It’s no secret that Americans’ ability to engage in meaningful conversations across political, cultural, and ideological divides feels more strained than ever. In this episode, we discuss how to bring people together. Two words: civil discourse. Duke professor Abdullah Antepli is a nationally recognized expert in civil discourse. Recently he’s been teaching a course on the topic and is creating public forums for dialogue between people with opposing views.

Antepli leads Polis, Duke’s Center for Politics. He talks with Manoj Mohanan, interim Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke.

This episode is part of a series of election-related conversations.

Could political polarization be addressed by something very simple – getting to know each other better? David Brooks argues that polarization stems from an urgent need for connection. "There are connections between seeing others and strengthening our communities and in turn, democracy," he says.

Brooks is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. He appears regularly on the PBS NewsHour, NPR's All Things Considered, and NBC's Meet the Press. His new book is titled, How to Know a Person, the Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

This episode is part of our ongoing series of election-related conversations.

Guest host: Alison Jones of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University.

In this episode of Policy 360, Duke Professor Bill Adair joins us to discuss lying in politics. Adair founded the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking organization PolitiFact. His new book, Beyond the Big Lie, explores how and why politicians lie, which party does it more, and what can be done about it. This episode is part of our ongoing series of policy-focused conversations related to the 2024 election.

Guest host: Phil Napoli, Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University.