of violence, but we are not in the midst of a war (although it seems like a moral war in many regards.) And and I do want to point to the hope that countries who have been in deeper fractures about how this is possible and and hopefully also show us that we must do something before the fracture goes wider and deeper. And where reconciliation seems harder to do.KEEN: Juliana, you mentioned Ireland. One of the things that comes to mind in the Irish model is the role of citizen assemblies in bringing people together to talk about very difficult issues. You brought up abortion, guns and immigration, in the U.S., the three most divisive issues, probably abortion, was and maybe still remains the most divisive in Roman Catholic Ireland. But the Citizens' Assembly movement in Ireland addressed the issue of abortion, and that was the way for the Irish parliament to actually develop some some quite interesting new legislation on abortion. Are you sympathetic to rethinking institutions, political institutions, political organizations like the Citizens' Assembly? Is this something that you've thought about, researched, is it part of a greater good future?TAFUR: Yeah, I mean, I do think we need to re-imagine. I do think we need to take good examples, including citizens' assemblies and in understand what's going to work for all of us. We know what we're doing now is not working for all of us. What does it take? How can we bring folks together to the conversation in a way that is bringing us all together? So, I do think bringing a diverse group of citizens to engage in structured dialogue, learn from experts, and also deliberate over complex topics could be the way. Maybe that's what we need. Maybe we do need more public participation in the democratic process in a way that ultimately ends up shaping legislation. And it does align with our bridging differences program, right? And and what we promote in in bringing people in and fostering inclusivity. So how can we bring different backgrounds together in structured discussions so that we can move beyond these partisan divides? Because we do understand that some of these issues do provoke, I would say, a really strong emotional response and and also carry significant social implications for folks.KEEN: Juliana Tafur, you've you've done very well with, my rather obnoxious question. So let's end with an opportunity for you to talk about, quite literally, where we go from here. You have some articles on your website, on the Bridging Differences website about where do we go from here, after the election. Perhaps you might touch on 3 or 4 bullets--concrete things of where we go from here in in early November 2024 that can bridge America, that can bring us back together. What would you suggest that's doable, viable, can be achieved in the next few months?TAFUR: It's great that you point to that article. I was obviously part of a group of us at the Greater Good Science Center that was very keen on publishing this the day after the election to--KEEN: And now you're on--I couldn't resist this one, Juliana, now you're on KEEN ON. I'm sorry for that rather silly joke, but anyway. Go on.TAFUR: Yep, yep, yep. Well, let me just, like, run through a bit of what some of the experts and researchers who we invited to be a part of this article with what they said.KEEN: And that included Eboo Patel, who, as I said, has been on the show. So you put together a very interesting group of people to write this thing.TAFUR: Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, so Eboo is saying keep doing what matters to you and the world, and he's trying to get us away from this catastrophe mindset, and he wants to remind us that what you are doing is sacred and it makes a difference. And even if the world is going to end, he says, the wisdom of the sages says to keep doing your meaningful work, because that work is part of the saving grace of humanity. So that was beautiful. Scott Shigeoka, who's a bridging differences fellow at the Greater Good Science Center, is inviting us to practice curiosity as an act of love. And for Scott, he says that we must practice curiosity if we want to transform our fear and hate. And he's reminding us that curiosity is a trait that we are all born with, and it's the desire to understand others more deeply. Again, this does not mean agreeing with views that clash with your own, but challenging the assumptions that you have about people who hold those views. So a lot about interrupting prejudice. Jeremy Smith, who's our editor at The Greater Good, he's inviting us to work to promote your values in community. I'll go high level on some of these. Get to know other humans, right? Get out of our silos as much as we can and connecting across our differences. Dr. Linda Traub, who is a close collaborator of ours, is inviting us to be good neighbors, even, and especially, to those who are different. So those are just a few. Choose nuance, not outrage. So I do invite folks to go through this article and and hopefully a few of the golden nuggets of inspiration do stay with you, do motivate you, to do something. It's been hard for many of us to understand what is it that we can do right now if bridging even is the calling of the moment when so many are struggling to understand what this means about our country, what this means about the next four years. But I understand others are not and are celebrating. Regardless of where you are, I think in a few weeks when you feel up for it, I think the calling of our times is to come together and to understand, again, our interdependence. We must break this cycle of othering us versus them. That does that does not exist. Those are constructs that that we have created. But we are better and we are more. And we are one. And sorry if this sounds cliche to some, but that's what I got for you.KEEN: That's interesting. And finally, Juliana, you mentioned one of your colleagues talked about what they would do if the world was to end tomorrow, what they would do this evening. It certainly reflects on you. I know if I knew the world was going to end tomorrow, I would go to Kentucky Fried Chicken. But that probably speaks of my own unsuitability for your movement. What would you do if you knew the world was ending tomorrow?TAFUR: I would speak to you, Andrew.KEEN: Oh my god, we can go together to the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Well, Juliana, it's been a real honor to have you on the show. Very interesting conversation, we're going to get you back on because this--one thing we can say for sure is this issue is not going away in 2024, 2025, 2026. Keep up the good work, Juliana, and we'll talk again in the not too distant future. Thank you so much.TAFUR: Thank you, Andrew. Thank you.For those impressed with what Julianna Tafur is doing and would like to participate, here are a couple of ideas:* Ready to turn division into connection? The Greater Good Science Center's 7-Day Campaign for Connection Challenge offers practical, research-based skills to ease stress and create understanding. Reserve your spot: http://tinyurl.com/7DayChallenge24* Feeling the weight of division this election season? You're not alone! Join the @Greater Good Science Center's 7-Day Campaign for Connection Challenge, to help you navigate these polarized times with science-backed skills. Reserve your place: http://tinyurl.com/7DayChallenge24Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

As we approach Election Day, Big Books and Bold Ideas returns to our Americans and Democracy series. Here are some of the question we're confronting. How nimble and flexible and resilient is our democracy? What is required of Americans to build and support a healthy democracy? Do we still want it?Eboo Patel writes in his book, “We Need to Build,” that a fresh manifesto for a new era in America could sound like this: “We, the varied peoples of a nation struggling to be reborn, are defeating the things we don't like by building the things we do.”It's a realistic but hopeful take from a man who is considered by many to be an expert on how to tolerate and even celebrate differences in a pluralistic society. During his conversation with host Kerri Miller, Patel admits he was a fire-breathing activist when he was young, more inclined to burn the whole system down. But after years of working with Americans of different beliefs, he says, he has come to value being more of “an architect than an arsonist.”“You don't create societies by burning things down,” he says. “You create societies by building things.”It's a provocative, thoughtful and inspiring discussion that will linger long past the results of this election. Guest: Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith America, an organization that supports religious diversity. His most recent book is “We Need to Build: Field Notes for a Diverse Democracy.”

Episode 64: Pluralism in EducationAvailable October 15, 2024Navigating polarities and fostering respectful dialogue are responsibilities that weigh heavy on many school leaders right now. How, in the current social and political climate, can we build bridges of cooperation rather than creating further barriers that divide us? How can we create space for people to voice ideas and opinions while balancing our very real obligations to nurture student safety and wellbeing? Eboo Patel, author and Director of Interfaith America, sits down with NAIS President Debra Wilson to talk about his work on the role of pluralism in schools.Guest: Eboo PatelResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“Diversity is a treasure. Identity is a source of pride, not a status of victimization. Cooperation is better than division. Faith is a bridge. Everybody's a contributor.” (4:49)“It is an exercise of citizenship in a diverse democracy to come to know something about your fellow citizens who are from different identities, including different political parties, including different regions of the world, and from different intellectual frameworks and maybe of different values. I mean, you know, did I think diversity was just the differences I liked?” (16:00)“If there's anything that a school should be, it should be a place that is immune to the kind of ideologies that shut down the conversation. I want to quote John Courtney Murray again. I think it's so powerful. He says, civilization is living and talking together. That is the definition of civilization. And the definition of the barbarian is the person who shuts down the conversation. And the introduction of ideologies that shut down conversations about, for example, how people from different identities should relate to one another.” (21:41)“If you're United Airlines, and you're hiring a graduate from Embry Riddle aeronautical university, you are pretty sure that person can fly a plane. If I hire a graduate from The Lab School or Latin School or Parker, these are elite independent schools in my city of Chicago, what should I be confident that graduate can do? And I think a head of school should say, my graduate can navigate pluralism.” (25:12)Related Episodes: 37, 30, 29, 22, 17, 7, 4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the kickoff episode of Faith in Elections, host Jenan Mohajir speaks with Yashpreet Singh Matharu from the Sikh Coalition and Dani Levine from Hillel International. Both guests share how their faith traditions motivate young people to engage in the democratic process, highlighting the importance of civic involvement within the Sikh and Jewish communities. Yashpreet emphasizes the Sikh principle of seva (selfless service), while Dani reflects on musar (Jewish ethical practice) as guiding frameworks for their work. They discuss the unique challenges their communities face in the 2024 election, strategies to bridge generational gaps, and why protecting a free and fair democratic process is among their highest priorities. Guest Bios: Yashpreet Singh Matharu, Community Development Manager at the Sikh Coalition, is dedicated to empowering young Sikh leaders and fostering civic engagement. Drawing from his experience growing up as an interpreter for his Punjabi parents, Yashpreet turned his passion for community advocacy into action by working with Michigan State Representative Ranjeev Puri. Now, he focuses on connecting Sikh student associations and volunteers nationwide, promoting civil rights, interfaith solidarity, and awareness of Sikh culture.A key part of Yashpreet's work is leading a fellowship program aimed at mobilizing young Sikhs to engage their communities in the democratic process. By equipping youth with tools to navigate U.S. politics, he hopes to bridge generational gaps and increase civic participation within the Sikh community, ensuring their voices are heard and represented in the political landscape.Dani Levine is the Senior Director of Social Impact at Hillel International. Dani brings extensive experience in Jewish social justice work to her role at Hillel, including a decade of work at Avodah. Dani holds a BA in Environmental Studies and Comparative American Studies from Oberlin College, and a Masters of Public Health with a focus on Environmental Health and Policy from Tulane University. Outside of work, Dani is actively involved in her local New Orleans and Jewish community, where she lives with her wife and three children. Embracing the local food, music, and culture, Dani finds inspiration away from the desk. Through her career and community engagement, Dani is inspired by Jewish values and practice to work towards co-creating a more just world.Visit Interfaith America to learn more about the organization and this podcast. Learn more about how you can support your community this election season with Interfaith America's Faith in Elections Playbook. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with new episodes, interfaith stories, and our programs.

A Special Re-Broadcast: Episode 40, Student Voice and Agency in EducationIn honor of the departure of our original New View EDU host Tim Fish after 60 episodes, we're pausing to share one of his favorite episodes of the podcast. Tim delighted in speaking with students, and was especially enthusiastic about this interview with two students from One Stone School in Boise, Idaho. We hope you'll enjoy revisiting this episode with us. Stay tuned for our return to new programming next week, when Debra Wilson sits down with Eboo Patel of Interfaith America.Guests: Ella Cornett and Mackenzie LinkResources, Transcript, and Expanded Show NotesIn This Episode:“To go back to the question of what should school be, I feel like learners and students should come out of school with that sense of purpose. And that's, that really resonates with me because I feel like that's what I want out of school. I wanna leave school and kind of know what I wanna do and who I wanna be in the world.” (21:39)“I would describe my stress...less so stress. I would call it ambition. Like, I think the weight of ambition sits heavy on my shoulders because I strive for the, like, the next best thing I wanna keep doing. I wanna keep going, I wanna keep pushing. And One Stone really allows me to do that and empowers me to do that.” (26:24)“It's that pushing students, the healthy balance of pushing students. And this is where great coaching comes in. And great mentorship is, you do have to find the thing that students care about and relate it, everything that you're doing, to that. And then we're in the home stretch.” (29:57)“It's easy if you let it be easy, in the sense that if you don't want to grow, if you don't try to grow, you won't. Just like a student in public school that doesn't try, they won't get a good GPA. But that's not the motivation here. The motivation here for us is to grow. So if a student doesn't want to grow, how can they?” (39:44)Related Episodes: 36, 34, 27, 23, 18 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Generosity is the invisible thread that weaves the fabric of our communities, binding us together in times of joy and adversity. From the local YMCA that nurtures young minds to the food banks that feed the hungry, our society thrives on the selfless acts of countless individuals who give their time, talents, and resources. Yet, we face a troubling decline in charitable giving and volunteerism that threatens the very foundation of our civic culture. Eboo Patel from Interfaith America shares how we can rekindle the spirit of generosity that has long been integral to American life.

Join Boyd Matheson in delving into Thursday's news! Alex Gangitano talks about the challenge trifecta in the Biden administration: providing hurricane relief, a Middle East conflict, and a American port strike. Eboo Patel talks about how the non-profit industry is struggling and how Americans can rediscover generousity. Katherine Mangu-Ward talks about the rising policy nihilsm in voters' beliefs. Olufemi Taiwo explores different alternatives to political debates and More!

Voices of Interfaith America is your home for stories of bridgebuilding and engaging diversity productively across the country. This podcast will include shows that reflect the varied experiences and complex landscape of our religiously diverse democracy. This feed will still include episodes of Interfaith America with Eboo Patel, but as we expand to include more voices from interfaith America, you will find conversations with bridgebuilders working toward a more pluralistic America. Visit Interfaith America to learn more about the organization and our podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with new episodes, interfaith stories, and our programs.

For today's episode, we're bringing you another powerful moment from our Restore gathering. Eboo Patel joined us to explore a compelling and deeply hopeful vision for what it means to build a loving, spiritually rich community where different faiths come together to form the foundation of a stronger, more united whole. Eboo challenges us to live our faiths in ways that not only elevate ourselves but lift others, creating bonds that bridge divides and bring healing to our world.Eboo, an Ismaili Muslim, is the founder and president of Interfaith America, an organization dedicated to fostering cooperation across religious traditions.Drawing on decades of experience and inspired by President Russell M. Nelson's call for peacemaking, Eboo invites us to see how our diverse spiritual practices can serve as bridges, connecting us in powerful and meaningful ways. He shares that peacemaking is both a choice and a skill, requiring us to engage deeply and intentionally with one another.Using the beautiful metaphor of a potluck dinner, he reminds us: "Do not hide your light. Do not stop bringing your distinctive dish to the table. A potluck is a place where everyone's contributions matter." This episode is about how we can actively build relationships, cooperate across differences, and create something richer together than any of us could alone. Faith Matters intends to be more and more at the center of these kinds of interfaith collaborations. We hope this conversation inspires you to reflect on your own role in creating a compassionate, connected community. And with that, we'll pass it over to Eboo Patel at Restore.

In a plenary session for the 2024 Teaching Interfaith Understanding Faculty Seminar, Eboo Patel and outgoing Middlebury College president, Laurie Patton, discuss how Middlebury's campus culture evolved in the years since 2017, when political scientist Charles Murray's visit was met with upheaval. Patton elaborates on Middlebury's conflict transformation efforts, including the successes of the Engaged Listening Project, the challenges of countering a national narrative, and the outcomes of building a resilient culture, evidenced by her community's constructive engagement of tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the spring of 2024.Guest Bio: Dr. Laurie L. Patton is the 17th president of Middlebury College and the incoming president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Patton is an authority on South Asian history, culture, and religion, and religion in the public square. She is the author and editor of ten scholarly books and three books of poems, and has translated the classical Sanskrit text, The Bhagavad Gita. She was president of the American Academy of Religion in 2019 and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018 in two categories, philosophy/religion and education.Visit Interfaith America to learn more about the organization and our podcast.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with new episodes, interfaith stories, and our programs.

In 2017, a Utah family began discussing some of the challenging questions facing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From those modest beginnings, a multidimensional platform emerged called Faith Matters, which defines itself as a “space in which an expansive, radiant approach to the restored gospel can be considered.” The effort now includes a popular podcast, book publishing, online courses, and, coming next week, its third in-person “Restore” conference. The giant gathering at the Mountain West Expo Center in Sandy has attracted more than 3,000 paid registrants and will feature speakers, poets, musicians and artists — including Astrid Tuminez, Jennifer Finlayson-Fife, Jennifer Walker Thomas, Terryl and Fiona Givens, Mauli Bonner, Neylan McBaine, Allison Dayton and Eboo Patel. It is, organizers say, meant to “inspire, enlighten and nourish faith.” On this week's show, Zachary Davis, executive director of Faith Matters, editor of its Wayfare magazine and co-director of the conference, discusses this organization, the upcoming conference and how they appeal to, help and inspire a range of Latter-day Saints.

We live in a polarized time. People with whom we disagree are not just wrong, but evil – or so we (and they) often think. John Inazu thinks that posture towards those with whom we disagree is neither helpful nor biblical. He thinks empathy, curiosity, and love – both loving our neighbors but also loving our enemies – is both a biblical approach, and an approach that is more likely to change hearts and minds. John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. His latest book, the one we're discussing today, is Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect (Zondervan, 2024). Inazu is also the author of Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012) and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2016). He is co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Thomas Nelson, 2020). Inazu is the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship, a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum, and a Senior Fellow with Interfaith America, where he co-directs (with Eboo Patel) the Newbigin Fellows. The producer for today's program is Jeff McIntosh. Until next time, may God bless you.

This week, we're sharing an episode from Proclaim Peace, a podcast we proudly co-sponsor in collaboration with Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Proclaim Peace is hosted by Jennifer Thomas, Co-Executive Director of MWEG, and Patrick Mason, Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University, and longtime friend and advisor of Faith Matters. In this episode, Patrick and Jennifer chat with Eboo Patel, the founder and president of Interfaith America and a powerful bridge-builder in the United States. Eboo has spent a lifetime trying to harness the passion and loyalty people feel towards their religions and use it for good by encouraging interfaith collaboration and civic engagement. He shares with us some of his insights from several decades of speaking with religious and civic leaders across many different faiths, and some of the special opportunities he sees for our Latter-day Saint community.We encourage you to subscribe to Proclaim Peace to hear fascinating conversations with Latter-day Saint bridge builders and peacemakers working all over the world in creative, gospel-inspired ways. We'd also love for you to register for Restore, which will be held on September 5-7 at the Mountain American Expo Center, where Eboo will be, in-person, along with Patrick, Jennifer, and many other incredible speakers for a weekend of spiritual rejuvenation. You can register at faithmaters.org/restoreWe hope you'll join us! In the mean time, please enjoy this episode of Proclaim Peace with Eboo Patel.

On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast with Ian Bremmer, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, advocates for cooperation over division on college campuses in response to protests, highlighting the need for civil discourse and pointing out that despite some instances of violence, most campuses engage in constructive dialogue.Whether you are for or against the protests happening across the country, one thing is clear: They've caught the world's attention. Some have escalated into violence, as seen at UCLA, Texas, and Columbia University. On the podcast, Patel discusses his efforts on over 600 college campuses to foster unity. His central message: "Cooperation is better than division."Patel emphasizes the need for universities to shift their focus from confrontation to cooperation, advocating for environments that promote civil discourse. He suggests initiatives such as teach-ins and dialogues to explore constructive solutions to complex issues. Patel criticizes the default mode of many universities. "I think the problem here, the thing that universities could control, which I think that they have gotten wrong in many cases over the course of the past five years, is the default mode has been set to confrontation, not cooperation."While it may be challenging to find common ground, Patel highlights that the majority of college campuses have managed to engage in debates about the Israel-Gaza conflict without resorting to chaos or violence. He explains, "The media, for good reasons, covers planes that crash and not planes that land." This suggests that the instances of violence and chaos are outliers and that civil discourse is still prevalent on many campuses.Host: Ian BremmerGuest: Eboo Patel Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast with Ian Bremmer, Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, advocates for cooperation over division on college campuses in response to protests, highlighting the need for civil discourse and pointing out that despite some instances of violence, most campuses engage in constructive dialogue.Whether you are for or against the protests happening across the country, one thing is clear: They've caught the world's attention. Some have escalated into violence, as seen at UCLA, Texas, and Columbia University. On the podcast, Patel discusses his efforts on over 600 college campuses to foster unity. His central message: "Cooperation is better than division."Patel emphasizes the need for universities to shift their focus from confrontation to cooperation, advocating for environments that promote civil discourse. He suggests initiatives such as teach-ins and dialogues to explore constructive solutions to complex issues. Patel criticizes the default mode of many universities. "I think the problem here, the thing that universities could control, which I think that they have gotten wrong in many cases over the course of the past five years, is the default mode has been set to confrontation, not cooperation."While it may be challenging to find common ground, Patel highlights that the majority of college campuses have managed to engage in debates about the Israel-Gaza conflict without resorting to chaos or violence. He explains, "The media, for good reasons, covers planes that crash and not planes that land." This suggests that the instances of violence and chaos are outliers and that civil discourse is still prevalent on many campuses.Host: Ian BremmerGuest: Eboo Patel Subscribe to the GZERO World with Ian Bremmer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.

Boyd reflects on his Sunday Edition’s conversation with Eboo Patel from Interfaith America about how to build a more collaborative rather than combative environment. We need to have radical empathy for those we disagree with. By doing so, we can find the right solution to the issues we are facing today.

Yascha Mounk and Eboo Patel discuss how interfaith work can serve as a model for engaging productively across differences. Eboo Patel is the founder of Interfaith America and the author of We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy. Patel also served as an advisor on faith to President Barack Obama. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Eboo Patel discuss how the dominant diversity paradigm in many institutions divides individuals into oppressors and oppressed; how universities can draw from the intellectual tradition of pluralism to encourage mutual respect and cooperation; and how university leaders can alleviate the deeply polarized atmosphere that prevails at many institutions around the country. This conversation is part of a new Persuasion series on the Future of Universities. Universities are in crisis—losing public support, shaken by internal divisions, facing angry donors and alumni, and increasingly straying from their core mission of intellectual curiosity and open inquiry. Persuasion's new series about the future of universities, made possible by the generous support of the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, will consist of a collection of longform essays and podcast interviews aimed at helping higher education tackle this crisis.  This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: podcast@persuasion.community  Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields, and Brendan Ruberry Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

College commencement ceremonies are happening tonight at universities across Utah. After the last few weeks of protests, riots, occupation and division, it's time to find a way across divides and come together. Eboo Patel from Interfaith America joins Boyd to discuss the “Potluck Democracy” and the deep essence of democracy and divinity.

In this episode of the Proclaim Peace Podcast, Jennifer and Patrick are joined by Eboo Patel to discuss how religion, despite being a source of ultimate peace, can also lead to conflict due to the world's religious diversity. They explore the inevitability of conflict around matters of faith and highlight the importance of handling it productively. Drawing insights from the Book of Mormon, they emphasize the significance of teachings that focus on God's saving work for all of humanity. Tune in to gain valuable perspectives on navigating religious conflicts and becoming better peacemakers in various aspects of life.[00:02:38] God's diverse messages through scripture.[00:06:56] How do you define peace?[00:09:40] Religion enriches and inspires people.[00:11:45] Interfaith contributions to civic peace.[00:14:50] Embracing diversity in activism.[00:21:02] Religion as fire analogy.[00:24:11] Religious pluralism and refugee resettlement.[00:27:14] Interfaith cooperation and holiness.[00:31:04] Finding meaning in scripture.[00:36:41] Interfaith cooperation within religions.[00:39:19] Interfaith work opportunities.[00:42:43] Interfaith peacemaking in society.[00:49:21] Interfaith peacemaking within religious traditions.[00:50:39] Finding common ground in faith.[00:53:03] Finding Inner Peace.Find transcript and full show notes at https://www.mormonwomenforethicalgovernment.org/proclaim-peace

In the face of rising national polarization amid a turbulent election season, Eboo Patel and Mónica Guzmán discuss the role of curiosity, humility, and civil dialogue in a democratic society. They also discuss Guzmán's new book I Never Thought of it That Way, emphasizing the responsibility we all share to embrace diverse perspectives with an inquisitive spirit and reflect on privilege and exclusivity in elite institutions and the challenges of insularity and assumptions that come with it. 

Eboo Patel is joined by American theologian, writer, and editor of Sojourners, Jim Wallis, to discuss his new book The False White Gospel. Wallis shares his belief that white Christian nationalism is an enemy of democracy and pluralism due to its exclusionary theology and emphasis on dominance. They discuss a vision for creating a new, multifaith American church that partners across differences and revitalizes religious communities in addressing social issues.Guest Bio: Jim Wallis is the inaugural holder of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, and the Director of its new Center on Faith and Justice. He served on President Obama's first White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and is the author of multiple New York Times bestselling books, including God's Politics; his latest book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, was released on April 2nd, 2024, and is available wherever you buy books. In 2022 and 2023, Washingtonian magazine named Wallis one of the 500 most influential people shaping policy in DC. Wallis is also the founder of Sojourners.

In this episode of the Writing Room podcast, Bob and Kim are joined by John Inazu, a law professor and author of an upcoming release, "Learning to Disagree". Join this trio of storytellers as they explore the intersection of law, life, and writing, inviting listeners into a space where understanding triumphs over division. If you're seeking inspiration to infuse empathy into your narratives, this episode promises a wealth of insights and practical wisdom. John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. Inazu is also the author of Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference. He is co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference. Inazu is also the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and a Senior Fellow with Interfaith America, where he co-directs (with Eboo Patel) the Newbigin Fellows. Connect with John: @johninazu Connect with Bob: @bobgoff Connect with Kim: @kimberly.stuart.writes Join Bob and Kim for the next Writer's Workshop at The Oaks: April 22-24 Learn more about Writing Coaching with Bob and Kim

In this episode of the Writing Room podcast, Bob and Kim are joined by John Inazu, a law professor and author of an upcoming release, "Learning to Disagree". Join this trio of storytellers as they explore the intersection of law, life, and writing, inviting listeners into a space where understanding triumphs over division. If you're seeking inspiration to infuse empathy into your narratives, this episode promises a wealth of insights and practical wisdom. John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. Inazu is also the author of Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference. He is co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference. Inazu is also the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and a Senior Fellow with Interfaith America, where he co-directs (with Eboo Patel) the Newbigin Fellows. Connect with John: @johninazu Connect with Bob: @bobgoff Connect with Kim: @kimberly.stuart.writes Join Bob and Kim for the next Writer's Workshop at The Oaks: April 22-24 Learn more about Writing Coaching with Bob and Kim

In this episode of the Writing Room podcast, Bob and Kim are joined by John Inazu, a law professor and author of an upcoming release, "Learning to Disagree". Join this trio of storytellers as they explore the intersection of law, life, and writing, inviting listeners into a space where understanding triumphs over division. If you're seeking inspiration to infuse empathy into your narratives, this episode promises a wealth of insights and practical wisdom. John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. Inazu is also the author of Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference. He is co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference. Inazu is also the founder of The Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and a Senior Fellow with Interfaith America, where he co-directs (with Eboo Patel) the Newbigin Fellows. Connect with John: @johninazu Connect with Bob: @bobgoff Connect with Kim: @kimberly.stuart.writes Join Bob and Kim for the next Writer's Workshop at The Oaks: April 22-24 Learn more about Writing Coaching with Bob and Kim

Join us in this episode as we talk to Eboo Patel about what a pluralistic nation needs from Christians. Eboo Patel is the Founder and President of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. Under his leadership, Interfaith America has worked with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to make faith a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. Eboo served on President Obama's Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote addresses, and has written five books. You can find Eboo & Interfaith on social media: X (Twitter) @EbooPatel Facebook @EbooPatelLinkedInX (Twitter) @interfaithusa Facebook @interfaithamericaInstagram @interfaithamerica20 Minute Takes is a production of Christians for Social ActionHost and Producer: Nikki Toyama-Szeto Edited by: Wiloza MediaMusic: Andre Henry

This is our unabridged interview with Eboo Patel. “Diversity is a treasure,” says President and Founder of Interfaith America Eboo Patel. But what does “diversity” really mean? The term is found these days in public discourse and political debate, in boardrooms and on athletic fields. But Eboo argues that the way it plays out in the United States often misses the point entirely: instead of honoring identity and leaving room for disagreement, we settle for a flattening of culture, calling it “diversity.” “Coherent doesn't mean univocal,” says Eboo. “In a democracy, you actually get to articulate your identity.” In this episode, Eboo describes why we should treasure our differences - especially religious differences - rather than treat them as insignificant, and provides new ways to frame polarizing issues around religion, race, and politics. Show Notes Similar episodes: David Brooks: Can We Save Society by Knowing Each Other? Eddie Glaude: On James Baldwin's America David Desteno: Can Religion Make You Happier? Kristin Du Mez Sits with David French Resources mentioned this episode We Need to Build by Eboo Patel Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel Interfaith America's website PDF of Lee's Interview Notes Transcript for Abridged Episode Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book |  Joy & the Good Life Course Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

“Diversity is a treasure,” says President and Founder of Interfaith America Eboo Patel. But what does “diversity” really mean? The term is found these days in public discourse and political debate, in boardrooms and on athletic fields. But Eboo argues that the way it plays out in the United States often misses the point entirely: instead of honoring identity and leaving room for disagreement, we settle for a flattening of culture, calling it “diversity.” “Coherent doesn't mean univocal,” says Eboo. “In a democracy, you actually get to articulate your identity.” In this episode, Eboo describes why we should treasure our differences - especially religious differences - rather than treat them as insignificant, and provides new ways to frame polarizing issues around religion, race, and politics. Show Notes Similar episodes: David Brooks: Can We Save Society by Knowing Each Other? Eddie Glaude: On James Baldwin's America David Desteno: Can Religion Make You Happier? Kristin Du Mez Sits with David French Resources mentioned this episode We Need to Build by Eboo Patel Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel Interfaith America's website PDF of Lee's Interview Notes Transcription Link Subscribe to episodes: Apple | Spotify | Amazon | Stitcher | Google | YouTube Follow Us: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube Follow Lee: Instagram | Twitter Join our Email List: nosmallendeavor.com Become a Member: Virtual Only | Standard | Premium See Privacy Policy: Privacy Policy Shop No Small Endeavor Merch: Scandalous Witness Course | Scandalous Witness Book |  Joy & the Good Life Course Amazon Affiliate Disclosure: Tokens Media, LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

We continue our discussion with Yascha Mounk, one of the leading public intellectuals of our time. The subject is a hugely influential ideology that attempts to put racial, sexual and gender identity at the center of our social, cultural and political life. The "identity synthesis", Mounk argues, denies that members of different groups can truly understand one another and this stifles public discourse.In this podcast episode, we learn why an obsession with identity undermines social justice, fuels culture wars, and boosts hateful hardliners on the right and left— from Donald Trump to protesters who support Hamas and its murderous attacks on Israeli civilians. We also hear how to politely but firmly push back against those who have become ensnared in "The Identity Trap," the name of Yascha Mounk's new book."Categories like race and gender and sexual orientation help to explain what's going on in the world, but they're not the only categories that help to explain it," Mounk tells us. "There's also social class, religion and patriotism as well as individual actions, attributes and aspirations.""The Identity Trap" has been called "the most ambitious and comprehensive account to date of the origins, consequences and limitations" of "wokeness". In our last episode, Yascha Mounk explained how postmodernism, postcolonialism and critical race theory gained currency on many college campuses by 2020. Today, a simplified version of these ideas exerts a strong influence in business, government and media. In this episode, Mounk urges listeners to claim the moral high ground. "Don't apologize about arguing against a worldview that emphasizes identity to the exclusion of other factors". Recognize we have genuine disagreements but argue for convictions that you believe will result in a better world. People are open to persuasion, he says.Mounk mentions two of the most effective critics of the identity ideology were once very drawn to it: Maurice Mitchell of the Working Families Party and interfaith organizer, Eboo Patel.Recommendation: Richard has just read "The Speech", by Gary Younge, who writes for the Guardian and The Nation. His book is the story behind Martin Luther King Jr.'s powerful "I have a Dream" speech delivered to a vast audience in 1963. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Najeeba Syeed and Eboo Patel explore the ethics and future of interfaith work amid deep divides across religious communities. They focus on the impact of global wars and crises on religious communities and discuss the role of institutions in promoting interfaith understanding through open-mindedness and deep listening.Guest Bio: Najeeba Syeed is the inaugural El-Hibri endowed Chair and Executive Director of the Interfaith Institute at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has been a professor, expert practitioner, and public speaker for the last two decades in conflict resolution, interfaith studies, mediation, restorative Justice, education, and social, gender, and racial equity.She has facilitated conflict resolution processes for conflicts in many schools, communities, and environmental and public controversies. She served as the co-chair of the American Academy of Religion's Religion and Politics Section and was a member of the Academy's Religion, Social Conflict, and Peace Section.  She was elected by the body of the American Academy of Religion to serve on the governing body of the Program Committee. She is a past board member of the National Association for Community Mediation, National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and serves on the Higher Education Advisory Council for Interfaith America, and Advisory Council for Peace and Conflict Resolution at the Tanenbaum Center and past chair of the Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women. She served on the Teaching Team for the Luce American Academy of Religion Summer Seminar on Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theologies.

Widely known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office, Emmy Award nominee Rainn Wilson talks about his new book 'Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution,' the future of religion and spiritual themes in Hollywood, and the spirituality of his famous character Dwight Schrute.  Guest Bio: Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, writer, and director — widely known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom The Office (2005–2013), for which he earned three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Other film credits include lead roles in the comedies The Rocker (2008) and Super (2010), as well as supporting roles in the horror films Cooties (2014) and The Boy (2015). In 2009, he provided his voice for the computer-animated science fiction film Monsters vs. Aliens as the villain Gallaxhar and voiced Gargamel in Smurfs: The Lost Village. He has played a small recurring role of Harry Mudd on Star Trek: Discovery (2017) and Star Trek: Short Treks (2018), as well as a supporting role in The Meg (2018). He is also the voice of Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Movie Universe. Outside of acting, Wilson published an autobiography, The Bassoon King, in 2015 and co-founded the digital media company SoulPancake in 2008. You can tune in to all episodes on our website, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday at 5 a.m. CST.  

In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss the history of drive-thru dining.  Support Past Present on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pastpresentpodcast Here are some links and references mentioned during this week's show:   ·      Drive-through dining is more popular than ever since the pandemic. Neil drew on this Serious Eats history, and we all referred to this photo collection.   In our regular closing feature, What's Making History: ·      Natalia recommended Eboo Patel's essay for Inside Higher Ed, “Why Campuses Need Centers for Pluralism.” ·      Neil discussed Natasha Singer's New York Times article, “This Florida District Banned Cellphones. Here's What Happened.” ·      Niki shared about the latest episode of Unclear and Present Danger, on which she appears.

Ayad Akhtar, American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter, joins Eboo Patel at the Chicago Humanities Festival to discuss art, creativity, and cultural sensitivity. They emphasize the need to engage with and respect different identities in a diverse democracy rather than resorting to simplistic labels like "victim" or "racist." Bio: Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Akhtar is the author of Homeland Elegies (Little, Brown & Co.), which The Washington Post called "a tour de force" and The New York Times called "a beautiful novel…that had echoes of The Great Gatsby and that circles, with pointed intellect, the possibilities and limitations of American life." His first novel, American Dervish (Little, Brown & Co.), was published in over 20 languages. As a playwright, he has written Junk (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Kennedy Prize for American Drama, Tony nomination); Disgraced (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Tony nomination); The Who & The What (Lincoln Center); and The Invisible Hand (NYTW; Obie Award, Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award, Olivier, and Evening Standard nominations). 

Prominent law and religion professor John Inazu discusses the political flip-flop of conservative Christians in America, the role of evangelical Christians in creating safe spaces, and the importance of navigating differences with empathy and respect.  Guest Bio: John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion and holds a joint appointment in the Washington University Law School and the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Inazu's scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion and related legal and political theory questions. Inazu is the special editor of a volume on law and theology published in Law and Contemporary Problems, and his articles have appeared in several law reviews and specialty journals. He has written broadly for mainstream audiences in publications including USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. You can tune in to all episodes on our website, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday at 5 a.m. CST. 

Amid today's polarized political scene, many Americans throw up their hands and say, like Patrick Henry, “‘peace, peace,' but there is no peace. The war is actually begun.” To some, the partisan divide seems deeper than ever — with no way to bridge it. Even religions sometimes seem to battle with other faiths, as well as those within a faith. Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America and author of “We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy,” has done a lot of thinking about how to overcome divisions. He is also an “impact scholar” at the University of Utah and will visit the Salt Lake City campus a few times each year during his two-year appointment. Retired federal Judge Thomas Griffith, a Latter-day Saint convert, also bemoans the toxic divides that poison public debate and rip apart the fabric of U.S. society. Recently, the American Bar Association appointed Griffith a member of a newly created Task Force for American Democracy, whose aim is to push back against authoritarian tendencies in the country. On this week's show, Patel and Griffith — both hopeful if not optimistic — discuss how to bring peace to our trouble times and how members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have a vital role to play in that quest, especially if they can become as accomplished at bridge building as they are at evangelizing.

You can tune in to Season 1 and learn more about the podcast on our website, Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else you listen to your favorite podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday at 5 a.m. CST.  Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay updated with new episodes, interfaith stories, and our programs.

Eboo Patel is a civic leader, author, and Founder of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. Eboo served on President Obama's Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote speeches, and has written several books. His most recent book, We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy, argues for the necessity of institution-building for those of us dedicated to refounding America as a just and inclusive democracy. Eboo joins the podcast to discuss the roots of his own love-based activism, how social change actually works, and why so many influential social activists have been people of faith. 

During a time when bridges are being burned rather than built, MLK Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech is more important than ever. But instead of creating more divisions in our world today, how can we build unity, much like King did in 1963? Eboo Patel from Interfaith America explains why we should focus on community and volunteerism if we want to bridge divides. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Season 2, the Interfaith America with Eboo Patel podcast explores how we engage religious diversity in different sectors of our nation, from Hollywood to politics, journalism to academia. Featuring prominent public figures including Rainn Wilson, Jonathan Eig, and Danielle Allen, Eboo Patel engages in meaningful conversations to understand how our nation's constantly evolving religious diversity shapes our democracy.Kwame Anthony Appiah is a British-born American philosopher, writer, and scholar of African and African American studies, best known for his contributions to political philosophy, moral psychology, and the philosophy of culture. Appiah tackles life's dilemmas in The Ethicist column in the New York Times magazine. In his recent book The Lies that Bind, Appiah helps us rethink the way we understand group identity. His earlier book Cosmopolitanism defined a diversity paradigm and was widely influential in the Obama era.Appiah is the son of Joseph Appiah, a Ghanaian-born barrister, and Peggy Cripps, daughter of the British states-person Sir Stafford Cripps. He attended Bryanston School and later Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1982. He taught philosophy, African studies, and African American studies at Yale University (1981–86), Cornell University (1986–89), Duke University (1990–91), and Harvard University (1999–2002). In 2002 he joined the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, where he stayed until moving to New York University in 2014.You can learn more about Appiah on his website.Visit Interfaith America to learn more about the organization and our podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with new episodes, interfaith stories, and our programs.Guest Bio: Kwame Anthony Appiah is a British-born American philosopher, novelist, and scholar of African and African American studies, best known for his contributions to political philosophy, moral psychology, and the philosophy of culture. Appiah tackles life's dilemmas in The Ethicist column in the New York Times magazine. And in his book The Ties that Bind, he illustrates how identities are defined by conflict, while Cosmopolitanism is a proclamation that every single one of us matters and that we are responsible for our collective wellbeing no matter the differences. Appiah is the son of Joseph Appiah, a Ghanaian-born barrister, and Peggy Cripps, daughter of the British statesperson Sir Stafford Cripps. He attended Bryanston School and later Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1982. He taught philosophy, African studies, and African American studies at Yale University (1981–86), Cornell University (1986–89), Duke University (1990–91), and Harvard University (1999–2002). In 2002 he joined the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, where he stayed until moving to New York University in 2014.You can learn more about Appiah on his website.Visit Interfaith America to learn more about the organization and our podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram to stay up to date with new episodes, interfaith stories, and our programs.

In a preview of their PEN World Voices dialog, Ayad Akhtar, president of PEN America, playwright and novelist and the author of Homeland Elegies: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company, 2020), and Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America and the author of We Need To Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy (Beacon Press, 2022), now in paperback, talk about the tension between protecting marginalized groups and freedom of expression.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 8, 2023 is: circumscribe • SER-kum-skrybe • verb Circumscribe means “to limit the size or amount of something,” or, in other words, “to constrict the range or activity of.” // His role as president was carefully circumscribed by the board. See the entry > Examples: “[Jane] Addams didn't put much stock in being ideologically pure. In the best pragmatist tradition, she did the right thing according to the circumstance and the evidence and worked with people of all identities and ideologies to get there. That included people with views very different from her own. Addams wrote: ‘We know instinctively that if we grow contemptuous of our fellows and consciously limit our intercourse to certain kinds of people whom we have previously decided to respect, we not only circumscribe our range of life, but limit the scope of our ethics.'” — Eboo Patel, The Chicago Tribune, 21 Apr. 2022 Did you know? To circumscribe something is to limit its size, activity, or range, but the range of influence of the Latin ancestors of circumscribe knows no bounds. Circumscribe comes via Middle English from the Latin verb circumscribere (which roughly translates as “to draw a circle around”), which in turn comes from circum-, meaning “circle,” and scribere, meaning “to write or draw.” Among the many descendants of circum- are circuit, circumference, circumnavigate, circumspect, circumstance, and circumvent. Scribere gave us such words as scribe and scribble, as well as ascribe, describe, and transcribe, among others.

Eboo Patel, president of Interfaith America, served on Obama's inaugural Faith Council and has spent the last twenty years championing religious diversity in America. Patel advocates for a peaceful, pluralistic approach to coexistence that is becoming a rarity in America. In a world defined by an "Us vs. Them" binary, Patel asks us to broaden our sense of "Us." Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Qesiyb7fG_8 We Need to Build: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691153/we-need-to-build-by-eboo-patel Follow Eboo Patel: https://twitter.com/EbooPatel | https://interfaithamerica.org Follow Andrew Yang: https://twitter.com/andrewyang | https://forwardparty.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices