This session marks the launch of Connectors: The Essential Toolkit, a brand new series offered exclusively as part of our brand new Connectors Program. These expert-led talks are designed to give you practical tools to bring compassion deeper into your own life and the lives of those around you.
Together, we’ll explore questions such as:
- What allows people who see the world differently to stay connected?
- How do we cultivate a sense of belonging without demanding conformity?
- What internal capacities help us navigate tension and conflict constructively?
- How can ordinary people actively help heal social fragmentation?
What to expect: The event will feature a one-hour moderated conversation followed by a 30-minute live Q&A, giving you the opportunity to engage directly with Joan.
Whether you’re deeply involved in community-building or simply looking for ways to navigate daily differences with greater curiosity and compassion, we hope you’ll join us.
Joan Blades is a co-founder of LivingRoomConversations.org, an open-source effort to rebuild respectful civil discourse across ideological, cultural, and party lines while embracing core-shared values. She is also a co-founder of MomsRising.org and MoveOn.org, and co-author of The Custom-Fit Workplace (2011 Nautilus Book Award winner) and The Motherhood Manifesto (2007 Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize winner). Previously, she was a software entrepreneur and co-founder of Berkeley Systems, known for the Flying Toaster and the game “You Don’t Know Jack.” A mediator and attorney by training, she is a nature lover, artist, and advocate for rebuilding respectful civil discourse.