Americans don’t agree on much these days, except that things really haven’t been going all that very well. Of course the consensus ends there, as fingers shaking with anger point in opposite directions to explain how in the world we got to this place so few of us enjoy. Our divisions have gotten the better of us and it’s not made us better human beings along the way — we’re isolated, angry, petulant and far surer of ourselves than we ever ought to be.

Join us for our 15th season of Dinner at the Square to explore "how we get our groove back." The season includes both Arthur Brooks on March 8 and Kurt Gray (more about him below) on May 10.

We say it’s time for a post(ish)-pandemic reset, a spring cleaning, a democratic spa retreat of sorts, a year of finding our way back to our better selves (and maybe even to each other) — a year to get our groove back. This year, we’ll be talking about happiness (personal and societal) and how we might better pursue the truth in our habits and practices.

Get your Season Tickets while they're hot! Take advantage of the best discount pricing, and then you're all set for the season.

MEMBERS: Remember to get your discounted member pricing by using your PROMO CODE. Need the code again? Email Eliza here. Not a member yet? Learn more and join here!

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Are you connected to a business that supports our mission of fostering civility and human compassion throughout our community? Join the ranks of our Civility Champions by sponsoring an event or two! We have several different sponsorship options to fit a range of budgets. Plus the perks! We love to shout from the rooftops about our beloved sponsors (of course, social media, newsletters, webpages, posters, programs, and more tend to be a bit more practical). Perhaps you and your colleagues would like to meet our noteworthy speakers, introduce a speaker, or mingle with other Village Square supporters. Email Christine here for more information! 

At a time when complex technology of all sorts is exploding and voluminous information about the world is at our literal fingertips, one commodity in oddly short supply is intellectual humility. And in these polarized times, we’ve become shockingly convinced that somehow our political allies can decipher reality with utter clarity, and it’s only our ideological foes who are thoroughly, utterly and so very dangerously WRONG. 

Turns out, according to our special guest Dr. Kurt Gray joining us for our May 10 Dinner at the Square, our brains are designed to notice patterns and make generalizations to keep us safe, not so much to find truth with accuracy. And this design quirk leads to us overgeneralize what we think we know in unproductive ways. Kurt brings a strong argument that this describes you too, sorry (you’ll actually be entertained while learning just how deluded you—we all—are).

Join us as we explore what we might achieve together if we remember and restore intellectual humility to our politics, to our planet—and because we’re furiously figuring out “How We Get Our Groove Back”—to our lives.

Dr. Gray is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he directs both the Deepest Beliefs Lab, which studies beliefs around morality and religion, and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. With Harvard’s Dr. Daniel Wegner he is the co-author of the book “The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters.”

Let's say you're a hometown-based organization with a story to tell about how you've been gathering people who don't look or think alike for 15 whole years now. And let's also say you really really want to save this democratic republic of ours by sharing these conversations far and wide. What do you do?  Well, if you're really (really) lucky, you join The Democracy Group.  

We're delighted to announce that Village SquareCast has officially joined The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. We got to meet fellow podcasters recently, and we're very excited to keep such excellent company. To celebrate properly, we hope you'll take a moment to check out the other podcasts in the network and subscribe to at least a few of them. We think they're exactly the conversation of democracy we ought to be having right now (and we can toss aside those conflict entrepreneurs who make money making us hate each other, a goal we heartily endorse #ThrowTheBumsOut).  And if you're not subscribed yet to Village SquareCast, be sure to hop on it before the New York Times shares the news and there's no more room and you're left out completely (we're just kidding, apparently these podcasts have no seating capacity). We look forward to sharing more about our new friends in coming newsletters.