Monday May 30, 2022

How to Move Forward When We are Divided with Sarah + Beth of Pantsuit Politics

Is it possible to build a kinder society even while we’re stuck in conflict? Today’s episode couldn’t be more relevant than it is today.

Sarah and Beth of Pantsuit Politics literally wrote a book to navigate this question! They join me to talk about their upcoming book, Now What? How to Move Forward When We’re Divided (About Basically Everything). Listen in as they share the one thing they want you to know — you are NOT alone if you find yourself tired of the anxiety, frustration, and fear that seem to be almost commonplace nowadays in your connections with other people, both online and in real life.

I don’t know about you, friend, but this feels like an important (and maybe long overdue) conversation for us to lean into given the cultural climate we find ourselves in right now.

Sarah Stewert Holland and Beth Silvers host Pantsuit Politics podcast featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and named by Apple Podcasts as one of the Best Shows of 2021. They are also the authors of I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversation (2019).

Listen in to learn more about:

How our families of origin inform our views on politics and the ways we connect with others + reasons why this particular chapter of the book was written and rewritten multiple times.
Ways to have conversations about current events with the kids in our lives.
Navigating our differences in friendships + how being in connection does not mean being in agreement.

Favorite quotes:

~My faith informs less about my policy positions and more about the way I treat other people in the course of discussing politics.

~I hope that my faith builds in me a quiet but strong patience with other people and with myself. I hope that my faith makes room to change my mind when circumstances in the world have changed because with politics we are often just talking about what we prioritize at the moment.

~Don’t think that because your political identity is not shared that everything is broken.

~Something in what you absorbed from the people who raised you, the people who taught you what love means, the people who taught you what scarcity and fear mean - something connects to those bigger picture opinions and in our houses where we don’t have to make policy, we don’t have to all agree on who we have to vote for, in our houses we can have much more deeper and interesting conversations with each other if we are willing to trace that thread back.

~Conflict can be a source of connection; it does not necessarily have to be a source of disconnection.

Links to great things we discussed:

Pantsuit Politics - Beth and Sarah's Website

Sarah's Instagram

Beth's instagram

Somewhere in the vicinity of my heart - Song

Missing Piece - Vance Joy song

Atlanta - TV Series

Succession - TV Series

Lost City- Movie

Doctor Strange - Movie

Moon Knight