Title: "Can We Still Change Our Minds?: Polarization, Persuasion, Persons, & the Pursuit of Truth"

Short description:

Many social analysts allege ours is an age of heightened division, polarization, calcification, resurgent tribalism, entrenched narratives, and interpretive recalcitrance. In such a context, to what extent can we still have good, meaningful, and productive conversations across differences? What preparation might be necessary to create the conditions of possibility? Even more so, to what extent can we still convince people to change their minds about something that – even if true – they might be disinclined to because of personal predilections, in-group heuristics, or identity allegiances? I’d like our chat to try to explore some fundamental and foundational questions of truth, meaning, persuasion, and change given some of the social dynamics of our era.