Guests
Jeremy Courtney is the founder and CEO of Preemptive Love. He has lived and worked on the frontlines of conflict for over a decade, serving families who’ve been terrorized by violence, poverty, and disease. He’s the author of the book Love Anyway: An Invitation Beyond a World That’s Scary as Hell. Jeremy lives in Iraq with his wife Jessica and their two children.

Resources

Podcast: Why Violence Is a Virus

What if the very skills we’re all learning to stop the spread of COVID-19 could help us stop the spread of violence? In fact, what if what we’re experiencing now could lead us to end war?

The Defeat of ISIS Is Not a Victory for Peace

We have everything in us to be the ones who crush others underfoot. (That’s what “Daesh,” the Arabic name for ISIS, means.) We have everything in us to be the overtakers. To be those some might see as heroes—and who others might see as the most terrifying villains imaginable.

We Share the Blame

When we prioritize our own comfort and privilege over the basic needs of our neighbors; when we leave weaker neighbors to fend for themselves; when we make it easy for governments to abuse their own citizens because they know the world doesn’t care, we fail our neighbors.

Take Action

Attend a Love Anyway Workshop
Learn how to press into pain, become a better listener, and connect deeply with those who are different. Join one of our free online workshops.

Join our Peacemaking Community
Give monthly to join our community of peacemakers and support our work to heal all that is tearing us apart—in our own communities and around the world. Your gift will provide lifesaving relief to stop the spread of violence, jobs that reduce the risk of being recruited into war, and community to help change the ideas that lead to war.

GUESTS

Jeremy Courtney is the founder and CEO of Preemptive Love. He has lived and worked on the frontlines of conflict for over a decade, serving families who’ve been terrorized by violence, poverty, and disease. He’s the author of the book Love Anyway: An Invitation Beyond a World That’s Scary as Hell. Jeremy lives in Iraq with his wife Jessica and their two children.

RESOURCES

Attack on the Capitol: Why We Must Call It What It Is

The Seeds of War Have Already Been Planted. Now What?

US Election: Voices From the Other Side of War (Podcast)

TAKE ACTION

Attend a Love Anyway Workshop

Learn how to press into pain, become a better listener, and connect deeply with those who are different. Join one of our free online workshops.

Join our Peacemaking Community

Give monthly to join our community of peacemakers and support our work to heal all that is tearing us apart—in our own communities and around the world. Your gift will provide lifesaving relief to stop the spread of violence, jobs that reduce the risk of being recruited into war, and community to help change the ideas that lead to war.

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Love Anyway tour mentioned on this episode took place in late 2019.

In the US, our Black brothers and sisters, whose forced physical, mental, and emotional labor built so many of our communities, are asking for presence from those of us who aren’t Black. And this isn’t new. They've been asking. They’ve been fighting for their lives for four hundred years—four hundred years too long.

As host Erin Wilson shares in this episode: Throughout the war with ISIS, Preemptive Love chose to stay in Iraq. We chose to travel to the frontlines and stand with the people being crushed by violence and oppression. We did it out of love...and for some, that mattered. It mattered that we chose to stay. It mattered that we put our bodies on the line with theirs.

And now we, all of us, need to show up on the frontlines in the US, too. 

In the midst of a wave of protests sweeping all 50 states, and on at least four continents, declaring the truth that Black Lives Matter, we have a chance to make our presence matter.

In this breaking episode, we hear from:

• Faitth Brooks, director of programs for Be The Bridge and co-host of Melantated Faith podcast. Faitth shares what it looks like to be a co-conspirator by stepping behind the marginalized and supporting the work without co-opting or centering.
• Nick Mahlstadt, friend of Preemptive Love and father of seven, shares what he's learned about stepping out in front — not to co-opt or take over— but to literally stand between the oppressed and their oppressor.

Both Faitth and Nick also share the idea that being anti-racist means showing up to do the everyday, unglamorous work of justice.

Visit show notes page.

Links from this episode:

• Melanated Faith podcast 
• Be The Bridge
• The Move Project

Faitth's Book Recommendations:

• How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown
• Be The Bridge 101
• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• Recommendations from Be The Bridge

Faith's Podcast Recommendations:

• Melanated Faith podcast  
• '1619' podcast
• Code Switch
• Seeing White

What does empathy have to do with emergency aid? In this final episode of Season 4, Erin Wilson, podcast host and senior field editor, sits down with Jessica Courtney, Preemptive Love's vice president of international programs, for an honest look at what they've learned about themselves as they've cared for others.

This episode:

• Invites you into a behind-the-scenes look at emergency food distributions in Iraq and Syria. Ihsan Ibraheem, who does program documentation, gives an on-the-ground update.
• Takes you to Venezuela, where you'll hear — in their own words — from new friends who were able to make ends meet because of food deliveries.
• Welcomes you to peek behind the podcasting curtain, as Erin vulnerably shares about the photos that made her not only cry, but think about her global neighbors — and herself — in a new way, too.

Learn more.

We’ll be back next week with our last regularly scheduled episode of season four. But this conversation is too important to wait. Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, was jogging in a southern Georgia neighborhood on February 23 when he was chased, gunned down, and killed by two white men. (Only after a graphic video of his killing was recently posted online, and a wave of public outcry followed did authorities move to press criminal charges, more than two months after he was shot.)

This story is all too familiar—and all too common. Men and boys losing their lives, for no other reason than that they are Black. Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Philando Castille are a few names you might recognize...though there are countless more. And now there’s another. Ahmaud Arbery.

So we’re asking: What do we do in this moment? How do we respond? Can we possibly hope to end violence somewhere else in the world if we do not confront the violence in our own communities… and in our own hearts?

Learn more.

In this episode, Vjolca Capri gives her first-hand experience of attending a Love Anyway Gathering in central Florida. As a hijab-wearing Muslim woman, she wasn't sure what to expect when Saadia Qureshi invited her to join a roomful of community members, most of whom didn't look or worship like her.

Could they really have meaningful conversations? Would others judge or stereotype her? Would it be... awkward?

In this episode, we find out.

Listening, doing conflict better, cultivating peace—these are all things we’ve been learning alongside our neighbors in Iraq for years.

And now, we’re excited to bring that to communities around the world. To heal all that’s tearing us apart through Love Anyway Gatherings.

Learn more.

Remember when we used to eat together? In this episode, we travel everywhere from Atlanta to Iraq for a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to gather around the table with strangers.

War begins in our heads and hearts long before it reaches our hands. But that also means the solution can begin with us. And sometimes, healing all that’s tearing us apart starts with a meal.

If polarization is fueled by our isolation from anyone different, then what if interacting with people who are different is key to reducing prejudice and polarization?

Even as you listen to this episode while self-isolating, you can still prepare for the time when we get to come back together, face-to-face.

What starts as a simple meal around a shared table with strangers can lead to life-changing conversations. And those conversations can lead to a thirst for more.

Learn more.

COVID-19 anywhere is a threat to everyone, everywhere. In this special bonus episode, Preemptive Love team members call in from around the world to share why they are staying home—and exactly who you are helping when you do the same.

Because the choices we make in this moment could mean life or death for someone else. And as you'll hear in this special bonus episode, for many of us, this threat is anything but hypothetical.

These are their stories.

In this episode, Jeremy and senior field editor Erin Wilson share a candid conversation about the themes Jeremy explores in his latest book, Love Anyway. He answers never-before-asked questions, uncovers his writing process, and shares the why behind his vision of how we can heal all that’s tearing us apart. 

Visit our show notes to enter to Win a signed copy or audiobook Version of Love Anyway by Jeremy Courtney.

In his book, Jeremy says that the way things are is not the way they have to be. There is a more beautiful world.

And as you'll hear in this episode, to find it, we have to we confront our fear—and end war where it starts: in our own heads and hearts.

Learn more.

Hear how late last year, before the coronavirus started it’s deadly spread across the world, Preemptive Love founder Jeremy Courtney was noticing striking parallels between the process for stopping the spread of infectious disease and stopping the spread of violence.

Travel back in time to 2016 with host Erin Wilson, when she met two Iraqi doctors in a displacement camp she'd never forget. In raw audio from her time there, hear how Dr. Qudama and Dr. Mustafa decided to create a health clinic from scratch in one of the toughest places you can imagine, learning along the way that trust is essential to healing.

In this episode, Jeremy shares a three-step effort as we work together to stop the spread of violence and work to end war:

1. We listen and show up fast so we can address felt needs as quickly as possible.
2. We create jobs to protect the vulnerable.
3. We foster community where diverse people can truly hear each other, discover common joys and fears, and maybe even change our ideas that lead to war.

Learn more.