Better Conversations with Celeste Headlee

We discuss how to have better conversations with award-winning journalist, host of "On Second Thought" and author of "We Need To Talk", Celeste Headlee.

Episode 51 of the The Better Show podcast, hosted by Ian Mikutel, March Rogers, Darren Austin, titled "Better Conversations with Celeste Headlee" was published on September 10, 2018 and runs 57 minutes.

September 10, 2018 ·57m · The Better Show

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Summary

We discuss how to have better conversations with award-winning journalist, host of "On Second Thought" and author of "We Need To Talk", Celeste Headlee.

Episode Description

We discuss how to have better conversations with award-winning journalist, host of "On Second Thought" and author of "We Need To Talk", Celeste Headlee.

Show Notes

1:35— Ian, Darren, and March introduce Celeste and share how we became familiar with her work.
4:24— Celeste talks about how the ability to communicate effectively is a unique human advantage and how losing the ability to communicate constructively can be the difference between life and death.
6:39— The difference between simply tolerating someone and truly understanding their perspective.
8:49— Ian is curious about whether cooperation is a universal human trait.
10:40— Celeste discusses the traits common to all humans; especially the strong need we all have to feel like we “belong”.”
13:56— Sympathy vs. empathy
17:43— Celeste helps Darren identify public role models who demonstrate constructive disagreement and references Brian Cox’s response to the question about his spirituality (or lack thereof).
20:03— We discuss why mainstream media’s excuse that they simply “give people what they want” is cop out.
22:33— Darren compares “click-bait” to empty calories in a food diet.
23:40— Celeste notes that “there is no replacement for the human voice as an effective tool for communication.”
24:25— Celeste shares how she became interested in the topic of constructive communication.
27:25— Darren shares an experience he had with a roommate in college that enlightened him about the power of giving others the benefit of the doubt.
28:35— March shares his thoughts about why constructive communication is critical for a healthy marriage.
30:20— Ian shares how a sales job early in his career taught him about the importance of making meaningful connections with others.
33:02— Ian asks Celeste how to maintain one’s authenticity while trying to empathize with others and Celeste talks about how people regularly “code switch.”
34:15— “A great conversation is like a game of catch.” — Celeste Headlee
36:10— March asks Celeste for advice on how can each of us can make a contribution to a better public dialog; and Celeste shares new research with us on “The Liking Gap.
38:39— “Nobody waves, but almost everyone waves back.” — Celeste quoting from Nicholas Epley’s book, Mindwise
39:34— Celeste shares a powerful tip for how we can help ourselves and others avoid falling into an “us vs them” mindset.
41:55— Ian shares how the human genome proves scientifically how much we have in common with one another.
42:50— We discuss social media as a tool that can be used constructively or destructively and the importance of being intentional with one’s use of social media.
51:00— Why there is a reason to be optimistic for the future.
54:20— Ian does some spot research to reveal that the term “conversations” is on an upward trend on Google.