When the conversation gets political — can you stay curious?

Journalist Mónica Guzmán has spent her career trying to answer that question, and she has more standing to ask it than most. Her Mexican-immigrant parents voted for Donald Trump twice. She didn't. And she never stopped talking to them.

This week Keith and Gerren open a multi-episode arc with Mónica — journalist, founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity, senior fellow at Braver Angels, and author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Part 1 is her origin story — a shy kid who found her way to journalism through pure fascination with people, the sobremesa tradition (the Spanish word for the conversation that follows a meal that English doesn't have), and the moment when her sense of the fight had to sharpen from "win the argument" to something more sustainable.

Also — the reason the movie Pearl Harbor made her a movie reviewer, the trap of "avoidance that calls itself brave," why every relationship is a mini society, and what she does with the flash of anger before it dictates her actions.

Part 1 of a multi-episode arc. Part 2 next week.

Key Topics: The sobremesa and why English doesn't have a word for it, how bilingual/bicultural upbringing shapes curiosity, the American dinner table rule about politics and religion, meeting division with strength, naming emotional escalation out loud as a de-escalation tool, and effective vs. performative convictions.

Guest:

🌐 https://www.moniguzman.com/ 📚 I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán — Available on Amazon 🌐 Reclaim Curiosity → reclaimcuriosity.org 🌐 Braver Angels → braverangels.org

Find Us: 🌐 https://www.moreincommonent.com 📸 https://www.instagram.com/moreincommonent 🐦 https://twitter.com/MoreInCommonent 📘 https://www.facebook.com/moreincommonpod

Gerren Taylor: 🎵 https://www.tiktok.com/@gerrent 💼 https://linkedin.com/in/gerrenT

Thinking out loud about what gets in the way of connection.

Like what you heard? Leave us a comment in your podcast app. See you next week.