All Peacemakers Needed

All Peacemakers Needed

Everyday peacemaking, one conversation at a time. All Peacemakers Needed is a show about handling conflict better in the ordinary places it actually shows up. At home. At work. Across the fence. In the group text. Each episode, we sit down with people who study and practice this work and discuss real skills you can use in your next hard conversation. We cover the everyday skills of peacemaking: de-escalating conflict, difficult conversations, active listening, empathy, repairing relationships, disagreeing without contempt, and finding common ground. New conversations regularly. Start with any episode. Learn more at allpeacemakersneeded.com.

Episodes

  1. Aug 11

    Start With One Person You Disagree With — Liz Joyner

    What if building peace across our differences starts with just one relationship? Liz Joyner is the founder and president of The Village Square, a nonprofit out of Tallahassee, Florida that for nearly two decades has brought people who don't think alike into the same room — and helped them build trust across their differences. In this conversation, Liz shares the practical, human-sized tools she's learned for bridging divides in our own lives and hometowns. She explains why there's no substitute for direct contact with people different from us, how a single cross-cutting friendship can change the way we see everyone we disagree with, and her "rings of a tree" approach to building diverse groups that actually hold together. She also makes the case that peacemaking works best when it's local, proximate, and — refreshingly — not too serious. Her advice for the everyday peacemaker is simple: start small. Reach out to one person you like but whose views you don't understand. Because the human superpower isn't avoiding disagreement — it's the reciprocal kindness that grows when we stay in the same room. We cover building empathy across differences, why local peacemaking matters most, the core catalyst model, reciprocal kindness, and starting close to home. Learn more about The Village Square at villagesquare.us. Liz's essay "The Threads of a Nation" is at villagesquare.us. She also references The Big Sort by Bill Bishop, on how Americans have clustered into like-minded communities. All Peacemakers Needed spreads everyday peacemaking one conversation at a time. Learn more and become a peacemaker at allpeacemakersneeded.com.

  2. Jul 11

    Healing Our Divides: Seeing the Person, Not the Position — David B. Ostler

    Most people want the same thing: health, prosperity, good relationships, and a society that nourishes instead of divides. So why do we end up in conflict? David B. Ostler — retired business executive and author of Healing Our Divides — has lived across continents and seen this truth firsthand. In this conversation, David shares the practical tools he developed for navigating deep disagreements: cognitive empathy, recognizing our own biases, and the radical act of humanizing people instead of labeling them. Whether it's your family, your neighbors, or people with wildly different worldviews, David's approach is simple: start close to home. Do the work in the relationships that matter most. Choose your media wisely. And remember that most people are genuinely seeking goodness — they're just coming from different places. This is a conversation about seeing the person, not the position; about why jigsaw puzzles make good gathering places; and about why peacemaking doesn't require you to be an expert, just willing to try. We cover cognitive empathy, humanizing people instead of labeling them, recognizing our own biases, finding common ground, building relationships across differences, and listening to understand. Find Healing Our Divides by David B. Ostler at gregkofford.com. All Peacemakers Needed spreads everyday peacemaking one conversation at a time. Learn more and become a peacemaker at allpeacemakersneeded.com

About

Everyday peacemaking, one conversation at a time. All Peacemakers Needed is a show about handling conflict better in the ordinary places it actually shows up. At home. At work. Across the fence. In the group text. Each episode, we sit down with people who study and practice this work and discuss real skills you can use in your next hard conversation. We cover the everyday skills of peacemaking: de-escalating conflict, difficult conversations, active listening, empathy, repairing relationships, disagreeing without contempt, and finding common ground. New conversations regularly. Start with any episode. Learn more at allpeacemakersneeded.com.