More than 200 civic-minded Minnesotans gathered for the first Minnesota Symposium on Civic Renewal, hosted by CEHD with funding from the Spencer Foundation. Panels and discussions at the event focused on topics such as depolarization, equity in education, and immigration.

“Lots of people have good communication skills but struggle to use them in political conversations,” said family social science professor Bill Doherty, who gave a lunchtime address. Doherty cofounded the organization Better Angels, a bipartisan effort to bridge the United States’ red–blue political divide.

“We can all aspire to the habits of political friendship,” said keynote speaker Danielle Allen, a leading political theorist at Harvard. “In a democracy, people lose all the time, but the same people should not be losing again and again. We need to learn to be good losers and also to recognize that loss has weight—good winners are needed, too.”

Learn more about Bill Doherty’s work.