Shows
Music & PeacebuildingTacoma Refugee Choir Part 2This second episode focuses on the Tacoma Refugee Choir and explores its mission, the philosophy of creating collaborative and shared spaces, placemaking, and a dialogue about the language of refugees and who gets to choose the language that defines the stories of who we are. Within decentered choral pedagogy, we examine notions of Empowering Song and the themes of risk and exploration within decentralized leadership. In relation to placemaking, we consider how the arts contribute to knitting together communities. Interwoven throughout this episode is a tapestry of Tacoma Refugee Choir performances and the voices of the singers reflecting on...
2025-05-161h 00Music & PeacebuildingTacoma Refugee Choir Part 1This first episode explores the backgrounds of Erin Guinup and Orlando Morales, directors of the Tacoma Refugee Choir. This episode looks at histories of belonging, how we cross thesholds into belonging, and the role of the voice and choir in cultivating belonging. Exploring Erin Guinup's travels abroad, we look at how travel opens our acceptance of hospitality and gives us the life changing experience of not belonging as we lean into the generosity of others. Finally, the episode concludes with an exploration of Orlando Morales' background in theatre, what theatre and story telling does for us, and how we...
2025-05-0730 minMusic & PeacebuildingTogether Somehow pt3: Unfoldings, Thickenings, and Utopian visionsThe conclusion of this series on dancefloors, electronic dance music, and house music examines how dancefloors offer space to imagine differently. The episode looks at how the synchronous movement and entrainment of bodies propels bodies to move closer, creating a sense of “thickening” that moves toward social cohesion. We look at the importance of utopian visions to peace and reconciliation work and how these visions may be both helpful and harmful. Finally, using a case study of Bjork, we look at how dancefloors offer an unraveling and unfolding that offers space for new ways of being.The Musi...
2024-08-2330 minMusic & PeacebuildingTogether Somehow pt 2: Intimacy, Belonging, and ParadoxPart two of this three-part series on dancefloors and belonging examines how we experience intimacy and a sense of vague belonging. We look at the complex conflicted feelings of our lives that introduce paradox in a queer approach to analysis that draws upon magical realism. We examine the notion of an intimate public and how our constructions and projects of a “we” inform our feelings of belonging. Finally, the episode looks at senses of vague belonging and vague intimacy that are most profoundly experienced on dancefloors. Interwoven are reflections on peacebuilding and how peacebuilders may use the arts to lubr...
2024-08-0642 minMusic & PeacebuildingTogether Somehow: Place, Space, and BelongingPart one of the three-part series on Together, Somehow explores structures and politics of belonging, cultural tightness and looseness, and understandings of translocal culture. Looking specifically at nightlife and rave scene subculture, we look at how doors are managed and how individuals creates translocal bonds of belonging across different nightlife scenes. Luis Manuel Garcia-Mispireta is Associate Professor in Ethnomusicology and Popular Music Studies at the University of Birmingham. His book, Together Somehow: Music Affect, and Intimacy on the Dancefloor is published by Duke University PressThe Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. J...
2024-06-1531 minMusic & PeacebuildingWorld Music Drumming Legacies and VisionsWorld Music Drumming offers opportunities for teachers to enrich general music curricula through ensemble-centered explorations of diverse musics. This episode with Patty Bourne, director of World Music drumming, explores the legacy of Will Schmid, impacts on teachers, expansions of musical visions, and the future of this curricula. Alongside the voices of Lynn Brinckmeyer, Michael Checco, Fabian Galli, Melissa Blum, and Tereasa Evans, we look at the lasting impact of Will Schmid’s vision for music education. With Patty Bourne, we open up conversations about how encounters with Afro-centric music-making expand our understandings of music and music literacy. We also lo...
2024-04-0644 minMusic & PeacebuildingDignity, Kindness, and Social IdentityThis interview with Dr. Mica Estrada explores her work in researching belonging, social identity, and kindness. Beginning with an exploration of impostor phenomena, we first explore stories about Donna Hicks’s direct experience at being affirmed and welcomed. Returning to Estrada’s research, we examine the impact of Dr. Kellman and the development of a social integration model of self-efficacy, identity, and values. This model has been used to explore the experiences of minoritized students in STEM fields and community responses to climate change. The episode closes with examinations of belonging and stereotype threat and the power of kindness and...
2024-01-2050 minMusic & PeacebuildingDignity and Self Expansion with Dr. Donna HicksThis is the first in a two-part series on dignity, belonging, awe, humility, kindness, and identity. In this first episode, we spend time with Dr. Donna Hicks to discuss the magic of dignity language, a South African heritage of Mandela Consciousness and Ubuntu, and expansions of the self through pathways of humility, vulnerability, and awe. The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care.
2023-12-1654 minMusic & PeacebuildingSound Connects Us: Belonging, Synchrony, Language, and NoisePart two of the conversation with Dr. Nina Kraus examines how we find our sense of belonging within our sonic worlds. Speaking of how sound connects us, we enter dialogues about modulations of harmony, synchrony, the power of singing, and how musical training may make us more emotionally sensitive to harmonic cues within human voice. Turning to bilingualism, we examine gains of bilingual abilities, including the grouping of auditory objects, attention, and inhibitory control. The podcast concludes with an examination of the violence of noise, wartime sound and trauma, and the cumulative health effects upon communities.The...
2023-11-0432 minMusic & PeacebuildingSound Connects Us: Betweenness of Sonic ExperienceIn this two-part series with Dr. Nina Kraus we examine the neuroscience of our hearing brains, exploring how we make meaning from our sonic worlds. In episode 1, we look at the afferent and efferent journeys as our brains construct meaning from sonic experience. Examining reading, we understand how reading is powered by the strength of our recognition of frequency, harmonics, FM sweeps, and other ingredients. In Episode 2, we explore the impact of musical training and bilingual experience on comprehension, synchrony, abilities to hear sounds in noise, our belonging, and our empathetic capacities to respond to affect. The two-episode series...
2023-10-2830 minMusic & PeacebuildingDancing the Dance of Emotions Between UsExploring the research of Batja Mesquita and other cultural psychologists and social psychologists, this episode examines how emotions are enacted between humans. Challenging the US-centric worldview that emotions are only within an individual, Mesquita notes that emotions are continuously enacted within culture and relationships. Our podcast contrasts differences in Japanese orientations with amae, omoiyuri, and haji or shame. Drawing upon research on happiness, we examine how happiness has changed over time and how happiness differs across cultures. Within Latin American cultures, notions of simpatía and familísmo construct happiness as relational and go-with-the flow agreeableness. The episode concludes wi...
2023-09-2951 minMusic & PeacebuildingRe-membering Ourselves Home through Breath and VoiceThis episode explores the work of Taína Asili, her album Resiliencia, and the many voices that inspired her work in this album. As we understand notions of belonging, we explore Puerto Rican heritage, alternative voices of punk culture, language of re-membering, and the work of dismantling frameworks of scarcity to find deeper forms of belonging to the land and each other. Exploring the work of Sophia Smart, Leah Penniman, Sonia Renae Taylor, and others, we look at the role of the arts and an expansive sense of self in reclaiming our "own divine enoughness" (Renae Taylor). Taína Asi...
2023-08-1253 minMusic & PeacebuildingSeason Four TrailerWhat does it mean to belong? This question and other fascinating questions on belonging will be explored in season four of the music and peacebuilding podcast. Our topics will include musical reclamations, musical identities, the neuroscience of sound and belonging, the psychology of our emotional lives, belonging and refugee choirs, peacebuilding, and the reparative work of world music drumming. In studying belonging we might sing a sense of home within ourselves, our relationships, and our sense of rootedness in place. And in a world of uncertainty, loneliness, and disconnection, our work of peacebuilding might be artistic affirmations and expressions...
2023-06-3002 minMusic & PeacebuildingDialogues of Courage, Wisdom, and Compassion with Olivier Urbain, Kevin Maher, and Anri TanabeThis is the second in a two-episode series exploring the legacy of Daisaku Ikeda and the practice of dialogue. In this episode, we ask how wisdom, courage, and compassion is lived and practiced through music and dialogue. In particular, we look at how genuine dialogue might bring out the best in ourselves as we look to bring out the best in the other. Together with Olivier Urbain, Kevin Maher, and Anri Tanabe, we explore how this is lived out at the Min-on Music Research Institute and the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning and Dialogue.The Music & Peacebuilding...
2022-12-2250 minMusic & PeacebuildingCourage, Wisdom, and Compassion with Olivier Urbain: Ikeda’s StoryThis is a two-episode series exploring the legacy of Daisaku Ikeda and the practice of dialogue through interconnectedness and a human revolution of courage, wisdom, and compassion. In this episode, we explore the legacy and history of Johan Galtung, Ikeda, Toda, Makiguchi, and Oliver Urbain’s groundbreaking work to explore music and peacebuilding. Exploring histories and models of violence, we come to a clearer, interdependent understanding of how direct, structural, and cultural violence are enacted within modern contexts.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.mu...
2022-12-1740 minMusic & PeacebuildingCrossing Thesholds and Passages in Shakuhachi Practice with Kiku DayThis second episode of a two-part series with Kiku Day explores shakuhachi soundings of cultural translation and peacebuilding. With the famous honkyoku piece, Tamuke, we encounter the problems of cultural translation and how a piece about passages has been problematically recast as a requiem. The episode ends with a discussion of ryu or localized schools and the sounding of the robuki wave during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care.
2022-11-1940 minMusic & PeacebuildingSounding Flow and Silence in Shakuhachi Practice with Kiku DayThis first episode of a two-part series with Kiku Day explores shakuhachi history and how the shakuhachi is taught and learned. Central to shakuhachi are traditions of flow and the use of silence or absence through the language of ma. Recordings from Wild Ways are generously provided by the composer, performer, and record label. 15ZWATlBgcYPn7lBZWgqThe Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care.
2022-11-0533 minMusic & PeacebuildingReflective Celebrations of 10,000 DownloadsBringing together Dan Shevock, Jon Rudy, and Tyné Angela Freeman, this is a reflective episode about the first three years of this podcast. Exploring notions of story, spirituality, theoretical framework, and the notion of a lived walk, this is a slow, expansive, and reflective move through the first three years of podcasting. Join our celebration!The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care.
2022-09-1643 minMusic & PeacebuildingDynamic Samul Nori and Intentional DifferenceSamul nori represents a modern percussion genre of four things - the changgo, buk, k’kwaenggwari , and ching. Originally known as p’ungmul and nongak this genre was transformed as dynamic as it entered concert spaces. Comprised of karak that dynamically shift weight and feel, this genre represents the balance of Yin and Yang and alignments with hohŭp, or the breath. Katherine In-Young Lee investigates the rhythmic form of Yŏngnam nongak and how a sectional rhythmic form might invite global encounters, breaking down cultural barriers, and performing a “unification of difference” that is central to peace. The episode fe...
2022-09-0356 minMusic & PeacebuildingWho We Be: Agency, Performativity, and Collegiate A CappellaIn this podcast, we take a tour with Dr. Brent Talbot on Talbot and Mantie’s research into American collegiate a cappella singing through the lens of agency, performativity, and leisure. Our performances of gender, sexuality, and identity are often rooted within larger frameworks and can be liberated from these frameworks in exploring new ways of being through musical practices. We close this two part series with the replay of a powerful speech that ties together agency, narrative, performativity, and Balinese collectivism.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional de...
2022-08-0633 minMusic & PeacebuildingWho We Be: Collectivist Agency and Balinese GamelanIn this podcast, we take a tour with Dr. Brent Talbot Balinese gamelan through the lens of agency and performativity. Exploring diverse cultures of Bali and the US, we ask questions of how we construct agency and stories of our performances in collectivist and individualistic contexts. We take the time to explore Talbot’s resource, Gending Rare and the work of Made Taro. While US notions of agency assume individualistic contexts, we ask about the potential to live into agency that is embraced by community.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join...
2022-07-2340 minMusic & PeacebuildingBuilding Changed Spaces for Peacebuilding in Filipino ContextsWendy Kroeker explores her research on peacebuilding and conflict resolution in the Philippines and the island of Mindanao. Exploring the root causes of violence, we examine histories of colonialism impacting Moro, Lumad, and the Filipino residents. The podcast examines notions of transgenerational trauma, group identity, and retutoring the body through the practice of dialogue. Kroeker holds the possibility of the Tinikling dance and the sway of bamboo as metaphors for peace.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim s...
2022-06-2551 minMusic & PeacebuildingBeauty Beneath the Surface: Composing Change with the Japanese KotoMasayo Ishigure is a world-renowned performer of the Japanese koto. This conversation explores the legacies of Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai, Michio Miyagi, and Japanese traditions of composing for the koto. Exploring notions of wabi-sabi, the Meiji period, and hogaku, this podcast looks at the ethical demands of cross-cultural composition. We open up fundamental questions about how a culture changes and evolves while remaining rooted to traditions and heritage.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection...
2022-05-2832 minMusic & PeacebuildingConstructing an Activist Music Education with Juliet HessDrawing upon the input of 20 activist musicians, Dr. Juliet Hess wrote a book about building curricula that support noticing, naming, and coming to voice. Building from Paulo Freire’s understandings from the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Hess offers a curriculum that asks students to construct songs, discuss soundscapes, and notice and name the structures that surround our expressions of music. Exploring the lessons of James Hwang, Lisa Vaugeouis, and Theresa Vu and Taiyo Na of the Magnetic North Band, we enter profound lessons that seek to hold space for student voices in music education curricula.The Music & Pe...
2022-04-0737 minMusic & PeacebuildingTajik Maddâh, Healing, and Flexible Framing with Dr. Benjamin KoenThe music of the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan offers opportunities to explore the importance of poetry, rhythmic flexibility, and sacred space within wellness and healing. Dr. Benjamin Koen is a leader in medical ethnomusicology who has written texts and articles exploring Maddâh or Maddoh and the practice of this sung poetry as an expression that promotes psychological flexibility for new perspectives of healing. This episode explores Rumi’s Masnavi and spirituality with musical excerpts.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thi...
2022-03-1951 minMusic & PeacebuildingSounding Tuvan Hospitalities of Place with Theodore LevinTheodore Levin has a lifetime of scholarship in studying music, culture, and spirituality of Central Asia and Siberia. His book on Tuvan Singing opens new understandings of melodies of timbre and musical relations with ecology and the natural world. This episode draws together a rich conversation on hospitality, mimesis, sonic painting, intertwined listening, and the violence of uprooted imaginations. The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and care.
2022-02-1954 minMusic & PeacebuildingLoving Intimacies and Interconnected BeingDr. Jeffery Long explores delicate balance, love, longing, devotion, intimacy, and compassion in Hindu texts. Beginning with the story of Ushas and the arrival of dawn from the Rigveda, we journey to the dance of Shiva and Shakti and understandings of love and longing within Radha and Krishna. As we explore love, we encounter Bhakti and Bhajan, and the wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh and Mahatma Gandhi.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connection and...
2022-01-2933 minMusic & PeacebuildingSurrendering to Hope and Joy with Sandeep DasThis conversation with Sandeep Das explores the influence of Yo-Yo Ma, the generosity of musical service and Dehli to Damascus. This centers on the notion of incompleteness, shared heritages of poetry, maqams, and the unique stories that inform a wisdom of compassion. We enter deep notions of “surrender” in a bhajan beloved by Mahatma Gandhi and the HUM ensemble’s musical realization of surrender, longing, balance, and cyclical hope.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking deeply we reclaim space for connect...
2021-12-3140 minMusic & PeacebuildingSeason 3 TrailerComing in January 2022, season 3 on "Silk Roads of Peace." Season 3 of the Music & Peacebuilding podcast explores Silk Roads of peace, interviewing musicians, ethnomusicologists, and authors about music and peacebuilding along historical silk roads. In this season, our curiosity travels through cultures in India, Uzbekistan, Russia, China, Japan, Lebanon, Turkey, Indonesia, and much more. In studying diverse heritage and cultures, we might illumine a deeper understanding of who we are and imagine acts of restoration and repair that are informed by the beauty of our diversity.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College...
2021-12-0902 minMusic & PeacebuildingStress & MindfulnessDr. Elizabeth Dalton is an expert on stress, health behaviors, and how our beliefs impact our use of coping mechanisms. Together with Dr. Tomás Estrada, we explore research on stress and how a research-informed understanding may lead to healthy approaches to peace and social-emotional learning. We close by examining recent research on mindfulness and how mindfulness mediates stress and opens space for the vulnerability, uncertainty, and intellectual stretching needed for creativity and problem-solving.The Music & Peacebuilding Podcast is hosted by Kevin Shorner-Johnson at Elizabethtown College. Join our professional development network at www.musicpeacebuilding.com - thinking d...
2021-06-0650 min