Recent BI and Substack Posts

The first of two articles explaining what the Braver Angels' term "courageous citizenship" means to Guy and Heidi Burgess, and why we think the concept is so important to civic health and democracy.

Colleague, news, and opinion items of interest for this week.

Guy and Heidi Burgess interview journalist Gideon Lichfield about journalism, democracy, AI, and how all of those (and more) are intertwined.

A reader shared his query to Claude (and its response) about the future of AI--what are the commonalities, the differences, and how to address those differences between its strong supporters and its strong critics. It is interesting reading.

This week's readings: sobering (as always) with a dash of hope.

Excerpts from a conversation with Better Together America co-founders Jacob Bornstein and Caleb Christen talking about how they've grown and where they hope to go in the coming year. It's inspiring!

Can Claude see opportunities to constructively address our most challenging conflicts that we ordinary humans don't see. Maybe!

News about the Iran war, American democracy, and many other topics of interest.

Terry Kyllo has been working to bring people together across faith and other divides. He has been particularly active with the Muslim community, but his efforts work to rehumanize people of all faiths and cultures.

A lot has happened in the last week -- here are some of the more interesting things we have been reading.

The last of six posts reflecting on whether bridge building is still possible and useful, or whether bridge-builders should now focus more on fighting democratic erosion than on building relationships across divides.

The second of three responses to David Beckemeyer's post on bridges, arenas and referees, this one again featuring Kristin Hansen and Pearce Godwin.

Kristin Hansen E.D. the Civic Health Project and Pearce Godwin, founder of Listen First, share their thoughts on the role of bridging in an era when so many people would rather fight than talk.

Catching up with readings on topics other than the Iran war.

Dennis Wong talks about what Rotarian Peacebuilding is, how it is different from other peacebuilding, and why he hopes Rotary will do more peacebuilding work in the future.

Catching up on Iran war coverage--along with other things.

Anne Leslie's idea (from Dave Snowden) of estuarine mapping applies well to civic renewal, and implies a different way to plan actions and to gauge progress than many of us are using.

Here we finish up our three-post answer to David Beckemeyer who asks whether bridge-building work is still possible or even desirable given our current political situation. We add thoughts on this same topic from Bill Doherty and Harry Boyte as well.

More reading for your edification.

The second of a three-part series revisiting whether the time for bridging has passed.

Heidi and Guy respond to David Beckemeyers questions, asking whether the assumptions on which the practice of bridge-building are built are no longer valid. He thinks they are not, our answers are mixed.

This week's readings of interest (and sometimes concern).

A summary of three different articles all explaining what is being, can, and must be done to regain citizen agency and put our small-r republican form of government back on track.

Joan Blades, founder of MoveOn and Livingroom Conversations talks about why bridging is still important, and how one can advocate for progressive causes, but also be a peacebuilder with the right at the same time. (It is a question of looking short term and long term, she says.)

What might a power-with democracy look like? ChatGPT has some ideas. Can we live up to them?