"Why I don't hate the person who tried to kill me"

How do you react to violence, tragedy, terrorism and other calamaties perpetrated against you and those you love? This podcast shares the extraordinary story of Bjorn Ihler.

"In July 2011 Bjorn Ihler was a 20-year-old performing arts student and a member of the youth division of the Norwegian Labour Party. He participated in the Party's summer camp on Utøya island, about 35km from Norway's capital Oslo, when Norway suffered its worst terror attacks in recent history. Anders Breivik was a far-right extremist who launched a bomb attack on government offices in Oslo. Two hours later he attacked the summer camp that Bjorn was attending. 77 people were killed that day – the majority on the island. Bjorn survived and helped save two young boys who were also on Utøya. Just days after the incident Bjorn threw himself into trying to understand how someone could behave this way; he read Breivik's far-right manifesto, attended the trial and as many court sessions as he could, and spoke to countless former extremists. Today, Bjorn is an expert in preventing radicalisation and extremism and alongside his wife co-founded the Khalifa Ihler Institute which promotes peace, human rights, and community." (Lives Less Ordinary)

Here are some great quotes from the podcast:

"Fundamentally what he (the terrorist) wanted to do was to change the nature of who we were and I very defiantly did not want to give him the power to do that." (26 mins)

"If you repeatedly learn that  people who you tried to hate are generally not hating you back it becomes ever increasingly hard to hate them in the first place." (34 mins)

"If you encounter hate don't respond with hate because that will only fuel it." (35 mins)

"How do we break cycles of violence rather than contributing to them or continuing them." (36 mins)

Listen to the podcast here: Lives Less Ordinary - Why I don't hate the person who tried to kill me - BBC Sounds