Think of your family, your friends, and your colleagues. In each of these relationships, you can expect to experience conflict from time to time. Sometimes, it's unhealthy conflict that harms our relationships. Other times, it's healthy conflict that strengthens them.

High conflict is something different. It happens when we view the conflict as good versus evil. It's when the walls go up. When it's about us versus them. Right versus wrong. We double down on our assumptions, maybe about people we don't even know. Ultimately, we get stuck. It's a volatile place, and a dangerous one, because it's often just a step away from dehumanization.

My guest, Amanda Ripley, spent four years studying this conflict. She's an investigative journalist and author of the book, High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out. Amanda interviewed ordinary people who got caught up in high conflict, and, with effort and commitment, managed to break free. Through their stories, she explains what conflict is, how we get sucked into it, and, most importantly, how we move through it.

Amanda is author of the books, The Smartest Kids in the World and Unthinkable. She writes regularly for The Atlantic and spent a decade writing for Time Magazine. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. 

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