“What are you listening to right now?” has become a popular topic at Centre for Peace Advancement coffee breaks, and with good reason. As a popular medium for storytelling, podcasts have become instrumental in provoking nuanced and multidimensional dialogue around peacebuilding and conflict. Available on a wide variety of free and paid platforms, podcasts make peace dialogue more accessible, consumable, and enjoyable for many.
Whether you want to relax, learn, or create a podcast of your own, there is something out there for you. For your next listening session, check out these options created by or featuring Centre community members.
Peacebuilders have used storytelling as a catalyst for conflict transformation for generations and are increasingly turning to the podcast format to connect with listeners around the world. Storytelling as a peacebuilding methodology disrupts conventional notions of knowledge production by empowering the everyday individual to narrate their own experiences. For listeners, storytelling offers a window into someone else’s subjectivity and can counter assumptions about the way someone lives, thinks, or experiences conflict. As the use of technological approaches to knowledge sharing continue to accelerate, peace innovators are using podcasts to connect listeners with storytellers from their communities.
Podcasting offers an ideal platform for storytelling and peace-related dialogue because of its low barriers to creation and participation. All you need is a smart phone with a microphone, access to the internet, and a good story to begin. For listeners, podcasts can be found for free across many streaming platforms and enable flexible consumption while completing other tasks like driving to work or doing the dishes. Centre for Peace Advancement community members are taking advantage of this ease of participation by hosting their own podcast or appearing as guests on a podcast episode.
This summer, we invite you to learn more about the growing popularity of “podcasting for peace” by lending an ear to some Centre community members’ podcasts. Visit the Centre’s Spotify playlist “Podcasting for Peace” or tune in to each podcast individually.
Voices of the centre
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Ontario's "Undercurrents"
Undercurrents is MCC Ontario’s first podcast, and it has received rave reviews since launching in April 2020. Join host Ken Ogasawara as he welcomes peacebuilders, program participants, MCC staff, and more to explore stories of courage and hope in (mostly) local communities impacted by the work of MCC.
Season two comes out in September 2021, so catch up on the existing episodes on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite platform.
Mennonite Central Committee's (MCC) "Relief, development and podcast"
For a more international listening experience, stay connected with MCC by listening in while MCC Canada’s Scott Campbell welcomes feature guests to discuss “the realities faced by displaced and people made vulnerable around the world.”
Each episode features new guests, stories, and updates about how MCC’s programs are making a global impact. Don’t forget to check out the May 20th episode on Peace clubs in Zambia, featuring Master’s of Peace and Conflict Studies graduate, Issa Ebombolo.
"Cities deepening community" with Tamarack Institute
“The process of deepening community is about empowering citizens to form the trust and connections necessary to create and sustain vibrant, inclusive neighbourhoods”.
Core Collaborator, Tamarack Institute knows first-hand what it takes to unite communities and empower inhabitants, because this organization has been supporting Canadian municipalities for over twenty years. Each episode of the Deepening Community podcast series explores a different aspect that needs to be addressed to promote healthy, integrated communities.
Topics include the value of neighbouring, social reconnection as a solution for health, COVID and Community Recovery, as well as series on Social Capital and Loneliness and Isolation. Tune in through iTunes, Spotify, or Soundcloud.
Lunaria Solutions on "Living the startup"
As the Founder and CEO of Lunaria, one of the startups growing out of the Grebel Peace Incubator, Cassie Myers helps people, brands, and businesses accomplish their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
Myers was recently featured on episode 41 of the Living the Startup Podcast to discuss her work with Lunaria and tips for up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Get the behind the scenes scoop on life as an entrepreneur by listening to the experiences of guests on this Soundcloud series.
"Unmute" by Theatre of the Beat
This year, Grebel Peace Incubator graduate, Theatre of the Beat expanded into new production territory. Not only was their virtual production of Unmute a resounding success, but now the thought-provoking forum theatre piece is available in an audio-only format on all major podcasting platforms.
Not only does this mean audiences can explore important topics such as domestic violence and gender-based assault from the comfort of their homes. Now, you can pause to have your own discussions, then re-convene with host Kimberlee Walker and Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region professionals Trish Sabourin and Jenna Mayne for further insights into effective interventions to address domestic violence.
Peace Innovators alumnus, Aidan featured by Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada's (MCEC) "Courageous imagination"
Since graduating from the Peace Innovators Scholarship and Mentoring Program run by The Ripple Effect Education (TREE), Kindred Credit Union, and the Centre for Peace Advancement, 2020/2021 participant Aidan Morton-Ninomiya has continued to advocate for youth to get involved in building the future they wish to create.
Last month, Morton-Ninomiya joined MCEC’s Courageous Imagination hosts alongside students Hanna Neguisse and Andie Joseph to share their hopes and dreams for the church and to discuss the value of connecting youth and faith through discipleship.
Tune in to episode seven or the entire series on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, and more, to relax and reflect on the future of faith in the Mennonite community.
Podcasting and you
These podcasts all help tell stories of peacebuilding in our community by amplifying everyday voices to educate, illuminate, inspire, and challenge listeners. If you are interested in beginning your own journey towards podcasting for peace, check out Buffer’s article on Podcasting for beginners, and consider listening to Ross Winn’s playlist: Podcasting Simplified. Finally, make sure to share your content with the Centre for Peace Advancement at cpa.communications@uwaterloo.ca.
To hear (almost) all of the podcasts mentioned in this article, visit the Centre’s Spotify playlist “Podcasting for Peace”