Welcome to Grounded, Not Divided, a podcast about leaders who are getting important things done in the real world. I’m Matt Burgess.

Our society is too divided. Plenty of podcasts are already taking this on, by interviewing talking heads from different sides of our most controversial issues. I’m glad they’re doing this, and I’ll keep listening.

But I’m going to take a different approach on this podcast. I’m going to talk to interesting people who are rolling up their sleeves and getting things done in the real world. My guests will be people who are taking on some of society’s hardest problems—like poverty, disease, innovation, environmental protection, and education. They’ll be people making real progress, in business, policy, non-profits, and other sectors of society.

Our deepest divisions come from the virtual world: social media, online and cable news, and the pundit class. It’s easy to oversimplify, misinform, and demonize people when you’re trying to sell a narrative and get clicks. But when you’re trying to get things done in the real world, reality keeps you honest. In other words, when you’re more grounded, you’re less divided.

So, join me. We’ll learn from real changemakers. They’ll teach us that the world is more complicated than we realized. But they’ll also teach us that progress is possible. If we’re willing to learn from others, work hard, and work together, we there’s nothing we can’t achieve.

Grounded, Not Divided - Trailer

Grounded, Not Divided is a podcast about leaders who are getting important things done in the real world.  It is hosted by Matt Burgess, an economics professor at the University of Wyoming. 

Our guests are leaders in business, government, non-profits and civil society, who are making progress on some of society’s hardest problems, like poverty, disease, innovation, environmental protection, and education.

Society's deepest divisions come from the virtual world: social media, online and cable news, and the pundit class. It’s easy to oversimplify, misinform, and demonize people when we’re trying to sell a narrative and get clicks. But when we’re working to get things done in the real world, reality keeps us honest. In other words, when we're more grounded, we're less divided. Our guests' stories show us how much we can accomplish if we’re willing to learn from each other, work hard, and work together.

Grounded, Not Divided

Economics professor, author of the Guided Civic Revival Substack newsletter, and host of the Getting Things Done podcast.

Matthew Burgess

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