It’s election season in the U.S., and the tone of many campaigns feels divisive, blame-and-shame oriented and caustic. But the words we choose matter far beyond politics. In this popular episode, first released in 2025, host Leigh Morgan explores how all-or-nothing phrases, black-and-white thinking, emotional reactivity and leadership choices are interdependent -- and what we can all do to use language that expands possibility, strengthens relationships, and allows us to hold firm convictions without fueling division.

It turns out that our words don’t simply communicate what we think. They can actually 'physiologically' shape how we feel, respond, and whether a conversation promotes connection or, shuts it down. Leigh shares research, a personal story about confronting her own binary thinking, and practical ways to create more room for curiosity, innovation, and agency - the belief that our choices and actions matter even in polarized times.

What the Research Tells Us

• All-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion that reduces complex situations to stark categories: good or bad, success or failure, right or wrong.
• Rigid language can amplify emotional reactivity. Words like always, never, completely, and hopeless can intensify the emotions we are already experiencing.
• Certainty can feel reassuring when we are anxious or unsettled, which helps explain why simplistic narratives and sweeping claims can be so compelling.
• Political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt describe binary rhetoric, scapegoating, and negative stereotypes as tactics used by authoritarian leaders to turn complex problems into simplistic stories about who is to blame.
• Naming emotions as precisely as possible - a practice known as affect labeling - can reduce emotional reactivity. “I feel overwhelmed” creates a different internal response than “I’m freaking out.”

Two Simple Practices

1. Notice and Pause: Listen for words such as always, never, everyone, no one, completely, and hopeless—in your own language and in what you hear from others.

2. Use Fit-for-Purpose Words: Experiment with language that leaves more room for the nuance of most situations: often, sometimes, I wonder if, from my perspective, or here’s what I’m seeing.

The words we choose can become a bridge or a barrier. Especially when trust is low and uncertainty feels overwhelming -- choosing language with greater intention is a small and meaningful way to cultivate better conversations, stronger teams, and healthier communities.

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Watch Leigh's YouTube video about the practices: https://youtu.be/3ImQ7e6ep5s

Detailed episode notes: http://spaceinbetweenpodcast.com/watch-your-language-lessons/

Check out Leigh's leadership insights on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-morgan-speaks

Learn about her advisory services: www.imaginal-leadership.com

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What if some of the courage we need most right now isn't about standing our ground -- but knowing when to negotiate, admit we're wrong, or put the common good ahead of our own side? In a polarized culture that often rewards strident loyalty to our group and political self-protection, those choices can carry a real cost. So, what does courage actually look like—and do we have enough of it?

In this episode of The Space In Between, host Leigh Morgan talks with Marine Corps veteran and New York Times bestselling author Rye Barcott, about what courage looks like inside one of the hardest environments to practice it: the highest echelons of elected office. In his new book, Courage Can Save US, Rye examines the experiences of five elected officials – five Democrats and five Republicans - to understand what enables people to take principled risks when political and personal cost are all too real.

Rye offers a refreshing and tender perspective on what he’s learned about the nature of courage itself, and how to transcend the vexing incentives that elected leaders face – even when they aspire to do the right thing.

Follow Leigh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-morgan-speaks

Detailed Show Notes: http://spaceinbetweenpodcast.com/can-courage-can-save-us/

Rye's website & book: https://couragecansaveus.com/

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Artificial intelligence is advancing at dizzying speed. But the hardest questions about AI may not be technical at all. Who should decide what responsible AI looks like? Can we create meaningful AI regulation without stifling innovation? And at a moment of deep distrust in both government and Big Tech, how do leaders build the coalitions needed to move forward?

In this episode of The Space In Between, Leigh Morgan sits down with Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, Senior Advisor for Emerging Technologies at the Milken Institute, to make sense of the fault lines shaping AI policy, governance, innovation, and leadership. Their conversation moves beyond the familiar choice between “let technology run” and “regulate it before it harms us.” Instead, they explore a more demanding space in between: how thoughtful guardrails, public accountability, human agency, and innovation can coexist—and what leaders can do right now rather than waiting for perfect answers.

In This Episode

Karen and Leigh unpack a central tension of the AI era: we need innovation, but we also need institutions capable of protecting the public interest and earning trust. Rather than treating AI as one enormous problem, Karen argues for breaking the challenge into specific, understandable issues—from data rights and accountability to the local impact of data centers—where people can see the stakes and exercise agency.

Their conversation also challenges the assumption that guardrails automatically suppress innovation. Thoughtful rules can shape incentives, clarify responsibility, and help leaders address risk before a crisis forces the issue.

Practices for Leading in AI Times

· Demand more. Ask whether technology, government, and your vendors are actually serving people, organizations, families, and communities.

· Make it tangible. Choose one concrete AI issue rather than trying to solve “AI” as a whole. Look for a decision, cost, risk, or policy you can actually influence.

· Meet people where they are. Use language and forums that make sense to the people you serve—not just to experts inside your institution.

· Find your agency. Pay attention to local and organizational decisions, including data-center impacts, data use, reporting, and accountability, where your voice can affect what happens next.

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Check out the Space In Between website for more detailed show notes: http://spaceinbetweenpodcast.com/leading-across-ai-fault-lines/

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Imaginal Leadership Strategies — Advisory Work

When division deepens and confidence in our institutions erodes, ordinary people still have far more influence than we may realize. In this episode, Leigh speaks with author and civic-engagement leader Paul Loeb about citizenship—not as a legal status, but as a civic mindset: the choice to care about what happens beyond our individual lives and to participate in shaping our communities, institutions, and democracy. At its heart, engaged citizenship is an expression of agency—the belief that our choices and actions matter, even in difficult and uncertain times. Their conversation offers a hopeful reminder that each of us can help change what happens next.

Drawing on decades of research and the enduring lessons of his landmark books Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take A While, Paul offers practical, accessible ways to put that civic mindset into action. He and Leigh explore how to move forward without waiting for perfect circumstances, find courage through community, resist the paralysis of relentless bad news, and sustain hope when progress feels impossible. Leigh and Paul have a spirited discussion - sharing stories of principled action, times when things didn’t always go right, and sorting through the reality that agency matters even when the way ahead is not clear. A key take away is that history often turns because ordinary people decide to participate even amid risk and uncertainty. These are powerful lessons for citizens and leaders who work hard to build connection and alignment in polarized times.

Four Key Themes

1. Citizenship Is Agency in Action: Citizenship extends beyond voting, political affiliation, or legal status. It is the everyday practice of participating in the life of a community. Each of us can examine the roles we hold, the people we know, and the institutions we influence—and decide how to use that power responsibly.

2. Hope Means Acting Without Guarantees: Hope is not certainty that everything will turn out well. It is the willingness to contribute even when results are delayed, unclear, or invisible. An action that appears unsuccessful may still sustain another person, expand what is possible, or become part of a longer arc of change.

3. Perfection Can Become an Excuse for Inaction: Waiting for perfect knowledge, language, timing, or circumstances can keep us from ever beginning. Meaningful participation starts when we take a useful step with what we know and have today—then remain willing to learn, adjust, and repair mistakes along the way.

4. Courage Grows Through Community: Agency becomes stronger when people act together. Communities provide encouragement, protection, and staying power. One person’s brave choice can make it easier for others to follow, allowing small acts to build into collective influence.

Learn more about Paul and his books here: https://www.paulloeb.org/take-awhile/

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Follow Leigh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leigh-morgan-speaks/

Check out Leigh's advisory work: www.imaginal-leadership.com

In this special bonus episode, I follow up on my conversation with Bree Rose, who shared her experience as the mother of Storm, her nonbinary teenager. I wanted to hear Storm’s perspective on their journey, and our conversation was fun, deep, and reminded me that young people today hold incredible wisdom and insight despite a world too often torn by polarization.

Now 17, Storm speaks candidly about beginning to question their gender identity at age 12, the relief of discovering that they did not have to fit into a prescribed box, and the safety they felt knowing their family’s love would not change. They also share what it means to experiment with how they present themselves and navigate a world that does not always make room for people who defy conventional expectations.

Storm brings both honesty and a roundedness far beyond their years to the everyday realities nonbinary and transgender young people can face -- from public scrutiny and other people’s discomfort to the anxiety of deciding which public restroom feels safest. Their experience makes visible the personal consequences of debates that can otherwise feel abstract or purely political. At the same time, Storm’s flourishing is a powerful testament to what becomes possible when someone can live in alignment with who they know themselves to be.

Together, Storm, Bree, and I explore the difference between making an honest mistake and refusing to learn; how families can offer fierce support without being able to protect their children from every hurt; and why grace does not require us to remain silent in the face of prejudice. We also discuss the value of curiosity and the importance of allowing people to tell us who they are.

Despite the challenges, Storm remains hopeful. They draw inspiration from people who advocate for change in ways large and small—from public protest to quiet acts of kindness, courage, and solidarity. Storm’s message is simple and powerful: as long as people keep trying, change remains possible.

In this episode, we explore:

• What Storm experienced when they first began questioning their gender identity
• Why their family’s love and support made it possible to speak openly
• The possibilities and limitations of identity labels
• What it feels like to move through public spaces as a nonbinary young person
• The difference between not yet understanding and refusing to understand
• How grace, learning, and advocacy can coexist
• Why everyday acts of courage give Storm hope

This episode is an invitation to listen to a young person describe their own life in their own words—and to approach complex questions about gender identity with greater curiosity, humility, and humanity.

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Conversations about transgender youth and gender identity increasingly unfold in a highly polarized climate, where deeply personal decisions get pulled into cultural and political conflict. Behind those debates — and ongoing threats to the rights, safety, and well-being of transgender people — are real families trying to support their children and make consequential decisions without the benefit of certainty. In this episode, Leigh talks with Bree Rose about her family's path after her child, Storm, began questioning their gender identity at age 12.

Ultimately, they explore a question that reaches beyond parenting: how do we lead with love and grace when there's no consensus on the right answer? Bree and Leigh talk about staying grounded in values that don't bend, exercising judgment when there is no roadmap, and lessons she learned dealing with judgement from multiple sides.

Bree’s story centers on a mother’s love and a family determined to support and stand by Storm. It is also a story about navigating parental roles, choices about medical care, and the tension between what a child wants and what parents believe is best. Bree is careful to note that what her family experienced, and the choices they made, belong to them alone and that other loving, well-intended families may face different circumstances and reach different conclusions.

In this conversation, Leigh and Bree explore:

• Loving a child without having all the answers. Bree shares her initial uncertainty when Storm first raised the subject, and how she shifted from trying to "solve" the situation to listening, learning, and accompanying her child and other family members on an unfolding journey.
• Supporting identity while navigating parental responsibility. Bree and her husband gave Storm room to explore gender identity while deciding, as a family, that they needed more time before making choices about certain types of medical care — a choice made thoughtfully, not lightly.
• Living with other people's judgment. Bree describes criticism from people who felt her family wasn't supporting Storm in the right way, and how many families often face the opposite: harsh judgment for supporting a transgender child's identity at all.
• Making room for different choices. Their conversation turns to how polarization can convert complicated, deeply personal decisions into harmful tests of allegiance — and why people who care about human dignity can disagree but also continue to center the flourishing and wellbeing of young people and their chosen expressions.

About Bree Rose

Bree is a Seattle-area leader, advocate, philanthropic impact advisor, and certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator whose professional experience spans finance, leadership development, philanthropy, and community engagement.

Permissions & Next Week's Bonus Episode: Bree, Storm, and their family have given permission for their story to be told. Next week's bonus episode features Storm themself, who shares their insights with similar clarity and warmth.

How to Support the Podcast: The Space In Between podcast is growing! Your help will amplify its impact and message. Please take a moment to leave a review and share the podcast with others on via social media and by sending to family, friends and colleagues. Together, we can turn the tide on polarization and stay fierce about values that we hold dear.

What does it really mean to be authentic—and who gets to decide? In this episode of The Space in Between, host Leigh Morgan talks with author, political strategist, and podcast host Maya Rupert about how race, gender, identity, and power influence who is perceived as “real,” trustworthy, and qualified.

Drawing from her book, The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic, Maya challenges the idea that authenticity is simply a matter of “being yourself.” She and Leigh explore how code-switching and adapting to different environments can reflect awareness and agency—not dishonesty. In today’s divided and distrustful climate, understanding these dynamics can help us recognize the conditions shaping our choices while still acting from a place of clarity, dignity, and power.

Topics Leigh & Maya Explore

• Societal norms and dynamics influence perceptions of authenticity.
• The dynamics behind code-switching.
• How bias shapes our judgments of leaders.
• How grace, humility, and accountability can strengthen public life.

Key Takeaways

• Authenticity is not a fixed identity waiting to be uncovered. It develops through experience, reflection, relationships, and changing circumstances.
• Code-switching can be a strategic response to real social conditions. The important question is whether we are making conscious choices or losing contact with ourselves.
• Feeling misunderstood does not necessarily mean we have failed to be authentic. Sometimes the discomfort or incongruence exists in the observer’s expectations and biases.
• Authenticity can require effort. Working to live according to our values does not make those values less genuine.
• Agency includes knowing when to engage, when to step away, and when to ask an ally to enter a conversation that we do not have the safety or capacity to hold.
• Perceptions of identity, especially those outwardly expressed (race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, etc) must be acknowledged as influencing and shaping perceptions of authenticity.

Why This Matters

In polarized times, people are hungry for leaders who seem “real.” But when authenticity is poorly defined or we aren't aware of its variability, bias can quietly determine who receives trust, forgiveness, and the benefit of the doubt. By asking better questions—What do we mean by authentic? What assumptions are influencing our judgment? What conditions shape how someone shows up?—we can become more discerning citizens, more humane leaders, and more powerful agents in our own lives.

Practices to Try

• Interrogate your first assumptions: What you believed or wanted earlier in life is not automatically your most authentic truth. Give yourself permission to learn, reconsider, and grow.
• Ask the second question: When someone seems inauthentic, pause and ask what is creating that reaction. Is the person being dishonest—or are they behaving differently from what you expected?
• Lead with grace and humility: Remember that you rarely know another person’s full internal journey. Extend grace where human dignity and safety are present, while maintaining clear boundaries where they are not.

About Maya Rupert



Maya Rupert is an author, political strategist, and former presidential campaign leader whose work explores race, gender, power, and democracy. She is the author of The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic and the host of the NAACP Image Award–nominated podcast When We Win, a limited series featuring women of color who successfully challenged political conventions and transformed the way campaigns are run.

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