Substacks recommended by Zachary Elwood | Defusing American Anger: A depolarization endeavor

Recommended by Zachary Elwood

Dave Wenzel

Retired Finance and Strategy Exec focused on political reform and combating polarization

Dave has some of the best writing I've seen on the topic of America's toxic divides.

- Zachary Elwood

Aemula

Supporting independent journalism by any means possible.

A new community-governed platform for news (which also seems likely to aid in reducing political toxicity).

- Zachary Elwood

Never Close the Inquiry

By Nick Hagen

Pushing back on black and white, us vs. them thinking in politics.

Nick is doing good work; we seem to share similar views on how to approach reducing political toxicity.

- Zachary Elwood

Symbolic Capital(ism)

By Musa al-Gharbi

Exploring the relationships between social justice discourse, inequality, and the rise of the symbolic professions.

I think Musa has done important work for understanding our American divides. His paper "Race and the Race for the White House" is a must-read for understanding liberal-side contributions to our divides.

- Zachary Elwood

Erica’s Substack

By Erica Etelson

My personal Substack

For politically progressive people, I highly recommend reading Erica's book "Beyond Contempt."

- Zachary Elwood

The Disagreement

We celebrate and normalize healthy disagreement. Listen to the podcast.

Respectful conversations on contentious, hot button topics. We need more of this. A good resource for helping people learn and model that approach.

- Zachary Elwood

Travis Monteleone's Substack

Politics, religion, and the psychology behind polarization

Travis focuses on our negativity bias as a fundamental cause of toxic conflict, and I agree with him there.

- Zachary Elwood

Dear Lib

By Jefferson Shupe

Helping liberals get through to a conservative (like me). Yes, really.

Depolarization work from a conservative (who's also written a depolarization-aimed YA book).

- Zachary Elwood

Taylor Dotson

I write about the politics of science, technology, and society. Author of The Divide, a book about the decline and revival of democracy.

Taylor is author of one of the best books on American polarization, in my opinion: The Divide.

- Zachary Elwood

Stranger Apologies

By Kevin Dorst

Philosopher at MIT, trying to convince people that their opponents are more reasonable than they think.

Kevin writes about "rational polarization": the idea that it's just easy and even rational for people to arrive at very different, polarized views of things. This is key to understanding conflict.

- Zachary Elwood

Brian’s Bullshit-Free Zone

By Brian Dunning

Separating Reality from Bullshit, Information from Misinformation: UFOs, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine scams, and all the other crap out there we must be wary of

Brian Dunning has done great work examining nuance and bullshit on such a huge variety of topics. (I interviewed him for my podcast too.)

- Zachary Elwood

Outrage Overload Newsletter

By David Beckemeyer

Outrage and lowering the temperature outrageoverload.net

The Outrage Overload podcast is a great one for understanding our toxic divides.

- Zachary Elwood

More in Common US Newsletter

What unites and divides Americans today? This newsletter takes a closer look at issues pressing on America’s social and political fabric and provides recommendations for how to strengthen ties to keep us bound together.

More In Common has done important work to elucidate Americans' misperceptions and overly pessimistic views of each other.

- Zachary Elwood

Better Conflict Bulletin

By jonathan@betterconflictbulletin.org

News and analysis for a better culture war, ways to collaborate with the other side. Evidence and data-driven. Some people fight harder, we fight smarter.

Great political depolarization resources and articles.

- Zachary Elwood

Beyond Intractability

By Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

Free updates about BI’s exploration of strategies for more constructively handling all types of intractable conflict, including the hyper-polarized, political conflicts that are tearing society apart. Click "No Thanks" to read without subscribing.

Great conflict resolution and depolarization resources from Guy and Heidi Burgess. (I interviewed Guy Burgess for my podast, also.)

- Zachary Elwood

The Unfurling

By Mo Perry

Big questions. Gentle provocation. A dash of science, a scoop of wonder. A search for a compass in a disorienting time.

Some nice thoughts from Mo Perry about cultural divides, and other topics.

- Zachary Elwood

Stoic Street Smarts

By Ed Latimore

Insights, perspectives, and practices gained from a childhood in the hood, a mindset forged by boxing, and humility shaped from overcoming addiction.

Ed shares wisdom and experiences from his life, and some of his writing relates to our toxic divides.

- Zachary Elwood

Tangle

By Isaac Saul

An independent, ad-free, non-partisan politics newsletter that offers both sides of the biggest news stories.

The more Americans read Tangle, the less polarized we will become.

- Zachary Elwood