Welcome to Talking Violence, a student-led podcast exploring how violence is interpreted, silenced, and resisted across different contexts. This series grows from classroom conversations and shared frustrations with how violence is often abstracted or depoliticized. Each episode asks: What makes something legible as violence? Who defines it? And how is it resisted? From environmental destruction and epistemic erasure to state repression and grassroots defiance, we speak with scholars, activists, and artists whose work challenges dominant narratives. In this opening episode, Jannis Grimm, director of the “Radical Spaces” research unit at the INTERACT Center for Interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Research at Freie Universität Berlin, reflects on the goals behind the series and what to expect in upcoming episodes. 

In this episode of Talking Violence, we explore the complex terrain between violent and non-violent resistance with political theorist Dr. Erin Pineda. Drawing from her acclaimed book Seeing Like an Activist, Pineda offers a critical look at the Civil Rights Movement, approaching it as part of a global anticolonial struggle. We discuss the strategic and moral dimensions of protest, the myths of liberal civil disobedience, and how historical movements connect to today's global resistance, including Black Lives Matter and pro-Palestinian activism. 

In this episode, we speak with political scientist Regine Schwab about the rising trend of targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure in modern warfare. Drawing on her latest research, we explore how precision weapons, legal frameworks, and evolving military strategies have blurred the lines between civilian and military targets. Schwab challenges conventional views on international humanitarian law (IHL), revealing how it can be manipulated by powerful states and fall short in protecting civilians. From Syria to the global stage, this conversation unpacks the paradoxes of today’s conflicts and what they mean for the future of war. 

When we talk about violence, we rely on words and sounds to describe what we see. But sometimes violence stays hidden. What if we could reconstruct and picture it? In this episode of Talking Violence, we speak with Bob Trafford, Assistant Director at Forensic Architecture and former investigative journalist, about new ways of seeing and exposing violence. From forensic reconstructions of state complicity to exhibitions that challenge official narratives, Bob discusses the ethical and political implications of visual investigations with us. We explore Forensic Architecture’s role in high-profile cases like the Hanau attack and discuss how art, visual technology, and public engagement can become tools for justice. 

What if the most dangerous forms of violence do not explode, but unfold slowly, invisibly, over time? In this episode, we speak with political geographer Shannon O’Lear about slow violence, the gradual harms caused by environmental degradation, structural inequality, and the politics of knowledge production. Drawing from her work in critical geopolitics and environmental security, O’Lear challenges dominant narratives in climate science, unpacks the role of institutions like the IPCC, and explores how to make invisible suffering visible. 

In this episode, we turn to one of the most urgent and hotly debated questions of the current moment: What does international law say about violence in war, and what happens when that law is systematically ignored? To help us unpack these questions, we are joined by Prof. Dr. Matthias Goldmann, an expert in international public law and legal theory. Together, we explore the layered architecture of international legal regimes, from humanitarian law and human rights law to the laws of occupation, and how these frameworks apply, or fail to apply, to the unfolding atrocities in Gaza. We also discuss the power of legal terminology in shaping public discourse, the contested use of terms such as genocide, and the political implications of enforcing, or deliberately failing to enforce, international law in contexts of asymmetric violence. 

In this episode of Talking Violence, we speak with Professor Wendy Pearlman, political scientist at Northwestern University and author of The Home I Worked to Make, a powerful collection of testimonies from Syrians displaced across six continents. Together with student hosts from the Otto Suhr Institute, Pearlman explores the enduring legacies of violence, the meaning of “home” in exile, and how structural and epistemic violence shape diasporic identities. We also draw connections between the Syrian and Palestinian experiences of displacement, memory, and return. 

In this episode of Talking Violence, we take a deep dive into the complexities of gender-based violence. Our guest, Lilian Schwerdtner, feminist activist, writer, and co-host of the Not Your Opfer - Not Your Victim podcast, brings her expertise on the political and psychological dimensions of violence, healing, and resistance. Together, we explore the many ways gender-based violence manifests, tracing its roots to personal experiences as well as to the broader societal systems that sustain it. We discuss gender-based violence as a structural issue, highlighting its entanglement with trauma, mental health, and social justice. Additionally, we tackle the role of intersectionality in understanding how gender-based violence affects diverse communities, particularly marginalized and minority groups whose experiences are often overlooked. In this context, Lilian unpacks the harmful impact of rape myths and how they normalize sexual violence, distort public narratives, and obstruct survivors’ healing and pursuit of justice. Finally, we talk about the power of activism and community solidarity in fostering safe spaces and creating systemic change. 

In this episode of Talking Violence, we speak with Prof. Dr. Claudia Brunner about epistemic violence, the forms of harm embedded in the production, circulation, and recognition of knowledge. Together, we ask how academic disciplines, political institutions, and public debates determine whose knowledge counts, whose voices are heard, and whose experiences are rendered invisible or unintelligible. Drawing on Brunner’s work on knowledge, domination, and colonial modernity, the episode explores how epistemic violence is connected to structural, colonial, gendered, and political forms of violence. We also discuss the responsibilities of universities, the limits of supposedly neutral knowledge production, and the possibilities of unlearning violent ways of knowing. 

What happens when artificial intelligence does not just serve human intentions, but amplifies violence in visible and hidden ways? This episode investigates the unsettling intersections between AI and multiple forms of violence, ranging from the physical violence of lethal autonomous weapons to the psychological violence of deepfake harassment and the structural violence of algorithmic discrimination and data colonialism. Drawing on a curated body of nineteen academic texts, the episode unfolds as a critical examination of how emerging technologies can reproduce and intensify existing power asymmetries, often under the guise of objectivity and innovation. Unconventionally, the episode itself was conceived, written, and scored entirely with the assistance of AI tools. Google’s Notebook LM served as the central production engine, enabling the transformation of academic research into a conversational and accessible audio script through iterative prompt engineering. The episode’s soundtrack was generated using the AI music tool Suno, extending the use of machine assistance into the sonic texture of the production. Through sixteen rounds of script refinement, the creator worked to ensure conceptual depth, narrative flow, and proper citation, while also grappling with the persistent shortcomings of AI: citation gaps, mechanical phrasing, and the risk of ethical oversights. This podcast is as much about its topic as it is about its form, offering a case study in the promises and pitfalls of AI-assisted media production. It invites listeners to reflect on how AI enacts violence, what it means to co-create knowledge with machines, and how we might navigate the blurred boundaries between tool, author, and amplifier in the age of algorithmic governance.