This Is Civity Civity

In this episode, we talk with Mónica Guzmán, Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, and author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times.
Mónica at first dedicated her career to connecting people across differences through journalism… but then moved into the bridging space to find a more effective way to bring people together in relationship.
Through it all, she has been driven by a deep curiosity about others and the stories that shape our lives and perspectives.

In this episode, we talk with David Brooks, New York Times Columnist, and author of How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

We explore David’s journey to find ways to know other people better and learn how to share his own stories and experiences as part of the knowing process. He shares the lessons and strategies he’s learned to cultivate relationships, big and small, as a way to weave community.

In this episode, we chat with Alexandra Hudson about her new book -The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves. Hudson explores the difference between politeness and what Hudson calls civility – and we call CIVITY – truly seeing an OTHER and recognizing their humanity and dignity.
Alexandra is also founder of Civic Renaissance, an online space dedicated to elevating our public discourse.

In this episode, we explore the importance of strong neighborhood and community relationships to the health of nations, and we discuss the fact that many neighborhoods in the U.S. don’t have strong local ties and need structural and systemic help.
My guest is Seth Kaplan - Author of Fragile Neighborhoods Repairing American Society One Zip Code at a Time. Seth is also an international relations expert whose job is to help fragile states around the world. He consults with organizations such as the World Bank and U.S. State Department, and he teaches international relations at Johns Hopkins University.

In this episode, we talk with Riaz Patel, executive producer and director focusing on reality shows that depict people connecting and having positive transformations. Riaz created what he calls the EPIC system - with EPIC standing for Equalization, Personalization, Information Gathering, and Collaboration - something very in line with Civity’s approach to helping people connect across differences.
Riaz has used the EPIC System to create a show called ConnectEffect, in which he has people learn about and connect with each other face-to-face - breaking through labels and getting to each other’s humanity.

In this episode, we explore how "othering" has led to increased marginalization and vilification of people who are un-housed - and how civity can help counter this trend by helping people who are housed see the humanity of those without housing. My guest is Eric Tars, Legal Director of National Homelessness Law Center, who reminds us that housing is a human right. Tars hopes that helping people see each other's humanity can bring this back into focus.