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In this episode, Philipp Kobald sits down with musician and peace activist Rick DellaRatta, the founder of Jazz for Peace, to talk about what happens when you spend 25 years trying to live up to a poem you wrote on a rooftop less than a quarter mile from Ground Zero.

War Gets 100% Funding. Peace Gets Zero. (One Man's Plan to Change That)

Together, Philipp and Rick talk about:

• Why Mozart's story is really a parable about what happens when genius outgrows its usefulness to power
• The music industry's deep corruption, and why the Mozarts of tomorrow still die unheard
• How technology eliminating jobs could free people to follow their actual passions, if we let it
• What Brazilian carnival teaches about the power of ”a lot of people doing a little bit”
• The ancient idea that churches were originally acoustic healing centers
• The uncomfortable math: war is funded at 100%, peace at 0%

✨ *Main Takeaways*

• Music carries every quality that makes us human: creativity, artistry, humanity, intellect. Tapping into those qualities is itself a form of peacemaking.
• The artists who could change the world are almost never known during their lifetime, and their impact is greatest in the era they actually live in.
• If technology frees people from unwanted labor, the question becomes whether we fund their dreams or funnel the profits to a handful of people at the top.
• Community doesn't require everyone to be a virtuoso. Sometimes it just takes giving 5,000 people a simple rhythm and getting out of the way.
• Peace isn't underfunded because it doesn't work. It's underfunded because we've never seriously tried.

💬 *Quotes*

• ”We live in a world that funds war at a hundred percent and funds peace at zero percent.” — Rick DellaRatta
• ”I've been trying to live up to the words of a poem for 25 years.” — Rick DellaRatta
• ”When we fill our souls with creativity, artistry, humanity, intellectuality… we will have a better chance at avoiding the behavior that leads to destruction.” — Rick DellaRatta

*About our Guest*

Rick DellaRatta is a musician and founder of Jazz for Peace, an initiative he began after September 11 that uses music to support humanitarian causes worldwide.

This conversation moves between Mozart myths and modern warfare, between Austrian skepticism and New York jazz clubs, between a skiing injury and the healing properties of sound. Rick shows up in a neck brace and plays a Backstreet Boys song reimagined as jazz, then recites a poem about peace that's been quoted on over 150 websites in languages from Icelandic to Japanese.

If you're curious what it looks like when one person decides to spend 25 years proving that music can do what politics won't, press play.

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📖 *CHAPTERS*

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:11 The connection between skiing and jazz
• 02:45 A tale of two musicians: Mozart and the regular kid
• 06:33 Jazz for peace: the origin story
• 10:18 Why great artists are never known in their lifetime
• 13:00 The 25th anniversary of jazz for peace
• 14:11 Before and after 9/11: a musician's turning point
• 16:04 850 benefit concerts and the United Nations performance
• 17:59 Solutions: technology, jobs, and following your dream
• 20:26 Why we never found the next Mozart
• 24:21 The passion debate: will free time free creativity?
• 29:41 The healing power of music
• 33:07 Our greatest qualities live inside music
• 35:10 Brazilian jazz and the power of community
• 38:42 Live performance: ”I want it that way” turned into jazz
• 44:51 How to get involved with jazz for peace
• 50:18 Peace is funded at zero percent
• 53:15 Final thoughts

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#holisticcircle #philippkobald #worldpeace #musicheals #activism #spiritualmusic #jazzmusic

P 16 26 (E0137) – Apr 28, 2026