Common Ground

Shira May, PhD, board president of NYSDRA and founder of The Peace Office, joins Mo ahead of NYSDRA's 2026 Annual Conference: October 8 (virtual) and October 9 (in person, Albany). Register here: https://www.nysdra.org/2026-annual-conference

Shira shares how early childhood education led her into mediation, why conflict isn't a moral failing, and what real accountability looks like. She and Mo cover settling vs. transforming disputes, what she would never hand to AI, and why mediation shouldn't belong only to professionals.

About Shira:
Shira May, PhD, founded The Peace Office, which teaches the skills of practicing peace in workplaces, schools, and communities. She is board president of NYSDRA and previously served five years as President and CEO of the Center for Dispute Settlement in Rochester, NY. She holds a PhD in education from the University of Rochester and a BA in cognitive science from UC Berkeley.

What if we could catch disputes before anyone thinks of themselves as being in one?

Mo sits down with Tracey Frisch, Division Vice President of Mediation at the American Arbitration Association-ICDR, to talk about pushing resolution upstream. Tracey shares how she went from high school peer mediator to leading the AAA's mediation business, why the construction industry has quietly figured out dispute resolution, and how mediators in Dayton, Ohio are now responding to low-level 911 calls instead of police.

They also dig into the hard questions on AI in mediation: what "governed AI" actually means, whether an algorithm suggesting a settlement range empowers self-determination or erodes it, and why informed consent may be the most important design principle for any resolution tool.

About the AAA-ICDR Foundation

Tracey's featured cause is the AAA-ICDR Foundation, whose mission is to support the prevention and resolution of conflicts by expanding access to alternative dispute resolution. Its current priority is bringing mediation and conflict resolution into alternative crisis response programs, supporting community-centered approaches to public safety and law enforcement engagement.

Learn more or donate: https://www.aaaicdrfoundation.org
Fundraiser: November 5, New York City

What happens when a self-described non-entrepreneur sets out to build an AI mediator?

Host Morgan "Mo" Tregenza talks with Renee Jackson, founder of Dyspute.ai and creator of the AI mediator Adri, about her path from litigation to legal tech and why she flipped traditional mediation on its head. They cover her AI-versus-human mediator experiment, the guardrails behind responsible legal AI, and the "shadow market" of disputes that never reach resolution. A candid, optimistic look at where technology can expand access to mediation, and what we should be careful not to lose.

Renee and Mo, with John Lande, speak at the 2026 ODR Conference on June 11th.

In this episode, we welcome Morgan Tregenza of Levelheaded as the show's new host. Morgan sits down with Colin Rule to talk about where mediation is headed: what modernizing the practice really looks like, where technology helps (and where it gets in the way), and how the field can resolve more disputes before they ever reach a courtroom.

It's part introduction, part conversation about the future of dispute resolution, and a good listen whether you're a working mediator or just curious about how the field is changing.

In this episode Colin speaks with Jurie Groenewald, a South African commercial attorney and mediator with 25+ years experience, about his new RAMUS tool for pre-mediation case assessment.

RAMUS is a self-service engine that takes your mediation brief and delivers a complete 9-section Assessment Pack in minutes — Readiness Score, ZOPA mapping, Creative Pivot™ strategy, caucus plans, prepared questions, and compliant legal templates. 40–60 pages of structured preparation. The mediator walks in knowing the settlement landscape before anyone sits down. You can learn more about the tool and run it yourself at mediate.ramus.co.za.