People-Powered Planet Podcast

As co-founder of the Rotary E-Club of World Peace and Convener of Rotary World Peace Conferences, Rudy Westervelt has brought together an incredible array of top-thinkers about ways to build a more peaceful world.

With his wife Karyn, and her emphasis on youth, they brought together 100 speakers and facilitators working to develop solutions to major issues facing our world.

A former Rotary District Governor (5330), Rudy has played a key role in motivating Rotary to make Peace a major focus.

He is also President of Solutions for Peace Foundation, Inc.

Asha Asokan is an extraordinary Rotary Peace Fellow who got her start in peacebuilding in Sudan, where she first worked for the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission as a contractor and then moved to South Sudan with the Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP). With NP, she succeeded in stopping warring sides in South Sudan! See https://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/blog/south-sudan-news/387-the-small-girl-and-the-big-men.

She is currently working with Nonviolent Peaceforce in Minneapolis for the protection of civilians by improving their safety and security through Unarmed Civilian Protection approaches.

Previously, in her role as Child Protection Officer with the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan, she advocated and negotiated directly with armed forces and groups to stop child recruitment and other grave child rights violations in South Sudan. She also supported the Office of the UN Special Representative to the SG on Children and Armed Conflict (UNSRSG CAAC) in NY for the protection of children in armed conflict.

She is now co-chairing a Working Group on Conflict Prevention, Peacekeeping, and Peacemaking with Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), a global platform, based in DC. She is also serving on the Rotary Action Group for Peace Subcommittee on Nuclear Weapons Education.

Mike Caruso works with Rotary on their Peace Fellowships & Peacebuilder Clubs - and was a District Governor.

He served in the Peace Corps, working in Tuberculosis Control with the 16 aboriginal tribes in Malaysia. He was director of Oregon Common Cause and chairperson of Helping Hands Re-entry Outreach.

With Rotary Foundation, he helped organize 10 hands-on projects in Guatemala consisting of Dental, Medical, Water, Education, Electrical, Construction and Micro-Finance groups. His Rotary work has taken him to Cyprus, Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. He is a recipient of The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service as well as the Rotary International Service Above Self Award.

Barbara Gaughen-Muller is a peace scholar, advocate, activist, author and podcast host. She is internationally known for her peace work. As an inspirational speaker, her enthusiasm for peace is contagious!

She is President of the United Nations Association, Santa Barbara, Tri-Counties CA Chapter (www.unasb.org), President of The Rotary E-Club of World Peace (www.rotaryeclubofworldpeace.org, Co-CEO of Revolutionary Conversations, LLC. and is the co-author of the book Revolutionary Conversations: The Tools You Need for the Success You Want.

She also hosts the Power of Peace ™ podcasts (www.revolutionaryconversations.net) and she interviewed 65 of the 100+ program speakers for the Rotary World Peace Conference 2016.(www.peaceconference2016.org)

She continues the peace work of her late husband, Dr. Robert Muller, former UN Assistant Secretary General. Together, Robert and she co-created 7500 Ideas for a Better World, shared daily. (www.goodmorningworld.org).

And she is the founder of the award-winning Gaughen Global Public Relations, celebrating its 25th year working for a better world.

​Watch this podcast - you can't help but be uplifted!

Daniel 'Danny' Sjursen is a retired Major in the US Army, a graduate and history teacher at Westpoint and a combat veteran from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His wartime experiences and discoveries about the true history of the US military role in the world led him to do an intellectual and spiritual “About Face.”

He is now a regular contributor to antiwar.com, Truthdig, The Nation, Tom Dispatch, The Huffington Post, and The Hill.

His work has also appeared in Harper’s, The LA Times, and Buzz Feed. His latest book "Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War" offers a new, more complex notion of patriotism. Danny co-hosts the progressive veterans’ podcast “Fortress on a Hill.” (Twitter @SkepticalVet).

He gives us new perspectives on these challenging times of political turmoil.

October 21, 2020

Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, chairs the nuclear nonproliferation task force of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association.

He serves as the Representative to the United Nations of the World Summits of Nobel Peace Laureates and is himself a 2014 nominee.

He also works with Parliamentarians for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, the Jane Goodall Institute and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Jonathan explained why the current policies plunge us closer than ever to the brink of nuclear war.

He also talked about the financial, moral and spiritual forces that an informed public can employ to turn it around and build human security - a safer world for all of us on planet Earth.

October 14, 2020

Bob Flax, Ph.D., Executive Director of Citizens for Global Solutions.

Since 1947, Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) and its predecessor have promoted global solutions in arms control, disarmament, law of the seas, preventing discrimination against women, and protecting the rights of children and so much more.

It’s also helped to create institutions such as the International Criminal Court.

Come hear about CGS's current work to :

September 30, 2020

George Lakey, author of How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning speaks to us about the upcoming ChooseDemocracy.us training in nonviolent action to protect the US election.

As a Swarthmore professor and winner of the Martin Luther King Peace Award, he developed the Global Nonviolent Action Database research project, amassing lessons learned from leading over 1500 social change workshops on five continents.

Learn how you can help prevent illegal power grabs and authoritarianism. The training is non-partisan and does not endorse any candidates for election.

September 16, 2020

David Hartsough is a Co-Founder of World BEYOND War, a global movement to end war - making it as illegal to kill people outside countries as it is inside! He has been Waging Peace since meeting Martin Luther King at age 15 - from civil-rights sit-ins to blocking nuclear weapons plants at LIvermore Laboratory.

He's blocked trains carrying munitions to fuel Central American wars -- enforcing international law as laid out at Nuremberg. He's Waged Peace in some of the most dangerous and war-torn places on the planet -- including the Philippines, Iran, Kosovo and even the Soviet Union.

Arthur met him in the early 60's when David, a fellow Quaker, led the San Francisco to Moscow peace march -- to end the cold war before it ended all of us!

At a time when the US and the World are teetering on the bring of tyranny, ecocide and nuclear extinction, we'll talk to David about how we can inspire the frustrated and angry to gain real power by renouncing violence and waging peace!

David recommended these books: “From Dictatorship to Democracy”, “Waging Nonviolent Struggle”, “Global Security System: An Alternative to War” Also the film “A Force More Powerful” and these websites: ChooseDemocracy.us, WorldBeyondWar.org, Nonviolentpeaceforce.org, ThePoorPeoplesCampaign.org and Divestfromwarmachine.org

Buy his book "Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist"!