Ohio State News recently interviewed CEHV Associate Director Aaron Yarmel about the new Listen. Learn. Discuss. platform, CEHV’s workshops and approach to civil discourse, and his academic background and experience as a dialogue facilitator. From the article:

“[CEHV has] this framework for civil discourse called the four Cs. And the four Cs are, Be Curious, Be Charitable, Be Conscientious, Be Constructive. We see them as virtues or character traits; if you learn them, you’ll be able to navigate challenging conversations,” he said.

 

Yarmel said the point of the four Cs is to use the concepts as tools to engage and respond to others even when you disagree strongly on contentious social and political issues. 

 

“We’re thinking about how to be fair when we’re evaluating [others’] views and how to be resilient and not get defensive when we hear critiques of our own views,” he said. “And then when we’re being constructive, what’s happening is we’re working towards common ground, where common ground might just be a shared picture of where we disagree. If we can have people disagree about an important topic and then come away from that with a shared picture of exactly what’s underlying the disagreement, that’s real progress.”