Building Common Ground in Polarized Times, with Eileen Flanagan

A First Monday Lecture with Eileen Flanagan on her book, Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth Is Saving Us from Our Illusion of Separation.

Inspired by Indigenous communities that were building groundbreaking coalitions with settlers to resist fossil fuel expansion, Eileen Flanagan set off to learn what could make such collaborations stronger and more common. Through several years of research, travel, and climate activism, she learned many valuable lessons that feel more relevant than ever in these polarized times. She also confronted “the illusion of separation”—the fallacy that we are separate from each other and the Earth that sustains us—and the powerful ways this illusion is manipulated by politicians and corporations who benefit when the rest of us are divided across lines of race, class, religion, and generation.  

In her new book, Common Ground: How the Crisis of the Earth Is Saving Us from Our Illusion of Separation, Eileen argues that more than technology or even elections, acting in solidarity with all life is humanity’s best hope for survival. 

In this Monday night lecture, she will share how what she learned on this journey can help us better face today’s political crises.