#  The Key to Unlocking the Ills of Polarization? Recover Listening 

 





September 22, 2026

 

 

     ![Sonali Chakravarti and Adriana Alfaro Altamirano](/sites/g/files/omnuum9911/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-09/photo%20for%20polity%20issue.jpg?h=49942507&itok=NLNDZpVS) 

 



 

What does the “art of listening” amount to in different settings of our public life: social and traditional media, court trials, the classroom, citizens’ assemblies, the internet, the street? How is listening shaped by its different ends, including understanding, empathy, judgment, and/or policy recommendations? Listening in the Public Sphere: Challenges and Possibilities, a symposium convened in 2025 by then Fellows-in-Residence Adriana Alfaro Altamirano and Sonali Chakravarti, asked panelists to respond to these timely questions. Their answers are now available as essays in the latest issue of [*Polity*](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/pol/current)*,* including “Listening to Protesters” by current Fellow-in-Residence [Candice Delmas](https://www.ethics.harvard.edu/people/candice-delmas), who participated in the symposium.



 

 

 

 [ Access Polity Here arrow\_circle\_right ](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/pol/current)