Healing the Roots, Transforming the Future - Kazu Haga

What becomes possible when we understand social and political harm not only as injustice, but as expressions of collective trauma? In this conversation, Kazu Haga—activist, trainer, and author of Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging Through Collapse—joins host Serena Bian to explore why healing is so essential to radically reimagining the worlds we wish to build in the midst of collapse. This conversation explores the possibility that the work of social transformation cannot be separated from the work of inner transformation. Rather than reinforcing the familiar patterns of opposition of “us and them,” “right and wrong," Kazu invites us to consider pathways of change that are rooted in relationship, spiritual practice, and the long arc of healing. Drawing from decades of work in nonviolence, restorative justice, and Buddhist practice, Kazu reflects on the limitations of movement strategies that mirror the very dynamics they seek to transform. What might it mean to respond to harm in ways that do not escalate division, but instead create the conditions for healing, within ourselves, our communities, and the larger body politic? *** The New School is Commonweal’s learning community and podcast — we offer conversations, workshops, and other events in areas that Commonweal champions: finding meaning, growing health and resilience, advocating for justice, and stewarding the natural world. We make our conversations into podcasts for listeners world wide and have been doing this since 2007. Please like/follow our SoundCloud channel for access to our library of more than 400 great podcasts.