The Telos Channel

We’ve all been there: the family has finally all sat down at the Thanksgiving table, ready to enjoy a peaceful meal together when that uncle or that cousin says something outlandish and the whole table erupts or goes quiet and everything goes off the rails. In what can be some of the hardest moments with the people we love most, how do we practice peacemaking?

We’ve got a very honest, and very fun conversation for you on how to navigate the challenges of peacemaking within our own families—chosen or otherwise. Between naming our boundaries and the limits of our responsibility, and walking through a technique from our friends at Resetting the Table for opening receptivity, this episode will equip you to practice peacemaking this Thanksgiving with the people with whom it can sometimes be the hardest to find peace.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

The Check-in: Thanksgiving Special (2021)

Resetting the Table

It’s election season! Across both Israel and the US, citizens have gone to the polls in the past week to vote on the future of their nations. While the results in the US are yet to be determined at the time of posting, Israel’s results are clear—and they’re concerning for those of us who are working towards a future of mutual flourishing for Israelis and Palestinians.

How will this new government approach the Occupation and Palestinian communities, both within Israel and the Palestinian territories? Who is the controversial Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for the “expulsion” of Palestinians in Israel? And what will it mean for the future of the US-Israel relationship? 

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

Listen to the “Occupied Thoughts” podcast with Lara Friedman on the election results

Last week most major news outlets were covering the death and funeral arrangements of Queen Elizabeth II. At the same time, Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico just days before the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, with hardly any headline coverage. In this episode we discuss different conversations around the death of the Queen, the legacy of British Imperialism, and what colonialism has to do with Puerto Rico. 

We also reflect on how to respond as peacemakers holding competing narratives around the death of an influential political figure. What does it look like to advocate for justice for those affected by the legacies of destructive political policies? How can we be a part of building a more just future, beginning with Puerto Rico and hurricane recovery efforts? 

To help with hurricane recovery efforts, you can donate through an organization we know and trust, ConPRmetidos: https://www.classy.org/campaign/hurricane-fiona-relief/c429954

According to new restrictions set in place by the Israeli authorities, any foreign passport holder in the West Bank, including American citizens, will have to declare to the Israeli police if they’ve developed a romantic relationship with a Palestinian within 30 days. 

At least until the government revised the proposed restriction just two weeks ago, after human rights organizations and international media challenged the government to offer a justification for the invasive rule. 

This week, we invited Jessica Montell, Executive Director of HaMoked, an organization enforcing the standards and values of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Occupied Territories, to discuss these restrictions and the recent revisions. We discussed what you need to know about the entry requirements, whether these restrictions communicate a reality already in place in Israel/Palestine, and how tightening “security” today will actually hinder the possibility of security in the long-term. 

We call this principle “Mutual Flourishing,” and it recognizes that the only path to a sustainable future involves working to help your neighbor flourish too. Learn more in this episode how you can support Mutual Flourishing in Israel/Palestine in response to these restrictions.
__

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

Learn more about HaMoked’s work and their reporting on the requirements

After heavy rains in Jackson, Mississippi pushed the city’s water treatment plant past its breaking point, hundreds of thousands of residents were left without running water for days. 

This water crisis isn’t Jackson’s first however—it’s part of a much larger history of neglect, disinvestment, and race. What’s ahead for Mississippi’s capital city, and what can we do to support it? We invited Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Telos board member and core member of the Jackson, MS community, to help us understand the broader context of the crisis and the hope he has for his hometown.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

Learn more about New Horizon Church International, Bishop Crudup’s Church 

This week, we welcome Yvonne Holden as the newest member of the Telos Team! She is joining us as the Director of U.S. Programming and we are so excited for you to meet her.

After getting to know Yvonne, the team dives into a conversation on a recent controversy sparked after New Orleans attorney Wynton Yates posted a TikTok that went viral about an Airbnb listing advertised as an “1830s slave cabin.”  Yates argued “The history of slavery in this country is constantly denied, and now it’s being mocked by being turned into a luxurious vacation spot.”

Learn more about the Whitney Plantation Museum

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

President Biden wrapped up his tour in the Middle East, and our team is still trying to make sense of the visit. There was lots of talk about democracy, freedom, and security in equal measure (eerily reminiscent of our call for "freedom, security, and dignity in equal measure"), but no mention of the underlying realities of occupation, or of the US’ profound influence to push for peace. It was Orwellian in the extreme. 

This week, Todd, Greg, Jack, and Sarah discuss the visit, and why this kind of status quo diplomacy actually doesn't serve anyone in the region.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

What is the US’ role in the Middle East? In May, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh was killed while reporting in Jenin in the West Bank. The US finally released a statement last week both “urging accountability” for her death and saying that it cannot be determined who killed her—but if it was the Israeli military, which independent news agencies and the UN have concluded, it would surely be an accident. How can so much be held in one statement? 

We discuss the statement, how it expands or contracts space for peace, and the US government’s broader strategy in the region as President Biden visits with Middle Eastern leaders in Israel, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia this week. 

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

Resources mentioned: 

• On The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, US State Department Press Statement
• UN OHCHR Statement 

Happy Juneteenth! Today marks the second year that Juneteenth, a day celebrating the effective end of slavery in the United States, will be commemorated as a federal holiday. And it's a day to celebrate!

To mark the occasion, we brought on our friend and expert Yvonne Holden, Director of Visitor Experience and Operations at the Whitney Plantation outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is one of the only plantation museums in the country to focus on the lives of the enslaved.

Yvonne helps us understand the history behind the holiday, and the larger story of what the day stands for—both on the very day in 1865 when the enslaved community in Galveston, TX first learned of their freedom, and today, when the history and legacy of institutionalized slavery aren't always told. Yvonne also invites us into the ways we can celebrate Juneteenth today, both through education and the opportunity to practice joy in the midst of our implication.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify

Resources mentioned: 

• Learn more about The Whitney Plantation
• Learn more about Telos' trip to the US South
• On Juneteenth, Annette Gordon-Reed

At the age of 13, Ishmael Beah was recruited to fight in a bloody civil war in Sierra Leone as a child soldier, forever reshaping the story of his life. 

Against all odds, he survived and came to the US as a refugee. But not everyone in the US was ready for his story, or for the realities of the world he came from. So he began to write, sharing his story in his memoir, A Long Way Gone, detailing the horrors, triumphs, and hopes of his life as a survivor. 

Today, Ishmael continues to write award winning books, works with the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador, and enlightens us with his incredible insight into the human condition, an insight he says could've only been fashioned by the fires of war.

In this episode, we hear some of Ishmael's remarkable story, reminding us that people are almost never who we think they might be at first glance. He challenges us to listen for the story behind the story we perceive on the surface. As Ishmael says, listening to understand is the start of peacemaking.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Subscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGH

Follow Telos on Instagram @thetelosgroup

If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

Resources from this episode:

• A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah