The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast is a free, weekly thirty-minute podcast, posted on every Monday, featuring Fr. John Dear and his reflections about Jesus, Gospel nonviolence, and peacemaking, and guests who teach, speak out, organize and work for a more just, most peaceful, more nonviolent world. Through these weekly reflections, we hope to inspire everyone to follow the nonviolent Jesus more faithfully and do our part to welcome God’s reign of peace with justice on earth!

Here is the schedule for the first five podcasts. The link we will provided on the day they are posted; the podcast APP will be available in early February. It will also be posted every Monday on the homepage of the National Catholic Reporter, HERE.

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks one of our leading anti-nuclear activists, Columbia University professor Dr. Ivana Hughes. And just last week, the authoritarian president announced he wants to resume nuclear weapons testing, violating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which has been ratified by 170 nations.

From 1951 until 1992, the U.S. exploded a nuclear weapon in Nevada on average every 18 days – 928 in total. As Daniel Ellsberg remarked, “It is the most bombed place on the planet.” But thanks to my colleagues at the Nevada Desert Experience, which brought 25,000 activists to commit civil disobedience in the Nevada Desert, the bombings stopped. Although the U.S. never ratified the treaty, it has abided by it since 1992–until today.

Dr. Ivana Hughes is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Columbia University. She serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the United Nations to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a committee consisting of 15 experts from around the world who advise the states on scientific issues as they pertain to the treaty. Dr. Hughes obtained her PhD from Stanford University, where she was an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellow. She has been a faculty member at Columbia University since 2008 and was awarded the Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for 2020. Her work on ascertaining the radiological conditions in the Marshall Islands has been covered widely. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Scientific American, Truthout, Common Dreams, and elsewhere.

“The threat of nuclear war is absolutely enormous,” she says. “It could happen at any time. It could happen in a matter of minutes. We’ve been really lucky that nuclear war has not happened. There have been many, many close calls.”

“We work to help build the United Nations’ Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which is a legally binding international agreement that prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons, aiming for their total elimination. It was adopted on July 7, 2017, and entered into force on January 22, 2021. As of today, 99 nation states, over half the UN, have signed the treaty and called for nuclear disarmament. This is a process that will continue however long it takes to eliminate nuclear weapons. Of the three weapons of mass destruction, both chemical and biological weapons have been internationally outlawed. We’re working to get nuclear weapons treated the same way.

“Until we stop investing in nuclear weapons and military warmaking,” she says, “we’re not going to be able to address other challenges we have. Our elected representatives need to know that the general public cares about nuclear disarmament. So if you care, let them know.” Listen in and be inspired! Check out her website: wagingpeace.org God bless everyone!

Upcoming Podcasts

Nov. 17th. #46. John Dear in conversation with Wes Granberg Michaelson
Nov. 24th. #47. John Dear in conversation with Gerry Straub
Dec. 1st. #48. John Dear in conversation with Rep. Jamie Raskin
Dec. 8th. #49. John Dear in conversation with Mike Martin
Dec. 15th. #50. John Dear on Mary and the Advent Journey of nonviolence
Dec. 22nd. #51. John Dear on the Epiphany of Christmas
Dec. 29th. #52. “Best of The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast, 2025”
Jan. 5th. #53. John Dear in conversation with Robert Ellsberg

The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast

Posted Every Monday

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with longtime justice activist and churchworker Wes Granberg-Michaelson about his inspiring new book, The Soulwork of Justice: Four Movements for Contemplative Action.

Wes Granberg-Michaelson is a writer, speaker, and global ecumenical leader who worked in the 1970s and 1980s as the assistant to progressive US Senator Mark Hatfield, then Sojourners magazine, and then the World Council of Churches. (Visit www.wesgm.com). During the COVID lockdown, he reread the daily journal he kept for over 50 years, and discovered four key movements that transformed him over the course of his lifelong work for justice, which we discuss—moving from self-sufficiency to belonging; rational certainty to spiritual connection; grandiosity to authenticity; and control to trust.

“Grandiosity is in the water in our culture, particularly our political culture,” he says. “It’s so important to learn to keep asking ourselves, ‘Where am I discovering my true self, and really knowing that I’m beloved, not because of what I do, but because of God’s action to love me?’”

He concludes by offering eight guideposts for activists:

1. Know that the world belongs to God;

2. Know your engagement with the world has a spiritual foundation;

3. Know that you act on the basis of call;

4. Let your action be steadfast and committed to the long term;

5. Display resilience and inner strength;

6. Live detached from your ego and the results of your action;

7. Don’t demonize your opponents;

8. Know that you are rooted and grounded in love, a love that is spacious and beyond knowledge.

Check it out and be inspired!