In polarized times, our tolerance for different perspectives decreases. Groupthink becomes common, and we can often find ourselves either censored, or self-censoring. Our guest on the program today has done a deep dive into this topic, and she has some thoughts on how we can begin to speak up — while still seeing our ideological opponents as human.

Jenara Nerenberg is an American author, and the founder of The Neurodiversity Project and The Interracial Project. Her latest book is Trust Your Mind: Embracing Nuance in a World of Self-Silencing.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Tonight, in London, England, a group of writers and thinkers will gather to debate a key cultural question: “Is woke dead?” And tomorrow, the inaugural conference of a new centre for social science kicks off. Academics will gather to talk through the intellectual origins of this movement and its politics, psychology, and driving interests, to establish it as a field of study, and to delve into overlooked topics and perspectives. Our guest on the program is the man behind both of these events, and he joins us to share his thinking on the post-progressive era — and what it might mean for Canada going forward.

Eric Kaufmann is a Canadian academic and author. He’s a professor of politics at the University of Buckingham, and director of its Centre of Heterodox Social Science.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

As Tara puts the finishing touches on her next book, on declining trust in the media, we wanted to bring you a few encore interviews that have helped shaped her thinking on the media — including today’s episode.

Since the election win for Donald Trump, we are seeing a renewed sense of scorn for Republican voters in parts of the mainstream media. The Guardian’s Rebecca Solnit, for example, writes in her column that “our mistake was to think we lived in a better country than we do.” Our guest on today’s program doesn’t see it that way. She’s a lefty Democrat who moved from Park Slope, Brooklyn, to Trump country — and she writes that the gift of living in a rural county is that “I keep finding reasons to see my political adversaries as human.”

Larissa Phillips runs the Honey Hollow farm in upstate New York. She’s the founder of the Volunteer Literacy Project, and her essay for The Free Press is, “Whatever Happens, Love Thy Neighbor.”

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com