Town Hall Seattle's video: Ximena Vengoechea with Austin Jenkins: How to Listen Like You Mean It

Town Hall joins with UW Communication Leadership Graduate Program to present Ximena Vengoechea on Town Hall’s stage, in conversation with reporter Austin Jenkins. Vengoechea and Jenkins will discuss the power and potential of listening at this moment and during the post-covid era. In her book, Vengoechea reveals tips and tricks for how to be a more effective listener, including how to cultivate a listening mindset, how to identify unmet needs in conversation, and how our own default listening mode can get in the way of connecting with others. Jenkins and Vengoechea will engage in a conversation about the most common obstacles to effective listening as well as a discussion on how to improve communication, collaboration, conflict management, and interpersonal relationships in a variety of settings. Ximena Vengoechea is a user researcher, writer, and illustrator. An experienced manager, she previously worked at Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Her book Listen Like You Mean It: Reclaiming the Lost Art of True Connection tackles the timeless challenge of effective listening with veracity and offers practical concepts for work and real life. The book has been named an Editor’s Choice from Porchlight Books and a Next Big Ideas Club Spring Nominee. Since 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network, where he covers Northwest politics, public policy, and the Washington State Legislature. Austin is also a television host for TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program, Inside Olympia. Austin's reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, and the Society of Professional Journalists; he was also part of a team that won a 2018 National Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage. In 2019, he received a Master of Communication in Digital Media degree from the UW Communication Leadership program.