Village SquareCast

High Conflict with Amanda Ripley

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Episode notes

When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.

New York Times bestselling author and award-winning investigative journalist Amanda Ripley joins us to offer up a brilliant and frame-shifting understanding of conflict — from the most distant political conflict to the most intimately personal conflict in our closest relationships — from her most recent book “High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out.” As Amanda introduces us to compelling people in high conflict situations — somehow written more like a great novel you can’t put down — we learn how very human it is for us to let the unique dynamics of high conflict take over, and the dire consequences of doing so. Lucky for us Amanda also hands us ingenious and easy-to-implement ways out. We think this book will change your life — it did ours.

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Years ago now, we got a call from Amanda Ripley who was researching bridge building work.  That’s when we learned that Amanda was a thinker we intended to follow.  From there, we’ve read Amanda’s refreshing and deeply thoughtful takes on the important challenges of our time. One of our favorites is a re-imagining of the very underpinnings of journalism “Complicating the Narratives,” and we’re betting you might have seen her extraordinary feature piece in The Atlantic, “The Least Politically Prejudiced Place in America.” 

Her work has also appeared in Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Politico, the Guardian and the Times of London. To discuss her writing, Amanda has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX News and NPR. She has spoken at the Pentagon, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

Oh, and The Village Square.

Learn more about Amanda here.

This program is part of the Created Equal and Breathing Free podcast series presented in partnership with Florida Humanities.

Find this event, including speaker bios, online at The Village Square.