It’s Election Day, and wow, are emotions running high! If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably noticed that even the closest “birds of a feather” don’t always see eye-to-eye when it comes to politics.
Today on The Debbie Nigro Show, I shared some thoughts on how to keep the peace with friends and family who might be voting differently.
From tips on having respectful conversations to a reminder that it’s our differences that make life interesting, I talked about ways to stay connected—even if you’re not all on the same political page.
“The key isn’t to avoid speaking about your differences, but rather to talk about them in a constructive way.”
As I always say, “nothing new for you can come from only being with those who see things the same way you do.”
That’s actually a famous line from a famous book. MINE! LOL
“How To Talk To Strangers Advice From a Professional Stranger Talker.”
Might be timely to grab a copy and be reminded how to connect better with your fellow humans. We’re all in this country together so it’s a great time for all of us to work on some fresh thinking about how to collaborate better for the better good of us all.
BTW…This is my very first time posting a radio show monologue as a podcast!
If you’re up for authentic, upbeat conversations about life’s everyday moments, I’d love for you to give it a listen.
And if you enjoy it, maybe hit “follow” or sign up for my free newsletter here on DebbieNigro.com which today just happens to be about “Birds of a Feather’ . I like to share insights and information that I feel are relevant to things happening in all of our lives. And I’m always happy to have new birds in my flock regardless of your politics.
By the way,“Birds of a Feather’ is the title of Billie Eilish’s beautiful chart topping song which I highly recommend you listen to today if you could go for a soothing sound to quell your anxiety.
Best!
Debbie
AUDIO TRANSCRIPT of Monologue:
It’s time for the Debbie Nigro Show with Debbie Nigro, who says she’s still a babe, or at least she thinks she still is. That’s right, attitude is everything, and Debbie’s delusionally young. No one sees the glass of Cabernet half full like Debbie. She’s fresh air with a magnetic flair. Some day has arrived, and as far as she’s concerned, it’s time to roll.
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Well, if that doesn’t soothe your soul a little from the stress today, I don’t know what could. Boy, that Billie Eilish, she’s something, isn’t she? She’s super talent. And that song is titled Birds of a Feather, which is sort of my theme. I’m going to take you through the show today. Hi, everybody.
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I’m Debbie Nigro. Yeah, we’ve got Birds of a Feather going on, blocking together in a really big way. Today it’s election day, not any old election, a major election where we decide our next president of the United States. And I know firsthand and from, you know, being on this planet that there’s a lot of anxiety going on with respect to
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differences of opinion with people who are on one side or the other. And so I want to talk about birds of a feather today because they do flock together and that’s why I wanted to open with that song. Thank you Bob. That was great you put that together for me in such quick notice.
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Well I’m just glad I caught your email.
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Yeah, you caught my email. So I write a newsletter once a week and I usually drag it, I don’t drag it out but I’m over, I overload my own brain with what it’s supposed to be and so much information and typically by the time I get it all done and have all my other work done for the week it comes out maybe Thursday, Friday, Saturday, right? So today I decided, you know, let me speed this up.
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Tuesday is a nice day to get people’s attention with a message and I had a message today which was kind of important relative to the people who have friends and family who do not agree with their political views. All right. Birds of a feather absolutely flock together. And today is a very passionate day because emotions are running very high. And you know, there’s been more than a $10 billion. That’s the number. $10 billion has been spent on ads in the 2024 election to get you to flock to one side or the other. Okay.
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Okay? And this has caused a lot of challenges for people who have close relationships with friends and family who aren’t on the same side, if you will. Okay? They’re not in their flock. They’re in their flock in all the other areas of their life except for their political views. And I wanted to address that for a minute because I think people are uncomfortable with trying to figure out how they’re supposed to do this? How do you prevent political differences among people you care about, right? From leading to hostility, leading to estrangement. I can bet you today there are people who are great friends or even family who aren’t going to talk to each other because they don’t believe in the same outcome of what they’re hoping for. So that’s not cool. Because see, the
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key, and I love this article I found that I shared in my newsletter this morning, which by the way just went out, and if you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, I really think you should. It’s right at debbienigro.com, it’s free, and I put a lot of effort into this, I put a lot of thinking into it, I gather up all the intelligence from the week and I try and make it all flow into one theme. My theme today, Birds of a Feather, Flock Together, was inspired by people out there trying to figure out how to exist and coexist on this planet and a lot of people are lonely
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and a lot of people are searching for friendship information and how to make new friends and how to try new things. They’re trying to connect, right? So if you’re already connected with people, you don’t want to disconnect because it’s hard to find good people. You know, your flock is your flock in every other category maybe except politics.
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So the key isn’t to avoid speaking about your differences but rather to talk about them in a constructive way. That was a quote from an article. I think everybody might benefit from reading. I posted it in my newsletter. It’s called, Anxious About the Election.
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Here’s How to Keep Peace with Friends and Family on the Other Side. And it was from the U.S. News and World Report people. And I just thought that Judy Ho, the contributor, did a great job with this, okay? Tools for respectful dialogue even when we disagree. So I wanted to make that point and then I went on to the subject of friends and family and you know the lady I fabulous photo organized around on this week
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as well the photos of those people you trust and love that are killing you because they’re stacked up in your life and you don’t know what to do with them. And then I talked about in the newsletter, thank God it’s what day I said because I touched on the TGI Friday’s business story this week which was about them filing a chapter 11 bankruptcy and what we came to the conclusion of in my very interesting conversation with business expert Parag Amin who joined me yesterday was that maybe it’s time for them to have
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some fresh thinking, okay, because obviously what once worked is no longer working, okay, and we all know the only thing that’s constant in this world is change, right? Change. And so I address that need for fresh thinking and I push that over into your hands as well. We need some fresh thinking. Fresh thinking about how to look at things in this world from different perspectives, not just the one you’ve been typically looking at it the same lens. I put a quote from my own book because I said, wow, I got a brilliant quote from a famous
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book, mine, and the quote said, nothing new for you can come from only being with those who see things the same way you do. That’s a quote from page 31 of the Debbie Nigro, How to Talk to Strangers, advice from a professional stranger talker. Do you want to say something about that, Bob?
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I was going to say, where did you get that quote? Oh, you got it from yourself, I see. But it’s a very good quote.
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I like it.
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I like it. Yeah, thank you. Nothing new for you can come from only being with those who see things the same way you do. And I took the little paragraph from my book and I put it in my newsletter, and here’s what I said.
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You know, over the years, it took me to write this book, but it’s only 66 pages, but I was obviously smart enough to know that I should have said this, which was, plenty of people now shy away from having any conversations at all involving anyone who they know isn’t on their side. People feel most comfortable with their own kind because it’s familiar and they fit in. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to fit in.
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And I encourage you to be more proactive in seeking out people in places that resonate with you, maybe with people who like the same sport, like the same industries, or believe in the same religion you believe in. But, I said, just remember, nothing new for you can come from only being with those who see things the same way you do. So, you know, fresh thinking is what everybody’s hoping for from whatever perspective they’re looking at this election. You know, they’re seeing it through different lenses. But I just want
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to remind everybody, we’re, you know, we’re all in this country together. So I think it’s a great time for all of us to work harder on some fresh thinking about how to collaborate better with each other for the better good of us all. Now can I have a giant round of applause for putting that so perfectly in sync? Oh my goodness. I know.
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I know. I know.
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This is a very political day and that was a very non-political opening of my show.
Transcribed with Cockatoo
