Cluster For Change

Brandon Kaufer wants to make it easier for people to be involved in social good. So he co-founded The Social Good Club. The only problem - they launched their idea based around in-person volunteerism in March of 2020 just as the pandemic took hold of the entire country.

Shin Koyamada came to the United States to pursue being an actor. He found success after being cast in The Last Samarai. His impression of America was that everyone was taken care of. He was surprised to see that so many people needed help, and his wife encouraged him to step outside his pursuit of acting, and together, they took their first step, the simple act of helping the homeless on skid row in downtown Los Angeles to building what is now an international social impact organization, KIF (Koyomada International Foundation).

Tim Kring was a successful television writer for hire. Then, 9/11 happened. Suddenly, Tim found himself on the set looking around realizing his work didn't feel meaningful enough. Soon after, Tim came up with the idea for the show Heroes which ran for four seasons on NBC. In Heroes, interconnectivity is the vehicle for disparate people with extraordinary abilities to come together and save the world. Tim has been working towards doing just that every since with innovative projects like Conspiracy for Good and the app ChangeUp. ChangeUp allows users to round-up their purchases to the nearest dollar and donate the spare change to the charitable cause of their choice. 

Three years ago, Kristina McKean was visiting Thailand on vacation. She witnessed elephants being put in crush boxes where they are shackled and tortured in order to literally break their spirit so that they can be put to commercial use - like elephant rides or circus use. When she returned home, Kristina was compelled to do something so she started The Elephant Project, designing and selling two plush elephants named Kiki and Tembo to raise funds to rescue elephants and create awareness.  100% of the net proceeds from all sales go to organizations that help aid in fighting the poaching crisis and provide rehabilitation to injured, abandoned, orphaned, and abused elephants.  In this episode, we not only discuss Kristina's story, but we also delve into how you can go from feeling an urge to do something to action.  Topics discussed: Love and Bananas (documentary) Why I Will Never Ride an Elephant Crush Box Information Elephant Nature Park