Grounded, Not Divided

Show notes:To combat today’s political polarization and violence, a distinguished group of Wyoming faith, business, and community leaders recently launched the “Become a Peacemaker” initiative, “calling Christians to restore grace in public life”. In the biblical Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:9), Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God”.My guest on today’s episode is Become a Peacemaker board member Ron Rabou. In addition to his work on Become a Peacemaker, Ron Rabou is President and CEO of Rabou Farms, a noted public speaker, and author of Keep It Simple: The 12 Core Values that Lead to Personal and Professional Success and Make Your OWN Way: One Family’s Story of Breaking the Mold and Achieving Independence in American Agriculture. We discuss the Become a Peacemaker initiative, its connection to the biblical concept of grace, and the challenge of political polarization in America and Wyoming.Don’t miss our next episode!Make sure to subscribe, and stay tuned for our next episode, Episode 13, on finding common ground on K-12 and higher-ed issues, with Brian Kisida, Associate Professor in the Truman School of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Missouri and Co-Director of the Arts, Humanities, & Civic Engagement Lab. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Show notes:Today’s episode is the third in what has become a three-part series on bright spots in K-12 education. In the previous two episodes, I talked to Karen Vaites about the “southern surge” successes of Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama in K-12 reading; and I talked to Paul Bennett about Quebec’s long-standing leadership in K-12 math.In today’s episode, I talk to Shaka Mitchell about charter school success stories and the school choice debate in the United States. Shaka Mitchell has led high-performing charter school networks, including Rocketship Education and LEAD Public schools, serving over 2,500 students in Nashville. His students include some of the most disadvantaged in the city. He is a Senior Fellow at the American Federation for Children and an adjunct faculty member at Belmont University. He writes on Substack, at Shaka’s Substack.We discuss the importance of school safety, high standards, building strong relationships between schools and families, and more. We also discuss Shaka’s new initiative, the Come Together Music Project, which uses music to bridge political divides.Don’t miss our next episode!Make sure to subscribe, and stay tuned for our next episode, Episode 12, with Ron Rabou, President and CEO of Rabou Farms, author and speaker, and, most recently, co-founder and board member of Become a Peacemaker: a non-denominational faith-based initiative to reduce political polarization in Wyoming. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Today’s episode is the second in our series on bright spots in K-12 education. In the previous episode, I talked to Karen Vaites about the “southern surge” successes of Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama in K-12 reading.In this episode, I talk to Canadian educator and researcher Paul Bennett about the success story of Quebec in K-12 math. Quebec has consistently led North America in K-12 math outcomes. What is behind that success and what can school systems in other places learn from it?Paul Bennett is one of Canada’s leading thinkers on K-12 education. He is founder of Schoolhouse Consulting, and Director and Lead Researcher of the Schoolhouse Institute. He is also Chair of researchED Canada, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and Adjunct Professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is the author of many reports and articles, as well as the 2020 book The State of the System: A reality check on Canada’s schools. Before becoming a researcher, he had a 35-year career as a teacher, vice-principal, headmaster, and elected school board trustee in some of the top schools in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.To follow Paul’s work, you can find him on X here, and you can follow his popular blog, Educhatter, here. Don’t miss our next episode!Make sure to subscribe, and stay tuned for our next episode, Episode 11, with Shaka Mitchell, on the secrets to building successful charter schools in underserved areas, and on the school choice debate in the United States. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Today’s episode is the first in a two-part series on K-12 education. Many K-12 education outcomes in this country are heading in the wrong direction, and K-12 education is becoming an increasingly fraught and polarizing issue. Yet, most people agree on the core objectives of K-12 education. We all want our kids to learn to read and do math at school, even if we might disagree about what books our kids should read.Which places are doing these things well, and what can we learn from them? That’s what these next two episodes will focus on. In the next episode, we will take a look at the success of mathematics education in Quebec.But first, we’ll take a look at an amazing success story in reading education in the southeastern U.S. called the Southern Surge. Over the past decade or so, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama have gone from having some of the worst K-12 reading outcomes in the country to having some of the best. How they did this was not about being rich or blindly spending more money—these are some of the poorest states, with some of the most disadvantaged students, in the country. Instead, it’s a story about strong leadership, evidence-based policy and curricular reform, teacher support, and, perhaps most of all, an unwillingness to accept an unacceptable status quo.To guide us through the Southern Surge story, we are very lucky to have Karen Vaites joining us.Karen Vaites is an education entrepreneur, children’s advocate, , author of the School Yourself newsletter on Substack, and contributor to the Curriculum Insight Project. She was an executive of several K-12 education start-ups before shifting her career towards advocacy work, where she focuses on writing about and promoting evidence-based teaching practices. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Michael Chambers is Founding CEO and Executive Chairman of Aldevron—a DNA and RNA manufacturing company that has become a key part of the supply chain for a wide range of breakthrough medical technologies, including the COVID-19 vaccines and, more recently, patient-tailored gene therapy. Aldevron’s remarkable story begins when Michael was an undergraduate student working in a research lab at North Dakota State University. Michael is also an investor and advisor who serves on several corporate boards in the artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology industries. We discuss his fascinating life and career, the futures of biotechnology and AI, and how universities can better prepare their graduates for success in the business world. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

What’s the deal with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Depending on whom you ask, they are either energy-sucking, climate-destroying Ponzi schemes that facilitate illegal activity, or they are a key part of the future of global finance. Whatever they are, the Trump administration has made it a priority to promote them, for example by creating a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve. As a longtime crypto skeptic myself, I wanted to talk to someone close to the industry who could challenge my view by making the strongest case possible for crypto. Enter my UW colleagues Brad Rettler and Andrew Bailey, co-authors (along with Craig Warmke) of the best-selling book: Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin. Bradley Rettler is an Associate Professor of Philosophy here at the University of Wyoming. Andrew Bailey is currently a Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, but he will soon be joining our faculty at the University of Wyoming as well. We discuss their book, and the arguments for and against bitcoin. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Ed Seidel is the President of the University of Wyoming. As a computational physicist, President Seidel is also one of the most highly cited members of the University of Wyoming’s faculty. This is rare among modern university presidents. He has led large research groups and worked in university administration in many different parts of the United States, including Illinois and Louisiana, and in other countries including Germany and Russia. He started his presidency here at the University of Wyoming on July 1, 2020. His five-year tenure here has therefore spanned one of the most challenging and interesting times in the history of higher education. We discuss his career, the challenges he has helped the University of Wyoming navigate, and what he sees as the most important impacts that university leaders can have on their campuses. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Grok, AlphaFold, self-driving cars, mass automation, superintelligence. There seems to be a new artificial intelligence (AI) story every week. The future of AI raises both awe-inspiring possibilities for progress and existential questions about the future of humanity. In this episode, I talk through some of these issues with Calum Chace, “The AI guy”. Calum Chace started out as a journalist, working for the BBC, the Financial Times, and Forbes, before becoming an entrepreneur, investor, and futurist. He has written five books on AI, including Surviving AI and The Economic Singularity, and he co-hosts the London Futurists Podcast. We are also joined in the conversation by University of Wyoming Economics Ph.D. student Finbar Curtin. Finbar Curtin studied electrical engineering before coming to UW, and he is doing his Ph.D. research on the economic and environmental impacts of AI. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Manu Meel is the CEO of BridgeUSA, host of the Hopeful Majority podcast, and Forbes 30 under 30. He also has experience as a Huffington Post Contributor, a Research Intern at the American Enterprise Institute, and he had a stint working for the Department of State on countering violent extremism in Pakistan. Needless to say, he's a very interesting guy. BridgeUSA is a large nonprofit organization that helps young people bridge their political divides, especially on college campuses. We are fortunate to have an excellent chapter here at the University of Wyoming, called BridgeUWYO. Unlike many other organizations fighting polarization, BridgeUSA considers itself multi-partisan, rather than non-partisan. Its members are welcome to have partisan allegiances, and Bridge does not force unity or compromise. Their lodestars are viewpoint diversity, constructive engagement, and a solution-oriented political culture. Manu and I discuss how Bridge started, its mission, and major polarization issues facing young people today. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Jeri Curry is Executive Director and Board Chair of Marshall ROC - Restoring Our Community. Marshall ROC is the organization leading the recovery effort for the Marshall Fire, which devastated Louisville and Superior, Colorado, in December 2021. Jeri also works as a strategic consultant with Crisis Cleanup, a disaster cleanup hotline that connects disaster survivors with cleanup and recovery services. She has decades of other experience working in media, communications, consulting, non-profits, humanitarian, and international development organizations. Amidst recent news headlines about politicians and officials on both sides of the spectrum politicizing disaster relief efforts, we discuss Jeri’s approach to disaster relief and recovery, which emphasizes people over politics. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Energy security and environmental protection are popular American priorities that often get chopped up into simplified sound bytes in our polarizing political discourse. What does progress on these issues actually look like on the ground? How can businesses, policymakers, and academics work better together to develop and advance solutions? Check out my conversation with identical twins and industry leaders David and Robert Lawrence. They currently lead the nature-based environmental solutions company Land and Carbon, Inc. They also have four decades of wide-ranging previous experience across the energy and environment industries. For example, Dave was once Executive VP of Shell, and Bob once worked for the Environmental Protection Agency. We discuss their careers, the carbon sequestration industry, and the global and national outlook for energy markets and climate change policies. This episode was recorded live at the University of Wyoming on November 20, 2024. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Benji Backer is an author and environmental activist, who has spent his career working to depolarize environmental issues. He authored the best-selling book The Conservative Environmentalist and founded the American Conservation Coalition, America’s largest right-leaning environmental advocacy group. He recently launched a new non-profit, called Nature is Nonpartisan, which aims to highlight environmental issues Americans agree on, and build bipartisan coalitions to address them. He has been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list, among many other accolades. We discuss his vision for a non-partisan environmental movement, and how he and his friends managed to start a successful non-profit while they were still in college.This episode was recorded live at the University of Wyoming on October 8. We apologize for the delay in posting the episode, which was due to audio issues with the live recording. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com

Welcome to Grounded, Not Divided, a podcast about leaders who are getting important things done in the real world. I’m Matt Burgess.Our society is too divided. Plenty of podcasts are already taking this on, by interviewing talking heads from different sides of our most controversial issues. I’m glad they’re doing this, and I’ll keep listening.But I’m going to take a different approach on this podcast. I’m going to talk to interesting people who are rolling up their sleeves and getting things done in the real world. My guests will be people who are taking on some of society’s hardest problems—like poverty, disease, innovation, environmental protection, and education. They’ll be people making real progress, in business, policy, non-profits, and other sectors of society.Our deepest divisions come from the virtual world: social media, online and cable news, and the pundit class. It’s easy to oversimplify, misinform, and demonize people when you’re trying to sell a narrative and get clicks. But when you’re trying to get things done in the real world, reality keeps you honest. In other words, when you’re more grounded, you’re less divided.So, join me. We’ll learn from real changemakers. They’ll teach us that the world is more complicated than we realized. But they’ll also teach us that progress is possible. If we’re willing to learn from others, work hard, and work together, we there’s nothing we can’t achieve. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guidedcivicrevival.substack.com