skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Trump announces sweeping new tariffs to promote US manufacturing, risking inflation and trade wars; Arizonans experience some of the highest insurance premiums; U.S. immigration policy leaves trans migrants at TX-Mexico border in limbo; Repealing clean energy tax credits could raise American energy costs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President Donald Trump announces worldwide tariffs. Democrats decry 'Liberation Day' as the economy adjusts to the news. And some Republicans break from Trump's trade stance.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural schools face budget woes even as White House aims to dismantle the Department of Education, postal carriers argue against proposed USPS changes, fiber networks to improve rural internet may be supplanted by Musk's satellites, and PLAY BALL!

Group Explores Ways to Have Difficult Conversations in Divisive Times

play audio
Play

Friday, April 28, 2023   

At a time when it's easy to find something to disagree about, whether it's politics or social issues, one organization is working to help others have more productive conversations about divisive topics.

Henry McHenry, founder of the group Meetings of Opposites, said the key to getting people to listen to one another is changing the arena of conversation, to allow them to bridge the gaps between opposing viewpoints.

"Civilizations, societies, are organized around their dominant conversations," he said, "and it is important in a divisive time to get a grip on the dominant conversation that runs our lives."

McHenry, who lives in Virginia, said he'll bring his 2 1/2-hour session anywhere in the United States at no charge. He said Meetings of Opposites is about more than changing the arena and tone of conversation. It's also about exploring different ways of perceiving the world. The training uses visual perception as a tool to show how two people can look at the same thing and see something completely different.

Meetings of Opposites also emphasizes the importance of empathy in communication. Rather than attempting to change someone's viewpoint on a topic, McHenry is a proponent of what is often referred to as "active listening" - paying full attention to what they're saying instead of thinking about how you'll counter it or judging the speaker. He said this encourages better two-way communication.

"So, the arena changes from 'us against them' to 'we for each other,'" he said. "And once you've experienced 'we for each other,' you probably don't want to go back to 'us against them.'"

In an Ipsos/Public Agenda survey in 2019, half of Americans said they think the nation will become "more destructive" in dealing with disagreements in the next 10 years.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The Little Village Environmental Justice Organization has become as much as a landmark to the community as the Little Village Arch and was awarded the national Food Sovereignty Prize in 2024. (City of Chicago 2021)

Environment

play sound

By Angela Burke for Civil Eats.Broadcast version by Judith Ruiz-Branch for Illinois News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Pub…


Social Issues

play sound

More than 1,000 protests against the policies of President Donald Trump are set for Saturday across the country, with 117 planned in California alone…

Social Issues

play sound

A bill known as the Act for Civic Engagement did not make it out of committee in Olympia before the deadline but advocates for people who are incarcer…


Legislation regulating cryptocurrency kiosks is being considered in the Maryland House of Delegates. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

A bill in the Maryland General Assembly would regulate cryptocurrency kiosks, the more than 700 ATM-like machines for virtual currencies around the …

Social Issues

play sound

Registration is open for the next information session for the Doswell School of Aeronautical Sciences at Texas Woman's University in Denton, where …

Some two million gray wolves roamed North America in the early 1800s but today, fewer than 7,000 remain on just 10% of their historic range in the Lower 48 States. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., has introduced a bill to remove gray wolves from the list of endangered and threatened species under the Endangered …

Social Issues

play sound

The Trump administration announces its new wave of tariffs Wednesday, and with U.S. Department of Agriculture funding still a question mark, …

play sound

Educators at Iowa State University are creating a new major to meet what they see as a new and growing demand in the health care field: pairing medica…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021