The Democracy Group20 Des 2021

Best of 2021: Good Conflict Vs. High Conflict. Amanda Ripley | How Do We Fix It?

We continue our Best of 2021 episodes with an episode from the How Do We Fix It? podcast, hosted by Richard Davies and Jim Meigs.

What's the greatest crisis facing America today? — Racism and hate crimes, exploding government debt, climate change, or the mess at the border?

It may be none of these.

America and many other countries are trapped in high conflict. Both sides are paralyzed by fear and anger as they demonize the other. The national narrative of "us versus them" is a threat to democracy and stops us from working together to build a better world.

Best-selling author and investigative journalist, Amanda Ripley, is our guest. She is well-known for her writing in The Atlantic, Time, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. Her latest book is "High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out."

Amanda argues that good conflict involves nuance and complexity. It can teach us to be better people, who are capable of solutions as they move past misunderstandings. Many are trapped in high conflict, which is threatening to tear us apart, creating an even deeper crisis than we have now.

We discuss "conflict entrepreneurs"— cable TV personalities, talk radio hosts, and politicians from both left and right — who profit from making us angry and fearful.

"Most Americans want "out" of this high conflict," Amanda tells How Do We Fix It? "They very much want to see a different way of disagreeing among their politicians and the news media. They are frequently tuning out of politics and the news, which is a big problem, but totally understandable."

Additional Information

How Do We Fix It? Podcast

More shows from The Democracy Group

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(533)

What’s Wrong with Political Parties? | Politics in Question

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to hear the rest of Politics in Question's episodes! 👉 Subscribe here: https://pod.link/1470607073 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for infor...

10 Jun 50min

Climate Forward 2026: "Is There A Republican Way Forward?" | Let's Find Common Ground

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to hear the rest of Let's Find Common Ground's episodes! 👉 Subscribe here: https://pod.link/1511159051 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for i...

8 Jun 50min

How Student Podcasting Shapes Civic Storytelling | TDG Fellowship

How can podcasting strengthen democracy? In this collaborative panel from The Democracy Group and PBS Student Reporting Labs, student podcasters and journalists discuss civic storytelling, democratic ...

29 Mai 47min

Introducing The Separation of Pop and State: Cancel Culture, Smear Campaigns, and the Howard Dean Scream | TDG Fellowship

This week we bring you a special episode from Amelia Callahan, one of our 2026 Podcast Fellows. She introduces her new podcast, The Separation of Pop and State, which compares political and pop cultur...

27 Mai 36min

Introducing Democracy is Art: Athens to Broadway: A Sculpture of Democracy | TDG Fellowship

This week we bring you a special episode from Savannah Patterson-Case, one of our 2026 Podcast Fellows. Patterson introduces the show’s focus on how art and democracy intersect, arguing that art foste...

25 Mai 19min

Introducting The People’s Playbook: Ancient Athens and the First Democracy | TDG Fellowship

This week we bring you a special episode from Valerie Pastrana, one of our 2026 Podcast Fellows, who explores ancient Athens as the first democracy, asking where democracy came from, who invented it, ...

22 Mai 6min

Introducing Patterns at the Polls: Half the Population, Half the Turnout: The Youth Vote Gap | TDG Fellowship

This week we bring you a special episode from Isaac Mederson, one of our 2026 Podcast Fellows, who examines youth voting participation and its impact on recent U.S. elections, noting that 18–29 turnou...

20 Mai 27min

Introducing The Social Equation: Why Politics Feels Personal for Gen Z | TDG Fellowship

This week we bring you a special episode from J'Mariana Douglas, one of our 2026 Podcast Fellows, exploring why politics feels increasingly personal, controversial, and complicated. Drawing on Naomi C...

18 Mai 10min