Javier Peke Rodriguez and Peacewarts Moves to Weekly

In this transition episode, Avis shares a heartfelt appreciation for the music that sets the tone for our study of peace and announces an intentional shift in the rhythm of the Peacewarts curriculum.

The Music of the Lab

Avis shares a bit about Javier "Peke" Rodriguez, the acclaimed Spanish composer and pianist whose atmospheric and therapeutic soundscapes provide the backdrop of the Peace is Here episodes.

A New Pacing: Peacewarts is moving to weekly.

After a month of daily episodes, the material of Peacewarts 101 is calling for more breathing room. To allow scholars more time to soak up the concepts and to allow Avis time for new writing projects—including the completion of Bullet Poof (Book 7 in the Pedro series) and continued work on The Peace Experiments book series—Peacewarts is moving to a weekly Monday release schedule.

This new pace means our curriculum will now extend through September 2027, giving us a longer, more sustainable horizon for our study.

The Roadmap Ahead

For new scholars joining us, the weekly pace makes catching up more attainable. You can find Peacewarts orientation in Episode 198 and the fictional festival in Episode 199.

• Universal Understars: We mapped the invisible infrastructure of a world without war.
• Living Roots: We explored peace as something biological and rooted in the soil.
• Chronicled Courage (Starting Monday): We begin recovering the nearly erased stories of refusal—moments when war was cued up, but someone chose differently.

Future Departments:

• Resonant Charms: Language without coercion.
• Social Chemistry: The biology of de-escalation.
• Morphological Peace: Redesigning broken systems.
• Ethical Defense: Navigating propaganda without cynicism.
• Kinetic Peace: Empathy in motion.

The Peace Stick

Avis reflects on the Tao and the nature of opposites. If peace and its opposite are on either side of the same stick, our goal is to float that stick to a part of the river where the "opposite" of peace is merely a frustrated day—kicking a stone down the road—rather than the violence of war.

Get the Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez https://javierpekerodriguez.bandcamp.com/

Peacewarts: Living Roots 101 - Subsistence as Dignity (Class 14)

We conclude our journey in the Department of Living Roots by reframing subsistence not as a state of poverty, but as the highest form of dignity and freedom. We explore how dependency has been used as a weapon through the get big or get out era and the cultural construction of peasant shame. By examining the resilience of Cuba’s organopónicos and the concept of time sovereignty, we establish that food autonomy is the ultimate form of disarmament, removing the primary levers of coercion and violence from society.

Homework:

1. Look back at your notes from the last 14 classes. Whichliving root felt the most important to your own sense of security?
2. Write down one question about any of this episode’s topics. If you don’t have a question, write "no question."
3. The Final Project: Identify one skill you have learned this semester—whether it’s mending, seed-saving, or just learning a neighbor’s name—and teach it to someone else this week.

Learning Topics: Subsistence as Dignity; The Harvest Table; Dependency as a Weapon; The Earl Butz Era; Cultural Stigmas of Traditional Farming; The Devaluation of the Hand; The Cuban Special Period (organopónicos); Time Sovereignty; Precarity Panic; The Law of Return.

• ZERO, The Every Person’s Field Guide to a World Without Weapons:AvisKalfsbeek.com/zero
• Join the Community / Get the Books:AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie”https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

We deconstruct the myth of self-sufficiency. Through the "Cowboy Myth," the global standards of the ICAO, the industrial success of Mondragon, and the history of the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996), we learn why structural interdependence is more durable than isolation.

Homework:

1. Look up the Mondragon Corporation’s list of products or the Haudenosaunee clans to see how they distribute roles.
2. Write down one question about any of this episode’s topics. If you don’t have a question, write “no question.”
3. Optional: Journal for five minutes. If you were a "Marlboro Man" in your own life, what would be the first thing to break if you got sick? Who would you have to call?

Learning Topics: The "Cowboy Myth" and its ecological/social impact; Logistical Entanglement: The ICAO flight standards; Mondragon (1956): Cooperative industrial interdependence; Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace (c. 1142); Resilience vs. Isolation: Lessons from Sarajevo.

• Get the book Peace Stuff Enough: AvisKalfsbeek.com/peace-stuff-enough

• Join the Community / Get the Books: www.AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

Peacewarts: Dept. of Living Roots - Barter & Sharing (Class 12)

We explore how local economies built on barter, time banking, and gift systems provide security during financial instability. This class examines the Argentine economic collapse, the global TimeBank movement, and how local currencies like BerkShares insulate communities from global shocks.

Homework:

1. Look up the work of Edgar Cahn or research the Hureai Kippu system in Japan to see how different cultures value labor.
2. Write down one question about any of this episode’s topics. If you don’t have a question, write “no question.”
3. Optional: Journal for five minutes. If all the money in your bank account vanished tomorrow, what skills or items do you have that you could trade for a week's worth of food?

Learning Topics: The 2001 Argentine Barter Clubs (nodos); Hureai Kippu and Time Banking in Japan and the UK; Edgar Cahn and the TimeBank Mahoning County case study; The Potlatch as wealth redistribution; Local currencies and the BerkShares model.

• Get the book Peace Stuff Enough: AvisKalfsbeek.com/peace-stuff-enough

• Join the Community / Get the Books: www.AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

We examine how the "throwaway culture" of modern economics conditions us to accept human expendability. This class explores the link between the Rana Plaza disaster and precarious labor, the role of e-waste in Agbogbloshie, and how military "use-it-or-lose-it" logic mirrors consumer waste.

Homework:

1. Look up the term"Planned Obsolescence" and find one product in your house that you believe was intentionally designed to fail or be unrepairable.
2. Write down one question about any of this episode’s topics. If you don’t have a question, write “no question.”
3. Optional: Journal for five minutes about the word "Disposable." List three things you consider disposable. Now, try to trace where they go when you "dispose" of them. Does that change your view of them?

Learning Topics: The transition from stewardship to consumption; The Rana Plaza Collapse: The human cost of fast fashion; E-waste in Agbogbloshie, Ghana, as a driver of regional instability; "Use-it-or-lose-it" military budget cycles; The cultural normalization of "collateral damage."

• Get the book Peace Stuff Enough: AvisKalfsbeek.com/peace-stuff-enough

• Join the Community / Get the Books: www.AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

We examine why social cohesion is a logistical requirement for peace. This class explores how loneliness drives radicalization, how the "Social Front" of the Danish Resistance saved thousands, and how the West African Ebola response proved that trust is more effective than force during a crisis.

Learning Topics: Social Isolation as a Predictor of Radicalization; The 1943 Rescue of the Danish Jews: Neighborhood-level coordination; Community-Led health responses in West Africa; Trust-based security models in Scandinavia; Restorative Justice and Māori Influence

• Get the book Peace Stuff Enough: AvisKalfsbeek.com/peace-stuff-enough

• Join the Community / Get the Books: www.AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

We explore how centralized food systems act as an "invisible leash" that makes populations vulnerable to war-time propaganda. By examining the 1941 Great Famine of Greece and the Black Panther Free Breakfast Program, we discuss how local food autonomy serves as a decentralized defense system and a psychological break from state dependency.

Learning Topics: Food Centralization as a tool of control; The 1941 Great Famine of Greece: Urban vs. Rural resilience; The Black Panther Free Breakfast Program and Hoover’s response; The 1963 Russian Wheat Deal and the fragility of imports; Food literacy as a "vaccine against propaganda;” The shift from Rationing to Sharing in CSA models.

• Get the book Peace Stuff Enough: AvisKalfsbeek.com/peace-stuff-enough

• Join the Community / Get the Books: www.AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

We explore the "Functional Peace" of the Indus Waters Treaty. Despite three wars, India and Pakistan have maintained this water agreement for over 60 years. This class examines how shared water management creates a "biological floor" that can survive even the most intense political hostilities, and asks: if we can cooperate to share water, why can't we cooperate to share the world?

Homework:

1. Look up the specific terms of the"Indus Waters Treaty (1960)" or research the watershed you currently live in.
2. Write down one questionabout any of this episode’s topics. If you don’t have a question, write “no question.”
3. Optional:Journal for five minutes. If you had to share your primary water source with someone you didn't trust, what rules would you want in place to make sure you both survived?

Learning Topics: The Definition of the Indus Waters Treaty (1960); Functional Peace: Cooperation amidst conflict; Upstream Extraction vs. Downstream Debt; Aquifer Depletion and the "Scarcity Script;” Local Hydrological Autonomy as a defense against siege.

• Get the book Peace Stuff Enough: AvisKalfsbeek.com/peace-stuff-enough

• Join the Community / Get the Books: www.AvisKalfsbeek.com
• Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW