Dear friends of My Country Talks,

Hello and welcome to the September edition of the My Country Talks newsletter. We’ve had a busy month of international events, with much more to come. In Germany, we are continuing our My City Talks series with Chemnitz spricht and Halle spricht. We also held the second Thailand Talks day of dialogue with dozens of conversations around the country. Finally, we are excited to announce our first programs in Canada, with two cities hosting events around municipal elections. 

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What happened in September?

Thailand Talks

More than 200 people signed up for the second edition of Thailand Talks, which took place on September 24. Participants met all over the country, on video calls, in person, and at a central event which was hosted in Bangkok by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

Around Thailand, cafes, libraries, and other spaces opened their doors for participants to meet and have their conversation. Here are some snapshots from the event, from the Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Public Library, and Siam Scape in Bangkok. 

Chemnitz spricht

On September 17, residents of Chemnitz met in the city center to discuss divisive local issues. In small groups, they debated questions such as "Does Chemnitz have a racism problem", "Should the city be greener" and "Are young people in Chemnitz disadvantaged". The discussion was heated and productive, and ended with an open forum among all the participants and journalists from the organising media partner, The Freie Presse.

Our My City Talks series continues in Germany, with Halle spricht on October 15. Anyone in Halle can sign up to participate until October 10. 

Coming in October: Two local events in Canada

Toronto Talks and Smithers Talks will be taking place in October, aligned with Canada’s municipal elections. The two cities couldn’t be more different from each other - Toronto is the capital of Ontario, a bustling city with nearly 3 million people. Smithers, on the other hand, is a small town of 5,300 nestled in the mountains of British Columbia. But the two cities share many problems, including housing shortage, rising prices, and a concern over growing polarisation.

SIX Degrees: Toronto Talks Election 2022 is organized by The Green Line, a local news startup serving young Torontonians. The event is also supported by the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) Toronto and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Canada. The event takes place on October 18.

The idea for Smithers Talks was brought to us by Madeleine Ghatavi, a young student and filmmaker from Smithers. In the summer before her final year of high school, she has managed to bring together a coalition of diverse representatives to plan the event, including the indigenous community, town councilors, and the local newspaper The Interior News. The event will take place on October 29, and Madeleine will be producing a documentary about the event for release shortly after. 

How can we agree? Building consensus in groups.

A new study, written about in the New York Times, has shed a bit of light on what happens in our brains when we participate in group consensus building. The findings show that the brains of participants who were asked to discuss a film and come to a common interpretation actually sync together. It also suggests that these conversations have an enduring impact.

"How to Change Minds? A Study Makes the Case for Talking It Out"

But how do groups reach consensus in the first place? Another paper recently published in the Psychological Review looks at the mechanics of social influence and how we express our views and values. That sounds technical, but this Twitter thread from one of the authors, Stephan Lewandowsky, breaks down the research methods and results.