Dear friends of My Country Talks,

As this year is coming to an end, we would like to warmly thank you for your support and interest in 2022. Seeing so many of you reading and sharing our work is a great acknowledgement of our efforts. We are very much looking forward to a new year with you, filled with conversations around the globe. 

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Smithers Talks

"It changed my point of view, which in these divided times, I know makes me a better, more compassionate citizen,” said Grant Harris, Publisher of the Smithers local news about his experience at “Smithers Talks”, taking place in Canada on November 12. Madeleine Ghatavi, a young student and filmmaker from the small town in British Columbia was concerned by the division she saw brewing in her hometown over the past couple of years and wanted to do something to promote healing. That is why she reached out to the Smithers local news and they set up the event together. 

Read more on the event here.

Depolarization UnConference

What do we need to best fight affective polarization? In the beginning of this month, we brought together over 40 international experts of media and academia to come up with new ideas for depolarization strategies. We wanted to create an interdisciplinary space where experts of both worlds could exchange ideas and share best practices for scientific interventions and innovative journalism.

The Unconference consisted of morning keynotes and afternoon flash lectures, as well as several rounds of breakout sessions, allowing a deep dive in smaller discussion groups. The sessions focused on the limits of depolarization, best practices for intervention design, and challenges and potentials of an innovative journalistic product that can help to overcome polarization. 

Just a few of the highlights of the day: Martin Koenen (Harvard University) and Adrian Blattner (Stanford University) presented their study results on "Deutschland spricht" and Julia Minson (Harvard Kennedy School) shared her insights on how conversational receptiveness leads to more productive debates.

Read more about the topics and discussion takeaways from our Depolarization UnConference here.

Our year wrapped

2022 was our most exciting year by far. Our events reached new audiences - from Toronto to Thailand, and we also strengthened our programs in Germany with three city events and another round of Germany Talks. We also received very promising results from the scientific study on our dialogue format “Deutschland spricht” with regards to reduced affective polarization among participants.

Coming in 2023: The World Talks

One of our highlights this year was kicking off The World Talks - the world’s biggest day of 1:1 dialogue planned for May 21, 2023. Together with a network of global media partners, we will match thousands of participants with a conversation partner from a completely different country, context and mindset. We already set up a steering committee of brilliant, diverse media experts from around the world. 

There’s still time to join! If you want to become part of a unique global media alliance and give your readers the opportunity to meet someone from another country, please reach out to hanna.srael@mycountrytalks.org.

Find out more info about joining The World Talks as a media partner here.