StoryCorps collaborates with Talking Together to present October event

Lisa Perhamus, director of the Center for Civil Discourse and professor of interdisciplinary studies, said many people have applied to be matched with a partner. Applications for participants are openthrough mid-November. Perhamus said applicants - 50 by the end of the project - fill out a questionnaire to help with matching.

"Listening and storytelling are the most powerful ways to learn about someone and to not use characterizations or stereotypes," Perhamus said. "In this country our nerves are raw, and storytelling and listening remind me healing is possible."

Kyle Kooyers, director of operations for the Kaufman Interfaith Institute, said attendees at "One Small Step" will learn that we are not so different from each other.

"Talking Together shows that it is possible to have productive conversations on a humane level and learn from each other," Kooyers said. "These conversations will show us we aren't as far apart from each other as we think."

Talking Together campus partners are Padnos/Sarosik Center for Civil Discourse, Kaufman Interfaith Institute, Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies and WGVU Public Media. "One Small Step" is also supported by the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and Seeds of Promise.

View the 2024-2025 Talking Together schedule, which includes a culminating winter semester event on April 2, "Michigan Listens: An Evening of Stories from Across Our State."