A social experiment connected Democrats in California with Republicans in Texas. Here’s how it went

“Hello?” says the male voice from San Francisco, a hint of uncertainty in its tone.

“Hi, I’m Priscilla!” responds Priscilla, with gusto. “Calling from Abilene, Texas, the most conservative town in the country!”

Priscilla and Nick, her Californian conversation partner, wouldn’t appear to be natural confidants. They live 1,500 miles away, and politically, they’re from different universes.

But they have entered into a social experiment with a bold but simple premise. In a country that hasn’t felt more divided in living memory, what would happen if Democrats and Republicans just … talk?

For much of 2026, two free payphones – strategically placed in deep blue and red pockets of America – have connected the country’s most polarized communities. Called the Party Line project and run by a mental health startup, Matter Neuroscience , the experiment has given liberals and conservatives a direct line into each other’s lives.

The project began when the company bought two cheap payphones, restored them, connected them to each other and placed them in two polarized cities: San Francisco, where four in five people voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election; and deep-red Abilene, where 74% of voters in surrounding Taylor County supported Donald Trump.

When someone picked up one of the phones, it automatically rang the other — and for a few minutes at a time, two perfect strangers stopped to listen to the other side.

The callers talked about their families, shared their ambitions and whispered secrets, sending private snippets of their lives to a person they’ll likely never meet. Together, the hundreds of conversations reveal something surprising about America: The country is more united than many think.

And listening to every chat were two experts in the science of happiness. They shared audio of several of those conversations with CNN – you can listen to them throughout this story – and they hope their project can create a blueprint for a better country.

Courtesy Matter Neuroscience

But even the project’s architects weren’t sure it would work.

“I was completely against it,” said Axel Bouchon, a neuroscientist who made happiness his specialty after suffering from depression. “I said, ‘You’re crazy.’ This will be kind of an amplification of aggression and riot.”

Bouchon said he believed those two trigger words – Democrat and Republican – had become so entrenched that any effort to bring the warring tribes together would fall flat. And in a contentious midterm election year, he braced himself for anger.

“So, I think the person most surprised about the results was me.”

Jared and Ben begin their conversation the way many people do: They talk about the weather. On this day, it’s colder in Abilene than in San Francisco. They talk about their surroundings: a bookstore on a Texas main street, and the heart of the bustling Mission District. They talk about these two strange payphones, which appeared in their neighborhoods out of nowhere.

And then something interesting happens: They go deep.

“So what are you looking for, Ben?” asks Jared from Texas, as though this is a first date. It seems to catch Ben off guard for a moment. But then he returns serve: “What would make you happy right now?” he asks Jared. “What do you not have in life that would make you happy?”

'I desperately want to get away'

Source: Matter Neuroscience

Jared tells Ben about his book club, and the novel the group just read about two elderly women who explore the world together.

“I would like to travel more,” Jared says. “I desperately want to get away from where I am, even just for a little bit … I always want to see more than I see now.”

“You know, you saying that makes me kind of realize something,” Ben says. “I kind of live in a bubble here … It’s a really comfy bubble … but I don’t know what 2026 is like in the rest of America.”

The two men speak for seven minutes, but their conversation goes to places that discussions with co-workers, friends and families rarely do. It’s exactly what Bouchon and his business partner, the American entrepreneur Ben Goldhirsh, hoped would happen when they purchased two battered old payphones on Facebook Marketplace and formulated their project – even if Bouchon didn’t believe it.

Their start-up, Matter Neuroscience, was founded in 2019 with the mission of better understanding what makes humans feel good. “We have to decrypt the code of happiness,” Bouchon says.

As with the strangers who picked up their phones, the two partners seem an unlikely pair. Goldhirsh speaks with the smooth ease of a tech bro, while the German-born Bouchon rhapsodizes about the brain with the eccentricities of a mad scientist. When CNN spoke with them, Bouchon was in Munich and Goldhirsh was nine time zones away, in his daughter’s bedroom in Santa Barbara, California.

But together they have watched as the United States drifted further apart into two bitterly divided factions. A survey by Pew last year found that four in five Americans disagree with the other side not just on policy, but on “basic facts.” In another 2025 study, the research nonprofit found that half of Democrats and Republicans say the other party makes them feel angry . And a Gallup poll last year revealed a majority of Americans feel that both parties have gone too far in their use of inflammatory rhetoric to criticize their opponents.

'Congrats bro, you're normal'

Bouchon and Goldhirsh said they realized something had gone very wrong in the way people in the US talk about politics.

Bouchon explains it scientifically: Political arguments lead to spikes in cortisol, the brain’s primary stress molecule, he says, essentially putting the brain into fight mode. Once there, we’re no longer hearing each other’s viewpoints because the brain is filtering out information that isn’t relevant to our survival.

“In a political fight, nobody’s listening anymore,” Bouchon says. “Because they cannot listen anymore, neurologically.”

But Goldhirsh felt there was a better way to have these conversations.

“I have friends who are Democrats (and) I have friends who are Republicans. We don’t actually hate each other,” he says. “I think you’re far less likely to be an a**hole when you’re actually connected with someone.”

It quickly became clear that something unexpected was happening, Bouchon and Goldhirsh said.

Most conversations followed a typical pattern. The two strangers would usually begin with safe, easy topics: the weather, their jobs, what they were doing that day.

Then, many would switch to politics – but without devolving into anger. Bouchon theorized about why: After easing into the discussions, cannabinoids – chemicals that regulate functions like mood, sleep and pleasure – blocked the fight-or-flight effects of cortisol.

'I have to say it quietly'

Soon, the researchers say, many strangers would realize that neither fit entirely into the labels “Democrat” or “Republican.”

And then they’d start sharing. A mother in Abilene tells her California conversation partner that she has a trans child. “But I have to say it quietly. I have to say it really quietly,” she says through nervous giggles.

In another conversation, Matt in San Francisco tells Aubrey about his love of motorbikes. “You are so cool!” Aubrey says effusively in response. “I hope that you know that.”

“Hella love going from San Francisco to Abilene, Texas right now,” Matt replies.

Not every call was profound. But even the mundane conversations were remarkable in their unremarkableness. People weren’t arguing. They weren’t slamming down the handset. They were talking.

As Californians and Texans spoke to each other, Bouchon and Goldhirsh were gathering data on their conversations.

Out of roughly 400 chats, 80% were positive, Bouchon says, while just 5% were negative. Just over half included laughter; around 70% involved some kind of agreement or affirmation. The word “love” was mentioned 398 times; “Trump” was said 64 times. And the f-word, says Bouchdon, wasn’t even heard once.

'We all want the same thing'

Those figures were gathered by Matter Neuroscience and have not been verified by CNN. But Bouchon and Goldhirsh say their company has handed over the set of conversations to Pepperdine University, in Malibu, California. After researchers there study its impact, every transcript will be made public, they say.

Bouchon thought the experiment would lead to people “smashing the phones” in anger, but it led him to a different conclusion: “We can disagree without fighting.”

So, Matter Neuroscience ran two more experiments. One project, carried out over the spring, connected “Zoomers” – students on the campus of Boston University – with “Boomers” at a senior living facility in Reno, Nevada.

Again, the phones connected disparate worlds. The conversations often touched on loss, grief and the unpredictability of life.

“What advice do you have for a young 20-year-old?” Sylvie asks the 66-year-old Valerie in one conversation shared with CNN. “Oh man, have fun while you can,” replies Valerie. “All of a sudden, bam, (I) woke up and here I am.”

"What advice do you have for a 20-year-old?"

Valerie’s partner of a decade died after overdosing on fentanyl, she says over the course of the 15-minute conversation. “I got a knock on the door, and your whole world changes,” she says.

“You better find somebody to take care of you when you get older,” Valerie adds. “Because you know what, it’s tough when you’ve got to do it by yourself.”

More recently, Matter launched a third project, aiming to link the “99%” with the “1%” by placing a payphone in the trendy Abbot Kinney shopping district of Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood and pairing it with another in Watts, a lower-income neighborhood south of downtown.

“We’re right here in the heart of it,” a community resource coordinator in Watts says on her first day of work, in one of the conversations. “The surroundings that I see is probably different from yours, she says … Just people trying to get by.”

Calla Kessler/Matter Neuroscience

Another call begins bluntly. “Hey, I need some money,” a man in Watts says. He’s met with an awkward laugh. “So do I,” says the woman in Venice.

Goldhirsh and Bouchon say the payphones project has restored their faith in the country at what feels like a pivotal time. Goldhirsh says he “slept better” after hearing the conversations.

“A meaningful slice of America was like, ‘f**k yeah, we’re Americans, and we’re dope humans, and we want to connect as humans,” he says. “We don’t want to be framed as this malicious group of tribes that are at each other’s necks.”

And as a bitter midterm campaign season enters its final weeks, Bouchon and Goldhirsh understand the stakes.

Goldhirsh hopes that politicians are listening. Over the course of the year, he says he has presented his project’s findings to state governors and other political leaders and encouraged them to lower the temperature in their messaging.

“I’m an optimist,” he says. “So, I think we’re going to see leaders move towards those areas where we can find common ground.”

But he believes the shift towards a happier America can start with all of us.

“We have to be proactive at reducing cortisol,” he says. “You can’t fight it with fire … You have to fight it with humor. You have to fight it with affection. You have to fight it with friendship.”

And the payphone callers seem to agree.

“I think it’s a great idea … I think conversation and community is the tops of what’s going to save us,” Priscilla in Abilene tells Nick during their chat. “I’m glad you’re out there, and I’m glad I got to talk to you.”

“喂？”一个来自旧金山的男声说道，语气中带着一丝不确定。

“嗨，我是普里西拉！”普里西拉热情地回应道，“我从德克萨斯州阿比林打来电话，这里可是全国最保守的城市！”

普里西拉和她的加州谈话伙伴尼克看起来并不像是天生的知己。他们相距1500英里，政治立场也截然不同。

但他们展开了一项社会实验，其前提大胆却简单。在一个人们记忆中从未如此分裂的国家，如果民主党人和共和党人只是……坐下来谈谈，会发生什么？

在2026年的大部分时间里，两部免费公用电话——分别战略性地设置在美国的深蓝和深红地区——连接了该国两极分化最严重的社区。这项名为“党线”（Party Line）的项目由一家心理健康初创公司Matter Neuroscience运营，它让自由派和保守派能够直接了解彼此的生活。

该项目始于该公司购买了两部廉价的公用电话，对其进行修复，将它们连接起来，然后放置在两个政治立场两极分化的城市：旧金山，五分之四的人在 2024 年总统选举中投票支持卡马拉·哈里斯；以及深红之城阿比林，周边泰勒县 74% 的选民支持唐纳德·特朗普。

当有人拿起其中一部电话时，另一部电话会自动响起——就这样，两个素不相识的人会停下来，倾听对方的谈话，每次持续几分钟。

来电者们谈论着他们的家庭，分享着他们的抱负，低声倾诉着秘密，将他们生活的点滴片段发送给一个他们可能永远不会见面的人。数百通电话共同揭示了美国一个令人惊讶的事实：这个国家比许多人想象的更加团结。

两位幸福科学专家全程监听了所有对话。他们与CNN分享了其中几段对话的录音——你可以在本文中收听这些录音——他们希望他们的项目能够为建设一个更美好的国家提供蓝图。

感谢Matter Neuroscience

但就连该项目的设计师们也不确定它是否会成功。

“我完全反对，”神经科学家阿克塞尔·布雄说道，他曾饱受抑郁症的折磨，后来将幸福作为自己的研究方向。“我说，‘你疯了。’这只会加剧攻击性和骚乱。”

布雄表示，他认为“民主党”和“共和党”这两个词已经根深蒂固，任何试图弥合这两个敌对阵营的努力都将以失败告终。在这个充满争议的中期选举年，他已经做好了应对民众愤怒的准备。

“所以，我觉得对结果最感到惊讶的人是我自己。”

贾里德和本的对话像许多人一样，从天气开始。今天，阿比林比旧金山冷。他们聊起周围的环境：德克萨斯州一条主街上的书店，以及熙熙攘攘的米申区中心地带。他们还聊起了突然出现在他们社区里的两部奇怪的公用电话。

然后，有趣的事情发生了：他们深入挖掘。

“所以，本，你在寻找什么？”来自德克萨斯的贾里德问道，语气仿佛这是第一次约会。本似乎一时有些措手不及。但他随即反问：“你现在想要什么才能快乐？”他问贾里德，“你生活中缺少什么才能让你快乐？”

“我迫切地想要逃离这里。”

来源：Matter Neuroscience

贾里德向本讲述了他的读书俱乐部，以及他们刚刚读完的那本关于两位老妇人一起环游世界的长篇小说。

“我想多出去旅行，”贾里德说。“我非常想离开现在的地方，哪怕只是短暂的停留……我总是渴望看到更多的地方。”

“你知道吗，你这么说让我意识到了一些事情，”本说。“我感觉自己好像生活在一个泡沫里……一个非常舒适的泡沫里……但我不知道2026年美国其他地方会是什么样子。”

两人交谈了七分钟，但他们的谈话内容却触及了与同事、朋友和家人之间鲜少涉及的话题。这正是布雄和他的商业伙伴、美国企业家本·戈德希尔什在Facebook Marketplace上购买了两部破旧的公用电话并构思他们的项目时所希望看到的——即便布雄当时并不相信这个项目能够成功。

他们的初创公司Matter Neuroscience成立于2019年，其使命是更好地了解是什么让人类感到快乐。“我们必须破解幸福的密码，”布雄说道。

就像那些接听他们电话的陌生人一样，这两位搭档看起来也不太像一对。戈德希尔什说话流畅自如，颇有科技精英的风范；而出生于德国的布雄则像个疯狂科学家一样，滔滔不绝地谈论着大脑。CNN采访他们时，布雄身在慕尼黑，而戈德希尔什则远在九个时区之外，在他位于加州圣巴巴拉女儿的卧室里。

但他们共同目睹了美国日益分裂成两个严重对立的派系。皮尤研究中心去年的一项调查发现，五分之四的美国人不仅在政策上与对方阵营存在分歧，甚至在“基本事实”上也存在分歧。该非营利研究机构在2025年的另一项研究中发现，一半的民主党人和共和党人表示，对方阵营让他们感到愤怒。盖洛普去年的一项民意调查显示，大多数美国人认为，两党在批评对手时都过度使用了煽动性言论。

“恭喜兄弟，你很正常。”

布雄和戈德希尔什表示，他们意识到美国人谈论政治的方式出了大问题。

布雄用科学的语言解释道：政治争论会导致大脑主要的压力分子——皮质醇——水平飙升，这实际上会让大脑进入战斗模式。一旦进入这种状态，我们就听不到彼此的观点了，因为大脑会过滤掉那些与生存无关的信息。

“在政治斗争中，没人再听人说话了，”布雄说。“因为他们的神经系统已经无法再听人说话了。”

但戈德希尔什认为，还有更好的方法来进行这些对话。

“我既有民主党朋友，也有共和党朋友。我们之间其实并不仇恨，”他说。“我觉得，当你和某人真正建立起联系时，你就不太可能成为一个混蛋。”

Bouchon 和 Goldhirsh 表示，很快他们就意识到发生了意想不到的事情。

大多数对话都遵循着类似的模式。这两个陌生人通常会从一些安全轻松的话题开始：天气、工作、当天的安排等等。

随后，许多人会转而讨论政治——但不会再陷入愤怒。布雄对此提出了理论解释：在逐渐融入讨论之后，大麻素——一种调节情绪、睡眠和愉悦感等功能的化学物质——会抑制皮质醇的“战斗或逃跑”反应。

我得小声说。

研究人员表示，很快，许多陌生人就会意识到，他们两人都不完全符合“民主党”或“共和党”的标签。

然后她们就开始分享。一位住在阿比林的母亲告诉她来自加州的谈话对象，她有一个跨性别孩子。“但我必须小声说，真的要非常小声地说，”她一边紧张地笑着一边说道。

在另一次谈话中，身在旧金山的马特告诉奥布里他有多喜欢摩托车。“你太酷了！”奥布里热情地回应道，“希望你知道这一点。”

“我现在超爱从旧金山飞往德克萨斯州阿比林，”马特回答道。

并非每次通话都意义非凡。但即使是那些平凡的对话，也因其寻常而引人注目。人们没有争吵，也没有摔电话，他们只是在交谈。

当加州人和德州人互相交谈时，布雄和戈德希尔什正在收集他们谈话的数据。

布雄表示，在约400条聊天记录中，80%是积极的，只有5%是消极的。超过一半的聊天记录包含笑声；约70%的聊天记录包含某种形式的赞同或肯定。“爱”这个词被提及了398次；“特朗普”被提及了64次。布雄说，脏话一次也没有出现。

我们都想要同样的东西

这些数据由Matter Neuroscience公司收集，尚未得到CNN的核实。但Bouchon和Goldhirsh表示，他们的公司已将这些对话记录移交给位于加州马里布的佩珀代因大学。他们说，待该校研究人员研究其影响后，所有对话记录都将公之于众。

布雄认为这个实验会导致人们愤怒地“砸手机”，但它却让他得出了不同的结论：“我们可以不争吵，但可以表达不同意见。”

因此，Matter Neuroscience 又进行了两项实验。其中一项实验在春季进行，将波士顿大学校园里的“Z世代”学生与内华达州里诺市一家老年生活设施中的“婴儿潮一代”联系起来。

电话再次连接了截然不同的世界。谈话内容常常涉及失落、悲伤和人生的无常。

在一段与CNN分享的对话中，西尔维问66岁的瓦莱丽：“你对一个20岁的年轻人有什么建议？”瓦莱丽回答说：“哎呀，趁年轻好好享受生活吧。我一觉醒来，就发现自己身处此世。”

“你对一个20岁的年轻人有什么建议？”

在长达15分钟的谈话中，瓦莱丽讲述了她相伴十年的伴侣因芬太尼过量服用而去世的经历。“有人敲门，我的整个世界就此改变，”她说。

“你老了最好找个人照顾你，”瓦莱丽补充道，“因为你知道，一个人照顾别人真的很难。”

最近，Matter 启动了第三个项目，旨在通过在洛杉矶威尼斯街区的时尚 Abbot Kinney 购物区放置一部公用电话，并将其与市中心南部低收入社区 Watts 的另一部公用电话配对，将“99%”与“1%”联系起来。

“我们就在中心地带，”瓦茨的一位社区资源协调员在上班第一天的一次谈话中说道。“我看到的周围环境可能和你们不一样，”她说道，“这里的人都在努力生存。”

卡拉·凯斯勒/物质神经科学

另一个电话开场就直截了当地说：“嘿，我需要点钱。”一个住在瓦茨的男人说道。他听到的是一阵尴尬的笑声。“我也是。”一个住在威尼斯的女人说道。

戈德希尔什和布雄表示，在这个关键时刻，公用电话项目让他们重拾了对国家的信心。戈德希尔什说，听了他们的谈话后，他“睡得更香了”。

他说：“美国有相当一部分人会想，‘没错，我们是美国人，我们是很棒的人，我们想以人类的身份彼此联系。’我们不想被描绘成一群互相敌对的恶意部落。”

随着激烈的中期选举竞选季进入最后几周，布雄和戈德希尔什都明白其中的利害关系。

戈德希尔什希望政界人士能够听取他的意见。他说，在过去一年里，他已向各州州长和其他政治领导人介绍了他的项目研究成果，并鼓励他们缓和措辞。

“我是个乐观主义者，”他说。“所以，我认为我们会看到领导人朝着那些我们能够找到共同点的领域努力。”

但他认为，让美国变得更幸福可以从我们每个人做起。

他说：“我们必须积极主动地降低皮质醇水平。你不能用暴力对抗它……你必须用幽默对抗它，你必须用爱对抗它，你必须用友谊对抗它。”

而那些使用公用电话的人似乎也同意这种说法。

“我觉得这是个好主意……我认为对话和社群才是拯救我们的关键，”阿比林的普里西拉在和尼克聊天时说道。“我很高兴你在这里，也很高兴能和你聊天。”