Are you upset by current events in our country? Does consuming the news evoke anger and make you want to shut it off? Have your relationships with friends or family been negatively affected by politics? Do you feel helpless to do anything about it?

While many are fearful about our nation’s future, our book, Beyond the Politics of Contempt: Practical Steps to build Positive Relationships in Divided Times, offers hopeful ways to better our lives, our relationships, and our country.

Bringing our book to the State House.

We both volunteer with Braver Angels (braverangels.org), the national citizens movement founded in 2016 to bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide and strengthen our democratic republic. We envision an America with respectful embrace of political disagreements, where civic friendship flourishes and competing perspectives strengthen our nation. Embracing values of respect, humility, honesty, and courageous citizenship, the goal is not to change people’s views of issues, but to change their views of each other.

Doug volunteers as Braver Angels New England Regional Leader and led the Braver Angels initiative to create a bipartisan caucus in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. His background includes serving as a GOP state legislator, leading the Peace Corps in Ukraine, and helping to end the Ebola epidemic in Guinea. He recently was a panelist on the NPR show “The Middle.”

Beth moderates Braver Angels in person and in online workshops and debates for community members and elected officials. A neurologist and science communicator focused on public health, sleep, and climate change, she has been a TEDx speaker and has appeared on NPR 1A, PBS Newshour, and other news outlets.

Since our book launch, it’s been an incredible adventure meeting people at events in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Tennessee, Arizona, and more. We have discussed many themes affecting our country right now. We’ve heard comments including the following:

• “I haven’t talked with my sister since the last election. I miss seeing her, and my nephews and nieces. What can I do to repair our relationship?” We suggested she start by letting her sister know how much she cares about her before venturing into politics.
• “I can’t sleep after watching the evening news.” As a neurology sleep specialist, counseling people to stop “doomscrolling” before bed has become a routine recommendation that Beth gives patients.
• “I’m a proud activist speaking up for the injustice I see in our country. How can I talk to ‘those people’ when the world is on fire?” Courageous Citizenship is how we put the fire out.

Participants from the Sharon VT Braver Angels workshop and book discussion in January 2026, held at Sharon Elementary School.

There are simple solutions we can do to fix this issue:

• Recognize the “conflict entrepreneurs” that stir up anger among us for power or profit (think about those incendiary cable talk show hosts and social media algorithms that play on our fears). Learn how to be more media savvy and stop the cycle of sharing divisive news.
• Get in touch with your values and try to figure out whether you are living them when you encounter people who voted differently from you. Are you kind, treating your friends, family, and neighbors with dignity and respect, even if you don’t agree with them?
• Get Braver Angels Training in Courageous Citizenship — that includes listening with curiosity and humility to people who differ politically than us, and speaking out about what we believe. When you listen first, your viewpoint will be more likely to fall on receptive ears, and you might also learn something useful. You can be BOTH an activist and a bridge-builder at the same time.
• Join a community organization, a sports team, a musical group, church, or any other collection of people who are diverse (including politically, if possible). Or work on a local project to help your community. This civic engagement, built into the DNA of New Englanders, fosters trust and makes it easier to talk with anyone about politically charged issues when they arise.
• We also offer book-related articles on our free “Together Across Differences” Substack newsletter. See for example our post “Overcoming Political Violence — We can be a beacon of light in a darkened world.”

Through these solutions, we can find hope in divided times and be a light for others.

Resources:

• Braver Angels: braverangels.org
• Beyond the Politics of Contempt website and links to Amazon and local book sellers: beyondthepoliticsofcontempt.com
• Free Substack Newsletter, Together Across Differences (book-related articles): togethernow.substack.com