Aug. 12, 2026

How to Disagree Without Dehumanising | Sharon Booth, Solutions Not Sides

Show Notes

"Education shouldn't be about telling young people what to think. It should be telling them how they can think." — Sharon Booth

How do you hold an honest conversation about one of the world's most divisive conflicts, in a school classroom, without it descending into a shouting match? This episode looks at peace education: the skills, the psychology and the facilitation that let people disagree deeply while still recognising each other's humanity.

Our guest is Sharon Booth, founder and executive director of Solutions Not Sides (SNS), an educational charity that brings young Palestinian and Israeli peacebuilders into UK schools to share their stories and equip students to think for themselves. Sharon moderated the acclaimed "No Hope But Peace" dialogue at the Festival of Humanism in Bournemouth.

In this conversation we cover:

The SNS "PEACE" model and the three E's (exploration, empathy, empowerment), and why dialogue alone can do harm if it doesn't lead to change
How social media and the "age of outrage" made people less willing to participate, and what Haidt's elephant and rider teaches us about why
Creating "safe and brave" spaces, defusing in-group / out-group thinking, and the role Sharon believes humanists should play in peacebuilding

Links:

Solutions Not Sides: https://www.solutionsnotsides.co.uk
No Hope But Peace (our earlier episode with Yaniv Aknin and Jasr Kawkby): https://humanismnow.buzzsprout.com
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: https://righteousmind.com

Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: Sharon Booth and Solutions Not Sides

02:02 Founding SNS and what peace education means

04:15 The three E's: exploration, empathy, empowerment

06:09 A more divided society: social media, COVID and outrage

08:53 The PEACE model, step by step

15:24 What young people teach us, and Haidt's elephant and rider

19:20 Creating safe and brave spaces

23:15 The Bournemouth dialogue and facilitating hard questions

28:31 Two stories from the classroom

34:53 Religion, nationalism and internal transformation

39:13 What role should humanists play in peacebuilding?

44:25 How to book or support SNS

45:29 Closing question: leaving evangelical Christianity Support Humanism Now & Join Our Community!

Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe.

Music: Blossom by Light Prism

Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

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