What happens when a classroom discussion about immigration sparks not one argument, but several...plus a disagreement inside the professor herself? In this episode, Dickinson College professor Noreen Lape recounts a tense moment in her “How to Be Disagreeable” course that forced her to confront emotion, miscommunication, and the limits of control in dialogue-heavy classrooms. The conversation explores the crucial difference between intellectual discomfort and psychological triggering, and why learning often requires risk, not retreat. Drawing on two decades of experience, Lape offers practical tools such emotional regulation and creating conversational norms for fostering brave, humane connections across deep differences.

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