Sally Kohn and Erick Erickson Relationship Across Rupture
What happens when you call your Internet trolls. The peril of forgetting our next door neighbors. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to love people to not hate them.\u201d\n\u201cPeople believe things that are mutually contradictory; I think we all do. I know I do.\u201d \u2014 Erick Erickson\nEarlier this year, the University of Montana invited On Being to attempt an outside the box civil conversation between two political pundits on contrasting ends of the U.S. political spectrum. It became a sold-out, public event in the spirit of Montana\u2019s Senator Mike Mansfield, who famously modeled integrity, courage, and humility across the partisan aisle in the tumult of 1960s and 70s. Sally Kohn and Erick Erickson are both controversial, lightning-rod figures, yet neither of them fits neatly into a partisan mold. The reaction of the youngest people in the room is what compelled us to put this on the air. They said they had not witnessed or imagined a political conversation like this possible: one marked at once by bedrock difference \u2014 and good will, humor, and a willingness to bring our questions as well as our arguments, our humanity as well as our positions, into the room, if only for an evening.\nSally Kohn is a progressive columnist and political commentator for CNN. She\u2019s also contributed to Fox News. She hosts the podcast, \u201cState of Resistance.\u201d She\u2019s the author of \u201cThe Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity.\u201d\nErick Erickson is editor of the conservative blog, \u201cThe Resurgent,\u201d host of \u201cThe Erick Erickson Show\u201d on WSB Radio in Atlanta, and contributor to Fox News. He\u2019s also contributed to CNN. He\u2019s the author of \u201cBefore You Wake: Life Lessons from a Father to His Children.\u201d\nFind the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.