Peace Table YYC
Peace Table YYC

Voices In Recovery Podcast

Hussam shares his path from heavy drinking, deportation and anger to meditation, sobriety and community organising with Peace Table YYC. The conversation touches on Palestine, policing, homelessness and the hard work of building unity and love through activism and shared meals.

AuthenticHonestInspiringInformativeHealing

1:31:22•13 May 2026

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Peace, Protests and Sobriety: Hussam’s Journey from Rage to the Peace Table

Episode Overview

Stopping alcohol use can come from a single powerful moment, and meditation can help shift anger into compassion.
Immigration systems and state power can deeply affect people’s lives, including arrests, deportations and business losses.
Homelessness, encampment sweeps and gentrification in Calgary are linked to wider patterns of classism and racism.
Peace Table YYC and the YYC Peace Brunch use food and shared space to bring very different communities together around unity and peace.
Rage, shame and past roles in harmful systems can soften over time through honest reflection, community, and acts of solidarity.

“You’re ten breaths away from peace. Always.”

What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This conversation between host David Lewry and guest Hussam brings together sobriety, activism, and community care in a raw, funny, and deeply emotional chat. You’ll hear Hussam trace his story from a protective childhood in Jordan, to violence in Libya, to engineering studies at McGill and a career shift into marketing in Canada.

He talks honestly about heavy drinking during university, losing his business during covid, facing immigration crises, being escorted out of Canada, and carrying a lot of anger towards the system. A sudden moment with a beer during covid pushed him towards quitting alcohol and diving into meditation, which he links with a new sense of compassion and spiritual growth.

Hussam also shares what it means to be a Palestinian man in Canada, including being arrested and deported by the Canadian government and the weight of seeing Palestine compared with Indigenous struggles here. There’s frank criticism of policing, classism and gentrification, and a sharp look at sweeps against unhoused people. A big highlight is Hussam’s work on Peace Table YYC and the YYC Peace Brunch at The Confluence in Calgary.

He explains how something as simple as food can bring people together, and how hard it is to get Muslim groups, LGBTQ‑friendly folks, activists and different communities literally at the same table. Behind the scenes, there’s conflict, but also unity, love, and a shared commitment to peace. Fans of recovery stories, social justice, and spiritual growth will find a mix of rage, humour, tears and tenderness here.

If you’ve ever wondered how sobriety, meditation and activism can intersect, this conversation might have you asking: what would your own “peace table” look like?

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