What happens when we deliberately put ourselves in places where our assumptions no longer work?

In this episode of Becoming Unshakable, I'm joined by Wesley Warshawer to talk about curiosity, discomfort, listening, and what we can learn when we step outside the bubbles that shape how we see the world.

Wesley spent years traveling across the United States and internationally while continuing his work remotely. He wasn't trying to prove a political or social point. He wanted to test his assumptions by talking to people whose backgrounds, communities, and experiences differed greatly from his own. What he discovered was often humbling.

We talk about moments in South Korea and Togo when perfectly normal questions or behaviors took on a very different meaning in another culture. Those experiences reminded us that ignorance is not the same as malice, and that our assumptions are often far more visible once we leave the environments that created them.

Our conversation also turns to polarization and the way binary questions can exaggerate perceived differences between people. Wesley explains why broader, more open questions often reveal far more common ground than we might expect.

For me, this conversation is also about listening. How deeply are we willing to listen to someone whose lived experience differs from our own? And how willing are we to surround ourselves with people who challenge our thinking rather than constantly reinforce it?

Growth can be uncomfortable. Sometimes we have to risk getting something wrong, looking foolish, or discovering that an assumption we have carried for years is not true.

So where might you need to burst your own bubble to grow?