{
  "id": 4865908,
  "title": "How students at Colorado State helped teach their community to stop talking past each other and manage complex problems",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/01/how-students-at-colorado-state-helped-teach-their-community-to-stop",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-01T12:06:58.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Conversation",
    "slug": "the-conversation",
    "url": "https://theconversation.com/how-students-at-colorado-state-helped-teach-their-community-to-stop-talking-past-each-other-and-manage-complex-problems-288679"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In Fort Collins, Colorado, community members convened around tables to deliberate the city's potential to permit marijuana dispensaries, a topic that diverged from traditional two-minute comment periods. Since 2006, over 500 gatherings like this one have been facilitated by Colorado State University students, who serve as impartial facilitators. As a communication studies professor, the author founded the Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation to promote high-quality communication and engagement in democracy. The author discovered that wicked problems, such as poverty, race, and the environment, involve competing underlying values that resist traditional solutions. To address these issues, the author promoted collaborative communication, recognizing that humans are susceptible to biases that hinder productive conversations. In the classroom, the author shifted a debate-focused course to a deliberation-focused one, teaching students to analyze complex issues from multiple perspectives and develop discussion guides. Out of the classroom, the center now hosts numerous events encouraging nuanced engagement, challenging divisive narratives, and fostering trust in institutions.",
  "summary": "Research shows that humans are susceptible to simple stories and biased toward arguments that fit their current perspectives. Here’s how to confront those tendencies.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}