Episode #10
Start With One Person You Disagree With — Liz Joyner
What if building peace across our differences starts with just one relationship? Liz Joyner is the founder and president of The Village Square , a nonprofit out of Tallahassee, Florida that for nearly two decades has brought people who don't think alike into the same room — and helped them build trust across their differences. In this conversation, Liz shares the practical, human-sized tools she's learned for bridging divides in our own lives and hometowns. She explains why there's no substitute for direct contact with people different from us, how a single cross-cutting friendship can change the way we see everyone we disagree with, and her "rings of a tree" approach to building diverse groups that actually hold together. She also makes the case that peacemaking works best when it's local, proximate, and — refreshingly — not too serious. Her advice for the everyday peacemaker is simple: start small. Reach out to one person you like but whose views you don't understand. Because the human superpower isn't avoiding disagreement — it's the reciprocal kindness that grows when we stay in the same room. We cover building empathy across differences, why local peacemaking matters most, the core catalyst model, reciprocal kindness, and starting close to home. Learn more about The Village Square at villagesquare.us . Liz's essay "The Threads of a Nation" is at villagesquare.us . She also references The Big Sort by Bill Bishop, on how Americans have clustered into like-minded communities. All Peacemakers Needed spreads everyday peacemaking one conversation at a time. Learn more and become a peacemaker at allpeacemakersneeded.com .
