blankenhorn. i love your organization, i'll check it out. and i love the comment from the woman about the brotherly love. there's simply not of it at all. >> yes, beautiful. >> or civil discourse. but one of the things i would love to see our government do is get out of the business of everybody's religion. i don't even think it should be discussed at any level but in your private, person lives. and i'm all for that. but for -- and so much of what's happening in our government today, i don't know, has it always been like that? i grew up in the '50s and i don't remember people kind of wanting to worm their way into your business about what you believe, your belief system or spirituality. but it's concerning to me when people think that certain government elected officials are now suddenly ordained to be this or that. and how do we -- how do we get over that? i hope in your groups that you have, maybe we could address that? people just go back to worshipping privately. >> okay, caller, got the point

had davidiving we blankenhorn join us. he has a program that he started called better angels.ir mission is to foster civility in public discourse. how to haveout advice for political conversations at family holiday gatherings. >> they've done studies about this. if you just try to out argue the other person, showing them facts and you just keep arguing, the only result of that is that both sides get more dug in. no one changes their mind as a result of that kind of arguing. it's really pointless. if you can make it personal in the sense of, what may be happened in your life to cause you to have this view. what experiences did you have. than arguing information, if you try to find out where the other person is coming from, that is a much better approach to trying to find something that you can really have a good discussion about. are you concerned about the political divide in the u.s.? eastern and00 central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. caller: merry christmas. i think it's happened is our culture as a whole has devolved. i think the way we speak to each oth