America Listens: ‘Reverent listening’ goes on the road

One of Boise State's signature events continues to grow its national profile, most recently reaching Washington, D.C.

The Institute for Advancing American Values launched Idaho Listens in 2022 with a simple idea: Speakers from diverse backgrounds share personal stories about their values, their most heartfelt beliefs, before audiences who agree to complete silence - no reactions beyond what's come to be known as "reverent listening."

After many successful local events, including Boise State Listens for student speakers, leaders saw an opportunity to expand. That first happened in 2025 at Michigan's Grand Valley State University. Speakers included a longtime auto worker from Detroit, a potato farmer, a city manager and others.

The evening proved that the Boise State idea could resonate beyond Idaho.

In September 2026, the Boise State Idaho Listens team traveled to The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Under the moniker America Listens, the event welcomed speakers from across the country, including a community activist who owns an Irish pub, a former Boston public school teacher, and an onion farmer from Idaho.

Authenticity, not alienation

Rushing Kimball, a Methodist pastor from Key West, Florida, was among the speakers. "I felt like I was in my early 20s in undergrad again," Kimball said about the America Listens event, "weaving together the things I studied (political science and international studies) and enjoy talking about - theology, faith, being an openly gay pastor."

During his talk, Kimball spoke about his profound belief in bridge-building. It's a talent that serves him well in his work, as many of his congregants are older and hold traditional beliefs. Kimball, who came from a conservative home, spoke about his evolving worldview during his college years. He learned from an economics professor who offered extra credit to students willing to talk about Ronald Reagan for an hour as well as an international studies professor who had been a national security advisor under Bill Clinton.

"I try to speak to people in a way that allows them to feel heard and to speak about topics in a way they can connect with," Kimball said. "So often we may be talking about the same things, but using different languages. You can talk about rising sea levels, but a listener might be more receptive to talking about that in terms of protecting local lands, resources, and water. I have learned how to gain congregants' trust, even though I may be more progressive now. I think this is what it means to mature, discerning how to be authentic and communicate what you stand for without alienating others."

A unique platform

Danyle Smith-Grimes, a speaker from Cache, Oklahoma, spent 30 years in law enforcement, joining the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation in 2022. Last year, she became the bureau's victims services coordinator. Spending an evening with America Listens "was more than I could have hoped for," she said.

Smith-Grimes spoke about service to others, opening her speech with a story about being a young detective delivering a death notice to a mother whose son had suffered from homelessness, mental health and addiction. "He was a person some wouldn't think about, but he was somebody's son," Smith-Grimes said. She realized a calling to care for those on society's margins with empathy and compassion.

"When you're in public service, you're not doing it for yourself. I truly believe the people I have worked with in law enforcement, our hearts are in the right place. You go through police academy and come to understand the mission to 'protect and serve.' I wanted to tell the service part of the story. I was so grateful that America Listens gave me that platform."

She found the intentional silence and the lack of debate profound. "I can't say I understood where every one of the speakers were coming from, maybe our points of view were not the same. But listening challenged me to think about their perspective," she said, adding that she hoped other speakers would hear her story with the same openness.

Regardless of creed, demographic or life experience, "everyone who spoke was so genuine," Smith-Grimes said, "people who really care about life. I didn't hear a single person who was jaded. There is so much negativity in the world and even with those trials and tribulations, listening that night still brought hope."

More growth to come

For Isaac Castellano, associate director of the Institute for Advancing American Values, seeing how the program has grown beyond Boise State means a lot.

"This is one of several ways in which we can create spaces for conversations among folks who may not talk otherwise about the core values in their lives. And this is a good thing," he said. "There are many ways to go about doing that, but this is one of them, and we think we serve as a model of how these conversations can be structured."

In a perfect world with endless funds, the Boise State team would bring speaking and listening programs to any community that wanted them, Castellano said. For now, the institute has written a free guide (available on its website) for groups and communities that want to organize their own programs.

"And we would love to hear back from other communities about their events and how we can all continue to create these spaces for hard conversations about how our values manifest into our daily choices and what we do as citizens."

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