In 2016, in the run up to the presidential election, we were watching the rise of discord, vitriol and nastiness in our public spaces. We started thinking about how we might practice our craft differently — how we might go to the heart of divides, to places of conflict, as journalists always have, but once there, do something different.

We knew we wanted to take the core tools of our craft — careful vetting of information, diligent research, attentive listening, curiosity, a commitment to serving the public good and our democracy — and do something new. So, we mapped out a process, now called dialogue journalism, for going to the heart of social and political fractures and building journalism-supported conversations between regular people about the issues of deep consequence to all us.

Since then Spaceship Media has continued to grow and develop, hosting dialogues in partnership with media organizations across the country about some of most divisive issues in our nation: guns, immigration, policing, electoral politics, race, education. Spaceship’s work is guided by the principle that dialogue across difference is essential to a functioning democracy and that journalism and journalists have a multi-faceted role to play in supporting these kind of engagements.