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, 2024

Clips 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/5Rs94ztNROI

Music 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

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