Nonviolence Radio

197 episodes listed below

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Disciplined hope for active nonviolence.

The gist

Nonviolence Radio treats peace work as strategy, training, and evidence-based practice. From Sudan and the West Bank to worker-owned businesses and movement history, it connects urgent conflicts with disciplined hope.

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About Nonviolence Radio

Nonviolence Radio is built around a demanding idea: nonviolence is a practiced force, not merely an ethical preference. The show is calm, but its subjects are not small. Stephanie Van Hook and Michael Nagler bring listeners into conversations about conflict, organizing, spiritual discipline, political stress, and the slow work of building alternatives. Each episode carries the feel of movement education. There is room for history, but the history is usually tied to present action. A conversation about James Lawson’s life becomes a study in training, commitment, and the relationship between Lawson and Dr. King. An episode on Sudan centers a Sudanese organizer and activist working to raise awareness and explain what people can do. The West Bank appears through the lens of unarmed civilian protection. Cooperative economics enters through worker-owned businesses and the Co-op Cincy model. The show’s recurring Nonviolence Report keeps one ear on current movement activity, from rallies to hopeful analyses of resistance. Hope matters here. So does discipline. The hosts repeatedly return to the idea that demonstrations may open a conversation, while long-term training, strategy, and organized practice carry the work forward. Faith traditions, Gandhian thought, the Sermon on the Mount, curiosity across divides, and local action all sit within the same broad inquiry. The pacing is measured and reflective. It suits listeners who want moral seriousness without cynicism and political analysis without the churn of outrage media. Nonviolence Radio does not treat peace as passive. It treats it as preparation, resilience, and a way to keep working when the public moment looks bleak.

Made for: For listeners drawn to social movements, peace work, movement history, cooperative economics, and practical responses to political crisis. It suits people who want principled analysis with a steady, movement-building lens.

What sets it apart: The show combines interviews, movement news, and reflective analysis from the Metta Center for Nonviolence in Petaluma, California. Its strength is treating nonviolence as training, strategy, science, and daily practice at once.

In their own words

Exploring what makes nonviolence, as Gandhi said, "the greatest power at the disposal of humankind." Interviews with activists, scholars, and news-makers, and a regular feature of nonviolence in the news from around the movement in our Nonviolence Report segment.

Why you'd press play

Nonviolence leaves the greeting-card aisle here and hands you a strategy notebook with the hard pages left in.

Press play if you want

to see disciplined nonviolence treated as trainable movement strategy, not merely a noble personal posture
help staying human when political division and the internet keep rewarding your least curious reflexes

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

active nonviolencemovement training and strategyNonviolence Reportmovement historySudanese advocacyunarmed civilian protectionworker-owned businessesfaith and nonviolent action

Talks about

Society & Culture

Best episodes of Nonviolence Radio

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

The Discipline of Nonviolence: Emily Yellin on James Lawson’s life and the making of a movementApr 6, 2026

A careful conversation about nonviolence as a lifelong practice and strategy.

The episode frames James Lawson as a central civil rights figure, with Emily Yellen helping carry the memoir that sits at the center of the conversation.

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Find your next episode

About Nonviolence Radio

In their own words

Why you'd press play

Talks about

Best episodes of Nonviolence Radio

Podcasts like Nonviolence Radio

Episodes

Weaving Lawyers and Judges into the Pro-Democracy Movement: Justice in Motion organizers Danny Miller and Steve Silverman on building public trust and defending the rule of law

Two Students and an Experiment in Peace: The Svet Peace Project

We Keep Us Safe: Meet Roz Lee, US Head of Mission for the Nonviolent Peaceforce

“Real Revolution is a Change of Consciousness”: Safoora Arbab on Recovering the Transformative Story of the Khudai Khidmatgar

Our Humanity vs. Nuclear Weapons: A Conversation with Nuclear Abolitionist Anna Ikeda

AI, Human Dignity, and Nonviolence: Marie Dennis on Pope Leo XIV's First Encyclical

There's Enough for Everyone: Robin Greenfield on a Year of Living on 100% Foraged Food—and Rediscovering Our Connection to the Earth.

Taking Risks for Animals: Zoe Rosenberg on direct action, open rescue, and the criminalization of compassion

"What do you need for repair?" A Conversation with Jonathan Bradley

Restorative Justice as Relationship: A Conversation with Dominic Barter

Disagreement as Practice: Communication Across Divides (with Francesca Po)

The Discipline of Nonviolence: Emily Yellin on James Lawson’s life and the making of a movement

Nonviolence and Revolutionary Love: A Conversation with Valarie Kaur

Breaking the Spiral of Violence: Pietro Ameglio on Civil Resistance in Mexico

Reclaiming Our Human Sanity: Anthropologist Doug Fry on War, Peace, and the Stories We Tell

What Neuroscience and Nonviolence Teach Us About Being Human

From the West Bank to the Twin Cities: Active Hope in a Time of Occupation

Choosing Partnership: Riane Eisler and the Future of Humanity

Two Nonviolent Moments for Year's End

Rest as Resistance: Taoism and the Inner Practice of Nonviolence in Winter

Eyes on Sudan: A conversation with Sudanese organizer and activist, Mubarak Elamin

Yellow Gates and Olive Trees: Unarmed Civilian Protection in the West Bank

How we rise: Solutions journalist Sarah Van Gelder on galvanizing power through joyful, local action

A World Beyond War: Kathy Kelly responds to U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth

Compassionate Healthcare: A Conversation with Dr. Deb Roman

“Closed Borders Don’t Keep Us Safe”: Journalist John Washington on Migration and Ethics

Curiosity as an Act of Courage: A Conversation with Mónica Guzmán

"God wants you to be free." A pastor with a mission to help survivors of domestic violence.

Regenerative Economics as a Pathway Forward for Humanity: Erin Axelrod of LIFT Economy on Practicing a Vision of Nonviolent Economics

What it means to stay open-hearted in a wounded world--Canticle Farm co-founder and Anne Symens-Bucher on grief, forgiveness and the wisdom of environmental activist Joanna Macy.

Fierce Vulnerability: A Conversation with Kazu Haga on Trauma and Nonviolence

From the Flotilla to the Frontlines: Peacebuilding, Protest, and Dilemma Actions

The Work of Trust

A Strategic Nonviolence Academy

Feeling the Political Divide

When toxic polarization becomes a civil war–and what we can do about it.

"There Is Another Way"

Crossing Borders with Nonviolence

Preparing Ourselves for Our Nonviolent Moment

“Sing People Sing”

The White Rose

How Nonviolence Can Transform Teaching

Rehumanization and the Purpose of Life

What would happen if we sent doctors instead of weapons to other countries?

Building on Positive Forces

The Gandhian Roots of the Sermon on the Mount

The Gandhian Roots of the Sermon on the Mount - Full Interview

Removing Dictators is Just a Start

Persuasion and Coercion

Works for All

Seven Challenges of Nonviolence

Embrace the Challenge

Strategic Constructive Programming

Nonviolence as a Path to Understanding Palestine and Syria

The Utility of Art Towards a Nonviolent World

The Local Peace Economy

The Long Reach of Nonviolence

How a Measure in Sonoma County is Taking on “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations”

Lessons Learned from the Free Speech Movement

The Visionary Activism of the Long Civil Rights Movement

Meeting Violence with a Forgiving Love

Success Doesn't Mean Victory

Nonviolence Report -- Week of August 19, 2024

From the Frontlines in Palestine

We are not in a 'polycrisis.' We are in a spiritual crisis.

A Holy Devotion to Peace

Quantum Activism: Insights from Physicist Amit Goswami on the Science of Nonviolence

Full interview with Dr. Amit Goswami

Replanting the Seeds of Jewish Revolutionary Nonviolence after October 7th

Why Sending Unarmed Protection to Gaza is NOT A Radical Idea

The Danger of a Single Narrative

Nonviolence Report Week of May 27, 2024