The founder and executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center, a non-profit that assists immigrant women fleeing violence, she notes that while we are influenced by people we admire, we are also shaped by those who “test” us, as she tactfully puts it. I call them jerks. And she’s right: we’re shaped by jerks. Our own personal jerks. We’ve all got them. She joined me at the New York Baha’i Center, with musician Yacouba Diabate, a kora player, and definitely not a jerk.

•  PERSON: Kathleen Behan
•  PLACE: Baha’i gardens, Haifa
•  THING: this story
•  RANDY’S PERSON: Flaco Jimenez