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.

Photo from the Documentary, I Am A Noise

This week on “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” John Dear speaks with his friend of 35 years, the legendary folk singer, Joan Baez. A lifelong activist for peace, justice, civil and human rights, and an equally passionate believer in nonviolence, she has released over 30 albums, traveled the world singing for peace for over 60 years, published a great autobiography called “And a Voice to Sing With,” and recently published her first collection of poems, “When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance.”

Joan performed at Woodstock, opened Live Aid, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. PBS did a spectacular biography of her which I recommend called “How Sweet the Sound,” she was profiled in the new documentary, I Am A Noise, and she was featured recently in the Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” brilliantly played by actress Monica Barbaro. She was a close friend of Dr. King; arrested for protesting the Vietnam war; went to Hanoi, and was bombed by the US. She has been against all our wars and injustices because she has a lifelong commitment to nonviolence.

Listen as Joan reveals how her Quaker parents influenced her early childhood and the year she lived in Baghdad, and how a meeting with long time peace activist Ira Sandperl, and later hearing Dr. King speak at her high school, changed her life forever.

Joan is surprisingly candid when it comes to sharing her own failings and how meditation has become a crucial part of her daily routine. When asked about founding “The Institute for the Study of Nonviolence” in the 1960s, she talks about the one hour requirement of sitting in silence each morning. “Many people had their first acquaintance with nonviolence through that experience of silence,” she says. Her honesty is disarming and reflects how many of us feel today.

She also shares personal anecdotes about Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Dr. King and her experience with Vaclav Havel and the Czech Republic’s Velvet Revolution. Listen in as she quotes Gandhi and T.S. Elliot when encouraging me and all of us to be activists, and then reads her new poem, “This Is Not Optimism.”

Toward the end, she and John read together her brilliant 1960s dialogue, “What Would You Do If,” about the threat of personal assault.

As she closes, she breaks into song, singing the Civil Rights anthem, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” guaranteed to give you chills! At 84, Joan Baez is still carrying her “shining light out into the shit storm,” as she puts it. Check out this special episode of The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast and share it with your friends!

Upcoming Podcasts

Nov. 10th. #45. John Dear in conversation with Ivana Hughes
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 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!