In a Soviet-era bunker in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, a Ukrainian soldier reads books by the late historian Tony Judt and wonders: Is it possible to make the world better amidst evil? Not long after, Yale historian Marci Shore, a former peacenik, finds herself pleading to the German government to send lethal weapons to Ukraine.

What's happening here? How does one historian's words support a courageous defense of democracy that, in turn, inspires another historian to step outside of her comfort zone and into a debate about war?

In this week's episode of How My View Grew, the second-to-last of season one, Marci Shore joins me to explore these questions. The story she shares is about choosing to take moral responsibility rather than ignoring evil or rationalizing it away, even if this means risking friendship, status, or your own sense of identity. Her story is also about tapping the lessons of history to see future scenarios you otherwise might miss or consider impossible. And it's about postmodernism—both the new capacities it offers and, when stretched to an extreme, the disasters it produces.

The episode draws from Shore's book, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution, as well as Judt's books, Thinking the Twentieth Century, written with Timothy Snyder, and Past Imperfect.

**Key takeaways**

• 6:00 Judt's harsh critique of French intellectuals' silence about the show trials and other Soviet terror
• 17:00 The alternative to silence and rationalization: taking moral responsibility
• 20:00 There is a difference between good and evil, and between truth and lies
• 25:00 A Ukrainian soldier reading Judt's books in a bunker
• 30:00 Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump, and the evasion of responsibility
• 33:30 Why liberals struggle to grasp nihilism and mass murder
• 40:00 World War I was, before it occurred, unimaginable
• 46:00 Historians can't predict the future, but they describe what can happen
• 50:00 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• "Reading Tony Judt in Wartime Ukraine," Marci Shore's essay in The New Yorker.
• Thinking the Twentieth Century by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder
• Past Imperfect: French Intellectuals 1944-1956 by Tony Judt
• The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution

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This short episode is about asking clarifying questions, which involve far more than building rapport and trust. Clarifying questions provide powerful ways to understand what matters to others—clearly, accurately, and without illusions. Listen in as I walk through the three steps in the clarifying question (only two of which happen while you're speaking!) and when you can use this powerful conversation habit.

Do most Palestinians want their own state in the West Bank and Gaza, one that co-exists with the state of Israel? Is the conflict between Israel and Palestinians primarily about territory and the solution therefore simply to trade territory for peace?

For many years, as an advisor to Israel's top leaders and member of its parliament, Einat Wilf thought so.

Then she started to listen deeply to what Palestinians were saying, and what she heard stunned her. What Palestinians wanted was a land to themselves so they could return to the homes their families once occupied in Israel proper. What they didn't want was a Jewish state.

This discovery, coupled with extensive research into the century-long history, left Einat with a dramatically different view of the conflict. Palestinians' dream of "return" and the world's support for this dream constituted as big an obstacle to peace as Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Engaging with this possibility may be painful, but it opens new possibilities for long-term peace in the region. If Israel and the United states take Einat's story seriously, they will approach the conflict dramatically differently than they have been doing for decades.

**Key takeaways**

• 4:00 Why Einat believed that the conflict was simply about territory
• 9:39 The purpose and flaws of constructive ambiguity
• 16:00 The shock and meaning of the Second Intifada
• 19:00 Listening deeply to Palestinians and taking seriously what they say they want
• 22:30 The settlements are Israel's most wasteful project
• 28:30 The Jews want a state. The Arabs want the Jews to not have a state
• 31:00 What the Arabs of Gaza did and didn't do when they finally controlled the territory
• 37:30 Why Israel's Labor Party declined
• 40:30 When Arabs say two states, do they mean two Palestinian states?
• 44:00 A clarifying question to a Palestinian student reveals a great deal
• 45:00 The one question Israeli negotiators should ask before entering the room
• 50:00 No refugees anywhere else in the world have had a "right of return"
• 54:00 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• Einat's web site
• The War of Return, Einat's book with Adi Schwartz
• Einat's detailed recommendations about where to draw boundaries and which settlements to allow to wither
• Amiel's essay, "Seven lessons seven months after October 7"

**Subscribe to the podcast**

To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

**Share the love**

Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this week's episode, I describe how to have difficult conversations about charged topics. It's a game called My Assessment, Your Assessment. I walk you through the eight rules of the game, how to know when the game is over, and what makes this valuable in discussing big global challenges or everyday topics.

In this episode of How My View Grew, Palestinian Noor Awad describes an encounter with a Zionist Israeli settler that caused him to broaden his view of the conflict. This is a story of growing up within a particular narrative and learning to take seriously a very different narrative without given up one's own. What would be possible if more Palestinians—and Israelis—developed this capacity?

**Key takeaways**

• 3:30 Noor becomes aware of the conflict during the Second Intifada
• 9:30 The Palestinian identity Noor was born with
• 13:30 Noor's early-life view of Israelis and Zionism
• 18:00 Noor discovers Israel's New Historians, who questioned the conventional Israeli narrative of 1948
• 20:45 Noor meets Hanan Schlesinger, a passionate Zionist settler, and has a life-changing experience
• 31:00 "I'm right, they're wrong" is not the only way to see things
• 34:30 Noor's capacity to hold two narratives is rare
• 38:00 The devastating impact of October 7 and the war on Roots' efforts to build mutual understanding
• 42:30 Amiel's reflections

**Resources**

• Roots, the organization Noor works with
• Amiel's essay, "Seven lessons seven months after October 7"
• Amiel's page of essays on Medium

**Subscribe to the podcast**

To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

**Share the love**

Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

This short episode is about giving better advice. Just as medicine containers have warning labels, I propose that all advice about being a better citizen, leader, parent, or partner come with three disclaimers:

1. Not for everyone
2. May have side effects
3. Dilute before using

After all, different folks deserve different strokes.

In this episode of How My View Grew, educator Carlos Hoyt describes his early life experience transcending racial categories and how he discovered that the entire concept of "race" was false and unhelpful. What if the racial categories that pervade our conversations, public policy, and social science data are scientifically meaningless? What can we learn from people who have deracialized themselves and others? How might these insights improve lives and undermine racism at its roots?

**Key Takeaways**

• 8:00 Growing up in Boston—"Black and proud," changing school districts, mixing it up at summer camp
• 18:00 Discovering research on other "race transcenders"
• 22:00 The five steps in racializing people
• 27:00 The pseudoscience of race
• 34:00 Why "racial equality" is an oxymoron
• 40:00 Making the U.S. Census more accurate
• 44:00 How to adjust the way you refer to people
• 50:00 Amiel's reflections, including the analogy of the Elvis Lives Fan Club

**Resources**

• Carlos's web site
• Carlos's forthcoming book, Diversity Without Divisiveness

**Subscribe to the podcast**

To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

**Share the love**

Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this short episode, I share a personal story about a time I was knocked off center by the verbal attacks of a human "bull."

When someone attacks you, what can you do to regain center and respond skillfully? Here are five tips.

**Subscribe to the podcast**

To hear the origin stories of more big ideas, subscribe to How My View Grew on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

**Share the love**

Leave me a rating or review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.