Unlocking Us with Brené Brown · Vox Media Podcast Network

Ali Abu Awwad and Robi Damelin on Nonviolence as The Path to Freedom for Palestinians and Israelis

February 28, 2024·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

Robi Damelin recalls telling Israeli officers her dead son could not be used to justify killing anyone.

Brené starts by slowing everything down. She has come back from the holidays after her mother's death on Christmas Day, after a long dementia journey and time away from social media. That context matters. She does not posture; she says the call for her voice on Israel and Palestine was reasonable. From there, the episode moves into loss. Roby describes how humiliation can harden into revenge, while making clear that revenge is not what she carries. That distinction gives the conversation its weight. She talks about bereaved parents who disappear with their children, and others who build libraries, monuments, or forms of solace. Her own answer was education for peace. Because David cared about education, peace education became the place where she could put her pain. The episode is careful not to call that healing. Ali's short challenge makes the point sharper: joining reconciliation does not mean a bereaved person has healed. It may mean the wound is still open. Roby does not tidy the answer. She sees women wondering whether older losses still count beside so much newer death on both sides. The doubt shocks her. Bereaved mothers gave her solace because they understood. Time does not close the wound. Even after twenty or fifty years, she describes a life permanently changed, with her grandchildren still connected to David and Mia singing songs about him. Brené closes by asking for learning, reevaluation, and mutual challenge, and points listeners toward Ali, Roby, Tahir, and the Parent Circle Family Forum.

As heard by us

Grief, nonviolence, and the harder work of staying human when history keeps reopening.

This sits at the far end of Health & Fitness -- grief, moral injury, and what people build from pain that never quite resolves. Brene Brown returns from personal leave and a public controversy, then hands the floor to Ali and Roby, both bereaved parents in the Parent Circle…

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Why you'd press play

Two people who lost someone to this conflict chose nonviolence anyway. This is what that looks like.

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