That we’re living in highly polarised times won’t come as news to most people. Our natural propensity to tribalism has been let loose and public discourse has given way to people ranting and raving at anybody who doesn’t share their worldview. And all of this comes at a time when we need strong and healthy debates more than ever to to tackle the major challenges we face. So what can we do to encourage better communication across political and cultural divides? How can we have productive conversations about issues like climate change that have become so politically and culturally loaded? In this episode of Research Comms social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, author of the superb book ‘The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion’ talks about how we can break down barriers by talking to people’s ‘elephants’ and why the defence of viewpoint diversity in academic and research institutions is one of the most critical battles of our times, an argument laid out in his latest book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure