May 22, 2024

Two years ago I overheard a conversation at a local farmers' market about Clam Gardens. 

Being a nosy podcast host, I eavesdropped, eventually inserted myself, and got some contact information.

Today I caught up with Ala̱g̱a̱mił Nicole Norris, of Halalt First Nation on what's now known as Vancouver Island in...

Apr 14, 2024

In this episode I present what I learned from William Ury's The Third Side.

The basic idea is that our communities and societies are the most important element in developing an effective conflict management system, and that the essence of being effect is to exert peer pressure on resolving the conflict instead of taking...

Apr 13, 2024

For the last few months I've been reflecting on How to Prevent a Civil War.

Here's why I think we need to act:
- It is in the avowed interests of multiple powerful actors -- both inside and outside of the US -- to foment widespread discord, confusion, and animosity.
- The logical conclusion of widespread discord,...

Apr 11, 2024

The concept I want to present today is the Six Dimensions of Conflict, which comes up in Chapters 2 and 3 of The Crossroads of Conflict by Ken Cloke.

Ken has a model where he breaks down conflict and how we approach it into six areas, and then looks at that sextet from 4 different angles:

- Orders of Resolution
-...

Apr 9, 2024

As part of my journey towards understanding what brings us together and what keeps us apart, today I want to share three examples of social dialogue I learned about in the past couple of weeks. I will resist the temptation to draw conclusions prematurely, but just let us all ruminate together with these...