University Communication is putting a new twist on how Nebraska Today delivers stories about our state’s flagship university and the students, faculty and staff who flourish here.

We’ve thrown our microphones into the ring with Faculty 101, a podcast series that delivers regular insights — some serious, others silly — into the work and lives of Husker faculty.

Listen: Faculty 101 on civility

In our newest Faculty 101, host Mary Jane Bruce draws on the insights of four Nebraska professors and two of the Cornhusker State’s most esteemed statesmen to discuss the timeliest of issues: civility, or a lack thereof, in American political discourse.

First up: former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey and former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, who recently shared the stage for a Heuermann Lecture on that very issue. The longtime colleagues discuss how absolutism has eroded civility – what Hagel calls the “glue that binds a society” – before explaining how the country can rebound as it has from even more polarized periods of its fraught history.

Another pair of colleagues, Jerry Renaud and Rick Alloway from the College of Journalism and Mass Communications, explore how social media and the news media have modulated the tenor of public rhetoric. Dawn Braithwaite, department chair of communication studies, then talks about the Digital Age temptation to share every thought – along with the reasons not to.

And Aaron Duncan – coach of the reigning seven-time Big Ten speech and debate champions – lays out the Aristotelian approach to achieving the seemingly impossible: changing someone’s mind.

Faculty 101 episodes will be featured here on Nebraska Today, but you can also subscribe via iTunes and Stitcher). Additional podcast delivery systems will be announced as they come online.

As always, we welcome your feedback. If you like the podcast, please subscribe and share it via a favorite social media channel. You can also offer us feedback and story ideas by sending email to nebraskatoday@unl.edu or calling 402-472-8515.