I’m delighted to present the first full episode of the new Conflict Tipping podcast from Mediate.com, where I speak with the wonderful Rob Fersh and Monika Glowacki of Convergence Center for Policy Resolution. Rob is the organisation’s Founder and Senior Advisor, while Monika is Director of Convergence’s project on Digital Disinformation.
When I spoke with Monika and Rob, we were in three different time zones—Australian East Coast, and the US West and East Coasts. It’s a testimony to my two guests that our conversation both kept me awake at 6am (an admittedly low bar) and inspired me (a much higher one).
In this episode, we spoke about:
- 🫂 Convergence’s model for bringing opposing groups of people together and guiding them through a constructive, co-creative dialogue
- 😶🌫️ How mediative and facilitative methods can be used even on complex issues with social implications such as digital disinformation
- 💬 The challenges and opportunities presented by dialogue
- 🤔 Advice for people wanting to get into this kind of work
You can find the Conflict Tipping podcast on an increasing number of podcast platforms, including Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0FdfDvqxo5NDwiOsp8KXZD) and a direct link to this episode is below. https://conflicttipping.podbean.com/
Thank you to Rob and Monika for their wonderful insights!
Convergence Center for Policy Resolution is a non-profit organization founded in 2009 to promote consensus solutions to issues of domestic and international importance.
Prior to co-founding Convergence, Rob served as the United States country director for Search for Common Ground, an international conflict resolution organization. While at SFCG, he directed national policy consensus projects on health care coverage for the uninsured and U.S.-Muslim relations. In the 1986-98 period, Rob served as president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), a leading NGO working to alleviate hunger in the United States. Rob also served on the staffs of three Congressional committees, working for U.S. Representative Leon Panetta and for Senators Patrick Leahy and Edmund Muskie. While a Congressional staff member and at FRAC, he was deeply involved in shepherding passage of bipartisan legislation to reduce hunger in the United States.
Monika is the Director of the initiative on Digital Disinformation at Convergence, where she will bring together people across differences to explore the root causes of problems with online information and media systems, and pathways towards a more equitable vision for the future of the internet. Monika has worked in research and analysis exploring the intersection of technology, people, politics and power. She is interested in critical analysis of the impact of technology on our lives, societies and economies, as well as how technology can be reimagined to serve the public interest and our wellbeing.
Learn more at http://convergencepolicy.org