I spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to hold space on the air.
Not just to talk—but to listen. Not just to inform—but to connect.
And in a moment like the one we’re living in now, that work feels heavier. More complicated. More necessary.
Recently, I sat down with Sally Kohn on KSVY Sonoma 91.3 FM for a conversation that, on the surface, was about empathy. But what it really became was something deeper—a look at how we communicate across difference, and what responsibility media carries in shaping that exchange.
👉 Listen to the full conversation here:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/24PJ5DyR7reHECj5NmBCmL?si=MLXfdYy3SD6vQS1sUT0pJA
Rethinking When “It Got Bad”
Like a lot of people, I came into the conversation with a timeline in my head.
I pointed to Sally’s time at Fox News as one of the most polarized periods in modern media. It felt like an obvious reference point—the arena where division was most visible, most amplified.
But she gently pushed back.
It wasn’t the peak, she suggested.
It was the precursor.
That shift matters.
Because it reframes polarization not as a sudden rupture, but as something that was already forming. What we often point to as the moment things broke may actually be the moment we started noticing the break.
Not the beginning—just the point of visibility.
When the Conversation Leaves the Studio
About two weeks after our interview, The Press Democrat—the largest newspaper in Sonoma County—shared an article on their Facebook page about Sally’s upcoming appearance.
And the comment section filled up.
Vitriol. Misgendering. Dismissiveness. The kind of language that doesn’t invite conversation—it shuts it down before it even begins.
It was a stark, real-time example of exactly what we had been talking about.
Not abstract polarization.
Not theoretical division.
But the way it actually shows up—in public, in media spaces, in the everyday places where people encounter each other.
And it raised the same question for me again:
What does empathy look like in that environment?
Empathy as Practice, Not Performance
What struck me most during the conversation wasn’t just what Sally said—it was how she said it.
She wasn’t offering empathy as a slogan or a moral posture.
She was modeling it.
As media.
In a landscape that rewards speed, certainty, and outrage, she held something different—curiosity, patience, a willingness to stay in the conversation without collapsing it into winners and losers.
The Question I Couldn’t Let Go
But there was a moment where I had to push back.
Because as much as I was resonating with the call for empathy, there was something underneath it that didn’t sit right with me.
I asked her:
What does it mean to ask for empathy in a world where some people are being actively harmed?
Who is being asked to do that work?
Because too often, what I see—and what I’ve experienced—is that the burden of understanding, of listening, of bridging the divide falls on the people who are already carrying the most.
The people closest to the harm. They’re the ones being asked to extend more, again.
And that’s not a small ask.
Holding the Tension
What I appreciated is that she didn’t dismiss that tension.
Because the truth is, both things can exist at the same time.
Empathy matters.
And so does power.
Listening matters.
And so does accountability.
If empathy becomes a way to avoid naming harm, it stops being useful.
If it becomes a way to ask people to endure more without change, it becomes part of the problem.
Media’s Role in the Divide
We’re living inside media systems that are optimized for division.
Outrage spreads faster than nuance.
Certainty gets rewarded more than curiosity.
People get reduced to positions instead of understood as people.
And what I saw in that comment section wasn’t an anomaly—it was a reflection of that system working exactly as designed.
But conversations like the one I had with Sally are a reminder that there is another way to practice media.
My Seat in It
Working in community radio, I don’t have the luxury of writing people off.
My audience isn’t abstract.
It’s my neighbors.
That’s not a problem.
That’s the work.
What Comes Next
We’re not in a moment where empathy alone fixes anything.
But without the ability to listen—to actually hear each other, even when it’s uncomfortable—we don’t get very far.
That’s what I took from this conversation.
And the work is still in front of us.
Hope you enjoy the chat. Peace.