The Dialogue Studio Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue.

This year, we are launching a new series in the Dialogue Studio called What Do We Mean By? where host Lillian Koizumi will unpack different concepts we explore and practice at the Ikeda Center. All of these concepts are informed by the philosophy of our late founder Daisaku Ikeda. In this episode, we kick off the series by examining peace cultures. In it, Lillian delves into the Center and Mr. Ikeda’s perspective on, and approach to fostering cultures of peace. She also invites Executive Director Kevin Maher to share how he is thinking about peace cultures in this current moment, and how we can enact peace cultures in our daily lives. 
 
For more information on peace cultures, visit our website: https://www.ikedacenter.org/resources/what-do-we-mean-peace-cultures  
 
Read Elise Boulding’s piece on peace cultures and living with difference: https://www.ikedacenter.org/resources/elise-boulding-peace-cultures-and-living-difference 
 
Music attribution: 
Podcast Music
“Buoancy”
Podington Bear
Soundofpicture.com
 
To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at podcast@ikedacenter.org 
 

For our first episode of the year, we are taking a moment to reflect on 2023 as a start to the new year. Dialogue Studio host Lillian Koizumi invites her colleagues Anri Tanabe and Preandra Noel to share their takeaways and learnings from the Center’s 30th anniversary year. They also discuss what continues to give them hope and what building cultures of peace means to them. 
 
Music attribution: Podcast Music
To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at podcast@ikedacenter.org

This month, we are wrapping up our special 30th anniversary series where we unpack themes from Daisaku Ikeda’s 1993 Harvard address, “Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-first Century Civilization.” In this final episode of the year, our host Lillian explores the theme of dialogue and dignity with renowned scholar Dr. Donna Hicks. In their conversation, Lillian asks Dr. Hicks about the role of dignity in engaging in genuine dialogue; the challenge of having dialogue with those who violate our dignity; how Dr. Hicks continues to maintain hope in her work in the face of an epidemic of indignity in our world; and much more. 
 
Dr. Hicks is an Associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. She is a leading expert in Dignity and Conflict Resolution and has worked extensively in areas of conflict around the world for several decades. She was a consultant to the British Broadcasting Company where she co-facilitated encounters between victims and perpetrators of the Northern Irish conflict with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. You can read her full bio on her website: https://drdonnahicks.com/ 
 
To learn more about Dr. Hicks’ work on dignity, check out her two books: 
Dignity: It’s Essential Role in Resolving Conflict: https://drdonnahicks.com/books/dignity/ 
Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People: https://drdonnahicks.com/books/leading-with-dignity/ 
 
Music attribution: Podcast Music
To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at podcast@ikedacenter.org 
 

This month, we continue our special 30th anniversary series where we unpack themes from Daisaku Ikeda’s 1993 Harvard address, “Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-first Century Civilization.” In this episode, our host Lillian dives into the theme of human restoration with two Ikeda Center Youth Committee members Kip Clark and Yuko Tsuji. In their dialogue, Lillian invites Kip and Yuko to share reflections on the Center’s recent Dialogue Nights event in August which explored Mr. Ikeda’s perspective on the restoration of humanity. They discussed whether they believe that our humanity can be restored; how we lost our humanity along the way; and what it will take to restore it at this crucial time in our world. In his lecture, Mr. Ikeda writes “The function of the Buddha nature is always to encourage us to be strong, to be good, to be wise; the message is always one of human restoration.” Kip is a podcast producer, improv actor and data analyst who believes that we would all benefit from more sincere, vulnerable conversation and cooperative worldviews. And Yuko is currently pursuing her masters in social work at Boston College. When she's not doing school work (which is all the time) she enjoys watching anime, eating vegetables, trying new types of sriracha sauce, and hand washing her clothes. 
 
Music attribution: Podcast Music
To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at podcast@ikedacenter.org 

In this episode, host Lillian I speaks with two friends of the Ikeda Center, Angie Lu and Sakshi Khurana, about the timely theme of interdependence. Angie is completing her Master of Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education and Sakshi is a Research & Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and a doctoral candidate in Value-Creating Education for Global Citizenship at DePaul University. Both Angie and Sakshi are regular attendees of the Center’s Dialogue Nights event series. In their dialogue, Lillian invites them to share what interdependence means to them, how this concept has changed the way they interact with others, and how they think the world would be different if more people lived with a deeper understanding of interdependence. 
 
Music attribution: Podcast Music
To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at podcast@ikedacenter.org 
 

In the episode, host Lillian I speaks with Dr. Bernice Lerner about her riveting book, All the Horrors of War: A Jewish Girl, a British Doctor, and the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen. In their conversation, Dr. Lerner reflects on the experience of writing about her mother’s Holocaust experience, how she sees her writing as an important vehicle for teaching about peace and justice, the transformative power of sharing our stories, as well as her perspectives on Mr. Ikeda’s notion of the greater self. 
Dr. Lerner is the author of All the Horrors of War and other writings on the Holocaust and on virtue ethics. She is the former dean of adult learning at Hebrew College, former lecturer on the Holocaust at Boston University, and a senior scholar at Boston University’s Center for Character and Social Responsibility.
If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Lerner and her book All The Horrors of War, you can visit her website here: https://www.bernicelerner.com/. You can also tune into her other talks here: https://www.bernicelerner.com/press.  
This episode launches a special, multi-part series exploring themes from Mr. Ikeda’s 1993 Harvard lecture, Mahayana Buddhism and Twenty-first Century Civilization. Stay tuned for our next episode on the theme of interdependence.
 
Music attribution: Podcast Music
To learn more about the Ikeda Center, visit ikedacenter.org or email us at podcast@ikedacenter.org