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The Many and The Few

After the midterms we said farewell to the active and exhilarating ride that has been “The Many: A Conversation Across Divides.” A national conversation for women of all political stripes, the women of The Many gathered to discuss politics, current events, and other topics of interest. The group inspired thoughtful, meaningful dialogue about a wide range of topics, from abortion to deficit spending, immigration to #MeToo. We were delighted that many participants reflected positively on the experience.

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I will miss everyone here and all of our conversations. There is still so much for us to learn from each other and debate about. —Angela Frey

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What I have learned is that most of us regardless of our beliefs truly want the best for our country, our communities, and our families. —Kellie Sullivan

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Thank you and all of The Many for giving us a place to try and come together, understand each other and even disagree with each other in a constructive way. — Kay Stone Garriott

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Nowhere else online or otherwise have I found such a diverse intelligent and articulate group. I will SO miss you ladies. Friend me. I’d love to keep in touch. — Kimberly Osborne Rhodes

We’re supremely grateful for the empathy, get-up-and-go, flexibility and kindness of our two key moderators on the project, Kristine Villanueva, left, and Lyxie Sanford, right, pictured with Project Director Adriana García. We look forward to working with them in other capacities and to seeing how they impact others with their work in other quarters!

Where We’re Featured
Center for Media Engagement, UT Austin

Turn and Face the Strange.

We are happy to share that several of Spaceship Media’s projects — The Many, Talking Politics and Talking Across Borders — were featured in a new report, “Making Strangers Less Strange,“ by Talia Stroud and Caroline Murray from the Center for Media Engagement at University of Texas at Austin. Murray and Stroud looked at 25 projects all with aims to “bring diverse groups together.” Their findings are worth a careful look for everyone interested in journalism’s evolving role in bridging divides.

Tiny Spark podcast

A Change Will Do You Good.

Spaceship Media’s work is featured in a new episode of Tiny Spark. The podcast, hosted by Amy Costello, features two participants from Spaceship’s “Guns: An American Conversation” — NRA member and gun owner Eric Truax and anti-gun-violence advocate Asheenia Johnson. Both say their experience in the month-long, online conversation about guns and gun safety was positive and eye-opening. Of the other group members, Truax says, “They’re not that much different than me. All of them.” Notes Johnson: The experience “definitely has changed my way of approaching conversations, and what I post.” The full episode is here.

Where We've Been
The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation

Just Nod If You Can Hear Me.

Spaceship co-founder Eve Pearlman and project director Adriana Garcìa made an appearance at the national conference of the Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation in Denver at the beginning of this month. Together with Essential Partners’ John Sarrouf and journalist Jim Hight, Eve talked about models for supporting dialogue about guns in America, citing some of the lessons learned from Guns: An American Conversation. In another session, “Engaged Journalism for Community Connection,” Eve collaborated with Peggy Holman (Journalism That Matters), Fiona Morgan (Branchhead Consulting), Andrew Rockway (Jefferson Center), and Lori Shontz (University of Oregon) to explore ways news organizations can engage with their audiences to increase trust in media.

People-Powered Publishing

The People Have the Power.

Three Spaceship team members — Kristine Villanueva, Lyxie Sanford, and Jessica Weaver — were thrilled to attend People-Powered Publishing in Chicago. The conference “provides tools for journalists, civic-engagement specialists and community storytellers to create a more collaborative and equitable news landscape.” Jessica was impressed by the diversity of attendees, including journalists, academics and activists. “It was great to learn from journalists' strategies working toward the same goal of community engagement,” said Lyxie of her experience at PPPC. “It was helpful to hear that we've all faced some of the same struggles... The engagement journalism circle is so close-knit, it was cool to be in the room with people impressed by each other's work on this level.” “It was my first time at the PPPC,” said Kristine. “From utilizing theatre to talking about metrics, it's clear that journalists use different strategies for community engagement. At the conference, no two presentations or projects were alike. I think that's the most exciting thing about this work.”