Phil Neisser is an agnostic, a leftist, and a college professor, while Jacob Z. Hess is a Mormon, a community psychologist, and a devoted conservative. Yet in 2009 they embarked on a two-year conversation about the issues that divide them. The result is You’re not as Crazy as I Thought, an entertaining dialogue about power, government, media, religion, morality, gender roles, sexual orientation, race, and more. Drawing on the latest debates in social and political theory, Hess and Neisser engage each other with expertise and passion, and disagree right to the end. Yet they also laugh together, learn from each other, and grasp each other’s basic decency. The net effect is a book that’s a good read and a shining counter-example to the angry and polarizing discourse that plays such a prominent role in national politics.