Tools for Breaking Hate

The Tennessee Holocaust Commission welcomes Christian Picciolini, an Emmy award-winning director and producer, a public speaker, author, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist, for his talk Tools for Breaking Hate.

Register here.

After leaving the hate movement he helped create during his youth in the 1980s and 90s, Christian began the painstaking process of making amends and rebuilding his life. He went on to earn a degree in international relations from DePaul University and launched Goldmill Group, a counter‑extremism consulting and digital media firm.

In 2016, he won an Emmy Award for producing an anti‑hate advertising campaign aimed at helping people disengage from extremism. Since leaving the white-power movement over two decades ago, Christian has helped hundreds of individuals leave hate behind, and he leads the FREE RADICALS PROJECT, a global extremism prevention network.

He has spoken all over the world, including on the TEDx stage, sharing his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion. Christian’s involvement in, and exit from, the early American white-supremacist skinhead movement is chronicled in his memoir WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH, and he is the featured subject in season 3 of WBEZ’s 'MOTIVE' podcast. His latest book, BREAKING HATE: CONFRONTING THE NEW CULTURE OF EXTREMISM, was released in February 2020. His disengagement work is also spotlighted in his MSNBC documentary series BREAKING HATE. He is currently the host of the 'F*** YOUR RACIST HISTORY' podcast, a weekly, scripted history show that tells America's hidden, overlooked, and unknown racist origin stories. In 2016, he won an Emmy Award for producin an anti‑hate advertising campaign aimed at helping people disengage from extremism. Since leaving the white-power movement over two decades ago, Christian has helped hundreds of individuals leave hate behind, and he leads the FREE RADICALS PROJECT, a global extremism prevention network.

He has spoken all over the world, including on the TEDx stage, sharing his unique and extensive knowledge, teaching all who are willing to learn about building greater peace through empathy and compassion. Christian’s involvement in, and exit from, the early American white-supremacist skinhead movement is chronicled in his memoir WHITE AMERICAN YOUTH, and he is the featured subject in season 3 of WBEZ’s 'MOTIVE' podcast. His latest book, BREAKING HATE: CONFRONTING THE NEW CULTURE OF EXTREMISM, was released in February 2020. His disengagement work is also spotlighted in his MSNBC documentary series BREAKING HATE. He is currently the host of the 'F*** YOUR RACIST HISTORY' podcast, a weekly, scripted history show that tells America's hidden, overlooked, and unknown racist origin stories.