How My View Grew

In this episode of How My View Grew, I offer nine ways that leaders of key American institutions—Congressional Democrats, the Supreme Court, universities, and law firms—can act differently when facing a warlord Administration.

How do you act toward people whose primary modes are force and intimidation and who honor no laws, constitutions, or norms?

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Why have so many liberals and progressives felt shocked by the first two months of the second Trump Administration?

Why, instead, did so many assume that "they would never do that?"

In this short solo episode, I offer a possible answer. Liberals and progressives have a massive blind spot. They don't know who and what they are dealing with—namely, a worldview that is deeply entrenched in human culture yet widely misunderstood: the wa...

The first two months of the new Administration in Washington DC have brought shocking degrees of chaos and disruption. Many people who didn't vote for the current President feel like they've been punched in the face and knocked to the ground.

How in a situation like this do you get back up? What actions can you take to lift your mood and make things in the world better?

This week's guest on How My View Grew, which launches season th...

This is the final episode of season two. After taking a short break, we'll return in March with season three.

In episode eight of this season, I introduced a way to depolarize politics and evoke more constructive moods: escaping the drama triangle.

In this five-minute episode, I answer a related question: how do you escape the drama triangle?

Here are four steps you can start using today.

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Kim Stanley ("Stan") Robinson is one of the world's most acclaimed and popular science fiction novelists, first famous for his Mars Trilogy. For the past two decades, Stan has been telling vivid stories in which climate change is catastrophic yet people invent ways of reversing it. What he imagines is so bold it takes your breath away, then fills you with hope and resolve that you didn't know existed within you.

In his Science in th...

In this 10-minute episode of How My View Grew, discover a powerful method for depolarizing politics and improving relationships: the drama triangle.

Invented to support families in high-conflict situations, the drama triangle opens a new window into understanding political polarization, emotional intelligence, and difficult conversations. Listen in as I describe the victim, the persecutor, and the rescuer and how they show up in MA...

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, many American citizens are willing to tear everything down. Where did these destructive inclinations come from? Might they partly reflect the way that voters learned history back in school? How well are we teaching history through the eyes of people living then so we can learn from their experiences? To what extent are we introducing students to their culture's proud traditions so they fe...

In this short episode of How My View Grew, I offer an alternative to the false choice between despair and hope.

After the recent U.S presidential election, many people in my orbit are feeling despair. Their response: search for signs of hope.

But what if this is a false choice? What if we could gain access to other moods that are more constructive and powerful?

Say hello to resolve and curiosity, two moods for this moment.

**Resourc...

When new political leaders promote disruptive and even violent change, then people accustomed to pressing the gas pedal on change may choose instead to hit the breaks. Liberals become small "c" conservatives.

In this episode of How My View Grew, I suggest that after November 5, 2024 every liberal in the United States became a small "c" conservative. Instead of pushing for change in society, liberals now have good reason to slow it d...

The human brain craves certainty. It convinces us we know how next week's U.S. presidential election will turn out. We don't. Things are uncertain. Yet, we can imagine different scenarios.

In this nine-minute episode of How My View Grew, I describe five scenarios for the election and its aftermath.

Then, I invite you to consider three "no-matter-what commitments." These are stands we can take no matter what happens. Making such commi...

In the upcoming U.S. presidential election, democracy, many say, is on the ballot. But is democracy versus autocracy the best description of the stakes?

Not according to Stephen E. Hanson, co-author with Jeffrey Kopstein of the new book The Assault on the State. The democracy/autocracy distinction is about how people come to power. It doesn't address how leaders rule their staffs and administrations once they are in power.

In the We...

In this five-minute episode of How My View Grew, I offer five perspectives about being a man today:

1. It's confusing
2. Men and women are different
3. There is no need to apologize for being a man
4. Long live the healthy masculine
5. It's time for a new Bro Code

**Resources**

• "Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness" by Christine Emba in the Washington Post.
• "How to Be a Good Guy" by Janet Crawford and Lisa Marshall—includes ...

Why might a liberal Democrat with progressive values hold a conservative disposition? Could it make sense to both advocate for positive change and honor traditions and the social cohesion they foster? Might this represent the twin challenges facing today's Democratic Party?

In this 30-minute episode of How My View Grew, Boston College philosophy professor David Storey explores these questions through his own personal and professiona...

In this final episode of season one, a short one, I describe how my view of history shifted after reading the memoir of Stefan Zweig, a popular early 20th century European novelist. What if the lesson of history, especially around war and other catastrophes, is precisely the opposite of what I long assumed? How might history make us humbler about our ability to predict the future? Might it help us see possibilities and perils we ot...

In a Soviet-era bunker in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier reads books by the late historian Tony Judt and wonders: Is it possible to make the world better amidst evil? Not long after, Yale historian Marci Shore, a former peacenik, finds herself pleading to the German government to send lethal weapons to Ukraine.

What's happening here? How does one historian's words support a courageous defense of democracy t...

Do most Palestinians want their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, one that co-exists with the state of Israel? Is the conflict between Israel and Palestinians primarily about territory and the solution therefore simply to trade territory for peace?

For many years, as an advisor to Israel's top leaders and member of its parliament, Einat Wilf thought so.

Then she started to listen deeply to what Palestinians were saying, and what ...

In this episode of How My View Grew, Palestinian Noor Awad describes an encounter with a Zionist Israeli settler that caused him to broaden his view of the conflict. This is a story of growing up within a particular narrative and learning to take seriously a very different narrative without given up one's own. What would be possible if more Palestinians—and Israelis—developed this capacity?

**Key takeaways**

• 3:30 Noor becomes awa...