The San Diego World Affairs Council Presents

About the Program:

How do we stay in conversation when we strongly disagree?

At a time when public conversations can quickly become polarized—and when it can feel easier to retreat into spaces where everyone already agrees—Beyond the Echo Chamber: Practicing Dialogue Across Differences invites participants to try something different.

This interactive workshop will explore how we can engage across differences with greater curiosity, respect, and openness, even when conversations are difficult or uncomfortable.

Rather than focusing on what participants should think or asking anyone to reach agreement, the program will focus on how we engage with one another. Through guided conversation and practical exercises, participants will have an opportunity to consider the habits and skills that can help us listen more effectively, navigate disagreement, ask better questions, and remain in meaningful dialogue across differing experiences and perspectives.

Beyond the Echo Chamber is presented as part of the Engage San Diego series, an initiative of the San Diego World Affairs Council (SDWAC) and OneSD, in collaboration with the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego.

Save the date and join us on October 10th, 2026: additional program details will be announced soon! Save your seat today! 

Different perspectives. Meaningful dialogue.

A stronger, more connected San Diego.

The San Diego World Affairs Council does not endorse any specific political ideology or viewpoint. As a nonpartisan organization, we are committed to presenting a wide range of perspectives to promote informed, respectful dialogue on complex global issues. The opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Council, its board, or its partners.

The San Diego World Affairs Council Presents

The Distinguished Speakers Series

About the Program:

What happens when sports puts a country at the center of the global conversation?  

From the FIFA World Cup to the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, global sporting events are about far more than competition. They are powerful stages for storytelling, national identity, cultural exchange, economic opportunity, and diplomacy.

Next in Sports explores what countries and cities can do with that moment. Major sporting events increasingly shape global perceptions, drive policy decisions, attract investment, build community, and create a legacy that extends far beyond the field of play.

Drawing lessons from the 2026 FIFA World Cup and other major global sporting moments, the conversation will ask: What does successful sports diplomacy look like? How can host cities turn global attention into meaningful and sustainable impact? And as the spotlight shifts from World Cup 2026 toward the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, what lessons can Southern California carry forward?

About Krystle Norman:

Krystle Norman is a global communications and policy strategist, former U.S. diplomat, and Founder & Principal of Jackson Norman Agency.  Jackson Norman Agency is an advisory firm specializing in storytelling, partnerships, and global engagement across sports, media, culture, and policy.  With more than 15 years of experience spanning four continents, she has built partnerships and led high-level initiatives, including with the Smithsonian Institution, The Recording Academy, and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).  She advises senior leaders, global brands, and mission-driven organizations on how to drive partnerships, strengthen communities, and accelerate relevance and revenue, including using the power of sport and culture to build connections and influence across borders.

About Noah Abrahams (Moderator):

Noah Abrahams is a former BBC Sport, GB News, and Press Association journalist with a background in broadcast and political reporting. A graduate in Specialist Sports Journalism (BA Hons) from the University of Derby, he brings a strong understanding of media, storytelling, and public discourse. He is also a former football operations specialist at San Diego FC in Major League Soccer, adding practical experience within the professional game. His work sits at the intersection of sport, media, and diplomacy, drawing on both newsroom and industry experience to explore how sport shapes international engagement and cross-cultural dialogue. 

The San Diego World Affairs Council does not endorse any specific political ideology or viewpoint. As a nonpartisan organization, we are committed to presenting a wide range of perspectives to promote informed, respectful dialogue on complex global issues. The opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Council, its board, or its partners.

The San Diego World Affairs Council Presents

The Distinguished Speakers Series

About the Program:

Featuring Joel Nelson, author of Kennedy’s Only Hero: How JFK’s Obsession with Winston Churchill Defined His Presidency

What shapes a president’s understanding of America’s place in the world? And what can we learn from two of the twentieth century’s greatest leaders and foreign policy thinkers?

Long before John F. Kennedy entered the White House, he came under Winston Churchill’s influence. From Churchill, Kennedy learned an approach to foreign policy that privileged military strength and negotiation, and which the Englishman used in the 1930s and 1940s, and which the American used in the 1950s and 1960s. This combination of arms and diplomacy—which Churchill described as “Peace Through Strength”—was a hallmark of both men’s leadership as they sought to deter Soviet aggression. As the world is confronted once more by dictators armed with nuclear weapons and bent upon territorial expansion, the strategy outlined by Kennedy and Churchill remains relevant and vitally important.

In this San Diego World Affairs Council conversation, British historian and author Joel Nelson explores the remarkable relationship at the heart of his new book, Kennedy’s Only Hero, and what it reveals about the intellectual development of America’s thirty-fifth president.

The discussion will move beyond biography to examine the larger geopolitical story: the Anglo-American “special relationship,” Kennedy’s evolution from youthful isolationist to committed internationalist, the importance of alliances and personal diplomacy, and the strategy that both men adopted to avoid World War III.

The conversation will also consider a question which Churchill and Kennedy both struggled to answer, and which remains strikingly relevant today: How can the West peacefully resolve its differences with hostile nuclear powers?

About Joel Nelson 

Joel Nelson is a British writer and historian. He has worked as an advisor to the Secretary of State for International Development, an editor at Foreign Affairs, and a Director of European Policy at an AI think-tank in Washington, D.C. He has a first-class honours degree in History from the University of Oxford, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and he was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. Kennedy’s Only Hero is his first book, and he will be touring the United States and Canada to promote it, with confirmed stops at venues including the Jimmy Carter Library, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Richard Nixon Library, and the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas.

The San Diego World Affairs Council does not endorse any specific political ideology or viewpoint. As a nonpartisan organization, we are committed to presenting a wide range of perspectives to promote informed, respectful dialogue on complex global issues. The opinions expressed by speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Council, its board, or its partners.