Peacemakers Podcast

In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, hosts Jim Hōden Fricker and Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe welcome Seth Zuihō Segall and John Murphy to present the vision of the newly formed Buddhist Coalition for Democracy.Seth Zuihō Segall is a Zen priest ordained in the White Plum and Zen Peacemaker Order lineages, and a retired clinical psychologist who served for three decades at the Yale School of Medicine. He co-founded the Connecticut Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship in 2003 and the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy in 2025. Seth is the author of The House We Live In: Virtue, Wisdom, and Pluralism (2023), Buddhism and Human Flourishing (2020), and several other books and scholarly works, and is a contributing editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.John Murphy is a longtime practitioner at the Philadelphia Shambhala Center, where he serves on its Central Governance Circle. He is also on the Board of the Secular Buddhist Network, and a founding member of the Coordinating Committee of the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy. With a career spanning senior leadership roles in both corporate and nonprofit sectors, John has guided organizations in strategic planning, fundraising, donor relations, and board development.Together, Seth and John present a fresh and inclusive vision for the Coalition—one that invites Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, conservatives and progressives, to join in protecting the foundations of democracy with compassion, dignity, and care. Their principles are clear: free and fair elections, the rule of law, free inquiry, human dignity, and care for the planet. Their actions are wide-ranging—bearing witness, supporting the vulnerable, educating about threats to democracy, embodying right speech and nonviolence.This conversation touches on the joy of working together across difference, the courage to remain “for” something rather than merely “against,” and the deep listening that allows dialogue to transform us.Find out more about the Buddhist Coalition for DemocracyIf this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Seth Zuihō Segall and John Murphy* Recording Date: September 16, 2025* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this new Peacemakers Podcast episode, poet and Zen practitioner Jane Hirshfield sits down with Geoff O’Keeffe for a luminous, grounded conversation about how poems—and practice—help us meet a fractured world. From her seven-word distillation of the dharma (“Everything changes. Everything is connected. Pay attention.”) to the vow that undergirds compassionate action, Jane invites us into a way of seeing that is precise, permeable, and tender.Together we travel through themes of Questioning, Being Still, Bearing Witness, Stepping Forward, Failing, and Listening—touching poems such as “After Long Silence,” “Let Them Not Say,” “Like Others,” “Changing Everything,” and the wry kitchen-table parable of a frozen egg. Along the way, Jane reflects on why witnessing itself is a form of action, and how abiding in Not-Knowing helps keep our responses spacious and humane. We hear of fires faced (or sometimes fled), of vows renewed, and of the small, almost invisible gestures that can ripple outward—poetry as a way to not despair and to remain in love with the world.The Asking: New & Selected Poems (Knopf, September 12, 2023)https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/715681/the-asking-by-jane-hirshfield/Bonus Content:If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Jane Hirshfield & Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe* Recording Date: April 24, 2024* Hosts: Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shōun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HEREMore From Jane Hirshfieldhttps://poets.org/text/blaney-making-invisible-visible (text)New Profile/Conversations:McSweeney's, with Ilya Kaminsky: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/jane-hirshfieldThe Nation, with Wen Stephenson: https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/while-this-all-over-crying/Interviews:EZRA KLEIN SHOWOpinion | What a Poetic Mind Can Teach Us About How to Live - The New York Times (nytimes.com)TRICYCLE https://tricycle.org/magazine/jane-hirshfield-poetry/ORIONOrion Magazine - Jane Hirshfield Answers the Orion Questionnaire This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

Zen Peacemakers founder Bernie Glassman taught that practice doesn’t end on the cushion—it must move into the world. In this episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we see how a Zen Peacemaker Affiliate, the Zen Center of Denver, brings this vision to life through their ongoing work at Metro Caring.What emerges is a reminder that service isn’t about charity, but about belonging—creating spaces where dignity and connection flourish.Bernie’s vision points us back to our own neighborhoods. Each of us has a “Metro Caring” close to home, a place where our practice can meet the world’s needs in simple, human ways.Join us for this conversation about practice, service, and the everyday work of peacemaking.🌱 Support our work: Become a paying subscriber for full access to our podcasts, writings, and events—and help sustain the Zen Peacemakers’ global community. Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.org.* Show Credits:* Recording Date: April 17, 2025* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Special Thanks to Metro Caring and the Zen Center of Denver This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

What if being ethical wasn’t about being good, but about being whole?In this moving and revelatory episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, Zen teacher Nancy Mujo Baker Roshi invites us to experience the Buddhist precepts not as commandments or even ideals—but as expressions of oneness itself. Through stories, teachings, and poetic insight, she guides us through the subtle terrain of “non-killing, non-stealing, non-lying” and the journey toward a life lived without a “why.”Together we explore how exposing our delusions, embracing our sorrow, and dropping our self-protection can awaken a deeper way of being—one rooted in Zazen, intimacy, and spontaneous compassion.Whether you’ve studied the precepts for years or are just beginning to reflect on your actions in the world, this episode offers a profound invitation: to meet all of it—your confusion, your care, your contradictions—as Buddha Nature itself.Join us as we walk hand in hand with sorrow, and step into the great unfolding.🌀If this conversation moves you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get access to all of our content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain the work of Zen Peacemakers.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.orgWe invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Nancy Mujo Baker Roshi* Recording Date: January 28, 2023* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this heartfelt episode, we turn the lens inward to explore how the Zen Peacemakers' Three Tenets—Not Knowing, Bearing Witness, and Taking Action—manifest in our closest and most personal relationships.Host Geoff O’Keeffe guides a powerful roundtable conversation with eight longtime Zen teachers, including Roshis Pat Enkyo and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez, June Ryushin Tanoue and Robert Joshin Althouse, and Nicolee Jikyo and Barry Kaigen McMahon.Together, they share the deep joys and inevitable frictions of practicing and teaching together in intimate partnership. Through stories that are funny, moving, and honest, they offer rare insight into how a committed relationship can become not a distraction from the path, but the path itself.From learning how to fight fair and communicate with compassion, to embracing the discomfort of “not knowing” and creating a shared space where healing can emerge, this episode is a love letter to spiritual partnership.🌀 Join us for this unique conversation in the spirit of mutuality, humility, and curiosity.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speakers: Roshis Pat Enkyo and Barbara Joshin O’Hara, Gerry Shishin Wick and Ilia Shinko Perez, June Ryushin Tanoue and Robert Joshin Althouse, and Nicolee Jikyo and Barry Kaigen McMahon* Recording Date: January 22, 2024* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In today’s episode of the Peacemakers Podcast, we’re honored to share the voice of Elias D’eis, a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem and a leader with the Holy Land Trust.Elias grew up during the First Intifada—surrounded by military patrols, fear, and the weight of inherited trauma. As a child, he opened his Bible and read, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”, even as his father was being arrested. Like many Palestinians, he struggled with the seeming contradiction between his faith and the reality of occupation.This conversation is raw and vulnerable. It invites us beyond blame. Beyond “sides.” It asks: What does it mean to be human in a landscape that so often forgets?We hope you’ll take time to listen—slowly, openly, without rushing toward answers. As always, we thank you for being part of this community.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Elias D’eis* Recording Date: December 19, 2024* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

Actor, activist, and Zen priest Peter Coyote joins the Peacemakers Podcast for a powerful episode that pulls no punches. With a voice shaped by decades of spiritual practice and political engagement, Peter traces how we arrived at this moment—from the ideals of the 1960s to the calculated strategies of political and economic power.Peter reminds us that Buddhist practice isn’t a retreat from the world—it’s an invitation into it. Into the mess. Into the uncertainty. Into the radical possibility of listening without judgment and showing up with clarity and care.If you’ve ever wondered how the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers can show up in today’s political climate, this episode is for you.💫 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Show Credits:* Speaker: Peter Coyote* Hosts: Geoff Shoun O’Keeffe, Jim Hōden Fricker* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Event Coordinators: Clotilde Wright, Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe* Original Video: HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

(Episode Preview) In this timely and compelling episode, actor, activist, and Zen priest Peter Coyote reflects on how spiritual practice can anchor us in the turbulence of political and cultural change. Through stories from his life—from the counterculture of the ’60s to the challenges of today—Peter invites us to look closely at how fear and disconnection shape our shared reality.More than a conversation about mindfulness, this is a call to presence, compassion, and thoughtful action. It’s a reminder that in times of chaos, how we show up—for ourselves, for each other, and for the world—makes all the difference.Join us next week for the full episode.💫 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.We invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

What happens when the world goes mad—and we go mad right along with it? In this episode of The Peacemakers Podcast, Zen teacher and poet Norman Fischer brings to life the prophetic parable of the tainted grain by Rebbe Nachman. Norman gently walks us through what it means to live in a world turned upside down. Through the lens of the Bodhisattva path, he invites us to surrender the illusion of separateness, to embrace our shared human vulnerabilities, and to discover an inner greatness rooted in compassion, love, and radical acceptance.💫 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or right here on Substack.If this episode stirred something in you, we invite you to support this work. Become a paying subscriber to the Peacemakers Podcast or join the Zen Peacemakers community as a member.Learn more at www.zenpeacemakers.org.Show Credits:* Speakers: Norman Fischer* Recorded: July 9, 2020 * Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Watch the original video HEREThanks for listening! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe

In this heartfelt and unfiltered conversation, Krishna Das and Roshi Bernie Glassman reflect on the power of bearing witness—from Auschwitz to the Black Hills to the city streets.Recorded not long after the 20th anniversary of the Zen Peacemakers’ first Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz/Birkenau, this exchange touches the heart of our second tenet: turning toward what we often avoid.Together, they speak of fear, of memory, of ancestral wounds, and of the transformative power of presence. Stories of singing in the barracks, weddings at the death camps, and embracing strangers on the street become openings into something larger—a space where healing, grief, and joy coexist.It’s a moving conversation that reminds us: Bearing witness doesn’t mean only holding pain. It can also mean singing. It can mean dancing. It can mean love.Join us for this intimate moment with two longtime friends, as we continue to mark 30 years of returning to Auschwitz and ask together, “What shall I sing to you?”—🌱 Support our workIf this episode moved you, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll get full access to all Peacemakers content—podcasts, articles, event recordings, and more—and help sustain a community rooted in bearing witness and taking action.Explore more at zenpeacemakers.orgShow Credits:* Speakers: Krishna Das & Roshi Bernie Glassman* Audio & Video Editing/Engineering: Jim Hōden Fricker* Interview videotaped and edited by Rami Efal* Recording of Krishna Das performing in Auschwitz/Birkenau by Ohad Ezrahi* Watch the original video HERE This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit voice.zenpeacemakers.org/subscribe