My Country Talks sets up one-on-one discussions between people with completely different views and establishes a new form of political debate. Together with our partners, we spark conversations around the world.
Participants from over 30 countries have taken part in a My Country Talks events
More than 100,000 participants have registered for an event
40,000 conversations that never would have happened have resulted from MCT events
In 2017, the ZEIT ONLINE newsroom was searching for a new way to answer one central question: In times of filter bubbles and polarized discourse, how can we restart the conversation across political divides?
The answer was "Germany Talks," a dating platform for politics. The premise was simple - the program matched pairs of readers with completely opposing political views. On June 18, 2017, 1,200 people across the country met up for face-to-face discussions.
After the first edition of "Germany Talks", media organisations from around the world reached out to us and said that their countries were also in need of more debate across political divides. Together with a group of international news outlets, we launched My Country Talks, which today is a tool that media organisations can use to start one-on-one discussions in their countries.
The first version of the My Country Talks software was financed by funding from Google. The software was developed by the Berlin-based agency diesdas.digital. The project has been awarded with the Jean Monnet Prize for European Integration, the Grimme Online Award, and the IPRA President's Award.
When Europe Talks launched in 2019, it seemed almost impossible to get people of different cultures, languages and opinions to speak to each other. Yet that’s exactly what thousands of Europeans from across the continent did. Europe Talks 2019 brought together over 16,000 participants from 33 countries for one simple purpose: to have a conversation.
Since 2017, the original My Country Talks format, has sparked tens of thousands of conversations around Europe in over a dozen regional and national events - from Italy to Norway. The My Country Talks events are created and hosted through a collaboration of members from the media, government, and the social sector to foster debate among citizens.
Want to start a national conversation? Click here to find out more about hosting your own My Country Talks event
