#38 - Manu Meel - Healing Political Polarization

Protests, lock-ins, encampments…the culture on university campuses is certainly fraught these days! As political discourse worsens among young people, I couldn’t think of anyone better to explore this issue with than Manu Meel. 

Manu is the founder and CEO of Bridge USA; a movement to help students and other young people engage in constructive dialogue and disagreement to improve the quality of politics and democracy, and in this conversation we hear his powerful journey from pre-med student to leading one of the most influential youth organizations in America.

Chapters :

00:00 - Intro

01:35 - What Is Bridge USA0

7:19 - Understanding The Social Divide

19:03 - What A Classic Bridge Session Looks Like

25:35 - Who Attends Bridge Sessions

33:24 - Incentivizing Understanding

40:21 - Managing Bad Faith Actors

47:24 - Movement Building

52:23 - Where Zero Sum Can Be Positive

58:16 - Changes On Campuses Since Trump Election

01:02:35 - Ten Percent Problem

01:06:33 - What Would A Social Media Redesign Look Like

01:18:03 - Bridging The Political Divide In Government

01:23:42 - Manu’s Mindset

Links: 

BridgeUSA: https://bridgeusa.org 

2017 Berkeley protests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Berkeley_protests 

Why Bother Bridging Differences in College, Anyway?: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_bother_bridging_differences_in_college_anyway 

What students really think about cancel culture: https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/02/college-campus-free-speech-cancel-culture/621484/ 

Manu X: https://x.com/manumeel_?lang=en 

Forbes Profile: https://www.forbes.com/profile/manu-meel/

The Coddling of the American Mind:

https://www.amazon.com/Coddling-American-Mind-Intentions-Generation/dp/0141986301?tag=googhydr-20&source=dsa&hvcampaign=books&gclid=Cj0KCQjws-S-BhD2ARIsALssG0bzR-EjXTbiUf1i4UBiffPJvMi5IfpxEK6n6J6m049zsbW5nVKOYeMaAjVvEALw_wcB 

Credits:

♾️  Hosted by Liv Boeree

♾️  Edited and Mixed by Jackson Page

♾️  Produced by Luca de Vico

The Win-Win Podcast:

Poker champion Liv Boeree takes to the interview chair to tease apart the complexities of one of the most fundamental parts of human nature: competition. Liv is joined by top philosophers, gamers, artists, technologists, CEOs, scientists, athletes and more to understand how competition manifests in their world, and how to change seemingly win-lose games into Win-Wins.

Podcast links:

♾️ Youtube:   • Win-Win with Liv Boeree  

♾️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/03bGVUaFZmJUmEvSHNDPdI?si=64379cc23696454f

♾️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/win-win-with-liv-boeree/id1724791350 

♾️ Pocketcast: https://play.pocketcasts.com/podcasts/7f708340-d17c-013b-f46e-0acc26574db2