From politics to social issues to personal and spiritual peace, Marianne addresses the importance of peace in our lives today. She shares with listeners recordings from the 2007 Annual Peace Alliance Conference in Washington, D.C., including remarks from The Secret's Michael Beckwith, best-selling author Deepak Chopra, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Denise Brown, an advocate for domestic abuse victims.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of The Peace Alliance, Marianne says there is currently a bill before the House of Representatives aimed at creating a Cabinet-level Department of Peace. In February 2007, The Peace Alliance and other proponents of the bill held a conference in Washington, D.C., during which a number of prominent individuals from a variety of backgrounds talked about what peace means to them and why they support the bill. Marianne says the conference served as a forum for people to speak "not only about a world at peace, but how through this bill and this kind of activism, we can create a more peaceful world."

As chairman of The Peace Alliance, Marianne says she has witnessed an explosion of expertise throughout the United States in the last 20 years in people whose skills are broadly known as peace building. This can be conflict resolution, nonviolent communication skills, dismantling gang psychology or helping children solve their conflicts peacefully, as well as international work aimed at promoting healing between people of different religions and ethnicities. According to Marianne, more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States give advanced degrees in peace building. "I think peace is more than the absence of violence," she says. "We can proactively—through the propagation of justice and brotherhood—create a more peaceful world."