Making Peace Visible

In the United States, it’s no longer a given that our elections are free and fair.  To the great relief of many — in terms of freedom and fairness — the 2026 midterms were successful. But there’s a lot that can happen between now and the seating of new representatives on January 3. And our guest this episode says it’s up to us to stay vigilant.  Hardy Merriman is an expert on civil...

A tweet on a quiet Sunday morning stops Dave Butler cold: a shooting at a Latter-day Saint church in Grand Blanc, Michigan. He doesn't know a single victim — but he’s a member of the same faith, so the attack feels personal. As the news spreads and fear turns to anger online, Dave makes a choice that no one sees coming, one that will pull him into the national spotlight and put him directly in the...

Making Peace Visible is hosting a free virtual event to reflect on what we’ve learned from the Beyond Polarization series, and how we’re thinking about polarization and solutions going into the 2026 midterms. “Polarization, the midterms & what comes next,” is happening at 7pm Eastern Time on October 27th.  RSVP here .  We hope you'll join us to process some of what we've gathered abo...

Our guest this episode is an ordained pastor and journalist who's traveled the country speaking to conservative Christians and facilitating discussions about politics and division. But she's come to believe those efforts are ineffective, and has shifted her focus to combatting Christian Nationalism.  This is episode 6 in Making Peace Visible's special series, Beyond Polarization . In episodes...

Civil society organizations are crucial to peacebuilding efforts, in the US and around the world. That includes nonprofits, school boards, churches, membership organizations and charities. A number of international peacebuilding organizations launched local programs in the United States after the 2016 election revealed heightened levels of polarization and dehumanizing rhetoric that mirrored what...

At college, young people have the opportunity  to get to know peers from different ethnic, social, and political backgrounds. As a result, they meet students who see the world in completely different ways.  So what should happen when students encounter ideas, histories, or each other in ways that make them deeply uncomfortable? Avoiding those conversations may reduce conflict in the shor...

In our third episode in the Beyond Polarization series, we talk to two inspiring creators who are bridging the political divide on podcasts, YouTube, and even Instagram!  Think about an issue that you're passionate about. Imagine sitting in a room with someone just as passionate as you, but on the polar opposite side of that issue. Now, imagine your conversation is being recorded and will be strea...

This is the second episode in Beyond Polarization, a special series about what polarization is costing Americans, and what we can actually do about it. You can find Episode 1, where we analyze research on polarization and disagreement, here . In this episode: how the news media can do less to reinforce polarized narratives, and more to meet the needs of audiences. Journalism is an essential compon...

Political polarization in the U.S. can feel like a lost cause. Trying to have productive conversations with people you disagree with over politics can seem pointless, especially now. News media and social media often reduce “the other side” to its most extreme forms. This creates a negative feedback loop, weakening our ability to function as a democracy. But research suggests that Americans — on b...

Often the news covers crises without context. That's especially true when it comes to coverage of the Global South in international media.  Our guest this episode, journalist and documentary filmmaker Etant Dupain, gives us a behind-the-headlines look at events in Haiti, his home country. Dupain says that the gangs who control much of the country now are supported by powerful elites. Their aim, hi...

Polarization in the U.S. is not just a Washington problem. It also shows up in our newsrooms, our social media feeds, our schools, our dinner tables, and most importantly, in the stories we tell about each other.  That's why  Making Peace Visible  is launching a new limited podcast series called Beyond Polarization. We're speaking with people from across the political spectrum to break down what t...

The MPV team is currently hard at work on Beyond Polarization , a limited series where we talk to people who are finding solutions to the increasing polarization we face in the United States. In the meantime, we bring you this episode from our friends at Disrupting Peace , a podcast from the World Peace Foundation about "why peace hasn't worked, and how it still could."  What beliefs make people w...

Suzette Brooks Masters is a thought leader, political strategist and Senior Fellow at the Democracy Funders Network. She says that for American democracy to thrive, it's not enough to defend the existing system against attack, because the system doesn’t work well for most people.  She’s been researching ways to invigorate democratic practice, including citizen’s assemblies and participatory budget...

The world is missing the perspective of peacebuilders at a critical moment, as we live through this time of one war after another. We need skilled negotiators and mediators who know how to listen to both sides of a dispute and find common ground.   We invited Joshua Weiss to the podcast to help us understand what happened in the negotiations that preceded the Iran war, and how negotiators might br...

For her whole life, Iranian-American actor and activist Nazanin Nour has been calling attention to the distinction between the Islamic Republic – the face of Iran in the news – and the Iranian people. And she’s not stopping any time soon.  In normal times, Nour hosts Iranian diaspora musicians, comedians, journalists and others on her online show Mehmooni with Nazanin . But since mass protests beg...

"I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will." This aphorism from political philosopher and journalist Antonio Gramsci is one of our guest Neha Sanghrajka’s favorite quotes. When you learn her story, you’ll understand why.  A Kenyan born lawyer, Sanghrajka spent almost a decade in Mozambique mediating a peace process between the country’s president and a guerrilla lead...

Public funding for peace efforts took a massive hit with the gutting of USAID last year , and other donor countries have ramped down aid as well, in a world that feels increasingly less safe for many. That’s why our ears perked up when we heard about Brian Abrams, an American venture capitalist who is investing in technology to find solutions to violent conflict.  In the new field of ‘peace tech,’...

It’s hard to keep up with the number of unprecedented actions the second Trump administration has taken, but what happened on January 3 – when the US military extracted Venezuela’s president and first lady amidst an aerial assault on Caracas – is impossible to ignore. Also seemingly overnight the U.S. government’s narrative on why they were taking action against Venezuela changed – from interdicti...

William Ury is one of the world’s most influential peacebuilders and experts on negotiation. He advised Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos in the lead up to that country's historic 2016 peace agreement with the FARC, and played a key role in de-escalating nuclear tensions between the U.S. and North Korea in 2017. Getting to Yes, which Ury co-wrote with Roger Fisher back in 1981, is the world’s...

This week we’re featuring an episode from American UnExceptionalism , a limited podcast series that examines the intersection of authoritarianism and religious fundamentalism around the world – looking for lessons that Americans can learn from to resist Christian nationalism and the threat it poses to our democracy.  The series turns the idea of American exceptionalism on its head, asking: What ca...

In the last decade, the field of peace-building has turned its eye toward the United States, as polarization has gotten worse, and political violence has increased. Our guest Peter T. Coleman is a part of that movement to bring peace-building or bridge-building to Americans. Coleman is a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University, and a renowned expert on conflict resolution and...

“ Military children serve alongside their parents, except they're invisible.” –  Harold Kudler, M.D.  Millions of American children have had parents serve in Iraq, Afghanistan, or other wars following September 11, 2001. This episode focuses on the wellbeing of those children, who tend to grow up fast.  Susan Hackley is the director of the short documentary film Veteran Children . The film offers...

In our time when rumors and lies spread across the internet with lightning speed, journalists play a vital role in debunking misinformation and disinformation. Media outlets run by and for non-white audiences, while working under great financial pressure, occupy a special role in the information ecosystem. With immigrants and people of color so often targeted, ethnic and indigenous media outlets a...

Our guest Megan K. Stack began a recent op-ed in the New York Times describing a contentious debate about anti-immigration riots in the Northern Ireland Assembly, “each speaker straining to upstage the last in outrage and fervor.” But unlike many opinion writers, she doesn’t go on to expound on the importance of civility in public discourse. Instead, she marvels that this debate is happening at al...

Since his election in 2010, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has transitioned Hungary from a democracy into a quasi-authoritarian country, and provided a blueprint for Project 2025 in the United States.  Elections, economic policies, and the media have been transformed to benefit Orbán and his far-right Fidesz Party. Orbán’s government, with its consolidation of executive power, Christian nat...