The Walt Sessions

Episode 21

March 3rd, 1996 In this sweeping and reflective conversation, Walt revisits the arc of his personal and political evolution—from WWII soldier to community organizer to radical educator—grounded in experience rather than ideology. He opens by expressing gratitude for the young people who took risks to work alongside him over the years and begins tracing the shifts in his thinking, marked by a journey through socialism, communism, and organized religion. Much of the episode centers on Walt’s intense and self-funded efforts in Germany during the 1980s to introduce the writings of French theologian Jacques Ellul—whom Walt calls one of the great but ignored thinkers—to German students and institutions. He recounts teaching in German, paying to translate an entire book, and ultimately winning credibility through a powerful candlelight speech at a major student rally in Germany. “Think globally, act globally” becomes a theme, rooted in these direct experiences. Walt also reflects on the origins of Project Neighbors and the Prince of Peace Volunteers, rooted in local risk-taking by youth, not institutional support. He critiques leftist movements for being overly fixated on economic definitions of poverty, arguing instead for a broader understanding of what it means to be uprooted and dehumanized. Marx, Mao, the Black Panthers, and organized religion all fall short in different ways—yet faith, especially if truly lived out from the bottom up, remains for Walt the only enduring source of revolutionary strength. The episode closes with a discussion about two new homes being supported by Project Neighbors and the informal, decentralized networks making them possible. Walt argues this “un-American” way—of people giving without strings—is closer to real change than anything he has experienced. But he also wonders aloud how to honor and deepen it without institutionalizing it: “Something is being born here.”

Episode 20

February 25th, 1996 A sprawling conversation, from personal philosophies, to current thoughts on work with Project Neighbors, to more on Walt’s history. Starting from a conversation on family values to the individual, and the destruction of the individual. Walt touches themes such as what it means to be a “true revolutionary” and moving against the state and “high tech,” before getting into more tangible work with Project Neighbors and how to build relationships, support one another, and moving away from “charity.” On talking about some of the families they have worked with in Valparaiso, and getting closer towards how Walt sees the world, he says: “I hate to use the word ‘make it.’ First of all, they won’t ‘make it’ in terms of the world. And secondly, I don’t want them to ‘make it’ in terms of the world. I want them to live and not just survive.”  From there, Walt and George dive into Walt’s history a bit during the Urban Studies program from 1968-1982. Walt talks about preparing to apply to go to Germany as an “out” financially, and spends years working on his German, spending summers working in Germany, and even working towards a PhD in Germany to apply to the Reutlingen program at Valparaiso University. Walt tries to move on, talking about how big Chicago/Cabrini Green were, and how Valparaiso was more manageable, but George brings him back to those 15 or so years during Urban Studies, where they talk about what fatherhood was like for Walt during that time – splitting himself, and his family – between Chicago and Valparaiso.  Walt ends reflecting on that time:  "After war and poverty, the other thing that has most affected my life – I'm leaving Lois out; she transcends it all – has been the fact that the students I've been with, have all been special students. Almost every single Urban Studies student in 20 years had to fight their faculty advisor, fight their parents. 'Why don't you go to Florence? Why don't you go to Cambridge?' ...'I don't want you to go to Chicago.' They had to want to come to the city....They were special students. They made some risky choices."

Episode 19

January 14th, 1996 This week, Walt and George spend their time talking about the operations of Project Neighbors, the nonprofit they run in Valparaiso, Indiana. They also discuss themes of leadership and the importance of building relationships and community.

Episode 18

December 10th, 1995 Walt talks more about his personal history, from Christmases as a boy during the depression and waiting for “the” gift he knew was coming each year… to being marooned for weeks on an island in the Philippines during WWII where he and several others were taken in by local families and a person whose name Walt has never forgotten: “Domingo Valado.” George and Walt end this journey into Walt’s past by making the connection to a central theme that appears throughout: “choice”... “choices are what it means to be human, that’s what it’s all about.” And today we live in a world where we think we have more choices on the one hand, but in reality, the choice between a million different computer companies is not really a choice at all. In reality, we live in a world with far less real choice, and consequently less humanity?

Episode 17

November 19th, 1995 George starts their conversation by talking about his brothers’ partners’ death from AIDS and about having some control over his own death, not letting the medical establishment intervene when there was nothing that could be done. Walt talked about the importance of being able to suffer with those that suffer. He also talked about the joy he finds in reconciliation when there shouldn’t seem to be reconciliation possible. He relates this to being in World War II, a condition that he believes no one truly understands. He talked about what being in war meant for him and how it is the root of what has caused him to call out the bullshit whenever he sees it. He said that war was the start of “de-sacralizing” everything for him (the constraints of religion, America the Beautiful). While still calling out all the bullshit , God still remained a focus for him. The war led him to non-violence and believing in relationships with people.