Flying Pig Academy: Criss Cross Applesauce OR Complexity Changes Everything

Village SquareCast

Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address.

This Flying Pig Episode: If you’re trying to build community in this fractured time (for anything), have we got a hack for you. At a time when binaries rule the day (you’re either with “us” or “them,” with us or against us), “complicating the narrative” between groups has a powerful effect on the conversations and relationships that are even possible. That means civic entrepreneurs need to be on the lookup for unexpected combinations—of traits in people, of relationships between people, of coalitions of groups. We call it being criss-crossey, a term we’re just sure is going to sweep the nation.

Miss the first Flying Pig Academy Episode? Find it here.

The second in the series, after "Location, Location, Location" is an homage to our intellectual hero (and lucky for us, our friend and colleague) Dr. Jonathan Haidt who - literally - wrote the book for Pigs With Big Dreams. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Oh and if you haven't watched the "hive switch-y" Almost Famous Tiny Dancer scene we mention toward the end of the episode, here's your chance.

Find the full list of Flying Pig Academy Episodes online here.

The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.