Be A Global Citizen!

I'm excited to kick off a new series of interviews on the podcast with the help of my former classmates. In 2019, I graduated with a masters of education in 'value creating education for global citizenship' as part of the first cohort. There are several other amazing individuals who graduated with me and one of them is Lynn Harper. She is a fellow educator with a wealth of teaching experience in K...

History is alive! It is happening right now. And no, we are not doomed for! In this episode, I introduce the theme of history and how it is vital for global citizenship. I reference Yuval Noah Harari's book 'Sapiens: A brief history of humankind' to offer greater perspective about the current course of humankind. Also, I bring in some exerpts from Ikeda to compare how each one of them approaches t...

The act of writing a peace proposal is powerful. When you sustain this action over the course of 38 years, you can imagine that people will take notice. In this episode we look at Daisaku Ikeda's annual peace proposals to the United Nations. As this episode is being published on January 26, it coincides nicely with the submission of Ikeda's 38th peace proposal. Find out what all the fuss is about,...

Are you a competitive person? Would you agree that our current notions of competition are positive indicators of a society that values each person? This episode introduces Makiguchi's concept of humanitarian competition while challenging the values that underpin cut-throat competition from the military, political, and economic realms. There is a better way forward! There is a more humanitarian app...

There is a movement happening and you are a part of it! Let's learn more about what the Soka movement has to say on global citizenship. This episode serves as a brief introduction to the Soka progenitors and introduces a new concept that Ikeda has written about: world citizenship. Enjoy!

When was the last time you did community service? How would you define it? And how can we understand the role of global citizenship through our efforts to engage the community? I share a recent scholarship essay I wrote that explores the theme of community service and describes some of my own efforts to engage in it. There is much to say about all of this, so let's take it slow and simply focus on...

What does value creation mean in your life? How does one apply value creation? Is value creation the right framework to address the current realities of this pandemic? During the 16th annual Ikeda Forum, the theme of value creation was explored through online dynamics and an intergenerational panelist discussion. In this episode I share my thoughts on the online event and the theme in relation to...

Responsibility, Intensity, Creativity: Global Citizenship Education and the Crises of 2020. This was the title of Lehigh University's online global citizenship education conference. I participated in some of the many sessions that were held on December 10 and 11, 2020. In this episode I share my thoughts about some of these sessions and how they relate to the theme of global citizenship.

Learning from our differences is hard work. It can be frustrating when we are faced with a person who does not seem to share the same beliefs and values that we hold. What can be done to surmount these constraints that society places on us? Well, the Cynics of old can tell us more about how cosmopolitanism helped challenge conventional norms. I look at its history and definition as well as provide...

Let's begin to unpack the question: What is global citizenship? There are many notions of what is global citizenship and this episode offers greater insight into the etymology of this neologism. What do we mean by 'global' and 'citizenship' ? What possibilities are out there to transform our notion of citizenship into something more suitable for the great challenges we face as a society?

In this episode, we look at what Ikeda views to be the 3 essential qualities of a global citizen. The main reference for our discussion comes from Ikeda's 1996 speech at Columbia University, Teachers College. Enjoy!

In this episode, I discuss how Daisaku Ikeda embodies the idea of a 'citizen of the world.' From his humble origins to the numerous, decades-long peace building initiatives he has done, Ikeda has shown through his actions what global citizenship looks like in practice. This introduction to Ikeda serves to anchor our upcoming episode on his thoughts on global citizenship, principally the three qual...