Wilk Wilkinson lives in central Minnesota and started a podcast in reaction to the increasing incivility of our nation’s civic discourse, “Derate The Hate”, which has over 120 compelling episodes (as of August 2022).
Wilk and host Michael Whidden are each members of Braver Angels, a group building bridges across the political spectrum; but they had never spoken before this episode. While Wilk and Michael live in vastly different settings and certainly have different viewpoints, their conversation is notable because they each initially seek to learn about each other and, then, they delve into an extensive exchange about very important subjects where they have broad agreement and mutual interest.
After the introductory conversation, we cover, among other things:
* the origin of Wilk’s podcast
* the importance of constructive, respectful civic discourse
* media and politicians and their incentivization to promote discord
* self-driving trucks and how freedom ameliorates the unforgiving nature of progress
* the lakes, farms, bitter cold and demographics of Minnesota
Wilk finds hope in the numerous organizations which are trying to improve the nation’s future, like Braver Angels, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) and Beyond Barriers USA.
And one of Wilk’s comments is a great source of hope and guidance as we see more and more people slowly come back to civility: “We don’t all have to agree, but we do all have to be civil to each other and be respectful of each other...and try to seek out the humanity in each other even though we disagree.”