How to Disagree Without Dehumanising | Sharon Booth, Solutions Not Sides

"Education shouldn't be about telling young people what to think. It should be telling them how they can think." — Sharon Booth How do you hold an honest conversation about one of the world's most divisive conflicts, in a school classroom, without it descending into a shouting match? This episode looks at peace education: the skills, the psychology and the facilitation that let people disagree deeply while still recognising each other's humanity. Our guest is Sharon Booth, founder and executive director of Solutions Not Sides (SNS), an educational charity that brings young Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders into UK schools to share their stories and equip students to think for themselves. Sharon moderated the acclaimed "No Hope But Peace" dialogue at the Festival of Humanism in Bournemouth. In this conversation we cover: The SNS "PEACE" model and the three E's (exploration, empathy, empowerment), and why dialogue alone can do harm if it doesn't lead to change How social media and the "age of outrage" made people less willing to participate, and what Haidt's elephant and rider teaches us about why Creating "safe and brave" spaces, defusing in-group / out-group thinking, and the role Sharon believes humanists should play in peacebuilding Links: Solutions Not Sides: https://www.solutionsnotsides.co.uk No Hope But Peace (our earlier episode with Yaniv Aknin and Jasr Kawkby): https://humanismnow.buzzsprout.com Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: https://righteousmind.com Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: Sharon Booth and Solutions Not Sides 02:02 Founding SNS and what peace education means 04:15 The three E's: exploration, empathy, empowerment 06:09 A more divided society: social media, COVID and outrage 08:53 The PEACE model, step by step 15:24 What young people teach us, and Haidt's elephant and rider 19:20 Creating safe and brave spaces 23:15 The Bournemouth dialogue and facilitating hard questions 28:31 Two stories from the classroom 34:53 Religion, nationalism and internal transformation 39:13 What role should humanists play in peacebuilding? 44:25 How to book or support SNS 45:29 Closing question: leaving evangelical Christianity Support Humanism Now & Join Our Community! Follow @HumanismNowPod | YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X.com | BlueSky Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe. Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or [email protected] Music: Blossom by Light Prism Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices