​'I could have been a left-wing guerrilla in Columbia. Whatever would have grabbed me at the right time, I was ready for.' What ended up grabbing Frank was neo-Nazism. What ended up grabbing Jesse was jihadi extremism. What happens when we look beyond ideology?

This episode was produced with generous support from the Gen Next Foundation, which leverages a venture philanthropy framework to build paradigm-shifting social ventures with a wide footprint of impact. Their partnership with ISD and Google Jigsaw created the Against Violent Extremism (AVE) network. It is the first and only network of former extremists and survivors of terrorism. Leveraging their powerful and authentic voices, this peer-to-peer solution disrupts radicalization and hate group recruitment.

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Transcript: Right here

Musicians + Tracks:

• Chris Peck: Matope 1
• Tannhauser: Rock Off, Ötzi, Fin de Año
• David Sestay: Ladybird's Theme, Mountains
• Rob Voigt: Outro

​There's so much that goes on behind the microphone, and I'm going to start bringing you back here. This is the inaugural 'Behind The Mic' piece, stay tuned for more. For this first one: what is Reckonings, and why did I create it?

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​"I called myself a Karma King, because I was distributing the shit that had been given to me." The finale of Season 1 features Daniel Gallant, a former violent extremist turned anti-violence activist, counselor, and scholar. Violence is what he experienced growing up, what he became a perpetrator of, and what it has been a phenomenal feat for him to overcome.

Today, Daniel is the founder of anti-violence organization Exit Canada, and a J.D. candidate at Thompson Rivers University. May we take this story — albeit difficult — as an opportunity to understand what motivates extremist violence, and draw hope from one person's ability to transcend it.

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​'I realized that my excuses for justifying war had nothing to do with what we were trying to achieve. I justified war because I wanted to believe that the things I’d done were right, and that my fellow soldiers hadn't died in vain.' Those are the sobering words of Afghanistan war veteran and conscientious objector, Brock McIntosh. Through his experiences in Afghanistan, he lost faith in the Afghanistan war, and then in war altogether.

Growing up, Brock had taken his ideological cues from the institutions in his life — military, church, and family — and in the process of applying for conscientious objector status, he found himself wrestling with his inherited beliefs and renegotiating his relationships with these institutions. His process of becoming a conscientious objector became a portal through which to challenge and reconstitute his most fundamental beliefs. The overarching shift: from fearful rigidity to peaceful and courageous open-mindedness. Today, Brock is a peace activist pursuing his Master's of Public Policy at NYU.

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​"He wanted a purpose." Those are the words of Christianne Boudreau, whose son Damian left Calgary for Syria, to join ISIS. She raised him Christian, but he was convinced by Islamic State recruiters to take up jihadism. Damian kept his activities hidden and Christianne knows there's little she could have done, still she can’t help but ask ‘what if…?’. Damian was eventually killed fighting in Syria. Today, Christianne coordinates Mothers for Life, a global network of mothers working to prevent jihadist radicalization.

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