This is a ~40-minute episode from Radnor Meeting’s EMERGE podcast featuring an interview with Bruce Birchard, a long-time Quaker activist. The interview is conducted by Burt Dallas, Clerk of Radnor Meeting’s Climate Action Committee. Bruce, a lifelong Quaker and peace activist, traces his journey from a Presbyterian upbringing in rural New Jersey — shaped by a father who modeled moral courage — to discovering Quakerism at Wesleyan University in the 1960s. He became deeply involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Chicago, serving as a draft counselor and ultimately winning recognition as a conscientious objector after a multi-year battle with his draft board. Bruce’s activism expanded through a transformative six-month overland trip to India in 1973–74 with his wife Demi, where they visited Gandhian development projects among the rural poor. This experience grounded his lifelong commitment to global justice and eventually led to his involvement with Right Sharing of World Resources, which provides small grants to poor women in India to build economic independence. His professional career spanned 10 years on the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s Peace Committee, leadership of the American Friends Service Committee’s Disarmament program, and 19 years as General Secretary of Friends General Conference. After retiring in 2011, he co-founded Quaker Voluntary Service and Quaker Action Middle Atlantic Region (QAMAR), a 501(c)(4) lobbying organization focused on environmental legislation, clean energy, gun violence, and democracy protection in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. The conversation closes with a discussion of the current political crisis under the Trump administration, the urgency of defending democracy, and the particular calling of Friends to build interfaith coalitions and work toward meaningful, lasting change.