First Steps to a Peaceful Childhood for All

How can we make the world a more peaceful place for children?

 In this episode, we look at the impact that experiencing violence has on children…sometimes before they - or their parents - are even born. We’ll learn about how war impacts DNA over generations, explore resilience, and look at global and personal first steps that we can take to make things better for kids around the world.

Catherine Panter-Brick is a Professor of Anthropology, Health, and Global Affairs at Yale University, and she has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications on global health and the social sciences. Her research focuses on children around the world in contexts of homelessness, displacement, and war. You can read the study Catherine referred to, “Epigenetic signatures of intergenerational exposure to violence in three generations of Syrian refugees." Find out more about Catherine’s work here.

Susan Bissell is a Visiting Scholar and Senior Fellow at the FXB Centre for Human Rights, T. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University. Of Canadian origin, and now a dual citizen of Canada and the USA, Susan obtained her first two degrees from the University of Toronto, and her PhD in Public Health and Medical Anthropology from the University of Melbourne. A staunch advocate for the rights, safety, security, and protection of the world’s children, Susan’s association with the United Nations Children’s Fund spanned a thirty-year period. She served as UNICEF’s global lead on Child Protection, and was the founding director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children. Susan’s postings with UNICEF, which encompassed Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India, the research centre in Florence Italy, and finally New York, infuse her work and publishing with a truly global perspective.  Her TedX at Amherst, the Weissberg Chair Lecture, and Susan’s numerous media engagements make her a leading voice for children everywhere. Find out more about Susan’s work here.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung. 

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.