On the Other Hand

#45 Kathy Webb, Little Rock city board member and longtime community activist in hunger, LGBTQ, and other issues, 6-21-23, Part 2: OTOH Episode 45

In this second part of our interview with Kathy Webb, Little Rock city board member and longtime community activist in hunger, LGBTQ, and other issues, Glen & April learn ways Kathy feels we can each help manage emotion and tribalism, in order to better work toward the common good. She mentions several areas in which she sees opportunities for bipartisan agreement or compromise, including public safety and crime, as well as homelessness. She shares her hopes and concerns for Arkansas, and then she concludes with a story about a powerful moment for her that involved famous (and now recently deceased) rock and R&B singer Tina Turner. 

#44 Kathy Webb, Little Rock city board member and longtime community activist in hunger, LGBTQ, and other issues,, 6-21-23, Part 1: OTOH Episode 44

Glen & April interview Kathy Webb, Little Rock city board member and longtime community activist in hunger, LGBTQ, and other issues. In the first part of our interview, Kathy describes her early influences on her political views and activities as related to being raised as a "PK" or preacher's kid. Later, she came to identify with the feminist movement, and she also early on recognized the relative lack of opportunities for role models for gay/lesbian youth. All of these experiences, she feels, led her to grow and learn how to deal with being different from others. Later in her life when she was elected multiple times to the Arkansas legislature, she gained additional insight into how building relationships and compromise was critical to being effective.  A recent influence was a book she read by author Monica Guzman (a previous guest on our podcast), who emphasizes curiosity as a way to reduce negative emotion and hostility in discussions, while building a closer relationship. She also described some work she and others have done in Arkansas recently to work toward civil discourse in the community, something she feels Braver Angels Arkansas can help promote.

#43 Lisa McNeir, retired psychologist & Braver Angels Arkansas alliance co-chair, 6-14-23, Part 2: OTOH Episode 43

In the second part of our interview with Lisa McNeir, retired psychologist & Braver Angels Arkansas alliance co-chair, Glen & April hear how Lisa's past experience as a school teacher suggests to her the value of including early education about human differences as important.  She explains how this could be done via training of teachers to take advantage of daily opportunities in the classroom with students to promote tolerance and empathy, not necessarily as a specific course. Although Braver Angels promotes civility, she also points out ways that civility and politeness can serve as a cover for cruelty and to reduce chances for compromise if not utilized in good faith. As a former psychologist, she talks about the potential for teaching everyone basic emotion regulation skills as another avenue to help reduce the innate tendency to make political decisions based on largely unrecognized emotional/tribal factors. For Lisa, the critical issue in dealing with polarization is "what we are capable of vs what we choose to do." She sees connection with others as foundational if we are to improve our work in our country's political environment.

#42 Lisa McNeir, retired psychologist & Braver Angels Arkansas alliance co-chair, 6-14-23, Part 1: OTOH Episode 42

In this first interview with Lisa McNeir, retired psychologist & Braver Angels Arkansas alliance co-chair, Glen & April hear how Lisa’s positive impression with Braver Angel's training and approach in helping prepare its activists influenced her decision to help her local alliance carry out its mission. She points out the vulnerability many feel in speaking up about political views as an impediment to confronting toxic polarization. However, she suggests skills taught in Braver Angels, along with self-awareness and determination to be a better human being, can overcome this obstacle. She also advocates early education about human differences as a long-term approach with merit. While she views social media as a "beast" in worsening tribalism, she also feels each side has important contributions. For example, she sees the liberal view as "bringing people together" as a central principle.

#41 Nitin Agarwal UA Little Rock Professor and Social Media influence researcher, 7-18-23, Part 2: OTOH Episode 41

In part 2 of our interview, Glen and April discuss with Dr. Nitin Agarwal, professor and chair of the Information Sciences department at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, what he has learned about how bad actors around the world plan and implement influence operations online, including through information environment manipulation, mis/disinformation and propaganda campaigns.  Dr. Agarwal explains how "social cyber forensics" is used to investigate "mal-information" online, how "adversarial AI" is being increasingly used in social media to negatively impact countries by other nation-states or groups who seek to sow discord in their enemies' culture, and the impact this has on democracies. His work with Arkansas government officials, the US defense establishment, and NATO has led his group to provide important insights into the potential harm that certain social media influence operations can cause, as well as to suggest ways to combat these destructive efforts. Nitin concludes with several ideas about how individuals, media platforms, and government can help work against these negative influence operations. 

#40 Nitin Agarwal, UA-Little Rock Professor and Social Media influence researcher, 7-18-23, Part 1: OTOH Episode 40

Glen and April welcome University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor Dr. Nitin Agarwal, the Jerry L. Maulden-Entergy Chair & Distinguished Professor in the UA-Little Rock Information Science Department. Dr. Agarwal is also the Director of the Collaboratorium for Social Media and Online Behavioral Studies (COSMOS). His work focuses on influence operations online, information environment manipulation, mis/disinformation and propaganda campaigns that primarily originate outside the US and which potentially impact US defense strategic interests. As a subject matter expert on how social media is used to impact people and societies, such as through promoting toxic polarization and other negative consequences, Dr. Agarwal was interviewed to help us better understand what he and his team have found through his research about the ways that social media is being used in nefarious ways around the world. We also explore with him ways to improve our interactions with social media in our culture. In this first episode, Nitin describes the "good, bad and ugly" behaviors on social media, tactics, techniques and procedures used for online influence campaigns, and how social media, which originated with high hopes for positive use in society, has gone down a dark path in many ways currently. 

#39 2023 Braver Angels National Convention recap with April Chatham-Carpenter & Ray Hanley, 8-11-23, Part 2: OTOH Episode 39

In this second part of Glen White's interview with Braver Angels Arkansas leaders April Chatham-Carpenter & Ray Hanley about their experiences at the 2023  Braver Angels National Convention, we hear April and Ray share their thoughts about the struggles they and most of us have in "walking the walk" in their work with Braver Angels.  Maintaining a respectful approach to one's conversations, social media interactions, and other means of interaction with people of differing political views turns out the be a challenge for all of us. Yet both talk about examples of positive outcomes when using the skills and approaches espoused by Braver Angels, and the potential benefits of persisting even when our passion for advocating for our beliefs puts us in potential conflict with others. Based on what they learned during the convention, they provide some ideas about next steps for Braver Angels in Arkansas. 

#38 2023 Braver Angels Convention recap with April Chatham-Carpenter & Ray Hanley, 8-11-23, Part 1: OTOH Episode 38

Glen White interviews Braver Angels Arkansas leaders April Chatham-Carpenter & Ray Hanley about their experiences at the 2023 Braver Angels National Convention.  In this first of two episodes, Ray provides a background on the historic nature of the setting of the convention, while April describes the wide variety of events and activities that made up the first in-person convention since the COVID pandemic.  "A Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, and a Wiccan walk into a convention..." - Sound like a bad joke? Nope, it's more like one of the more notable experiences Ray describes from his time at the convention. For music fans, April tells us about some of the musical moments during the convention, which included a group that combines hip-hop and bluegrass. Talk about your reaching across divides!

#37 Rebecca Glazier, UA-Little Rock political scientist & Associate Professor, 6-13-23, Part 2: OTOH Episode 37

In part 2 of our interview with Dr. Rebecca Glazier, Professor in UA-Little Rock's school of Public Affairs, Rebecca reveals strategies she employs for dealing with difficult, rigid people in her attempts to bridge differences, including "cross-cutting," as ways to build more positive relationships and interactions. An example is described in how a potentially difficult conversation about immigration led to finding several elements of common ground. Rebecca views religion as one of several potential means for bringing the right and left politically toward common ground. She used this approach in a "Race and Faith" summit of faith-based leaders in the community, and she outlines some of the both difficult and encouraging moments from that summit. Various negative societal influences, such as social media, gerrymandering, and others are described in terms of their tendency to increase polarization, as well as positive alternative strategies for broadening one's view of their "in-group." Rebecca points out how politicians are "single-minded seekers of re-election" and the implications of that reality on compromise as well as how to respond. She then concludes with additional ideas for how to reduce defensiveness when having political discussions. 

#36 Rebecca Glazier, UA-Little Rock political scientist & Associate Professor, 6-13-23, Part 1: OTOH Episode 36

Dr. Rebecca Glazier, Professor in UA-Little Rock's school of Public Affairs, is interviewed about her work, including research with various faith communities in central Arkansas and their interests in community involvement. She works with her students and the community in trying to explore sources of division and polarization, as well as ways of reducing those tendencies. A key goal of her work is to learn more about the impact of religion, social identity and other factors that may contribute to division in the congregations and community. Initial work revealed a strong interest on the part of many congregations to look specifically at race as a topic that needs better understanding for overcoming tensions and silos in the community.  Rebecca explores both positive and negative impact of religion in various areas, through a discussion of something she calls "ambivalence of the sacred." She also shares some of her classroom strategies for helping her class be a safe environment for having potentially difficult discussions for the students.