Puzzle Peaceing

Last week we asked why disagreement is so hard. This week we ask what to do about it.In Part 2 of this conversation, I sit with John Paul Lederach's The Moral Imagination, John Brewer's writing on Northern Ireland after thirty-plus years of the Troubles, and a small moment in my own life when I almost built a barrier with a stranger I had never spoken to.If you came up in last week's episode about Jonathan Haidt and you have been wondering what we are supposed to do with the diagnosis, this is the practice. Not a checklist but a way of paying attention, especially in the small moments where the gut moves before the mind has caught up.By the end of this episode, you will have three observations you can carry into your next disagreement. A clearer sense of why most peacebuilding work happens in private, long before any conversation begins. Maybe, if it lands, a small new muscle for catching the barriers you might otherwise build without noticing.

Why are we biologically wired to click on the violence?In the inaugural episode of Puzzle Peaceing, host and legal researcher Camila breaks down the "biological glitch" that makes our brains mistake shock for high-value information. From a dark neurological study at the University of Amsterdam to the archival violence of the 18th century Caribbean, we explore how the human craving for friction is weaponized by modern algorithms, media headlines, and geopolitical lawmakers.Drawing on her master's research regarding the constitutional codification of migrant children in South America, Camila reveals how the state uses the language of crisis (words like "surge" and "liability") to trigger our reward systems and strip away human context at the border.Reaction is easy, it's just biology but peace is rigorous.Ep. 1 Reading List:-The Brain's Reward System & Words: Writing for Impact by Bill Birchard (Referencing the University of Amsterdam study on neurological responses to negative/violent descriptions).-Archival Violence: Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive by Professor Marisa J. Fuentes.Independent Research: -Camila’s master's research on the constitutional codification and legal framing of child migrants across the Americas.

We think we reason our way to moral conclusions. Jonathan Haidt says we don't. The gut decides first. The brain catches up after, building a case for a verdict that's already been reached.In this episode, I walk through The Righteous Mind, the book quietly reshaping how I think about peace work, public discourse, and how international law actually holds up under pressure.This is Part 1: the diagnosis. Part 2, out next week.