Making Peace Visible

In the United States, about one sixth of the federal budget goes to defense.  Why are many Americans so passive in the face of the massive expenditures for defense that crowd out spending on human needs like education, healthcare and infrastructure? Why does much of the media accept the status quo? And is all of this spending making Americans and the world any safer?Our guest helping tackle these questions is anthropologist Stephanie Savell. Savell is the Co-Director of Costs of War at Brown University, an interdisciplinary research project focused on the impact of the post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond; the U.S. global military footprint; and the domestic effects of US military spending. Savell's own research highlights US military involvement around the world, most notably in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. In many of these places, American assistance has served to fuel existing conflicts, and provided governments with tools and justification to target Muslim populations. But, Savell says, it doesn't have to be this way. This episide was originally published in December 2023.MORE FROM COSTS OF WARStephanie Savell's map of US counterterrorism operations 2021-2023The Costs of United States' Post-9/11 “Security Assistance”: How Counterterrorism Intensified Conflict in Burkina Faso and Around the World by Stephanie Savell Why Media Conflation of Activism with Terrorism Has Dire Consequences: The Case of Cop City by Deepa Kumar ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

“Humans are not rational beings with emotions. In fact, we're just the opposite. We're emotionally based beings who can only think rationally when we feel that our identities, as we see them, are understood and valued by others.”Those words from neuroscientist Bob Deutch triggered a lightbulb moment in the mind of Tim Phillips, a veteran peacebuilder and educator.  Over the past twelve years, Phillips has worked with neuroscientists and psychologists to integrate brain science into research and practice at Beyond Conflict, the peacebuilding organization that he founded in 1991 and where he serves as CEO. In this conversation, we focus on Beyond Conflict's research on dehumanization. If you perceive another person or group as less than human, it's much easier to justify violence against that group or person. Dehumanizing rhetoric – like describing people as animals or vermin – is often a precursor to violence.  But Phillips says if we can identify signs of dehumanization early on, we can make changes to decrease the likelihood of violent conflict. Phillips and host Jamil Simon also discuss the difference between fear and disgust – both motivators of conflict that are each processed differently in the brain and require different interventions. Plus, how Beyond Conflict has applied this research to create media interventions in Nigeria and the United States. And, how journalists can utilize knowledge of how the brain works to reach more people and avoid incitement. This episode was originally published in April 2024.LEARN MOREWatch the video “America's Divided Mind” by Beyond ConflictRead key takeaways from Beyond Conflict's research on dehumanizationRead Beyond Conflict's Decoding Dehumanization policy brief Listen to our episode with psychologist Donna Hicks: “Dignity: A new way to look at conflict”Watch “How to Grow Peace Journalism” webinars from the George Washington University Media and Peacebuilding Project. Presentations from Making Peace Visible host Jamil Simon, education director Steven Youngblood, and  producer Andrea Muraskin in this video..  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Support for Donald Trump is slipping lately, at least in part because of the President's violations of democratic rules and norms. In a New York Times/ Sienna College poll, a majority of respondents disapproved of Trump's recent actions, including moves to eliminate government programs enacted by Congress, deport legal immigrants who have protested Israel, and ignore Supreme Court rulings. This episode we're joined by Suzette Brooks Masters, a thought leader, political strategist and Senior Fellow at the Democracy Funders Network. She says that for American democracy to thrive, it's not enough to defend the existing system against attack, because the system doesn't work well for most people. She's been researching ways to invigorate democratic practice, including citizen's assemblies and participatory budgeting – frameworks that give ordinary people a bigger say in government. And she advocates for storytelling that envisions positive, possible futures. 00:00 Introduction and Current Political Climate00:40 First 100 Days of the New Administration01:35 Guest Introduction: Suzette Brooks Masters02:08 Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy03:36 Challenges and Opportunities in Democracy05:57 Why the Right Sees Democracy as Under Attack 11:31 Bridge Building and Civic Engagement16:44 Innovations in Democratic Processes22:59 Telling a Different Story About the Future30:57 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsLEARN MORESuzette Brooks Masters' articles for The FulcrumImagining Better Futures for American Democracy reportBecoming Futures Ready: How Philanthropy Can Leverage Strategic Foresight For Democracy report  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Brazil's Arariboia Indigenous Territory is a green island that spans more than 413,000 hectares (1.02 million acres) in a sea of deforestation. Though the territory is protected by law, it's become the site of incursions by loggers and cattle ranchers.In a five-year investigative series for the environmental news outlet Mongabay, reporter Karla Mendes exposed environmental crimes in Arariboia and other protected areas of the Amazon, including palm oil production, logging, and cattle ranching. She also investigated the murder of Paulo Paulino Guajajara, an indigenous Forest Guardian who was ambushed by loggers. He was one of more than 50 indigenous Guajajara individuals killed in the last 20 years. Mendes' reporting is helping to bring justice to these remote areas where impunity has been the norm.Her investigation was part of a Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations fellowship. She says as the climate changes, Brazilians are showing increased interest in journalism like hers that highlights the importance of protecting the rainforest. LEARN MORERead Karla Mendes' report: Revealed: Illegal cattle ranching booms in Arariboia territory during deadly year for Indigenous Guajajara.Learn more about the impact of the investigation.Watch a short documentary film about the Guardians of the Forest and the search for justice for Paulo Paulino Guajajara. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

What's it like to lead without a military? This episode, from our friends at Disrupting Peace, focuses on Costa Rica, and explores what happens when a country abolishes its military, Costa Rica's approach to domestic security, and the ways that having a military can increase violence and instability in a country.Carlos Alvarado Quesada served as President of Costa Rica from 2018 to 2022. While president, he focused on combating climate change, defending human rights, democracy, and multilateralism, which is when countries cooperate to solve problems. Carlos currently teaches graduate courses on leadership at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where the World Peace Foundation is based. Follow Carlos on Instagram @carlosalvq.Jorge Vargas is Director of the State of the Nation Program in Costa Rica. As an academic researcher, he focuses on state reform and democracy in Central America. Find out more about Jorge's work at estadonacion.or.cr.Disrupting Peace is a podcast about why peace hasn't worked, and how it still could, from the World Peace Foundation. It's hosted by Bridget Conley, and produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson.Additional music in this episode by Kevin MacLeod and Xylo-Ziko.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Venezuela is a tough place to be a journalist. Our guest this episode, Tony Frangie Mawad wrote last year about the possibility of an opposition victory that would upend the regime of President Nicolás Maduro in the country's July elections. But even though the opposition candidate won the vote, Maduro held on to power, and this year has cracked down further on his opponents and an already-weakened media.Fangie Mawad is an independent journalist and political analyst, based in Caracas, Venezuela.  He writes the Substack Venezuela Weekly, where he keeps a close eye on developments both at home, and in the Venezuelan diaspora.  He's written for international news outlets including Bloomberg, The Economist, and Americas Quarterly, and was an editor for the Caracas Chronicles.Making Peace Visible producer Andrea Muraskin spoke with Tony about what it's like to work in an authoritarian context, where journalists are often censored and threatened, and sometimes arrested. As you'll hear, it helps to have a sense of humor, and a long view of history.  This interview was recorded on March 24. Things may have shifted in Venezuela by the time you hear it.  LEARN MOREtonyfrangie.comVenezuela Weekly (English edition)El Chiguire Bipolar - "The Bipolar Capybara" Venezuelan satire website ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

After the end of the Cold War, many academics and policymakers believed that a global state of peace was achievable.  People talked about a “peace dividend”:  A long-term benefit. as budgets for military spending would be redirected to social programs or returned to citizens in the form of lower taxes.  Our guest this episode, Bridget Conley, started her career in peacebuilding in the 1990s. At that time, Western academics and politicians spelled out a formula for creating peaceful nations. You would hold elections, convert the economy to a free market, pursue human rights, and prosecute bad actors. But the post 9/11 years showed that the militarized world order was not going away.There's been a push in recent years to localize peace efforts – meaning fund them and run them based on direction from people in the effected countries. But to a considerable extent, peacebuilding still revolves around that formula from the 1990s. That's why Conley launched Disrupting Peace, a podcast that explores why peace hasn't worked, and how it could.  Bridget is the research director at the World Peace Foundation, a research organization affiliated with Tufts University. Her research is currently focused on mass incarceration in the United States, and she teaches college classes inside the prison system in Massachusetts as part of the Tufts University Prison Initiative. For Conley, prison abolition and international peacebuilding are all about creating societies that solve problems through debate and discussion, not through coercion.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

When the Trump administration slashed the budget and suspended most of the staff of the United States Agency for International Development last month, their representatives said the agency was using taxpayer dollars to fund a radical, “woke” agenda around the world. Criticism coming from the Left since the founding of USAID in 1961 has characterized USAID as an arm of American imperialism. The reality, of course, is much more complicated. It's heartbreaking to hear stories of children suddenly unable to attend school and receive essential vaccinations. But beyond the shockwaves of a sudden halt in the flow of assistance, there's a lot about US foreign aid that's up for debate. Questions like what does it accomplish? Does it really help? How does it help? Should it continue? Or, should foreign aid be scaled down over time? Our host, Jamil Simon, has seen USAID projects succeed, and fall short – having worked for more than three decades as a USAID contractor, developing communication strategies to promote reform in more than 20 countries.Our guest, Gregory Warner is a Peabody Award - winning journalist who has reported on USAID on the ground in places including Sub-Saharan Africa, Ukraine and Afghanistan. He was the creator and host of NPR's international podcast Rough Translation. Before that, he was an international correspondent for NPR, based in East Africa. Warner has reported on USAID on the ground in Africa, as well as in Ukraine and Afghanistan. He writes the Substack blog Rough Transition.MORE FROM GREGORY WARNERSubscribe to get Rough Transition in your inbox. Read Warner's recent reporting about the gutting of USAID and what it says about the perception of America in the world. Listen to the Rough Translation episode about a woman who lied so she could receive aid designated for sexual violence survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Explore the Rough Translation podcast archive. CONNECT WITH USDo you have a story of your own about USAID? Keep the conversation going on LinkedIn, or drop us a line at info@makingpeacevisible.org.Music in this episode is by Xylo-Ziko, Blue Dot Sessions, Gavin Luke, Feras Charestan, and Caro Luna.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Often the news covers crises without context. That's especially true when it comes to coverage of the Global South in international media. Our guest this episode, journalist and documentary filmmaker Etant Dupain, gives us a behind-the-headlines look at events in Haiti, his home country. Dupain says that the gangs who control much of the country now are supported by powerful elites. Their aim, his says, is to suppress a grassroots protest movement that is calling for accountability for the embezzlement of billions of dollars in development funds. Dupain's new documentary film, The Fight for Haiti, tells the story of the Haitian movement against corruption and impunity, which started with a tweet and at its height had hundreds of thousands in the street. In this episode, you'll learn aboutThe problematic history of foreign aid in Haiti including the aftermath of the the 2010 earthquakeThe Petrocaribe agreement with Venezuela that was supposed to fund crucial infrastructure projects in HaitiCreative tactics activists used to demand accountabilityWho profits when gangs overtake a countryWatch a trailer and learn more about the film and the movement at thefightforhaiti.com.Protest audio used in the episode is from the film The Fight for Haiti, used with permission.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Israel and Hamas are just over two weeks into a ceasefire agreement, after fifteen months of fighting. This is a paradoxical moment to talk about long term peace. The horrific October 7th attacks and the near - destruction of Gaza that followed, served to amplify already high levels of distrust, hate, and trauma. At the same time, the war has demonstrated to Gazans that their government placed conflict with Israel above their own survival. And it has shown Israelis that an indefinite blockade of Gaza doesn't ensure their security. So while the ceasefire doesn't mean the end of the conflict by any means, it does offer an opportunity to envision a way out. Our guest for this episode is Ksenia Svetlova, an expert observer of politics and media in the Middle East and the executive director of the Regional Organization for Peace, Economics, and Security, or ROPES. Svetlova is an immigrant to Israel from the Soviet Union, an Arabic speaker and a Middle East specialist. For fifteen years. Svetlova reported from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, and different countries in the region. She served four years in Israel's parliament representing the center-left Zionist Union Coalition. MORE FROM KSENIA SVETLOVARead: Netanyahu's phase two dilemma: Political survival vs defying President Trump, for Chatham HouseListen: ROPESCAST, the podcast from ROPESWatch: Webinars and more on ROPES' YouTube channel  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Imagine you're living through a crisis in your part of the world. It could be a natural disaster, a contentious election, or even a coup d'etat.  Rumors are swirling on social media, on television, and even your family group chat. Events are unfolding rapidly, and you don't know what to believe.  What if, just by sending a text message, you could reach a trusted source for an instant fact check?  Our guest today, Ed Bice, heads an organization called Meedan, that provides a consumer-facing fact checking service in countries around the world. Meedan's software integrates with messaging apps, to connect people quickly with trusted news organizations. Instead of asking Chat GPT or Google, you can ask a customized chatbot, and get an answer based on reporting from your local TV station or newspaper.  Meedan's work has been especially impactful during contentious elections in countries like Mexico, India, and Brazil.  Unfortunately, Meta's announcement that it will stop fact checking on its platforms this year – including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook – threatens the funding and support essential for tools like Meedan to combat misinformation.Ed Bice has been working for two decades to make the Internet a more collaborative and democratic space. And he's still optimistic.    ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

This is a pivotal moment in Syria, the abrupt end of a brutal dictatorship that killed and tortured thousands and terrorized Syrian society. The Assad regime also suppressed speech, and we're now seeing a surge in independent reports on the news and social media. The big question is what happens next? And what does this change mean to the region? In this episode, we welcome back Zaina Erhaim to share her perspective on the sudden fall of the Assad regime, and what's ahead for Syria. Zaina is an award winning Syrian journalist, who is widely recognized for her commitment to ethical reporting and amplifying marginalized voices. She began her career reporting on the civil war in Syria, but fled to the UK after both the Assad regime, and opposition forces threatened her life. Zaina Erhaim is the managing editor of Jeem, and a communications consultant. Note: This interview was recorded on December 22, 2024. On December 30, Syria's transitional government appointed Maysaa Sabrine as head of the Syrian central bank, the first woman to hold the role. Listen to our 2022 episode with Zaina Erhaim, Decolonizing international journalismMore from Zaina Erhaim on Syria after Assad:New York Times Opinion | Al-Assad Is Gone, and One Idea Fills My BrainNew Internationalist: Where to now for Syria's women? Al Jazeera's The Listening Post: Images and narratives of Syria's historic moment ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Please consider supporting our work at the intersection of peace, conflict, and the media! Make a tax-deductible contribution today at makingpeacevisible.org. Thank you! When you look at the online reactions to major events, or watch news footage of political rallies, you might conclude that people on the political Left have a completely different moral compass, – or sense of right and wrong–, from people on the political Right. But Kurt Gray, a social psychologist who studies morality and politics, says that's not true. The main thesis behind Gray's work at the Deepest Beliefs Lab at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his new book Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics, and How to Find Common Ground – is that humans share a sense of morality based on fear of harm, the product of our evolutionary heritage.  However perceptions of who is vulnerable to harm and how those vulnerable should be defended differs widely across the divide. In this episode, Kurt Gray draws on research to shed light on issues includingWhy so many people reacted positively to the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian ThompsonWhy we often think our communities and our children are less safe than they actually areHow the decline of local news may contribute to polarization Why facts rarely change minds in a political argumentHow to approach politics with a sense of “moral humility” Learn more about Kurt Gray and the book at kurtjgray.com. Follow his newsletter, Moral Understanding: The Science of What Divides Us, at moralunderstandingnewsletter.com.   ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Support this podcast with a tax-deductible donation. Photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind and writer Alisa Sopova create intimate, accessible portraits of Ukrainian civilians living close to the frontlines of the Russian invasion. Sometimes their subjects are picnicking in a park or tending a garden. Other times, they're repairing a ceiling damaged by shelling or waiting for departure on an evacuation train. Anastasia and Alisa have been working together in Ukraine since the Maidan Revolution, also known as the “Revolution of Dignity” in 2014. And over the years, they've returned to visit the same families, witnessing how the war touches men, women, and children over time. Independent Projects5K From the Frontline Welcome to DonetskInternational media work:NPR: The Ukraine war isn't new. These intimate photos show 3 families enduring it for yearsThe New Humanitarian: How seven years of war and COVID-19 split Ukraine in twoThe New York Times: Opinion: Where There Are Fish in the Tap Water and Women's Uteruses Fall OutTime Magazine: The Strange Unreality of Life During Eastern Ukraine's Forgotten WarMusic in this episode by Doyeq, One Man Book, and Bill Vortex ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

In the 2024 election, it was clearer than ever that Americans are  “watching different movies,” as political analyst Van Jones put it. Essentially, we're living inside different narratives that aren't of our own making. During this campaign season more than ever before, the presidential and VP candidates appeared on sympathetic podcasts as a way to appeal to younger voters. As a podcaster, journalist, and Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels, a nonprofit working to depolarize America, guest Mónica Guzmán is an ideal voice to help us make sense of what happened, and provide some helpful perspective. On her podcast A Braver Way, Guzmán is  joined by guests from across the political spectrum to unearth tools, insights, and messy real life stories that can guide listeners over the divide in their everyday lives. She says that Americans are being hurt by misinformation not only about facts, but also “misinformation about what's in the hearts of other people.” On this episode you'll hear a few clips from A Braver Way – including from a conversation Guzmán, a political "blue"  recorded with her parents – who voted for Donald Trump. If your family is politically divided, you'll definitely want to listen to this in time for Thanksgiving! Learn more about our guest at moniguzman.com ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

If you're listening to this podcast, you're probably concerned by the level of polarization we're seeing in societies around the world.  We can point fingers at social media, the news media, political parties, fear mongering leaders, poor education, broken political systems… the list is long. The divides can seem so vast, the problems so huge. It's easy to retreat into a huddle with people who see the world the same way you do. But our guest for this episode, Columbia University psychology and education professor and author Peter T. Coleman, says there are things each of us can do to help heal these societal wounds. And he says the press and media can play an important role in decreasing polarization. That's the subject of his latest book, The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization. Coleman outlines evidence-based practices that you can do on your own- or with a group- to help recalibrate assumptions, and re-create bonds with people you disagree with. Coleman also partnered with the organization Starts With Us to turn the lessons from the book into an online program, called The Polarization Detox Challenge. It's like an exercise routine, for strengthening your compassion muscles. The book is focused on the United States, but the exercises can be done anywhere. This episode originally published in January 2023. Follow Peter T. Coleman on X: @PeterTColeman1Making Peace Visible is  hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. We had help on this episode from Faith McClure. Support our work with a tax-deductible donation. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Bill Vortex ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Our guest in this episode is a scholar and peacebuilder who knows the world of peacebuilding intimately, and offers a critique from the inside. Qamar-ul Huda is the author of Reenvisioning Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution in Islam, published in April 2024. He's worked for major players like the US Institute of Peace and the UN Development Program. He served in the Obama Administration as Senior Policy Advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry, and is now a professor of International Affairs at the US Naval Academy.In this conversation, Huda shares a refreshingly positive perspective on the possibility of peace in Islamic countries, rooted in his deep understanding of Islamic religion and cultures. In his book, he reflects on some of the mistakes made in the early years of the War on Terror, by the US government, and other international actors.  He says many of these mistakes were rooted in seeing peacebuilding as a secular project, which failed to acknowledge the conflict resolution tools and ethics that exist in Islamic tradition. And he says this thinking continues to influence foreign policy to this day. He also highlights more constructive examples of conflict resolution in the Muslim world.   ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

"Nature knows no political borders. " - David LehrerOn a small desert campus, students from Israel, Palestine, and other parts of the Middle East take classes in ecology, earth sciences and renewable energy. They also debate the hot button issues: history, politics, religion, war, occupation, terrorism, while learning to listen actively, and living together amidst contradicting narratives. Our guest David Lehrer is Director of International Development at the Arava Institute, based at Kibbutz Keturah in Israel. He teaches there, and also heads up Arava's action arm, working with Palestinian partners to bring clean water, sanitation, and eco-friendly temporary housing to displaced people in Gaza -- among other projects. Learning to care for a shared environment in the region, providing essential infrastructure in wartime, and working together across divides are usually treated as a footnote in the media, David says. But he hopes that as Arava continues to work with Palestinian partners in the face of a war with no end in sight,  peacebuilding becomes news. LEARN MORE:The Arava InstituteArava Institute on InstagramDavid Lehrer's bioTimes of Israel: Palestinians, Israelis partner to bring off-grid solutions to Gaza campsSpecial thanks to Tamar Miller and Rachel Kalikow. Music in this episode by One Man Book, Blue Dot Sessions, Doyeq, and Joel Cummins.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

 Ali Abu Awwad is hard to summarize. He grew up with a mother in the PLO, and served jail time for his role in the resistance during the First Palestinian Intifada. In an Israeli prison, Ali learned the power of nonviolence when he and his mother went on hunger strike to see each other. After his brother was killed by Israeli soldiers, his family met with a group of bereaved Jewish parents. Awwad says witnessing the shared humanity of Palestinian and Israeli mourners "turned his world upside down."  Awwad has been working as a peacebuilder since 2002, and has given talks around Israel, Palestine, and the world. His current work is leading Taghyeer, a Palestinian movement —"to take nonviolent responsibility for self-development and forging a path to end occupation." Awwad says he founded Taghyeer, a "DNA Palestinian movement" to focus on the "homework" needed to lay the foundation for true Palestinian self-governance and an end to Israeli military occupation. In this conversation, Awwad gives us an intimate view of his own inner transformation, and an inside look at Palestinian identity and self-determination. LEARN MOREWatch: An Israeli and a Palestinian talk peace, dignity and safety a conversation with Ali Abu Awwad and Ami Dar, Israeli peace activist and founder of Idealist.org, from TED.Read: “I Don't Want to Resist the Occupation—I Want to End the Occupation” an interview with Ali Abu Awwad in the Nation MagazineRead: Nonviolence Is the Missing Path to Israeli-Palestinian Peace editorial by Ali Abu Awwad in "The Daily Beast"Listen: Ali Abu Awwad and Robi Damelin on Nonviolence as The Path to Freedom for Palestinians and Israelis  on "Unlocking Us" with Brené BrownMusic in this episode by Xylo-Ziko and Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks to Cloe Shasha Brooks.   ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Most people feel that peacebuilding – resolving conflicts and decreasing violence –  is a positive thing. But as we've said many times on this podcast, peacebuilding is virtually invisible in the world. Today's guest, veteran mediator and peacebuilder Mark Gerzon, says to strengthen peace and reconciliation efforts, we need to make peacebuilding mainstream. And to do that, the reasons behind the practice need to be practical and more accessible to both the public and to donors. He says the messaging we've been using for years, grounded in a moral imperative for peace, isn't working. And today, he's working in the United States to train leaders to work across the partisan divide. Gerzon has served as advisor to the UN Development Program and multinational corporations.  He is president of the Mediators Foundation, an incubator for social action projects that bridge divides around the world, and has authored several books on the topic of polarization and reconciliation. LEARN MORELeading Through Conflict and other books by Mark Gerzon Harvard Business Review: To Resolve a Conflict, First Decide: Is It Hot or Cold?Documentary by Mark Gerzon: The Reunited StatesMusic in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and SFmusic. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Social entrepreneurs are a unique breed of people, capable of conjuring up a vision, a new way of doing something, a solution to a problem; but they also have the skill and the determination to overcome all the obstacles to implement their vision. John Marks is a remarkable social entrepreneur who, with his wife Susan Collins Marks, built the largest peace building organization in the world, Search for Common Ground. When they stepped down from leadership in 2014, Search had 600 full time employees and offices in 35 countries. Search was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018.His new book, From Vision to Action: Remaking the World Through Social Entrepreneurship, explains how he built Search for Common Ground, and what made it so successful. His new book delivers practical guidance on building bridges and creating meaningful change. Of particular interest to us at MPV, John is a remarkable innovator, not only in the production of effective media to promote peaceful solutions to conflicts, but also in the breakthrough ways he found to disseminate the media, and ideas and approaches they celebrated. RESOURCES:Virtual book talk with John Marks with Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation, September 23, 2024Clips from Common Ground Productions:·       Radio in Burundi: 1:42 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qghsd3-Wpv8·       Children's TV in Macedonia with Sesame Workshop: 2:04 - https://youtu.be/ifyCYSbHp2A·       Reality Series:  CNN piece on “The President: 2:45 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQFlmUzi6ys·       Adult Drama:  Team trailer:  2:14 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqYVapttDEQ&feature=youtu.be·       PSA:  Ziggy Marley: 0:23 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llinHdw_gdU·       Music Video:  Ring the Bells: 3:38 - https://youtu.be/5Rs94ztNROIMusic in this episode by Joel Cummins, Podington Bear, Xylo-Ziko, and Faszo.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Steven Youngblood is Director of Education for Making Peace Visible. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Imagine living next door to a person who murdered your father, raped your sister, or even killed your child. This was the case for many people in Sierra Leone who endured a  brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002: the majority of the 50,000 who died were those killed by their own neighbors. While working with a program that facilitates ritual reconciliation processes in Sierra Leone, a process known as fambul tok (or “family talk”), peacebuilder and philanthropist Libby Hoffman learned that justice for Sierra Leonians isn't about punishing or ousting a perpetrator. Rather, justice comes through making the community whole again. “When you hurt somebody, you don't just hurt them; you hurt the community as well,” says Hoffman. In this episode, host Jamil Simon speaks with Libby Hoffman about fambul tok, a process she calls “building peace from the inside out.” Fambul tok is an ancient tradition where disputes are solved through community-wide conversation around a bonfire. In this post-war context, Hoffman and her team facilitated the revival of the practice for Sierra Leonians. Hoffman also documented this remarkable peacebuilding process in her award-winning documentary film Fambul Tok, which has itself catalyzed further reconciliation within Sierra Leone's war-torn communities. Hoffman book about her experiences in Sierre Leone is called The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out.Libby Hoffman is the founder and President of Catalyst for Peace, a US-based private foundation building peace from the inside-out – creating space for those most impacted by violence to lead in building the peace, supported by healthy, inclusive systems. A former Political Science professor, Hoffman has a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and a BA in Political Science from Williams College.The film Fambul Tok is available for private viewing through MPV's  Peace Docs initiative. Watch the film here: vimeo.com/26644766. This episode was produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Music by Xylo-Ziko via freemusicarchive.org.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. The Associate Director of Making Peace Visible is Steven Youngblood. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

On July 28, a teenage boy carried out a fatal stabbing attack on a dance class in Southport, England. Three little girls were killed, and eight other children and two adults were injured. Police arrested and detained the assailant. They didn't release his name, because he was under 18. A user on X posted that the suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker named Ali Al-Shakati. A prominent YouTuber claimed the attacker was an "illegal migrant." As rumors quickly spread on social media, attracting tens of millions of views, Brits on the far right used platforms like X and TikTok to organize violent protests around the country. In one town, a mob started a fire outside a hotel housing asylum seekers and and smashed a glass door, chanting "get them out." In another, demonstrators attacked a mosque. By the end of the next weekend, violent protests had taken place in at least 18 towns and cities, and 147 people had been arrested, as Tortoise reported. When a judge eventually released the attacker's name, Axel Rudakubana, it turned out he neither Muslim not a migrant, but a Christian and the British-born son of Rwandan parents. This is just one of many stories of online misinformation leading to real world harm. Our guest this episode, Lena Slachmuijlder, is working to stop the flow of misinformation in a world where so many get their news from social media. She heads Search for Common Ground's Digital Peacebuilding initiative, which identifies and trains "digital stewards" around the world, people who are trusted by their communities and help stop the spread of fake news online. Also, in her work as co-chair of the Council on Tech and Social Cohesion, Lena is envisioning ways to design new tech the fosters real conversations online, including the use of AI. Learn more:Digital Community Stewards free online courseDigital Peacebuilders' GuideSearching for Safer, Healthier digital spaces - review of digital peacebuilding initiatives ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. The Associate Director of Making Peace Visible is Steven Youngblood. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Gloria Laker Aciro was a teenager when war upended her family's life in Northern Uganda. The Lord's Resistance Army, led by the infamous Joseph Kony, were known for their brutality, and for kidnapping children and making them child soldiers or child brides. As a young displaced person, Aciro became a journalist so the world would know about the suffering in Northern Uganda: The abductions, killings, the ambushes, the destruction. But after a few years, she wondered if focusing on bloodshed was the right approach. What if journalists like her could help bring peace to the country? Today, Aciro is director of the Peace Journalism Foundation of East Africa. Peace Journalism -- as you might remember from one of our previous episodes -- is when editors and reporters make choices that improve the prospects for peace. She covers peace and conflict, refugee issues, and the environment, and trains journalists around East Africa in peace journalism. Aciro was a finalist for the 2022 Women Building Peace Award given by the United States Institute of Peace. And in 2019, she received a Golden Jubilee Medal awarded by Ugandan President Yoweri, for her coverage of the LRA conflict and her contributions to current peace efforts in Northern Uganda. Aciro sat down with Making Peace Visible Education Director Steven Youngblood to reflect on her decades in the field in Uganda, and the real impact of peace journalism in the face of war and gang violence. Music in this episode by Xylo-Ziko and Joel Cummins. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. The Associate Director of Making Peace Visible is Steven Youngblood. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Close your eyes and think of the word “war” or “gun violence.” What's the first image that comes up? Maybe it's news footage of the wars in Gaza or Ukraine. Or maybe it's a scene from a movie like Hotel Rwanda or Bridge on the River Kwai, or a shoutout in any number of crime and cop dramas.  Scripted storytelling, with its ability to get up close and personal with human emotions and struggles, also has a powerful influence on our perceptions of the world. And with news outlets increasingly politically siloed, perhaps Hollywood has a better chance of shifting perspectives than journalists do.  Our guest Kate Folb  is director of the Center for Hollywood Health and Society,  a project of the Lear Center at USC Annenberg. Hollywood Health and Society (HHS) provides expert guidance for screenwriters, producers and actors about issues from HIV, to immigration, to gun violence. They have projects on the threat of nuclear war and the impact of military expenditures on our lives and wellbeing. In this interview Jamil and Kate discuss how HHS gets Hollywood writers to think differently, as well as shows and movies featuring compelling heroes without guns that you should be watching.  Series and films mentioned in this episode, in order of appearance:How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)The Cleaning Lady (Fox)Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount Plus)Arrival (Paramount Pictures)The Diplomat (Netflix)Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures)Madame Secretary (CBS, available in the US on Netflix)Getting Bombed (YouTube)  ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

“The United Nations was not created in order to deliver us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell.” - Dag Hammarskjöld.“To Save Us From Hell” is a new weekly news and analysis podcast about the UN. Mark Leon Goldberg, a veteran global affairs journalist and editor of the news outlets UN Dispatch and Global Dispatches, and Anjali Dayal, a political science professor and author at Fordham University, co-host the show. They join us on Making Peace Visible to explain the significance of the UN today, especially when it comes to deescalating conflicts and laying the groundwork for peace. Goldberg and Dayal's intense focus on the UN and its work comes at a time when the world's focus on the institution seems to be diminishing, while violent conflicts are increasing. We also have global crises like climate change, infectious disease, and refugees. The one global institution designated to deal with problems at that scale is the UN. So what's missing from mainstream news coverage of the UN, and can it save us from hell?!Subscribe to “To Save Us from Hell” at globaldispatches.org. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Siddhartha Corsus, and SFmusic. ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

On February 14, 2018, a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with an assault rifle he'd purchased legally. Hiding in a janitor's closet, David Hogg recorded his classmates on his phone. "I interviewed my classmates so that if we didn't make it out of there, hopefully our voices would carry on,” Hogg told NPR.” And it wouldn't be possible for the NRA and gun lobby to say, 'Oh, you can't talk about this. You're politicizing this.'”Seventeen students and staff died that day. Later that year, David Hogg co-founded March for Our Lives, and helped organize hundreds of thousands of young people to rally for an end to gun violence in the United States. In the years since, they've had some wins, including the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which enhanced background checks for 18 to 21 year-olds, and provided funding for community violence intervention and mental health services. Hogg's new project, Leaders We Deserve, helps young progressives run for office. This week, we're bringing you a recent interview with David Hogg from Democracy Works, a podcast about what it means to live in a democracy, from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. Something that stands out about Hogg, from our perspective as a podcast about peace, is how he works across the aisle to get laws passed. Like many in the peacebuilding field, Hogg recognizes that change is often incremental, and a compromise that will save lives is more useful than political gridlock.Democracy Works co-host Jenna Spinelle spoke with David Hogg on his trip to Penn State's campus this spring.You can find the original Democracy Works episode and a transcript here.Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

How do you measure peace in a country? Do you look at the rates of violent crime? Assess the justice system? What about freedom of the press, the health of the economy, or general happiness?  Today's guest, Steve Killelea, is the founder and Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace, an internationally renowned think tank. Each year, IEP publishes the Global Peace Index and the Positive Peace Index.  IEP researchers draw on reems of data to determine how the world is doing when it comes to peace. They also study the elements that make for peaceful societies: things like strong social cohesion, satisfaction with living standards, and resilience to crisis.  IEPs work promotes peace as a positive, and achievable state of well being. It also serves as a kind of warning system in times like the one we're living in, where violent conflict is on the rise in many parts of the globe. Visit visionofhumanity.org/peace-academy to take IEP's free short course on positive peace. Music in this episode by Joel Cummins, Jesse Gallagher and SFmusic. ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

Vanessa Bassil is the founder and president of the Media Association for Peace, and has personally trained journalists and journalism students in Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East. She is currently in graduate school at the University of Bonn in Germany, working towards a PhD in Peace Journalism. Peace Journalism, the guiding practice behind Media Association for Peace, (MAP) is when editors and reporters make choices—of what to report, and how to report it—that create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict. Growing up in an insulated Christian community in the wake of the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), Vanessa never had the opportunity to meet a Lebanese Muslim. As a rookie journalist, instead of working inside of one of her country's ethnic media silos, she chose independence. She was drawn towards peacebuilding, and would report on camps that brought together groups of Sunni and Shia Muslims and Christians in the mountains. With the founding of MAP in 2013, Vanessa created a space where journalists learn to report on Lebanon's divisive issues – including an economic crisis, the difficulties of hosting Syrian refugees, and LGBTQ rights – in ways that are nuanced and depolarizing. Watch videos produced by MAP to break stereotypes about Syrian refugees (Arabic with English subtitles)The Genius Syrian RefugeeMyassar, the Woman Who Never Gives UpThe Robot TeamWatch Vanessa Bassil's webinar presentation to learn more about MAP (about 15 minutes)To learn more about Peace Journalism, listen to our episode with Steven Youngblood, founding director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism at Park University, and now Making Peace Visible's Director of Education.  ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

William Ury is one of the world's most influential peacebuilders and experts on negotiation. He advised Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos in the lead up to that country's historic 2016 peace agreement with the FARC, and played a key role in de-escalating nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea in 2017. Getting to Yes, which Ury co-wrote with Roger Fisher back in 1981, is the world's best selling book on negotiation. Ury co-founded the Program on Negotiation at Harvard, as well as the Abraham Path Initiative, an NGO that builds walking trails connecting communities in the Middle East. His new book is called Possible: How we Survive - and Thrive - in an Age of Conflict. It's filled with incredible stories from Bill's career. In this episode, Bill talks about how lessons from the failures and success of the past – in places like Northern Ireland, Colombia, and the Middle East – can be instructive when dealing with the conflicts of today.  He shares exciting ideas about how journalists can tell stories about peace. What's more, his insights on managing conflict can be applied anywhere from the UN to the boardroom to your own family. William Ury's ideas aren't easy to implement –  in fact they're incredibly challenging. Ury says conflicts don't end, but they can be transformed, from fighting with weapons to hashing differences out in a democratic process. And if Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Colombia – places where people said violent conflict would go on forever – could transform their conflicts, then there's hope for the seemingly “impossible” conflicts of today. Music in this episode by Joel Cummins, Podington Bear, Kevin MacLeod, Meavy Boy, and Faszo. ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

When India-based reporter Amy Yee got a call from her editor to cover a press conference with the Dalai Lama, she stopped what she was doing and booked the next flight. She was headed for Dharamsala, where the Buddhist leader and thousands of Tibetan refugees make their home. It was March 2008, and the Dalai Lama was responding to violence in Tibet, where demonstrations against Chinese rule led to a government crackdown. At least 120 people had died, mostly ethnic Tibetans.  On that first visit to Dharamsala, Yee was struck by the throngs of Tibetans protesting peacefully in the streets. She was also surprised when the Dalai Lama approached her after the press conference, asked if she was Chinese, and embraced her in a warm hug.  A few months later, Yee quit her job at the Financial Times and moved to this small city in the foothills of the Himalayas as a freelance reporter. She writes that “Dharamsala is more than an ethnic enclave; it's a unique microcosm of a culture fighting for survival.” Her new book, Far from the Rooftop of the World: Travels among Tibetan Refugees on Four Continents follows the stories of ordinary Tibetans who have lived extraordinary lives. It also documents this community in exile: its education system, self-expression, and non-violent resistance.  In this second episode in our series on refugees and immigration, we take a look at what it means to build a new life, when you may never be able to go home; and how Tibetans have forged their own path in India and elsewhere.  Music in this episode by Joel Cummins, One Man Book, and Podington Bear ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgWe want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Support this podcast

“Humans are not rational beings with emotions. In fact, we're just the opposite. We're emotionally based beings who can only think rationally. When we feel that our identities, as we see them, are understood and valued by others.”Those words from neuroscientist Bob Deutch triggered a lightbulb moment in the mind of Tim Phillips, a veteran peacebuilder and educator. This is what the field of conflict resolution had been missing: a science-based understanding of how the human brain works in conflict situations.  Over the past twelve years, Phillips has worked with neuroscientists and psychologists to integrate brain science into research and practice at Beyond Conflict, the peacebuilding organization that he founded in 1991 and where he serves as CEO. In this conversation, we focus on Beyond Conflict's research on dehumanization. If you perceive another person or group as less than human, it's much easier to justify violence against that group or person. Dehumanizing rhetoric – like describing people as animals or vermin – is often a precursor to violence.  But Phillips says if we can identify signs of dehumanization early on, we can make changes to decrease the likelihood of violent conflict. Phillips and host Jamil Simon also discuss the difference between fear and disgust – both motivators of conflict that are each processed differently in the brain and require different interventions. Plus, how Beyond Conflict has applied this research to create media interventions in Nigeria and the United States. And, how journalists can utilize knowledge of how the brain works to reach more people and avoid incitement. LEARN MOREWatch the video “America's Divided Mind” by Beyond ConflictRead key takeaways from Beyond Conflict's research on dehumanizationRead Beyond Conflict's Decoding Dehumanization policy brief Listen to our episode with psychologist Donna Hicks: “Dignity: A new way to look at conflict”Watch “How to Grow Peace Journalism” webinars from the George Washington University Media and Peacebuilding Project. Presentations from Making Peace Visible host Jamil Simon, education director Steven Youngblood, and  producer Andrea Muraskin in this video..  ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Support this podcast and the War Stories Peace Stories project

Intergenerational trauma, also called historical trauma, is defined as cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over the lifespan and across generations, emanating from massive group trauma experiences.The brutal October 7th attacks by Hamas inside of Israel, and the IDF's seemingly relentless assault on Gaza have captured the world's attention for the past six months. In this episode, we attempt to understand the psychological state that's developed over generations on both sides, which enables people to commit such violent acts. Our guest is Lydia Wilson, a research fellow at Oxford's Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge's Department of Middle Eastern Studies, and the Culture Editor at New Lines Magazine. Lydia has spent a good part of her career studying radicalization and the long-term psychological impact of violence on a population level.   LEARN MOREArticles by Lydia WilsonThe Psychology of the Intractable Israel-Palestine Conflict, New Lines Magazine, October 2023Jordan's Fragile Balancing Act, New Lines Magazine, December 2023What I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters, The Nation, October 2015Follow Lydia Wilson on X: @lsmwilson ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Support this podcast and the War Stories Peace Stories project

In the news media, war gets more headlines than peace, conflict more airtime than reconciliation. And in our polarized world, reporting on conflict in a way that frames conflicts as us vs. them, good vs. evil often serves to dig us in deeper. On Making Peace Visible, we speak with journalists and peacebuilders who help us understand the human side of conflicts and peace efforts around the world. From international negotiations in Colombia to gang violence disruptors in Chicago, to women advocating for their rights in the midst of the Syrian civil war, these are the storytellers who are changing the narrative.   Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories (www.warstoriespeacestories.org), and hosted by Boston-based documentary filmmaker Jamil Simon. ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Support this podcast and the War Stories Peace Stories project

After over two decades as a journalist, including ten years covering terrorism and disasters for TIME Magazine, Amanda Ripley thought she understood conflict. But when momentum started to build around the candidacy of Donald Trump, she questioned what she thought she knew. Ripley interviewed psychologists, mediators, and people who had made it out of seemingly intractable conflicts for her book, High Conflict: Why We Get Stuck and How We Get Out.  In this conversation with host Jamil Simon, she shares insights about how people in conflict can move forward, and how journalists can get at the "understory" of what's beneath any conflict. Order Amanda Ripley's book, High Conflict: Why We Get Stuck and How We Get Out. Watch Amanada's talk on High Conflict for The Alliance for Peacebuilding. Follow her column in the Washington Post. Find our episode on the Colombian peace process here. You can watch the documentary “A Call for Peace” for free here: vimeo.com/305983614. Enter password peace2019. Learn more at acallforpeace.org.Music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions and Pianobook.  ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Support this podcast and the War Stories Peace Stories project

We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Reza Sayah is an Iranian-American journalist, currently based in Tehran. He's reported on major events around the world including the Ukrainian Revolution of 2004, the Second Iraq War, and the Egyptian Revolution. Reza has spent much of his career working for major broadcast news networks including ABC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. In those roles, he's had to explain complicated conflicts - in the form of very brief segments. And he says the corporate news model often works to perpetuate conflicts. But, another way is possible. This episode was originally published in June 2022. Watch:Top Hamas official discusses Israel attack, Iran relations for PBS NewshourReza Sayah reports on Iran's Jewish community for PBS NewshourReza Sayah: How This Iran-Backed Militia Helped Save Iraq from ISIS for PBS NewshourReza Sayah's Tedx talk: How to Spot News that is NOT News ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! Support this podcast and the War Stories Peace Stories project

As of May 2023, there were an estimated 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Many are escaping wars, gang violence or repressive regimes, others are fleeing climate change impacts. Some are leaving collapsed economies where they can't feed their families. How journalists cover refugees and immigration has a major impact on public perceptions. This is the first in a series of episodes looking at the intersection of journalism, refugees and immigration because it's such an important issue, and because how journalists report on it has such a strong impact on public attitudes.Guest Dina Francesca Haynes is an immigration and human rights attorney with decades of experience around the world. She worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Rwanda, among other international organizations. She's personally represented hundreds of asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking. Haynes also writes for publications like The Jurist and The Hill, and has served as an expert source for journalists at CNN, Vice News, NPR, and other news outlets. She is the founder and president of the legal aid organization Refugee Projects, and directs the Immigration Law Certificate Program at New England Law. In this interview, she shares moving stories about clients trying to escape war and human trafficking; as well as advice for both journalists and activists on how to communicate fairly and accurately about immigration in a highly politicized atmosphere. LEARN MOREVisit refugeeprojects.org, and follow on Instagram @refugeeprojects.Read Dina Haynes' article in Jurist: Rule of Law Chronicles: Migration, Xenophobia and the Immigrant Other (May 2023)Read the Vice News article on human trafficking in Afghanistan quoting Dina Haynes: The Anti-Trafficking Movement Is Pivoting to Afghanistan (October 2021)Music in this episode by Poddington Bear, Bill Vortex, Meavy Boy and Doyeq.  ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. Support this show and the War Stories Peace Stories project

On Making Peace Visible, we are always questioning the mantra, if it bleeds, it leads. Boston's Charles Stuart murder case is a classic example of what can go horribly wrong when you follow that mantra.    Charles Stuart was a father-to-be from the suburbs of Boston. Shortly after attending a birthing class in the city with his wife, Carol, Charles Stuart placed a 911 call. The couple had both been shot in their car. Stuart said a Black man pulled the trigger. Carol died from her injuries the next day. She and Charles were white, and the reaction from authorities was worlds away from what usually happened when a Black person was shot in Boston. Mayor Ray Flynn asked the police commissioner to assign every available detective to the case. Police immediately began raiding the homes of Black residents and conducting strip searches of young Black men in the Mission Hill area. With TV news playing and replaying the 911 call and a photo of the Stewarts bleeding on the front page of the Boston Herald the next day, a media circus ensued. But two months later - when Charles Stuart died by jumping off a bridge – it quickly became clear he was in fact the killer. This episode, we're joined by Adrian Walker, an associate editor and columnist at the Boston Globe who was a rookie reporter there at the time of the Stuart case. Walker headed up a team of investigative reporters who recently revisited this story in a new and fascinating way. In the podcast Murder in Boston, and web series Nightmare in Mission Hill, investigative reporters at the Globe brought new evidence to light – like law enforcement officials who knew about Stuart's guilt, but kept quiet. The podcast and the report also give voice to the family of Willie Bennett, the Black man who was the Boston police's prime suspect. In this retelling, Walker – who hosts the podcast, – and other journalists discuss the media's shortcomings in covering the Charles Stuart story, and how the news reports often fanned the flames of racial tension around it. The project also offers a blueprint for how journalists can help bring about healing following community trauma. Listen to the podcast, Murder in BostonRead the web series, Nightmare in Mission HillThis episode was edited by Faith McClure, and we had production help from Kristin Nelson. Special thanks to Lazzaro. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions  ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. Support this show and the War Stories Peace Stories project

In this episode we're featuring a recent interview with our host, documentary filmmaker and lifelong peace activist Jamil Simon on This is My Silver Lining, a podcast about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, with an emphasis on life's unexpected twists.Jamil has certainly had plenty of those. In 1990 he took a job in Tunisia designing communication strategies to promote water conservation and family planning. He would go on to promote social and environmental reform in 25 developing countries. Through these experiences, Jamil became convinced that peace efforts must become more visible and that journalism is the most powerful way to advance positive change globally. In 2018, he organized a symposium in New York City titled War Stories, Peace Stories: Peace, Conflict, and the Media, which brought together peace builders and journalists for a dialogue on covering war and violence more thoughtfully. It was this symposium that inspired Jamil to launch his podcast, in order to continue these important conversations. Jamil was awarded the 2019 Luxembourg Peace Prize for his work building global awareness of peaceful solutions to conflict. Jamil has also protested the Vietnam War, hitchhiked from Mexico City to de Janeiro, and driven a taxi cab, and that's just scratching the surface. Find This is My Silver Lining wherever you get your podcasts and at thisismysilverlining.com.Listen to previous Making Peace Episodes referenced in this interview:Building peace on a walk through the Middle East with Anisa Mehdi and Joshua Weiss from the Abraham Path Initiative Un-embedding Western narratives about Afghanistan with Dutch journalist Bette DamThis episode was edited and produced by John Keur at Wayfare Recordings, with additional production by Andrea Muraskin. Special thanks to Lauren Passel. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Xylo-Ziko.  ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. Support this show and the War Stories Peace Stories project

Making Peace Visible is a show about how the media covers peace and conflict. One of the major reasons we make it is because peace gets so little coverage in the news media. When we do hear news about peace, it's usually focused on signing an agreement. When that's done, the cameras, and the world's attention move on.  But that handshake moment is just a fragment in a peace process. It often takes years of building trust and openness between warring parties to get to an agreement. And then more years after, to transition from violent conflict towards a political process; and see if peace can stick, and whether the grievances that led to war in the first place are being addressed.  The slow speed and complexity of these processes may not lend themselves to mainstream news formats. But they are happening, and we're missing out on valuable lessons in reconciliation that can be adapted to other conflicts around the world.  That's why we invited Jonathan Cohen, executive director of the peacebuilding organization Conciliation Resources, or CR. In this episode, he shares stories from two ongoing peace processes: In Ethiopia, an ethnic Somali state called Ogaden. And on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, a new autonomous region called Bangsamoro.  You'll also hear about CR's work in Nagorno-Karabakh, where journalists from both sides – Armenian and Azeri – collaborated to make documentaries about that conflict. And we'll discuss why this kind of storytelling still matters, even after most of the region's Armenians were displaced during an Azerbaijani offensive in September 2023.LEARN MOREParts of a Circle: Nagorny Karabakh conflict documentary series (Scroll to bottom to watch 2019 Summary Film)Ethiopia: persisting with peace – short film about Ogaden peace processSouthern Philippines: Making Peace Stick in the Bangsamoro – May 2023 Crisis Group reportMusic in this episode by Bill Vortex ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. Support this show and the War Stories Peace Stories project

Between democracy and autocracy is an anocracy, defined by political scientists as a country that has elements of both forms of government — usually one that's on the way up to becoming a full democracy or on the way down to full autocracy. This messy middle is the state when civil wars are most likely to start, and the one that requires the most diligence from that country's citizens to prevent a civil war from breaking out.This week we're featuring an interview from our friends at Democracy Works, a podcast about what it means to live in a democracy  from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. Host Jenna Spinelle speaks with  Barbara F. Walter, political scientist and author of the book How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them. Walter has spent decades studying civil wars around the world and working with other political scientists to quantify how strong democracy is in a given country. The interview covers those findings, how the democratic health of the United States has shifted over the past decade, and more.Barbara F. Walter is the Rohr Professor of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy & Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and completed post docs at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University and the War and Peace Institute at Columbia University.LEARN MORE:How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop ThemBarbara F. Walter on TwitterWe need your help to continue producing Making Peace Visible. Make a one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation here. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org.

In the United States, about one sixth of the federal budget goes to defense. This year the country spent more on the military than any year since 2001 – over $816 billion. Why does spending continue to rise in the wake of US withdrawal from Afghanistan?  Why are many Americans so passive in the face of the massive expenditures for defense that crowd out spending on human needs like education, healthcare and infrastructure? Why does much of the media accept the status quo? And is all of this spending making Americans and the world any safer?Our guest to help tackle these questions is anthropologist Stephanie Savell. Savell is the Co-Director of Costs of War at Brown University, an interdisciplinary research project focused on the impact of the post 9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond; the U.S. global military footprint; and the domestic effects of US military spending. Savell's own research highlights US military involvement around the world, most notably in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. In many of these places, American assistance has served to fuel existing conflicts, and provided governments with tools and justification to target Muslim populations. But, Savell says, it doesn't have to be this way. We need your help to continue making this podcast. Make a one-time or recurring tax-deductible donation here. Read the first issue of our new journal NUANCE. MORE FROM COSTS OF WARStephanie Savell's map of US counterterrorism operations 2021-2023The Costs of United States' Post-9/11 “Security Assistance”: How Counterterrorism Intensified Conflict in Burkina Faso and Around the World by Stephanie Savell Why Media Conflation of Activism with Terrorism Has Dire Consequences: The Case of Cop City by Deepa Kumar ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at warstoriespeacestories.org. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Xylo-Ziko

Trey Kay knows both sides of America's partisan divide intimately. He was born and raised  in a conservative family in Charleston, West Virginia. As a young man he moved to New York City, where he later became a producer on the arts and culture program Studio 360, at WNYC. These days, Trey splits his time between New York and West Virginia to make Us & Them, an award-winning  narrative podcast about America's culture wars, in partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting. On Us & Them, Trey treats people with respect, he listens carefully to their point of view whether he agrees or not, and he facilitates conversations that might not otherwise happen. A guiding value is empathy – no matter who the interviewee happens to be.  This episode was originally published in May 2023. EPISODES OF US AND THEM EXCERPTED IN THIS EPISODE, with photos and additional contextThe Gun DivideCritical Race TheoryPlease Pass the PoliticsSubscribe to Us & Them on your podcast player HOW TO RATE AND REVIEW MAKING PEACE VISIBLEIn Apple Podcasts on iPhone Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageScroll down to the "Ratings and Reviews" sectionTo leave a rating only, tap on the starsTo leave a review, tap "Write a Review" In Spotify(Note: Spotify ratings are currently only available on mobile.)Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageTap on the star icon under the podcast description to rate the show In Podcast Addict(Note: you may need to sign in before leaving a review.)From the episode page: On the top left above the show description, click "Post review."From the main podcast pageTap "Reviews" on the top left.On the Reviews page,  tap the icon of a pen and paper in the top right corner of the screen. ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Write to us at jsimon@warstoriespeacestories.org. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure.Music in this episode by Doctor Turtle

Western media has often referred to India as the world's largest democracy. But during the last decade, the world has witnessed the decline of many democratic institutions in India. In a recent Time Magazine article our guest Suchitra Vijayan questions whether India can still be called a democracy.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have been especially harsh towards critics of the regime, including journalists. Journalists who have criticized the government have been harassed, detained, imprisoned, and even murdered. Meanwhile, 75% or more of news organizations are now owned by 4 or 5 large corporations, all led by allies of Modi. As you'll hear in this episode, today's Indian government uses complicit media outlets as a weapon against non-violent descent. Suchitra Vijayan is a journalist and attorney based in New York City. Her new book, How Long Can the Moon be Caged? co-authored with Francesca Recchia, tells the stories of political prisoners in India today, including artists, activists, academics, and journalists. Vijayan is also the founder and executive director of the Polis Project, a journalism and research organization focused on authoritarianism and state oppression. She was born and raised in Madras, also known as Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Read Vijayan's reporting in The Nation about the government's targeting of Kashmir's free press.Something we didn't have time to include in this episode is the legacy of journalism and activism in Suchitra Vijayan's family. That includes her grandfather, who took part in India's freedom struggle – and became one of the new country's first political prisoners. You can find that story and more in our newsletter, which publishes on Thursday, November 9th. To sign up, go to warstoriespeacestories.org/contact. If you're reading this after that day, email us at info@warstoriespeacestories.org, and we'll be happy to forward it to you. Making Peace Visible is produced by Andrea Muraskin. We had editing help on this episode from Faith McClure. Peter Agoos is the creative director of the War Stories Peace Stories Project. Our host is Jamil Simon.Listen to a recent interview with Jamil on the podcast This is My Silver Lining: Learning to Walk in the Shoes of Another:  a Prayer for Peace with Documentary Filmmaker and Podcaster Jamil Simon.. The New York-born son of Iraqi Jewish immigrants, Jamil's curiosity about the world had him traveling independently from the age of 15. In this interview, Jamil talks about discovering his love for film and photography, working on communications projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and developing the War Stories Peace Stories project – including this podcast – to illuminate peace efforts. Plus, twists and turns along the way, including a stint as a taxi driver in Boston. Find This is My Silver Lining wherever you listen to podcasts. If you find this show valuable, please consider supporting our work. Visit warstoriespeacestories.org/take-action. You can choose a one-time or a recurring tax-deductible donation.  Thank you. Music in this episode by Siddhartha Corsus and Blue Dot Sessions

On Making Peace Visible we usually focus on stories -- narratives about peace and conflict that are told in the news, on social media, and shared in our collective zeitgeist. We've seen examples of how storytelling can both stoke the fire of war and encourage peaceful dialogue. In this episode, we look at a different, but related way of creating space for peace: design. Our guest Cynthia Smith is the Curator for Socially Responsible Design at the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City. She spent five years creating the remarkable exhibition Designing Peace, which includes 40 design proposals, initiatives and interventions from 25 countries, including maps, images, textiles, video games and film.From a teeter-totter installed on the US-Mexico border fence to a crowd-sourced reimagining of war-damaged Damascus, the works in Designing Peace coupled with Smith's vision present a world of possibility. Designing Peace is on view at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco through February 4, 2024. Explore the virtual exhibit here. Purchase the beautiful companion book here. RATE AND REVIEW: In Apple Podcasts on iPhone Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageScroll down to the "Ratings and Reviews" sectionTo leave a rating only, tap on the starsTo leave a review, tap "Write a Review"In Spotify(Note: Spotify ratings are currently only available on mobile.)Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageTap on the star icon under the podcast description to rate the showIn Podcast Addict(Note: you may need to sign in before leaving a review.)From the episode page: On the top left above the show description, click "Post review."From the main podcast pageTap "Reviews" on the top left.On the Reviews page,  tap the icon of a pen and paper in the top right corner of the screen.ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is produced by Andrea Muraskin and hosted by Jamil Simon. Faith McClure writes our newsletter and designs our website. Creative direction by Peter Agoos. Music in this episode by Xylo-Ziko, Doyeq, and Blanket Music. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when episodes come out and learn more about our guests: warstoriespeacestories.org/contact. You can get in touch with us at jsimon@warstoriespeacestories.org, or on X @warstoriespeace. We're also on LinkedIn. 

One way to cover war is to follow the road offered by the dominant army. In Afghanistan, that often meant journalists were embedded with U.S. or NATO troops, and saw the war and the world around it through their eyes. Guest Bette Dam is a Dutch journalist who covered the war in Afghanistan for 15 years. She began her coverage in 2006, embedded with the Dutch troops fighting there. She's the author of two books: Looking for the Enemy, Mullah Omar and the Unknown Taliban, and A Man in a Motorcycle, How Hamid Karzai Came to Power. Dam also teaches a class called "Unlearning Afghanistan" at Sciences Po in Paris, and is working on a PhD at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels on the role of media in conflict. In the course of her reporting Dam realized that most Western journalists were providing a distorted view of the war. It left out the perspective of the Afghan people, and made the country appear more dangerous than it really was. And Dam says the press missed opportunities to hold the U.S. and NATO to account for major blunders – including overlooking the fact that the Taliban surrendered in December 2001. More than 2,000 have died and over 9,000 have been injured in an earthquake that hit western Afghanistan on Saturday, October 7. Dam is partnering with Sense of Humanity and Learn Afghanistan to raise funds for medical aid, food and shelter. Help provide medical aid, food and shelter by donating here. **Copy this link to share this episode anywhere**MORE FROM BETTE DAMTEDx talk: The shortcomings of war reportingBette's SubstackFollow Bette on X (formerly Twitter) ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is produced by Andrea Muraskin and hosted by Jamil Simon. Faith McClure writes our newsletter and designs our website. Creative direction by Peter Agoos. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Zero V, and Doyeq. Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when episodes come out and learn more about our guests: warstoriespeacestories.org/contact. 

We talk a lot on this show about the reasons why peace and conflict resolution aren't more visible in the news media and our public conversation.Our past guests have presented a variety of explanations: TV news segments are too short to talk about much beyond dramatic events, like battles and coups. For-profit media doesn't cover peace efforts because there's not enough interest in peace to attract advertisers. Conflict and divisiveness drive revenue on social media platforms. Professionals in the peacebuilding field speak in jargon that's not easily accessible to the average person. Or maybe, seeing so much violence in the news, has audiences thinking that peace isn't even possible, and therefore not worth working for. Given all these challenges, we thought it was time to speak with someone whose job it is to make peace more visible.Jack Farrell is Director of Communications for Search for Common Ground,  the world's largest peacebuilding organization, with offices in 40 countries. Part of working in communications at an organization like Search is putting human lives before stories – Jack says many of the best stories about peacebuilding never reach the public to protect the safety of the people involved. Nevertheless, peacebuilding NGOs can and do play an important role in the media. With over a decade of experience in nonprofit communications and politics and an eye towards the future, Jack has valuable advice for anyone looking to amplify their message, while exercising sensitivity and humility. To get to know Jack a little better, sign up for our email newsletter, where we've got a more personal Q & A that you won't find on the podcast. Subscribe at warstoriespeacestories.org/contact. Email Jack Farrell at jfarrell@sfcg.org and find him on X (formerly Twitter) @JackWFarrell. You can get in touch with us at jsimon@warstoriespeacestories.org, or on X @warstoriespeace. We're also on LinkedIn. How to rate and review our show:In Apple Podcasts on iPhone Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageScroll down to the "Ratings and Reviews" sectionTo leave a rating only, tap on the starsTo leave a review, tap "Write a Review"In Spotify(Note: Spotify ratings are currently only available on mobile.)Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageTap on the star icon under the podcast description to rate the showIn Podcast Addict(Note: you may need to sign in before leaving a review.)From the episode page: On the top left above the show description, click "Post review."From the main podcast pageTap "Reviews" on the top left.On the Reviews page,  tap the icon of a pen and paper in the top right corner of the screen.About usMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin with help from Faith McClure.  Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

If you're interested in learning about how peace gets made and unmade and then remade, Colombia is an amazing laboratory. Guest Elizabeth Dickinson is a senior analyst with the Crisis Group in Colombia. Dickinson spends her days in discussion with communities most affected by the civil war, as well as former FARC members. She and her colleagues use information gathered in the field to make policy recommendations to the government and help facilitate dialogues. Before entering the conflict prevention field, Dickinson worked as a journalist, reporting for The Economist and Foreign Policy Magazine. In this episode Dickinson paints a picture of a country in the midst of slow and difficult reforms. In the years since the FARC and the government signed a peace accord in 2016, putting an end to 50 years of violent conflict, breakthroughs in peace continue to happen. At the same time, armed groups who have taken the place of the FARC extort communities and fight each other. Violence between the military and guerrillas has decreased in the past year, but clashes between armed groups have increased since Gustavo Petro took the presidency in August 2022. According to one analysis, violence between these groups has risen 85% since Petro was inaugurated. However in August 2023, Petro's government began a six-month ceasefire with the National Liberation Army, or ELN, an important armed group. Dickinson says the most important peacebuilding work is taking place at the community level, and she's seen it with her own eyes. For more on the evolution of peace in Colombia, check out our previous episodes: Spotlight Colombia: After demilitarization, a new narrative with journalist Daniel SalgarSpotlight Colombia: Behind the scenes of making peace with documentary filmmaker Juan Carlos BorreroLearn more about Elizabeth Dickinson:Twitter: @dickinsonbethProfile from Crisis Group: "I love understanding people. And I love listening to toads sing at night in the countryside"Recent news and analysis on peace and conflict in Colombia:Colombia's 'Total Peace' 1 Year On: Less State Violence, Stronger Criminal Groups from Insight CrimeColombian gang leaders announce talks to address urban violence from Al JazeeraThe secret to Colombia's drop in deforestation? Armed groups from Al JazeeraHow to rate and review our show:In Apple Podcasts on iPhone Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageScroll down to the "Ratings and Reviews" sectionTo leave a rating only, tap on the starsTo leave a review, tap "Write a Review"In Spotify(Note: Spotify ratings are currently only available on mobile.)Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageTap on the star icon under the podcast description to rate the showIn Podcast Addict(Note: you may need to sign in before leaving a review.)From the episode page: On the top left above the show description, click "Post review."From the main podcast pageTap "Reviews" on the top left.On the Reviews page,  tap the icon of a pen and paper in the top right corner of the screen.About usMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin with help from Faith McClure. Special thanks to Samantha Schmidt. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Doyeq, Poddington Bear, One Man Book, and Kevin MacLeod.

After the peace agreement their leaders signed with the Colombian government in September 2016, members of the FARC guerilla group began turning in their weapons to the UN. In exchange, rank-and-file members received amnesty for acts of violence they committed during the country's long civil war. They could leave their jungle encampments and rejoin society – go to work or school like any other citizen. The FARC ceased to be a group of guerilla fighters and became a political party, with members even serving in congress. But many Colombians saw the FARC as enemies, and were not ready to integrate them into society so quickly. Just over half of voters rejected the agreement in a referendum. Some ex-combatants were killed.  And in 2018, the country elected Iván Duque, a vocal opponent of the peace accord. But peace takes time. And our guest Daniel Salgar says that over time, more Colombians, including many journalists, have begun to accept former guerillas as members of society, rather than enemies. The election of President Gustavo Petro in 2022, who ran on the peace agreement, reflects that mindset shift.Salgar counts himself among a generation of journalists who spent most of their careers covering peace efforts. When we spoke with him last year, he was wrapping up a job as an editor for the Colombia Truth Commission Report, which shed light on decades of atrocities and human rights violations that were committed during the civil war. Before working for the Truth Commission, he was a reporter and editor at the newspaper El Espectador, where he oversaw a project on peacebuilding called Colombia 2020. Salgar also served as editor and director of the Spanish news service for Anadalou, a Turkish international news agency. Now working in communications for ACNUR Colombia/ UNHCR, Salgar says he continues to be optimistic about the implementation of the 2016 agreement and the possibility of peace with other guerilla groups in his country. The original version of this episode was published in September 2022. Follow Daniel Salgar on Twitter: @DanielSalgar1View the Colombia Truth Commission Report (in Spanish) Read Daniel Salgar's interview with former FARC leader Timochenco (in English)Read Daniel's analysis piece on drug policy in Colombia (in Spanish) Explore the peacebuilding journalism project Colombia 2020 (Now Colombia +20) (in Spanish)Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Visit our website: warstoriespeacestories.orgMaking Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin.Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Phil Larson, Meavy Boy, Podington Bear, Pianobook, and Kevin Mac Leod

A main premise of our podcast is that peace efforts are invisible in the mainstream media, or certainly not visible enough. But one place that has grabbed at least some of the world's attention, is the peace process in Colombia. In 2016, after repeated failed negotiations, the FARC guerilla organization finally signed a peace deal with the government. After fifty years of war, militants turned in their weapons and they began a process of reintegration into society.Our guest, filmmaker and Bogotá native Juan Carlos Borrero, used to run from the guerillas when filming in the Colombian countryside. Everyone he knew had a family member who had been kidnapped or killed. He never thought he'd see peace between the government and the FARC.  Borrero's documentary film “A Call for Peace” tells the story of the peace process in Colombia, through interviews with peace builders who played key roles behind the scenes. Skilled negotiators from places like Northern Ireland, Israel, and El Salvador shared their experience and counsel with then-President Juan Manuel Santos.  The implementation of the agreement has been rocky, with continuing violence surrounding the drug trade, and victims still waiting for reparations. In August 2022, newly elected President Gustavo Petro announced a campaign called “Total Peace.” He said he would work to follow through on the promises of the 2016 agreement, and to forge peace agreements with other militant groups. Just last week, leaders of the guerilla group ELN arrived in Bogotá, amidst negotiations – a historic show of cooperation with the government. But on the same day, President Petro's son Nicolás  confessed to receiving illicit donations to his fathers' campaign.  Despite setbacks, there's no doubt that the 2016 peace agreement was a significant achievement that offers hope and a new way forward for Colombians. This is the first episode in our Spotlight Colombia series, where we look at Colombia as a laboratory of peace, from the 2016 agreement to Petro's election, to today. We first recorded this interview with Juan Carlos Borrero in May 2022. Watch "A Call for Peace."Follow Juan Carlos Borrero on X (formerly Twitter) @juancborrero1SHARE THIS EPISODECopy and paste this link: https://bit.ly/MPVcall HOW TO RATE AND REVIEW MAKING PEACE VISIBLEIn Apple Podcasts on iPhone Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageScroll down to the "Ratings and Reviews" sectionTo leave a rating only, tap on the starsTo leave a review, tap "Write a Review"In Spotify(Note: Spotify ratings are currently only available on mobile.)Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageTap on the star icon under the podcast description to rate the showIn Podcast Addict(Note: you may need to sign in before leaving a review.)From the episode page: On the top left above the show description, click "Post review."From the main podcast pageTap "Reviews" on the top left.On the Reviews page,  tap the icon of a pen and paper in the top right corner of the screen.ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Write to us at jsimon@warstoriespeacestories.org. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure.Music in this episode by MARiAN.

“The one embedded bias that we definitely have when we get up every day to cover the news anew is that we're biased for democracy. Let's just admit that. So if you're biased for democracy, then you have to be biased for racial justice, because racial justice is embedded in the democratic promise.” - Deborah DouglasSome of the most polarized debates in the United States today stem from issues of race, from policing to how history should be taught in schools. Our guest this episode, award-winning American journalist Deborah Douglas, believes the answer to polarization isn't to cloister ourselves in so-called “safe spaces.” Rather, she sees journalism as a “brave space” to excavate the impact of America's racial history on the current moment. Like previous guests Amanda Ripley and David Bornstein, Douglas practices Solutions Journalism – which looks at how systems work to solve social problems – and how they could work better for more people. Deborah Douglas is the Director of the Midell Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub at Northwestern University in Chicago. She's also the author of US Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler's Guide to the People, Places and Events that Made the Movement. In the past, she's been co-editor In chief of The Emancipator, founding managing editor of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, and much more. Find Deborah Douglas on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @debofficialy. Learn more at debofficially.com. SHARE THIS EPISODECopy and paste this link: https://bit.ly/MPVDouglas HOW TO RATE AND REVIEW MAKING PEACE VISIBLEIn Apple Podcasts on iPhone Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageScroll down to the "Ratings and Reviews" sectionTo leave a rating only, tap on the starsTo leave a review, tap "Write a Review"In Spotify(Note: Spotify ratings are currently only available on mobile.)Tap on the show name (Making Peace Visible) to navigate to the main podcast pageTap on the star icon under the podcast description to rate the showIn Podcast Addict(Note: you may need to sign in before leaving a review.)From the episode page: On the top left above the show description, click "Post review."From the main podcast pageTap "Reviews" on the top left.On the Reviews page,  tap the icon of a pen and paper in the top right corner of the screen.ABOUT THE SHOWMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Write to us at jsimon@warstoriespeacestories.org. Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure.Music in this episode by Xylo-Ziko, Doyeq, and Blue Dot Sessions