Poles Apart

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Humans may violently disagree with one another, but there are ways to bring them together.

Poles Apart is based on interviews with leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and the latest academic research. It explains why we are so tribal, the advantages and disadvantages of being so, its often-unknown effects on our politics, businesses and social groups, and what we can do to halt excessive polarisation. It's a brilliantly insightful - and very practical - book on a timeless subject that also happens to be very topical. It acts as the ideal primer for those who have ever had to negotiate or resolve a conflict - in other words, all of us.

Alison (Ali) Goldsworthy, the first of the book's trio of authors, hit on the idea while a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University. In a panel discussion with Trump supporters on the largely Democrat leaning campus a student asked: "when did you last change your mind and why?" The panel took a deep breath as they reached for an answer. But their candid responses unlocked a new willingness to engage with an opposite viewpoint.

This became the question behind the Changed my Mind podcast, with Ali's former colleagues Laura Osborne and Alexandra (Alex) Chesterfield coming onboard. Dubbed by Rory Sutherland, founder of Ogilvy's Behavioural Science Practice, 'the best question he has ever heard', it has been gaining plaudits and listeners from its inception. Guests to date have included Peter Gabriel, Professor Tali Shalot and Jonathan Haidt. Distributed with openDemocracy, a second series is set to appear this summer.

As our identities increasingly align under political labels of convenience, now this is the perfect time for a reflective book that shines light on the world around us and how we can correct course from excessive political polarisation.

© Alex Chesterfield, Ali Goldsworthy, Laura Osborne 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • Poles Apart is an extraordinary achievement: fresh, deeply authoritative, and entertaining on every page. Everyone talks about polarisation, but no one does it like Goldsworthy, Osborne, and Chesterfield. You’ll finish this book wiser, kinder, and more hopeful than when you started it.

    Jamie Susskind, author of Future Politics

  • A fascinating and thought-provoking analysis of the divisions between us, how we bridge them, how we reshape the world – and ourselves too. Essential reading.

    Channel 4 News

  • Asks the best question I have ever heard. And, critically, offers solutions. A must read.

    Rory Sutherland, vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK, and author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense

  • In Poles Apart, the authors give us a comprehensive review of the psychology of groupishness and polarisation. It’s a fascinating read, which will help anyone who wants to step out of the polarisation cycle and become part of the solution, rather than part of the problem that is now damaging the world’s leading democracies.

    Jonathan Haidt, NYU-Stern School of Business, author of The Righteous Mind and The Happiness Hypothesis

  • All my life I have been an impassioned advocate of technology. I believed it could connect the whole world, which it has largely done. What I and many others failed to see, was how those connections would then be used to divide and polarise us – for commercial and political gain. This is endangering our social institutions and democracy on which our dreams were based. It turns our own lives and sometimes, families, to the poles – into warzones. This is a pivotal moment for this book to be written, read and understood.

    Peter Gabriel, musician

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