In this episode, Wendy speaks with lawyer, activist, and restorative justice expert sujatha baliga. sujatha’s work reimagines our current legal and justice system in the United States, and emphasizes the full humanity of both those who experience harm and those who cause it. This conversation covers many topics, including:

• growing up with sexual abuse, and the impacts it had;
• meeting with the Dalai Lama, and his transformational advice;
• the power of lovingkindness;
• her choice to be a public defender;
• responsibility & causes and conditions;
• holding two competing ideas simultaneously;
• problems with the traditional legal system;
• the paradigm shift of restorative justice;
• integrating contemplative practice into the process of restorative justice;
• the role of the self in the experience of harm;
• how we need to shift our language around labeling people;
• reflections on forgiveness and justice;
• and next steps for the movement.

Full show notes and resources