Conversations That Matter: How Americans Can Talk About Tough Issues And Remain United
Event Details
We all know someone who has stopped talking to a friend or family member over politics. Many of us have watched workplaces, houses of worship, and communities fracture over disagreements that once felt manageable. What if conversation itself could be the way back?
In his thought-provoking new book Conversations That Matter, Billy Planer offers a practical and deeply human guide to bridging divides — teaching us how to push back without pushing away, how to stand up instead of walking away, and how to move someone from feeling like “the other” to feeling like “another.” He joins us in conversation with bias, diversity, and civil rights expert Steve Ginsburg for what promises to be a timely and essential evening.
This program is presented in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Fairfield County, TEAM Westport, UNA Southwest Connecticut.
About This Event
Civil discourse isn’t a lost art — but it does take practice. Billy Planer has spent more than 35 years helping people find the courage to have the conversations they’ve been avoiding, and the skills to have them well. This evening explores what it actually looks like to engage across difference: to be comfortable in an uncomfortable conversation, to listen without abandoning your own convictions, and to discover the humanity in someone whose views feel foreign or even threatening. In a moment when so many of us are choosing silence over conflict, this conversation offers something different.
About the Book
In Conversations That Matter, Planer draws on decades of work leading transformative journeys across America and through the American South to offer a roadmap for meaningful dialogue across difference. His approach is both practical and deeply optimistic: real conversation, he argues, is not about winning or losing — it is about learning to see the person on the other side of the divide.
About the Speakers
Billy Planer is the founder and director of Etgar 36, an organization that has taken more than 35,000 people on immersive journeys designed to bring them face to face with opposing perspectives on America’s most pressing issues. It began in 2003 with an innovative five-week summer program that introduced teens to both sides of the political divide, and has grown to include a three-day Civil Rights journey for adult and teen groups, keynote speeches, panel discussions, and media appearances. A native Atlantan, Planer holds a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a master’s in education and counseling from Georgia State University. He is widely recognized as one of the country’s most innovative voices on civil discourse.
Steve Ginsburg is a bias, diversity, and civil rights compliance expert who advises organizations, communities, and individuals on how to prepare for and respond to institutional crises. He serves as the inaugural Director of the University of Pennsylvania Office of Religious and Ethnic Interests and is a trusted advisor to college presidents across the country. His career includes more than a decade at the Anti-Defamation League, where he built relationships with corporate executives, university administrators, law enforcement, elected officials, and philanthropists. He has also served as General Counsel of a state banking regulatory agency, Chief Legal Counsel in the Office of the Governor, and led the ABA Rule of Law office in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 2021, Connecticut’s Governor appointed him to the statewide Hate Crimes Advisory Council.
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