Show Notes
“I've seen situations, which are far worse than our situation, where the impossible became possible. I saw the Berlin wall come down. I was in South Africa in 1989 when Mandela was still in prison. And within six years there was an astonishing political transformation in South Africa. Even in the Middle East, Israel and Egypt forged a peace that endures to this day, 40 years later.” Tensions and polarization within the US are increasing. Many people are wondering: could we be heading toward a civil war? And more importantly, what can we do to avoid that outcome? This week, Van sits down with peacemaker and negotiation expert William Ury, who has spent his career trying to address hostility between parties in conflict-ridden areas. He knows exactly what it takes to address deep-rooted disputes in hopes of finding a positive way forward. In this episode, William teaches us how to identify an impending conflict, and what we can do about it. In a time of uncertainty and high stakes, William’s wisdom, expertise and cautious optimism are sorely needed.
New episodes of Uncommon Ground with Van Jones release weekly, every Wednesday.
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More from Uncommon Ground with Van Jones
In this final installment of the podcast, Van thanks the Uncommon Ground community for joining him on this journey. Some doubted that anyone could do a successful podcast based solely on finding positive solutions, deepening understanding and bringing people together across lines of difference. But we're happy to report: measured by downloads, Uncommon Ground wound up in the top 2 percent of all podcasts! Our success with this podcast over fifty episodes has shown that people do respond to intelligent, uplifting content when it’s offered. The reception from our listeners showed that people yearn for more depth and nuance. We hope this podcast satiated some of that yearning. Van must take his leave to prepare himself to cover the upcoming presidential season and contest. But he encourages everyone to stay involved in building unlikely communities. One way to do that is to support Dream.Org — which carries on the work of fostering deep conversations and finding solutions even across large divides. We hope folks will listen (and relisten) to the episodes we aired this season. There is enough love, hope, wisdom and insight in these episodes to get us through the coming storms—and beyond. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
“Yes, the system is broken. But the solution lies not in dismantling it or burning it down, but in finding solutions that have been shown to work. We should focus on the bread-and-butter issues. Most rank-and-file Democrats are practical and not ideological. Most of them have no Twitter accounts. They worry about the cost of housing, healthcare, and higher education.”
In this season’s final bonus episode, we wanted to make sure you got a chance to hear from some incredible young people who are trying to save the Earth.
It is exceedingly rare these days for two national voices on opposite sides of the political spectrum to come together and have an honest, respectful exchange of views. Many on the right believe that progressives want to abuse government power to punish them for their views. Many on the left feel under constant assault from the right. It is increasingly easy for each side to dismiss the concerns of the other. But in a democracy, we need to try to understand those who think differently than we do. Even when we fundamentally disagree.
In this special bonus episode, Van moves into the guest seat for an interview with comedian and author Chelsea Handler. The conversation took place in 2018 while Chelsea was filming her Netflix documentary: Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea.