Do you think America is more divided than ever? Do you feel we’re more different than we are alike? What would happen if you took a free week-long trip to a community vastly different from your own? And then brought folks from that far off town to your neighborhood? 

These are the questions we’re exploring on the new episode of Hope Is My Middle Name with the fabulous David McCullough III, co-founder and CEO of the American Exchange Project. 

Through week-long summer youth exchanges, AEP invites high school seniors to experience life in communities far different from their own. These experiences foster connection, upend stereotypes, and restore a sense of ownership and pride of place as youth cross the threshold into independence. 

It all started with a road trip David took in college, where he realized that Americans were less polarized than we might think, and that adventuring together could be an antidote to division. Fast forward just a few years after the launch of American Exchange Project and they’ve already sent over 1,000 students to 75 towns in 36 states. 

David envisions the American Exchange Project as a civic coming of age ritual, something that will eventually become as intrinsic to the high school experience as the senior prom. And in Jonathan’s Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, he references AEP as an antidote to anxiety. 

Join Kate Tucker as she sits down with David McCullough III for a powerful conversation on bringing people together across divides, establishing a civic coming of age ritual, and trading anxiety for adventure.

Find the video version of this podcast, along with episode transcript, links and more at HopeIsMyMiddleName.com 

Listen next to Tim & Beth Reese: Building Small Town Resilience in West Virginia on Hope Is My Middle Name season 2, episode 3. 

Hosted and executive produced by Kate Tucker, Hope Is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media in collaboration with Reasonable Volume.

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Thanks for listening!