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The Telos Channel, hosting the suite of Telos podcasts | Undaunted: In our divided and dangerous world, how can we choose peace? Join us on our journey to find answers, guided by radical peacemakers and their stories from the front-lines. When conflict seems intractable, these conversations give us the courage to choose a different way—a way of justice, healing, and hope. | The Check-in: an every-other-week deep dive into headlines from Israel/Palestine and across the world, where we wade into the complexity of seemingly intractable conflict to discover the power of peacemaking to heal us, our community and our world. 

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At the age of 13, Ishmael Beah was recruited to fight in a bloody civil war in Sierra Leone as a child soldier, forever reshaping the story of his life. Against all odds, he survived and came to the US as a refugee. But not everyone in the US was ready for his story, or for the realities of the world he came from. So he began to write, sharing his story in his memoir, A Long Way Gone, detailing the horrors, triumphs, and hopes of his life as a survivor. Today, Ishmael continues to write award winning books, works with the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador, and enlightens us with his incredible insight into the human condition, an insight he says could've only been fashioned by the fires of war.In this episode, we hear some of Ishmael's remarkable story, reminding us that people are almost never who we think they might be at first glance. He challenges us to listen for the story behind the story we perceive on the surface. As Ishmael says, listening to understand is the start of peacemaking.Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Resources from this episode:A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah
How can you humanize the “other” if you never walk alongside them? David Bailey grew up in relationship with those on the margins of society. But it wasn’t until he moved into an under-resourced community that he began to more fully understand the ways that race, geographic segregation, and poverty intersect to create realities that are difficult to escape. It was through this proximity that he began to build authentic relationships with his neighbors, transforming how he advocates for healing and justice in his city and across the country.Today, David is a public theologian, the founder and Chief Visionary Office of Arrabon, and a culture-maker focused on building reconciling communities. He shares with us why his faith compels him to always love his ‘enemy,’ and offers practical help for how to humanize those we naturally want to see as irredeemable. David’s work embodies one of the foundational principles of peacemaking: relationships across lines of difference fuel transformation. Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!--Resources from this episode:Learn more about ArrabonFollow Arrabon on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
How can you enjoy for yourself what you deny for your neighbor?This is the question that drove Todd Deatherage in co-founding Telos. It’s a question that compels him to a life of “neighbor love,” to not just passively accept that his neighbors need the same things that he does, but to actively work at providing these things for them. Todd shares how this neighbor love is at the core of Telos’ guiding principle of mutual flourishing, which imagines a future for Palestinians and Israelis where all people can enjoy dignity, freedom, and security in equal measure. He shares his story, journeying from Congressional politics to co-founding an American peacemaking movement, and why imagining a third way of mutual flourishing is necessary for building a better future—in Israel/Palestine, in the US, and beyond.Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!
In the face of ongoing injustice, does nonviolence actually work? Sulaiman Khatib spent 10 years in prison for being part of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation in the West Bank. But during his time in prison, he experienced an unexpected transformation: he became an activist for nonviolence. He came to believe that more than vanquishing his enemy, his freedom was better secured by liberating them—that his liberation and the liberation of the very people imprisoning him are actually intertwined. Nonviolent resistance, he realized, was the only way to make a future of mutual liberation and mutual flourishing possible. After his release from prison, Sulaiman co-founded the joint Palestinian-Israeli organization Combatants for Peace, a group of former soldiers, ex-prisoners, and other activists in Israel/Palestine that reject the use of violence and fight for peace through nonviolent means. Nonviolence isn’t passive. It actually costs something. And Sulaiman teaches us how we can remain steadfast in nonviolent practice in the face of ongoing injustice. _____Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Resources:Learn more about Combatants for Peace 
Is violence the only effective form of resistance?Fadi Quran grew up under Israeli occupation dreaming of ways to resist the tanks and soldiers he saw around him. But on a pilgrimage to India, tracing the steps of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr’s own journey there, he encountered the radical vision of nonviolence that has since changed his life.Today, he is a nonviolent Palestinian activist who weds a deep commitment to truth with a deep care for humanity. His activism not only disrupts the status quo, but is rooted in a love that actually transforms his “enemies.” In a world that says violence is the only effective means to achieve our ends, Fadi demonstrates that there’s another way possible, a way that upholds the dignity of all.Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Resources:Follow Fadi Quran on Twitter
Is justice possible without reconciliation?Ainka Jackson was raised in Selma, Alabama around the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights movement. With the memory of Bloody Sunday behind them, these leaders taught Ainka the power of love and nonviolence to transform systems of oppression.But today, Selma holds a complex legacy of both love and hate. The community continues to face serious obstacles to peace. Despite these immense challenges, Ainka sees an opportunity to build a new reality in her home, where reconciliation raises relationships to a level where justice prevails and persons obtain their full human potential. MLK Jr. calls this reality the Beloved Community, and Ainka is making it possible through her work at the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation. In this episode, Ainka shares her stories of growing up in Selma, and why she believes true justice is not possible until all are free—until together, we’ve built the Beloved Community.Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Learn more about the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation 
Is it possible to partner for peace with those we could call our “enemies?”Abigail Disney lost some of her community when she built a relationship with the hero of the “opposite side,” pastor Rob Schenck. But along the way, despite their differences, she found a friend and partner for peace in a place she never expected. She documented Rob's story in the feature-length documentary, The Armor of Light, which went on to win an Emmy Award. Abigail has spent her life self-interrogating the stories she finds herself in and advocating for change. She’s asked difficult questions about her family’s history of enslaving human beings. She’s worked to amplify the story of the successful women-led peace movement in Liberia. And now, she’s advocating for a shared future in our own home by reminding us what’s possible when we put aside our expectations and fears, and truly seek relationships with those we least expect to love.--Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Resources from this episode:All Ears with Abigail DisneyPray the Devil Back to Hell - Documentary film on role of women in the Liberian peace processThe Armor of Light (Emmy Award Winner) - Documentary film on crossing lines of difference over a vision of shared humanity and the future of gun rights in America
How do we remember the most forgotten in the world? Humaira’s family fled Afghanistan as refugees when she was a child. But it wasn’t until she was working in Palestine with refugee youth that she began to truly understand her own story as a refugee, and how to center the most overlooked and unheard on the margins of society. Then, in August the US pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban retook control, and suddenly her people were abandoned. Humaira has been tirelessly advocating for the Afghan people ever since, demanding that the world not abandon the Afghan people to a future robbed of their most basic rights. Humaira reminds us that forgetting those on the margins is a choice—and we have the power to choose instead to center their leadership and advocate for a future full of hope.Humaira's work represents what it looks like to Center the Leadership of the Marginalized, our fourth Practice of Peacemaking. Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resourcesFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Resources:Support Rescue Angels, an organization evacuating Afghan school girls to safety - Donate here
What does it take to imagine a future better than the one you’ve inherited? Angie Thomas grew up in Jackson, Mississippi—one of the most segregated cities in the US. As a kid, she escaped into stories for survival. But in them, she found something more than survival. She found the possibility of a better world.Inspired by her faith, she writes that better world into existence today in her bestselling young adult novels, like the New York Times best-seller and major motion picture, The Hate U Give, about 16-year old Starr Carter wrestling with the weight of her best friend’s fatal shooting at the hands of a police officer. Angie sees her writing as an opportunity to not just speak honestly about the issues her community faces, but also to inspire hope. That the next generation can grow to build a better world, a world where equity is somehow possible. Angie's work and life are an example of our second principle of peacemaking: Equity. Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!Read The Hate U Give
What do we do when someone else’s truth feels like it contradicts our own? Sarah Perle Benazera lives in this tension everyday in her work facilitating dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis. But she also feels this personally, living in the in-between of her own identity as a French-born, Israeli-Jewish woman with Algerian parents. As a storyteller and peace activist, Sarah works to bring light to stories that have been buried, especially in Israel/Palestine. People often ask whether the stories of Palestinians and Israelis can exist in tension. Sarah shows us how our stories don’t have to compete, that there’s somehow enough room for all of them at the table.Sarah embodies our second Practice of Peacemaking: Hold Competing Truths in Tension.Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!
How can we choose peace for others when we’ve lost everything for ourselves? Michael Laverty lost his parents as a child. He lost his community when he became a conscientious objector to the apartheid regime in South Africa. And he nearly lost his family in an act of violence that left him scarred for years. Yet despite all of this, he committed his life to peace: to undoing systems of injustice, to standing beside the poorest and most broken of the world, and to giving himself away. Through the years, he has worked to help elect Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa and empower young Christians to make active commitments of peace in Australia. But he’s learned along the way that making peace with the world also requires making peace with ourselves.His healing and peacemaking work is centered by his evangelical Christian faith, which he believes compels him to act on behalf of the most marginalized, as Jesus would. Michael’s life represents our Practice of peacemaking, “Own Our Agency and Responsibility.”*CW: This episode has references to violence, including sexual assault and traumatic events* Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!
René August is a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement, an Anglican priest, and a reconciliation trainer. She grew up in a racially segregated township in the land now known as South Africa, a land that gave her only one quarter of the vote of a white citizen. Her political life came alive when a group of mostly Black South African theologians released the Kairos Document—a spiritual and political challenge to the Apartheid regime. In that document, she found a spirituality that was big enough for the challenges her nation faced. It told the truth, it repaired what was harmed, and it moved toward the other in love.Today, she embodies that spirituality in a place still struggling with the legacy of apartheid. She challenges her people to live out that spirituality every day, and she challenges us to believe that no matter how deep the pain, change is always possible. René embodies our first principle of peacemaking: Growth.Subscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHRead and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!
“If our criminal legal system actually made people safer, Louisiana would be the safest place in the country.”One of Will’s first interactions with the police happened during cross country practice in high school. The experience forever reshaped how he understood race, policing, and justice. Today, he is on the forefront of transforming the criminal legal system to bring justice to the most incarcerated state of the most incarcerated country in the world: Louisiana. Will serves as the Director of the New Orleans office of the Vera Institute of Justice, an organization committed to securing equal justice, ending mass incarceration, and strengthening families and communities. Will represents our third principle of peacemaking: Justice.Read and share the Principles and Practices of PeacemakingSubscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGHFollow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroupIf you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!--Resources from this episode:The Vera Institute of JusticeLouisiana Incarcerated, The Times PicayuneKill ‘Em and Leave, by James McBride
In our season 1 finale, we hear from lawyer, activist, and founder of Justice Defenders, Alexander McLean. Alexander joined us earlier this year to discuss his work defending and empowering the defenseless in prisons and on death row across Uganda and Kenya. Alexander has an unparalleled ability to see the dignity in every human being, and his work is righting the wrongs of broken systems across East Africa and the world. In the face of injustice and suffering, he has chosen the deeper work of justice, presence and hope—the work of peacemaking. We could think of no one better to close out Season 1 of Undaunted. Learn more about Justice DefendersLearn more about TelosFollow Telos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter for Undaunted updates and peacemaking resourcesSupport our show and receive bonus content, episode transcripts, and more by becoming a Patron
What does it mean to call a place “home,” to stay and heal it when it's broken and hurting? In this episode, South Louisiana native and interdisciplinary storyteller Monique Verdin shares with us what her home on the disappearing coast of the Louisiana bayou means to her, and the radical ways she’s working to protect it—its land, its people, and its stories.  Monique shed so much light on the interconnectedness of place, story and justice in our conversation. The way she's worked to protect her home as an indigenous woman, artist, and activist inspired us to “remain and reclaim” the places we call home too. Find more information about Monique’s work on her website.  Support our show and receive bonus content, episode transcripts, and more by becoming an Undaunted Journeymaker. Visit our Patreon to learn more. Learn more about Telos. Follow Telos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter for Undaunted updates and more peacemaking resources.
In life, we don’t often come across people whose passion, kindness, and vision simply blow us away. But in today’s episode, we have. Lana Abu-Hijleh is a development expert, business woman, and peacemaker from the West Bank of Palestine. Her story of love for her homeland, of tragedy and transformation, and of shattering glass ceilings is raw inspiration—the kind of story that stays with you long after the last word rings out. We left this conversation with so much hope, and with newfound courage to move in its direction. We expect you will too.Learn more about Lana’s work with Global CommunitiesLearn more about the Israeli Government’s proposed annexation of large parts of the West Bank mentioned by Lana in the episode (*note: this conversation was recorded in May, 2020. As of today, the Israeli government has not yet formally annexed the areas proposed by the "Peace to Prosperity Plan"  )Support our show and receive bonus content, episode transcripts, and more by becoming an Undaunted Journeymaker. Check out our page on Patreon to learn more. Learn more about the Telos GroupFollow Telos on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Apeirogon: a shape with a countably infinite number of sides, and the title of award-winning author Colum McCann’s newest novel. Colum wrote the New York Times Bestseller after meeting Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin, featured in Episode 4 of this season, on a trip with Telos to Israel/Palestine. Apeirogon tells their stories, blending fact and fiction in a dazzling dance of 1001 short chapters, immersed in the complexity of their stories and the conflict itself.In this episode, we learn more about Apeirogon, explore ideas of courage, optimism, and storytelling as essential acts of peacemaking, and ask, “How do we speak truth in a way that people can hear?”Learn more about ApeirogonLearn more about Narrative 4, the global empathy building non-profit co-founded by ColumLearn more about TelosFollow Telos on Facebook, Instagram, and TwitterSupport our show by becoming a Patron
In this episode of Undaunted, we hear from fathers, activists, and best friends Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin. According to convention, they should be enemies—Rami is Israeli, Bassam is Palestinian. But they’ve been united together through the gravest of circumstances: the loss of their daughters to the conflict. In the face of their shared grief, they’ve committed their lives to writing a different future for their home. One where the cycle of violence is broken, reconciliation is possible, and a just peace is secured for all. They share their stories with us in this episode. Rami and Bassam are members of the Parents Circle - Families Forum, an organization of over 600 bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families working to build a reconciliation process as a prerequisite to sustainable peace in Israel/Palestine. For more information about the Parents Circle - Families Forum: https://www.theparentscircle.org/en/ & https://parentscirclefriends.org/Visit the Telos website: https://www.telosgroup.org/Support our podcast by joining our Patreon and becoming an Undaunted Journeymaker! Receive bonus content, episode transcripts, and chances to connect with our host, David Gungor: https://www.patreon.com/undauntedpod 
This week, we’re releasing a double feature: our peace hero Robi Damelin, followed by Telos co-founder and president, Greg Khalil. Greg co-founded Telos after living in Ramallah and advising Palestinian leadership on peace negotiations with Israel. When we talk about peacemaking, we mean so much more than kumbaya credits. Today, Greg shares why. He dives into the challenges peacemakers face, how peacemaking can be hard, gritty, even dangerous, and how story can be both the cage and the key to our freedom. In this episode, three stories: the man in the white shirt, the man in the red shirt, and the girl with the pink backpack. To learn more about Telos visit our website: https://www.telosgroup.org/Support our podcast by joining our Patreon and becoming an Undaunted Journeymaker! Receive bonus content, episode transcripts, and chances to connect with our host, David Gungor: https://www.patreon.com/undauntedpod 
We’re back again with Robi Damelin for Episode 2. In Part 1, we heard Robi share the story of losing her son, David, and what she’s learned about reconciliation and nonviolence since. This week, Robi gives us her honest advice on what it takes to be a catalyst for change, and we hear more about the work of the Parents Circle, an organization creating a framework for a reconciliation process in Israel/Palestine. For more information about the Parents Circle: https://www.theparentscircle.org/en/ & https://parentscirclefriends.org/To learn more about Apeirogon, by Colum McCann: http://colummccann.com/apeirogon/Visit the Telos website: https://www.telosgroup.org/Support our podcast by joining our Patreon and becoming an Undaunted Journeymaker! Receive bonus content, episode transcripts, and chances to connect with our host, David Gungor: https://www.patreon.com/undauntedpod 
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