Areas of Agreement

Conversations around diversity often focus on race, gender, politics, socioeconomic status, geography,  even education level. What about generational diversity? We are an age-diverse society, with al…

Polarization is typically thought of as being bad. We’re so polarized, the narrative goes, that we can’t find common ground. But what exactly is polarization? Is it always bad? Is there such a thing …

People from across the political spectrum, young and old, urban and rural often find common ground on the importance of supporting small business owners. This episode follows a group put together by …

Urban-Rural Action, with support from Heterodox Academy, has done a series of workshops with college students on how to have dialogues across difference. The need for this training is clear. Students…

One year after Jan. 6, 2021, Urban-Rural Action and partner organization Lead for America took part in the first National Day of Dialogue. In this episode, representatives from both organizations dis…

In this episode, an interview with an author who is part of a cottage industry of books about the political and cultural forces shaping rural America. I asked him why he decided to write about Nebras…

Community colleges -- especially in rural areas -- often get little attention. But they are immensely important to their regional economies. In this episode, the Uniting for Action America economy te…

Hundreds of urban and rural counties in the U.S. don't have access to credible and comprehensive information that helps residents make decisions about quality of life issues. These places are commonl…

Education funding disparities affect K-12 schools in both urban and rural communities. One report found that Pennsylvania schools are the nation's most inequitable. This fourth episode focuses on a g…

Dialogue alone won't solve complex societal problems. But complex societal problems are hard to address without constructive conversations across difference. This third episode examines proven approa…

Food might be the ideal topic for people living in cities and rural areas to unite around. Lack of access to food affects all communities. This second episode examines efforts to reduce food waste an…

Experts describe the urban-rural divide as one of the biggest fault lines in the United States. This first episode explores some fundamental questions: What causes the division? Why is it getting mor…