Next Economy Now is a weekly social impact podcast sharing stories & dialogue from the front lines of the new economy. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or wherever you find your podcasts.
What if resisting injustice could also become a practice of collective healing? Kazu Haga joins Phoenix Soleil to explore restorative justice, nonviolence, and fierce vulnerability.
Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of the Fierce Vulnerability Network, a founding member of the Ahimsa Collective, and the author of Healing Resistance and Fierce Vulnerability. Drawing on more than 25 years in social change work, Kazu explains why restorative justice must address both practical harms and fractured relationships.
Kazu reflects on the pilgrimage that introduced him to nonviolence, a powerful victim-offender dialogue, and the preparation required before people affected by serious harm can meet. They explore accountability without dehumanization, the impact of oppressive systems on everyone within them, and why curiosity can open pathways that punishment often closes.
Kazu also shares how the Fierce Vulnerability Network brings trauma healing and spiritual practice into nonviolent direct action, and provides examples of social impact strategies rooted in compassion, relationship, and community, and how collective healing can support a more just and regenerative economy.
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What You’ll Learn:
Discover how a pilgrimage introduced Kazu to nonviolence and restorative justice. [0:02:17]
Understand how relative and ultimate truths reshape our view of harm. [0:09:50]
Hear how preparation makes victim-offender dialogue safer and more healing. [0:18:12]
Explore how curiosity about a person’s humanity can create space for accountability. [0:22:10]
Learn how fierce vulnerability connects trauma healing with direct action, and how listeners can take part. [0:25:29]
Examine how interdependence, compassion, and intentional community can support collective healing beyond individual and market-based solutions. [0:42:36]
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Memorable Quotations:
“Resolving a conflict is about fixing issues, and reconciling a conflict is about repairing relationships, and the work of non-violence is about doing both.” — Kazu Haga [0:02:44]
“People are never the enemy. It’s violence itself, it’s injustice, and it’s oppression that is the enemy.” — Kazu Haga [0:12:06]
“Social justice work and resistance work is an attempt at doing healing at scale.” — Kazu Haga [0:26:02]
“In an interdependent world, there is no such thing as individual healing.” — Kazu Haga [0:44:54]
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Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Kazu Haga – Website: https://www.kazuhaga.com/
Kazu Haga – Books: https://www.kazuhaga.com/books
Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm – Book Link: https://www.kazuhaga.com/healingresistance
Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse – Book Link: https://www.kazuhaga.com/fiercevulnerability
Fierce Vulnerability Network – Website: https://thefvn.org/
The Ahimsa Collective – Website: https://www.ahimsacollective.net/
Canticle Farm – Website: https://canticlefarmoakland.org/
Phoenix Soleil – Website: https://www.phoenixsoleil.com/
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