What happens when you stop trying to win an argument?
For David Deighton, the answer began with a simple experiment: talk to strangers about politics.
Not debate them. Not persuade them. Not tell them where they were wrong.
Listen.
As an artist, traveler, and father, David became increasingly concerned about the distance growing between people who disagree. He began creating art installations in places such as national parks that gave strangers a reason to stop, become curious, and talk. His conversations use three carefully constructed questions about American politics, followed by a fourth prompt: one word that brings everything together.
What David discovered surprised him. Even when people held dramatically different political views, there was often an emotion they shared. Anger. Frustration. Hope. Concern. That shared feeling could become a small bridge between them.
In this conversation with Jake Bushman on The Human Adventure, David talks about art, travel, wilderness, listening, political division, curiosity, and the experience of discovering that the person we imagine as an opponent is still a person.
Key Takeaways
* Listening can create a space where people express themselves without turning disagreement into confrontation.
* David's three political questions were developed with the help of linguists after he discovered that his original questions could themselves trigger people.
* His art installations use objects, physical space, curiosity, and questions to explore the invisible boundaries created by our worldviews.
* David looks for emotional commonality rather than agreement about facts or opinions.
* Hiking and wilderness give him time to process the intensity of repeated human encounters.
* Travel does not necessarily require going somewhere distant; David believes curiosity can turn one's own neighborhood into a place of discovery.
* His approach began with political anger but gradually became an exercise in listening, curiosity, and human connection.
* He encourages people to practice difficult conversations gradually, beginning with people they already feel comfortable talking to.
Detailed Exploration
From political anger to curiosity
David's work did not begin with an effortless ability to listen.
When he started his political conversation project six years earlier, he says he was frequently triggered by what people told him. While someone was speaking, he was already thinking about what he would say next and how he would respond to what he considered wrong.
That approach did not lead anywhere.
Over hundreds of conversations, something changed. Instead of concentrating on the facts or opinions he disagreed with, David began listening for something underneath them.
Emotion.
Someone might be angry or frustrated about American politics. David might disagree completely with the person's political conclusions, but recognize the feeling because he shared it.
That became the foundation of his approach.
He isn't asking people to abandon their beliefs or reach agreement. He is trying to establish the possibility that two people can disagree and still recognize something human in one another.
Designing an encounter
David's work is not simply a person standing somewhere asking political questions.
The environment matters.
One example he describes is an installation on the rim of the Grand Canyon. He creates something resembling a small museum display: a stand, a glass case, and an abstract sculpture inside it.
The sculpture itself is not the central point.
David is interested in the glass box.
From inside the box, a person's worldview can appear enormous. Looking outward, the world seems limitless. Yet the physical space containing the person is actually quite small.
He then introduces another glass container, representing another person's worldview.
The question becomes: how do these two people communicate?
He does not provide the answer.
He leaves the question hanging.
That openness is important to David's method. The artwork creates curiosity, and curiosity creates the possibility of engagement.
Three questions and one word
David's political conversations use three questions:
1. How would you describe the political system of the United States of America?
2. Describe your feelings or reactions to the current state of U.S. politics.
3. Politics in the United States...
The third question allows the participant to finish the sentence.
Afterward, David asks for one word that brings everything together.
He says that the resulting word is often unexpectedly positive, even when the participant has spent considerable time describing what is wrong with American politics.
For David, this word can become a bridge.
The bridge doesn't require agreement.
It simply establishes that two people may share an emotional experience even when they have very different ideas about its causes or solutions.
Why politics?
David deliberately chose politics because it is difficult.
People are often told not to talk about politics because it will lead to an argument. His experiment asks whether that assumption is actually necessary.
He believes the questions themselves matter enormously. His first attempts at writing them were more personal and potentially provocative. He eventually asked linguists for help constructing questions that would allow people to express themselves without being immediately pushed into a defensive position.
That process changed the project.
For David, the lesson extends beyond politics. If people can learn to approach one of the most difficult subjects differently, perhaps similar methods can be applied to other areas of division.
Art as a way of living
David's definition of art is unusually broad.
He sees intentional action as potentially artistic. The podcast conversation itself can become part of the artistic process because it is an intentional encounter between people.
His own practice moves between painting, ceramics, poetry, video, installations, travel, public encounters, and documentation.
The individual objects are therefore not necessarily the entire artwork.
The larger project includes the installations, the people he meets, the conversations, the ideas that emerge, and the questions that remain unresolved.
He describes the work as a flow rather than a fixed destination.
Wilderness as a place to process
The conversations can be emotionally demanding.
David sometimes talks with dozens of people during an installation. Afterward, he may spend several days hiking and camping.
The physical distance from the conversations gives him time to process them.
Walking for miles through wilderness changes the rhythm. There is no need to immediately formulate a response. Thoughts can surface and disappear. The landscape becomes part of the process.
David particularly values wilderness areas because they offer an environment with fewer technological and mechanical interruptions.
For him, this is connected to the same principle underlying his conversations: slow down, pay attention, and allow space for something unexpected to happen.
Travel as curiosity
David has traveled to more than 80 countries, but he doesn't believe meaningful travel necessarily requires crossing an ocean.
Someone living next door may have an entirely different story.
A neighborhood can contain different cultures, religions, histories, languages, foods, and experiences. Curiosity can transform the familiar into something unfamiliar again.
Travel, for David, is less about collecting destinations than entering a state of openness.
That also explains why he embraces the unexpected. A delayed bus, an unfamiliar river, an unexpected village, or an unplanned encounter can become part of the adventure.
The important thing is how you respond.
Adventure and the unknown
When Jake asks David what adventure means to him, David gives an answer that moves beyond travel.
Adventure is life itself.
It includes the fact that life eventually ends and that none of us knows exactly what comes afterward.
The response is not to solve that uncertainty but to live within it.
David's version of adventure is therefore closely connected to curiosity. You don't necessarily need to go somewhere extraordinary. You can begin by paying attention to what is already around you.
That curiosity can turn ordinary life into something more expansive.
From the Conversation
“We don't need to win arguments.”
“You just got to listen.”
“The adventure is just a flow of life.”
These lines point toward a recurring idea in David's work: the encounter changes not only how we see the other person, but potentially how we see ourselves.
Related Triptych Dialogue Projects
The Three Questions:
David's recurring political-question experiment uses carefully constructed questions to invite people into political conversation without beginning with confrontation.
National Park Installations:
Public-land installations create physical environments where strangers can encounter David's artwork and become curious enough to engage in conversation.
FAQ
Why does David Deighton talk to strangers about politics?
He chose politics because it is a subject many people avoid precisely because they expect disagreement to become confrontation. His project explores whether people can discuss political subjects differently through carefully designed questions and active listening.
Does David try to change people's political opinions?
No. The method described in this conversation is not based on persuading people to adopt a particular political position. David focuses on listening and finding an emotional point of commonality rather than agreement about facts or opinions.
Why are national parks important to Triptych Dialogue?
David uses public spaces and art installations to create conditions for unexpected encounters. National parks also provide a physical environment that contrasts with the rapid, highly mediated nature of online political interaction.
What are David's three questions?
They ask participants to describe the U.S. political system, describe their feelings or reactions to the current state of U.S. politics, and complete the sentence “Politics in the United States...”
What does David mean by “adventure”?
He describes adventure as the flow of life itself rather than simply travel. For him, curiosity, uncertainty, unexpected encounters, and the way we respond to them are all part of the adventure.
About the Host
Jake Bushman is the host of The Human Adventure, a podcast exploring travel, challenge, creativity, personal growth, and the experiences that shape people's lives.