Why Listening is the First Step to Peace

Disrupting Peace

This season we’re looking at the first steps everyday people can take towards peace. And we’re kicking things off by zooming in to something direct and personal that people engage with every day: listening.

How can “generous” listening contribute to peace, and what are practical ways to get started? In this episode, we explore concrete ways to have difficult conversations instead of violent reactions, and how our everyday interactions can ladder up to structural change.

Naomi Boase is Tufts University’s inaugural Inclusive and Restorative Dialogues Program Director. She has provided DEI consultations and trainings in the US and abroad for over 10 years. The goal of these trainings is to increase a sense of belonging within communities and organizations. Find out more about Noami’s work here.

Jonathan Tirrell is director of the Generous Listening and Dialogue Initiative at Tufts University. Trained as a developmental scientist, he studies positive youth development (PYD), seeking to understand how people become good people. Find out more about Jonathan’s work here.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.