UnityNow!

Toby Davis is joined by Eugene Volokh to discuss his blog the Volokh Conspiracy and, along with Rumble and Locals, a challenge to New York's Law that requires Social Media Networks to publish a plan for for responding to alleged hate speech by users. Eugene wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “NEW YORK STATE WANTS TO CONSCRIPT ME TO VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION”.

We discuss this article and the implications of a law that Volokh says "violates the First Amendment" by opening the door to define hate speech at the State government level. Eugene Volokh is a Ukrainian-American legal scholar known for his scholarship in American constitutional law and libertarianism as well as his prominent legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy. Volokh is regarded as an expert on the First Amendment. He is the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and is an academic affiliate at the law firm Mayor Brown.

Ready the WSJ Article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-state...
Read the Volokh Conspiracy here: https://reason.com/volokh/






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This week, UnityNow's Toby Davis sits down with Michelle Dickson of Citizen Connect, a Bridge Alliance initiative. Michelle is a Service Coordinator with Citizen Connect helping to coordinate over 500 bridge-building organizations in America. Citizen Connect is a non-partisan platform dedicated to one thing only – helping Americans find ways to heal our political divides and strengthen our democracy.

Listen in as Michelle describes her own professional journey at very partisan jobs to her role now. From the National Repbulican Sentate War Room that focused on ambition and tense political strategy to her world now it's been quite a ride so far. Follow along and find out how you can participate in this great mission.

This is one conversation you won’t want to miss!

Connect with Michelle and Citizen Connect below:
Email: [email protected]
https://citizenconnect.us
https://twitter.com/citizenconnect3

To learn more about the Podcast, visit:
https://www.unitynowpodcast.com
Make sure to like and subscribe to UnityNow! to get weekly content about the Unity movement!
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This week, UnityNow's Toby Davis sits down with Eric Bronner, founder of Veterans for Political Innovation. Eric graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1997 where he served eight years as a Naval Flight Officer. Eric describes how his time as board president for “Show Me Integrity”, a political reform organization became a springboard to form Veterans for Political Innovation or VPI.

Listen in as Eric describes our political system as a football season where the Champion is determined by pre-season results. From ranked-choice voting, to open primaries VPI is harnessing the determination and will power of our country’s veterans to foster political change one state at a time. You might not be surprised to hear the 116th Congress had a near record-low 15% approval rating. But why would 95% of them win re-election?

This is one conversation you won’t want to miss!

Connect with Eric and VPI below:
https://www.veteransforpoliticalinnovation.org/
https://twitter.com/OperationVPI
https://www.linkedin.com/company/veterans-for-political-innovation/

To learn more about the Podcast, visit:
https://www.unitynowpodcast.com
Make sure to like and subscribe to UnityNow! to get weekly content about the Unity movement!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnityNowPodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UnityNowPodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/unitynowpodcast

This week, UnityNow's Toby Davis sits down with Connor Boyack, founder and president of the Utah-based Libertas Institute. Throughout this free-flowing conversation, Boyack shares his experience and perspective on working towards consensus-based, common ground solutions at his think tank, and how he's been able to make real political change.
From small businesses' battles against regulation, to the fight for education reform, to challenging the death penalty, you'll learn about the issues Libertas deals with, and how the institute works to frame real solutions both sides can agree on. You'll learn about their innovative regulation sandbox, and why lawyers love it, and about the history of homeschooling.
And speaking of learning, you'll also get to hear about how Connor got the idea for the Tuttle Twins, an educational children's book series on how society and government works, that has since been adapted into a cartoon. As Connor tells it, the impacts are far reaching, leading youngsters towards key understandings about economy and society, and leaving their parents stunned!
Finally, Connor shares his thoughts about the current state of our politics. What does he think lies in store for the future of the Republican and Democratic parties? And is our division really as bad as it seems?
This is one conversation you won’t want to miss!

UnityNow's Toby Davis sits down with Bruce Bond, CEO and Co-founder of Common Ground Committee, a nonpartisan, citizen-led nonprofit dedicated to reducing polarization.

Throughout their conversation, the two explore the founding and mission of the Committee. Bruce and his Team began hosting events that bring individuals from different ends of an issue. The two discuss the issue in an attempt to find Common Ground in a civilized public discussion. Toby asks Bruce how often the events have failed to find common ground. You might be surprised at the answer.

Finally, Bond shares the new Common Ground Scorecard which assigns politicians a score based on their efforts to find common ground across the aisle.

Follow the CGC:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/commongroundcom
Web: https://commongroundcommittee.org/

Use the Common Ground Scorecard:
https://commongroundscorecard.org/start-here

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#UnityNow #CommonGroundCommittee #BruceBond

With so many great writers featured on previous interviews, UnityNow's Kimberly Kolb Eakin
decided to get to the bottom of how they got so good at formulating and articulating their ideas. So this week, she sat down with Brittany King - now a teacher of writing at Indiana University, in addition to being a prolific writer herself - to do just that.

Throughout their conversation, the two explore what it means to express oneself through the written word. King talks about her journey as a writer, and the lessons she's learned from her own favorites in the field. She also shares her insight on teaching the next generation, wondering if reinvigorating the art of long-form expression, and the patience needed to practice it, can make a difference in Gen Z's struggles with mental health.

Finally, King talks about her upcoming projects, including some exciting work with the Nuance
Forum, and how she plans to put her skills and talent to use in fostering better discourse and
communication in a society that direly needs it.

Follow Brittany King:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KingTalissa
Web: https://www.brittanyking.com

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https://www.unitynowpodcast.com

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#UnityNow #BrittanyKing

UnityNow's Kimberly Kolb Eakin sits down with Jessica Carpenter, RCMO at BridgeUSA. Jessica, a 2021 graduate of Arizona State University, shares the story of her and BridgeUSA's journey to try to bring open and civil discourse to Generation Z, fighting against both the political apathy and the apprehension towards sharing views that has become all too prevalent across college campuses.

Throughout their discussion, these two explore the successes and challenges experienced by BridgeUSA in its first six years, working to understand what they mean about the state of our nation. The organization's journey has not always been an easy one, from being branded both a right- and a left- wing group, to dealing with red tape from administrators, to struggling to reconcile maintaining a civil and positive atmosphere with making sure everyone feels free to share their thoughts (even if those thoughts might come across as offensive to some) - a delicate balance which the two debate.

Throughout all that, though, BridgeUSA has bloomed into an organization that runs multi-hundred-student events across many of its campus chapters, capable of bringing College Democrats and College Republicans into open discussions and forums that many thought extinct. Now at the forefront of bridge-building in American politics, theirs is an encouraging and inspiring example - making this one episode you won't want to miss.

This week, UnityNow’s Toby Davis sits down with Isaac Saul, editor of the Tangle political newsletter. Saul discusses his efforts to break people out of their political bubbles by covering the issues of the day through a holistic look at perspectives from left, right, and center, and an earnest effort to present the strongest arguments from each side.

Throughout this discussion, the two men explore what it means to be in a bubble, and what it takes to get out. What is it that drives the heavily partisan, often sensationalized coverage that has seemed to dominate in recent years? And what can be presented to consumers, caught up in the tribal madness, to help them open their minds to other perspectives?

The two also take a deep dive into Tangle’s breakdown of 2,000 Mules, a controversial film by Dinesh D’Souza about the 2020 election, to see what the movie got right, what it got wrong, and why, according to Tangle, it ultimately fails to offer any real substance to those outside of D’Souza’s tribe.

Finally, Saul gives his take on the future of political media. Is the age of independent media coming? Or, as Tangle’s rapidly growing readership of 35,000 might show, is it already here?

This week, UnityNow's Kimberly Eakin welcomes guest David Webb, a fellow volunteer for the
Unity2020 project, and a pivotal player in that organization's primary. While UnityNow was being born elsewhere on the team slack, Webb was working on revolutionary new ranked choice voting software to help find the first ever Unity ticket. He shares his experience on that project, from signing up for the task, to programming, testing, and presenting his work, to the chaotic, stressful, and rewarding election day.
Throughout this conversation, the two also reminisce about what brought them to Unity2020,
about what friends and family thought about the project, and about its perception in media. The two also look forward, to see what current projects are best carrying on the values of unity, and how ranked choice voting has been growing in popularity since making its national primary debut. You won't want to miss it!

#UnityNow #DavidWebb #RankChoiceVoting

This week, UnityNow’s Toby Davis sits down with Jacqueline Merrill, head of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Campus Free Expression Project, to discuss her team’s findings on key questions of viewpoint diversity and discourse on American college campuses. How does the social media-driven political tension of today compare to ’50’s McCarthyism and ‘80’s / ‘90’s political correctness? Do college students have more diverse friend groups, in terms of both ideology and demographics, than previous generations, or has there been a degree of sorting in recent years? And if most undergrads say they want to hear views different from their own, then where is the push towards censorship and de-platforming coming from?
As all of these questions and more are addressed, the two explore what solutions are available to encourage a diverse and open discourse on campuses. These include the Project’s own action recommendations on policies to implement and ways to promote them, as well as some encouraging success stories from both faculties and student groups across the nation!
You can find our guest’s bio here:
https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/jacqueline-pfeffer/
You can learn more about BridgeUSA, which was mentioned on the program, here:
https://www.bridgeusa.org/

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#UnityNow #JacquelineMerrill #CampusFreeExpression