Happy Sunday − and welcome to the best of The Conversation U.S. Here are a few of our recently published stories:

• ‘Designated contrarians’ could improve nonprofit boards by disrupting the kind of consensus and groupthink that contributed to the NRA’s woes
• Jan. 6 was an example of networked incitement − a media and disinformation expert explains the danger of political violence orchestrated over social media

As the new year begins, so does the 2024 election season, with the first nominating contest a little more than a week away on Jan. 15, in Iowa. Readers are already paying very close attention, at least based on two of last week’s most engaging stories on our website. Although on different if overlapping themes, both articles follow our coverage plan, focused on equipping readers to navigate what’s likely to be a very messy and long election cycle.

Religion frequently plays a large role in U.S. elections, and religious voters will help determine the next president. Tobin Miller Shearer, a historian and a religious studies scholar at the University of Montana, for example, highlights three key ways religion will play out on the campaign trail: “intensified end-times rhetoric, more claims of divine support and relative silence from the evangelical community on the rise in Christian nationalism.”

Pundits are another group that plays an outsized role in elections. But is their role good for democracy or are they partisan spewers of opinion who destroy trust? The answers, according to University of Colorado Boulder journalism professor Mike McDevitt, depend on what’s motivating their verbal combat. “Pundits can play a productive role by focusing on issues rather than identities,” he writes. “Recent scholarship has demonstrated that issue polarization is less of a problem as long as opponents see humanity in the other side.”