#43 Lisa McNeir, retired psychologist & Braver Angels Arkansas alliance co-chair, 6-14-23, Part 2: OTOH Episode 43

In the second part of our interview with Lisa McNeir, retired psychologist & Braver Angels Arkansas alliance co-chair, Glen & April hear how Lisa's past experience as a school teacher suggests to her the value of including early education about human differences as important.  She explains how this could be done via training of teachers to take advantage of daily opportunities in the classroom with students to promote tolerance and empathy, not necessarily as a specific course. Although Braver Angels promotes civility, she also points out ways that civility and politeness can serve as a cover for cruelty and to reduce chances for compromise if not utilized in good faith. As a former psychologist, she talks about the potential for teaching everyone basic emotion regulation skills as another avenue to help reduce the innate tendency to make political decisions based on largely unrecognized emotional/tribal factors. For Lisa, the critical issue in dealing with polarization is "what we are capable of vs what we choose to do." She sees connection with others as foundational if we are to improve our work in our country's political environment.