This is the second episode in Beyond Polarization, a special series about what polarization is costing Americans, and what we can actually do about it. You can find Episode 1, where we analyze research on polarization and disagreement, here.

In this episode: how the news media can do less to reinforce polarized narratives, and more to meet the needs of audiences.

Journalism is an essential component of our democratic system. But when it comes to politics, how much reporting do you read that actually helps you decide who to vote for?

During an election cycle, candidates tell the press that if elected, they’ll work to solve problems that matter to their voters. Those with more controversial opinions or spicy personal backgrounds get more airtime. And pundits prognosticate about which candidate can win which demographic. 

Yet between elections, there’s a lot less coverage of how office holders are fulfilling their campaign promises, or trying to. News organizations cover corruption and scandal, an important role of journalism. But what about when things go right?  

Without good information about solutions to society’s problems, it’s easier to vote based on fear of the other side, vote along party lines, or just stay home. Outside of politics, everyday news coverage skews negative too.

Our guests this episode are journalists committed to reporting on communities and current events in de-polarizing ways. They do that by focusing on what people need and want and how politics could affect that: covering the stakes, not the odds. 

Tina Rosenberg is a Pulitzer-prize-winning reporter and cofounder of the Solutions Journalism Network, which promotes rigorous reporting on solutions to social problems. At the New York Times, she wrote the Fixes column with David Bornstein.

Sarah Jane Weaver is the editor-in-chief of the Deseret News based in Salt Lake City, Utah – one of the first outlets to embrace the Solutions Journalism model in the 2010s. Weaver first joined Deseret as a reporter in 1995. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

“The Perception Gap: How False Impressions are Pulling Americans Apart,” report from More in Common

Americans' Trust in Media Remains at Trend Low, 2024 Gallup poll

Outlier Media, local news outlet in Detroit that provides information on housing, utilities and other essential information via text

Sisters fight to pick up the pieces after catastrophic car crash, reporting by the Deseret News

Small-town America is arguing over whether to welcome Syria’s refugees or fear them, story by The World from PRX

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

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Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

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Political polarization in the U.S. can feel like a lost cause. Trying to have productive conversations with people you disagree with over politics can seem pointless, especially now. News media and social media often reduce “the other side” to its most extreme forms. This creates a negative feedback loop, weakening our ability to function as a democracy.

But research suggests that Americans — on both the Left and the Right —  often misperceive how hostile, uniform, or different their opponents really are. 

In our seven part Beyond Polarization series, we're talking to experts and practitioners from across the political spectrum — in journalism, education, government, and more — about what it’s costing Americans, and what we can actually do about it. The point isn’t to agree (not gonna happen), or even to move toward the center. As our guest for this first episode Julia Minson puts it, we need to learn to “disagree better.” 

Julia Minson is a social psychologist and  professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She’s the author of How to Disagree Better  published in March 2026, and the founder of the behavioral science consulting firm Disagreeing Better, offering speaking and training on effective management of conflict. In this episode she shares some of her research findings about what we get wrong about each other, and what interventions have worked to correct misperceptions. Plus, a proven formula you can use to have a meaningful conversation in conflict situations. 

Thoughts on this episode? Find us on social media @makingpeacevisible (details below) or email [email protected]. The Beyond Polarization series publishes biweekly through October 2026, with our second episode on August 4. 

LEARN MORE:

Read an excerpt from Julia Minson’s book How to Disagree Better

Strengthening Democracy Challenge megastudy led by Stanford University 

Heineken – Worlds Apart: Watch the 2017 beer commercial that proved most effective at reducing polarization in the Stanford study 

The political polarization of COVID-19 treatments among physicians and laypeople in the United States, published in PNAS

Special thanks to Adam Dusenberry and Harvard University Education Support Services.

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Often the news covers crises without context. That's especially true when it comes to coverage of the Global South in international media. 

Our guest this episode, journalist and documentary filmmaker Etant Dupain, gives us a behind-the-headlines look at events in Haiti, his home country. Dupain says that the gangs who control much of the country now are supported by powerful elites. Their aim, his says, is to suppress a grassroots protest movement that is calling for accountability for the embezzlement of billions of dollars in development funds. 

Dupain's documentary film, The Fight for Haiti, tells the story of the Haitian movement against corruption and impunity, which started with a tweet and at its height had hundreds of thousands in the street. This episode was first recorded in February 2025, and has been updated. 

In this episode, you’ll learn about

Watch a trailer and learn more about the film and the movement at thefightforhaiti.com. Want to host a screening? Email [email protected]. 

Protest audio used in the episode is from the film The Fight for Haiti, used with permission. Other music in this episode by Xylo-Ziko, Toby Tranter, and Reed Mathis. 

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Polarization in the U.S. is not just a Washington problem. It also shows up in our newsrooms, our social media feeds, our schools, our dinner tables, and most importantly, in the stories we tell about each other. 

That's why Making Peace Visible is launching a new limited podcast series called Beyond Polarization. We're speaking with people from across the political spectrum to break down what these deepening divisions are actually costing Americans — all of us.

Across six sectors — journalism, new media, higher education, technology, government, and civil society — we’ll examine where familiar solutions have fallen short, what evidence-based efforts are working, and how trust can be rebuilt in practical, durable ways.

Beyond Polarization launches in this feed on July 21 and will include in-depth conversations with:  

Harvard professor Julia Minson, author of How to Disagree Better, whose research explores the psychology of conflict and what it takes to engage more productively across political divides.

Tina Rosenberg of The Solutions Journalism Network and Sarah Jane Weaver, Editor-in-Chief of Deseret News on the role solutions journalism can play in depolarization.

Ethnomusicologist and University of Maryland dean Stephanie Shonekan and John Rose, professor of civil discourse at UNC Chapel Hill, who are teaching college students how to have difficult conversations with dignity. 

Larry Rosen, host of The Enemies Project YouTube Channel, and Monica Guzman, host of A Braver Way podcast, on telling stories that unite within an online ecosystem built on division. 

Plus technologists, elected officials, community leaders, and more.

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

The MPV team is currently hard at work on Beyond Polarization, a limited series where we talk to people who are finding solutions to the increasing polarization we face in the United States. In the meantime, we bring you this episode from our friends at Disrupting Peace, a podcast from the World Peace Foundation about "why peace hasn't worked, and how it still could." 

What beliefs make people willing to commit violence, and what could change their minds? This episode explores what makes individuals vulnerable to white supremacist beliefs, what it means when extremism becomes mainstream, the surprising permeability of these groups, and how to talk to people in your life who express racist ideology.

Peter Simi is a professor of Sociology at Chapman University, and an expert on extremist groups and violence in the US. Among his many publications, he is co-author of American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate, and Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can be Stopped.

Sara Winegar Budge holds a doctorate in Psychology and is a licensed psychologist in Oregon. She is the Director of US Programs at Moonshot, which builds technology to identify and disrupt organized crime, child sexual exploitation, and trafficking, among other forms of abuse and violence. Her clinical work focuses on individuals who are or have been involved in violent extremism. 

Disrupting Peace is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson.

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Suzette Brooks Masters is a thought leader, political strategist and Senior Fellow at the Democracy Funders Network. She says that for American democracy to thrive, it's not enough to defend the existing system against attack, because the system doesn’t work well for most people. 

She’s been researching ways to invigorate democratic practice, including citizen’s assemblies and participatory budgeting – frameworks that give ordinary people a bigger say in government. And she advocates for storytelling that envisions positive, possible futures. 

LEARN MORE

Suzette Brooks Masters’ articles for The Fulcrum

Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy report

Becoming Futures Ready: How Philanthropy Can Leverage Strategic Foresight For Democracy report

This episode was originally published in May 2025. 

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

The world is missing the perspective of peacebuilders at a critical moment, as we live through this time of one war after another. We need skilled negotiators and mediators who know how to listen to both sides of a dispute and find common ground.  

We invited Joshua Weiss to the podcast to help us understand what happened in the negotiations that preceded the Iran war, and how negotiators might bring it to an end.  

Josh Weiss is an internationally recognized conflict resolution expert, educator, and author. He is co-founder of Harvard University's Global Negotiation Initiative and Senior Fellow at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. He also directs the Masters in Leadership and Negotiation program at Bay Path University, and runs a private consulting firm. And he’s a co-founder of the Abraham Path Initiative, a network of walking trails that connect communities and helps support local economies in the Middle East. Weiss’ latest book is Getting Back to the Table: 5 Steps for Reviving Stalled Negotiations.

Explore related episodes:

How one Iranian content creator is fighting the information war (February 2026)

Reporting from Iran with a bias towards peace (February 2024)

Building peace on a walk through the Middle East (June 2022)

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

For her whole life, Iranian-American actor and activist Nazanin Nour has been calling attention to the distinction between the Islamic Republic – the face of Iran in the news – and the Iranian people. And she’s not stopping any time soon. 

In normal times, Nour hosts Iranian diaspora musicians, comedians, journalists and others on her online show Mehmooni with Nazanin. But since mass protests began in December, she's been using social media to amplify the message of the protesters and call attention to the massacre and disappearances of thousands. 

She's also calling out others – including news organizations that cover nuclear talks without mention of the government's brutality, social justice activists who are strangely quiet on Iran, and content creators who've taken government-sponsored trips to the country. 

Making Peace Visible spoke with Nazanin Nour on February 10, 2026. 

Follow Nazanin Nour 

Instagram @iamnazaninnour

Youtube @nazaninnour

Facebook @iamnazaninnour

Follow Mehmooni with Nazanin on Spotify

Human rights organizations mentioned in the interview

Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran / @iranrights

Center for Human Rights in Iran/ @centerforhumanrights

Iran Human Rights Documentation Center

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions. 

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

"I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will."

This aphorism from political philosopher and journalist Antonio Gramsci is one of our guest Neha Sanghrajka’s favorite quotes. When you learn her story, you’ll understand why. 

A Kenyan born lawyer, Sanghrajka spent almost a decade in Mozambique mediating a peace process between the country’s president and a guerrilla leader stationed on a remote mountaintop. Sanghrajka and her colleague, Swiss Ambassador Mirko Manzoni, travelled back and forth between the capital of Maputo and the militant headquarters in the remote Garongosa Mountains 45 times – a journey of over 1000 km each way. And when she wasn’t hoofing it up the mountain, Sanghrajka spent many hours just listening to local people, without expectation. 

The peacebuilders walked a delicate line. Knowing that previous processes had failed when they were over-exposed to the media, they protected the negotiations from scrutiny. At the same time, they engaged journalists and civil society with the public implementation of the process. 

Neha’s story presents a fascinating example of how polarized groups can actually buy into a process of reconciliation, despite major setbacks along the way; and how journalists can report responsibly and critically, while still supporting the aspiration of peace. 

Before moving to Mozambique, Neha Sanghrajka worked with former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan during the 2007 election crisis in Kenya and helped facilitate election reform there. She’s now a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.

Learn more about Neha Sanghrajka

Read Sanghrajka and Mirko Manzoni’s report on the peace process in Mozambique

Visit the Maputo Accord website

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Public funding for peace efforts took a massive hit with the gutting of USAID last year, and other donor countries have ramped down aid as well, in a world that feels increasingly less safe for many. That’s why our ears perked up when we heard about Brian Abrams, an American venture capitalist who is investing in technology to find solutions to violent conflict. 

In the new field of ‘peace tech,’ companies are using AI to predict the likelihood of major events – like military invasions or popular uprisings, and modeling how to prevent violence before it starts. With their ability to process massive data sets from intelligence, journalism and other sources, these tools can also quickly gain insights on what’s driving conflicts on a population level. Important tools for governments and mediators, they also appeal to corporations working around the world – customers who Abrams hopes will bring in revenue to sustain the peace tech sector. And as you’ll hear, he’s very optimistic. 

Brian Abrams founded B Ventures Group, a venture capital firm for peace tech, in 2023. Prior to that he was president of Ibex Investors and a managing partner at Row Capital. 

Connect with Brian Abrams on LinkedIn. 

Learn more about the peace tech companies discussed in this episode: 

Anadyr Horizon

From Business Insider: Inside the Billion-Dollar War over Peace Tech

Transcend AI

CulturePulse

odr.com

ABOUT THE SHOW

 The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. The associate producer and graphic designer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org

Support our work

Connect on social:

Instagram @makingpeacevisible

YouTube @makingpeacevisible

LinkedIn @makingpeacevisible

Bluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social

Making Peace Visible is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts  dedicated to creating a more informed, civically engaged electorate.

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!