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Amir Bergen and Kanstantsin Tsiarokhin met as students at St. John’s College and began asking what the kind of dialogue they practiced there might offer a world divided by war. The Svet Peace Project began by bringing young people from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus together through literature, conversation, and shared inquiry, and has since grown to bring people together from around the world. On this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we hear the story of Svet and explore how education and dialogue can become practices of peacebuilding.

What does it look like when communities become active participants in their own safety rather than waiting for someone else to protect them? In this episode, we speak with Roz Lee, Head of the U.S. Mission for Nonviolent Peaceforce, about the growth of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) in the United States. Although Nonviolent Peaceforce has long worked in places experiencing war and violent conflict, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis—the city where the organization was founded—made it increasingly difficult to think of violent conflict as something happening only elsewhere. Since then, its U.S. work has grown to include partnerships with communities responding to hate violence and, more recently, harsh immigration enforcement and ICE activity. In Minneapolis, for example, NP has worked alongside interfaith leaders, grassroots organizers and neighbors to help keep people safe. Lee emphasizes a difficult truth: there are social conditions that make it easier to recognize violence elsewhere in the world than to see the violence taking place within our own communities. Part of changing those conditions means talking to one another—and being willing to believe one another about the violence we experience. With gratitude to Elizabeth High for her transcript support.

What does it mean for a revolution to transform not only political structures, but our understanding of ourselves? On this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with independent scholar and educator Safoora Arbab about the Khudai Khidmatgar, the remarkable nonviolent movement that emerged among the Pashtun people in the Northwest Frontier of British India. Arbab challenges familiar accounts that portray the movement as the achievement of a single leader, Abdul Ghaffar Khan, or as an example of Gandhi bringing nonviolence to an otherwise violent culture. Drawing especially on the movement’s vernacular literature and women’s poetry, she shows how the Khudai Khidmatgar drew upon Islam, Sufi traditions, and existing Pashtun practices to transform ideas about violence, honor, gender, and resistance. Their struggle against colonial rule was also a constructive effort to create something new: schools, systems of conflict resolution, political participation, and ultimately a different way of imagining society itself. Michael follows the conversation with the Nonviolence Report.

How does nonviolence work? Is it the opposite of violence? What is the purpose of an ideal in nonviolence? What about skepticism? How do we "change" someone? And more insights and lessons drawn from the theory and practice of nonviolence on this episode.

Technology doesn't develop in a vacuum. It reflects the values, assumptions, and stories of the societies that create it. Anna Ikeda of Soka Gakkai International joins us to explore how nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, and other powerful technologies reveal deeper questions about human nature, security, and moral responsibility. We discuss Buddhism, grassroots movements, interfaith peacebuilding, and why humanity—not technology—will determine our future. Michael Nagler follows with his Nonviolence Report highlighting practical examples of nonviolent change taking shape around the world.

Artificial intelligence is transforming our world, raising profound questions about technology, ethics, and what it means to be human. In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we’re joined by Marie Dennis—co-director of Pax Christi International's Catholic Institute for Nonviolence and a founder of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative—to explore Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. Beginning with the Pope's reflections on artificial intelligence, the conversation expands into a thoughtful exploration of human dignity, Catholic social teaching, the Church's growing embrace of nonviolence, and the challenge of resisting systems of domination in an age of rapidly advancing technology. Marie also reflects on the significance of Pope Leo's call to move beyond just war theory, the work of the Catholic Nonviolence Initiative, and why cultivating a richer understanding of our shared humanity may be one of the most important tasks of our time.

What does it mean to live simply in a culture built on excess? In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie Van Hook and Michael Nagler speak with environmental activist Robin Greenfield, whose latest experiment is to forage 100% of his food and medicine while traveling the country to help people rediscover their relationship with the Earth. Together they explore simplicity as a practice of nonviolence, the illusion of separateness, and how reconnecting with nature, community, and ourselves can become a profound act of resistance. As Greenfield reflects, "Connection is at the root of the solution to all of our problems, and disconnection is at the core of our societal woes." Drawing on influences including Gandhi, Peace Pilgrim, Thich Nhat Hanh, Marshall Rosenberg, and Robin Wall Kimmerer, Greenfield shares how a life of voluntary simplicity has become not one of sacrifice, but of greater freedom, joy, and connection.

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with animal rights activist Zoe Rosenberg about nonviolent direct action, open rescue, and the personal costs of standing up for animals. A recent graduate of UC Berkeley, where she designed her own major in social movement strategy, Zoe brings both practical experience and thoughtful analysis to the challenges facing today's animal rights movement. She shares her experience rescuing chickens from Perdue's Petaluma Poultry facilities, the legal consequences that followed—including a felony conviction, house arrest, and time in solitary confinement—and why those experiences only deepened her commitment to nonviolence. The conversation explores the history of repression in the animal rights movement, the ongoing campaign to rescue beagles from Ridglan Farms, and the power of principled action to expose hidden suffering and inspire change. Zoe offers a compelling vision of what it means to extend our circle of care to all living beings and to build movements capable of transforming both hearts and institutions.

On this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we continue our exploration of restorative justice with Jonathan Bradley, co-executive director of SEEDS Community Resolution Center. Drawing from years of experience in schools and communities, Bradley reflects on restorative justice not simply as a set of techniques, but as a practice that challenges the assumptions of punitive culture and invites people into accountability, repair, and human connection. The conversation explores what it means to move beyond retribution, why restorative practices require participation and practice rather than rigid formulas, and how communities can rediscover their own capacity to address harm. We also reflect on the broader cultural roots of punishment, the importance of restoring our confidence in human beings, and the role of nonviolence in transforming conflict. In the Nonviolence Report, Michael highlights recent movements and actions from around the world, including protests defending democracy, solidarity flotillas for Gaza, and a remarkable nonviolent campaign that led to the rescue of 1,500 beagles from a breeding and research facility in Wisconsin. Together, the stories point toward the growing power of organized nonviolent action and the importance of uplifting alternatives to violence in public life.

In this conversation, restorative justice practitioner Dominic Barter reflects on more than three decades of work at the intersection of community, justice, and nonviolence. Beginning with his early experiences in Rio de Janeiro, he describes how communities already hold a “dialogical” capacity to respond to harm—one rooted in listening, relationship, and shared needs. From grassroots work in favelas to collaborations with courts, prisons, and governments, Barter traces how restorative justice has evolved across contexts while resisting reduction to a fixed method or technique. Instead, he emphasizes that this work must emerge from within each community’s own culture and lived experience. At a time of deep polarization, the conversation explores how conflict itself can become a source of transformation rather than division. Barter invites us to move beyond retribution and toward rebuilding the relational foundations that make community—and a more humane vision of justice—possible.

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, Stephanie Van Hook speaks with nonviolence educator and Metta Center board member Francesca Po about communication as a living practice of nonviolence. Moving beyond any single method or formula, they explore how curiosity, dignity, and self-awareness shape the way we engage across disagreement. Together, they reflect on what it means to stay in relationship without giving up truth, why curiosity can soften conflict before it escalates, and how communication becomes a form of rehumanization in a deeply polarized world. The conversation also touches on the limits of “cancellation” as protest, the importance of restorative approaches, and the role of self-care in sustaining meaningful dialogue.

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with journalist Emily Yellin about her collaboration on Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love, offering a rare and deeply personal window into the life and thought of Reverend James Lawson—one of the most important yet often overlooked architects of the U.S. nonviolent movement. Drawing from years of conversations and archival research, Yellin illuminates Lawson’s spiritual grounding, strategic brilliance, and lifelong commitment to nonviolent direct action. The conversation highlights how nonviolence is not a spontaneous tactic but a disciplined, relational, and deeply strategic practice rooted in listening, training, and long-term vision—offering powerful lessons for movements today.

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with civil rights leader and Revolutionary Love Project founder Valarie Kaur about love as a force for transformation in our lives and movements. Kaur describes revolutionary love as “the choice to see no stranger… to risk ourselves for each other,” and shares stories from communities across the country where people are practicing courage, care, and solidarity in the face of violence and fear. These acts—whether on the front lines or in everyday life—offer glimpses of a world grounded in belonging and deep connection. At the heart of the conversation is Kaur’s powerful framing of social change as a kind of labor. Drawing on the wisdom of the midwife, she invites us into a rhythm of “breathe and push,” tending both to our inner lives and to the work of justice in the world. “This is long labor, courageous labor,” she says, encouraging us to find ways to sustain ourselves while acting with purpose. The episode explores how choosing to see the humanity of others—even those who oppose us—can be a radical act of freedom, and how cultivating that inner strength allows us to remain present, brave, and connected in the midst of uncertainty.

In this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with Latin American peace educator and activist Pietro Ameglio about civil resistance in Mexico and the deeper dynamics of nonviolent struggle. Drawing on decades of organizing with grassroots communities, families of the disappeared, and movements confronting cartel violence, Ameglio reflects on concepts such as the “spiral of violence,” the difference between fear and terror, and the practice of what he calls “putting the body inside the conflict.” His work is rooted in a Christian peace tradition and shaped early on by the influence of Maryknoll priest Fr. Donald Hessler, a colleague of Dorothy Day who helped introduce Ameglio and others to Gandhian nonviolence through faith-based organizing and community work. While Ameglio acknowledges the complex realities communities face, he is not proposing a “diversity of tactics,” but pointing instead to the inner discipline and moral courage that nonviolence requires—the transformation of fear into constructive action and the cultivation of dignity, courage, and solidarity that make civil resistance possible. With gratitude to Elizabeth High for her transcript support.

We are living in a time when cruelty is normalized, war is justified as inevitable, and violence is often explained away as simply “human nature.” But what if that story is wrong? On this episode of Nonviolence Radio, we speak with peace anthropologist Doug Fry about the evidence — archaeological, cross-cultural, and contemporary — that challenges the assumption that humans are wired for war. Drawing on decades of research, Fry explores peace systems, restraint, interdependence, and the ways societies have sustained nonviolence across history. If war had conditions that gave rise to it, then it is not destiny. And if peace has deeper roots in our human story than we’ve been taught, then reclaiming human sanity may begin with reclaiming the truth about who we are. As Fry reminds us, the task is not to debate whether change is possible — but to act: “I don’t waste my time thinking whether this is possible or not. Take steps to try to get it done. I fail or I succeed. And if I fail, back to the drawing board. Try something else. Do it. Do it better. Do something different.”