Ep 74: Justine Lee | Can people who disagree share meals to help bring about 'radical empathy?'

Can food be a way to get more people to the table - so to speak - to discuss hot button topics and issues with a less argumentative and judgmental undertone?

This is a question that my guest on this episode quite literally set out to answer.

Justine Lee, the executive director of an organization called Living Room Conversations, as well as the co-creator of a series of events called Make America Dinner Again, believes that yes, getting people with divergent views and beliefs to sit down and share a meal with each other can be a way to cool the flames of polarization and get people.

For Justine, putting together these dinners was a way to help her deal with, as she puts it, the discomfort of the ugliness of her own thoughts.

The dinners are not a way to get people to agree. As I’ve said many times, including during my TEDx Talk, understanding does not equal agreement.

But if that’s true, then I had to ask Justine, what should be our takeaways from having uncomfortable conversations?

Connect with Justine's work at livingroomconversations.org or facebook.com/groups/mada.discussion, and follow her at twitter.com/justineraelee or at justineraelee.com.