Left and right agree on one thing: something’s broken in the news. So what would it take for journalism to serve *everyone* in a divided time? Moni asks two friends and partners in good trouble who’ve spent years on that question: Joy Mayer, founder of Trusting News, and Jonathan Stray, a data journalist turned conflict scholar at UC Berkeley. Together they go where journalists rarely dare. Should newsrooms hire more Trump voters? Can reporters stay curious without platforming hate? And with the midterms closing in, how do the rest of us find news that does more for us than to us?

Guests:

• Joy Mayer, Executive Director, Trusting News
• Jonathan Stray, Senior Scientist, UC Berkeley Center for Human-compatible AI

Show notes with credits and full transcript can be found here: https://www.reclaimcuriosity.com/post/a-braver-way-episode-31

You can watch this episode on youtube here: https://youtu.be/qGJrM8C8FbU

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you fight hard against someone *and* still care for them?

In Republican Mesa, Arizona, Julie Spilsbury was known for her council seat and her cinnamon rolls. When she endorsed Democrats, friends and neighbors who’d known her for decades launched a historic effort to kick her out of office. The man leading it did what few others would: sit down with her and talk.

In this special episode of A Braver Way, Moni brings you a powerful story from Dispatches from the Divide, a limited podcast series she hosts about ordinary people who make extraordinary choices. Then, she and April Lawson pull out four strategies for anyone navigating pain and conflict this midterm election season — from staying in a community that hurt you to getting close to the people you defeat.

Show notes with credits and full transcript can be found here: https://www.reclaimcuriosity.com/post/a-braver-way-episode-30

Dispatches from the Divide is a co-production of BYUradio, Disagree Better and Braver Angels. You can find the rest of the episodes of this series here: https://www.byuradio.org/dispatches-from-the-divide/episodes

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do we owe each other when we can’t stand each other?

Recorded live at the Braver Angels Convention 2026 — in front of 1,000 people split evenly between red and blue — this episode brings that key question to a renowned civic scholar whose work gives Moni the most hope. Yuval Levin of the American Enterprise Institute has a surprising answer to what's really threatening the country — and it isn't division. It’s passivity: treating ourselves as spectators instead of citizens. Together, he and Mónica dig into why conflict is our solution rather than our problem, what it actually means to be "responsible" for a country, and — because Levin can't resist a good historical tangent — which founding father would love America today, and which one would be horrified.

Guest: Yuval Levin, director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute

Show notes with credits and full transcript can be found here: https://www.reclaimcuriosity.com/post/a-braver-way-episode-29

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.