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None of our listeners, I’m sure, will disagree with me when I say that we live in divided times—terrifyingly divided times, it sometimes seems, in which Americans are so pulled apart from one another that nothing will ever bring us back together. We’ve just concluded one of the ugliest presidential elections in our country’s history, and in a month or so we’ll begin one of the most controversial presidencies, if not the most. How can we navigate a world like this one?

Our guest today wants to offer us a road map of sorts. John Inazu is a professor of law and political science at Washington University in St. Louis. His important new book is called Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference.