Clarion Podcasts

Episode 9 of Endeavor Against Extremism is particularly special for two reasons. First, we speak with former extremist Arno Michaelis on how becoming a father pulled him out of extremism. The preventing/countering violent extremism sector often enough looks at the role of gender in extremism, but only through the lens of motherhood. When it discusses masculinity, the focus is on how toxic masculinity concepts pull men in, but rarely is the a conversation on how authentic masculinity pulls men out of the ideology and into their power as men. We discuss that with Arno, but somewhere in there something quite incredible happens: a realization that the other is speaking a language that often isn't understood ...the language of compassion, kindness, love and vulnerability. I threw away any other question I had lined up and decided to move this conversation into a figurative open field. About Arno Michaelis: In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arno Michaelis was a leader of a worldwide racist skinhead organization,