( Boise State University)

What would happen if a group of people with diverse backgrounds, religions and political ideologies sat down together in a room and just talked about their experiences in Idaho?

Well, turns out, we don’t have to guess what might happen because last fall, 11 regular people sat down at Boise State and talked about their lives. The audience agreed to sit and listen without cheering or jeering, just respectfully listening.

It’s called Idaho Listens and it’s designed to get to know people, just ordinary people, without using labels or categories - and most of all to listen during a time when most people turn a deaf ear to anything they don’t know or like or understand.

Idaho Public Television turned that listening session into the Idaho Listens documentary and they’re going to show it tonight at the Idaho Legislature and it will air on IPTV on Friday night at 8:30.

Bill Manny, Executive Producer at Idaho Public Television and Andrew Finstuen, the Dean of the Honors Collect at Boise State and the Director of the Institute for Advancing American Values.