The Larger Us Podcast

How do we achieve social buy-in for the huge, disruptive and sustained transformation entailed in making our societies sustainable? Why is it such a problem that social media has become the 'public square' where we have big conversations about the future - and how have campaigning and activism become embroiled?Hugh Knowles is Co-Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and was formerly Head of Innovation at Forum For The Future. He's speaking on this episode in a personal capacity.

How does a single chemical in our brains drive love, sex, consumerism and creativity? Why are some people more 'dopmaninergic' than others, why is that such a big deal for politics, and what does it mean for change-makers?Daniel Lieberman is a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at George Washington University, co-author of the international bestseller The Molecule of More, and author of Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Unconscious Mind.

How can we build inclusive belonging in conditions of acute polarisation - for example when members of a historically privileged group feel that more power and status for a historically marginalised group means less power and status for them? What do the recent US mid-terms mean for American democratic health, and what lessons do they offer for other countries?Michelle Barsa runs the Omidyar Network's programme on Building Cultures of Belonging, and is a former program director at Beyond Conflict where she was lead author for their report on Renewing American Democracy. She has also worked at Inclusive Security, where she trained hundreds of women across Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya and Nigeria, and at the US Department of Homeland Security on countering violent extremism.

How can we raise children in a world that appears to have gone so wrong? How are our children’s minds affected by that world, and how can we as parents and caregivers help them through it in ways that give them agency and the power to make the world better without placing the weight of the world on their shoulders?Louis Weinstock is the author of How the world is making our children mad and what to do about it. He works as a psychotherapist, helping children and grown-ups alike through challenges like loss, trauma, divorce, burnout and breakdowns, and is co-founder of Apart of Me, an award winning charity that helps young people transform their grief into compassion.

A special edition of our podcast to talk about Building a larger us, our new guide to how to change the world in ways that bring people together rather than dividing them - not as a them-and-us, but as a larger us.Alex Evans (founder of Larger Us and our usual host) switches sides to be guest this time, and we're delighted that Elizabeth Oldfield - host of The Sacred podcast and a senior adviser to Larger Us - joined us as our guest host for this episode.

What does it take to have conversations across deep divides? What's required of us - and what's required of the person we're talking to? What can happen when we have these kinds of curious conversations, and how can change-makers use them?Mónica Guzmán is the author of the new book I Never Thought Of It That Way - How to have fearlessly curious conversations in dangerously divided times; an adviser to Braver Angels, one of the most exciting depolarisation organisations working in the US; a journalist in Seattle, an immigrant, a Latina, a dual US-Mexican citizen, and a mom to two bilingual kids. She joined us to talk about her book, her work, what gives her hope, what gives her pause, and lots more besides.

What are we doing to ourselves when we tell ourselves we're Consumers 3,000 times a day? What would it look like to put the same creativity and energy into involving people as Citizens? What would you do in this time, if you truly believed in yourself and those around you?Jon Alexander spent the first decade of his career in the advertising industry, selling some of the world's biggest brands. Then he realised he was caught up in a story he didn't believe in – the Consumer Story.In his new book Citizens, Jon explores what we need to do to step into a bigger idea of ourselves: as collaborative, caring, creative Citizens who can shape our communities, organisations, and nations for the better.  He joined us to talk about it.

How did progressive campaigners in the US manage to win bipartisan legislation ending the 'lock-em-up and throw away the key' era in criminal justice - and persuade 87 out of 100 Senators to vote for it, and Donald Trump to sign it? Answer: by building a hugely diverse coalition that brought together everyone from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Koch Brothers and the religious right, and by foregrounding the personal stories of everyone from victims of crime to former prisoners.Nisha Anand - former punk rock protestor and chief of staff to legendary organiser Van Jones, and now CEO of Dream Corps - was at the heart of this amazing breakthrough, and joined us to talk about how they managed it and what the lessons are for campaigners on other issues.

We live in the age of the tyranny of the now, driven by 24/7 news, the latest tweet, and the buy-now button. With such frenetic short-termism at the root of contemporary crises – from the threats of climate change to the lack of planning for a global pandemic – the call for long-term thinking grows every day. But what is it, has it ever worked, and can we even do it?In this episode, we talk to Roman Krznaric, the author of The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, which reveals six profound ways in which we can all learn to think long, exploring uniquely human talents like ‘cathedral thinking’ that expand our time horizons and sharpen our foresight. Drawing on radical innovations from around the world, Roman celebrates the time rebels who are reinventing democracy, culture and economics so that we all have the chance to become good ancestors and create a better tomorrow.Roman is a public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. He's been named by The Observer as one of Britain’s leading popular philosophers, and his writings have been influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers. 

Jon Yates is the author of "Fractured: Why our societies are coming apart and how to put them back together again". He's uniquely well placed to explore these issues, having both served as a government adviser and co-founded a series of charities that are designed to bring people together.For years, our societies have been becoming more disconnected, so that most of us spend less and less time with people who are different - whether in terms of age, race, class, earning power, or education.In "Fractured", Jon Yates argues that the more time we spend with people unlike ourselves, the more understanding and tolerant we become. We now need to forge a new "Common Life": a set of shared practices and institutions that can strengthen the glue that bonds our societies, in all their diversity.

Dave Fleischer runs the team at the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Leadership Lab that created deep canvassing - a groundbreaking approach to political campaigning that uses doorstep conversations to change people's minds about potentially polarising issues and which helped to win the US equal marriage campaign.Deep canvassing avoids pelting voters with arguments or facts; instead "we find surprising common ground by sharing our real, lived experience — vulnerable stories about ourselves and people we love— and invite voters to share in return." We spoke with Dave about how deep canvassing works, the psychology of what makes it so effective, and how it potentially points the way towards new approaches to campaigning where success is about bridging divides rather than deepening them.*Show notes*Dave's TED talk, which includes the video of the deep canvassing conversation that we discuss in the episode: https://youtu.be/xN6O5LTaGygNY Times profile of Dave and his work: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/magazine/how-do-you-change-voters-minds-have-a-conversation.html 

Karen Stenner has spent years researching why some people seem to have a psychological predisposition towards authoritarianism in the right conditions.With her co-author Jonathan Haidt, Karen has explored how about a third of people across dozens of liberal democracies share this trait to some degree - a key factor in understanding why, for instance, so many Americans continued to support Donald Trump even as he lurched steadily further towards authoritarianism, and which has led Karen to argue that "liberal democracy has now exceeded many people's capacity to tolerate it."We spoke to Karen about why support for authoritarianism is so widespread, what we can do about it, and what's next in countries like the US where right wing populism has been surging.

Hadiya Masieh has over two decades' experience in countering violent extremism and understanding how to challenge hate - and a unique perspective given her own experience as a former member of an extremist political organisation.Today, Hadiya runs Groundswell Project, a pioneering initiative that works in communities to map both extremist and pro-peace groups on the ground, build a diverse coalition to tackle causes of extremism, and then amplify local voices through Groundswell Project's reach with local and national news and on social media.We spoke to Hadiya about her story, her work, and how people working to support larger us rather than them-and-us dynamics can learn from Groundswell Project's insights.