The Opinions - A Deceptively Simple Way to Rebuild Trust in Scary Times

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

As the world grows increasingly fractured, taking the time to engage with strangers has become even more important. The artist and graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton has created a simple but powerful way for people to connect in an isolated world.In this episode, she shares how she brings people together by having them draw each other in public spaces. All it takes is 60 seconds, two pieces of paper, two pens and the willingness to look — really look — at someone you’ve never met.Thoughts? Email us at [e-mail]. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. Well, we're standing on the high line. It's a ton of people going by. And we're carrying two folding chairs, a table and sign that says, draw together. It just takes one minute. I'm Wendy McNaughton.

I'm an artist. I'm a graphic journalist. And I'm trained as a social worker. I ask people who don't know each other to sit down and look at each other. A draw-together strangers thing where I'm asking strangers. People have never met each other before.

Sit across the table and draw each other for 60 seconds. I've done it in several different cities in different locations. So in San Francisco, downtown in Golden Gate Park, I went to downtown Los Angeles, also in New York City and Washington Square Park in the High Line. My whole premise of my work is that

drawing is looking. and looking is loving. And I can talk for like half an hour on a stage or whatever about it. But if I give somebody the opportunity for one minute to do it, they actually experience it. And I think that's how people can change. I think people are, if you ask somebody, would you do this? They'd say no.

But once you give somebody the opportunity to like sit down and connect with somebody like this, it's almost like people are craving it. So recently when we set it up kind of awesome, on the side of the walkway of the High Line, so there was plenty of space for people to walk by, but it was close enough that folks got curious about what was going on. Hold on a see.

Hi, can I interest any of you in drawing? And after setting up, I mean, I just go into like circus barker mode. Oh, oh, 60 seconds! That positive attitude might be a little bit contagious. I can get people to come and sit down. Can I grab you for 60 seconds? I love it! Have a seat.

All different sorts of people end up sitting across from each other. Sometimes people are from different places. Angelica? What's your name? Angelica. And where are you from? Hold on. Right on. And what's your name?

Danny, where are you from? Aziz. Goet. Great. Here's one example where... Jeffrey. Hey, my name's Wendy. Hey, my name's Wendy.

What's your name? Juana. Juana. Nice to meet you. She against? There was a young girl. She was probably 11 or 12 years old, and she was drawing with a man who, I'm not sure,

maybe he was in his like 40s or 50s. Ready? Two rules. First rule, you're never allowed to lift your pen up off the paper. You are going to draw one continuous line. One continuous line. Rule number two. You can never, ever look down at the paper you're drawing on.

Now look up at each other. You're just going to do it for 60 seconds. All right, choose where you're going to start on your partner's face. Take a deep breath in. It looks down. Nope. I'll see you do it. and I'll call you out. Breathe out. And begin drawing. Three, two, one start. They drew for 60 seconds,

and then I asked them how that experience was for them. Three, two, one, stop and look down at your masterpieces, please. Ah! Let's see. Oh my gosh, they're so great. Oh, they're fantastic. Can you please lift them up and show each other your gorgeous drawings? And the man said that he was very moved by it because he's a new father. Kind of a new father. I have two-year-old kids at home. I never really had association with younger people before. And, now that I'm a father,

I respect the childhood and going through and kind of like connect with my kids. So those kinds of connections also across ages can be very meaningful. I live in the San Francisco Bay. area where there has been an increasing wealth disparity that has just grown and grown over the past, you know, 15 years or so. And it's really made it so that I think people are afraid to look at one another. I think that when we look at people, we see them as humans and there's a connection and there's a shared responsibility. There's like an interdependence that's implied with that. And it's really powerful and I think a lot of positive things come from it. But I'm really

complicated times when people are feeling scared and when people are feeling helpless. I think to make eye contact with people can feel overwhelming. It can be scary. People might just want to stay with who we know out of a sense of fear. I personally think that's the wrong approach. I think that when we make eye contact with people, we are seeing somebody. We are saying to somebody, I see you, you exist, I exist, and we're existing on this street together. that's an opening for a connection and that connection is what our society is based like all societies are based on it's what communities are right so if we're not looking at each other i understand that it's out of these places that might be self-preservation but i think that our communities are crumbling as a

result of it and as silly as it might seem just sitting down and drawing with somebody for 60 seconds can actually lay an incredibly strong foundation of connection that i think can help rebuild trust and communities. I think there's a place for like art and experience in a more public setting in a very accessible way that gives people the opportunity to engage with art and creativity in a way that benefits our hearts and our souls. We've been here for a couple hours. A bunch of strangers just met each other for the first time, sat down at a table and drew each other for 60 seconds. But what they really did was they slowed down and connected and looked at each other in a way that strangers just generally don't. I carry the table and the two chairs, like, on a

luggage rolling cart, so I kind of look like I'm setting up like a religious tract station, and I look like I'm like a proselytizer. The ironic thing is I kind of am. It's just that my religion is connection and community. And I would love it if other people, with like join in and go out and proselytize along with me and set up these stations all over the world so that people could look at each other. Thanks. Thanks, you do. That was really fun. Have a good trip. Bye.

If you like this show, follow it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Vichaka, Phoebe Lett, Christina Samuelski, and Jillian Weinberger. It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Alison Brusek and Annie Rose Strasser. Engineering, mixing, and original music by Isaac Jones, Sonia Herrero,

Pat McCusker, Carol Saburo, and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Amin Sahota. The fact check team is Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, and Michelle Harris. Audience Strategy by Shannon Busta, Christina Samuelski, and Adrian Rivera. The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.