The late Charlie Kirk ominously warned that bad things happen when Americans stop talking to each other. In the wake of his assassination on Sept. 10, many on the right are searching for ways to communicate with fellow countrymen who have succumbed to the woke mind virus.

The journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon, former opinion editor at Newsweek and Forward, has launched an ambitious project to do just that. A former woke leftist who has distanced herself from that ideology, Ungar-Sargon has teamed up with NewsNation to create a forum for debate between the right and left. 

I had a chance to interview Ms. Ungar-Sargon about her political conversion. I asked her to isolate the red-pill moment that caused her to defect from the left.

“It happened a little at a time,” she said, “and then all at once.”

Ungar-Sargon described discovering a study that compared how white liberals and white conservatives spoke to African Americans. White liberals modified their language to use smaller words and dumbed down their speech to match their perceived lower intellect of the African Americans. “It was disgusting,” she said. Conservatives, by contrast, spoke to the African Americans as peers.  

Repudiating the left cost Ungar-Sargon many friendships. “I had people whose careers I had helped start denounce me on Twitter just to get a few thousand clicks,” she said. Some of those same people have since gone through their own conversions, she said, as the left became increasingly extreme over the last two years. I asked whether any of her former friends or colleagues apologized for denouncing her. Not one, she told me.

Ungar-Sargon frequently wrote to expose anti-Semitism. Her colleagues at the Forward applauded when she called out anti-Semitism on the right but tried to silence her when she found examples on the left. “It was humiliating that—in America—I had to bend the knee in order to keep my job,” she said. 

Over the course of three years, she said she noticed a shift in attitude between the two sides when it came to free speech. At first, liberals tolerated the publication of opposing views, while conservatives were more likely to demand cancellation of a writer who dared contradict their core beliefs. By 2020, that flipped, and the liberals began demanding cancellation of anyone who did not submit to their worldview. In contrast, conservatives became the ones willing to expose themselves to opposing ideas.

Ungar-Sargon’s show will feature high-profile liberals and conservatives seeking common ground while respectfully clashing over ideas. “You can’t convince people from a position of anger,” she said. I asked her whether she worried about her safety and whether any topics might be off limits. Before answering, she reflected on her time facing protesters when she spoke on college campuses.

“I don’t find them physically intimidating, but spiritually intimidating,” she said. “The protestors were like zombies who would stare right through you.” She added that the left is more afraid of the power of our ideas. “But I won’t be afraid. I’m not going to avoid any topic. This is my job.”

The show, titled “Batya!”, will premiere this Saturday on NewsNation at 4pm and 11pm EST.