Rachel Carlson

So it's not really that any one of these things or even all of them together is a magic wand that's suddenly going to help us all agree.

Yeah.

And that doesn't seem like the goal.

No.

Like for Jeannie and Richard, they both told me neither of them have really changed any of their opinions in the last 44 years of marriage.

But it was clear to me just by talking to them, they really admire each other.

They respect each other's beliefs.

And I think what's most important here is they try to understand why they each hold the opinions they do.

Special thanks to Kenneth Barish.

He wrote a whole book about some of this stuff called Bridging Our Political Divide, which is going to come out in the next few weeks.

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

It is true.

Scientists confirm.

For some people, inner speech is far less wordy.

So my inner experience isn't really word-based.

It's more like a moving landscape of images.

It's kind of like soaking in an emotional bath and like feelings.

Yeah, and feelings and images will rise and they'll fall.

But there's no words.

It's real silent.