What happens when an African American befriends members of the Ku Klux Klan? Our guest for this episode is Daryl Davis - a blues musician who's played with greats like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and BB King, and who's also persuaded more than 200 white supremacists to leave groups like the KKK. We talk to Daryl about how his extraordinary journey began, what drives him to do this work, and what the rest of us can learn from his approach.

Please be aware that this episode contains a description of a violent and racist incident and use of offensive racist language in that context.

Featuring:
Alex Evans is founder and director of Larger Us, writer of the Good Apocalypse Guideon Substack, Professor in Practice at Newcastle University, and author of The Myth Gap.

Elizabeth Oldfield is chair of Larger Us, host of The Sacred podcast, author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, and was formerly director of Theos, the UK's leading think tank on religion in public life.

Dr Daryl Davis is an international recording artist and race relations expert. He has received numerous awards for his book Klan-Destine Relationships and his award-winning film documentary Accidental Courtesy. He is the first Black author to write a book on the Ku Klux Klan based upon in-person interviews and personal encounters.

Other resources:
The Larger Us programme

What does it mean to be 'fully alive' during turbulent times? Our guest for this episode - who'll also be joining us as one of our rotating cast of co-hosts - is Elizabeth Oldfield, the author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times and Chair of Larger Us's board. Liz talks about how connection and belonging are at the heart of what she writes about in her book, what it's like to live in an intentional community, and how we fill the 'religion shaped hole' in modern life.

Featuring:
Alex Evans is founder and director of Larger Us, writer of the Good Apocalypse Guide on Substack, Professor in Practice at Newcastle University, and author of The Myth Gap.

Claire Brown is head of development and impact at Larger Us, oversees the organisation's climate conversations project, and has previously worked on welcoming refugees to the UK and as a local journalist.

Elizabeth Oldfield is chair of Larger Us, host of The Sacred podcast, author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times, and was formerly director of Theos, the UK's leading think tank on religion in public life.

Other resources:
Caleb Meakins TEDx - My 40 days - facing the fear of failure
Citizens by Jon Alexander
The Larger Us programme

Sound Effect by Shagor Miah from Pixabay

What do you do when you find yourself at the centre of a culture war? Our guest for this episode is Professor Corinne Fowler who became a target for ‘anti-woke’ journalists and politicians due to her work exploring the colonial histories of National Trust properties. Corinne’s approach - to positively engage with her attackers - yielded some surprising results and she shares what she’s learned about taking on the culture warriors. We also had a wide-ranging discussion about her fascinating new book, Our Island Stories. In it we join Corinne on a series of walks through the countryside during which she delves into the history of slavery, colonialism and empire that has shaped our green and pleasant land. We spoke about everything from her approach to research to the links between oppression and at home and abroad.

Our Island Stories is published by Penguin Books.

Welcome to a new series of the Larger Us Podcast! This time we’re talking to Imran Ahmed, who is founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. We spoke to him in the immediate aftermath of the wave of far right riots that swept the UK in July after misinformation about the identity of the perpetrator of a mass stabbing targeting children spread rapidly and widely across social media.

Imran is an authority on the social and psychological impacts of digital platforms and the bad actors who exploit them, and he’s been a hugely influential voice in advising politicians around the world on policy and legislation to combat online hate and misinformation – so much so that Elon Musk sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate (and lost). For more about CCDH check out their website here, and you can find a recent Wired interview with Imran here.

How do we achieve social buy-in for the huge, disruptive and sustained transformation entailed in making our societies sustainable? Why is it such a problem that social media has become the 'public square' where we have big conversations about the future - and how have campaigning and activism become embroiled?

Hugh Knowles is Co-Executive Director of Friends of the Earth and was formerly Head of Innovation at Forum For The Future. He's speaking on this episode in a personal capacity.

How does a single chemical in our brains drive love, sex, consumerism and creativity? Why are some people more 'dopmaninergic' than others, why is that such a big deal for politics, and what does it mean for change-makers?

Daniel Lieberman is a clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at George Washington University, co-author of the international bestseller The Molecule of More, and author of Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Unconscious Mind.

How can we build inclusive belonging in conditions of acute polarisation - for example when members of a historically privileged group feel that more power and status for a historically marginalised group means less power and status for them? What do the recent US mid-terms mean for American democratic health, and what lessons do they offer for other countries?

Michelle Barsa runs the Omidyar Network's programme on Building Cultures of Belonging, and is a former program director at Beyond Conflict where she was lead author for their report on Renewing American Democracy. She has also worked at Inclusive Security, where she trained hundreds of women across Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya and Nigeria, and at the US Department of Homeland Security on countering violent extremism.

How can we raise children in a world that appears to have gone so wrong? How are our children’s minds affected by that world, and how can we as parents and caregivers help them through it in ways that give them agency and the power to make the world better without placing the weight of the world on their shoulders?

Louis Weinstock is the author of How the world is making our children mad and what to do about it. He works as a psychotherapist, helping children and grown-ups alike through challenges like loss, trauma, divorce, burnout and breakdowns, and is co-founder of Apart of Me, an award winning charity that helps young people transform their grief into compassion.