The Better Show
Better Conversations with Celeste Headlee
Episode Summary
We discuss how to have better conversations with award-winning journalist, host of "On Second Thought" and author of "We Need To Talk", Celeste Headlee.
Episode Notes
We discuss how to have better conversations with award-winning journalist, host of "On Second Thought" and author of "We Need To Talk", Celeste Headlee.
Show Notes
- 1:35— Ian, Darren, and March introduce Celeste and share how we became familiar with her work.
- 4:24— Celeste talks about how the ability to communicate effectively is a unique human advantage and how losing the ability to communicate constructively can be the difference between life and death.
- 6:39— The difference between simply tolerating someone and truly understanding their perspective.
- 8:49— Ian is curious about whether cooperation is a universal human trait.
- 10:40— Celeste discusses the traits common to all humans; especially the strong need we all have to feel like we “belong”.”
- 13:56— Sympathy vs. empathy
- 17:43— Celeste helps Darren identify public role models who demonstrate constructive disagreement and references Brian Cox’s response to the question about his spirituality (or lack thereof).
- 20:03— We discuss why mainstream media’s excuse that they simply “give people what they want” is cop out.
- 22:33— Darren compares “click-bait” to empty calories in a food diet.
- 23:40— Celeste notes that “there is no replacement for the human voice as an effective tool for communication.”
- 24:25— Celeste shares how she became interested in the topic of constructive communication.
- 27:25— Darren shares an experience he had with a roommate in college that enlightened him about the power of giving others the benefit of the doubt.
- 28:35— March shares his thoughts about why constructive communication is critical for a healthy marriage.
- 30:20— Ian shares how a sales job early in his career taught him about the importance of making meaningful connections with others.
- 33:02— Ian asks Celeste how to maintain one’s authenticity while trying to empathize with others and Celeste talks about how people regularly “code switch.”
- 34:15— “A great conversation is like a game of catch.” — Celeste Headlee
- 36:10— March asks Celeste for advice on how can each of us can make a contribution to a better public dialog; and Celeste shares new research with us on “The Liking Gap.
- 38:39— “Nobody waves, but almost everyone waves back.” — Celeste quoting from Nicholas Epley’s book, Mindwise
- 39:34— Celeste shares a powerful tip for how we can help ourselves and others avoid falling into an “us vs them” mindset.
- 41:55— Ian shares how the human genome proves scientifically how much we have in common with one another.
- 42:50— We discuss social media as a tool that can be used constructively or destructively and the importance of being intentional with one’s use of social media.
- 51:00— Why there is a reason to be optimistic for the future.
- 54:20— Ian does some spot research to reveal that the term “conversations” is on an upward trend on Google.
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