The Art of Having Difficult Conversations with David Deighton

What if a single conversation could turn a cliff’s edge into a bridge?

That question sits at the center of our conversation with artist and educator David Deighton, who has spent years engaging strangers in public spaces to transform political heat into human connection. Instead of chasing debate wins or feeding algorithmic outrage, David uses playful art installations and three non-confrontational questions to invite a different posture: attention over argument, safety over spectacle, and shared emotion over hardened positions.

In this episode, we explore David’s shift from confrontational online activism to gentle, in-person dialogue—and why it works. He shares how listening for a single common feeling—frustration, hope, disillusionment—and reflecting it back can soften defenses without asking anyone to concede their beliefs. You’ll learn his three questions, why he lets opinions rest without rebuttal, and how to read the body’s cues that signal openness or resistance.

The result isn’t capitulation—it’s clarity. When someone feels seen, they often reveal more nuance. When you name a shared feeling, guards lower. And when a conversation ends with one word that captures it all—so often hope—both people walk away changed.

If you feel anxious about talking with a parent, partner, friend, or colleague, this episode offers a practical roadmap:

• Start with strangers to build the muscle
• Choose the right time and place
• Let the first round be theirs
• Let triggers pass like warm rain
• When invited, speak from the shared emotion—not the argument

We also unpack why playful public art opens doors that formal panels often slam shut, and how small, daily acts of listening can be as civic as a vote—and sometimes more transformative.

Come for the method. Stay for the mindset: presence, curiosity, and the courage to meet the person before the position.

If this resonates, subscribe, share this episode with someone you’d like to talk to, and leave a review telling us the first question you’ll ask.

Transcript

Welcome And David’s Mission

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Is it tension resistance? A story that's not in your story. Bad thing is right today's conversation again. Hi everybody, welcome back to this high power podcast with me, the pony. I'm a host, a storyteller, speaker, mum, and someone who believes that healing isn't always loud. Sometimes it's quite uncomfortable and deeply brave. Today is not about choosing science, it's about choosing humanity. My guest for today is David Dayton, and what he does is deceptively simple, yet radically grave. David is an artist, an educator, father, traveler of the world, and a French-American bi-national who has spent the last six years engaging strangers in public spaces. Not to persuade them. He had no ambitious sales targets, not to win arguments, but to genuinely listen. He invites people to speak with political opposites, which are very tricky place to be to just sit, to talk, to find common ground where man was expected. Using art installations, interviews, repurpose books, and what I call creative courage. David creates moments where people remember something that we have long forgotten. That disagreement does not have to mean dehumanization. Oh David, I hope you like that in turn. I'm very glad that you're here today. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Well, thank you. That is a fantastic introduction. I like that very much. I will I will keep some of those words in my heart to take with me.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

So it's like thanks, David. Thanks. I'm so excited and so happy that you're here today. Alright, so before we dive into questions and uncovering some details about your journey, how you do what you do, tell us a little bit about, besides this introduction, who you actually are and and what's your story like what made you do what you do today? So what was the why behind doing all of that?

From Precipice To Bridge

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Um well, you know, our lives are so multifaceted. There's so many different aspects of them. Um and I'd like to give you your listeners a very simple answer. Uh it's often very difficult, isn't it, to be able to pinpoint one thing that drives us into action uh and to non-action. Um and I would say for now that um being seeing myself and seeing our society apparently at the side of a precipice when it comes to political discourse, to our digital divides through using our digital devices and the separateness that's happening before us. I found myself compelled to, in a non-confrontational manner with the strangers that I encountered when talking about a big taboo subject here in the United States, as well as where I my other nationality in France, and I think that'll apply to many different places, and what concerns speaking to strangers or even to relatives about a subject of politics. And uh, it doesn't have to be about politics, it could be about any subject. But I found if I try this one, and if it works with this one, if we can engage with people on a such a sensitive subject, we might be able to approach any subject. So that's what I experiment with using using artwork. And it allows me and the people I communicate with to take a few steps away from the precipice and to see that actually there's maybe no precipice at all. There might be no chasm, might be just a bridge that we just did not see because our attention was taken away from the connection that we have among each other and humanity to be looking at something that doesn't necessarily need to be uh the big divide that it's made out to be. So we find ourselves uh um daily on a daily basis uh uh in a sense attacked with with uh with messages that uh that want to divide us, but there is actually a bridge. We just have to look around and use other senses to see where that bridge may be. And that's what I work on is exploring and finding that bridge.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Right, um such a profound thing that you're doing because uh unity at the end of it, right? Like unity over any sort of division in the right. So, and you mentioned about politics or like any other controversial topic. I feel like, David, politics is one of the fastest ways to shut down a room. Yet I know you intentionally work towards it. So, in your experience, why do these taboo uh subjects or topics just carry so much of emotional charge? Right? It's it's it isn't really about the topic. Like from my understanding, it's about the fear of losing belonging or just feeling triggered, feeling rejected or misunderstood, right? Would you say that that is an accurate statement?

Why Taboo Topics Trigger Us

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Well, yeah, especially in what concerns uh being triggered. Right? Those are mechanisms that that are very well recognized by those that want our attention in order to sell us either a political product or an ideology, or even just uh to buy an actual physical material product by capturing our attention to things that and outrage. Um our our job is to recognize what these uh what's going on and to take uh to take a step back. And uh, as you were saying at the beginning, to just drop our shoulders and breathe in, breathe out, try to be present and see. And I when I say see, I mean to use all of our senses in order to recognize what is um, to see things with a critical eye, and to approach the very subject that we are told to either engage with in rage, or that we naturally want to avoid in order to not be in a confrontational situation. And my invitation is to go take it on head on in a non-confrontational manner by uh what I use is three non-confrontational questions. To ask your political opponent or the person that no longer wants to talk to you because you have different political views, they've been polarized, let's say, and to be present while you're asking those questions and to find one thing you have in common with them. And that's when you said uh deceptively simple is to find that one thing in common. But to be to find that, you have to you have to calm your mind in order to be able to hear that from the other.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

You need to find a common thing, right? Like, yeah, it's your trigger, there's something just yeah, yeah, frustrated, or you won't be able to find it. And and it takes a it doesn't take a lot, as you said, David, just a little bit, just maybe if you care about it enough, just to find one common link of connection, that one common denominator.

The Three Non-Confrontational Questions

SPEAKER_01 8:35

And in my case, so this is what I this is what I do. I um among other things, uh I'll just use the example. I I go to uh a national park in the United States, and I go to what uh they call free speech areas, uh, which are designated areas where people can engage with the public in any way that they like and express their views. And I bring an art installation, an artwork to that area, or that or a performance of sort to that area, which is very unexpected for park visitors. And uh and I ask uh and I and I ask individuals to answer three non-confrontational political questions. And uh I'll just share those questions uh for for your listeners because they can they can use them themselves or transform them and uh take out a few words and put their own in. The questions are how would you describe the political system of the United States of America? When I ask that question, I I listen and I might hear a lot of triggers. They get me going, oh no, they're saying things that I that I totally disagree with. I might uh find ways to uh count to find a counter-argument or something like this. But I actually don't do that. I let the facts and opinions stay with them, even if I don't agree with those facts or their opinions. I search for an emotional word, something that I might have in common. Are they frustrated? Are they angry? Are they disillusioned? I'll try to remember what those words are as I go to my next question is to ask them uh, describe your feelings or reactions to the current state of US politics. There, once again, your listeners can change politics for religion if they want, they can change the United States for whatever country they like. It's just asking a question and listening in. And there again, I'm trying to find something that we have in common. And I'm I'm fully concentrating on what they're saying. With all my senses, uh, including smell and touch and different matters. Of course, I'm not touching them per se, but I'm I'm acknowledging that you know the wind that's hitting my skin is also hitting theirs and things like this. And uh, and then finally I finish with a little bit of a game where I asked them to finish the sentence. Where I asked them, politics in the United States, and then I leave it blank, and it's for them to finish the sentence. And when that's all done, I'll ask them maybe to give me one word to bring all of their thoughts together. And uh that's a very complicated one to do, to find one word that encapsulates all the thoughts. But it allows, it gives the person a space to be able to express this taboo subject. They may have never had the opportunity or for a very long time to say what they had on their mind. Somebody in person is asking them face to face how they feel and what their reactions and thoughts are on these subjects, really leaning in and listening. And uh that that doesn't happen to to many of us, and uh we we get bombarded and triggered online all the time, and uh we only get the opportunity to put little emojis and likes and comments and things like this, but they really go nowhere. And there's somebody, and that that's you, listening in, finding what you have in common. And and that that really is a matter of importance to the other person. You know, they feel good, they feel good usually. I mean, excited, and but there's a release, yeah. And you're offering that space for release, and um, and that right there, I I see it as an act of kindness that one could do on the subject of politics, which seems impossible, but it is. I I see it hundreds of times over and over that it is a release for people to be able to do so. And that's when I engage and then I say, Listen, uh, you know, I disagree with almost every you know, if I disagree with everything they they they said, I I'm gonna tell them. I say, you know what? I'm that I'm that person that you say you hate and everything. I'm that other person, I'm that that political opponent of yours. But you know, there is this one thing you said. You know, you're disillusioned.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

And you know what? I'm I'm disillusioned too. I just want that's I want you to tell you that that I'm I feel that that's something we share in common. And they're like, oh, okay. You know, you're well, you're not like the others. You you share something in common, and that's a bridge, right? And I want them to see that bridge too. And it's a very small one, but it's something that we can do at any time. When the time in place, sorry, when the time and place is appropriate, then uh it's something that we can do for for the other on a very sensitive uh set.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yeah, and I love how you like how you have almost developed a like a single to deal with, and there's really something powerful, David, about disarming people before they even realize that they are guarded, right? So yeah, and uh you just don't invite conversations, you create conditions for it. So you said you use some art, playfulness. Also, what I loved about what you said is that how it reminds us, again for me and for our listening audience, people don't change when they have like questioned or they're like shamed or whatever, they change when they feel safe enough to be honest, right? That's the most important part. Like, that's the basic out to be basic human thinking. So when you do all of that, why are you like just curious? Why do you not consider serious panel or structured debates and instead you go over this way down this path of light-hearted conversations through some art, through some kindness, through some closiness? Because typically when we resume that you do it in a serious panel or like a structured debate, which I notoriously mean to divide the primacano worms, right? So was that your strategic approach to not do the structured debates and panels and do it lightheartedly, or did it just somehow look like that always?

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Not always, no, because I started very much on the confrontational aspect. My artwork was political artwork, it was in your face, uh it was confrontational, and I never really got the feedback from what I was doing. Um it was filled with rage. And I then experimented over uh uh uh during COVID uh going online and starting an art experiment of dealing with political polarization uh and uh approaching my political opponents online and trying to have conversations, trying different techniques, reading whatever literature could could help. And uh it was just going nowhere. Not only were the conversations just very divisive and enraging and um hurtful on both sides, but the algorithm itself banned me. I was banned several times for trying to reach out to outside of my bubble, if you want, outside of my echo chamber to reach out to different groups that were obviously not to the algorithm in mine. Apparently, that's not what you were allowed to do. So I did a full year of 365 days of this craziness, trying to post an abstract video every day on the subject. And um, and and then it just dawned on me that this I'm gonna have to go out and talk to people in person. And it's it's been six years now, and uh honestly, it didn't start out very well. But by reflection and meditation and looking into what I was doing, I I found that the non-confrontational approach was the uh most rewarding and transformational and also the most effective. That's what blew me away, how effective it was uh to reach out to others in this aspect. And I was no longer talking about political facts or opinion or the the things that that um that that I hold to heart because it's really I'm not reaching out really to other people except the ones that agree uh with me because people are so entrenched in their ideas that we need to go take several steps back, I found, and and just deal with with just our emotions and uh be able to start with that and creating the bridge and more societies that no longer speak to one another in the same way. We spend more time on our devices or in our in-groups than with society at large. So I'm inviting people to go talk to the people that they were they scared or pains them to communicate with, and it works, works, it's painful for sure, it's but with time, but it does have its rewards, yes, it does have its rewards, and it is by repetition and making it a practice of a daily practice, or whenever the opportunity arises, to be there for the other to realize that the other is not separate from ourselves and that we do have commonalities, even regardless of how wicked you think the other person might be. There is a space, there's a space that's worth uh exploring for just uh maybe even a brief time and if for nothing else to for yourself and in many cases for the other.

Finding A Shared Emotion

SPEAKER_00 18:05

For the other um, David, for someone listening right now to us who wants to talk to, say, a parent, uh partner, a friend, yes, or even a colleague, that's that these are all valid um scenarios, right? But it's terrified, it it may turn into a fight, uh you know, a judgment zone where then the person, you know, you know how it can snowball into a bigger problem. You make it even worse also if you don't tiptoe around it carefully. So, what is that first internal shift that they need to make within themselves before they approach someone that they've been meaning to talk to for a long time but are afraid, but are petrified if I use that word, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Oh no, I that's that's so important what you mentioned. Now, nothing of what I'm doing is scientific or empirical research. It's it's it's all based on my own personal experience, but there are hundreds and hundreds of encounters that I'm sharing my experience. That's where my experience comes from. Talking to the people that matter to us most, friends, family, co-workers, the ones that we interact with that we may no longer speak to because of a taboo subject, that's the hardest. That's the hardest. There's uh to not be triggered in those circumstances. And I I've I've done that as well. Honestly, starting with strangers is a lot easier. Uh, and and practicing with with strangers just for a few times.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

I 100% agree, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

This is the get it out of the way. Unfortunately, important and and then take the step and using uh the you know, we need tools in order to to have uh these conversations. So using, for example, the conversation we're having today as the excuse, you know. I was listening on this podcast to people that talked to strangers. How odd is that? But you know, you're not a stranger to me. I know you very, you know, very well. And but you know, we we no longer one thing that's divided us, we've got to admit, is is uh, you know, uh our politics. We we no longer we have different views. We both know that, but we've been avoiding that. And it's uh I'd like to ask you a few questions uh and just follow this maybe format that this this artist I heard about used. Try that one out. I mean, there's lots of different ways. People can try cards and with prompted uh questions on them. But these are the ones I've used over and over and over, and um, and they've worked uh they've worked for me and they've worked for others. Um, you know, and so give those a go. Most importantly, is to be with the ones that are close close to us because there's a lot of healing that needs to take place there, because there's a lot of hurt that's happened, and uh some trauma that's happened, and uh those are ways for us to start to start bridging, and that is all in us taking the space to be the active listener, to be there for the for that that loved one. Um and uh try not to be triggered. Imagine rain falling upon you on a on a warm day and just let it soak you. Uh in the end, you'll you'll feel it'll just dry off with time, and uh it'll refresh you, it'll refresh you and clean and cleanse you. Um and uh and also take the opportunity to to say what you what you have to say if prompted, if not even prompted, at least you've given the other person the time and space to be able to say what they had to say. And that might be all you have, and that's a start, and that's okay. We have to give ourselves that freedom to say that's okay. We might have another chance later. They'll have a chance to think about it and maybe ask us the same questions later to get the conversations going. Because so much is so much in our lives takes us away from having these conversations. We're distracted and we have. Preoccupations and pains, um, and um and and and and it could be very weight, there's a lot of weight there, but by taking a second and when we can, when the opportunity arises, um, I hope you remember this call to action that it might be useful to you. I know it is to you, but to a lot of the listeners, I imagine it makes sense and it resonates. Uh, it's confronting that that uh the prospect of a painful conversation. Uh I haven't most of my conversations have not been painful. They have not been aggressive. Uh they've been triggered, they've triggered me plenty. Uh that's for sure.

Art Installations In Public Spaces

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah. Well, yeah, as you rightly said, David, it could like it definitely is challenging, but also there are plenty of rewards and benefits. Are you something have not been like the terrible most disturbing conversation? So it's it's important that we remind ourselves and we need to make the coverage under me that's doing that. No, see you have specific numbers of people, right? That the cities, countries, and are like different worlds within themselves, right? We have as many worlds as we have people. That's the key that I envy. So stranger, stranger world, they will talk to you about humanity and just this uh power of human connection that has surprised you the most. That you that you were like, okay, I never thought about it this way. And now, after gaining this experience, after speaking to so many people and becoming this um, you realize that I'm actually shop and surprised you along the way.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

I certainly have uh been surprised many, many times, many, many times. And and often while while listening in and hearing what people have to say, they might have all this animosity, but a sense of disappointment of how things should be or could be, or an expression of their rage, hopelessness. But in the end, you know, earlier I was talking about giving one word after that brings it all together, one word that encapsulates all the answers. And often that word is in contradiction to the answers to the questions. So if they showed disappointment uh and outrage in in their answers, the final word could is often like a word like hope. And and regardless of which side of the political spectrum they're on, it's that there is there, they have hope that things will get better and things can get better. And we usually agree together that the best way to get there is to engage with others in person and just to take that step. Because if we don't, it does not look good because our eyes are focused on that chasm and precipice and that big canyon, the big cliff in front of us, and we feel ourselves falling into it when we're talking to others, we're no longer doing that. We're seeing humanity in the other. And that right there, wow, that's always blown me away. It always so makes me so happy when that that comes forth in our conversation. And it's expressed in a lot of different ways, but uh that that's my reward, if you want, from from spending my time doing this is when when uh that type of connection happens.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

It's extremely rewarding to see and just be a part of it. Oops. Most people actually want to understand just want to remove from unseen because a lot of time we behave, the way we interact, the rather than the knot, has something to do with how we think and how we perceive our own behaviors, interactions are driven by our own mindset, right? But has actually less to do with the other person.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Yes, despite the fact that we have so many divisions, uh divides that persist, right? Not because we we disagree, but because somehow, somehow, don't feel listened to anywhere. Well, opinions to matter, our boys to be heard, us to not feel rejected, and us to feel like okay, we have found some some space on the map for ourselves. I think it also has a lot to do with that too, right? What do you think about it?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Well, certainly people just want to be heard. At the beginning, I'd say that's the first step. And my invitation is yeah, do that. Let them let them say what they have to say. Take the first step, take the courage to to do that if if you can. If you have the if you have the energy to do so, do it because other people need it. It's an act of kindness. And and that usually resonates. It might not be at that very moment, but it'll happen later on. It can happen later on. Uh, it could happen right then, right then and there. Uh, and then you have a very fruitful exchange. Um, yeah, I find myself uh with hugging with with uh with strangers that have very different views uh than me. They're just so grateful that this has happened. Um others cry. Others cry uh because nobody it was like a boil that needed to be burst, and and nobody was nobody asked them these things, and it's just been uh pinned pinned up inside, and they needed to get it out. And it's often so much easier to speak to to a stranger, as we were saying earlier, than it is to somebody that you know. And uh and it might feel intimidating, but when the tools are are there and present, uh it's possible to to do that, to speak to a stranger. Uh obviously, right on a street corner while they're walking and going to work or getting out of their car to go to the grocery store is not the best place, right? It's about the time and the place. Um But there if we look carefully, there there are some opportunities that that arise. Um and uh and you'd be so I'm surprised that I can also ask those questions when somebody's on a device, when they're on their phone. They seem so deep into it. But when there you can see them just scrolling, an interaction with a stranger is often uh very well accepted, which is odd because they're being so entertained. But there's there's a need for connection.

Safety, Play, And Conditions For Honesty

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yes, yes, there certainly is this need for connection, and you know, sometimes few people are insumer um unable to share themselves and you know the deep personal story with strangers, someone who doesn't know them because they know the bill are not gonna judge them anyway, or are going to influence or de-influence them in any way, shape, or form, versus a friend or say a family member who has been with them and who has known their patterns, go to the bad. Some sometimes I'll be like, yeah, strangers or friends, people go and go and choose them to do things, or sometimes even ask for papers of reality. No, you were worked in anonymously for a long time, which is very strange to me, but also very, very interesting to think about and talk about. And then you chose to step forward and used your real name, and you know, just you came out. So, why was the transition important for you, David? And like how was it operating under the guise of this anonymity? And why did you actually choose doing that?

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Well, uh, there's some facility of working anonymously when you're selling, uh you're you're creating your own artwork. People um have an image or a fantasy of who that artist may be. Uh so I let that fantasy exist, you know, so that people can imagine whatever they want. Am I a man? Am I a woman? Uh am I a person of color? Uh which country I might be from? They can imagine all these things and that it fits with their view of the painting that they're seeing, or the sculpture that they're seeing. Uh, so I I worked uh yeah, anonymously and still do, um with different artist names. Um and it's also a comfort as well uh to to just be able to to create and not have to uh expose uh the other facet to who I am or to answer questions if you want, just to let the art be for what it is. And that's just you know, that's just one way of doing things uh that's uh that I that I'm comfortable with. Uh it has its contradictions and a little bit of cowardice maybe as well. But when it came to the acknowledgement of where we're standing today in that metaphorical precipice I was I've been talking about several times, I found uh that the need to be out there in person, face to face. Well, there's no anonymity, I can't be anonymous anymore. At that point, I need to. That's why I'm here. I'm speaking to you. This is something I would not have been able to do several years ago before starting to speak to strangers. Talking on a podcast, I mean, there's no way I would do something like that. But it's from the practice itself, it's brought me out to allow me to do these things. So I mean that's the that's the transformation that uh yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:49

Well, and I'm really welcome to serve us. So thanks for uh opening up and just being open to people and listening to them and giving them meaning to communicate in my express public meaning. And it's it was about someone who's willing to lend um anywhere to you, you know, good, bad, ugly, whatever situation or thoughts or opinions you have. It's important to have someone to listen to and talk to so that we we still don't feel um like we're unheard of, or like we feel like we're less alarming in it together. That that has that has been such an important learning for me too over the over the course of the last few years on your second guest, right? Talking to strangers and and wonderful people from across the world. I wouldn't have thought of doing this in Playmatron 5 sitting on my uh table and having this recording done with David, with you. So about so much um uh power uh and opportunities and possibilities which just come as a result of you opening up to having these conversations, and that's why it's so important. Now, what personal cost uh has this work had for you, right? Emotionally, I mean you've you've been doing it all through. So, what has it been like emotionally, relationally, and even physically for you? And and what makes it worth for you to continue doing what you're doing? What's your why? What's the more depression?

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Well, the the the yeah, so no, it's good. You know, the cost is definitely the comfort zone of my my echo chamber, of my space. It's become much much bigger, much wider. The the perspectives uh that I have are are much more diverse than they used to be. The if you find yourself in a very comfortable place, this might not be the thing for you because it's gonna challenge. It's gonna challenge who you are, it's gonna challenge your perception of others, but the rewards are many times greater. As um it's all the things that we're talking about. It's the transformational aspect, it's it's the the healing, the connection, doing an action that benefits society at large on a foundational aspect, that you feel a sense of action and belonging. You don't feel as manipulated by maybe a larger system that you have no control over because you are now one of the agents working along with others to create a better, more humane society where opinions are shared, thoughts are shared, and also possibilities. You know, they you meet people. Uh just it's very, I mean, it sounds silly to say, but you you meet a lot more people when you speak to more people. It's uh it's as simple as that. And we're at a time when we're closing, we're closing our ourselves down, although we feel we have a very wide view through through our devices, screens, and entertainment. But you know, it just takes a second of turning off the phone and looking around yourself, like in a bus station, to see how many people are down on their phones, to see that people aren't communicating with one another. Just having that one exchange, or showing an example to others that it can be done. People will be eavesdropping in and they want to know what's going on, and they might have their word to say. And just re-engaging, that I think is our way in the future to a more humane society is taking these active steps. And they are to me political steps.

unknown 35:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

So, you know, we go out and vote for those that have for us that have the option of voting and hopefully exercise it. Many of us say that it's not worth nothing we can do with our vote. Well, in that case, still do something, and something even maybe more powerful is to go and engage with others and be finding commonalities while listening. And just doing that as a common practice is a huge political act that cannot be, can really not be stopped unless uh unless you know you live in an authoritarian regime and there's uh there's actually methods to to shut you down. In free open societies, I I find it almost shameful that we're not exercising the rights that are given to us in order to have a stronger, more resilient democracies. And that can be done every day, every day through actions as simple as a conversation. Um and maybe more powerful than a vote.

Leaving Debates For Gentle Dialogue

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Thank you. Thank you so much, David. It has been uh what a delight to speak to you. I'm just and you know, as you were saying, it it all comes from that one single conversation that you you're willing to have. Because that one changed the tragic truth because you know it broadens your perspective, brings you fresh ideas. Also sometimes challenges your own, as you said, thinking, right? We activate in sort of these eco-eco chambers. This is the word that I'm gonna take from this conversation. Definitely, wait in that without realizing. I mean, sometimes we realize when we're like, okay, too busy and too overworked and overwhelmed to even make a change. But all of this is so important. And so, what this conversation reminded me was that we thought he um by willing arguments behave by actually remembering that the person in front of us is a being of it, even when it's uncomfortable, even when it makes you feel triggered, advertised, or whatever, especially when. So we're doing that asks us to slow down and uh stay brave and have that conversation if you've been wondering about it. It's time.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Thank you so much. It was a very Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

I don't know where the time went, and I was just so deeply in your house and listening to all your wisdom. So thank you so much for sharing that with me today and with our listeners, and uh let us know where you can people find you and welcome, David Mike. I will put up the links of everything that you mentioned in the show notes down below. But where where can people come and find you and work with you?

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Well, they can uh they can reach me uh through the my YouTube channel, which is more of a like a diary of uh of different art experimentations. But frankly, it's uh it's within each one uh of us, right? Our commonality that we share together. Uh of course you can reach out to me, but you have the tools. And uh my invitation is right now to exercise those tools and uh and to make connections where you can. And with me, of course. And now it can be found at Triptych Dialogue, which you'll have a link to on uh on your site. And uh that's that's it's a it's a weird word, I gotta say. Triptych is T-R-I-T, like a trip, and then TIC is Trip. It's a panel that has three sides to it that kind of interact with one another. It's from a um it it came to me as an epiphany years ago while I was at the Victorian Albert Museum in London, and I saw a religious triptych that was missing half of its imagery that was washed away from time. And I wondered what was the missing aspects of these conversations between the different elements of them. And it's the dialogue between these missing images that that I'm uh that I concern myself with because we all have stories that are untold, but they can that will be always untold if we don't express them. So it's in our need to express them into dialogue and share them with others and hear from others what theirs can be, and uh to fill in the missing imagery from that from that triptych from 14th century at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Send me a message, I'll tell you where to find it.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing when you came up with that, and and that's that stood out the most for me, and also the most of the amazing awesome albums that we have. We have actually grabbed them and we sit down and plan and things about them. We actually have these, you know, this music segment when we I'm not looking for them, ladies, you know. We didn't come up with this one. So you did, and I'm going to be linking everything so that people can come and find you. Listen, baby, this has been thank you so much for this time today. I learned so much from you, and I love it when we said about stories because I for myself I can speak to them.