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Peace Is Here explores the deep architecture of a life unweaponed with a light-hearted touch and a scholar’s heart. Join Avis Kalfsbeek, writer of feisty fiction, for a daily curriculum of peace. We explore historic treaties, nature’s quiet wisdom, and the creative art-vision required for #TheGreatDisarmament. From deep-dive series on peace heroes to fiction stories and personal riffs, we look beneath the surface to see the peace that is already here.
Episodes
Saturday Oct 18, 2025
Saturday Oct 18, 2025
Fumio Sasaki: Minimalism in Practice
In this episode, we explore Fumio Sasaki’s journey toward minimalism: how he pared possessions, redefined identity, and reclaimed space. We reflect on letting lightness become not absence, but invitation.
Find the Books, Podcast & Kickstarter: Everything you need to follow the Peace Stuff: Enough journey is here: AvisKalfsbeek.com
Recommended Reading: Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism by Fumio Sasaki
Music: "Dalai Llama Rides a Bike" by Javier "Peke" Rodriguez
- Bandcamp: https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW?si=uszJs37sTFyPbXK4AeQvow
Friday Oct 17, 2025
Friday Oct 17, 2025
Ikkyu Sojun: Wild Mind, Clear Heart
This episode explores the bold life of Ikkyu Sojun, the 15th-century Zen monk who defied convention and insisted that spiritual clarity could not be faked. From temple reform to sake-soaked poems, Ikkyu lived with piercing honesty and unforgettable style.
Find the Books, Podcast & Kickstarter: Everything you need to follow the Peace Stuff: Enough journey is here:AvisKalfsbeek.com
Recommended Reading: Crow with No Mouth translated by Stephen Berg
Music: "Dalai Llama Rides a Bike" by Javier "Peke" Rodriguez
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW?si=uszJs37sTFyPbXK4AeQvow
Thursday Oct 16, 2025
Thursday Oct 16, 2025
Satish Kumar: Pilgrim of Peace and Soil
Satish Kumar walked across continents without money to bear witness against nuclear arms. In this episode, we trace how that pilgrimage shaped a life devoted to ecology, justice, and spiritual humility. His journey reminds us that trust and simplicity may be the deepest form of richness.
Find the Books, Podcast & Kickstarter: Everything you need to follow the Peace Stuff: Enough journey is here: AvisKalfsbeek.com
Recommended Reading: No Destination: An Autobiography of a Pilgrim by Satish Kumar
Music: "Dalai Llama Rides a Bike" by Javier "Peke" Rodriguez
- Bandcamp: https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW?si=uszJs37sTFyPbXK4AeQvow
Wednesday Oct 15, 2025
Wednesday Oct 15, 2025
Mahatma Gandhi: Ashes, Talisman, and the Poorest Face
In this episode, we explore Gandhi’s choice to scatter his ashes rather than preserve them, and his guiding Talisman—a moral test rooted in care for the poorest. We prepare to turn toward new frontiers, carrying Gandhi’s test forward into new discussions of commons, power, and humility.
Find the Books, Podcast & Kickstarter: Everything you need to follow the Peace Stuff: Enough journey is here: AvisKalfsbeek.com
More on Gandhi's Talisman:
- Read Gandhi’s Talisman text: MKGandhi.org
- Recommended reading:The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Gandhi
Music: "Dalai Llama Rides a Bike" by Javier "Peke" Rodriguez
Tuesday Oct 14, 2025
Tuesday Oct 14, 2025
Thich Nhat Hanh: Breaths of Peace
In this episode, we celebrate the life of Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay)—Zen monk, poet, peace activist, and pioneer of Engaged Buddhism. We reflect on how mindfulness and action can be the same gesture, how every step can carry peace, and how breath can anchor us when the world is loud.
Find the Books, Podcast & Kickstarter: Everything you need to follow the Peace Stuff: Enough journey is here: AvisKalfsbeek.com
Recommended Reading: The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh
Music: "Dalai Llama Rides a Bike" by Javier "Peke" Rodriguez
Monday Oct 13, 2025
Monday Oct 13, 2025
Peace Pilgrim: The Walker with No Belongings
In this episode, we kick off The Architects of Enough series with the Peace Pilgrim (Mildred Lisette Norman), a woman who gave up everything she owned to walk over 25,000 miles for peace. We reflect on the Inner Path to Enough: what it means to walk without material burden, speak without anger, and live without excess. Includes a powerful reflection prompt and a small pop-in from Pedro the Water Dog!
Find the Books, Podcast & Kickstarter: Everything you need to follow the Peace Stuff: Enough journey is here: AvisKalfsbeek.com
More on Peace Pilgrim: Find the free booklet Steps Toward Inner Peace and more about her life:https://www.peacepilgrim.org/fopp-quickstart
Music: "Dalai Llama Rides a Bike" by Javier "Peke" Rodriguez
Friday Oct 10, 2025
Friday Oct 10, 2025
Avis Kalfsbeek takes a pause between series for a meditation on grief, war, and liberative compassion. She shares that she does a monthly creative project in her mini, free Shakespeare Sherpa Club (link below).
As part of my monthly Shakespeare Sherpa project, I turn toward poetry and performance as a quiet ritual of peace. Today, that takes the form of two voices in deep lament:
- Constance, from King John by William Shakespeare (Act 3, Scene 4), a mother devastated by the imprisonment of her son.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay, in her haunting poem Dirge Without Music, refusing to soften the sorrow of death.
In this episode, I also briefly reflect on a teaching from Ram Dass (Ep. 283 of Be Here Now) and the difference between righteous helping and liberative helping. Can we mourn and still be spiritually free? Can we serve peace while holding the full weight of what we feel?
Awkward Alert: I read Shakespeare not because I am a Shakespearean actor, or ever plan to be, but because this is my podcast and I can. As such, I remind listeners of the fast forward button.
Peace and love,
Avis
Texts Featured:
- King John, Act 3, Scene 4 – William Shakespeare
- Dirge Without Music – Edna St. Vincent Millay
Shakespeare Sherpa Club (free): AvisKalfsbeek.com/ShakespeareSherpa
Follow my Kickstarter: AvisKalfsbeek.com/Kickstarter
Get the books: aviskalfsbeek.com
Music:
“Dalai Llama Rides a Bike” by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
• Bandcamp: javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com
• Spotify: Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
Wednesday Oct 08, 2025
Wednesday Oct 08, 2025
The Great Disarmament Part 14: A Future Retold. What Comes Next? In the final episode of The Great Disarmament – The Great Disfarmament, peace storyteller Avis Kalfsbeek invites listeners to reflect on the journey so far—and to imagine what comes next.
From ancient farming to nuclear warfare, from compost to chemical weapons, this 14-part podcast series traces the parallel histories of agricultural violence and militarized conflict—and the courageous movements working to undo them.
A Future Retold offers a poetic, historical, and deeply human recap of the series. It revisits the voices that have shaped this work—Rachel Carson, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, adrienne maree brown, and many more—and names the everyday actions that make peace not just possible, but already underway.
We explore the symbolism of the Doomsday Clock, the myth of perpetual war, and the dream of a Peace Clock that points to something new: a world where disarmament becomes part of daily life.
If you care about climate justice, nuclear disarmament, regenerative agriculture, nonviolent resistance, or simply the possibility of a livable future—this episode is for you. Because peace is not a gimmick. It’s a choice. A story. A path.
This is #TheGreatDisarmament.
Download the Peace Resource Guide: AvisKalfsbeek.com/PeaceGuide
Follow my Kickstarter: AvisKalfsbeek.com/Kickstarter
Get the books: aviskalfsbeek.com
Music:
“Dalai Llama Rides a Bike” by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
• Bandcamp: javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com
• Spotify: Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
Monday Oct 06, 2025
Monday Oct 06, 2025
The Great Disarmament Part 13: Seeds of Peace. What does disarmament look like today?
It may not be on the news. But it is happening—everywhere.
In this final episode of the historical timeline, we trace disarmament from the early 2000s to the present. From gang-intervention programs to post-conflict organic farms, from library circles to peace walkers, we explore how peace is being built—not by treaties alone, but by people. Quietly, daily, defiantly.
Weapons still exist. Wars are still waged. But in homes, classrooms, gardens, and songs The Great Disarmament is already underway.
Featuring the voices of Malala Yousafzai, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Father Gregory Boyle, adrienne maree brown, and Arundhati Roy.
Inspired by Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, we reflect on how small acts—like composting, listening, or holding a moment of peace—are not peripheral. They are the strategy.
Download the Peace Resource Guide: AvisKalfsbeek.com/PeaceGuide
Follow my Kickstarter: AvisKalfsbeek.com/Kickstarter
Get the books: aviskalfsbeek.com
🎵 Music by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
Bandcamp: javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com
Spotify: Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
Friday Oct 03, 2025
Friday Oct 03, 2025
The Great Disarmament Part 12: Arms & Arguments – When Peace Learned to Speak Up. In an era dominated by Cold War brinkmanship, something remarkable happened. Peace became public. From the Nuclear Freeze movement to televised debates, this 100th episode of the Peace is Here Podcast tracks how citizens learned to speak up, protest, and challenge the very premise of global militarism.
We explore the 1980s and ’90s not as a triumph of treaties, but as the moment peace gained fluency—in arguments, in law, and in imagination.
We also remind ourselves: disarmament is not a speedy process, and it is never guaranteed. But it happens. And we are still part of it.
Featuring historian Howard Zinn and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.
Download the Peace Resource Guide: AvisKalfsbeek.com/PeaceGuide
Follow my Kickstarter: AvisKalfsbeek.com/Kickstarter
Get the books: aviskalfsbeek.com
🎵 Music by Javier “Peke” Rodriguez
Bandcamp: javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com
Spotify: Javier “Peke” Rodriguez