Follow the Data Podcast

20 years ago, the late Christo and Jeanne-Claude transformed Central Park with The Gates, a temporary public art installation featuring 7,503 saffron-colored gates adorned with free-flowing fabric. After being elected as Mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg worked with the artists to bring their vision to life.The results? Over its 16 days on display, the public art piece drew more than four million visitors to Central Park in the middle of winter and brought an estimated $254 million in economic activity to the city.Christo and Jeanne-Claude were known for their site-specific, large-scale public artworks, which often reimagined landmarks or landscapes into surreal spaces with objects, fabrics, textures, and colors. From surrounding 11 islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with bright pink fabric, to wrapping Paris's Pont Neuf bridge with silky, golden fabric, the pair created bold and brilliant outdoor projects that spanned the globe and garnered international acclaim for their expansiveness and originality. The point of their installations? It was simple; no deeper meaning was contained within the works, but they provided visitors with joy, beauty, and new perspectives on familiar spaces.  For a limited time, the public can experience a portion of The Gates through an augmented reality experience in Central Park powered by the Bloomberg Connects app and learn more about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's NYC projects at Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City, the latest exhibition at The Shed.On this episode of Follow the Data, Megan Sheekey sits down with Patti Harris, CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, and  Vladimir Yavachev, Director of Projects at the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, to dive deeper into the 20th anniversary of The Gates, the prolific life and works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and the critical role public art plays in cities around the world.

Around the world, public leaders are confronting a growing distrust in government.In these divided times, a mayor's work becomes increasingly important. As the governing body closest to their residents, they are often the ones left reminding their communities of what we have in common—and why those things are worth fighting for.So how can local leaders proactively take the lead on building social solidarity, and rebuilding trust in government, from the bottom up? We looked to Istanbul, Turkey for a bold answer.Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is addressing this increasingly global challenge in his city with his Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge-winning project, Pay-It-Forward, which leverages municipal data to match residents in need with community members that can provide support. From helping neighbors pay utility bills during the pandemic to rallying global aid during a national earthquake disaster, this city-led platform brings people together to solve challenges. Since its inception, it has delivered over $12 million USD in aid.On this episode of Follow the Data, James Anderson, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' Government Innovation program, joins Mayor İmamoğlu on stage at Bloomberg CityLab 2024 in Mexico City to discuss the state of democracy from the ground floor of cities, and how solutions like Pay-It-Forward offer an inspiring path for mayors around the world to build social cohesion locally and around the world, at scale.

Last year, the Perelman Performing Arts Center opened in New York City - the last major piece in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. Its opening marks a new chapter in the story of Lower Manhattan as a center of culture and creativity.The space - dubbed PAC NYC for short - includes three theatres with movable walls and seats that expand and contort to create endless possibilities of layouts to stage a wide variety of shows. From a reimagination of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats to free programming on the lobby stage, PAC NYC's inaugural year has hosted an impressive range of performances.Over the past year, PAC has welcome around 200,000 guests into their building and hosted 238 separate free performances with artists from 24 different countries.On this episode of Follow the Data, Katherine Oliver is joined by Khady Kamara Nunez, Executive Director of PAC NYC, and Bill Rauch, Artistic Director of PAC NYC, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the PAC's opening. Together, they discuss what drew them to working at this brand-new venue and what's to come for the Perelman Performing Arts Center.

Generative artificial intelligence has the potential to transform local government. That's why city officials everywhere are working to harness its promise—from redesigning infrastructure to reimagining emergency response—alongside managing its pitfalls.Still, it's a new frontier for municipalities, one that's especially difficult to confront without the help of peers. To bridge the gap, in October 2023, our Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies together with the Bloomberg Center for Government Excellence (GovEx) at Johns Hopkins University launched City AI Connect: a global learning community and digital platform for cities to trial and advance the usage of generative artificial intelligence to improve public services—together.Building on more than a decade of bolstering data capabilities in city halls, our City AI Connect team has spent the past 8 months in the artificial intelligence-trenches with local officials. Each day on the platform, more than 500 city leaders convene to experiment, strategy-share, and navigate the intricacies of putting this emerging technology to work for residents' benefit.On this episode of Follow the Data, Katherine Oliver sits down with Claudia Juech from our Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation program team alongside Denise Riedl, Chief Innovation Officer of the City of South Bend, Indiana and Kyle Patterson, Chief Innovation Officer of the City of Boise, Idaho—two City AI Connect super users—to hear about the innerworkings of this new effort. They also discuss how their cities—and peers in other cities—are capitalizing on the generative artificial intelligence movement to bring their governments—and communities—into the future, for good.

Air pollution is now the second leading risk of death worldwide, accounting for 8.1 million deaths globally in 2021.As the world's urban population grows, it is critical for policymakers and citizens to have access to data-driven scientific research that can empower communities and inform important environmental, air quality, and public health policy decisions.The State of Global Air 2024 report by the Health Effects Institute provides a comprehensive analysis of data for air quality and health impacts for countries around the world. It serves as a key resource for governments and initiatives such as Breathe Cities, informing their work supporting cities to curb their air pollution and climate emissions.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Antha Williams, who leads the Environment program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, Dr. Pallavi Pant, who leads the Global Health program at the Health Effects Institute, and Jaime Pumarejo, the first-ever Executive Director for the Breathe Cities initiative and the former Mayor of Barranquilla, Colombia, to discuss the state of global air pollution, how policymakers can use air quality data to inform their work towards climate progress, and why it's important to tackle this issue at the local level to improve and save lives.

From vaccines to seat belts, public health measures have significantly impacted our lifespans and quality of life for decades.And yet, the work itself is often underfunded, undervalued, and misunderstood.The Invisible Shield, a new four-part documentary series on PBS – produced by RadicalMedia and made possible by Bloomberg Philanthropies, explores the hidden public health infrastructure that makes modern life possible. Featuring interviews and insights from public health leaders and global experts, the series examines the field's major achievements and the dedication of the public health sector in times of crisis.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with two public health experts featured in The Invisible Shield, Dr. Sandro Galea, Dean of the Boston University School of Public Health, and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to discuss how they started their careers, the importance of data collection, and the biggest obstacles to implementing public health policies.

Poland has some of the most toxic air in all of Europe, with 23 of the 50 most polluted cities in the European Union located in the country.Much of this air pollution comes from common household boilers that burn wood and coal. Emissions from cars and factories exacerbate poor air quality and lead to 40,000 deaths from pollution-related illnesses every year.Launched in 2015, Polish Smog Alert is a campaign group comprised of more than 50 local clean air initiatives dedicated to improving air quality in Poland. By increasing public awareness of the health impacts of air pollution and introducing anti-smog regulations at both the local and national levels, this movement has helped secure policy change that has improved air quality and public health across the country.In 2023, Polish Smog Alert was named an Earthshot Prize Finalist in the “Clean Our Air” category, and the group receives tailored support from the Prize's Global Alliance of partners to continue making a difference and driving urgent climate action. Our founder, Mike Bloomberg, serves as Global Advisor to the Winners of The Earthshot Prize, and Bloomberg Philanthropies – alongside Bloomberg LP – has supported The Earthshot Prize since its creation in 2020 as a Global Alliance Founding Partner.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Polish Smog Alert co-founders Anna Dworakowska and Andrzej Guła to discuss the group's mission to clean the air, their experience with The Earthshot Prize, the successes they have had so far, and where they will go from here.

Solutions to many of the greatest challenges we face depend on the progress of cities.Local leaders are uniquely positioned to bring about real change that has tangible impact for residents, but often, they don't have the resources to do so. How can we support city governments in bridging this gap, so they have the capabilities they need to move communities forward?The Government Innovation team at Bloomberg Philanthropies focuses on providing mayors and local government officials with the tools and support they need to tackle the pressing problems they face and improve people's lives.On this episode, James Anderson, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' Government Innovation program, joins Nneka Sobers, the Assistant Director of Product Development at the Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech, to discuss how Bloomberg Philanthropies works with city halls around the world to strengthen their problem-solving capacity and increase their use of data, innovation, and cross-sector collaboration by providing leadership training, programs, and an infrastructure that allows for urban ideas to spread across cities worldwide.This audio is adapted from their recent conversation at the Urban Tech Summit hosted at Cornell Tech, where academics, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and industry and public sector leaders gathered to discuss how cities can drive decarbonization around the world.

Tobacco use is the world's leading cause of preventable death.Since the mid-20th century, the tobacco industry has used deliberate marketing tactics to confuse the public about tobacco's harmful effects, causing billions of deaths globally from tobacco use and second-hand smoke. However, a growing number of countries and organizations around the world are standing up to the tobacco industry and taking strong action.Since its launch in 1995, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has tackled the tobacco industry head on. And since the launch of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use in 2007, the arch of the fight against tobacco has changed drastically – in turn, saving millions of lives. Despite this progress, the data shows that there's still a lot of work to be done. While cigarette use declined exceptionally over the years, the tobacco industry has found ways to reinvent itself through social media ad campaigns and colorful, fun-flavored e-cigarettes tailor made for kids.On this episode, our host Katherine Oliver, sits down with Matt Myers, outgoing President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Yolonda Richardson, the Campaign's current President, to share more about the arduous battle against the ever-evolving tobacco industry and its deceptive marketing to kids and low-income communities around the world.

Data plays a critical role in helping build a more equitable society. As leaders and organizations across the country grapple with how to strategically invest in Black communities, having access to relevant data about wealth equity in the U.S. is essential. Unfortunately, that data is often out-of-date, inaccessible, not disaggregated by race, and not available at the local level.So, how can we work to reduce the gaps in racial wealth equity data?Supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative, the Black Wealth Data Center works to remedy the problem of insufficient and inaccessible data on the topic of Black wealth. By making relevant data disaggregated by race available, the Black Wealth Data Center's Racial Wealth Equity Database empowers leaders to leverage the data necessary to develop and implement effective programs and policies to increase racial wealth equity.To celebrate the Black Wealth Data Center's recent one-year anniversary, Katherine Oliver sits down with Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative, Darrick Hamilton, the Founding Director of the Institute for the Study of Race, Stratification and Political Economy at the New School, and Lamar Gardere, the Executive Director at The Data Center of Southeast Louisiana and national recipient of the Black Wealth Data Center and National Neighborhood Indicator's Local Data and Engagement Grant Program, to discuss the importance of data in advancing racial wealth equity, the challenges faced by organizations that don't have access to data, and how the Black Wealth Data Center is helping provide decision-makers with data collection and accessibility.

The future of our country depends on bold changes to education to ensure that all students are able to realize their full potential.According to The National Center for Education Statistics, in 2022, average mathematics scores at fourth grade declined across the country. Furthermore, only a third of Americans have a bachelor's degree or higher, while there continues to be major shortfalls of qualified candidates for “middle skills jobs."How can we improve student achievement and provide them with viable pathways to jobs that lead to long-term economic mobilityBuilding on more than a decade of education reform work from Mike Bloomberg's time as mayor, Bloomberg Philanthropies' Education program works to ensure that all students have the skills and opportunities to succeed in the 21st century. From supporting the growth of charter schools to investing in programs that help young people get the specialized training they need, our Education program works alongside partners to implement initiatives that will make a significant difference for the children most in need of a great education and chart a path to a successful future.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with two colleagues from Bloomberg's Education team – Eve Bois, who manages the Career and Technical Education portfolio, and Jasmine Jenkins, who co-manages the K-12 Education and Advocacy portfolio, to discuss the challenges facing public education in America, Bloomberg Philanthropies' comprehensive education reform work, and how we are expanding post-secondary opportunities for students through school-based and work-based programs.

Everyone knows that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but can singing in the shower also help? What about seeing a play or taking a painting class? For the past two years, Bloomberg Philanthropies has supported the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab based at the University of Florida's Center for Arts in Medicine in partnership with University College London. The EpiArts Lab has analyzed longitudinal datasets that follow thousands of U.S. residents from all demographics, over several decades to understand whether participating in the arts has long-term benefits for public health.While we continue to grapple with the mental health fall out of the pandemic, crises caused by climate change, the polarized political landscape, and the marginalization of certain populations…..now more than ever, people are looking for relief.The good news is, EpiArts Lab has produced over a dozen peer-reviewed papers uncovering the impacts of arts activities on health indicators in various populations, with compelling findings.In this episode of Follow the Data, Katherine Oliver sits down with Jill Sonke, PhD, director of research initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida, and Tracey Knuckles of our arts team to shed light on the ways that cultural activities can help keep you healthy and how the arts can be incorporated into healthcare systems.

The overdose crisis is affecting US communities everywhere. A new survey by the Pew Research Center found nearly one in two people in the U.S. knows someone with a substance use disorder.In 2018, the Bloomberg Overdose Prevention Initiative began its work supporting Michigan and Pennsylvania in using a data-driven approach to confront the overdose crisis, resulting in both states seeing lower increases in overdose deaths than the national average despite the setbacks brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the Initiative began working in five other hard-hit states: Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Alongside partners, the Initiative draws upon learnings from the initial two states to implement new programs, and to advocate for federal policies to expand treatment access and harm reduction with a goal of accelerating progress in reducing overdose deaths.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with two of Bloomberg's critical partners in this effort – Kat Humphries, a Program Manager for the Overdose Prevention Program at Vital Strategies, and Tahira Malik, the founder of Samad's House in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – to discuss the common misconceptions people have about substance use disorder, harm reduction as an effective strategy for preventing overdose deaths, and policies that could implemented to support recovery in communities across the country.

Women and girls make up a disproportionate amount of the 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty around the world. Our guests today are working in Rwanda and in cities around the world to create opportunities for women that lead to economic independence. Since 2007, Bloomberg Philanthropies' Women's Economic Development Initiative, led by Verna Eggleston, has focused on developing women's skills to help them master income-generating activities.More than 724,000 women and their families have enrolled in training and education programs directly benefiting over 2.8 million of their children through access to health insurance, education beyond primary school, increased savings, and much, much more. This summer, an independent third party evaluation conducted and published by the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies showed how effective and replicable the program is. In this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Verna Eggleston, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' Women's Economic Development Initiative, Laurie Adams, the CEO of Women for Women International, and Christine Condo, the Executive Director of Sustainable Growers. They discuss how the program affects women, their communities, and their children and families, key findings of the Johns Hopkins report, and how listeners can get involved. 

Across the United States, millions of students are performing below grade level. Eighth grade reading scores are at their lowest level in two decades, and math scores are at a three-decade low, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.How can we help students combat pandemic learning loss?A great education is critical to ensure America can continue leading the global economy - and Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding summer school in eight cities to help public charter school students catch up to where they need to be. Our Summer Boost initiative is just one of the ways we're working to ensure all students have the chance to get a high-quality education.In this episode, Howard Wolfson, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' education program, joins political strategist and venture capitalist Bradley Tusk for a wide-ranging conversation about how Bloomberg Philanthropies is working to address the ongoing crisis in America's education system - from supporting career and vocational training programs, to expanding access to top colleges for talented students from low-income families. This audio is adapted from the Firewall podcast, where entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, strategists and journalists reveal what's really on their mind.

Did you know that it could take up to 500 years for single-use plastic bottles to biodegrade in the ocean, according to estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration?What if the solution for more sustainable packaging also lies in the seas? Bloomberg Philanthropies is working to ensure the ocean, key marine ecosystems, and the billions who depend on them can survive and thrive through the Bloomberg Ocean Initiative.  Our guest today – Pierre Paslier – co-founded Notpla, short for "not plastic," a company on a mission to make packaging disappear. Based in London, the team creates alternative packaging made from seaweed and plants, ranging from a bubble that could replace plastic cups and bottles at sporting events, to single dose spheres of toothpaste and sustainable, biodegradable packaging for takeaway food. Since it started in 2019, Notpla has replaced almost 3 million units of single-use plastic from entering the environment.Notpla is a winner of the 2022 Earthshot Prize, a prestigious global environment prize launched by His Royal Highness Prince William to incentivize change and help repair our planet with innovative solutions by 2030. Our founder, Mike Bloomberg, serves as Global Advisor to the Winners of the Earthshot Prize, including Notpla, and Bloomberg Philanthropies - alongside Bloomberg LP - has supported The Earthshot Prize since its creation in 2019, as a Global Alliance Founding Partner. In fact, Bloomberg LP uses Notpla's sustainable packaging at its European headquarters in London.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Pierre. They discuss how he created Notpla with his co-founder and former classmate, Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, how Notpla expanded from its first product to introduce packaging solutions for electronics, fashion, cosmetics and food, his experience with The Earthshot Prize, and how he's planning on using his prize money to expand Notpla's impact.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 8 million people are killed by tobacco each year.Unfortunately, most tobacco-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, areas that are targets of intensive tobacco industry marketing. But the good news is that the scale of this human tragedy is preventable.The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use at Bloomberg Philanthropies works with national and local governments in more than 110 countries to help implement measures to protect people from harm, such as creating smoke-free public places, banning tobacco advertising, and increasing tax on tobacco products. This initiative builds on Mike Bloomberg's successful efforts in reducing smoking rates during his time as mayor of New York City. Since the launch of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use in 2007, global smoking rates have fallen from 22.7% to 17.5%. While we're making strides to save lives around the world, there's still work to be done in the face of new challenges, such as the rise in flavored tobacco products and e-cigarette use among teens in the U.S.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Betsy Fuller, who is part of Bloomberg Philanthropies' team working to reduce tobacco use, to discuss our tobacco control work in the Philippines, how the country is working to combat youth vaping, and to share an update on global smoking rates around the world.

The climate crisis is one of the biggest stories of our time. And Hollywood is one of the most powerful storytellers in the world. Yet our film and TV screens aren't reflecting the reality of climate change.Until now.Enter Extrapolations, an eight-episode series that recently premiered on Apple TV+. Written by Scott Z. Burns - whose 2011 film Contagion became eerily real during the pandemic - the ambitious show explores how climate change could affect every aspect of our lives, from religion to politics to business and our social lives, over more than 30 years.Environmental challenges pose unique challenges to screenwriters. Global warming is a long-term, high-stakes process - there are existential stakes, and the reality is that it's more often there is no single catastrophic event for characters to react to so much as a series of them.The USC Norman Lear Center, in collaboration with Bloomberg Philanthropies partners Rare and Good Energy, will measure the impact of Extrapolations in the first quantitative study of a climate storyline in nearly two decades.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Scott Z. Burns, the showrunner, director, writer and executive producer of Extrapolations, and Anna Jane Joyner, the founder & director of Good Energy, a nonprofit consulting firm that works with screenwriters like Scott to portray the climate crisis in film & tv scripts in entertaining and artful ways. They discuss keeping viewers engaged while telling stories about climate change, and what they hope viewers take away from Extrapolations. 

Across the country and around the world, housing costs are soaring.Rents rose by 6.2% annually in 2022, after growing by almost 15% in 2021, according to Yardi Matrix.And the impacts of these rising costs are clear: research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shows that nearly one third of renters did not pay or were late with the rent at least once in 2022.For several years, the Bloomberg Associates Sustainability team has worked closely with our client cities to address key housing affordability issues. This effort led to Bloomberg Associates and Bloomberg Philanthropies' partnership with NYU's Furman Center for Housing and Real Estate and Abt Associates to create the Bloomberg Peer Cities Housing Network, funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies Government Innovation team, in Summer 2020.The Network, a program that worked with a nationwide group of city leaders to address pressing housing-related needs, provided resources and guidance – and the opportunity to exchange learnings with cities facing similar challenges. This met a particularly urgent need during the pandemic as local governments challenged existing thinking and responded rapidly to convert hotels into housing, to provide residents with direct cash assistance, and more.On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Ingrid Gould Ellen, who serves as the Director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and is on the faculty of the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Vero Soto, the former Director of the Neighborhood & Housing Services Department of the City of San Antonio, who now spearheads the U.S. Treasury Department's Emergency Rental Assistance program; and Adam Freed, the Sustainability Principal of Bloomberg Associates. They discuss how cities responded to housing problems posed by COVID-19, and how the Bloomberg Peer Cities Housing Network helped to facilitate these initiatives.

Black communities in the U.S. breathe dirtier air than communities that are predominantly White. According to research aggregated by the American Lung Association, Black people face higher exposure to air pollutants, and suffer greater risk of premature death from particle pollution.This episode of Follow the Data is the second of a two-part series that includes panels from Bloomberg's 2022 Power of Difference Summit, held in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative, which convened speakers from Bloomberg Philanthropies and other critical organizations to discuss how we're tackling climate action in overburdened and underinvested Black communities. The Summit also highlighted The Black Wealth Data Center, conceived and funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative and incubated by Prosperity Now, a leading nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. focused on racial equity.The Black Wealth Data Center's Racial Wealth Equity Database gives policymakers – and the public – access to data by race at the local, regional and national level to empower them to take action to address racial wealth inequities that exist today.On this episode, Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads the Greenwood Initiative, a national effort that aims to accelerate the pace of wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities, is joined by two leading experts working to protect underserved communities from climate change and environmental injustice: Jacqueline Patterson, the Founder and Executive Director of The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership, and Mitchell J. Silver, the Principal of Urban Planning at McAdams - a land planning and design company.Garnesha, Jacqueline and Mitchell discuss how historically marginalized populations are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change and environmental injustice. They also share examples of communities that are actively working to combat these challenges.

Communities of color face disproportionate risks from the effects of climate change. For example, according to New York Times Magazine, African-Americans are 75 percent more likely than other communities to live near facilities that produce hazardous waste. Data like this makes it clear that tackling climate change, improving public health, and fighting racial inequality all go together.  This episode of Follow the Data is the first in a two-part series that features live discussions from the Power of Difference Summit, held in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative in October 2022, which focused on equitable climate approaches that improve the well-being of overburdened and underinvested Black communities.  Stephanie Dockery of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts team spoke with two artists who use their work to tackle these issues: Vedra Chandler, artist and project manager of the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Public Art Challenge projects in Camden, NJ, partnered with the Mayor of Camden, Rutgers-Camden University, and the nonprofit Camden Community Partnership to reclaim public space by transforming highly visible illegal dumping lots into venues for public art.  She joined fellow panelist Erika Dickerson-Despenza, a New Orleans-based poet and award-winning playwright. Erika's plays primarily focus on the legacy of Black land and environmental racism.  Erika and Vedra are both addressing racial inequity in climate justice through the arts, actively working to eradicate systemic inequality, which is so aligned with Bloomberg Philanthropies' mission to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people around the world. 

Maternal mortality is a leading cause of death worldwide, causing nearly 300,000 deaths every year, but the majority of these deaths are entirely preventable.In 2006, Tanzania ranked number 6 in the world in terms of maternal mortality, which led Bloomberg Philanthropies to partner with the Government of Tanzania to increase access to emergency obstetric and reproductive care in one state, the Kigoma Region.The partnership lasted until 2019, when the government fully took over the program. New findings show that in the Kigoma Region from 2013 to 2018 the institutional maternal mortality rate dropped by 43%,  the stillbirth rate dropped by 52%, and deliveries in a healthcare facility increased by 74%.On this episode of Follow the Data, Becky Bavinger of our Public Health team is joined by Dr. Leonard Subi, the former Regional Medical Officer in the Kigoma Region and now the Executive Director of the Kibong'oto Specialized Infectious Diseases Hospital, and Dr. Sunday Dominico, the Clinical Director of Thamini Uhai. They discuss the obstacles women in the region faced to access quality maternal care, and how we used proven measures – like upgrading health facilities and training non-physician clinicians – to help prevent these deaths.

What happens when you put more than 500 city leaders, experts, innovators, and artists from representing cities around the world in one room? We found out once again at Bloomberg CityLab 2022, the ninth meeting of the preeminent global cities summit organized by Bloomberg Philanthropies in partnership with the Aspen Institute – ideas, innovation, and scalable solutions. Held in Amsterdam in October, in CityLab's first in-person convening since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, global mayors, prominent city innovators, business leaders, urban experts, artists, and activists tackled how to solve some of the pressing issues facing cities around the world – from leading their communities through pandemic recovery to welcoming refugees from global conflicts to combatting climate change.Around the world, cities are leading the way. Sessions explored the challenges cities are facing – and successfully addressing – across climate, infrastructure, technology, migration, mental health, and more. One of the most powerful conversations was between James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, of Mexico City. On this episode, listen in with us, as they discuss how city leaders can lead digital transformations in their municipalities to make sure that everyone has access to the rights that they deserve as citizens, through digital services, connectivity, and direct access to information or governmental services.

On average, Black families in America have one-eighth the wealth of White families. Bloomberg Philanthropies is working to change that with data. The new Black Wealth Data Center (BWDC)will provide greater access to racial wealth equity data, making it easier for policymakers, economists, philanthropists, and journalists to find and analyze a variety of factors correlated to economic well-being and progress by race. On the BWDC's Racial Wealth Equity Database, visitors can interact with data points such as homeownership, business ownership, and employment compared with race, sex, education attainment and geographic location. The effort is created to be a source for leaders and organizations working to uncover and scale opportunities to increase Black wealth. The Black Wealth Data Center is incubated by Prosperity Now, a leading nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. focused on advancing racial and ethnic economic justice, , and is part of Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative - a national effort aimed at accelerating the pace of wealth accumulation for Black individuals and families and addressing systemic underinvestment in Black communities. On this episode of Follow the Data, Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' Greenwood Initiative, is joined by Natalie Evans Harris, the Executive Director of the Black Wealth Data Center, who brings nearly 20 years of experience advancing the public sector's strategic use of data, and Gary Cunningham, President and CEO of Prosperity Now. They discuss how the Black Wealth Data Center will give leaders access to tools and data they need to speed up progress towards increasing Black wealth, what types of data people will be able to access on site, the importance of data in the fight for racial wealth equity, and more.

Think of the last impulse purchase you made when you were in the checkout aisle at the grocery store. Was it a bottle of soda? A bag of chips?As it turns out, food and beverage manufacturers pay retailers millions of dollars to dictate where their products are placed in the store -- influencing the way shoppers interact with food offerings in the busiest aisles. These practices are incredibly effective at getting shoppers to make impulse buys, which tend to be unhealthy.As rates of obesity and diet-related disease continue to rise around the world, Bloomberg Philanthropies is supporting policy efforts that encourage healthier diets including efforts to raise public awareness of unhealthy food and beverage marketing. One example was the city of Berkeley, California's ban on the sale of junk food and candy in checkout aisles - a first of its kind policy in the U.S.In this episode, Kristine Momanyi of the Bloomberg Philanthropies public health team sits down with Sara John, the Senior Policy Director at CSPI - the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Ingrid de Santiago, the Program Coordinator at Bay Area Community Resources, and Anjelika Khadka, a youth advocate taking a stand for healthier food environments in her community. They discuss the deceptive marketing practices food and beverage manufacturers employ to sway shoppers' decisions in grocery stores and CSPI's request to the Federal Trade Commission to bring these practices to light. Ingrid and Anjelika also tell us more about the Bay Area's initial reception to the healthy checkout ordinance and learnings from advocating for local healthy food policies.

As global leaders aim toward limiting the planet's warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius,  scientists warn extreme rainfalls, stronger storms, and hurricanes intensifying at faster rates will become more frequent.A warming world and extreme weather events will have implications for all industries and geographies — and the arts industry in Puerto Rico experienced this firsthand when Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017.Following Hurricane Maria, many artists and arts organizations like museums, theaters, arts education programs, and music venues were at risk of cutting back services or closing because of lost revenue and other challenges.In Fall 2020, Bloomberg Philanthropies teamed up with the Flamboyan Arts Fund, a partnership between Flamboyan Foundation, composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, his family, and the Broadway musical Hamilton to preserve, sustain, and amplify the arts in Puerto Rico, to launch the Arts Innovation and Management Puerto Rico program. The program brings together national and local experts to provide bilingual arts management training and tailored consulting services for fundraising, strategic planning, and digital marketing. It also includes resilience training for responding to climate change and natural disasters, including future hurricanes, with cultural institutions in Puerto Rico sharing key strategies and insights from their direct experiences.In this episode, Ethan Joseph of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts team sits down with María Ángela López Vilella, Executive Director of Museo de las Américas, a museum dedicated to the history and culture of the Americas, particularly Puerto Rico, and, one of the ten organizations currently participating in the AIM Puerto Rico program. They discuss the unique challenges that climate change presents to the cultural sector and steps that arts organizations may consider taking to help prepare for and respond to climate change-driven hazards. They also discuss specific strategies that cultural organizations in Puerto Rico have adopted to build climate resilience in the five years since Hurricane Maria and further support their communities by becoming spaces for healing and education.

This is a very special episode. To celebrate the release of the 2021 Annual Report, our yearly review of Bloomberg Philanthropies' efforts to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people, our founder, Mike Bloomberg, and CEO, Patti Harris, joined the podcast.  Mike Bloomberg has committed the vast majority of profits from Bloomberg LP, the global financial technology, data, and media company that he founded, to support the work of Bloomberg Philanthropies. He has given $12.7 billion to philanthropic causes over his lifetime, and $1.66 billion in 2021 alone.  Patti Harris oversees Bloomberg Philanthropies' work, spanning our core focus areas: the arts, education, environment, government innovation, and public health, as well as the Greenwood Initiative, which aims to accelerate the pace of Black wealth accumulation, and special Founder's Projects. This work also encompasses all of Mike Bloomberg's corporate and personal philanthropy, and Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works in cities around the world.  Mike and Patti sat down with me to discuss Bloomberg Philanthropies' progress in responding to the pandemic without losing sight of other challenges, Bloomberg LP's efforts to support organizations working in Ukraine, and their outlook on the challenges tackled and opportunities ahead. Read the 2021 Annual Report here. Follow Mike on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Follow Patti on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Coral reefs are a critical ecosystem for our environment - and source of food, livelihoods, and cultural heritage for 500 million people. They're also likely to disappear by 2050 if the goals of the Paris Agreement are not met. That's why Bloomberg Philanthropies is promoting coral reef conservation through our Vibrant Oceans Initiative, which works with coastal communities, nonprofit organizations, local and national governments, policymakers, and academic groups to create more sustainable ocean ecosystems. Our guest today – Sam Teicher – co-founded Coral Vita, an organization dedicated to regenerating dying reefs. Based in Grand Bahama, the team creates high-tech coral farms that grow coral up to 50x faster while boosting resiliency against global warming and acidifying oceans. Healthy corals are then transported and transplanted back into degraded reefs, bringing them back to life. Coral Vita also prioritizes coastal economies by working with local communities, public officials, and private companies to improve education and create new jobs. Most recently, Coral Vita received the inaugural Earthshot Prize, a prestigious global environment prize designed launched by Prince William to incentivize change and help repair our planet with innovative solutions over the next ten years. Our founder, Mike Bloomberg, serves as Global Advisor to the Winners of the Earthshot Prize, including Coral Vita. Bloomberg the company along with Bloomberg Philanthropies has supported The Earthshot Prize since its creation in 2019, and is a Global Alliance Founding Partner. On this episode, Jemma Read, the Global Head of Corporate Philanthropy at Bloomberg LP, sits down with Sam Teicher. They discuss how he created Coral Vita with his co-founder, Gator Halpern, what makes Coral Vita's reef restoration technique unique, his experience with the Earthshot Prize, and how he's planning on using his prize money to expand Coral Vita's impact.

Movies can have such an immense impact in our lives. They can inspire discourse, connection, joy, and discovery. And their impact on and reflection of our society – though not always positive – is a critical part of our culture. To capture the legacy and history of movie making and to engage future generations, a new cultural institution has opened in the heart of Los Angeles: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. The museum opened its doors in September 2021 with a focus on the history and impacts of the motion picture industry. It's the largest museum in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking. This year's Academy Awards will mark the 94th ceremony since its inception in 1929. Ahead of the ceremony, our show's host Katherine Oliver sits down with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Director and President Bill Kramer and its Chief Artistic and Programming Officer Jacqueline Stewart. They share some insight on their global approach to curating the museum, how they are experimenting with digital technologies with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, and their exhibits that show just how movies go from, as Jacqueline says, “the page to the screen.”

The pandemic has exacerbated some of the biggest challenges facing the world, from climate change to public health, and government leadership to education. Over the past few years, Bloomberg Philanthropies has doubled down on existing commitments, expanded our partnerships, and formed new ones to make the biggest impact possible. That work wouldn't be possible without the leadership of Patti Harris - our Chief Executive Officer, who oversees all of Mike Bloomberg's giving, including his philanthropic, corporate, and personal giving, as well as Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works with mayors in cities around the world. In this episode, Bloomberg Philanthropies CEO Patti Harris sits down with Hank Paulson, the 74th US Treasury Secretary, and a member of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Board of Directors, to discuss her experience in public service, the importance of hiring a great team, rallying the private sector to support the clean energy transition, and more. Their conversation was adopted from Straight Talk, a podcast by the Paulson Institute.

In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka recently commissioned a monument honoring abolitionist Harriet Tubman - who escaped slavery and helped many others do the same as a "conductor" of the Underground Railroad, which passed through many sites in New Jersey and specifically in Newark. Designed by New Jersey-based artist and architect Nina Cooke John, the new monument will be built on the former site of a Christopher Columbus statue that was removed from a downtown park in the summer of 2020 following calls for racial justice.In Fall 2020, the City of Newark engaged the Arts & Culture Team at Bloomberg Associates, the pro bono consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies, to develop a commissioning process for this major new piece of public art, and provide ongoing guidance as the project develops.In this episode - which is part of a series about how memorials, monuments, and temporary public art pieces can be more reflective of our society -David Andersson of the Bloomberg Associates Culture team sits down with Fayemi Shakur, the Arts and Cultural Affairs Director of the City of Newark. They discuss the process of selecting Cooke John's design, how the artist team is working with the community, and what it means for cities to construct new monuments today. 

We're almost two years into the pandemic, which has posed challenges to a range of public health issues, from the overdose crisis to mental health.This week's podcast episode was adapted from a Bloomberg Philanthropies virtual conversation which took place on February 10, 2022 about the future of American public health, featuring WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries Mike Bloomberg along with Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, and Dr. Kelly Henning, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' public health program.They discuss how to address health misinformation, how the pandemic has exacerbated the opioid and mental health crises, and what's keeping the Surgeon General optimistic about the future of public health.

At a time when high school students need access to high-quality job training opportunities more than ever, and businesses are eagerly looking to hire qualified talent in a range of middle skill jobs that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year college degree — Bloomberg Philanthropies has committed an additional $25 million to support career and technical education programs in nine U.S. cities and across two states.This commitment highlights our founder Mike Bloomberg's belief that it's critical for states, cities, local businesses, and schools to grow career programs and pathways for students not heading to four-year college in order to gain greater economic mobility. More than 15,000 high school students have benefited from Bloomberg Philanthropies' support of career and technical education programs since 2016. This new investment brings our support of these programs to $90 million.​On this episode, Jenny Sharfstein Kane of our education team sits down with Julia Baez, CEO of Baltimore's Promise​, a city-wide collaborative which supports the health and education of Baltimore City youth from cradle to career. Julia tells us more about the organization's Grads2Careers initiative, which focuses on helping Baltimore City Public Schools graduates who aren't immediately bound for college or careers enter the workforce by offering occupational skills training in fields like tech, health care, logistics, and transportation.Jenny also sits down with the Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Randall Woodfin, to discuss how internships and apprenticeships will help shape the employment landscape in his city and the challenges entry-level workers are facing as a result of the pandemic.

2021 marked the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre - one of the ugliest events in American history, where a white mob destroyed the affluent Black neighborhood of Greenwood, dubbed “Black Wall Street,” for its thriving economic power. Hundreds were killed in the attack. More than 10,000 people were left homeless overnight, and the neighborhood was razed. This massacre led to years of silence and shame, suppressing the history for the following decades. The residents of Greenwood rebuilt their community, but it was ultimately destroyed due to disinvestment and urban renewal efforts -- which placed the I-22 highway in the middle of Greenwood.To commemorate this history and honor Greenwood, the City of Tulsa and the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission applied for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge. Their winning concept, “The Greenwood Art Project,” features dozens of temporary public art works celebrating and commemorating this community's history, present, and future.The Public Art Challenge is a Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative encouraging cities to work with artists to create temporary public art projects that celebrate creativity, enhance urban identity, encourage public-private collaborations, and address significant civic issues.The MacArthur Award-winning artist, Rick Lowe worked with local artists to showcase the legacy and resilience of Greenwood. Lowe previously founded Project Row Houses, a community platform that engages residents, artists, and businesses in Houston's Historic Third Ward, one of the city's oldest Black neighborhoods through community initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities.In this episode - which is part of a series about how memorials, monuments, and temporary pieces can be more reflective of our society - Stephanie Dockery from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts team sits down with Rick Lowe for a conversation around community-centered public art projects. They discuss the importance of creating community through public art, what they've learned from working with the City of Tulsa on the Greenwood Art Project, and how cities can implement art as a catalyst for community healing.

The City of Detroit estimates that 215,000 residents have criminal records — and that about 75% of those residents are eligible for criminal record expungement – a proceeding that removes a person's criminal record or conviction. ​Last year, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan advocated for new state legislation that was signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer significantly expanding eligibility for expungement in Michigan. As you will learn, research and data has shown that expungement translates to better opportunities for employment, education, and housing for those who qualify.Yet many residents don't seek expungement because they don't know they're eligible, the process is complex, they may not be able to afford attorney fees, or they have had negative experiences with the criminal justice system.In this episode, we turn our attention to Project Clean Slate, a program launched by Mayor Duggan to help people clear their criminal records and be a part of the city's comeback story – at no cost. The program recently filed its 1,000th expungement application.On this episode, Rose Gill of the Bloomberg Associates Municipal Integrity team sits down with Carrie Jones, who leads Project Clean Slate, and Stephani Labelle, the program's lead attorney to discuss how the program has grown since it was launched in 2016 and how it supports residents throughout the expungement process. Mr. Bell, a Detroit resident who was previously a client of Project Clean Slate, and Mayor Duggan also join the podcast to discuss the importance of prioritizing expungement and what it means for Detroit residents.

Memorials, monuments, and art installations can challenge viewers to confront the history of the places where we live and work. They also offer a place to honor those lost, to reckon with racial and social justice movements, and to engage with communities in new and inclusive ways.This is the first episode in a series about the new ways that artists and city leaders are thinking about the creation of memorials, monuments, and temporary public art.The 9/11 Memorial in downtown Manhattan is one of the most recognized memorials around the world. It's a beacon of hope, a tribute to those lost, and a place of learning to ensure future generations never forget. It's also become a leader in offering consulting to other cities and countries grappling with the challenge of commemorating loss to mass tragedy, and in working with communities around the world afflicted by terrorism and violence.Bloomberg Philanthropies' founder, Mike Bloomberg, was elected mayor of New York City just weeks after September 11, 2001, and currently serves as Chairman of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.  During his administration, Mike Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation co-created an international competition for a memorial to remember and honor those lost on September 11th and in the attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993.This episode features Anita Contini, from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts team, who developed the process and implementation plan for selecting the winning design for the future 9/11 Memorial, including the jury process for choosing its architect. She sits down with Michael Arad, the architect selected to design the memorial. Anita and Michael discuss the process of designing the 9/11 Memorial, what influences his work on memorials, the role public spaces play in bringing people together, and some of his most recent projects.

A year and a half into the pandemic, people have new questions they're looking to experts to answer: booster shots, variants, and how to manage long-haul COVID.This week's podcast episode was previously a Bloomberg Philanthropies virtual conversation about the COVID-19 pandemic featuring WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries Mike Bloomberg along with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Kelly Henning, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies' public health program.They discuss when a COVID vaccine for children could be approved, how often we may need to get booster shots, which variants they're keeping their eyes on, and more.

Imagine sheltering in place during the start of the coronavirus pandemic without having a home to shelter in. Sadly, more than 580,000 individuals in the United States experienced homelessness in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness. In an effort to help those experiencing homelessness during the pandemic, city officials acted quickly to help people find temporary shelter. Now, without lockdown restrictions in place, cities are facing new challenges as they move people from temporary shelters like hotels to group shelters and as eviction moratoriums lift.The pandemic has changed the way cities tackle almost every issue, and Bloomberg Associates, the pro-bono consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies, works side-by-side with cities around the world to address homelessness.Earlier this summer, Tamiru Mammo and Linda Gibbs, who work on Bloomberg Associates' social services team, co-authored a book entitled How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness: Innovations That Workalongside Jay Bainbridge and Muzzy Rosenblatt, their colleagues from the City of New York during the Bloomberg administration.The book provides a deep-dive into how ten cities – Bogotá, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Houston, Nashville, New York City, Baltimore, Edmonton, Paris, and Athens - have addressed street homelessness.On this episode, Tamiru Mammo and Jay Bainbridge join the podcast to discuss what stands out about how these cities are tackling homelessness, what successful solutions look like, and what the new normal looks like in terms of tackling this issue going forward.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued a "code red for humanity" when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared its latest report this week, which calls climate change "unequivocal" and "an established fact." And the growing frequency and intensity of heat waves, droughts, and storms like the ones we've experienced this summer are to be expected for years to come. Climate action is of critical importance for local leaders, as extreme temperatures are expected to be off the charts more frequently and for longer periods of time, causing significant harm to human health and well-being. While cities are often hit hardest by the impact of climate change, they are also on the frontlines in this fight. From planting trees to help cool down cities to reimagining and improving access to public spaces, mayors are taking immediate, bold action to improve quality of life for their residents. Bloomberg Associates, the pro bono consulting arm of Bloomberg Philanthropies, works with cities to implement sustainable and scalable solutions to fight climate change now. To tell us more about how cities are working to become more sustainable and resilient, Jacob Koch, who works on our Sustainability team at Bloomberg Associates, sits down with Alejandro Restrepo-Montoya, a Professor of Architecture at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín, Colombia. Alejandro formerly served as the City Architect of Medellín, and helped design the city's award-winning "Green Corridors" project, which helped to reduce average city temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius. Jacob also sits down with Ilaria Giuliani, the Deputy Chief Resilience Officer of the City of Milan. Bloomberg Associates has helped to support Mayor Beppe Sala's goal to plant three million trees by 2030 and to help re-imagine the historic streets and piazzas to be greener and ensure all Milanese live within a short walk of an upgraded public space. On this episode, Jacob, Alejandro and Ilaria discuss how cities use data to drive decision-making and evaluate impact, and the importance of bringing nature back to cities.

The pandemic has forced many to change their diet and exercise routines - and governments around the world are weighing how to encourage citizens to eat healthier and to get active again. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reviewing a report recommending a Salt and Sugar Reformation Tax, a first-of-its-kind policy which would add a 3 pound tax per kilogram of sugar sold at wholesale and 6 pounds per kilogram of salt sold at wholesale. If enacted, the tax would help fund an expansion of free school meals to 1.1 million more children in Britain. Healthy food policies help move more people toward healthier diets - but a lack of research expertise is a barrier to guiding national policies in countries around the world. The Vital Strategies Health Food Policy Fellowship, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, supports outstanding PhD candidates from Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Jamaica, Mexico, or South Africa who are committed to creating healthier food environments through public policy. The fellowship supports students from these countries as they are focus countries for Bloomberg Philanthropies' food policy program. Ahead of UN International Youth Day, Kristine Momanyi of our food policy team sits down with Trish Muzenda, Joana Cruz, and Nicholas Guzman - three Vital Strategies Healthy Food Policy Fellows - to discuss promising food policies and the fellowship program.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, two other public health epidemics have surged: gun violence and youth vaping. Parents have an important role to play in addressing these challenges - and it should come as no surprise that two of the most prominent advocacy groups fighting for public safety measures in the United States are organized by mothers. Mothers have long been leaders in mobilizing around social issues like drunk driving, women's suffrage, and child labor laws - and today's activists and organizers are leveraging social media and other digital tools to connect with and build a diverse coalition of volunteers across the country. On this episode, Katherine Oliver sits down with Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement fighting to protect Americans from gun violence with more than 6 million supporters, as well as Meredith Berkman and Dorian Fuhrman, the co-founders of Parents Against Vaping E-Cigarettes, or PAVE. PAVE seeks to educate parents about the dangers of e-cigarettes and advocate for legislative change to protect minors from Big Tobacco. Kindly note the views of the podcast guests are entirely their own, and Bloomberg Philanthropies hasn't independently verified any of the statements made by this week's podcast guests.

Drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury and death around the world. More than 90% of drowning deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, and children under the age of five are most at risk. To highlight the impact drowning has on communities - and to draw attention to the need for urgent action - the United Nations General Assembly passed its first-ever Resolution on Global Drowning Prevention, declaring July 25th as World Drowning Prevention Day. Our founder, Mike Bloomberg, is the World Health Organization's Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries. Given that drowning claims more than 235,000 lives a year, he's working to draw more awareness to this cause. Since 2012, Bloomberg Philanthropies' Initiative to Prevent Drowning supports tailored efforts to tackle the specific causes of drowning on a local level in Bangladesh, Viet Nam, and Uganda. To tell us more about the Initiative, Kelly Larson, who works on our public health team, sits down with Dr. Aminur Rahman, the Director of the Center for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh. They discuss why drowning is so prevalent for children below the age of 5 in Bangladesh, the importance of community daycares to prevent drowning, and why the government of Bangladesh is taking a lead on drowning prevention. Then, Becky Bavinger of the Bloomberg Philanthropies public health team sits down with Huyen Doan, the Viet Nam Country Director for the Global Health Advocacy Incubator. They discuss creating a survival swimming program for nearly 15,000 children in provinces with high drowning numbers and how we're measuring progress in drowning prevention.

One public health challenge that receives limited attention and insufficient resources is road safety. Our founder, Mike Bloomberg, is the WHO's Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries. Given that road traffic crashes kill nearly 1.35 million people and injure as many as 50 million every year, this is a major focus in his role. Weak and inadequate road safety laws, minimal or nonexistent vehicle safety standards, and streets designed solely for vehicle use - and not pedestrians - are serious threats to road safety, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In order to save lives on the road, Bloomberg Philanthropies has funded road safety efforts since 2007, and will continue to support its Initiative for Global Road Safety through 2025. It supports strengthening road safety laws and implementing evidence-based interventions in cities and countries across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, with a particular focus on speed management. In this episode, Kelly Larson of the Bloomberg Philanthropies public health team sits down with Soames Job, Head of the Global Road Safety Facility and Global Lead for Road Safety with the World Bank. They discuss how the World Bank works with countries around the world on road safety initiatives, how the pandemic has changed the way people drive, and how the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility works to ensure safe speeds and enforcement of speed limits around the world. Kelly Larson also sits down with Juanjo Mendez, the Secretary of Transportation of the City of Buenos Aires, to discuss how the city is working to reduce fatalities by 50% in the next 10 years, why the pandemic was an opportunity to strengthen road safety in Buenos Aires, and the role that reducing speeds plays in saving lives.

Over the past year, the United States has seen the rise of two major public health epidemics: the coronavirus and gun violence. When we talk about gun violence, we rightly talk about the lives lost. The pandemic has accelerated an austere fiscal environment, where every level of government is straining to maintain critical services like sanitation, public transportation, and education. At a time when every dollar counts, our colleagues at Everytown for Gun Safety researched how much gun violence is costing us - and it's a staggering $280 billion each year. This $280 billion figure represents the lifetime costs associated with gun violence, including immediate costs starting at the time of an incident, subsequent costs such as treatment, long-term physical and mental health care, forgone earnings, criminal justice costs, and cost estimates of quality-of-life over a victim's lifespan. Everytown for Gun Safety was formed in 2014, when Mayors Against Illegal Guns - a coalition co-founded by Mike Bloomberg during his mayoralty - merged with Moms Demand Action to create the largest gun violence prevention organization in America. Everytown President John Feinblatt and Everytown's Director of Research, Sarah Burd-Sharps, joined the podcast to tell us more about how their team calculated the economic cost of gun violence, why good storytelling is critical in the fight for gun sense action, and how Everytown is working to prevent gun violence at the federal, state, and local levels.

Imagine a lawless frontier. It probably wouldn't be so different from the ocean, where abuses like slavery and human trafficking or crimes like rape or murder are hidden from sight. Ian Urbina is a journalist focusing on lawlessness at sea. He has investigated how Chinese fishing vessels are illegally operating in the waters between Korea, Japan and Russia, violating UN sanctions, and recently, how the food security of coastal populations in West Africa is are at risk due to overfishing. After reporting on staff at The New York Times for about 20 years, he's started The Outlaw Ocean Project, a non-profit journalism organization which focuses on telling stories about the environmental, human rights, and labor abuses occurring offshore around the world. In order to reach a broader audience, Ian has also launched The Outlaw Ocean Music Project, which allows artists to create music inspired from journalism on ocean issues. As a result, hundreds of musicians from more than 80 countries have been telling new audiences about issues at sea. On this episode, Ian joins Melissa Wright - who oversees the Vibrant Oceans Initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies' program that works to protect the ocean and those who depend on it -- from climate change, pollution, and overfishing. Melissa and Ian will tell us more about how reporting at sea has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, how his team uses data from Global Fishing Watch to corroborate his work, and how you can take action to protect our ocean at home.

This marks a very special episode of Follow the Data: It's not only our 100th episode, but this podcast also coincides with the release of the 2020 Annual Report, our yearly review of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ efforts to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. To celebrate our 100th episode, Patti Harris, the CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies, joined the podcast. She oversees our programs focused on the arts, education, environment, government innovation, and public health, as well as Mike Bloomberg's corporate and personal philanthropy and Bloomberg Associates, our pro bono consultancy that works with mayors in cities around the world. She's spent more than two decades working with Mike, and previously served as first deputy mayor during his mayoralty. Patti is the first woman in New York City to have served in this role, which is the city's highest appointed position. Before joining the Bloomberg Administration, she managed Corporate Communications at Bloomberg LP, overseeing Philanthropy, Public Relations, and Government Affairs. Patti sits down with host Katherine Oliver for a socially distanced podcast recording at Bloomberg's global headquarters in New York - our first in-person recording in over a year! - to discuss how Bloomberg Philanthropies worked to make the biggest impact possible during the COVID-19 crisis, how employees at Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies have worked to support communities in need, and what's keeping her hopeful right now.

It's been just over a year since the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States, and the virus continues to spread rapidly through our communities. Last spring, we spoke with Dr. Arturo Casadevall – an infectious disease specialist and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University who was leading a team of experts to develop a convalescent blood plasma therapy for health care workers and for early treatment of COVID-19 patients. To help launch this research, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and Johns Hopkins worked together to provide early funding for the potential therapeutic uses of convalescent plasma. Fast forward to earlier this month, when the Mayo Clinic published a study showing antibodies in convalescent blood plasma therapy help lower mortality rates in over 3,000 coronavirus patients. While the COVID-19 vaccine continues to roll out, blood plasma therapy can help to save the lives of patients already infected with the coronavirus - and the Red Cross reports that hospital distributions of convalescent plasma for COVID-19 patents have increased by 250% since October. On this episode, Dr. Casadevall joins Dr. Jessica Leighton of the Bloomberg Philanthropies public health team to tell us more about how his research has progressed over the past few months, if convalescent blood plasma therapy and the vaccine are effective for new coronavirus strains, and how you could help save lives in your community. If you’ve recovered from COVID-19 and are interested in donating your blood plasma to others, please visit redcrossblood.org.

From vaccination efforts to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic to the effects of climate change, global leaders face many challenges. Perhaps just as grave of an issue -- but one that's gotten less time in the spotlight -- is the continued rise in obesity rates. The World Health Organization reports that worldwide obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. As mayor of New York City, Mike Bloomberg championed policies to help improve diets, from banning trans fats in restaurants and requiring calorie counts to be posted in chain restaurants, to launching the green cart program to provide fresh produce around the city. Today, Bloomberg Philanthropies' food policy program works to raise public awareness around obesity and supports policies to promote healthier diets around the world. One country where our work has grown is Mexico, which has emerged as a leader in food policy. In 2013, our partners in Mexico supported the passage of a one-peso per liter tax on sugary drinks, and was one of the first countries to do so. Robust evaluation of the tax showed that within two years of implementation, it was associated with a drop in sales of sugary drinks by almost 10%. Since that landmark tax, more than 30 countries, cities, and regions have implemented similar policies. More recently, in October of 2020, Mexico implemented a front-of-package warning label regulation, requiring foods and beverages that exceed certain thresholds for calories, sugar, salt, trans fat, and saturated fat to carry warning labels. On this episode, recorded in late 2020, Kristine Momanyi of the Bloomberg Philanthropies food policy team joins Ana Larrañaga, the Advocacy Coordinator at ContraPESO, a civil society organization that works to prevent noncommunicable diseases in Mexico, and Simón Barquera, the Director of the Nutrition and Health Research Center at the National Institute for Public Health in Mexico, to discuss the significance of the country's front-of-package warning labels. This is the third and final episode in a three-part mini series around food policy

Imagine finding a $4,000 check or more from the federal government in your bank account. For many American families of four, that's a real possibility thanks to the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is designed to help low-to-moderate income workers and families get a tax break - and in Detroit, 80% of residents who were eligible were not applying for it, even though the city has one of the lowest median incomes and highest poverty rates in the country. To help Detroiters claim the Earned Income Tax Credit - and to make sure they're not leaving money on the table - Bloomberg Associates worked with Mayor Mike Duggan and the Accounting Aid Society among other Detroit partners, to develop a strategy to spread the word around it and encourage eligible households to apply for it. Since the expanded EITC campaign began in 2016, thousands of additional Detroit residents claim their Earned Income Tax Credit annually – worth tens of millions of dollars in the pockets of Detroiters. On this episode, recorded in late 2020, Rose Gill and Amy Kurland of the Bloomberg Associates Municipal Integrity team sit down with Kathy Aro and Gabrielle Thomas, who run the Account Aid Society, an organization which assists low-to-moderate income residents of southeast Michiganders with free tax preparation and education services. Kathy and Gabrielle discussed how they're giving back to Detroiters and how they shifted operations during the coronavirus pandemic. Tiffany Thomas, a Detroit resident, and Mayor Duggan also join the podcast to discuss the success of the campaign and what it means for Detroiters.

Black patients have better health outcomes when treated by Black doctors - but the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic threatens to worsen existing disparities potentially preventing current Black medical students burdened with medical school debt from completing their degrees. Last fall, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $100 million gift to the four historically Black medical schools in the U.S. - Meharry Medical College, Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. This gift will help ease the debt burden of medical students currently enrolled and receiving financial aid in order to help increase the number of Black doctors in the U.S. This gift is the first investment of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative, an effort to increase intergenerational Black wealth and address systemic underinvestment in Black communities. In this episode, recorded in December, Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads the Greenwood Initiative at Bloomberg Philanthropies, sits down with Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, President and Dean of Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. James Hildreth, President and CEO of Meharry Medical College. They discuss what makes their students and school communities so special, the underlying factors contributing to health disparities in Black communities, and how Bloomberg Philanthropies' gift will enable students to choose what and where they practice medicine based on passion, not a paycheck. This is the second episode in a two-part series around this investment.

2020 will certainly be remembered as a pivotal year in history – defined by a global pandemic which exacerbated challenges to the American public health system, exposed racial and social injustice, and characterized a tense presidential election. For this episode – the last of the year – we wanted to highlight some of this year’s episodes which gave us fresh perspective on the events of this year: Systemic Racism as a Public Health Issue, The Pandemic’s Effect on Gun Violence, How Cities Are Supporting Arts & Culture During COVID-19, Virtual Advising, Does It Work?, and Moving American Beyond Coal. Follow the Data will be on hiatus for the next two weeks during the holidays. In the meantime, here are five podcasts our team is listening to right now: Public Health on Call, Big Tobacco Messed with the Wrong Moms, No Place Like Home, A Matter of Degrees, and The Serpentine Podcast.