Get involved

Why engage with people who hold different views?

We are in a new era of democracy that demands more of us as citizens. We are being called  on to practice democracy differently. Previously, it was enough to inform ourselves, maybe volunteer for a candidate and then vote. Those activities -- while important and necessary for democracy -- are no longer enough. 

Divisive rhetoric now drives us apart. Braver Angels holds that it is critical for people with different views to engage with each other in face-to-face conversations. An added benefit is that when we have conversations in person or on Zoom we know we're dealing with real people and their real lives, not some bot. Other reasons to engage with people who have different views:

• • • • To develop and practice skills in deep listening and powerful speaking. Using these skills consistently takes practice, much like a muscle requires repeated exercise. Local alliances meet regularly.

      • To see the humanity of others. By listening respectfully to the thinking behind someone's values and concerns, we can often better understand why they hold that position.

      • To clarify and test one's thinking. Often, by understanding other views, we become clearer in why we hold certain views. 

      • To meet other people interested in meaty discussions. We can learn to disagree better by discussing challenging issues.

      • To discover if there is common ground on values and specific policies. Or, to possibly find something in common that has nothing to do with politics, e.g. golf, volunteering, hiking, pickleball, love of art. 

• • • • To practice humility in our own thinking, knowing all of us have blind spots. 

      • To bridge the partisan divide as part of a good faith effort to strengthen our communities and democracy.

Braver Angels Workshop and Event Descriptions

Braver Angels offers various way to build skills that help individuals listen and speak to those with different views, to practice disagreeing better and to participate in discussions involving books, films and issues. These offerings are free unless otherwise noted. However, donations are gratefully accepted.

eCourses

Follow this link to the Braver Angels national website to check out free eCourses, such as Skills for Bridging the Divide, Families and Politics, Skills for Social Media, Managing Difficult Conversations, on the national Braver Angels site. They run about 40 minutes each. Depolarizing Within  is especially recommended.

Registration is required for events below

Workshops

Events are typically two to three hours long and some require advance preparation with handouts and a short video. All workshops are free.  Find a local workshop or debate in Minnesota or online elsewhere in the nation that works for you and register. All events are structured to ensure respectful and constructive conversation. Come divided. Leave hopeful. Minnesota events will appear on the Events page. 

If you register for a workshop, debate or event—please keep in mind that the group is counting on you to attend so be sure to let the organizer know well in advance if your plans change.

Skills for Disagreeing Better
A 90-minute workshop that focuses on having respectful conversations to clarify differences and for affirming maintaining relationships with those on the other side of the political divide.

Depolarizing Ourselves Workshop: Becoming a Braver Angel in your own world
Learn the discipline of non-polarizing attitudes and words about the political “Other” with whom we share a national past and future. Become more aware of polarization inside us and between us. Practice skills for being critical—even sharply critical—without demonizing, dismissing, and stereotyping. Learn to constructively intervene in social conversations that veer into contempt and ridicule for people who hold other political views.

Families and Politics Workshop: How to talk with loved ones on the other side
Family relationships are becoming casualties of our toxic political environment.  Family members are having nasty political arguments, avoiding each other, and even cutting off lifetime relationships. If you want to preserve important family bonds while still being true to your values and political beliefs, this workshop will offer you insight into why family differences over politics are uniquely challenging. Learn to recognize common roles and strategies for handling differences in a constructive way.

Red/Blue Workshops: Listen to learn and understand
Focus on listening and reflecting during this structured conversation between balanced groups of Republican-learning and Democratic-leaning citizens. The conversation is designed to increase understanding of the experiences and beliefs of those on the other side of the political divide.

Debates, discussions of issues, books, films

Braver Angels debates: A powerful learning experience
A Braver Angels Debate is a highly structured conversation in which a group of citizens think together, listen carefully to one another, and allow themselves to be touched and perhaps learn from each other’s ideas. When done well, everyone walks out a little closer to the truth, more aware of the validity in opposing views and with tighter community relationships.

Have a 1:1 conversation - The process involves one or two hour-long conversations between two people using a structured conversation guide. The goals are to better understand the experiences, feelings, and beliefs of the other person, discover any areas of commonality, and share ideas for how to bridge differences across our country. Currently there are six types:

• • • • The Golden Rule - Connecting people across one of our differences for a discussion about The Golden Rule

      • Red/Blue - Connecting one conservative and one liberal/progressive to share what each believe and want for the country

• Rural/Urban - Connecting one rural or small-town dweller with one person from an urban or suburban area to better understand each other’s worlds

• Conversation About Race, Ethnicity and Culture - Connecting two people from different racial, ethnic or cultural groups

• Conversation Across Generations - Connecting one person 18-30 years old with one person 61+ years old

• Conversation about Israeli-Palestinian Relations - Conversation type 1 connects an Israeli-leaning person with a Palestinian-leaning one. Type 2 connects two Jews who disagree on Israeli government policy toward Palestinians. 

Listen to Braver Angels podcasts -  Excellent interviews on a wide range of topics with a common thread of depolarization.

Join Braver Angels

Membership is the best way to stay in touch and in the know. Becoming a Braver Angels member costs $12 a year, which helps fund Braver Angels Minnesota activities. Minnesota has no paid staff. Donations are appreciated to cover costs, such as supplies and meeting room charges. You can donate directly to the Minnesota state alliance or to a local Minnesota alliance on the Contact Us page. You may also joint Braver Angels Minnesota from the national site by visiting  We are Braver Angels. 

Joining automatically subscribes you to the Minnesota and national newsletters. Once you've subscribed, you can manage your subscriptions after they begin arriving. Also, consider a one-time donation or become a monthly sustainer. 

Questions?  Connect with your Minnesota Braver Angels state coordinators at mn-coordinators@braverangels.org.

Attend a local alliance meeting

Alliances are what Braver Angels calls its chapters. Now active in all 50 states, alliances sometimes meet in person, sometimes via Zoom. Alliance meetings provide a way for people of all political leanings to get to know one another and exercise skills in respectful listening and powerful speaking. Scroll  on our About Us page to locate a  Minnesota alliance near you or contact us [mn-coordinators@braverangels.org] to start one in your area.

Want to help?

• • Become an event organizer, event moderator or ambassador  - Visit the national Braver Angels Volunteer site for prerequisites.

  • Event organizer -- Would you like to work with others to set up workshops and events? We train, we mentor and we collaborate. To learn more, visit Organizers on the national Braver Angels website. Contact mholle@braverangels.org. 

  • Event moderator - Like to teach others and present information?  Become a Braver Angels-certified moderator. Moderators lead workshops in-person and online using well-tested exercises in skills-based workshops and facilitating structured conversations in experiential workshops. By establishing and enforcing ground rules and following workshop designs, moderators create an environment in which participants can explore challenging political topics and find out more about themselves and others. Contact Bruce MacKenzie at bmackenzie@braverangels.org or JoAnn Ward at jward@braverangels.org.  

  • Ambassador - Ambassadors speak publicly to organizations that request speakers. While everyone in Braver Angels is an “ambassador,” the Ambassadors Program offers training and structure for presentations about Braver Angels. Often, groups want to find out about Braver Angels before hosting a workshop or local alliance meeting. Ambassadors are supported by monthly calls and have access to state and national contacts for questions.  Many ambassadors take on other roles, too. Contact tgustafson@braverangels.org.

  • Debate Chair -- If you love a good debate and can write an effective resolution, you could serve as a Debate Chair. For more information go to Debate Whip on the national Braver Angels site.  Or, contact Bruce Mackenzie at balanmackenzie@gmail.com.

  • Zoom manager -- Like to help others and contribute to what it takes to hold a workshop? Become a Zoom manager, a participant manager and/or a technology troubleshooter. For more information, visit Volunteer Opportunities on the national website or contact Jeff Thiemann at  jthiemann@braverangels.org.

  • Other skills -- Contact us if you have other management or technical skills that help BA Minnesota develop and function effectively. Send an email to mn-coordinators@braverangels.org to have a conversation. We'll make it workable for your schedule.

  • Follow Braver Angels Minnesota on Facebook. Liking a post is great, but Following is even better.

  • Donate to a Minnesota alliance by going to About Us and clicking on Alliances. 

Sign up for free newsletters, Minnesota and national

To begin receiving newsletters, visit the national Braver Angels homepage and scroll to the bottom.

Other ways to support Braver Angels conversations

Write a letter to: 

• The editor of your local newspaper

• Your state legislators - Visit Minesota State Legislature to find your senator or representative. 

• Your national representatives

  • To find your senators, visit United States Senate 

  • To find your representative in Congress, visit United States House of Representatives. 

• Your relatives on the other side

• Your friends who unfriended you on Facebook. Invite them to join you at a Braver Angels workshop.

Start and lead an alliance (local chapter) -- Connect with our alliance experts to start and lead an alliance in your area. Recruit Reds and Blues to join you. It starts with you. Check out Local Alliances on the national website or contact Tim Gustafson at tgustafson@braverangels.org to learn more. 

Bring others onboard: Ask your faith community, your business, your school, your local GOP or DFL group to depolarize themselves by sponsoring a workshop, a debate or an alliance in your community.

Volunteer Profile - Christopher Schoenherr  
Keeping the lights of civil discourse on in America

By Kevin Lynch, BA Minnesota Communications Intern

Braver Angels moderator and ambassador Christopher Schoenherr of Rochester is no stranger to achieving compromise, even in the most unlikely of places.

In 1996, working for what was then Wisconsin Electric, Schoenherr showed up to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s annual Energy Fair as “a cross between Woodstock and a trade show,” to promote the company’s new green pricing program — one of the first of its kind. Upon release, however, the product had been blasted by various environmental groups.

Encountering some opponents at the fair, he discovered their main complaint was simple: they hadn’t been consulted ahead of time. Otherwise, their concerns with the product itself were minimal.

“I think both sides were so used to opposing each other,” Schoenherr said. “But then when you finally could sit down and talk about it and try to put all that stuff in the past, … we found you could do a lot, and it became one of the more successful green pricing programs in the country in no small part due to their cooperation.”

Schoenherr worked in the energy industry for more than 30 years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied economics and political science. 

But public service runs strong in Schoenherr’s family, too. His grandfather, who died before the two could become close, served in the Wisconsin Legislature. Schoenherr said his mother’s stories about his grandfather gave him an early understanding of political civility and compromise. 

“She said, ‘Yep, they’d fight all day on the floor and then they all — Democrats and Republicans — would adjourn to one of the bars that were around the square where the capitol was, and that’s where they’d figure things out,’” Schoenherr said.

That legacy led him to serve from 2011-2015 in then Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s administration as the state’s deputy secretary of the Department of Administration. The political unrest during the Walker administration gave him further insight into political decision-making, though not all of it pleasant. 

As the moderator for public forums on the issue of public access to the Capitol building — a hot-button topic in light of the protests occurring at the time — Schoenherr’s ability to effect compromise was challenged. 

“I’ve been in front of the public when they’re not happy; I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Schoenherr said. “A guy just yelled, ‘I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!’ I was like, ‘Brother, I don’t even know you!’” 

Introduced to Braver Angels after his retirement by a former coworker, Schoenherr now serves as Braver Angels moderator and ambassador. Helping others connect over shared values and experiences is his primary goal. 

“Everybody has a story,” Schoenherr said. “…People usually have a reason or a rationale for doing and thinking or even feeling how they do, and those stories are fascinating.” 

At one of his first Red/Blue workshops, Schoenherr recalled speaking with a fellow participant, now a successful lawyer, who said he was glad that his tax dollars would go towards programs like those that had benefited him when he was young and did not have the means to pay for higher education. 

“I could see why he felt the way he felt,” Schoenherr said. “It’s not irrational; it’s based on life experience, and most people have that. What allows you to be able to move forward on is to know somebody else’s story because then they’re not a nameless, faceless opponent. They’re a real person.”

He said that encouraging curiosity in others’ experiences and ideas is what struck him personally about Braver Angels’ mission when leading workshops and encouraging others to believe in the humanizing effects of compromise. Said Schoenherr:

“If I can help other people have that same kind of experience, maybe it makes a couple conversations go better, and that’s enough.”