How to Have Better Conversations Across Differences | Jeremy Rodell on Dialogue & Humanism

Can we disagree without becoming divided? Is it possible to have meaningful conversations across deep differences in belief, values and identity? In this episode of Humanism Now, James is joined by Jeremy Rodell, volunteer lead of the Humanists UK Dialogue Network, to explore how dialogue can build understanding, trust and respect between people with different worldviews. Jeremy explains the crucial difference between dialogue and debate, why the goal of dialogue isn't to change someone's beliefs, and how focusing on our shared humanity can lead to more constructive conversations. Together, they discuss practical techniques for engaging with people from different religious and non-religious backgrounds, the importance of finding common ground, and why empathy, curiosity and active listening are essential in an increasingly polarised world. In this episode we discuss: The difference between dialogue and debate How to have constructive conversations across differences Humanism and interfaith dialogue Building trust through shared humanity Why listening matters more than winning Finding common ground despite disagreement The legacy of New Atheism and dialogue Human rights, tolerance and mutual respect Humanists UK's Dialogue Network Practical communication and dialogue skills Whether you're interested in humanism, communication, philosophy, psychology, conflict resolution, critical thinking or interfaith dialogue, this conversation offers practical insights into building stronger relationships and having more respectful, meaningful conversations. 📌 Originally recorded and published in 2023. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Episode References 🌍 Humanists UK https://humanists.uk/community/dialog... 📝 Exploring Common Ground: Dialogue Training Application https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA... About Jeremy Rodell 🎤 Humanists UK Interview https://humanists.uk/2022/07/26/findi... 🐦 X: @jeremyr1 📍 South West London Humanists https://swlhumanists.org.uk/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Listen to Humanism Now 🎙 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4ZL6qAJ... 🍎 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 🎧 All podcast platforms https://humanismnow.buzzsprout.com/22... ▶️ YouTube    / @humanismnowpod   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Support Humanism Now ☕ Support the show and join our community https://ko-fi.com/humanismnowpod 💌 Send Us Fan Mail https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/tex... ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Follow Humanism Now ▶️ YouTube    / @humanismnowpod   🎵 TikTok   / humanismnowpod   📸 Instagram   / humanismnowpod   📘 Facebook   / 61557338678349   🧵 Threads https://www.threads.net/@humanismnowpod 𝕏 X https://x.com/HumanismNowPod 🦋 BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/humanismnowpod 🌍 Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live, a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies and individuals across the globe. Thinking of starting a podcast? Visit humanise.live or contact us at hello@humanise.live. 🎶 Music: Blossom by Light Prism ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 We'd love to hear your thoughts. Can people with fundamentally different beliefs find common ground? What communication techniques have helped you have more constructive conversations with people you disagree with? Share your thoughts in the comments. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe and share to help more people discover thoughtful conversations about humanism, dialogue, communication, philosophy and building understanding. #humanismnow #jeremyrodell #humanism #dialogue #communication #interfaith #constructivedialogue #criticalthinking #humanistsuk #philosophy #podcast