Depolarization Through Courageous Citizenship with Braver Angels CEO Maury Giles

Why It Matters

By equipping citizens with concrete skills to bridge partisan divides, Braver Angels creates a scalable pathway for healthier public discourse, which is essential for stable markets, effective governance, and sustainable business environments.

Key Takeaways

• Braver Angels grew to 128 alliances in 43 states.
• Mission: inspire courageous citizenship through skill‑building and local action.
• Workshops teach “de‑polarize yourself” before engaging opposite viewpoints.
• College Debate & Discourse Alliance rapidly expands across campuses nationwide.
• Model combines one‑on‑one dialogues, common‑ground workshops, and citizen‑led solutions.

Summary

In a Stanford Graduate School of Business dialogue, Braver Angels CEO Maury Giles outlines how his nonprofit tackles America’s growing partisan divide by promoting what he calls “courageous citizenship.” The organization, now operating 128 local alliances across 43 states and engaging roughly 80,000 followers, aims to shift cultural norms from tribal warfare to collaborative problem‑solving.

Giles defines courageous citizenship as the middle ground between cowardly disengagement and reckless extremism—an intentional choice to act, not merely react, while seeking to understand opposing perspectives. He attributes today’s heightened polarization to “conflict entrepreneurs” and ad‑driven social‑media models that amplify tribal identities, and he stresses that true dialogue begins with “de‑polarizing yourself,” recognizing personal fallibility before engaging others.

The nonprofit’s toolkit includes one‑on‑one conversations, structured debates that prioritize accurate disagreement, and multi‑hour common‑ground workshops that surface shared values and actionable solutions. A fast‑growing College Debate & Discourse Alliance partners with ACT and Bridge USA to bring these methods to campuses, while citizen‑led solution projects translate dialogue into local policy initiatives such as homelessness outreach or traffic‑safety fixes.

For business leaders and policymakers, Braver Angels offers a replicable framework to rebuild trust across ideological lines, turning polarized discourse into a source of community‑level innovation. If widely adopted, the model could mitigate the reputational risk of divisive environments and unlock collaborative opportunities that drive both social cohesion and economic resilience.

Original Description

In a time of deepening political division, how do we lead with both conviction and humility? In this episode of Daring Dialogues — part of Stanford GSB's Leadership for Society course — Professor Brian Lowery sits down with Maury Giles, CEO of Braver Angels, the largest nonprofit in the United States dedicated to depolarization.

Maury shares how Braver Angels has grown from a single weekend experiment bringing together Trump and Clinton voters in rural Ohio to a national movement of 80,000 people across all 50 states — and what that journey has taught him about leadership, civic culture, and the courage it takes to truly listen.

Together, Brian and Maury explore:

What "courageous citizenship" means — and why it's the antidote to both cowardice and recklessness in public life

How to facilitate productive disagreement without letting conversations collapse into labeling and attacks

Why people don't choose their opinions so much as experience them — and what that means for how we engage across difference

The skills, mindsets, and ground rules that make difficult conversations actually work

Whether you're a student, a leader, or simply someone trying to navigate a divided world, this conversation offers both a framework and a challenge: stop trying to win, and start trying to understand.

Daring Dialogues is part of the Leadership for Society curriculum at Stanford Graduate School of Business, exploring how leaders can drive meaningful change in complex, contested, and divided times.