Three mass shootings in two weeks recently have left more than 30 people dead, dozens hurt, and millions of Americans once again wrestling with one of the country’s most divisive sets of issues — gun control and gun rights.

In 1964 Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously had this to say about pornography: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [“hard-core pornography”], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”

Pearce Godwin of the National Conversation Project joins Morning Joe to discuss the National Week of Conversation, which promotes listening and mending the country's frayed social fabric. Godwin along with podcast hosts Beth Silvers and Sarah Holland discuss.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Tempers are flaring again over free speech. But while many people shout and tweet across the political divide, college students are organizing civil campus discussions — with both sides at the table.

In the wake of violent political protests on campuses, some students have stepped away from the fray to seek what’s been lacking: space for reasoned conversation, listening and middle ground. Their hunger for moderation comes with rules that emphasize facts, ban personal attacks and respect ideological opponents.

At Politicon last year, I attended a panel nebulously entitled “Fake News vs. The World.” In a contentious moment, a panelist going by the name “The Roaming Millennial” (né Lauren Chen) badgered reporter Annie Linskey about an article Ms.

On Jan. 20, 1993, I entered the Oval Office for the first time as president. As is the tradition, waiting for me was a note from my predecessor, George Herbert Walker Bush. It read: