Peter Boghossian is a full time faculty member in the philosophy department at Portland State University and an affiliated faculty member at Oregon Health Science University in the Division of General Internal Medicine. He is a national speaker for the Center of Inquiry and the Secular Student Alliance, and an international speaker for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. He is the author of A Manual for Creating Atheists. He lives in Portland, Oregon.James Lindsay holds degrees in physics and mathematics, with a doctorate in the latter. He has authored two previous books: Everybody is Wrong about God and Dot, Dot, Dot: Infinity Plus God Equals Folly. He lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.
"Everywhere that people gather and have a discussion -- every bar,
cookout, and water cooler -- should have a copy of this book
nearby. It might lower the temperature of our disagreements, and
help us learn a few things from each other instead of just
defending our own biases at the top of our lungs."--Tom Nichols,
author of The Death of Expertise
"In the course of my work over the past quarter century I have been
having impossible conversations with Holocaust deniers,
creationists, anti-vaccination advocates, 9/11 Truthers, chemtrail
conspiracy theorists, believers in astrology and ESP, proponents of
alternative medicine, religious fundamentalists of many faiths, and
dozens more people with whom I disagree vehemently. I've gotten
pretty good at it but I had no idea what I was doing until I read
How to Have Impossible Conversations, a sterling compendium
of the most effective techniques of communication. I wish I'd had
this important book at the start of my career as I would have saved
myself many a fruitless dialogue. This book is the start of healing
our contentious and divided age."--Michael Shermer, Publisher
Skeptic magazine, Presidential Fellow Chapman University, author of
Why People Believe Weird Things, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on
Earth, and for 18 years a monthly columnist for Scientific
American
"This fascinating book provides not only useful instruction on how
to talk with someone who thinks differently, it also offers a
powerful method of questioning and reducing confidence in
unsubstantiated beliefs to help people think about what is
true."--Helen Pluckrose, Editor, Areo Magazine
"This is a self-help book on how to argue effectively, conciliate,
gently persuade. The authors admit to getting it wrong in their own
past conversations. One by one, I recognize the same mistakes in
me. The world would be a better place if everyone read this
book."--Richard Dawkins, author of Science in the Soul and
Outgrowing God
"We live in a time when discussing controversial issues, even with
good friends, is becoming almost impossible. Peter and James have
written an indispensable roadmap to prevent us from heading off the
cliff."--Dave Rubin, The Rubin Report
"Drs. Boghossian and Lindsay offer critical advice regarding how to
talk about contentious issues in today's political climate. How
to Have Impossible Conversations is a necessary guide to
navigating disagreements -- and building bridges -- using
approaches backed by evidence and science."--Debra W. Soh, Ph.D.,
science columnist and political commentator
"I thought I knew all I needed to know about conversations and
arguments. I was wrong. I just knew a lot about debates and rows.
In their insightful and highly readable new book, Peter Boghossian
and James Lindsay offer all kinds of ingenious pathways to
constructive dialogue. At a time when public discourse has
degenerated into mud-slinging and when campuses favour every kind
of diversity except viewpoint diversity, this is an invaluable
contribution. I guarantee that reading it will make you more --
much more -- persuasive."--Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior
Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford
"In a Free Republic there would be no 'impossible conversations',
which begs the question: are we truly free anymore? After reading,
listening and conversing with Peter and James, I am convinced that
they are the Galileo's, I. Kant and even William Tynsdale of our
time."--Glenn Beck
"In these polarized times, people live inside social media echo
chambers of their own extremism, growing ever more self-righteous.
This smart, scientifically grounded book, teeming with social and
emotional wisdom, teaches how to break that isolation and
effectively converse with someone with very different opinions. It
will make you more adept at challenging, even changing, someone's
beliefs, biases and sacred values. And it might even pave the way
for making some of those changes yourself."--Robert Sapolsky, John
A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Neurology and of Neurosurgery,
Stanford University
"There are two ways to participate in civil conversations in our
hyper-politicized age -- build a time machine, or read this
book."--Marc Andreessen, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
"We have arrived at an impasse. It is everywhere, and feels
permanent. As algorithms steer our attention, we are each locked
within a warren of echo chambers. Each day, this digital water we
swim in causes a deepening entrenchment of our beliefs, and a
growing willingness to caricature our opponents. When forced into
contact with the other, we are repelled, indignant. How could
anyone be so stupid? And we are shocked to discover the one thing
that unites us with them is that they feel exactly the same way in
return! It is not hard to spot the danger in this dynamic. It
undermines the most basic logic of democracy, and threatens to
derange the west, if not the world. But Boghossian and Lindsay have
drawn up a plan to bridge the divide. They have bottled an
antidote: A how to guide for talking to the enemy. Each drawing on
decades of experience having impossible conversations, the authors
have written what may be the ultimate instruction manual for
crossing enemy lines and living to tell the tale. And not a moment
too soon."--Bret Weinstein, PhD
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