(bright music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

In today's episode, American politics has become an ever-changing, toxic rollercoaster.

- We're not playing tiddly wings.

This is a world we and our children are gonna live in, and they're destroying it.

- I'm hoping that people wake up and realize, hey, we have a lot of things at stake, and so if we don't take control and have her in the house, like we're gonna have bigger problems to worry about.

- We'll talk to a Seattle journalist who's part of an effort to bridge the divisions, between people from different ideological leanings.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Today's stop story, the current state of American politics has summed down both sides of the aisle, fatigued and disillusioned.

As people seem more politically siloed, a podcast is hoping to bridge the partisan divide.

To understand how we got here, I caught up with journalists, Monica Guzman, host of "A Braver Way Podcast."

Welcome, Monica.

Thank you for joining us today on "The Newsfeed."

- Thank you so much for having me.

- I'm really looking forward to our conversation.

As you know, politics is deeply personal, and for many, it's become exhausting.

For more than a year, "A Braver Way" has been a platform to bridge the gap, between people of different political backgrounds.

What have you learned through these conversations?

- Probably the number one thing is that we really are capable at the level of the kitchen table, the family relationships, the communities that we're in, of making a real difference in how toxically polarized our society is.

A lot of folks want to kind of wait and see when politicians will change their behavior, when the media will change all of its behavior, whatever it happens to be that is contributing to these depolarizing forces.

But both those institutions take their cues from the public, from us, how we behave and how we treat each other, and that's where we can make a real difference.

- I was listening to some episodes and one thing that was the takeaway for me is, you are providing folks with tools like to have a toolbox and then use those tools.

How are you doing that?

- Well, each of our episodes is focused on what we call the how question.

So, it's gotta be a question that begins with the word how and that's the way that we make sure that we translate our mission, which is to equip people with the tools they need to bridge the political divide with actual tools.

With actual tactics.

So, as an example, our latest episode was, how do we navigate political fear, given an assassination attempt, lots of uncertainty and anxiety.

And one of the strongest tips that emerged from that episode was to be specific.

When we express our concerns and our fears, about the future of our country, try not to go all the way to the rhetoric of our entire way of life is under threat, our entire democracy.

Maybe instead say, "I'm concerned about the independence of the judiciary.

"I'm concerned about what could happen "with the Supreme Court."

That's about the judicial system.

We can talk about that.

We can get our hands around it, we can get constructive and problem solve.

But if we start talking about the whole way of life, unfortunately that could lead to rhetoric that others could use to justify violence.

- Tell us, if you could just briefly what you've kind of surmised by talking to a lot of different folks for over 12 months now.

- Well, I mean, one of the most encouraging is, as you could guess, this is not exactly the easiest topic to build a podcast around.

- Right.

- But what really fuels us is hearing from our listeners that it's making a real impact in their lives.

I heard from a woman in Utah who said, this podcast is helping her and her husband, depolarize their marriage.

I heard from a 17-year-old in Pennsylvania, who's the daughter of a congressional candidate who said that the podcast encouraged her to write an essay for her school about depolarization.

We're hearing from people across the country that we're giving them hope.

One person said, I feel less alone just in dealing with the anxiety and all the personal consequences and challenges that emerge from, something that seems intellectual and rational and civic as our politics really affects us all deep down.

- It was a pleasure speaking with you today, Monica.

- You bet, Paris, thank you.

- You can listen to "A Braver Way Podcast" at wherever you stream your podcasts.

(upbeat music) I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for non-profit, Northwest News.

Go to cascadepbs.org for more.

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