The greatest crisis of our time is not political or technological—it is relational. When fear replaces curiosity and belonging matters more than truth, staying human becomes a radical act. 

In this keynote, Paula Stone Williams unpacks four powerful forces driving our current cultural crisis—from tribal behavior and clashing moral frameworks to a centuries-long shift that has quietly pulled us away from empathy and toward abstraction. Drawing on psychology, history, and lived experience, she explores why groups behave in ways individuals never would, why our moral standards diverge so sharply, and why belonging so often outweighs truth.

The talk traces a pivotal cultural turn that began more than 500 years ago and continues to shape our politics, media, faith, and relationships today. Most importantly, Paula offers two clear, human-centered paths forward—rooted in story and physical proximity—that can help us heal divides without denying complexity. This keynote is a call to resist dehumanization not through certainty or force, but through curiosity, connection, and courageous authenticity.

Key Outcomes

• Understand why polarization intensifies in groups—and how false “enemies” are created

• Identify the competing moral frameworks shaping today’s cultural and political divides

• Recognize how historical and cognitive shifts have eroded empathy and human connection

• Learn why story and proximity are essential tools for rebuilding trust across difference

We're living in a polarizing time in which debates over politics and policies related to hot button topics stay at the top of our news coverage. But what if it didn't have to be so polarizing? What if we could change the narrative to provide deeper understanding and help bring us back together? Change has always begun with proximity and narrative. People have the capacity to change their minds about deep-seated beliefs, but only when information comes in a non-threatening way. Broaden horizons, normalize differences, and change the arc of a narrative. In this talk, Paula Stone Williams will use her expertise in narrative communications to unpack the power of storytelling. With proximity to more conservative spaces having worked in religious spaces for decades, Paula understands how to address the both radical topics on both sides of the spectrum with candor, openness and facts—not judgment. She explores her fundamental rules of communication that break down walls and bring unlikely people together. Paula will leave you empowered to take these rules to bridge the growing divide and create lasting change.

Based on Paula Stone Williams’ own journey, this talk focuses on how to maintain resiliency through difficult seasons. In every great myth, the hero gets lost—profoundly lost. What Paula learned in that difficult place is the wisdom that inspires her journey. Through narrative and the accumulated knowledge of her decades as a CEO and Pastoral Counselor, Paula will imaginatively help the audience identify their own path through the brambles and briars, as they explore the insights gained in the land of the lost, and the resiliency that results.

As a follow-up to Paula's most requested keynote address on her experience as a transgender woman, this talk focuses on the obstacles and opportunities to achieving true gender equity. How can men be more attuned to the work environment of women, and make the workplace more equitable? How can women work collaboratively to achieve their goals? Throughout this session, Paula Stone Williams uses humorous stories, personal anecdotes, and empirical information to motivate and empower men and women to bring about change.

Based on her TED talk (over 4.5 million views), Paula Stone Williams speaks about her experience living as a male and as a female. Are men privileged in ways they do not understand? Do women have to work harder to be seen as leaders? Do men empower each other more than women empower each other? With humor and insight, Paula Williams answers these questions and more, using both empirical data and her experience in both genders to explore the difference between equality and equity. Attendees will hear Paula's narrative of her journey, as well as be invited to examine their own lives for subtle and not so subtle ways in which we take in the messages of our culture and live them out in every area of our lives. Men will depart with a greater understanding of their own privilege, and the opportunities to make a difference that come along with that privilege. Women will understand the importance of standing up for themselves and working together to bring about change. Both genders will be asked to examine how we bring our privilege with us in all of our interactions.

In this presentation, transgender activist Paula Stone Williams will provide the audience with a basic understanding of what it means to be transgender. She will talk about what gender dysphoria is, and what it is not, including causes of gender dysphoria, suicidal ideation as it relates to gender dysphoria, and why transphobia has become such a political hot button.