Learn to connect across differences Nov. 8 with Beyond Partisan Politics at Colorado State University

Contact for Reporters:

Kate Jeracki
kate.jeracki@colostate.edu
(970) 491-2658
(970) 9803678 (cell)

Colorado State University will host a panel discussion and community conversation, Beyond Partisan Politics: Bridging Divides by Overcoming Our Echo Chambers, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, in the Lory Student Center Theater on campus. The event is free and open to the public; online registration required at csutix.com.

The three panelists represent a diverse set of perspectives. While Joan Blades, founder of MoveOn.org and MomsRising.org, takes a progressive view, she advocates dialogue across difference through LivingRoomConversations.org. Similarly, John Gable, who works in Silicon Valley and earlier worked for Sen. Mitch McConnell, takes a conservative view, yet urges us to engage a full range of perspectives on issues through his startup AllSides, designed specifically to address the biases caused by “filter bubbles.”

Pedro Silva is a U.S. Air Force veteran and trained linguist who currently serves as an associate minister at the First Congregational Church Boulder, UCC. He has a passion for using expansive conversational models such as LivingRoomConversations to engage on subjects such as race, ethnicity, and political discourse.

The speakers will engage each other, telling their stories of working to create connection across differences that diminish the filter bubbles we all so naturally inhabit. They’ll discuss the tools they have developed to support that important work. After the panel discussion, the audience will have an opportunity to participate in a Living Room Conversation.

The Provost’s Ethics Colloquium and CSU’s Center for Public Deliberation are jointly hosting this event. Trained student facilitators from the center will lead the audience conversations, which will introduce strategies for respectful yet substantive exploration of differences and for considering how to overcome our echo chambers.

The evening will close with a reflection on the process and a question-and-answer session with the panelists. The panel discussion and the question-and-answer session but not the roundtable audience discussions will be live-streamed, and a link to the recording will be posted to the Ethics Colloquium site after the event.

More information about this event and links to previous talks available at the Ethics Colloquium site, ethics.colostate.edu.