JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
On a recent whitewater rafting trip, paddlers worked together to stay afloat while bridging personal and political divides. The crews were made up of people from different backgrounds and political ideologies. Kat Bolus from member station WVIA joined them as they navigated the rapids and their differences in the Pennsylvania Poconos.
KAT BOLUS, BYLINE: The paddling lesson begins on dry ground as Team Democracy founder Ken Powley stands on the bench of a picnic table. The paddlers - some with years of whitewater experience, others who have never been on a river - sit around him in shorts and sun shirts. They smooth sunscreen onto their faces and legs as he tells them what he learned at a democracy summit.
KEN POWLEY: The idea surfaced about how, as Americans, despite all of our differences, we really should try to think and talk and act as if we're all in the same boat together.
BOLUS: Powley and his co-founder, Chris Newlon, have a combined 100 years of whitewater guide experience. They've been in many boats with many people of many backgrounds over many years. They took the idea from the conference literally and formed RAFT for America. They now host floats and conversations on rivers around the country.
POWLEY: I'm sure every one of us over the last 10 years has been in a conversation that went south or been afraid to get into a conversation because of what the pushback might be. And we need to get beyond that.
BOLUS: At a state park, five strangers assembled to paddle together face their first challenge - launch the red rafts into the Lehigh River. Guide Jere Downs warns them they might get wet as they push the raft into the cold water.
JERE DOWNS: One, two, three, four. All right, we're good.
BOLUS: Now seated in the boat, everyone grabs a paddle.
DOWNS: If you paddle together, we actually go places.
BOLUS: Chris Newlon steers the conversation between a Pennsylvania state senator, a Philadelphia Eagles fan and a Washington, D.C., resident.
CHRIS NEWLON: Have you ever felt misunderstood in a political discussion, and how?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah, you know...
DAVE ARGALL: Every day (laughter).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I was like...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: That's why you get paid.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: ...Isn't that standard?
BOLUS: The more challenging rapids quiet conversations, but don't stop the paddlers from working together.
DOWNS: All right, so we're just going to ride this roller coaster down.
BOLUS: Midway through, the paddlers guide the boats to the aptly named Lunch Rock and stop for sandwiches, cookies and chips. Scott Shigeoka, a Hawaii native by way of Los Angeles, who describes himself as queer, sits with Republican state Senator Dave Argall, who grew up in Pennsylvania's coal country. Shigeoka admits he's always assumed that Republicans don't care about conservation. Argall told Shigeoka about legislation he tried to get passed to clean up trashed tires.
ARGALL: That was probably one where - yeah - they were probably ranting and raving about, you know, Republicans...
SCOTT SHIGEOKA: Right, right.
ARGALL: ...Destroying the environment. And I'm talking about cleaning up tire piles.
BOLUS: After lunch, the crews paddled through the last of the rapids.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Go. Go.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: All right, here we go.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #8: Spinny boy.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #9: Woo.
BOLUS: Back at the campground, they change out of wet clothes for a cookout and to continue conversations about what they learned on the river. Nish Barot is a DACA recipient who came to the U.S. from India when he was 3 years old. He was only nervous to get on the boat because he can't swim. His crewmates were interested in his story.
NISH BAROT: If they run into another DREAMer in the future, if they see it on the news, now they - you know, they're alert to it because they know somebody that's going through that system right now.
BOLUS: Wayne Codner is the mayor of a small borough near Allentown.
WAYNE CODNER: I feel like it's just enhancing my knowledge of what's going on in the world.
BOLUS: Codner says folks in his boat discussed farming, the state of the economy and generational gaps. For NPR News, I'm Kat Bolus in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR'S "LA FEMME D'ARGENT") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.