Everyday Ambassador

The recent U.S. election demonstrated once again a high degree of political polarization and the severe lack of trust both sides have for each other. How can we bridge these differences?

Host Annelise Riles kicks off this season of Everyday Ambassador with climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. Hayhoe has dedicated her career to talking across political divides. The core of her strategy is simple: She listens.

On today’s episode, we look at the Good Friday Agreement and how leaders “willing to take a risk for peace” were able to put an end to decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.

Former U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Richard Haass shares his experiences facilitating the implementation of the agreement in an interview with host Annelise Riles.

Plus, Annelise connects with longtime friend Lois Anderson, the executive director of Oregon Right to Life, about getting along with people with different political perspectives.

According to a 2024 Gallup poll, 36 percent of U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media. And another 33 percent of Americans say they have “not very much” confidence in the media. In this era of mistrust and disinformation, there’s an onus on all of us to understand how social media actually works.

On this episode of Everyday Ambassador, host Annelise Riles is joined by experts working on mis-and disinformation from two different angles. Carlos Espina is a content creator and community activist who creates informative videos for his Spanish-speaking audience. And V.S. Subrahmanian is a professor at Northwestern University and the head of a lab that uses artificial intelligence to model deepfakes and other online threats, to learn how to improve security against foreign actors.

In this season, we’re looking at what we can each do to strengthen our democracy and repair our communities. Rebuilding trust in our institutions is a critical piece of that. And today, we’re going to share some practical how-tos on what you can do to help get us there.

First, we turn to Poland to hear how civil society actors there were able to take back their country’s democracy and rebuild the rule of law. Host Annelise Riles speaks with Adam Bodnar, a human rights lawyer and Poland’s current justice minister.

Later, she talks with John Bisognano, the president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). The NDRC was founded by Eric Holder and Barack Obama to stop gerrymandering and restore faith in the fairness of U.S. elections.

On this episode of Everyday Ambassador, host Annelise Riles sits down with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Beatrice Fihn to hear how taking a playful approach to fostering relationships and building trust helped pass a nuclear weapons treaty. We also hear how the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia as well as students from Northwestern University use fun to solve problems and work through relationship barriers.

Next week’s Everyday Ambassador Challenge:

Tell us a time when giving or receiving a gift helped build or mend a relationship. What was it about that gift that made it so effective?

Share your story by leaving us an audio message via Speakpipe.

Listeners can also reach out to Annelise at [email protected]. And be sure to check out www.everydayambassador.net for more information about this series and forthcoming book.

On this episode of Everyday Ambassador, host Annelise Riles is joined by former National Security Council China Director Ryan Hass to hear how gift-giving is integral to the U.S.-China relationship.

Peter Selfridge, a former White House chief protocol officer, also shares how being intentional and taking the recipient into account can improve relationships.

Finally, listeners and students from Northwestern University share their personal stories on how gifts have impacted their lives.

Next week’s Everyday Ambassador Challenge:

Tell us a time when bringing different perspectives together helped solve a problem. What was the benefit of gathering differing points of view?

Share your story by leaving us an audio message via Speakpipe. Listeners can also reach out to Annelise at [email protected]. And be sure to check out www.everydayambassador.net for more information about this series and forthcoming book.

On this episode of Everyday Ambassador, host Annelise Riles is joined by Felipe Rey, a law professor and the co-founder of iDeemos, a Democratic Innovation lab. Rey explains how he crafts citizen assemblies to encourage greater civic participation in policymaking.

Escape room designer Juliana Moreno also shares how leaving space for others to shine leads to better problem-solving.

Finally, listeners and students from Northwestern University share their personal stories on how they use "gaps" to bridge divides.

Next week’s Everyday Ambassador challenge: Name a time where role-playing or visualization helped you get through an impasse. How did imagining yourself going through that scenario help you think differently?

Share your story by leaving us an audio message via SpeakPipe. Listeners can also reach out to Annelise at [email protected]. And be sure to check out www.everydayambassador.net for more information about this series and forthcoming book.

On this episode of Everyday Ambassador, host Annelise Riles sits down with Christine Chinkin, a former judge at the Tokyo Women’s Tribunal. Chinkin shares how this people’s tribunal was set up as a fictional continuation of a previous war crimes tribunal, in order to bring victims justice.

FP’s Mayesha Alam also joins the podcast to share how Foreign Policy uses a crisis simulation called Peace Games to push participants toward more innovation solutions. Finally, students from Northwestern University share their personal stories on how they use fictions to overcome challenges in their daily lives.

Next week’s Everyday Ambassador challenge: Tell us about a time when you brought in an outsider to help problem-solve or innovate? How did that outsider perspective help bring about a solution? Share your story by leaving us an audio message via SpeakPipe.

Listeners can also reach out to Annelise at [email protected]. And be sure to check out EverydayAmbassador.net for more information about this series and a forthcoming book.