Peacemakers Podcast

There are stories that history books only partially hold—and others that live on in families, in land, in memory carried across generations.In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we listen to Southern Cheyenne leader Chris Tall Bear as he shares the story of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre—not as distant history, but as something still present. His ancestors survived Sand Creek. What he offers here is a continuation of memory: held in place, in lineage, and in the responsibility to remember.Chris walks us through the broken treaties, the political ambitions, and the violence that led to Sand Creek. He speaks to what remains unresolved. A question of how we live with histories that have not been fully recognized.A question of what remembrance asks of us now.And a quiet, ongoing possibility—that through acknowledgment, conversation, and presence, something can begin.Listen in to this heartfelt and necessary conversation.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Chris Tall Bear* Recording Date: April 01, 2026* Hosts: Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe & Chloe Wright* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we sit with Hozan Alan Senauke — a Zen priest, teacher, musician, and lifelong practitioner of engaged Buddhism — in a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like being in the presence of a life deeply lived.At the heart of Hozan’s path is a simple but demanding vow: “I will not abandon you.” Not as a sentiment, but as a practice. A North Star. A way of meeting suffering without turning away — while still holding boundaries, clarity, and compassion.Through stories from his life — from sangha relationships to refugee camps, from Bangladesh to India — Hozan brings the Three Tenets into lived reality. Not Knowing. Bearing Witness. Taking Action. Not as abstract ideas, but as something we return to again and again, especially when it would be easier to walk away.There’s a quiet honesty in this conversation. A recognition that staying present is not always comfortable, not always clear — but that something essential unfolds when we remain in relationship.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Hozan Alan Senauke* Recording Date: March 28, 2023* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Micka (妙心) Moto-Sanchez, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Zen teacher Paul Haller reflects on how the practice of Zen meets the realities of a divided world.Paul grew up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, a time when political conflict and religious identity shaped daily life. Neighborhoods, schools, and communities were divided, and the tensions between Catholic and Protestant communities formed the backdrop of his early years. Those experiences left deep impressions about fear, identity, and the ways people come to see one another as “other.”In our conversation, Paul shares how Zen practice — and particularly the Zen Peacemakers’ emphasis on Bearing Witness — offered a way to meet these divisions without turning away. Rather than retreating from the world, the practice invites us to enter it more fully. To listen. To see suffering clearly. And to discover how compassion can arise when we stop holding tightly to fixed positions.Paul’s reflections remind us that peacemaking is not abstract. It grows directly out of our lived experience — the places we come from, the histories we inherit, and the willingness to face them with an open heart.This episode explores how practice moves from the meditation cushion into the streets, into communities, and into the complicated human realities we share.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Ryushin Paul Haller* Recording Date: October 23, 2020* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Micka (妙心) Moto-Sanchez, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

We see suffering.Something inside says: Do something.Another voice answers: What if I get it wrong?In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe sits down with five longtime Zen Peacemakers to explore the raw, human edge of Taking Action—the third of the Three Tenets.Not a strategy.Not performance.Relationship.From street retreats in Los Angeles to immigrant support in Seattle, from community councils in Helsinki to integrated housing projects in Vermont and New York, one thread runs through it all:Action is intimacy.Action is ceremony.Action is staying when things get uncomfortableIf you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough—or too much—this conversation is for you.Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Joshin Byrnes, Jitsujo T Gauthier, Daiken Nelson, Mikko Ijäs, and Genjo Marinello* Recording Date: September 2, 2025* Hosts: Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on Appamāda—a Buddhist teaching often translated as vigilance or heedfulness, and here offered simply as care.Speaking from a life shaped by civil rights work, caregiving, and decades of practice alongside Bernie Glassman, Joan explores what it means to stay present with moral distress without rushing toward answers. Drawing on Bernie’s teaching of Not Knowing and Bearing Witness, she invites us to let response arise not from ideology or strategy, but from direct contact with suffering—our own and the world’s.Through images of water—fluid, responsive, inclusive—and the story of Anishinaabe grandmother Josephine Mandamin carrying a single bucket along the shores of the Great Lakes, Joan points to a practice grounded in responsibility at human scale. Not grand solutions, but showing up. Not certainty, but care. Again and again.This is a conversation about conscience, community, and the small, faithful acts through which our vows are lived—moment by moment, right where we are.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Roshi Joan Halifax* Recording Date: December 12, 2023* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

This episode of the Peacemakers Podcast features reflections from Bernie Glassman, drawn from a three-day gathering held in 2014.Across those days, Bernie occasionally spoke from the vantage point of the first, second, and third twenty-year periods of his life — not as a formal structure, but as a way of noticing how practice matures through time. What comes through most clearly is not biography, but how the Three Tenets — Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action — continually shaped his responses to life.Listening now, these reflections feel less like a retrospective and more like an invitation. The Three Tenets are not presented as ideas to adopt, but as something already moving in each of us — in how we meet uncertainty, stay with what is difficult, and allow action to arise from real presence.If this episode resonates with you, we invite you to support the ongoing work of Zen Peacemakers by becoming a paying subscriber.Join our Community Platform to learn more hereShow Credits:* Speaker: Bernie Glassman* Recording Date: 2014* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we sit with T. Marie King in a conversation that invites honest reflection on identity, power, and how we show up in community.Rather than offering answers or analysis, this episode creates space to notice what we assume, who we may be missing, and how listening itself can become an act of care and responsibility. Rooted in lived experience and grounded presence, T. Marie’s work challenges us to slow down, brave discomfort, and allow ourselves to be changed.This conversation is closely connected to place, especially Selma and Montgomery, Alabama—cities that continue to shape the moral and emotional landscape of our shared life. It also points toward the Zen Peacemakers’ upcoming Bearing Witness to Racism in America Retreat in April 2026. This contemplative immersion is not about fixing the world, but about letting experience work on us.If this episode resonates, you are also invited to join T. Marie King for a free online Zen Peacemakers event, Perspective + Empathy: Learning Beyond Our Own Lens. Details for both the retreat and the online event can be found in the show notes.If you value these conversations, please consider becoming a paying subscriber and supporting the ongoing work of Zen Peacemakers. Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgShow Credits:* Speaker: T.Marie King* Recording Date: June 23, 2022* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Micka (妙心) Moto-Sanchez, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

The Art of Appreciative Attention — with Poet & Teacher John BrehmAs we approach the end of the year, Geoff and I wanted to offer something a little different—something quieter, more spacious, and genuinely nourishing. This week’s Peacemakers Podcast feels like exactly that.Geoff opens with one of his own poems, a tender moment he rarely shares publicly, and we talk together about how poetry has shaped his way of slowing down and really seeing what’s right in front of us.We’re joined by our friend John Brehm, poet, teacher, and longtime companion of Zen Peacemakers, who leads us into what he calls the art of appreciative attention. John invites us to lay down the old habit of treating poems like riddles to decode, and instead approach them as living presences—something we enter, savor, and let work on us from the inside out.Through Joy Harjo, Elizabeth Bishop, Rilke, and his own new anthology The Poetry of Grief, Gratitude, and Reverence, John shows how poetry can dissolve the boundary between ourselves and the world, opening a gentler, more curious way of being.His teaching is beautifully simple:Notice what you love, and let that be enough.As we close out the year, we’re grateful to share this unique, heartfelt episode—an offering to help us pause, reconnect, and remember the deeper threads of our practice.Thank you for listening, for practicing with us, and for being part of this circle.If this conversation moved you, we invite you to become a paying subscriber and support the Peacemakers Podcast. You can learn more atwww.zenpeacemakers.org This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we walk after dark with San Francisco Night Ministry, a multi-faith community offering spiritual care on the city’s streets and phone lines. No preaching, no agenda—just presence.Our guest, Rev. Trent Thornley, shares how these night walks become both an expression and inspiration of faith—moments of deep listening, compassion, and unexpected connection. You’ll also hear about their moving annual reading of names, honoring neighbors who died while unhoused.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Rev. Trent Thornley* Recording Date: November 17, 2021* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Micka (妙心) Moto-Sanchez, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode, two of Bernie’s dear friends—Jeff Bridges and Krishna Das—sit down with us for a funny, tender, deeply alive conversation about courage, friendship, and the love that keeps cooking long after the meal. We open with Krishna Das recalling how Bernie invited him to turn lines from the Gate of Sweet Nectar into a singable prayer—what became the beloved song “Hungry Hearts.”Recorded in 2022, not long after Jeff’s recovery, the conversation turns to “instructions to the cook”—meeting life with what’s in the pantry—and how facing illness, fear, and uncertainty can become a doorway to gratitude. You’ll hear the refrain “scary, but okay,” and a spacious exploration of how courage and fear sit at the same table.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Jeff Bridges & Krishna Das* Recording Date: January 20, 2022* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Micka (妙心) Moto-Sanchez, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, hosts Jim Hōden Fricker and Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe sit down with Jared Seide of Beyond Us & Them to explore a simple, radical practice: sitting in a circle and truly listening. What begins as “ordinary” turns out to be transformative—calming classrooms, easing tensions in neighborhoods, helping people heal in prisons and police precincts, and weaving connection where stress and isolation have taken root.Jared traces the arc of Council from its early days in Los Angeles schools to deep work in reentry, law enforcement, and global bearing witness contexts—from Auschwitz to Rwanda. We hear how “everyone needs to feel seen and connected and valued,” and how Council offers a reliable structure for belonging—one voice at a time—embodying Taking Action, the third of the Zen Peacemakers’ Three Tenets.If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Jared Seide * Recording Date: February 20, 2025* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Related Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, hosts Jim Hōden Fricker and Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe welcome Seth Zuihō Segall and John Murphy to present the vision of the newly formed Buddhist Coalition for Democracy.Seth Zuihō Segall is a Zen priest ordained in the White Plum and Zen Peacemaker Order lineages, and a retired clinical psychologist who served for three decades at the Yale School of Medicine. He co-founded the Connecticut Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in 2003 and the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy in 2025. Seth is the author of The House We Live In: Virtue, Wisdom, and Pluralism (2023), Buddhism and Human Flourishing (2020), and several other books and scholarly works, and is a contributing editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.John Murphy is a longtime practitioner at the Philadelphia Shambhala Center, where he serves on its Central Governance Circle. He is also on the Board of the Secular Buddhist Network, and a founding member of the Coordinating Committee of the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy. With a career spanning senior leadership roles in both corporate and nonprofit sectors, John has guided organizations in strategic planning, fundraising, donor relations, and board development.Together, Seth and John present a fresh and inclusive vision for the Coalition—one that invites Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, conservatives and progressives, to join in protecting the foundations of democracy with compassion, dignity, and care. Their principles are clear: free and fair elections, the rule of law, free inquiry, human dignity, and care for the planet. Their actions are wide-ranging—bearing witness, supporting the vulnerable, educating about threats to democracy, embodying right speech and nonviolence.This conversation touches on the joy of working together across difference, the courage to remain “for” something rather than merely “against,” and the deep listening that allows dialogue to transform us.Find out more about the Buddhist Coalition for DemocracyIf this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Seth Zuihō Segall and John Murphy* Recording Date: September 16, 2025* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this new Peacemakers Podcast episode, poet and Zen practitioner Jane Hirshfield sits down with Geoff O’Keeffe for a luminous, grounded conversation about how poems—and practice—help us meet a fractured world. From her seven-word distillation of the dharma (“Everything changes. Everything is connected. Pay attention.”) to the vow that undergirds compassionate action, Jane invites us into a way of seeing that is precise, permeable, and tender.Together we travel through themes of Questioning, Being Still, Bearing Witness, Stepping Forward, Failing, and Listening—touching poems such as “After Long Silence,” “Let Them Not Say,” “Like Others,” “Changing Everything,” and the wry kitchen-table parable of a frozen egg. Along the way, Jane reflects on why witnessing itself is a form of action, and how abiding in Not-Knowing helps keep our responses spacious and humane. We hear of fires faced (or sometimes fled), of vows renewed, and of the small, almost invisible gestures that can ripple outward—poetry as a way to not despair and to remain in love with the world.The Asking: New & Selected Poems (Knopf, September 12, 2023)https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/715681/the-asking-by-jane-hirshfield/Bonus Content:If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Jane Hirshfield & Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Recording Date: April 24, 2024* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HEREMore From Jane Hirshfieldhttps://poets.org/text/blaney-making-invisible-visible (text)New Profile/Conversations:McSweeney's, with Ilya Kaminsky: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/jane-hirshfieldThe Nation, with Wen Stephenson: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/while-this-all-over-crying/Interviews:EZRA KLEIN SHOWOpinion | What a Poetic Mind Can Teach Us About How to Live - The New York Times (nytimes.com)TRICYCLE https://tricycle.org/magazine/jane-hirshfield-poetry/ORIONOrion Magazine - Jane Hirshfield Answers the Orion Questionnaire This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman taught that practice doesn’t end on the cushion—it must move into the world. In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we see how a Zen Peacemaker Affiliate, the Zen Center of Denver, brings this vision to life through their ongoing work at Metro Caring.What emerges is a reminder that service isn’t about charity, but about belonging—creating spaces where dignity and connection flourish.Bernie’s vision points us back to our own neighborhoods. Each of us has a “Metro Caring” close to home, a place where our practice can meet the world’s needs in simple, human ways.Join us for this conversation about practice, service, and the everyday work of peacemaking.🌱 Support our work: Become a paying subscriber for full access to our podcasts, writings, and events—and help sustain the Zen Peacemakers’ global community. Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.org.* Show Credits:* Recording Date: April 17, 2025* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Special Thanks to Metro Caring and the Zen Center of Denver This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

What if being ethical wasn’t about being good, but about being whole?In this moving and revelatory episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Zen teacher Nancy Mujo Baker Roshi invites us to experience the Buddhist precepts not as commandments or even ideals—but as expressions of oneness itself. Through stories, teachings, and poetic insight, she guides us through the subtle terrain of “non-killing, non-stealing, non-lying” and the journey toward a life lived without a “why.”Together we explore how exposing our delusions, embracing our sorrow, and dropping our self-protection can awaken a deeper way of being—one rooted in Zazen, intimacy, and spontaneous compassion.Whether you’ve studied the precepts for years or are just beginning to reflect on your actions in the world, this episode offers a profound invitation: to meet all of it—your confusion, your care, your contradictions—as Buddha Nature itself.Join us as we walk hand in hand with sorrow, and step into the great unfolding.🌀If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Nancy Mujo Baker Roshi* Recording Date: January 28, 2023* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this heartfelt episode, we turn the lens inward to explore how the Zen Peacemakers' Three Tenets—Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action—manifest in our closest and most personal relationships.Host Geoff O’Keeffe guides a powerful roundtable conversation with eight longtime Zen teachers, including Roshis Pat Enkyo and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez, June Ryushin Tanoue and Robert Joshin Althouse, and Nicolee Jikyo and Barry Kaigen McMahon.Together, they share the deep joys and inevitable frictions of practicing and teaching together in intimate partnership. Through stories that are funny, moving, and honest, they offer rare insight into how a committed relationship can become not a distraction from the path, but the path itself.From learning how to fight fair and communicate with compassion, to embracing the discomfort of “not knowing” and creating a shared space where healing can emerge, this episode is a love letter to spiritual partnership.🌀 Join us for this unique conversation in the spirit of mutuality, humility, and curiosity.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Roshis Pat Enkyo and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez, June Ryushin Tanoue and Robert Joshin Althouse, and Nicolee Jikyo and Barry Kaigen McMahon* Recording Date: January 22, 2024* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In today’s episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we’re honored to share the voice of Elias D’eis, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem and a leader with the Holy Land Trust.Elias grew up during the First Intifada—surrounded by military patrols, fear, and the weight of inherited trauma. As a child, he opened his Bible and read, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”, even as his father was being arrested. Like many Palestinians, he struggled with the seeming contradiction between his faith and the reality of occupation.This conversation is raw and vulnerable. It invites us beyond blame. Beyond “sides.” It asks: What does it mean to be human in a landscape that so often forgets?We hope you’ll take time to listen—slowly, openly, without rushing toward answers. As always, we thank you for being part of this community.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Elias D’eis* Recording Date: December 19, 2024* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

Actor, activist, and Zen priest Peter Coyote joins the Peacemakers Podcast for a powerful episode that pulls no punches. With a voice shaped by decades of spiritual practice and political engagement, Peter traces how we arrived at this moment—from the ideals of the 1960s to the calculated strategies of political and economic power.Peter reminds us that Buddhist practice isn’t a retreat from the world—it’s an invitation into it. Into the mess. Into the uncertainty. Into the radical possibility of listening without judgment and showing up with clarity and care.If you’ve ever wondered how the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers can show up in today’s political climate, this episode is for you.💫 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Peter Coyote* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

(Episode Preview) In this timely and compelling episode, actor, activist, and Zen priest Peter Coyote reflects on how spiritual practice can anchor us in the turbulence of political and cultural change. Through stories from his life—from the counterculture of the ’60s to the challenges of today—Peter invites us to look closely at how fear and disconnection shape our shared reality.More than a conversation about mindfulness, this is a call to presence, compassion, and thoughtful action. It’s a reminder that in times of chaos, how we show up—for ourselves, for each other, and for the world—makes all the difference.Join us next week for the full episode.💫 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

What happens when the world goes mad—and we go mad right along with it? In this episode of The Peacemakers Podcast, Zen teacher and poet Norman Fischer brings to life the prophetic parable of the tainted grain by Rebbe Nachman. Norman gently walks us through what it means to live in a world turned upside down. Through the lens of the Bodhisattva path, he invites us to surrender the illusion of separateness, to embrace our shared human vulnerabilities, and to discover an inner greatness rooted in compassion, love, and radical acceptance.💫 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.If this episode stirred something in you, we invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.org.Show Credits:* Speakers: Norman Fischer* Recorded: July 9, 2020 * Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Watch the original video HEREThanks for listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this heartfelt and unfiltered conversation, Krishna Das and Roshi Bernie Glassman reflect on the power of bearing witness—from Auschwitz to the Black Hills to the city streets.Recorded not long after the 20th anniversary of the Zen Peacemakers’ first Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz/Birkenau, this exchange touches the heart of our second tenet: turning toward what we often avoid.Together, they speak of fear, of memory, of ancestral wounds, and of the transformative power of presence. Stories of singing in the barracks, weddings at the death camps, and embracing strangers on the street become openings into something larger—a space where healing, grief, and joy coexist.It’s a moving conversation that reminds us: Bearing witness doesn’t mean only holding pain. It can also mean singing. It can mean dancing. It can mean love.Join us for this intimate moment with two longtime friends, as we continue to mark 30 years of returning to Auschwitz and ask together, “What shall I sing to you?”—🌱 Support our workIf this episode moved you, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get full access to all Peacemakers content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain a community rooted in bearing witness and taking action.Explore more at zenpeacemakers.orgShow Credits:* Speakers: Krishna Das & Roshi Bernie Glassman* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Interview videotaped and edited by Rami Efal* Recording of Krishna Das performing in Auschwitz/Birkenau by Ohad Ezrahi* Watch the original video HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

“Yeah, well, you know, that’s just like, your opinion, man…” — and in this episode, Jeff Bridges lays down some serious Dude-style truth about aging.Jeff reflects on his role in The Old Man, his time with Bernie Glassman, and his experience of illness and vulnerability. Together, Eve and Jeff explore what it means to surrender, to grow older, and to stay creatively alive.🌀 “The Dude abides,” sure—but this Dude also reflects, loves deeply, and creates from the heart. If you’re into that kind of thing, this episode’s for you.So take ‘er easy, grab your beverage of choice, and join us for a journey into the Tao of aging, creativity, and not knowing what comes next—but being cool with it anyway.Dear Listener,In producing the Peacemakers Podcast, we will share inspiring conversations, and highlights from our Peacemakers Circle events, and showcase the impactful work our Zen Peacemakers friends and affiliates are doing in their communities.By becoming a subscriber, you will directly support our content production and gain access to our complete archives. Your support will help us continue sharing powerful stories of engaged practice, social action, and the Three Tenets in action.We invite you to join us on this journey and help sustain this initiative with a small monthly subscription.Thank you for being part of our growing community of Peacemakers. We look forward to sharing this journey with you!With gratitude,Jim Hōden FrickerZen PeacemakersThe Peacemakers PodcastRooted in the Three Tenets—Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action - the Peacemakers Podcast brings together activists, spiritual leaders, and changemakers who embody these principles in their work and lives. Through diverse podcast series, we share stories of compassion, justice, and transformation, offering insight and inspiration for those committed to making a difference in the world. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

Aging is inevitable, but how we experience it is up to us. In this special preview of next week’s Peacemakers Podcast, we sit down with the legendary Jeff Bridges for a candid and heartfelt conversation about growing older, embracing change, and finding joy in the process.Jeff reflects on the lessons he’s learned—not just from his remarkable career, but from life itself. He shares personal stories about family, resilience, and the unexpected gifts that come with aging. With warmth, humor, and wisdom, he offers a perspective that will leave you both inspired and smiling.This is just a glimpse of what’s to come in the full episode next week, where Jeff joins Eve Marko for a deeper dive into the realities of getting older and the wisdom it brings.🎧 Listen to the preview now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Substack, and be sure to tune in next week for the full conversation!#ZenPeacemakers #Podcast #JeffBridges #AgingWithGrace #PeacemakersPodcast #OldMan #EveMarkoThrough this podcast, we will share inspiring conversations, and highlights from our Peacemakers Circle events, and showcase the impactful work our Zen Peacemakers friends and affiliates are doing in their communities.By becoming a subscriber, you will directly support our content production and gain access to our complete archives. Your support will help us continue sharing powerful stories of engaged practice, social action, and the Three Tenets in action.We invite you to join us on this journey and help sustain this initiative with a small monthly subscription.Thank you for being part of our growing community of Peacemakers. We look forward to sharing this journey with you!With gratitude,Jim Hōden FrickerZen PeacemakersThe Peacemakers PodcastRooted in the Three Tenets—Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action - the Peacemakers Podcast brings together activists, spiritual leaders, and changemakers who embody these principles in their work and lives. Through diverse podcast series, we share stories of compassion, justice, and transformation, offering insight and inspiration for those committed to making a difference in the world. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Dr. Larry Ward, a renowned teacher and author in the Plum Village tradition, delves into America's Racial Karma as collective trauma and the necessity for healing. He opens with a powerful personal story involving chains and cuffs once used to enslave children, which serves as a stark reminder of the enduring impact of history. Through history, Buddhist teachings, and personal reflections, Dr. Ward explores the myths of race, generational trauma, and the colonial mindset. He emphasizes the importance of safety for healing and calls for a global cultural and racial reckoning. Dr. Ward concludes with a call to action for personal and collective transformation, urging listeners to embrace interconnectedness and foster beloved community. Through this podcast, we will share inspiring conversations, highlights from our Peacemakers Circle events, and showcase the impactful work our Zen Peacemakers affiliates are doing in their communities.By becoming a subscriber, you will directly support our content production and gain access to our complete archives. Your support will help us continue sharing powerful stories of engaged practice, social action, and the Three Tenets in action.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Larry Ward, PhD* Recording Date: February 26 - 28, 2021 (Race in America: An Intimate Plunge)* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE*Photo by Jovelle TamayoThe Peacemakers PodcastRooted in the Three Tenets—Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action - the Peacemakers Podcast brings together activists, spiritual leaders, and changemakers who embody these principles in their work and lives. Through diverse podcast series, we share stories of compassion, justice, and transformation, offering insight and inspiration for those committed to making a difference in the world. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe