I talked live last night with Priya Parker, conflict resolution and dialogue facilitator, author of The Art of Gathering, and, least importantly, my wife, about her brand-new Substack newsletter, GROUP LIFE.
It was a thrilling conversation. We took on subjects I’ve been wondering a lot about — such as whether therapists are over-boundarying us, undermining our civic life. After all, democracy depends on uncomfortable engagement across difference. Are our healers fortifying us to do the work we must do, or giving us excuses not to?
Priya makes a compelling case that our society has binged on self-help while failing to give people “group help” — the skills and habits required to create connection and belonging. Her newsletter aims to bring people that group help, through a mix of writing, videos, and interactive teaching. Click below to sign up for her free emails:
As our special guest at last night’s launch party, Baratunde Thurston, reminded us, we have a “crisis of loneliness and separation because we have overindulged in the idea of freedom as an individual pursuit.” Belonging is a muscle that has atrophied as a result.
Guess whom that helps? Those who profit from dividing and disconnecting citizens.
Priya talked to us about:
How we’ve thrown out a sense of belonging to the collective in favor of the cult of the self, how that fuels authoritarianism — and how we can change course
Why the authoritarian right takes gathering and human connection so seriously, and the pro-democracy movement does not — and how progressives can learn to take the need to belong more seriously
And why doing the electric slide at the next wedding you’re invited to might be the key to remaking American politics
To watch, click on the video player above. To find out more — to get the whole story as Priya tells it — just click on the link below.
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