In 2006 Hale endeavored on a two-week work-trip to build homes and tour the slave castles in Ghana, Africa — which was filmed and posted to YouTube in a series of ten-minute episodes entitled "Going to Ghana", an experience which had a major emotional impact on the singer, leading to his penning the song "Black Brother" from the forthcoming album Another Day in the Apocalypse. In 2008 Hale embarked on a controversial Peace Delegation trip to the country of Iran with The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) where he and 11 other Americans, including Rolling Stone contributing editor Robert Dreyfuss and the author Larry Beinhart met with leading government officials including former President Mohammad Khatami and leading religious clerics to discuss ways to improve US/Iranian relations and increase peace between the two countries.Pressman, Joshua; CMJ Magazine, Ed Hale Transcends Iranian Conflict, February 8, 2008
