How Do We Get Through This? (Tim Phillips, Beyond Conflict)

Democracy and rule of law are under threat in a way we haven’t seen in decades or perhaps centuries, and anger, fear, and division run deep. But if we look around the world, we as Americans can learn from countries that faced their own bitter divisions and came out on the other side with their democracies intact and strengthened based on shared values. On How Do We Get Through This?, a podcast mini-series, we speak with leaders who were key to shaping their countries’ futures at times when everything was at stake. In our first episode, we speak with Roelf Meyer and Mohammed Bhabha, two leaders who helped bring an end to Apartheid and establish a multiracial democracy in South Africa. In episode two, we learn from Monica McWilliams and Mike Nesbitt—a Protestant and a Catholic who negotiated an end to decades of war in Northern Ireland. In our third episode, we host activists Roberto Patiño and Avila Kilmurray, who share hard-won insights on bridging divides and fighting for democracy in fractured countries. We hope the lessons they learned when all hope seemed lost, when continued violence seemed inevitable, will help Americans navigate this moment and apply these lessons as we work to keep our country whole and build a more inclusive democracy and nation.