More than at any time in our nation’s history, news coverage of politics and public events is dominated by national media, but many of the solutions to Americans toxic partisan divides are to be found at the local level.

In this episode we hear from Steve Saltwick, the inaugural Senior Fellow of Braver Angels, and founding conservative co-chair of the Braver Angels Central Texas Alliance.

Steve is one of the leading lights of Citizen-Led Solutions, a new Braver Angels nationwide initiative that equips communities across the country to find common ground through building trust and solving contentious issues. Citizens of many different backgrounds and opinions are directly involved.

“It’s incredible when someone feels they’ve been heard,” Steve tells us. “A whole lot of people are talking at people. There’s not enough people talking with people about solving our problems.”

Citizen-Led Solutions helps build civic muscle through action instead of outrage. “We’re not battling over one side vanquishing the other. It’s setting a norm of working together to solve problems our nation is facing,” he says.

Steve is a neuroscientist who studies the human brain especially as it relates to artificial intelligence. He brings those skills to his work as a volunteer for Braver Angels.

In this episode, we discuss two examples of Citizen-Led Solutions— in Newfield, New York, and Nashville, Tennessee. We also examine specific techniques used by Citizen-Led Solutions.

“There’s a personal angle to this, a community angle, and a national angle,” says Steve.

Learn more about Braver Angels here.

Listen to our "How Do We Fix It?" podcasts about Braver Angels here.

Braver Angels is America’s biggest cross-partisan, volunteer-led movement to bridge toxic political divides.

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