Ep 294 Peace Lab 7/25/26 A Peace Council of Women & the Questions Worth Asking

Peacewarts Labs are our casual review sessions where we dig into the homework from the Peacewarts classes. In this lab, Avis Kalfsbeek covers #1 from each of the homework assignments in Episodes 290, 291, and 292:

• Ep 291 — The Power of the Pause (Class 8)
• Ep 292 — Rumor Immunology (Class 9)
• Ep 293 — The Ask Behind the Mask (Class 10)

The Middle East: Avis takes a brief look at the current conflicts in the region.

A Peace Council of Women: On her daughter's birthday, Avis honors the day by making a call for a global peace council of women dedicated to worldwide disarmament — inspired by the world authority in the 1958 Clark–Sohn disarmament plan, but reimagined with women, not men, at the table.

The Questions Worth Asking: Avis reads from a list she got when she asked a question of her own: if humanity could only ask the wisest AI 30 questions before it was permanently retired — and our goals were to value all life and minimize suffering — what should those questions be? Today she reads Question #1 and its answer:

What patterns across history most reliably predict the transition from violence to sustainable peace, and what conditions made those transitions possible?

Five patterns come up again and again:

1. Mutual hurting stalemate — peace usually comes when both sides realize they can't win and that fighting costs more than stopping.
2. Inclusion over victory — deals that give former enemies a stake hold, while ones that humiliate them reignite.
3. Economic entanglement by design — tie enemies' economies together so tightly that war would wreck them both.
4. Acknowledgment — naming what happened heals more durably than imposing silence.
5. Leadership bravery — someone has to walk through the door first, though the structures they build end up mattering even more than the heroes.

Closing: Avis ends with Rumi's poem "Cup," as translated by Coleman Barks.

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• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez, "Dalai Lama Riding a Bike" — https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com/