Keeping things civil when talking politics
Jeff Seglin offers tips on how to handle political conversations with family and friends over the holidays.
The holidays are upon us, and as you plan your strategies to avoid Thanksgiving traffic this week, you may also find yourself planning ways to avoid another inevitability: Talking politics with your family.
It’s a contentious time in American politics right now, so it comes as no surprise that a recent NPR/Marist poll found that 58% of Americans are dreading the topic as they prepare to spend time with the people they love.
So how can we approach this holiday season with open hearts and open minds? And can we apply those lessons to the ways we talk about politics in our regular day-to-day lives?
In this week’s episode of PolicyCast, we’re joined by HKS Senior Lecturer Jeff Seglin, the Director of the HKS Communications Program within the Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center and author of the weekly syndicated column, The Right Thing.
Seglin offers advice and strategies on how to handle conversations about politics with family and friends who you may not see eye to eye with. And as an added bonus, shares his favorite stuffing recipe.
Each week on PolicyCast, Host Matt Cadwallader (@mattcad) explores the ways individuals make democracy work by speaking with the world’s leading experts in public policy, media, and international affairs about their experiences confronting our most pressing public problems.