“I Never Thought of it That Way" with Mónica Guzmán

Village SquareCast

‘The way you show people that they matter is aiming your curiosity at them. Ask yourself “what kinds of people do I talk about, but never with?” Whoever is underrepresented in your life will be overrepresented in your imagination.’ —Mónica Guzmán

Ready to fight back against the confusion, heartbreak, and madness of our dangerously divided times? Find the answers you need by talking with people—rather than about them—and asking the questions you want across the divides you want, curiously. Seeing where people are coming from isn’t just possible. It’s easier than you think. Mónica Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist, and author who lives for great conversations sparked by curious questions. Her new book, “I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times,” was featured on the Glenn Beck Podcast and named a New York Times recommended read.

Monica is Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, an organization working to build a more curious world; host of live interview series at Crosscut; and cofounder of the award-winning Seattle newsletter The Evergrey. She was a 2019 fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, where she studied social and political division, and a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, where she researched how journalists can rethink their roles to better meet the needs of a participatory public. She was named one of the 50 most influential women in Seattle, served twice as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes, and plays a barbarian named Shadrack in her besties’ Dungeons & Dragons campaign. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.

The program will be facilitated by Village Square friend and Executive Director of Bridge USA, Manu Meel.

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities.