Civic repair, one hard conversation at a time.
How Do We Fix It? is a steady, interview-led series about Americans trying to lower the political temperature. Recent episodes follow Braver Angels workshops, ambassadors, debates, immigration conversations, younger volunteers, and one-on-one talks with strangers in a park.
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How Do We Fix It? is a civic interview show organized around repair rather than outrage. Its recent run is closely focused on Braver Angels and the everyday work of depolarization. Richard Davies opens with the stakes, then lets volunteers and participants describe the work in their own terms. The pace is measured. The subjects are not small. Episodes return to toxic polarization, immigration, ICE-related fear, social distrust, media exhaustion, and the difficulty of getting people to sit across from those they strongly oppose. But the show rarely stays at the level of diagnosis. It is most interested in what people try next. One episode follows Braver Angels ambassadors as they reach beyond the already persuaded and talk with people who may be skeptical or simply unaware that another civic path exists. Another looks at the Citizens Commission on Immigration, where David Lapp describes an effort to include the experiences of everyday voters in a debate often dominated by loud public voices. A Minnesota conversation with Melinda Voss and Scott Schluter is described as uneasy, tense, and worth hearing. It asks what happens after a surge of fear and anger. The answer offered is not neat. It is face-to-face conversation, lower heat, and a willingness to keep asking what action would actually help. Other episodes widen the frame. Natalie LaRoche and Genevieve Rauschenbusch talk about younger people, civic space, and the kinds of quick, direct communication that younger people may bring to the movement. Sam Recheck discusses Braver Angels debates as structured disagreement that can be topical, energetic, and even fun. Chauncey Williams brings the premise down to a park bench, where conversations with strangers reveal assumptions, friction, and unexpected personal stories. The show’s strength is its refusal to make disagreement theatrical. It treats conflict as something to be examined closely, with enough patience for contradiction and enough hope to keep looking for usable fixes.
Made for: For listeners who want politics, civic life, and public conflict discussed with patience rather than heat. It fits people interested in depolarization, local democracy, dialogue work, and practical examples of disagreement handled in good faith.
What sets it apart: The show stays close to real Braver Angels projects instead of speaking about unity in general terms. Its best moments come from concrete cases: workshops, ambassador outreach, structured debates, immigration conversations, younger civic work, and talks with strangers.
From politics to the personal, we're about bridging rigid partisan divides and listening with respect to different points of view. Our podcast is hosted by longtime journalist Richard Davies. We challenge authors, experts and provocateurs in a search for positive, practical ideas. Guests include David Blankenhorn, Mónica Guzmán, Dr. Francis Collins, and other leaders and members of Braver Angels. “How Do We Fix It?" - a repair manual for the real world. Produced by DaviesContent. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Richard Davies turns political disagreement into a practical inquiry about how citizens, journalists and institutions can repair public life.
How Do We Fix It? treats political division as a problem people can work on together. Richard Davies interviews Braver Angels participants about structured debates, conversations between strangers and local citizen projects, while other episodes examine public debt and the…
A park chat about voting access tests how long you can stay curious when politics gets prickly.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded conversation about younger citizens, bridge-building, and practical ways to invite them into civic life.
How Do We Fix It? looks to Gen Z as a possible force for civic repair, with Richard Davies speaking to former Braver Angels interns Natalie LaRoche and Genevieve Rauschenbusch about what they learned inside the bridging movement.
A cousin's wish to see sports becomes a clear measure of how toxic polarization can make withdrawal feel tempting.
How Do We Fix It? turns the Braver Angels Debates promise of fun into a grounded argument for conversation people might actually choose. The guest lays out a structure for real, productive disagreement on contentious issues, then points to the team's need for more capacity when…
A park conversation about voting access tests assumptions, patience, and the practice of genuine listening.
Chauncey Williams turns a simple park conversation into a useful study of civic listening. As a Braver Angels volunteer in Denver, he sits with strangers whose experiences differ from his own, then acknowledges how often he arrives with stereotypes and assumptions that the…
A practical look at how local problem-solving can give divided neighbors a way to work together.
Steve Saltwick makes a grounded case that civic trust is rebuilt through problems close enough for people to share. Richard Davies keeps the idea practical by pointing to Austin, where people divided in national politics can still work together on bike lanes, stop signs, and…
A measured look at how shrinking local newsrooms weaken communities and why rebuilding them remains difficult.
Local journalism's decline comes through as a business story with civic consequences. The episode follows the damage left by the internet's disruption: newspapers closing or hollowing out, commercial radio losing local reporters, and news deserts spreading where a county or area…
A public-debt warning becomes a clear tour of who finances America's borrowing and why confidence matters.
How Do We Fix It? treats America's public-debt problem as a question of confidence, starting with the risk of a missed payment. Chris Lowe argues that such a moment would count as default, knocking the U.S.
Motorsport, screens, electric cars, and cheerful disorder.
Economist Chris Lowe joins hosts Richard Davies and Jim Meggs to discuss the U.S.
Richard Davies introduces a project by Chauncey Williams who chats with strangers in Denver parks to challenge assumptions and foster understanding.
Host Richard Davies interviews Anna Brugmann, director of policy at Rebuild Local News, about the collapse of local journalism.
Wesley Warshawer left a San Jose tech bubble in 2020 and spent about 18 months moving every four to six weeks between conservative places, starting in Bismarck, North Dakota.
Marianne Coulter discusses how Braver Angels workshops help bridge political divides and foster understanding.
Braver Angels ambassadors Barbara Hancin and Ron McFarland discuss their work reaching out to skeptics and bridging political divides to reduce polarization.
Richard Davies interviews David Lapp about the Braver Angels Citizens Commission on Immigration, which aims to include everyday citizens' nuanced views in the immigration debate.
Richard Davies introduces a Braver Angels podcast episode featuring CEO Maury Giles and Wilk Wilkinson discussing how civic groups can better market themselves to improve individual lives.
Two members of Braver Angels Minnesota, one red and one blue, discuss the end of the Minnesota ICE surge and the need for bipartisan dialogue to reduce political tension.
How Do We Fix It?
Sam Rechek, Braver Angels’ debate team program coordinator, explains why the organization runs debates instead of standard winner-loser arguments and why the format feels accessible to first-time participants.
Chauncey Williams says park conversations revealed how often his assumptions about strangers were wrong.
Steve Saltwick says the stop-sign fight in upstate New York turned into a town hall, a crosswalk, and a shared solution.
Experts Tania Israel and Arthur Brooks discuss how to navigate political disagreements with loved ones by fostering understanding and love rather than contempt.
This episode introduces Braver Angels, a cross-partisan group, and features senior fellow Monica Guzman discussing how to bridge political divides by asking 'how' instead of 'why' to understand others' beliefs.
An interview discussing the decline of local news due to internet disruption and strategies to rebuild regional journalism.
Part two of an interview with Yascha Mounk discussing constructive responses to identity politics and the importance of solidarity and empathy.