Enlightened Conversations Across Ideological Differences

In this conversation with Justine Willis Toms, Guzmán shares her personal experience of growing up in a politically divided family. She highlights the need for in-person interactions, attention, and containment in dialogues. She also discusses the role of media in perpetuating polarization and the potential for small-scale conversations to impact larger institutions like politics and media. Mónica Guzmán is a journalist and entrepreneur and is the Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, a grassroots, cross partisan, organization working to depolarize America. She is cofounder of the newsletter The Evergrey out of Seattle Washington and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents and is a dual US/Mexican citizen. She is the author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (BenBella Books 2022). Interview Date: 5/15/2025