Psst! The Convention's this Weekend!
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And the Wednesday newsletter is 100% Convention content!
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Want to get the gist of the weekend while you're on the road to Philly? Check out the word cloud above.⤴️ We ran the Convention program through an AI, and asked it to peg the font sizes to how frequently a word appears. So scroll no further: it's pretty clear what the next few days will be about!
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Want to know where the cool kids will be hanging out? We polled some familiar Braver Angels to see what folks were excited to check out this weekend. A sampling of their diverse hot tickets appears below.⤵️
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Can't make the Convention? No problem: all events in the Temple Performing Arts Center (TPAC) will be streamed live on our YouTube channel. And fans of legacy media (💖) can catch these Friday crowdpleasers on C-SPAN:
💠 3:30-5pm ET: “Action at Scale.” Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and the Citizens Commission on Immigration
💠 7:30-9pm ET: “Coliseum Debate: Immigration.” Four diverse leaders from our Braver Angels Immigration Policy Roundtable
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Now it's your turn: if you have a “Convention Moment” you want to share– an insight, connection, or realization that comes to you while you’re debating, pledging, or plenary-ing– tell us about it at newsl...@braverangels.org. We'd love to share your stories in future newsletter.
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Need counterprogramming? Understood! This week on A Braver Way, Moni talks with the man she calls “the free speech guy”– attorney Greg Lukianoff, founder and president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Together, they explore the complicated relationship between speech and safety. Sure, civilized people all aim to use words instead of violence. But what do you do when words really hurt? Click here to listen.
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Citizen-led Solutions (CLS):
What Is It? How Do I Do It?
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Neuroscientist Steve Saltwick is BA's Inaugural Senior Fellow. As a champion of the revival of citizen-led governance, Steve's top convention priority is meeting the members who attend the CLS breakout sessions– two Introductions (Thurs. 3:30, Fri.1:45) and one “Beyond the Basics” (Sat.12:15)! Seeing people collaborating on CLS has accelerated Steve's hope that this method can move us toward Courageous Citizenship and help build a better America. Show up so he's not disappointed!
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The Science and Practice of Constructive Disagreement
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This year's Debate Program summer reading group is facing our national "disagreement crisis" by reading Harvard cognitive scientist Julia Minson's Learn to Disagree Better. So it comes as no surprise that Debate Program Manager Natalie Laroche (and several interns!) will be attending Minson's talk as they look to add fuel to their reading group fire. Natalie hopes to see you there and/or at some of the Debate Program's many events!
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Science, Humility, and
the Courage to Rebuild Trust
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"Our next public health crisis is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when." If you’ve been around BA awhile, you know this is an issue close to the heart of Director of Media Operations Wilk Wilkinson. "The difference between a nation that navigates the next crisis well and one that fractures under it will come down to one thing: whether we've done the hard work to have honest, humble, good-faith conversations right now that we weren't always able to have the last time." Do your part of the hard work by joining Wilk at this talk.
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Braver Teens in Action:
Youth Leading the Charge
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Co-founder Bill Doherty keeps it short, sweet, and on point: “The success of our movement depends on young people taking up our tools before they are entrenched in polarization. I'm excited to hear from our young BA leaders!”
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Healing the Space Between Us
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Illinois Co-Chair Maryanne Colter can't wait for this session with leadership strategist Jim Ferrell. "I have used Jim's work for years with project teams," she says. "It works great with people tasked with solving complex business transformations and building constructive and authentic relationships within the team and with all impacted stakeholders. I am confident that embedding Jim's concepts into all of our Braver Angels work will be a game changer!"
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Hope, Citizenship, and America at 250
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By day, he's a psychotherapist who also plays with large language models. By night he’s the Co-Leader of the Mental Health Professionals’ Forum. And Paul Norris is 24/7 a fan of political theorist and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Yuval Levin, who “always has a unique and fascinating take on things that most of us rarely think about.” He’ll be watching Levin’s Marquee Breakout on YouTube and you can too.
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Jazz, the Blues, and the
Omni-American Dream
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Co-Director of Music Ben Caron is (dare we say?) JAZZED 🎶 for this Thursday night session. An experienced songwriter and performer (he grew up putting on shows for his cats!), he loves the idea that jazz and the blues can serve as a metaphor and a map of American democracy, and is excited to learn more about musical perspectives that are new to him from the great Cornel West.
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WHAT HE SAID
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From the beginning, America was born out of disagreement. It’s an ongoing, blessed, sacred argument about what course the country should take. We argue about these things while still recognizing our common humanity, our dignity, and our unity.
-- Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden, May 2026
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