UNBIASED - Peace Talks: Giving Advice on How to Navigate Relationships Amid a Polarizing Political Climate.

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Peace Talks is the latest edition to UNBIASED Politics. Jordan is giving advice to those in need of help navigating relationships and dynamics amid the polarizing political climate. Whether you're having trouble with relationships at work, with your spouse, or with your family, Jordan is here to help. Want Jordan's advice on how to navigate relationships amid the polarizing political climate? ⁠SUBMIT YOUR DILEMMA HERE⁠. SUBSCRIBE TO JORDAN'S FREE NEWSLETTER. Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindness community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. Welcome back to unbiased politics and to this very special episode of Peace Talks. If you're tuning in to peace talks for the first time, this is a new segment where I give advice to anyone struggling to navigate relationships in today's polarizing political climate. I specifically introduced the segment ahead of the holidays because I know how stressful family

gatherings can be. And based on the number of submissions that I've received, I can definitely see this becoming a year-round segment. But we're just going to play it by year and see how it goes through the holidays. I am recording remotely, which is why my audio may sound a little bit, you know, not as quality as it usually does, but I promise you an episode. So that's what has to happen. As I mentioned in the last episode, so when we first did peace talks last week, I have organized all of the submissions into four buckets, family, relationships, social, and work. Family is exactly what it sounds like. Relationships cover. romantic relationships. Social includes friendships and any other community or social situation.

And then work includes anything involving colleagues or workplace dynamics. So each week I'll rotate among those four categories and hopefully get to at least one submission from each. As always, the submissions are anonymous. So I will never use your name. And if you do give me names, I will always be sure to change them. A few disclaimers. These are disclaimers that I'm going to give at the beginning of every episode because I think it's important that I'm transparent about my own guiding principles, since those principles will ultimately guide the advice that I give. Number one, I believe most relationships are worth trying to preserve when they can be preserved. Communication comes first.

Separation comes last, especially when it comes to family and romantic relationships. I'm a big family person myself. I come from a politically mixed family and I love them all equally. I want that same sense of peace and connection for you as well. Number two, I don't tolerate disrespect. You can absolutely try to correct negative behavior, but if someone repeatedly disrespects you, that's a boundary issue, not a political issue. And in those cases, removing yourself is oftentimes the healthiest option because

life is just too short for toxic energy. And number three is that I do not believe political views inherently make someone a good or bad person. I have Republicans, Democrats, and centrists in my life, whom I value and love equally, and I welcome a range of beliefs as long as they're not egregious or dehumanizing. So with those things in mind, let's get into today's submissions. First one. I work in a very small office, six people total. They are constantly bringing up politics and are incredibly left-leaning. They also talk incredibly disparagingly about Republicans. They've started to ask my opinion on things.

I never know what to say. It's so uncomfortable. I usually just don't engage, but when they ask me directly, I don't want to lie. That's just not who I am. I am center right, but they are constantly blaming things and saying horrible and judgmental things about anyone who disagrees with them. Okay, so my advice for you is going to sound a little bit promotional, but I promise it's not. So if I were you, this is what I would do.

Let's say they ask your opinion on transgender. women competing in women's sports. Just throwing out a totally random example here. Whatever the topic is, I think you could say something like, oh, you know, it's funny because I just listened to a podcast episode on this and I learned so much. Let's just say it's an episode of unbiased politics. Then you can tell them everything you learned from that episode, not in a preachy way, just in a, you know, here's what I didn't know before kind of way and how it helped you see both sides of the issue and think more clearly and a bit more deeply about where you stand. Then I think you can suggest they listen to that episode so you can all actually have a

substantive conversation about it, almost like a book club concept, but for political topics. Something that gives everyone common ground before the discussion even starts. And this is why I think this could work. I get so many messages from people saying that the podcast has single-handedly helped them in having calm, productive conversations with family members across the aisle because it gives everyone the same set of facts and the same starting point. And look, it doesn't, it does not have to be my podcast, okay? Maybe you read an article on straight arrow news or you heard another nonpartisan creator like Mo News or

ride the news or Andrew Kellerman, whoever it is, break down a specific topic. You can suggest those too. The point is just getting everyone on the same page factually so the conversation isn't driven by assumptions or stereotypes. That would be my advice. Next one. We are a family divided politically, but we have been really great about finding other things to talk about. The Democrats and the family are old school and don't believe in the new woke direction of the party. A 19-year-old family member recently has declared they are transitioning from a male to a female and also announced they are dropping out of college mid-semester. Please help us navigate this. This family member has a new name and expects their older grandparents to call them this

name. The Democrats are not okay with this. And the Republicans seem more tolerant, but don't want to pander to the situation. Thank you. So this is an interesting dilemma. And my advice is to look at this as a family dilemma and not a political dilemma, right? So I think looking at at this through a human lens could really help because this is about a person that you presumably love and care about, not necessarily what party you or they or the grandparents or the cousins or the uncles or the aunts or whoever belongs to. Families tend to get into trouble when they filter identity questions through political talking points instead of just the reality of the relationship. Now, transgenderism is something that has become a political

issue, of course, but at the end of the day, this was a human situation long before it was a political hot topic. And the reality is whether you or your family members agree with the choices, this is an adult making decisions for themselves. They are choosing to transition, they are choosing to drop out of college. And if your family cares about this person and respects this person, they also have to respect that these are their decisions to make. Now, when it comes to things like using a new name, especially when it comes to older relatives like the grandparents, nuance can be a little bit helpful here. So I actually know of someone in a very similar situation. They've transitioned. They go by a new name. And their grandparents still call

them by their original name. And the person is okay with it because they understand that their parents just or their grandparents just are not ready for that change. So I think the respect and understanding has to flow both ways. Your family member can ask to be called by their new name, but if some family members are not on board or they're struggling with it, there has to be a level of mutual understanding. The transitioning family member should recognize that this is new and confusing for some people. And the family needs to recognize that this person is just trying to express their true self, right? Now, it's not going to be perfect. It never is because this especially is definitely a difficult situation, but I think a little respect goes a really

long way here. Okay, next one. My boyfriend and I have been together almost a decade. We're in our mid-30s, happily living in San Francisco. I genuinely love his family and consider them my own. But every time we see them, two to three times a year, the same exhausting pattern repeats. The moment anything about our values or lifestyle comes up, they tend to start a pile on. This typically takes the form of them trash-talking San Francisco as a quote-unquote liberal hellscape, insisting there are needles and crime and shit everywhere, which, as someone born and raised in San Francisco, isn't my experience. And they act baffled that we choose to live there. They also interrogate us about why we aren't married or having kids. I'm most hurt by the

women in the family, his aunts, sisters, etc., who are the ones constantly telling me how sorry they feel for me, even though not marrying or having children is an intentional and mutual decision we made together. What's confusing is we never outwardly criticize their choices or beliefs. We don't even bring these topics up. Sure, we oppose a lot of their beliefs as well, but frankly, I find these topics pretty easy to avoid. Yet I'm always the one leaving, feeling judged or like I had to defend our happiness and my choices that literally don't affect them at all. My partner says to ignore it, since we know we love our life, but it's wearing me down and making me dread the inevitable every time we're set to see them. Do you have advice on how to shut down or redirect

these comments without getting emotional or, if needed, how to set firmer boundaries. I want to keep the good parts of the relationship, but I'm struggling to protect my peace. Okay, so I obviously don't have the full context here. I don't know if you or your husband have, you know, set anything to his family members about the way that they make you feel, but I'm assuming you haven't. So I think there are two ways you can go about this. Because this is your husband's family, you could ask him to do the boundary setting or at least be the one to open up that conversation the next time you're all together and it comes up. But it also sounds like your husband doesn't want to make a big deal of the situation. So he might not be willing to do that. And in that case, you can be the one

to set the boundaries. And the reason I say that is because you said that you consider his family your own. So I'm assuming you're very comfortable with them. I have the same relationship with my in laws. So I'm approaching this as if I'm in your shoes. The next time that it comes up, I would just tell them exactly how you feel. Okay. So let's see, let's, let's just say that they bring up the shittiness of San Francisco again. I would first start by telling them that in your experience, having been born and raised there, it is not as bad as the conservative outlets make it out to be. And that sure, all cities have their flaws, they do, but that there's so much that you love about the city. And you can tell them about some of your favorite

things and why you love those things. Your favorite restaurants, your favorite outdoor activities, your favorite scenic spots, the places you loved as a kid. And obviously, you know, keeping in mind as you're going through this, some of your favorite things might not seem like great attributes in their eyes. But you could even offer to show them around maybe the next time they come to visit you and sort of explain to them that you want to show them what San Francisco's really like and you want them to see, you know, you want to share with them all of your favorite things so they can kind of see another side of San Francisco that they're not currently seeing. They might not take you up on the offer. There's always a chance to continue to say things

about San Francisco, but all you can really do is tell them that you don't like when they say stuff like this because this is a place that you feel really fondly about and you clearly have an emotional attachment to. Say it in your own words, obviously, whatever feels natural for you. as for the marriage and kids situation, this seems like an easy one to me, but I don't know how they're going to receive it. So if I were you, I would just straight up say to them, guys, look, this is something that we intentionally decided on together. This is what we want. And maybe even ask them why they have such an issue with it, try to figure out why it bothers them so much because I think if they have to explain to you why it bothers them, it'll either

help them realize that it's really not a big deal and it's not their place to care or maybe if they explain something in a certain way, it'll help you understand their perspective, whatever that might be. So at the end of the day, I think this just comes down to speaking your mind and telling them how you feel when they say the things that they say. And you can even tell them, like, look, guys, I love you so much and I love getting to spend this time together. It means so much to me. But I have to be honest with you when you say things like this, it makes me dread our time together because I walk away feeling very judged and I don't want to keep feeling that way. But I think that's the best thing that you can do here is be a little bit

vulnerable while also trying to stand your ground. Okay, let's take a break here. When we come back, I will take three more submissions. When the weather cools down, Golden Nugget Online Casino turns up the heat. This winter, make any moment golden and play thousands of games like our new slot, Wolf It Up, and all the fan-favorit-puff games. Whether you're curled up on the couch or taking five between snow shovels, play winner's hottest collection of slots.

From brand-new games to the classics you know and love. You can also pull up your favorite table games like blackjack, roulette, and craps, or go for even more excitement with our library of live dealer games. Download the Golden Nugget Online Casino app, and you've got everything you need to layer on the fun this winter. In partnership with Golden Nugget Online Casino. Gambling problem call ConX Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600. 19 and over.

Physically President in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. See golden nuggetcassino.com for details. Please play responsibly. Welcome back. Next submission. I work for a New York State agency. Most of my coworkers are openly anti-Trump while I personally have moderate political views.

I don't think politics have a place in decision making about procurement of supplies and contracts. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a policy, if not an actual law, stating that personal politics should not influence state purchasing. One of my superiors decided they no longer want to spend money with a particular printer because the owner of this company has used their business as a pro-Trump platform. His opinions were made very public in multiple news articles in 2024, and he has used his company newsletter and social media to make political statements. Since it's a privately owned company, he can do that. But I was told that we could no longer use this vendor, despite it, quote-unquote checking the boxes, so to speak, of being a New York business and consistently

turning out high-quality product. I now spend extra time at the taxpayer's expense, searching for comparable vendors offering promotional printing of things like stickers and magnets, often lower quality versions of what the older vendor offers. Should I push back on this? Does it put the whole agency at risk of acting on political bias? Should I just do what I'm told and let it go? I would definitely push back on this, but in a very strategic and non-political way. And the good news is they legally cannot fire you for simply just raising, you know, like a good faith concern about procurement compliance or the misuse of taxpayer dollars. That would actually fall under New York's whistleblower protections, but I'll talk more about that in a second. So if you want to play it safe, you don't even need to mention politics at all, you can really just focus on two things. Number one, the taxpayer dollars being wasted because of their decision. And two, the fact that you are not working as efficiently as you could be. And I would do this by scheduling a meeting with your supervisor and just frame it exactly the way that you explained it to me. So maybe start with

something like, you know, I wanted to schedule this meeting because I would like some clarity on our discontinued relationship with ex-vender and to make sure that we are staying aligned with procurement policy and then ask them, you know, do we have objective criteria for discontinuing this vendor? If they can give you an objective procurement based reason, great. This is a non-issue and it ends there. But if they double down and they say that this decision was based purely on the vendor's political views, that's when you can open up the conversation. And you can say something like, listen, I understand where you're coming from, but I think it's important to point out that this decision is costing taxpayers more money because I'm having to spend extra hours

finding comparable vendors. And because procurement guidelines require us to act in the best interests of the state and the taxpayers, you know, I just want to make sure that we're following that. And then I suggest backing it up with data. Data always helps. So you can show them how many hours you've spent researching other vendors, the list of vendors that you've found, why the new products are lower quality than what you were getting before, and just kind of showing them the hard proof. Because I think going about it in this way, frames you as someone who's trying to protect both the agency and the taxpayers and not fight against the agency, right? Now, this is the legal piece of it. I would definitely look into New York labor law

Section 740, it protects employees from retaliation when they report certain actions, you know, actions that violate laws, rules, regulations, actions that misuse taxpayer funds, things of that nature. And my guess is that you would likely fall squarely within that, but definitely look into it. You also have to go about it the right way. There's certain, there's certain steps that you have to take to actually fall into this, or I guess, get protection under this law but look into it it's new york labor law section 740 and look at the end of the day they could very well ignore you because that happens but i i really do think that you will feel better knowing that you said something and the last thing i just want to make a note of is i just want to say

that you should be really proud of yourself putting politics completely aside i don't care where you stand on this. Like if if the agency was, you know, boycotting a vendor that aligned with Democrats or Republicans, like that doesn't matter. I think you are doing what's best for the taxpayer. And that means a lot because taxpayers count on people like you to make sure that their money is being well spent. People like you who can stand up to the government and say, hey, we should be spending taxpayer dollars in the most effective way possible. You guys are the ones who make the most impact and you guys matter a lot. And I know the people listening to this episode who are also taxpayers feel the same way. So I just want you to know that I'm proud of you

and I hope that you are proud of yourself for even having this mentality in the first place, whether or not you ultimately say something, whether or not you push back, you should be proud of yourself for even thinking the way that you're thinking. Okay, next one. Hi, Jordan. First of all, I just want to say, I love your podcast. Thank you so much. Politically, I would consider myself very middle of the road, so I love that you keep everything factual so I can be informed. My girlfriend is extremely left. She is a mid-20s girl who sees many things as black and white, where I see pretty much everything is having a gray area. She often sends me very polarized Instagram videos of ICE or about the education department

or health care, and I think she wishes I got just as upset about it as she does, but the truth is I just don't. Taking ICE, for example, while I don't necessarily agree with all of their tactics, I do agree with having stricter borders, whereas she believes in open borders. She often gets upset when I don't get as upset as she does, and I'm just not sure how to handle it. If I try to present some of the facts, mainly from your podcast, she just shuts it down and says that doesn't make her feel better, and she just gets so affected by everything. I feel bad, but I'm not sure how to react. Oftentimes, I get quiet if we're in person and a topic comes up because I know nothing I say will make her feel better, but she doesn't like that. And when

I try to present facts or tell her how I see a gray area, she takes that as me in validating her feelings. It's a tough situation when anything political comes up, any advice would be helpful. Okay, so the issue here is that she is looking at things with feelings. You are looking at things with facts, and those two approaches are completely at odds with one another right off the bat. So here's what I want to kind of make clear. your girlfriend is she's not actually upset about the facts she's upset about the feelings behind the facts people who see the world in black and white often aren't necessarily looking for debate they're looking for emotional validation right they want you to match their intensity because to them

intensity means that you care so i think what she's really looking for from you is emotion and you kind of said that in your post, you said that she takes you presenting facts as in validating her feelings. So she wants her feelings to be validated. When you present gray area reasoning in a moment where she is emotionally triggered, basically what she hears is, you know, calm down, you're overreacting. It's not that big of a deal. Here's why it's not that big of a deal, you need to think about it like this instead. What she really needs in that moment is validation from you, emotional validation. And I know you said you don't feel the same emotions as she does and that's totally fine. You don't have to feel the same emotions as her

to identify and validate her feelings. So something as simple as I can see why that video upset you or I can see why this makes you feel blank. Something like that will immediately diffuse a lot of the tension between you guys because she'll feel, and I keep using this word, but she'll feel validated. So then once you tell her, you can see why she's upset. I think it's important to explain to her that you care too. You just see it differently than she does. So say something like, listen, I don't always react the same way that you do, but it doesn't mean that I don't care. I just process things differently than you do. That way, you're not saying she's wrong. You're not saying you're right. But you're also reminding her that

just because you don't get worked up like she does doesn't mean that you're totally heartless. She wants to know that you have a heart and you have feelings. Now here's the other piece of this. Your girlfriend wants you to feel what she feels and you want her to see the gray area, to see the nuance. And both are understandable, but neither is realistic. So I would say something like, look, I don't expect us to feel the same way about everything, but what I do want is for us to understand each other's perspectives because I know we both really care about each other and we care about how each other feels in any given situation and see if something like that opens her up to healthy conversation.

But the big takeaway here is that you don't have to mirror her emotions. You don't have to match her emotions. You don't have to agree with her opinions. You don't even have to pretend to be emotional, right? But what you do need to do in order to make her feel comfortable enough to engage with you is acknowledge the feelings that are driving her reactions before sharing your own perspective. Validate her feelings, validate her emotions before you share your perspective. Because once she feels emotionally seen, she should be much, much more.

more open to what you have to say. And honestly, the way I see this, this isn't really a political problem. It's a communication problem. But the good news is that we can always improve our communication. We might be, you know, pretty stuck in our ways about politics. Those change too. But we're, we may be stuck in our ways. Communication skills can always develop and those can always change for the better. So that's the good news. Okay. Last. Last one. Hi, Jordan. I love your show so much, and I always try my best to watch all of your episodes. Thank you for focusing on keeping your news unbiased. I'm currently in high school, sophomore to be exact, and I'm having problems with my best friend. She and I have been best

friends since second grade, and I really want to have a great relationship with her. However, after we entered high school, she became really political. It wasn't that bad last year, but now I don't feel comfortable being around her. She is really left, and honestly, I think she's racist. She says things that I think she actually believes in, such as, quote, I fucking hate white people and, quote, Japanese people deserve to die, et cetera. She also mocks people for being Republican or MAGA. Every time she talks politics, I feel super uncomfortable, but I'm also not someone who likes to speak up, especially during lunch, because a lot of my friends have views that are left, mainly hating Trump, and they nearly always bring up politics once a week.

a lot of these conversations are started because of her. Recently, I've stopped talking to her due to other problems I have with her, but since she sits with me during lunch, I don't want to listen to politics and insults against what I believe in. I don't want to lose a friend, but at the same time, she is really toxic even without the politics. I'm not a person who would confront people about their views, so what should I do? To me, this one is pretty simple. So when you said you don't want to lose a friend, but that she's toxic even without the politics, the answer was very clear to me. This is not a friend. You have to remove toxic people from your life when you can. They're energy suckers. And I firmly believe that life is too short to entertain

people like that. This is not really about politics either. Like, yeah, you guys might disagree on politics. You might have opposing views on things. But this is actually so much more than that. And one of my guiding principles that I mentioned in the beginning of this episode is that political of you do not inherently make someone a good or bad person, right? What makes someone good or bad is how they treat people and how they show up in the world. So your issue with your friend is not about politics to me. It's about the kind of person that she is. And it's on you to figure out if she deserves a place in your life. And you don't necessarily have to confront her. You said yourself, you've already started kind of distancing yourself. You can just continue to kind of distance

distance yourself from her until she's pretty much fully removed. Now, the lunch table situation is tough and I can definitely appreciate wanting to keep the peace at a high school lunch table because you don't want to be, you know, you don't want to be cast out and left to sit at your own table. That would suck. So I would say just deal with this girl and the other people at the table who have different views and check out of the conversation when they talk about politics. Go on your phone, whatever you've got to do. You can definitely speak up if you feel inclined to do so, but personally, I wouldn't have the energy to debate with a lunch table full of kids who have different views than I do that are most likely just going to gang up on

the way I see things. Now, if you have other friends outside of this one lunch table and you can just go start sitting with them, that's the easiest solution. But if you don't, and this is your only friend group, I would just opt to check out of the conversation when politics get brought up. Now, I can't imagine politics are being brought up every day. Then again, high school might be a different world now. It's been a minute since I was there. But this is my advice for you. Remove this quote unquote friend because she's not a friend and just survive lunch hour because high school is only temporary and it's really not worth blowing up your whole social life in my opinion. That is all for this week's peace talks. If you are in need of advice, you can always submit

your dilemma by clicking the link in the episode show notes or by going to unbiasednetwork.com slash peace talks. Have a great weekend and I will talk to you again next week.