The Telos Channel

No one could have predicted what happened in Syria last week. After more than half a century of rule and thirteen years of a bloody war, the Assad regime fell.

Across the world, Syrian communities erupted in celebration at seeing the brutal, dictatorial regime end, many quickly filling the roads back to Damascus and the city squares across large portions of the country to gather in freedom for the first time in decades.

Many of us watching are asking: what does this mean for the region? Who is this group taking power? And what if this means things are going to get worse? 

This week, we hosted a conversation between guest host Sarah Sturm and two Syrian-Americans to discuss the events—including their reactions to hearing the news, what it might mean for them and their communities, and how to support Syrians as they embark on a journey of writing a new future for their country.

Our first guest is Syrian-American musician, novelist, and political commentator Paul Nabil Matthis, and our second is actually your host - David Katibah!

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A faction cheat-sheet by Paul Nabil Matthis

Syria Live Map

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With Christmas on the horizon, what does it look like to not just take the Advent stories seriously, but also the land out of which they came?

In this episode, we invite our listeners who come from the Christian tradition to encounter a new lens on Advent that recognizes the geographic, political, and economic landscapes out of which it emerged—landscapes whose terrain echoes across millennia to bring us to today, a Holy Land enveloped in war, occupation, and a desperate need for hope.

Kelley Nikondeha, author of the brilliant book, "The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope," joins us to invite us into this new lens. She helps us ask essential questions, like what was the story behind the story of the Advent narratives, how can they help us understand and engage with the modern realities of injustice and violence facing the Bethlehem community today, and how can we ask that most crucial question of the narratives: whose peace, and at what cost? 

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Purchase “The First Advent in Palestine” by Kelley Nikondeha 

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What does it take to be humanely happy? Perhaps it's the very journey of the peacemaker that helps us discover the answer to this question, and it might not be the journey you would expect. 

Theologian, author, and peacemaker Andrew DeCort details this journey in his new abundantly profound and copiously beautiful book, “Blessed Are the Others: Jesus' Way in a Violent World."

Through the nine-part movement known as the Beatitudes—the introduction to Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount—Andrew helps us see that the pathway to "human happiness" is actually the pathway to peacemaking, but it doesn't come without a cost. Through his own experiences of building a massive peacemaking movement to having to flee a country that had become his home as it plunged into civil war, he helps us learn how to walk this path with him—not in fear, but in new purpose and joy. 

It's a chillingly challenging but beautifully grounding episode you don't want to miss. 

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Purchase “Blessed Are the Others” by Andrew DeCort
Listen to our interview with Andrew on other first book, "Flourishing on the Edge of Faith."

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Before we can hope to heal our world, we must first learn to see it how it actually is. By listening to understand, we cultivate our curiosity while surfacing the motivations and views that underlie the issues that divide us. But what does this look like in practice?

Over the past weeks, we've focused on individuals and organizations who model how holding perspectives in tension allows us to engage the views and experiences of others, even and especially, when they do not reconcile with our own. Today, we pick up on when and how to add our voices to the conversation. 

Our guest this week is Ashlee Eiland. Ashlee is a thought leader, writer, and Bible teacher who exists to join in God's redemptive work on earth. Her new book, “Say Good: Speaking Across Hot Topics, Complex Relationships, and Tense Situations,” invites us to discover the power of stewarding our unique voice, through a four-part discernment process—through passion, accountability, influence, and relationship—to understand the spaces, ways, and times where our words are needed. 

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Learn more about "Say Good" and get a copy of the book

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Before we can hope to heal our world, we must first learn to see it how it actually is. By listening to understand, we cultivate our curiosity while surfacing the motivations and views that underlie the issues that divide us. But what does this look like in practice?

Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our Learning Corps series on individuals and organizations who recognize that my story is not the only story, and model how holding perspectives in tension allows us to engage the views and experiences of others, even and especially when they do not reconcile with our own. 

Our guest this week is Ayanna Behin. Ayanna is the Director of Training and Conflict Consulting at the New York Peace Institute, an organization committed to promoting peace in communities and doing work around mediation, conflict coaching, group facilitation, and restorative justice. 

In our conversation, Ayanna shares about the New York Peace Institute's work equipping communities with the skills necessary to transform conflict from something destructive to a process where ultimately communities emerge strengthened. 

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Visit the New York Peace Institute Website

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Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Before we can hope to heal our world, we must first learn to see it how it actually is. By listening to understand, we cultivate our curiosity while surfacing the motivations and views that underlie the issues that divide us. But what does this look like in practice?

Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our Learning Corps series on individuals and organizations who recognize that my story is not the only story, and model how holding perspectives in tension allows us to engage the views and experiences of others, even and especially when they do not reconcile with our own. 

Our guest this week is Sami DiPasquale. Sami is the Founder and Director of Abara, a nonprofit based in El Paso, Texas serving both sides of the US-Mexico border. In our conversation, Sami shares about Abara's work inspiring connections beyond borders through mutual understanding, education, and meaningful action. 

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Visit Abara's website

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It’s been a whole year. A whole year since the region was upended by the violent attacks of October 7, and the 365 days of onslaught on Gaza. Now expanded into Lebanon. 

What has it meant for our friends in the region? And what can we do in this moment to support them? 

This week, we hear from our dear friend Robi Damelin, who is a peacemaker, internationally renowned speaker, and mother. Robi shares with us what she’s been up to in this past year with the Parents Circle, how we can support their work, and some of the places she’s finding inspiration and hope, without shying away from the difficulty and despair of the moment. 

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Check out the new Parent's Circle resource "Listening from the Heart"

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It’s been one year. A whole year since the region was upended by the violent attacks of October 7, and 365 days of merciless onslaught on Gaza, now expanded into Lebanon. 

What has it meant for our friends in the region? And what can we do in this moment to support them? 

This week, we hear from former Telos Israel/Palestine Director and dear friend of ours, Jack Saba. He shares with us his reflections on the past year, and challenges us to remain the kinds of people who act in hope in the midst of crisis. 

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Learn more about Hilweh Market 

This week, we were joined by the pastor of City Bible Church of Beirut, Marwan Aboul-Zelof. He gives us an on-the-ground perspective of what's happening in Beirut right now (recorded Friday Sept. 27, before the Israeli invasion or the Iranian strikes on Israel). 

Pastor Aboul-Zelof has been living in Lebanon for eight years, and his church was the closest church to the Beirut port explosion. He offers witness to the immense suffering the Lebanese people have experienced over many years, especially over the past few weeks. And he shares with us the opportunity we have as Americans to participate in the work of justice and peace.

We know the situation on the ground is changing in real time. We will have further conversations with other experts on the issue to come. 

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Women are often at the forefront of effective nonviolent movements for peace and justice across the world. But their stories are often not the ones being told in mainstream spaces.

Over the next few weeks, we’re focusing our next Learning Corps series on women who embody what it means to embrace nonviolence as a courageous and countercultural way of life. We’ll tell the stories of individuals committed to the work of nonviolence, which we describe as “creative and clear resistance to injustice” rooted in an ethic of love—both Israeli and Palestinian.

Our guest this week is Rula Salameh. Rula is a veteran journalist, community organizer, and the Education and Outreach Director in Palestine for Just Vision, an organization that fills a media gap on Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement. 

Rula discuses Just Vision's film "Naila and the Uprising" and the power of storytelling when it comes to centering the roles women have historically played in Palestinian nonviolence movements. By diving into the stories of the past, we gain new imagination about the roles women can play in the present and future as we cultivate imaginations of what nonviolence can look like, as we commit to transforming the immediate violence on the ground. 

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Watch Naila and the Uprising

Check out Just Vision's Resources

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