How to Engage in Difficult Conversations

Open, honest conversation is essential to understanding our world, advancing knowledge, and correcting errors. But conversations about controversial subjects—such as religion, immigration, abortion, climate change, gender identity, and gun control—can be difficult, as people’s preconceptions come into play and defense mechanisms flare-up. In this keynote, drawing from decades of research, teaching, and publishing on the subject, Dr. Peter Boghossian will present key principles for engaging constructively in seemingly impossible conversations.

Dr. Peter Boghossian is an American philosopher and pedagogist whose academic focus includes atheism, critical thinking, scientific skepticism, and the Socratic method. He is the author of A Manual for Creating Atheists and (with James Lindsay) How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide. Peter recently resigned from Portland State University in principled opposition to the school’s descent into illiberalism. He is now a founding faculty fellow at the newly formed University of Austin.