Making Peace Visible

On September 16, 2022, a twenty-two year old Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini died in police custody. The Tehran police said she was arrested for not wearing her headscarf properly. A few days after the arrest, a photo surfaced of Amini in a hospital bed. The police claim she died suddenly of a heart problem, but many Iranians believe she was beaten or killed. In the weeks following, a protest movement has spread around the country, with young women chanting anti-regime slogans and demanding their rights. Since Amini’s death, the regime has arrested and imprisoned at least thirty-one journalists, according to the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders. In a country without press freedoms, and especially at a time of unrest, it’s very difficult for journalists to do their jobs. So, most news reports are coming from outside of Iran. On social media, a mix of posts by protesters, regime-backed news agencies, and others paint a confusing picture. And now, the government has blocked major social media platforms, further restricting the flow of information.So for this special episode, we invited Tehran-based journalist Reza Sayah back to the show to help us make sense of what’s going on in Iran. Reza has reported on Iran for CNN and Al Jazeera. Lately, he’s been covering developments there for PBS Newshour and France 24. We recorded this interview on October 10, 2022. For more of Reza Sayah on the news media, listen to our previous episode: Reza Sayah: a bias towards peaceMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace.Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin.Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Meavy Boy, and Bill Vortex ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Imagine living next door to a person who murdered your father, raped your sister, or even killed your child. This was the case for many people in Sierra Leone who endured a  brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002: the majority of the 50,000 who died were those killed by their own neighbors. While working with a program that facilitates ritual reconciliation processes in Sierra Leone, a process known as fambul tok (or “family talk”), peacebuilder and philanthropist Libby Hoffman learned that justice for Sierra Leonians isn't about punishing or ousting a perpetrator. Rather, justice comes through making the community whole again. “When you hurt somebody, you don't just hurt them; you hurt the community as well,” says Hoffman. In this episode, host Jamil Simon speaks with Libby Hoffman about fambul tok, a process she calls “building peace from the inside out.” Fambul tok is an ancient tradition where disputes are solved through community-wide conversation around a bonfire. In this post-war context, Hoffman and her team facilitated the revival of the practice for Sierra Leonians. Hoffman also documented this remarkable peacebuilding process in her award-winning documentary film Fambul Tok, which has itself catalyzed further reconciliation within Sierra Leone’s war-torn communities. Hoffman has now written a book on her experiences called The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out.Libby Hoffman is the founder and President of Catalyst for Peace, a US-based private foundation building peace from the inside-out – creating space for those most impacted by violence to lead in building the peace, supported by healthy, inclusive systems. A former Political Science professor, Hoffman has a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts’ Fletcher School of Law and a BA in Political Science from Williams College.The film Fambul Tok is available for private viewing through War Stories Peace Stories' Peace Docs initiative. Watch the film here: vimeo.com/26644766. This episode was produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Music by Xylo-Ziko via freemusicarchive.org.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Five years ago, the government of Colombia signed a historic peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, putting an end to a fifty-year civil war. The agreement allowed FARC members to turn in their weapons and begin to live as civilians. The Colombian Truth Commission was established to shed light on decades of atrocities and human rights violations that were committed during the war. This summer the Truth Commission released its full report. Over 1,000 people worked on it, interviewing 24,000 Colombians. And in August, Gustavo Petro – a former guerilla combatant, and a vocal proponent of the peace agreement –  took office as President. Our guest this episode, Daniel Salgar, served as editor for the first volume of the Truth Commission Report, which focuses on Colombia’s history. Salgar is a journalist who’s worked in national and international media in Colombia for the past ten years. He was a reporter and editor at the newspaper El Espectador, where he oversaw a project on peacebuilding called Colombia 2020. He was editor and director of the Spanish news service for Anadalou, a Turkish international news agency. He teaches Journalism, Conflicts, and Migration at Externado University in Bogota.Daniel counts himself among a generation of journalists who spent most of their careers covering peace efforts. With the Truth Commission report and the historic election, Daniel is optimistic about peace in Colombia, despite ongoing violence in the country. Follow Daniel Salgar on Twitter: @DanielSalgar1View the Colombia Truth Commission Report (in Spanish) Read Daniel Salgar’s interview with former FARC leader Timochenco (in English)Read Daniel’s analysis piece on drug policy in Colombia (in Spanish) Explore the peacebuilding journalism project Colombia 2020 (in Spanish)Watch the documentary “A Call for Peace” for an intimate look inside the process leading up to the 2016 Colombian peace accord between the government and the FARC: vimeo.com/305983614. Enter password peace2019.Listen to our podcast interview with the film’s director, Juan Carlos Borrero, on the episode “A Filmmaker’s Perspective on the Colombian Peace Process.” Special thanks to Juan Carlos for connecting us with Daniel! Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace. Visit our website: warstoriespeacestories.orgMaking Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin.Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Phil Larson, Meavy Boy, Podington Bear, and Pianobook ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Our guest this episode has some advice for international journalists working abroad: "If you work with local journalists, give them a byline - they're not your free fixers. The security of locals is more important than any story. And  YOU, international journalist, you are not the story." And she would know. Award-winning journalist and communications consultant Zaina Erhaim comes from Idlib in northern Syria. And she got started in journalism covering the Syrian revolution and the civil war that followed. Her reporting made her a target, and she left Syria in 2016. She now lives in the UK, where she continues to mentor Syrian journalists and report on the Middle East. In this interview she shares razor sharp insights into reporting on conflict, while upholding the dignity of sources and collaborators. Find more advice from Zaina including her ten tips for international journalists here.Follow Zaina on Twitter @zainaerhaim. Read her reporting at zaina-erhaim.com. Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace.Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Reza Sayah is an Iranian-American journalist, currently based in Tehran. He’s reported on major events around the world including the Ukrainian Revolution of 2004, the Second Iraq War, and the Egyptian Revolution. Reza has spent much of his career working for major broadcast news networks including ABC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. In those roles, he’s had to explain complicated conflicts - in the form of very brief segments. And he says the corporate news model often works to perpetuate conflicts. But, another way is possible. Watch:Reza Sayah reports on Iran’s Jewish community for PBS NewshourReza Sayah: How This Iran-Backed Militia Helped Save Iraq from ISIS for PBS NewshourReza Sayah’s Tedx talk: How to Spot News that is NOT NewsMaking Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeace.Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin.Music in this episode is by Holizna, MARiAN, and Meavy Boy. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

After over two decades as a journalist, including ten years covering terrorism and disasters for TIME Magazine, Amanda Ripley thought she understood conflict. But when momentum started to build around the candidacy of Donald Trump, she questioned what she thought she knew. Ripley interviewed psychologists, mediators, and people who had made it out of seemingly intractable conflicts for her book, High Conflict: Why We Get Stuck and How We Get Out.  In this conversation with host Jamil Simon, she shares insights about how journalists can change the way they cover conflict, in service of the public good.Order Amanda Ripley’s book, High Conflict: Why We Get Stuck and How We Get Out. Listen to her podcast How To! from Slate. Watch Amanada’s talk on High Conflict for The Alliance for Peacebuilding.Find our episode on the Colombian peace process here. You can watch the film “A Call for Peace” for free here: vimeo.com/305983614. Enter password peace2019. Learn more at acallforpeace.org.Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeaceMaking Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Music in this episode from Blue Dot Sessions and Pianobook.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Herds of goats, pomegranate trees in bloom, and ancient architecture are just some of the things you might witness while walking The Abraham Path, a collection of walking trails established in the past fifteen years through parts of Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq. But the trail is also engineered for human experiences. Connecting cities and villages, it offers the opportunity to make one-on-one connections in a contested region. It's a kind of subtle peace-building project, but it's also an economic development project, an education project, and more. The path's development, spurred by American peacebuilders, has been met with some skepticism by journalists. But as locals have taken ownership of the trail, a good deal of stories have been published that convey a sense of hope, including a cover story in a travel-themed issue of The New York Times Magazine in April 2022. Our guests for this episode are Joshua Weiss, a peacebuilder and co-founder of The Abraham Path Initiative, and Anisa Mehdi, the Executive Director of the project and a veteran broadcast journalist. Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts. Join the conversation on Twitter: @warstoriespeaceMaking Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon, and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Music in this episode is by One Man Book, Doyeq, and Les Portes Du Futur.  ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

When Colombian filmmaker Juan Carlos Borerro worked on films or TV shows in the countryside as a young man, the crew would have to stop shooting and run from the FARC when the guerillas came near. Everyone he knew had a family member who had been kidnapped or killed, and he never thought he would live to see an end to the war in his country. So when the government and the FARC forged a peace accord in 2016, he set out to document how the agreement came together. Borrero’s documentary “A Call for Peace” tells the story of the peace process in Colombia, through interviews with international peace builders who played key roles behind the scenes.In this episode, in conversation with host Jamil Simon, Borrero tells the story of peace in Colombia as not just a singular occurrence, but an unfolding that drew on past peace processes, and can inform future ones. You’ll also hear clips from the film. You can watch the film “A Call for Peace” for free here: vimeo.com/305983614. Enter password peace2019. Learn more at acallforpeace.org.Making Peace Visible is a project of War Stories Peace Stories. Our mission is to bring journalists and peacebuilders together to re-imagine the way the news media covers peace and conflict, and to do everything possible to facilitate expanded coverage of global peace and reconciliation efforts.Making Peace Visible is produced by Andrea Muraskin. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

Mari Fitzduff, is a peacebuilder and the author of a fascinating new book, Our Brains at War: The Neuroscience of Conflict and Peacebuilding. Mari’s book is deeply relevant to the polarization and violence that is happening right now in America. Our Brains at War explains a lot about the brain chemistry that’s driving the anger and violence we are seeing, almost every day in the U.S.Making Peace Visible is brought to you by the War Stories Peace Stories Project, working to connect journalists and peace-builders to accelerate and elevate stories on reconciliation efforts in the mainstream media. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show! 

This is an interview with Nina Streich, the Director and Founder of the Global Peace Film Festival, which operates out of Orlando, Florida. Nina and her partner, Kelly DeVine have probably seen more films on peace than any two people on the planet. Nina talks about the nature of films on peace and what motivates filmmakers to make them. This year, the festival will be celebrating its 20th anniversary. Making Peace Visible is brought to you by the War Stories, Peace Stories Project, working to connect journalists and peace-builders to accelerate and elevate stories on reconciliation efforts in the mainstream media. ABOUT THE SHOW The Making Peace Visible podcast is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin. Our associate producer is Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.orgSupport our work Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleBluesky @makingpeacevisible.bsky.social We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!