Hi I'm Sameer and welcome to the first episode of this podcast. This is not only the first episode but it will also be a kind of flipping of the script of what will be future episodes in that I will not be the person doing the interviewing. instead I will be the person being interviewed by my own amazing partner Shirin. Shirin is a peace educator and co-founder of Peace Vigil which you can learn more about at the website PeaceVigil.net . Shirin has very kindly agreed to do this with me today partly because her own training as a journalist makes her imminently qualified for this role. But also I wanted to use the opportunity to clarify my own thoughts and expectations as I begin this journey that, if I'm being honest, may not go anywhere. Podcasts these days are a dime a dozen and I myself am so busy with various projects that if I don't feel that this is adding value to the world, I may not persevere. But at the moment I am confident that this can add value both to my own thought processes and, I hope, to you the listener. So without further ado, let's turn it over to Shirin.