#27 Author of the national bestseller "Race Matters", Dr. Cornel West: “We are witnessing the collapse and implosion of the American empire in real time.”
Author, actor, poet, musician, producer, philosopher, theologist and iconic thought leader Dr. Cornel West joins me on this episode; among the many things we discuss, he tells me:“We are witnessing the collapse and implosion of the American empire in real time,.Why does Dr. West think "the country is in deep trouble"?Like millions of others, I consider Cornel West the leading public intellectual of our time, right up there with Emerson and WEB DuBois. Brother Cornel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. He is the former Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University.He has written 20 books and has edited 13, and is best known for his groundbreaking bestsellers Race Matters and Democracy Matters (and his cameos in The Matrix series).“Every empire comes and goes,” Cornel said to me. “They begin to decay and decline because of military overreach and end up reaping what they sow. There is a spiritual and moral vacuum right now. "What does Dr. West think is the cause of the collapse and implosion of the American empire as we are experiencing it in real time?He also offers us an astonishing analogy which I never heard anyone else say before, based on the classic tale of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, and how we can never lose hope:“Gold, status, position, spectacle, white power, all forms of idolatry lead toward self-destruction…We can never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair.”Listen in and be inspired by this Christian intellectual about the crises we face and how we can respond with the power of love and nonviolence:“To be a follower of Jesus means to take up your cross and follow him,” he said to me with his usual passion. “Love means courage, integrity, and honesty. We will always be viewed as foolish, but we lead with love, and love our way through the darkness and cruelty. Love requires tremendous risk and sacrifice. Nonviolence without love is just a strategy and a tactic.His conviction goes deep and his words ring true: Love is the fundamental criteria. But love is never crushed, joy is never crushed, love is never eliminated. So, we will never forget, cave in, give up, or sell our souls.”Join us in this empowering conversation as we follow the nonviolent Jesus together!cornelwest.combeatitudescenter.com
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#26 with Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and peace activist: "Don't be afraid, seek ways to embrace the so-called enemy."
As we recorded this episode, Kathy is participating in and coordinating a 40 day fast for an end to the US backed Israeli genocide in Israel, which began on May 22nd. When we spoke, she was placed on a 250 calories a day intake to keep her heart rate up."We need to stand up against US military funding for Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.” That’s what Kathy Kelly told me, what she insists upon. Unicef calls the genocide in Gaza "The War Against Children". "The US backed Israeli genocide in Gaza needs to stop."Long time peace activist, author, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Kathy Kelly has traveled the war zones of the world, and stood with all those targeted for death by the United States more than anyone else I know, from Central America to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.Find out why I consider her the greatest living peacemaker in the United States, one of the great saints of our time.She has travelled the world to the places bombed and attacked by our country over the last three decades in an effort to “make peace” and “love our enemies.” With Voices in the Wilderness companions, from 1996 - 2003, she traveled twenty-seven times to Iraq, defying the economic sanctions.She led my 1999 FOR delegation of Nobel Laureates to Iraq.Kathy was in Iraq throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing and the initial weeks of the invasion. She joined subsequent delegations to the West Bank's Jenin Camp in 2002 during and after Israeli attacks, to Lebanon during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah and to Gaza, in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead and following the 2013 Operation Pillar of Defense.Kathy Kelly is board president of “World Beyond War.” From 2022 to the present, she has co-coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she has co-coordinated an international network to assist young Afghans forced to flee their country. She made over two dozen trips to Afghanistan from 2010 – 2019, living with young Afghan Peace Volunteers in a working-class neighborhood in Kabul.“Many of the Israeli weapons used in Gaza are of US origin,” she says. “It's crucial to go to weapons manufacturers and protest. It's important to raise the lament, and then to follow up with organizing. We must keep trying to figure out how to organize and get a ceasefire. Love of our brothers and sisters in other countries makes so much sense right now. It's dependent on the people in the pews to speak out and follow the nonviolent Jesus.” She suggests we ask ourselves, “Is there a greater risk I might be willing to take?”“Don’t be afraid,” Kathy tells us. “Seek ways to embrace the so-called enemy. Look for the people nearest to you who are practicing the works of mercy rather than the works of war, and align yourself with them.”I hope you will listen in to Kathy’s plea for peace in Gaza, her living solidarity with the victims of war and hunger, and her ongoing work to promote a more nonviolent world, and be inspired. May the God of peace bless us all!
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#20 John Dear speaks with political scientist, author, teacher, advocate and organizer Maria Stephen on how ordinary people can bring about extraordinary change: “The resistance is alive and well across the United States today."
#20 John Dear speaks with political scientist, author, teacher, advocate and organizer Maria Stephen on how ordinary people can bring about extraordinary change: “The resistance is alive and well across the United States today."This week, I speak with Maria Stephan, a political scientist, teacher, advocate, and organizer, who has dedicated her life to the proposition that ordinary people, when organized and inspired, can bring about extraordinary change.She is the co-author with Erica Chenoweth of Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, one of the most important books in decades, which documents how nonviolent resistance campaigns over the last century have been twice as effective as armed struggles, and been major drivers of democratization and civil peace.“The resistance is alive and well across the United States today, with over 1300 protests with 3.5 million participants at the recent ‘Hands Off’ Day of Action… Faith communities are a glue that give people hope, and promote unity throughout these protests.”“On the one hand, we have more regimes taking away rights and abusing power, but on the other, there's an explosion of nonviolent campaigns and mass mobilizations of ordinary people around the world,” Maria Stephan tells me.Maria works with www.Horizonsproject.us focusing on the role of nonviolent action and peacebuilding in advancing human rights, democracy, and sustainable peace in the US and globally. Before joining Horizons, Maria founded and directed the Program on Nonviolent Action at the U.S. Institute of Peace, overseeing global programming, applied research, and policy engagement.She was the lead foreign affairs officer in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, and also worked at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. She has taught at Georgetown University and American University.“Nonviolent resistance is a skill based activity; you can learn how to do better and how to build broad-based coalitions… We need to think big, both globally and locally. We need a more interconnected ‘movement of movements.’ We need to change the popular consciousness so that movements and campaigns are seen as a cool form of activity.”KEEP THE MOVEMENT MOVINGwww.horizonsproject.uswww.beatitudescenter.orgCheck out her recent article, "We Are Stronger Than We Think," at https://wagingnonviolence.org/2025/02/we-are-stronger-than-we-think/
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#19: “The Two Great Inventions of the 20th Century” Legendary Environmental Activist Bill McKibben talks to John Dear about this, his new book, Sun Day and more!
#19 Fr. John Dear Talks with Legendary Environmental Activist Bill McKibbenThis week, Fr. John Dear speaks with best-selling author and environmental activist and organizer Bill McKibben about catastrophic climate change and how to respond by joining movements, taking to the streets, and building political will. It will be jam packed with inspiration for anyone who supports environmental activism. “I started life as a writer, I still am a writer. But to win the fight, we're gonna have to take on money and power, that's why we have to organize, and build a movement to change hearts and minds and change power. We keep our humor, our love for each other and our eyes fixed on the future, and on we go!” He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal.He’s one of the world’s leading environmental activists and founder of 350.org, a global grassroots climate campaign which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. Bill’s 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change and was published in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Hear more about his newest book Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization will be available in August 2025. Recently, Bill also founded www.ThirdAct.org, a global grassroots movement of people over the age of 60, which has taken off. During this podcast also he announces the upcoming global day of action for solar power, “Sun Day,” September 21st. "The sun is willing to provide us with all the power we could ever use, but that great gift is a threat to powerful interests." Go to sunday.earth for more about resources, events, organizations and creative partners. BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT.Check out:www.sunday.earthwww.thirdact.orgwww.350.orgwww.BillMcKibben.com
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🎙#18: "I see Trump as a deeply traumatized person": Fr. John Dear in conversation with author Kazu Haga on his new book "Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse"
🔥This week, John Dear speaks with Kazu Haga, a brilliant young author and teacher of Kingian nonviolence about his new book, Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse. Kazu Haga shares with us the six principles of Kingian nonviolence, how to build the Beloved Community and that "we are in a polycrisis and we are not crazy for thinking the world is burning all around us." He is the founder of the East Point Peace Academy, a core member of the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm. He is a practitioner, trainer and teacher of nonviolence, restorative justice, organizing and mindfulness and works with incarcerated people ("incarcerated people are some of my greatest teachers"), youth, and activists from around the country. He has over 20 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work, and has been an active trainer since 2000. He resides in Oakland, CA, with friends at Canticle Farm, an inner city community of nonviolence that has a public garden right there in the neighborhood.In his new book, Kazu suggests that the "real issue behind humanity’s violence and insanity is trauma", and that our goal really is healing on a personal, social, and global level. He calls to get beyond “us vs. them” and “right vs. wrong” thinking, to pursue our interdependence and interrelatedness, as Dr. King and Thich Nhat Hanh taught. 👉Learn more about Kazu Haga: kazuhaga.comcanticlefarmoakland.org👉🏽More information on Fr. John Dear and The Nonviolent Jesus:beatitudescenter.org
🌎 What if the key to a more peaceful world is following the path of the nonviolent Jesus?🎙️ Featuring thought-provoking conversations with visionary leaders like Martin Sheen, Bryan Stevenson, Kathy Kelly, Bill McKibben, Cornel West, Sister Helen Prejean, Rev. Richard Rohr, Shane Claiborne, and more!Join Fr. John Dear—priest, author, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee—for The Nonviolent Jesus, a weekly 30-minute podcast that dares to reclaim the radical, active nonviolence of Jesus. Rooted in the wisdom of Gandhi and Dr. King, this journey isn’t just about changing the world—it’s about transforming ourselves. 💙 we’ll explore how we can:💠 Embody nonviolence—toward ourselves, others, and our communities 🤝💠 Heal from the culture of violence—from war and racism to poverty and environmental destruction 🌱💠 Live with courage, compassion, and universal love ❤️Together, we’ll uncover how Jesus' way of nonviolence can reshape our lives and awaken a more just, peaceful world.🔥 Ready to be part of the movement?👉Subscribe now and follow The Nonviolent Jesus !www.beatitudescenter.org
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