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What if we could create a world where compassion, resilience, health and justice form the foundation of society?

Physician Hope Ferdowsian, author of Phoenix Zones: Where Strength Is Born and Resilience Lives, and co-founder and president of Phoenix Zones Initiative, shares insights from over two decades of work caring for individuals experiencing violence, displacement, and other hardships, while also working on policy approaches to addressing structural inequities and exploitation.

Through the powerful stories of individuals she’s met – Ayanna, a young girl rescued from child marriage; Doc, a physician who sought asylum after suffering imprisonment and abuse; Grace, a woman who fled her home after experiencing severe violence; and Love, an injured dog found laying on the side of the road – she shows how resilience and compassion can rise, even when faced with great challenges.

Reflecting on her roots, Hope explains, “I grew up on a small farm in Oklahoma, and I learned pretty early about human rights violations around the world, in part through my parents and my Dad's history as an immigrant to the United States. And like a lot of kids who grow up around animals, I also was concerned about animal suffering in addition to human suffering.”

In this episode, she introduces listeners to "Phoenix Zones" – safe havens that uphold the principles of liberty, compassion, justice, and dignity. She argues that just as structural violence can permeate societies, so can structural resilience. “We need to be morally consistent in our application of compassion,” she says, suggesting that just as the big global challenges we face are intertwined, so are the solutions. “One of the only ways we’ll solve these great challenges is to expand our circles of compassion without bias, without prejudice. Truth is, compassion is contagious.”

Hope is a double board-certified internal medicine, preventive medicine physician with a master’s degree in public health. She was named a Humanitarian of the Year in the American College of Physicians in 2017. Currently a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, she previously held faculty positions at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Georgetown University School of Medicine.

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