Dear friends of My Country Talks,

Welcome to the latest edition of our monthly newsletter, it’s great to see you again! We hope you enjoyed the weekend and were able to get some relief from this heat wave that many of us are facing at the moment.

In this newsletter, we would like to give you some inspiration from two conferences we spoke at this month, both focused on how to make journalism more constructive. Our newsletter also features an update of our special Ukraine edition of Germany Talks, including the questions our readers are most divided about. Last but not least, we would like to show you the possibility of constructive dialogue between pro-life and pro-choice opponents. 

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European Journalism Conference in Madrid

On June 1 we joined El Diario and The Guardian at the I European Journalism Conference / I Jornada de Periodismo Europeo. Together with representatives from La Repubblica, Reuters Institute, Politico Europe, Dagens Nyheter, VoxEurope, Zetland and more, we discussed how to create more opportunities for collaboration among European media. In the afternoon, our technical project manager Sara Cooper spoke about Europe Talks on a panel called “What journalism for what Europe?”

Watch the recording of the talk here

Listen Louder in Bonn

At the end of the month, project lead Hanna Israel spoke at the Listen Louder conference hosted by the Constructive Institute Bonn, Germany. The panel, titled “Breaking the toxic circle of Media and Politics” was a discussion about how the media can shift focus away from politicians and pundits, and showcase more diverse voices. The Constructive Institute is a great resource to learn about constructive journalism, and we’re very happy that they will also be collaborating with us on The World Talks. 

Watch the full conference recording here

Germany's debate about Ukraine

Since May 2, we have been running the latest edition of Germany Talks focused on the war in Ukraine. What can we learn from thousands of Germans’ opinions on the war and its impact in the last two months? 

The graph below shows the split of Yes and No answers for the current registration questions. These questions are used by our algorithm to find pairs who think as differently as possible, and match them together for a one-on-one conversation. 

There’s still time to register! You can sign up for Deutschland spricht here.

Dialogue is possible

Most of you have probably spent some time this weekend reading and thinking about the Supreme Court decision ending decades of federal abortion rights in the United States. So have we.

In the spirit of My Country Talks, we would like to feature a 2012 episode of the podcast On Being. In this conversation, David P. Gushee, a pro-life Christian ethicist speaks with Frances Kissling, the former director of Catholics for Choice. Their conversation is calm, thoughtful, and feels nearly impossible in the divided landscape of today. It also feels like a breath of fresh air.

Listen to the podcast here