I Am Not Your Enemy

Neighbors

This episode I do something I have never done in the entire history of the show. I just interview someone. No story. I interview Michael McRay to shed some light and hope on our current political divide. He’s a Nashville-based author of the new book I Am Not Your Enemy: Stories to Transform a Divided World. He’s a story-practitioner using the power of personal stories to heal harm, make meaning, and create connection. He works most often with the global empathy nonprofit organization Narrative 4 and earne his master’s degree in Belfast, Northern Ireland, studying conflict resolution and reconciliation.

Our conversation starts with the political divide in America, but ends up in a much more intimate place. We’ll learn about the scale of sectarian danger, a scale to determine the escalation of violence that can occur based on sectarianism, a helpful tool called the PIN model for conflict resolution, and here a couple stories of disparate people connecting in deeply human ways.

Scale of Sectarian Danger (from Moving Beyond Sectarianism: Religion, Conflict and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland)
Escalation by words and actions

1. We are different, we behave differently

2. We are right.

3. We are right and you are wrong

4. You are a less adequate version of what we are

5. You are not what you say you are

6. We are in fact what you say you are

7. What you are doing is evil

8. You are so wrong that you forfeit ordinary rights

9. You are less than human

   1. You are evil
   2. You are demonic

PIN diagram

You can learn more about the story exchanges Michael refers to in this episode at: https://narrative4.com/

You can join “The Neighborhood” along with these wonderful, thoughtful, generous people by becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/neighbors

Who’s in “The Neighborhood”: Allison Sebastian, Adrian Cobb, Nathalie Stewart, Ben Lehman, Caroline Martin, Clark Buckner, Cody Spriggs, Dan Burns, Em Vo, Eric Detweiler, Gina, Griffin Bonham, Heather Price, John Kesling, Landon Rives, Marc Kochamba, Patrick Black, Patrick Gillis, Ray Ware, Ryan Arnett, Samuel Adams, Tom and Rachel Kraft, Nikki Black, Hunter and Bonnie Moore, Newton Dominey, Bea Troxel, Craig and Brenda Burns, Laurel Dean, Travis Hall, Clark Hill, Tony Gonzalez, Christopher Mastin and my mom Tonya Lewis (thanks mom!)

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Music from the Blue Dot Sessions, Dan Burns. Use Dan Burns for your podcast/videogame/film project!

Our sonic logo at the beginning of the episode is by Dallas Taylor’s company Defacto Sound. Dallas makes a podcast about sound called Twenty Thousand Hertz listen at www.20k.org

Get to know your neighbors.