The pitch was freedom. Nobody mentioned what we'd have to give up.

This week Keith and Gerren start a three-episode arc on where American hyper-individualism came from, who constructed it, and what it cost us. From Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged to Reagan's government-is-the-problem reframe, to the suburbs, the single-family home, and the structural dismantling of collective institutions every time they started serving people they weren't supposed to.

Part one of three. Hard questions. No easy answers.

Key Topics: The philosophy of radical individualism, the Cold War and collectivism as the enemy, Reagan and the moral reframe of government, the structural isolation of suburban life, welfare and unions dismantled by race, and why you can't individual-choice your way out of a structure built to isolate you.

Find Us: 🌐 https://www.moreincommonent.com 📸 https://www.instagram.com/moreincommonent 🐦 https://twitter.com/MoreInCommonent 📘 https://www.facebook.com/moreincommonpod

Gerren Taylor: 🎵 https://www.tiktok.com/@gerrent 💼 https://linkedin.com/in/gerrenT

Thinking out loud about what gets in the way of connection.

Like what you heard? Leave us a comment in your podcast app. See you next week.

"I'm sorry you felt that way" is not an apology.

This week Keith and Gerren get into the full anatomy of a fake apology versus a real one — what makes one land, what makes the other make things actively worse, and why most of us were taught to do a version that makes us feel less bad and call it the same thing.

They work through the five elements of a real apology, the neuroscience of repair, why you are never obligated to accept an apology or reconcile, and what institutional apology without repair actually looks like — from Germany and South Africa to the United States and slavery.

The word apology shares a root with repair. What is one without the other? Hard questions. No easy answers.

Key Topics: The fake apology anatomy, the five elements of a real apology, neuroscience of repair, receiving vs. accepting an apology, institutional apology and reparations.

Find Us: 🌐 https://www.moreincommonent.com 📸 https://www.instagram.com/moreincommonent 🐦 https://twitter.com/MoreInCommonent 📘 https://www.facebook.com/moreincommonpod

Gerren Taylor: 🎵 https://www.tiktok.com/@gerrent 💼 https://linkedin.com/in/gerrenT

Thinking out loud about what gets in the way of connection.

Like what you heard? Leave us a comment in your podcast app. See you next week.

Are you telling the truth for them — or for you?

This week Keith and Gerren get into the three gates of honesty — is it true, is it kind, is it necessary — and why the gap between them is where most hard conversations go wrong. They revisit Jen Oliver's framework from earlier this season, get into Keith's hiring story, and work through what it actually looks like when radical honesty stops being honest and starts being a weapon.

Gerren's close: check your motives. Keith's close: is it for you or for them? Neither of them settled it. They never do.

Key Topics: The three gates of honesty, the kindness performance trap, truth as a weapon, the necessity formula, and when withholding becomes unkind.

Resources Mentioned: 🎙️ Jen Oliver Episode → https://www.moreincommonent.com

Find Us: 🌐 https://www.moreincommonent.com 📸 https://www.instagram.com/moreincommonent 🐦 https://twitter.com/MoreInCommonent 📘 https://www.facebook.com/moreincommonpod

Gerren Taylor: 🎵 https://www.tiktok.com/@gerrent 💼 https://linkedin.com/in/gerrenT

Thinking out loud about what gets in the way of connection.

Like what you heard? Leave us a comment in your podcast app. See you next week.