Making Common Ground

 In episode twenty-four of Making Common Ground, Alfred Landecker fellow Catherine Neilan speaks to Alison Goldsworthy,  founder and CEO of The Depolarization Project, about tribalism and polarisation in Britain and the USA.

Who  do you trust? Where do you get your information from? The pandemic has brought 
these questions to the fore. With so much conflicting information out there and 
fewer opportunities to sense check it with our friends, are we getting even more 
entrenched in the culture wars - or has lockdown reinvigorated our neighborly 
spirit ? 

This week, we return to our second focus group for the final time and talk about the 
challenges of navigating the media, our friends, and government messages in the 
new world order

In episode twenty-two, Catherine Neilan returns to the Making Common Ground focus group to look back at the five years since the EU referendum, to discuss why they voted as they did, whether they've changed their mind since then and whether they knew anyone at the time who voted differently.  We also discuss whether they believe Boris Johnson is a liar, whether it matters and if  journalists and opposition politicians should do more to call it out.

In episode twenty-one of Making Common Ground , Catherine Neilan talks with Robert B Talisse, Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is also a Professor of Political Science.

Some argue that the solution to our current crisis in democracy is more democracy. Not Rob. He believes that our politics have seeped into every corner of our lives, from the coffee shop we get our frappuccinos from to where we go on our holidays. 

But it's not just about signalling that we are progressives because we put our quinoa in a canvas tote bag. The problem, Rob argues, is that we become so divorced from the other side we start to find them repellant - and that's where democractic dialogue collapses. 

In episode twenty,  Catherine Neilan returns to the second Making Common Ground focus group to discuss labels - what is a centrist, do Brexit labels still apply and are people becoming more pro-Remain as the reality of what they voted for kicks in; and who has it worse: Millennials or Generation-X 

In episode nineteen of Making Common Ground, Cat Neilan talks to Robert Ford, Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester and co-author of the book Brexitland, about Brexit and its aftermath, how people have become polarised and why some do see Boris Johnson's Tories as the party of change.

In episode eighteen, Catherine Neilan returns to the Making Common Ground focus group to discuss meritocracy and whether Labour is the party for aspirations, how to have open and honest conversations and a surprise meeting of minds on Brexit.

In episode seventeen of Making Common Ground, Cat Neilan talks to New Statesman's Dominic Ponsford and Broadcast magazine's Chris Curtis about journalism's role in post-Brexit polarisation, trust in the media and why GB News is not something for progressives to fear. 

 In episode sixteen, Catherine Neilan meets a new Making Common Ground focus group to discuss the recent elections, Keir Starmer's lack of charm and why it matters when he's up against Boris Johnson, whether the government has its priorities right and the possibility of a second Scottish Independence Referendum.

In episode fifteen of Making Common Ground, Alfred Landecker fellow Catherine Neilan speaks to Miriam Juan-Torres,  global senior researcher at More In Common, about polarisation in Britain, shared values among disparate groups and why, even after Brexit, it might not be a divided society.