In a society facing polarisation and fractures, where social media platforms stoke divisions and algorithms bolster echo chambers, how can we engage more meaningfully with people whose opinions differ from our own? Emily Kasriel wants us to try Deep Listening.

An experienced media executive and journalist, Kasriel has evolved her Deep Listening approach through her work as Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College Policy Institute and as a Practitioner in Residence at the London School of Economics. She has also drawn on her decade long experience as an Executive Coach and workplace mediator.

Deep Listening establishes stronger connections where people feel safe to express themselves and genuinely understood, even if they profoundly disagree. In conversation with Kitty Drake, Emily Kasriel will talk us through her development of the practice, her experience of implementing it amongst the communities who need it most, and the ways we can all incorporate it into our own lives.

Emily Kasriel has been a longstanding journalist, editor and media executive at the BBC. She developed the Deep Listening approach as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College Policy Institute in London. Previously, she’s been a Visiting Fellow at Said Business School at Oxford University, and a Senior Advisor to the Skoll Foundation. Through her work, she has listened to others in high-stakes situations across the world, and trained hundreds of individuals in her Deep Listening approach, including leading Deep Listening workshops in some of the world’s conflict zones, to help encourage people divided by ethnicity, religion, politics or other barriers to develop an understanding of the other side and to be open to true communication.

Kitty Drake is a writer and editor living in London. She works at the Guardian and her work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New Statesman and the Sunday Times.