The keys to DEEP LISTENING by Emily Kasriel

Issue 170: Why we need to listen to understand, not respond

What if the key to bridging divides is not better reasoning skills or persuasion, but better listening? In her new book, Deep Listening, media executive and researcher Emily Kasriel challenges the common belief that listeners in conversations are merely neutral recipients of information. Instead, she argues that real understanding begins with how we listen actively.

Drawing from her experiences as a BBC journalist and leadership coach, Emily offers an eight-step approach to shape productive conversations with people we disagree with. She has wrestled with her own habits to interrupt in conversations and realized how she used to assume that what she had to say was more important than what the speaker is about to discover or articulate. In this interview, she previews her book and offers actionable tips for cultivating better dialogue in our everyday lives.

We first met Emily when she edited our column for BBC on “Why 'cartooning' political opponents is bad for us”. The column was popu…