Peace Is Here with Avis Kalfsbeek

Ep 294 Peace Lab 7/25/26 A Peace Council of Women & the Questions Worth Asking

Peacewarts Labs are our casual review sessions where we dig into the homework from the Peacewarts classes. In this lab, Avis Kalfsbeek covers #1 from each of the homework assignments in Episodes 290, 291, and 292:

The Middle East: Avis takes a brief look at the current conflicts in the region.

A Peace Council of Women: On her daughter's birthday, Avis honors the day by making a call for a global peace council of women dedicated to worldwide disarmament — inspired by the world authority in the 1958 Clark–Sohn disarmament plan, but reimagined with women, not men, at the table.

The Questions Worth Asking: Avis reads from a list she got when she asked a question of her own: if humanity could only ask the wisest AI 30 questions before it was permanently retired — and our goals were to value all life and minimize suffering — what should those questions be? Today she reads Question #1 and its answer:

What patterns across history most reliably predict the transition from violence to sustainable peace, and what conditions made those transitions possible?

Five patterns come up again and again:

Closing: Avis ends with Rumi's poem "Cup," as translated by Coleman Barks.

Ep 293 Peacewarts: Resonant Charms - The Ask Behind the Mask (Class 10)

In class 10, we study "The Ask Behind the Mask," focusing on the five primary needs hidden by aggression: safety, dignity, belonging, control, and grief. We explore real-world cases from Detroit union lines to Oslo transit disputes to show how "mis-filed requests" can be translated into shared values. We provide micro-practices like the "Protective Question" and the "Dignity Prefix."

Homework:

Books: If you'd like to read more on this subject, some book suggestions are Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg, which serves as the definitive manual on looking past aggressive masks to identify unmet universal human needs through actionable communication practices, and High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley, an insightful examination of how people get stuck in toxic conflict loops that highlights the specific tool of looping as a powerful validation micro-practice to break out.

Learning Topics: The Five Asks (Safety, Dignity, Belonging, Control, Grief); Validation vs. Agreement; The Detroit Union Case; The Oslo Bus Driver Case; The Protective Question; The Dignity Prefix.

Ep 292 Peacewarts Resonant Charms 101 - Rumor Immunology (Class 9)

In class 9, we explore Rumor Immunology and the lumos charm. Using the 2017 Mosque Fire and the 2014 Ebola response as case studies, we discuss how to separate image heat from factual context. We cover the dangers of accidental amplification and provide tactical tools like the One-Step Rule, reverse image searching, and identifying language tripwires.

Homework:

Ep 291 Peacewarts: Resonant Charms - The Power of the Pause (Class 8)

In class 8, we analyze silence as a physical and diplomatic requirement for peace. We traverse history from Mandela’s Robben Island council to the 1986 Reykjavik Summit and the Good Friday Agreement. We introduce a tactical syllabus of silence, including the 90-second window, the two-interpreter rule used by UN Blue Helmets, and the Japanese concept of Ma.

Homework:

Learning Topics: The Silencio Charm; Mandela’s Robben Island Rule; The 1986 Reykjavik Reset; The 90-Second Window; The Three-Breath Rule; The Two-Interpreter Rule; Japanese Ma; The Good Friday Agreement Adjournments.

Ep 290 Peacewarts Lab  7/18/26 - Always Disallow Foolishness: A Rule for Peace

Peacewarts Labs are casual review sessions where we dig into the homework from the Peacewarts classes. In this lab, Avis Kalfsbeek walks through some of the assignments from Episodes 287, 288, and 289.

Here's what we look up:

Shakespeare Sherpa Club: Just to keep her nerd credentials intact, Avis gives a shout-out to her Shakespeare Sherpa Club. Grab the free downloadable character bookmarks at www.AvisKalfsbeek.com/shakespearesherpa.

Always Disallow Foolishness: Avis talks about the track 10 Laws by East Forest, which features the spoken voice of Court Johnson reading the ten explicit laws he lives by. She zeroes in on one of them — Always Disallow Foolishness — and how it connects to global peace.

Media Bias Detectors: Avis rounds up some tools for figuring out the bias in the news we take in.

Ground News (groundnews.org) — A data-driven platform that lays out the ownership, factual reliability, and political lean (left, center, right) of news stories from around the world. Runs about $60/year.

Want to get similar insights without paying? Here are the best free alternatives:

Topics this episode: Homework Review, Shakespeare Sherpa, East Forest's 10 Laws & Disallowing Foolishness, Media Bias Metrics

Ep 289 Peacewarts: Resonant Charms - The Vocabulary of Dignity (Class 7)

In class 7, we explore the "Vocabulary of Dignity" and the three core needs: to be seen, heard, and safe. We analyze Nelson Mandela’s micro-practices of respect, including his "Future Self" language and his refusal to use sarcasm or public shaming. We discuss how honorifics and formal address can lower threat chemistry and keep negotiations focused on solutions rather than egos.

Homework:

Books: If you'd like to read more on this subject, some book suggestions are Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict by Donna Hicks, which explores the ten core elements of human dignity and focuses heavily on how preserving or violating face determines the ultimate success of high-stakes diplomacy, and Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, and their coauthors, a widely recognized staple on creating the necessary psychological safety so people can speak honestly and directly without stripping away each other's dignity.

Learning Topics: The Three Dignity Needs; Mandela’s Grammar of Respect; Saving Face vs. Saving Power; The Language of Future Selves; The Non-Sarcasm Rule; Red lines spoken softly.

Ep 288 Peacewarts: Resonant Charms - Common Ground Literacy (Class 6)

In class 6, we define Common Ground Literacy as the skill of identifying shared values hidden beneath conflicting slogans. We introduce the "Two-Question Drill" to translate tribal language into human needs. Using the 2003 Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, we discuss how shared values can override deep divides. We also cover the "False Common Ground Trap" and how to identify real shared interests.

Homework:

Books: If you'd like to read more on this subject, some book suggestions are The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt, which explores the moral matrices that drive opposing ideological slogans and offers a literacy framework to find the core human values underneath, and Colossus: How the Corporation Changed America by Jack Beatty, which offers historical context on major institutional shifts, providing an essential grounding for looking beneath surface-level economic and social battle lines.

Learning Topics: Common Ground Literacy; The Two-Question Drill; The Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace; Translating slogans into needs; The False Common Ground Trap; Shared values vs. tribal language.

Ep 287 Peacewarts: Resonant Charms - The Mirror Question (Class 5)

In class 5, we explore the "Mirror Question" as a tool for de-compression and restorative justice. We discuss the Three Mirrors of content, feeling, and need, and the importance of the "impact before intent" sequence. We examine the Navajo Peacemaking Courts and the Oakland Unified restorative school model to see how reflection can replace retribution.

Homework:

Books: If you'd like to read more on this subject, some book suggestions are Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Timesby Howard Zehr, a foundational text written by the grandfather of modern restorative justice that details how to focus on community impact and repair rather than retribution, and A Way of Being by Carl Rogers, which deeply explores client-centered validation and the immense psychological de-compression that occurs when someone feels accurately mirrored.

Learning Topics: The Three Mirrors (Content, Feeling, Need); Restorative Justice and the Oakland Unified model; Hózhó and the Navajo tradition; Impact before Intent sequencing; De-weaponizing paraphrase techniques.

Ep 286 Peacewarts: Lab 7-11-26: Learning about Creative Commons licensing and CC BY-SA 4.0

In this episode, we look at the structural future of this project and why traditional copyright might not serve the ultimate goal of peace education. Avis shares that fictional Kitty tells Higgins that she is taking herself to lunch, and today she is taking herself out on a lunch date too!

What is covered in this episode:

To help navigate the differences in open licensing, here is the quick spectrum of how these licenses operate:

You can read the full license terms for the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0) at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Ep 285 Peacewarts: Resonant Charms 101 - The Architecture of a Sentence (Class 4)

In class 4, we analyze the "Pronoun Blueprint" and the internal structure of speech to understand how sentences can either bridge divides or ignite factions. We compare the distributive responsibility found in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural and Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural address. We also introduce the Metaphor Temperature Test as a tool for identifying and cooling high-conflict rhetoric.

Homework:

If you'd like to read more on this subject, some book suggestions are Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America by Garry Wills, a brilliant masterclass on sentence architecture and structural balance that demonstrates how deliberate rhetoric can reshape a fractured national identity, and Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, which provides the essential global perspective on using balanced, inclusive language to distribute social responsibility and systematically mend a divided nation.

Learning Topics: The Pronoun Blueprint (we/our vs. you/they); Distributed responsibility in leadership; Lincoln and Mandela as case studies; The Metaphor Temperature Test; Parallel structure as a de-escalation tool.