A Land Twice Promised: An Israeli Woman’s Quest for Peace with Noa Baum

 

In today’s episode of “Helping Families be Happy” podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a practicing Clinical Psychologist, Wellness Advocate, and Author based in Sonoma County, California talks with Noa Baum, Writer, storyteller, Author, and Coach, about her book ‘A Land Twice Promised’. Noa discusses the power of storytelling that helps people bridge the differences and also reveals how she started doing workshops.

 

Episode Highlights

02:00: The guest, Noa, introduces herself and says that she grew up in Jerusalem, Israel and she was an actress there.
04:00 – Noa took the workshop with two prominent storytellers at her first National Storytelling Network Conference. The workshop was titled ‘The Importance of Telling Difficult Stories.’
06:30 – Noa talks about how she began telling personal stories.
08:30 – Noa took the conversations with her Palestinian friend and started recording them and this is how she created a one-woman show called ‘A Land Twice Promised’, where she tells personal stories of mothers that echo the contradicting national narratives of Israeli people.
10:20 – Dr. Carla enquires about the title of the book – ‘A Land Twice Promised’.
12:30 – Noa’s book – ‘A Land Twice Promised’ embraces the core values of Familiar Publishing that allows people to work together through their differences, to come to a commonplace, and to heal together, says Dr. Carla.
15:10 - Dr. Carla asks Noa if she could share a few snippets from her book for the listeners that might give a list or the energy of her storytelling.
17:00 – Noa reads through the excerpt from the opening of her book for the listeners.
20:00 – Dr. Carla praises Noa saying that her book reflects that she is a wonderful storyteller at the same time it talks about transformation, unity, change, and the power of love and listening.
22:45 - We definitely can create a lot of peace not just within ourselves and within the other person but throughout the world because everything we do tends to make waves in one way or another, mentions Dr. Carla.

 

Three Key Points

Noa realized from the responses that her story is not about mom's meeting on the playground, it's not even about Israelis and Palestinians but her story is about the power of storytelling, and the power of listening to the story of other people where their stories are so different and difficult.
When Noa realized that this is the power of storytelling that helps the bridges, she started doing a lot of workshops. She still does workshops where she uses the power of stories in many different applications to help, people bridge the differences.
The book is a journey into how do we change from a rigid place to a place that can embrace more complexity and paradox. It is also the story of Noa’s life journey of the transformative relationship of this story had on her relationship with her mother. So it's a lot about the values of healing because she had to tell her mother’s story.

 

Tweetable Quotes

“I grew up in Jerusalem in Israel and I always wanted to be an actress.”– Noa Baum
“So that trust did not build overnight.” - Noa Baum
“It echoes the idea that people feel that the land was promised for them and they have proof, we all have a lot of proof.” - Noa Baum
“As you were describing it, your friendship, there was plenty of laughter and play and love involved.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
“As I started writing the book, I realized, well, how did I get there?” - Noa Baum
“It sounds like that's a huge part of the energy of your book.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
“I don't remember much of what that Palestinian man said.” - Noa Baum
“Let me just add that it's not easy.” - Noa Baum

 

Resources Mentioned

Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
Dr. Carla Marie Manly Website LinkedIn Twitter   Instagram
Noa  Baum Website Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
Podcast Editing