Peace Talks Radio

On this special edition of Peace Talks Radio, we recall the several years when musician John Lennon and his wife, performance artist Yoko Ono, were among the most high profile peace advocates on the planet. John was shot dead outside his apartment in New York in 1980 – 11 years after he wrote the song that – since its creation in 1969, has been a fixture at just about any gathering for peace. Give Peace A Chance was released 40 years ago this summer (July 4). We’ll talk with Yoko Ono as well a the producers and directors of two fine films about this part of their lives: David Leaf who co-created the film The US vs. John Lennon, and the co-producers of the film John and Yoko, Give Peace A Song, Paul McGrath and Alan Lysaght. Lennon's voice is heard in clips from both films and in his songs including, Give Peace A Chance, Happy Xmas (War Is Over), Power To The People, Revolution, and Imagine. Hosted by Paul Ingles.

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet. On this program, Suzanne Kryder talks with Tibetan scholar Dr. Robert Thurman, author of the book Why The Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World. Also featured is Pico Iyer, author of The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14th Dalai Lama. Listeners will also hear excerpts from the Dalai Lama's 2008 appearance at Seattle's Seeds of Compassion Conference. This program explores how the Dalai Lama's life and story might inspire our own search for personal and global peace. It also examines the Dalai Lama's proposal to settle the long-running conflict with China over Tibet.

Peace Talks Radio, the series on peacemaking and nonviolent conflict resolution, explores the peace message in the hugely popular original 1960's TV series - STAR TREK. A new Star Trek movie was released in May 2009 that revisits the stories of Capt. Kirk, Spock, Bones and the characters from the original series. This episode ot Peace Talks Radio notes how many stories in the original series thoughtfully explored the themes of war and peace, tolerance, friendship and compassion. When originally released in the turbulent late 1960's, Star Trek stories tackled complex issues that mirrored both the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Struggle. Host Paul Ingles talks with Dr. Judith Barad, author of The Ethics of Star Trek and David Gerrold, author of The World of Star Trek and the popular episode "The Trouble With Tribbles." Also, Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lt. Uhura, the communications officer, in the original series.

In this two-part program, Peace Talks Radio salutes "Peacemaking Elders"- people who, well into their eighties, are still working for peace. Our guests in Part One are Juanita Nelson and Ruth Imber.

Juanita and Wally Nelson were among the first to take the step of refusing to pay taxes to the government because they did not want their tax dollars to go to military spending. Starting in 1948, they lived simply below the taxable income line and were active in civil rights and social justice movements. Wally Nelson died in 2002 at the age of 93. Juanita Nelson, now 85, continues on her own, living in the house she and Wally Nelson built together from salvaged material. She has no electricity, no plumbing, and grows her own food on a small tract of land in western Massachusetts. Juanita Nelson is one of our guests.

Ruth Imber, 83, is a fixture in the peace and justice community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She's a poet, writer and singing member of the "Raging Grannies." Carol Boss hosts the conversation with these two inspiring women.

Our Part Two guest is Dr. Bernard Lown, who co-founded International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and Physicians for Social Responsibility. In 1985, despite active opposition from the U.S. government and NATO, he and a Soviet cardiologist colleague, Evgeni Chazov, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of IPPNW. Now 87, Lown has written Prescription for Suvival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness. He talks with Peace Talks Radio producer Paul Ingles.

January 20, 2009, newly inaugurated United States President Barack Obama declared a new era for American leadership in promoting peace on the planet, but how likely is it that he'll play the role of peacemaker as president? During the campaign, he pointed to his early opposition to the war in Iraq, while talking tough on other international fronts. While he's said it's important for the U.S. to talk to its enemies, he's appointed a Secretary of State in Hillary Clinton who challenged him on that philosophy during the primary campaign. What in Obama's background suggests that he would be an effective diplomat to bring warring factions together internationally or in Congress over key domestic issues? On this edition of Peace Talks Radio, host Carol Boss and our guests will explore Barack Obama’s potential as a peacemaker in global and domestic affairs.

Guests include David Mendell, author of the best-selling book Obama: From Promise To Power. As a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Mendell covered Obama’s rise through politics and offers a close-up view of the man’s conflict resolution skill set and history. Also on the program, Dr. Joseph Gerson, Ph.D., author and director of Programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England. Finally, excerpts from a human rights conference put on by the Carter Center in Atlanta December of 2008. The aim of the two-day conference was to draw up a list of recommendations for the new president related to the struggle for human rights around the world. We’ll hear from Former President Jimmy Carter and others, and talk with Karin Ryan, director of the Carter Center's Human Rights Program, who organized and moderated the conference.

A popular program for the holiday season, Seeking Peace on Earth: The Peace Talks Radio Special reminds listeners that there ARE people who are actually pursuing peace and offering ideas how to reduce conflict in our lives. The program is a compendium of compelling moments from recent episodes of Peace Talks Radio, the series on peacemaking and nonviolent conflict resolution. On this show. listeners will hear from recent guests who talked about the connection between climate change and peace, making peace with money, video game violence, creative street peace actions, the neuroscience of compassion, JFK's turn towards peace, and showing compassion to animals. The full episodes, from which these excerpts were taken, can be heard at www.peacetalksradio.com.

In an in-depth conversation, James Douglass, author of "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters", spells out his theory that the 35th President was the victim of a murder conspiracy and that he died because of his peacemaking policies. He tracks Kennedy's transformation from a hawkish anti-Communist to someone who helped save the world from nuclear war by establishing back-channel conversations with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Listeners will also hear much of Kennedy's 1963 speech at American University during which he laid out his vision for world peace, less than 6 months before his murder.

Paul Ingles hosts.

Whenever election season rolls around, conflict between political camps really heats up. Differences over whom to support can even put friends and family members at odds with each other. Undecided voters may authentically be at odds with themselves. And it's often those undecided voters who swing close elections. In the month's leading up to election day, each candidate's campaign workers are trying their best to bring those conflicted voters their way, maybe even change the minds of some voters, whose support for a candidate might be soft.

On this edition of PEACE TALKS RADIO, some insight into that mind-changing process that targets the undecided or conflicted voter. Host Suzanne Kryder talks with two people who have written extensively on changing minds, and a political media specialist whose job it is to change some minds. Guests include political media strategist Rachel Gorlin, also Howard Gardner, Harvard professor and author of the book Changing Minds, and Dave Straker, author of the website, changingminds.org and the book, Changing Minds: In Detail.

On a recent episode of our program, we explored the debate over violence in video games and asked what impact violent video gaming might have on our notions of conflict resolution and on levels of aggression in society. Some say it's a significant problem, that effects are real and anti social, and that violent video games should be more tightly regulated. Others think the concern over the negative effects of violence in video games is overstated and that the games have problem-solving and role-playing benefits for players.

This time on Peace Talks Radio, we talk with the co-creator of a video game, called A Force More Powerful, that is explicitly about nonviolence. To win this game, you have to craft a strategy against an opressor that will bring about change without resorting to violence. Our guest, the game's co-creator, Ivan Marovic, has some first-hand experience at this. He was one of the founders of the Serb student resistance movement that helped remove Serbian president Slobodon Milosovic from power in 2000, without violence. He has since been active with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, which helps human rights activists around the world organize pro-democracy movements and overcome repressive governments, nonviolently. Paul Ingles hosts.

Almost 3 out of 4 Americans consider it a worthy goal to do something to temper the violence in our media, yet violent movies, television and video games are extremely popular. Do violent games, like the recently updated Grand Theft Auto series, along with other violent entertainment, chip away at our sensitivities about violence and impact our notions about conflict resolution?

This time on Peace Talks Radio, the video game violence debate. And it is a debate. While no one is FOR letting very young kids play the most violent games, there ARE authors and academics who defend the presence of violence in the games rated for adults, and question the strength of the research studies that suggest that exposure to violent entertainment correlates with aggression and desensitization toward violence. On the other side, there are those who decry the violence, believe the negative effects research to be true and call for tighter restrictions on violent game sales and content. We hear both sides of the conversation on this program.

Guests: Bob McCannon, a media scholar, educator and media reform activist, co-founder and co-president of the Action Coalition for Media Education; Arizona State University Education Professor James Paul Gee, author of "Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul"; Dmitri Williams, Assistant Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Paul Ingles, Host.