This week we’re bringing back our very first episode, We Thought We Solved World Peace, from September 2024.

When host Bridget Conley was a college student in the 90s, there was this air of optimism. It might sound crazy to say now, but she and her colleagues honestly believed they had solved world peace. 

In this first episode of Disrupting Peace, Bridget speaks with Yale law professor Sam Moyn and South African activist Mamello about what went wrong in the 90s, and what it would take to turn things around by 2050. 

Sam Moyn is Professor of Law and History at Yale Law School, and co-host of “Digging a Hole: the legal theory podcast.” He’s written several books that complicate key tenets of peacebuilding, including human rights, liberalism, economic equality, and the laws of war. Follow Sam Moyn on X at @samuelmoyn.

Mamello is head of campaigns at the South Africa-based organization, Open Secrets. Open Secrets holds the profiteers of economic crime, human rights abuses, and war to account. She was one year old when Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, and grew up amidst massive political change in South Africa. Find out more about Mamello and Open Secrets at opensecrets.org.za. 

Disrupting Peace is a production of the World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung. 

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.