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We are back with another episode in our What Do We Mean By series, this time unpacking what we mean by dialogue. Host Lillian Koizumi speaks with Dr. Olivier Urbain about Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy and practice of dialogue, why Ikeda viewed dialogue as essential to peacebuilding, how we can engage in meaningful dialogue in this age of division, and much more.  Dr. Olivier Urbain is the director of the Min-On Music Research Institute (MOMRI) in Tokyo, Japan. He is the editor of the first volume dedicated to the topic of music in peacebuilding, Music and Conflict Transformation (2008). His main source of inspiration is the philosophy and practice of dialogue of Daisaku Ikeda, the founder of the Min-On Concert Association. Publications on this topic include Daisaku Ikeda’s Philosophy of Peace: Dialogue, Transformation and Global Citizenship (2010), as well as “Peacebuilding 2020” in the journal Music & Arts in Action (2020). His most recent publication, co-authored with Michael Golden, is titled “Musicking, Consciousness, and Peacebuilding” (2026), published open access in the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Resources from the episode:  Daisaku Ikeda’s Philosophy of Peace: Dialogue, Transformation and Global Citizenship by Olivier UrbainMin-On Music Research Institute“The Flowering of Creative Life Force” by Daisaku Ikeda  Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

In this episode, our 2026 Summer Program Intern, Becca Faber, and Ikeda Center Peace Research Fellow, George Koichi Wong, explore the Japanese concept of ikigai, what it means to find our purpose in life, and the role that inner dialogue can play in that journey. Becca also speaks with other Ikeda Center staff about what purpose means to them and how their own experiences have shaped their understanding of it. Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

In this episode, our 2026 summer program intern Becca Faber talks with nuclear disarmament experts Joe Hodgkin and Molly McGinty about how they found their way into the field, what has sustained their involvement over the years, and how they engage with those who come from different perspectives. They also explore some common assumptions and opinions about nuclear weapons and how they approach conversations around those widely held beliefs.  Dr. Joe Hodgkin is an attending hospitalist physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He is on the national board of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and is the co-chair of its Greater Boston chapter.  In his work with these organizations, as well as with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Back from the Brink, he is involved in medical and peer education about the health effects of nuclear weapons, youth and medical trainee engagement, lobbying for disarmament and de-escalatory nuclear policy, and physician “Track II” diplomacy to promote peace in the medical and scientific communities across borders. He is committed to a world without nuclear weapons. Molly McGinty joined the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) in 2019 as a Quaker Voluntary Service Fellow and has remained on staff since the completion of the program. She graduated from Salisbury University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and Gender & Sexuality Studies, where she engaged in advocacy on police demilitarization and anti-human trafficking policy. It was through these positions that she came to understand the power of grassroots organizing and youth-led movements. As Program Director, Molly coordinates IPPNW’s work on educating the public and decision-makers on the medical and humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, promoting the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and supporting our medical student movement and youth partners. She is on the International Steering Group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the Board of the Nuclear Truth Project, and was previously on the Steering Committee of Youth for TPNW.   Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

We are back with another episode in our What Do We Mean By..? series, this time unpacking the concept of value creation. Host Lillian Koizumi is joined by Dr. Nozomi Inukai, Translation, Research, and Instruction Faculty at the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University. In the episode, Dr. Inukai offers an in-depth and accessible explanation of what value creation means, how it can be put into practice, and what a value-creating society could look like.  Dr. Inukai is also a former Japanese-English bilingual education elementary teacher and was a 2018-2020 Education Fellow at the Ikeda Center. She earned her PhD in Curriculum Studies from DePaul and has published in multiple edited volumes and scholarly journals including Schools: Studies in Education, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, and others. References from episode:  Goulah, Jason, ‘Value Creation and Value-Creating Education in the Work of Daisaku Ikeda, Josei Toda, and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’ (26 May 2021), in Kathy Hytten (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (New York, NY, online edn, Oxford Academic, 9 June 2016 - ), https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1137   Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

Happy 2026! We are starting the year with another episode of “And the dialogue continues…” This time, Lillian talks with Preandra and the Center’s new Peace Research Fellow, George Koichi Wong, about our recent Dialogue Nights. Tune in to hear about how Dialogue Nights attendees created their own 30-day challenge vision calendar and what inner dialogue looks like for George and Preandra.  For more information on Dialogue Nights, visit the page here.  Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

We are back with another episode in our What Do We Mean By series, this time unpacking what we mean by hope. Host Lillian Koizumi delves into the concept and introduces Daisaku Ikeda’s writings and perspectives on hope. She also invites Ikeda Center’s Program and Office Assistant Preandra Noel to share what hope means to her, how she cultivates and sustains it in her life, and how we can continue to have hope in seemingly hopeless times.  Learn more about the Center’s perspectives on hope here: https://www.ikedacenter.org/resources/what-do-we-mean-hope  Resource from episode: Hope is a Decision: Selected Essays of Daisaku Ikeda. Middleway Press.    Music attribution:  Podcast Music “Space” Podington Bear Soundofpicture.com   To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

In April of this year (2025), several staff members of the Ikeda Center visited the city of Nagasaki in Japan. During their time there, they had the opportunity to visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Monument, the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, and other sites impacted by the US bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. They also had a chance to meet with several hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) to learn about their experiences as well as their efforts to advance peace. In the episode, host Lillian Koizumi is joined by Center staff Kevin Maher (Executive Director), Alexander Harang (Senior Peace Researcher), Anri Khare (Outreach Manager), and Preandra Noel (Program and Office Assistant). Together, they reflect on their learnings and takeaways from visiting this beautiful city and how they hope to continue this work at the Center.  Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

In recent years,  folks in our community have expressed deeper challenges when it comes to engaging in dialogue across differences and having difficult conversations. With this in mind, this episode explores how we might navigate these interactions  through the Center’s dialogue commitments and ground rules, which are informed by Daisaku Ikeda’s dialogic ethos and strategies.  In the episode, you’ll hear two scripted dialogues, followed by reflections by Ikeda Center staff (Lillian Koizumi, Anri Khare, Preandra Noel, and Sophia Robertson). Together, they explore how the dialogues went, what could have gone better, and ways we can practice genuine dialogue in our daily lives.   Read about the Center’s dialogue commitments here. Read about the Center’s ground rules for genuine dialogue here. Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

In this episode, host Lillian Koizumi talks with nuclear disarmament experts and educators Brennan Tierney and Masako Toki about their personal journeys, what inspired them to pursue this work, their thoughts on the role education plays in creating a nuclear-free world, the role of young people in the disarmament movement, and much more.  Brennan is a public school civics teacher and is passionate about building students’ capacity and leadership to create positive change in their communities. In 2024, he received the Richard Aieta Award for Promising New Teacher from the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies. Brennan also serves as a Development Consultant with Back from the Brink, a national grassroots campaign working toward a world free of nuclear weapons, and as a Program Assistant for the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies (2018) and a Master’s in Education (2023), both from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. Learn more about Back from the Brink here: https://preventnuclearwar.org/  Masako is a Senior Project Manager and Research Associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute in Monterey, CA. She is passionate about disarmament and nonproliferation education for young generations.  She coordinates the Critical Issues Forum (CIF) to promote disarmament and nonproliferation education to high school students and teachers in the US, Japan, Russia and other countries, and the Summer Undergraduate Nonproliferation Fellowship Program. Her research interests include Japan’s nuclear disarmament policy, nonproliferation and disarmament education, humanitarian initiative, and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. She is also a member of the Japan Association of Disarmament Studies and the US-Japan Leadership Program (US-Japan Foundation).  Learn more about the Critical Issues Forum here: https://sites.middlebury.edu/criticalissuesforum/    Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

This month, host Lillian Koizumi talks with Drs. Josh Snyder and Stephanie Edwards about the role of spirituality and interfaith dialogue in these times of division.  Dr. Snyder is Associate Professor of the Practice in Theological Ethics at Boston College. He also is the Director of the Faith, Peace, and Justice Minor.  He earned his Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Boston College.  His dissertation entitled, Love Promoting Justice: An Augustinian Ethic for Transitional Justice from the Context of Guatemala explored how charity as a civic virtue can bring about social reconciliation in a divided society. Dr. Snyder’s research focuses on transitional justice and Catholic Peace-Building with an emphasis on the Guatemalan Catholic Church & Human Rights. Additionally, he is interested in Catholic Social Teaching and its contribution to global public health with a specific focus on ethical accompaniment and end of life care.   Dr. Edwards is the Executive Director of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium. After undergraduate studies at Santa Clara University, Dr. Edwards spent a formative year as a Jesuit Volunteer in post-Katrina New Orleans. She holds a PhD in Theological Ethics from Boston College, where her interdisciplinary research focused on the ties between Christian theology and trauma. Her research can be found in the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics and Political Theology, and her first book, Enfleshed Counter-Memory: A Christian Social Ethic of Trauma. Her interest in such work has its roots in her “other” career as a social worker, wherein she has practiced diverse service delivery, grant writing, and non-profit management for over a decade. She lives in Biddeford, Maine, with her husband, Pete, and rescue dog, EmmyLou, where you can most often find her in nature: canoe camping in summer, leaf-peeping in fall, and bombing down the slopes in winter. In this episode, they discuss their work, their personal journeys that led to where they are today, the importance of interfaith dialogue in this current climate, and the role of religion in bringing people together and restoring our humanity.   Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

Last year, we launched a new series called What Do We Mean By? where host Lillian Koizumi unpacks different concepts we explore and practice at the Ikeda Center. All of these concepts are informed by the philosophy of our late founder Daisaku Ikeda. In this episode, Lillian unpacks the concept of dignity. She also invites Ikeda Center’s Outreach Manager Anri Khare to share her thoughts on dignity and examples of how she’s applying and practicing dignity in her own life. For more information on dignity, click here. Read our interview with Dr. Donna Hicks. Quotes from Daisaku Ikeda shared in the episode:  “The foundation of a culture of human rights is established when we can develop an empathetic openness toward the sufferings of others, feeling their pain as our own, and when we can ceaselessly strive to bring out our “best self,” to behave at all times and in all situations in a manner that we can proudly affirm.” (“Learning About Dignity,” The Japan Times, Dec. 23, 2011)  “If we picture a global society of peace and coexistence as an edifice, the ideals of human rights and human security are key pillars that hold it up, while the foundation on which these rest is respect for the dignity of life. If this foundation remains no more than an abstract conceptualization, the entire structure will be unstable and could collapse in the event of a severe challenge or crisis.” (2013 Peace Proposal) “…recognizing the dignity of the individual must result in mutual recognition and respect.” (A Dialogue between East and West: Looking to a Human Revolution) Music attribution:  Podcast Music “Space” Podington Bear Soundofpicture.com To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

In our last episode of the year, host Lillian Koizumi welcomes Ikeda Center Executive Director Kevin Maher back to the Dialogue Studio to reflect on 2024 and the Center’s work and mission. In their conversation, Lillian asks Kevin about memorable events from this past year, how he continues to draw inspiration from and apply Mr. Ikeda’s philosophy, what he’s excited about for 2024, and more.  Quotes referenced in this episode:  “I firmly believe that the more severe the challenges we face the more crucial it is that we persist in dialogue because dialogue has the power to break down the walls of mistrust, hatred, and division in the hearts of people everywhere.” - From Daisaku Ikeda’s 1995 message to the Ikeda Center “I likewise believe that the value of dialogue is to be found in its processes, perhaps even more than in its concrete results. For the vibrant and mutually catalytic process of dialogue between individuals and between whole civilizations dynamically illustrates humanitarian competition, the competition in self-mastery…. “My own meetings with leading figures and thinkers from the nations of the world are motivated by the belief that dialogue indeed has the power to unite humankind. At the same time, I am moved by the desire to try to find, through dialogue, solutions to the many problems that loom before us. “Without dialogue, humans are fated to walk in the darkness of their own dogmatic self-righteousness. Dialogue is the lamp by which we dispel that darkness, lighting and making visible for each other our steps and the path ahead.” - From Daisaku Ikeda’s 2002 Peace Proposal “The Humanism of the Middle Way: Dawn of a Global Civilization”   Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

This month, host Lillian Koizumi talks to Eliza O’Neil, who is a Senior Curriculum Developer at the Constructive Dialogue Institute (CDI). Eliza’s role at CDI is to create dialogue-focused curriculum, resources, and trainings for students, educators, administrators, and anyone looking to cultivate skills to foster connection across differences in any context. In the episode, Eliza shares her career journey, what constructive dialogue means and looks like, her insights on the role of dialogue in an increasingly divisive world, inspiring examples of individuals and groups transforming conflicts through dialogue, and more. Before joining CDI, Eliza was a program director for Seeds of Peace, where she ran dialogue and facilitation training programs for young adults and educators from around the world. She spent 6 years as a facilitator for Essential Partners, working with communities of all ages looking to bridge divides and connect more meaningfully. Eliza previously taught at experiential high schools in Maine and Colorado and led wilderness trips around the world for groups of young adults. Eliza holds a B.A. from Bates College and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. For more information on Eliza’s work, visit https://constructivedialogue.org/.  To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]  Music attribution: Podcast Music

Earlier this year, we launched a new series called What Do We Mean By? where host Lillian Koizumi unpacks different concepts we explore and practice at the Ikeda Center. All of these concepts are informed by the philosophy of our late founder Daisaku Ikeda. In this episode, Lillian unpacks the concept of human revolution. She also invites Ikeda Center’s Publications & Communications Specialist Mitch Bogen to share his thoughts on human revolution and why he thinks it is important as we strive to create a more peaceful world. Click here for more information on human revolution. Music attribution:  Podcast Music “Space” Podington Bear Soundofpicture.com To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]

We are launching another new series in the Dialogue Studio called “And the dialogue continues…” where host Lillian Koizumi reflects on highlights and perspectives from the Center’s Dialogue Nights/Dialogue Nights Lite event series with her colleagues. In this episode, Lillian talks with Anri, Preandra, and Lanre about the recent Dialogue Nights Lite launch and the insights they gained from the evening’s takeaway activity.      Click here for more information on Dialogue Nights. To learn more about our recent Dialogue Nights Lite, read the write-up here.   Music attribution: Podcast Music To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at [email protected]