Valarie Kaur: Sage Warrior

Ye Gods welcomes our first guest from the Sikh faith: author, activist, and founder of The Revolutionary Love Project Valarie Kaur. Scott sat down with Valarie to discuss her new book Sage Warrior where she combines the retelling of Sikh legends with her family’s trip across Punjab, India. Valarie also recounts how a hate crime killing of a Sikh gas station owner in the wake of 9/11 sparked her decades long fight for safety.  Valarie and Scott discuss the tenets and origins of Sikhism and how its focus on justice has informed her work as an anti-hate crime activist. 

Valarie and her organization the Revolutionary Love Project are currently on a nationwide bus tour bringing the immersive experience of storytelling, music, song, ancestral wisdom, and community-building to our divided country. The tour lasts through Oct. 27. For more information on the Revolutionary Love tour visit revolutionarylove.org/tour 

For more information on Valarie’s book Sage Warrior and its accompanying album by trumpeter Sonny Singh go to valariekaur.com/books

Valarie recommends the song Revolutionary Love by Ani DiFranco 

Guest: VALARIE KAUR is a civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project. Valarie became an activist when a Sikh father and family friend was the first person murdered in hate violence in the aftermath of 9/11. Since then, Valarie has led visionary campaigns to tell untold stories and change policy on issues ranging from hate crimes to digital freedom. Her work ignited a national movement to reclaim love as a force for justice. Today, the Revolutionary Love Project is seeding networked communities of practice across the country to build the beloved community. A daughter of Punjabi Sikh farmers in California, Valarie lifts up her vision for America in her acclaimed TED Talk and #1 LA Times Bestseller See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. In Fall 2022, Valarie was honored at the White House in the first-ever Uniters Ceremony, recognizing her as a prophetic leader whose work is healing America. Valarie’s book new book Sage Warrior was released in September 2024 and can be purchased wherever books are sold.

Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by MegaPhone Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.

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