Love Anyway

It’s been a difficult week across the Middle East, from protests in Iraq to the recent news that the US administration is withdrawing its presence from northeastern Syria. On this breaking episode of the Love Anyway podcast, we hear from our Preemptive Love team about how the decision by the US to pull out of northeastern Syria could have reverberations that last generations.

We can’t follow the news right now without seeing headlines about US pullout from northeastern Syria. So, what’s happening? What are the implications? Why is this withdrawal so important...and so potentially devastating, not just for our friends in Syria, but for all of us?

We speak with Preemptive Love founder Jeremy Courtney, who has lived in the Middle East, including Turkey and Iraq, for more than a decade.

We also hear from Erin Wilson, Preemptive Love's senior field editor in the Middle East, who describes the sense she is getting from her friends and neighbors in Iraq, many of whom have Kurdish friends and family in the line of fire in northern Syria.

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Iraq is facing its biggest emergency since the rise of ISIS. Protests have erupted in Baghdad and other parts of the country, as young people, fed up with political corruption and a lack of opportunity, take to the streets.

At the time of recording, the numbers have grown to more than one hundred protesters killed in Baghdad and cities across Iraq. More than six thousand people are reported injured. Prominent religious leaders are calling for the government to step aside. And there’s a real fear that ISIS could exploit the situation to cause even more chaos.

But this crisis doesn’t just affect Iraq. It affects all of us.

In this breaking episode, Ben Irwin speaks with two members of our team in Iraq, Erin Wilson and Ihsan Ibraheem, to get the latest on the situation, why we should care, and what we can do about it.

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September 11, 2001 changed everything.

And each year as this day arrives, we pause to remember. We remember when we heard the news, where we were, how we felt. We remember the fear that rose in our throats, the fear the began to change the way we walked in the world, the way we saw each other.

On this episode, we ask some of our colleagues from Iraq, the United States, and other parts of the world to reflect on their memories of 9/11. Some were just starting their adult life when 9/11 happened; others had to process it as children. Some watched from a distance as the Twin Towers fell; others were intimately connected to the loss felt on that day.

American or Iraqi, Muslim or Christian, adult or child, September 11 has shaped who we are and the world around us.

September 11 also set in motion a chain of events that led to the formation of Preemptive Love. As the United States launched into Iraq, to wage war against an enemy that had nothing to do with 9/11, we launched into Iraq to wage peace.

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What are mirrors and windows? And why are they important in our lives and the lives of our families? In our season two finale, we talk with Saira Siddiqui of Confessions of a Muslim Mom, along with Shawn Smucker, author of When We Were Strangers.

Saira and Shawn share personal stories exploring how, despite our differences, hope for our children and creating a different way to live in community is a thread that can unite us all.

We believe that getting people together helps us heal. That intentional time with people who are different than ourselves fosters empathy, pushes us through fear, and brings us to a better understanding of ourselves and others.

This episode explores friendships that cross cultures, healing stories of community in unexpected places, and the importance of slowing down and paying attention.

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Babies begin to notice race at six months old. Children are paying attention. And as we’ve learned this season, what they hear the adults in their lives say and do⁠—or not say and do⁠—deeply influences the people they are⁠—and who they’ll become.

Rapper and Preemptive Love's artist-in-residence Propaganda (Jason Petty), and his wife, university professor Dr. Alma Zaragoza-Petty, both of the Red Couch Podcast, join us for a candid conversation about parenting and talking to kids about race.

In this episode, Propaganda and Alma share their experiences growing up as people of color, share ways they've talked about race and peacemaking with their children, and speak into what they want white parents to know about humility and allyship.

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How much should kids be involved in shaping our communities? Should we shield children from news about violence and war? In this episode, we attend a vigil with the Oestreich family, who believes community involvement is a core family value.

Diana Oestreich has been the key relationships officer with Preemptive Love for nearly four years. Before that, Diana was a combat medic in the Iraq War. Her experience as a veteran shapes her views on everything, including how she and her husband Jake raise their kids Zelalem and Bridger.

What does their commitment to showing up for their community look like? Recently, Diana and her sons joined their community at a local Lights for Liberty event, a vigil for children seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border, and they let us come along with them for this episode.

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Immigration is a complicated topic, even for adults. Some of us are afraid to say the wrong thing. Others of us fear those who are different. How do we talk about immigration with family members? With kids? On this episode, we start by listening.

On our second episode of the season, we hear from José Chiquito, a college student who came to the US with his family as an undocumented child. We also talk with Luisa, whom our colleague Billy Price met at the US-Mexico border after she traveled with her grandchildren from Honduras to legally seek asylum. And Laura Pontius, an immigration attorney, shares why the language we use about immigration matters.

We also provide a field update about the aid and assistance you've made possible to families seeking asylum on the US-Mexico border.

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Can kids be peacemakers? Preemptive Love founders Jeremy and Jessica Courtney share how living in Iraq has influenced how they raise their children. With host Erin Wilson, they explore how culture, technology, and war changed their perception of parenting—and invite us all to enter into difficult conversations with the young people in our lives.

Their kids, Emma (14) and Micah (11), dive into their perspectives on growing up in Iraq, sharing thoughts on violence, media, and what makes home to them. Kids are often shielded from bad things, but what happens when that’s not possible? This episode also includes a call with Molly Goen, a teacher who confides what students taught her after they survived a traumatic act of violence in an Iraqi classroom.

Young people absorb more than we might imagine, and they understand more than we may assume. When we examine what it looks like to love anyway, we often come up with complicated answers. But ask a kid in your life what it means to love anyway, and you might be surprised at the depth even simple responses bring to the conversation.

In the trailer for season two of the Love Anyway podcast, host Erin Wilson and Preemptive Love founder Jeremy Courtney share why it’s important to enter into hard conversations with all kinds of people—including kids.

In season two, we’ll explore the fears and questions kids—and the adults in their lives—have about violence, racism, media, cultural differences, and war. Children are often left out of hard conversations. But what if we welcome future generations to the table, now?

Join us as peacemakers of all ages share true stories of hope, exploring how to broaden the picture of what it looks like to love anyway.

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We're inviting you to a behind-the-scenes look at the people and stories behind the Love Anyway podcast. Host Erin Wilson joins Ben Irwin, director of communications, for a casual conversation recapping season one with producer Kayla Craig.

Hear Erin share her favorite episode and what she finds most challenging about hosting a podcast. (And experience her infectious laughter that those of us at Preemptive Love get a front row seat to every day.) Discover the episode Ben was most skeptical of—and how it turned out to be his favorite.

You'll also catch an exclusive sneak peek into Season Two of Love Anyway, which launches in July.

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They fled some of the world’s worst violence. Their future is uncertain. How can you stand in the gap for asylum seekers at the border?

This special bonus episode of Love Anyway features behind-the-scenes staff calls with Preemptive Love’s programs manager Jennifer Meyerson and donor relations coordinator Matt Malcom, discussing Preemptive Love’s time-sensitive response to what’s happening at the border between Mexico and the US.

While others wage partisan wars, we can be the people who love anyway.

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What makes home feel like home? As our work has shown us, restoring homes ruined by war is a first step to bringing whole communities back to life.

Preemptive Love co-founder Jessica Courtney shares stories of her Iraqi and Syrian friends who have been displaced and are now remaking their homes. We also hear never-before-heard stories from the field, as Jessica shares her experiences of visiting homes that are being built after being destroyed by war.

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Most of us have a very Western idea of what it means to be a millennial. But we’re all more than stereotypes.

We categorize each other into neat and tidy labels because, well, it’s easy. It’s a way to organize cultural ideas. Our social constructs act a way to help us try to understand the world.

In this episode, we set those stereotypes aside for a minute and ask: What does life look like for the roughly 7 million millennials—women and men between the ages of 23 and 38—in Iraq?

On Episode 5: The Millenials of Iraq, we find out. And if your primary picture of Iraq is what you've seen on TV, you might be in for a surprise.

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When we’re afraid, we build walls around ourselves. We yearn for protection. To feel safe. We hem ourselves in. And keep others away.

But what happens when our felt safety comes at a cost? What happens when our fear of “the other” contributes to others not being protected...or safe? Who is “the other," anyway?

How do we start deconstructing the walls around our hearts?

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How do we move past fear? Travel with producer Kayla Craig and her pastor husband Jonny as they visit a mosque in the middle of Iowa. Saadia Qureshi, Frontline Coordinator with Preemptive Love, shares her experience as a Muslim woman, chatting with Kayla about what to expect when visiting a mosque.

Kayla talks with Shahed, a leader from their local Islamic Center, about why the mosque decided to host an open house for their community. And Preemptive Love editor Kim Mireau visits a Friday prayer service in Indiana with other non-Muslim friends Shannan Martin and Laura Pontius. We also hear from artist Propaganda, who confides his past hesitations about visiting a mosque.

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It’s easy to say love anyway. It’s a lot more challenging to live it.

We might not all come face-to-face with a literal enemy who wants to kill us, but we all have chances to risk something on behalf of another, by stepping out in love, every single day.In this episode, we ask the questions: Is love worth the risk? And what does it really look like to love your enemy?

In episode 1, we told you about the night our friends Sadiq and Ihsan nearly died delivering aid in the Iraq desert—one at the hands of ISIS, and the other when he was targeted by coalition air strikes, mistaken for ISIS.

In this episode, "The Enemy," we share the story-behind-the-story: What happened just days before that longest night in the desert? It’s a true story almost too hard to imagine.

Because when Sadiq stayed with the delivery trucks, it wasn’t the first time his life was affected by a close encounter with ISIS.

What happens when ISIS attacks your team’s aid delivery truck in the middle of the Iraq desert? And what do you do when, that same night, another aid vehicle bringing basic necessities to desperate people, gets shot at in the middle of a US airstrike—mistaken for the very ISIS fighters attacking your team?

Travel with us back to 2016 to experience a pivotal turning point in our organization’s history. Experience a night in Iraq that made us press into pain. A night we’ll never forget. A night that changed...well, everything.

Hear from members of our team who nearly lost their lives. Hear about us frantically tweeting coordinates to the US military, trying to get them to stop the bombing. But most of all, hear about how, even in the face of death, and in one case, even coming face-to-face with ISIS, we chose to love anyway.

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Jeremy Courtney, co-founder of Preemptive Love, and host Erin Wilson look ahead to episode one and share the vision behind the first season of Love Anyway.

What can you expect when listening? Creating peace between communities at odds. Remaking what was broken. Ending war. Healing hearts across enemy lines, beginning with our own. And discovering that we really do belong to each other.

Love Anyway is a brand new podcast by Preemptive Love, premiering April 17.

Learn more here.

This season, Love Anyway will push beyond a simple story. It’d be easy to paint a one-dimensional picture of people and places in the Middle East. But that’s not why we’re here.

We’re here to share where we find hope. Where we find possibility and beauty. Because we believe that all of us could use a better story right about now.

Join us for the journey. Don’t miss an episode—subscribe now.

Learn more at preemptivelove.org/podcast.