On The Shoulders Of Giants

Summer Break: I'm working hard getting some much needed R&R before I start my next season of the On The Shoulders Of Giants Podcast. I've already lined up some exciting guests for Season 3, but in the meantime, here is one of my favorites from Season 2. Katherine Bramhall is a midwife who specializes in pregnancy, at home childbirth, postpartum, women’s sexual and reproductive health, and newborn care out of her Gentle Landing Midwifery home office in Barre Vermont. In 2004, in response to the earthquake in Bam, Iran, Katherine began her intensive years of disaster relief work, focusing on the long-term effects of trauma on family and maternal/child health systems. In addition to Iran, her relief work has taken her to Russia and Bali Indonesia, New York City, post-Katrina Louisiana and Haiti.

Summer Break: I'm working hard getting some much needed R&R before I start my next season of the On The Shoulders Of Giants Podcast. I've already lined up some exciting guests for Season 3, but in the meantime, here is one of my favorites from Season 2. Rebecca Roose and Timna Dulmer are two parents of two children who have taken the decision to allow their children to live as the gender they identify with in order to save them from a future of heartache and pain. Please open your heart and your minds as we hear the extraordinary and intimate journeys of these two families that are re-writing the definition of normal family life.

Summer Break: I'm working hard getting some much needed R&R before I start my next season of the On The Shoulders Of Giants Podcast. I've already lined up some exciting guests for Season 3, but in the meantime, here is one of my favorites from Season 2. Confronted by Hope: Episode 24 - Reverend Rick Welch is the Executive Director of Teen Challenge Vermont. In this interview, he talks to me about experiencing abuse as a child, a troubled life as a teenager and drug addiction as an adult. Despite 16 treatment programs and 56 detoxes, it was only after getting connected with Teen Challenge that he got freed from 20 years of drug enslavement.

Children Of Hephaestus: Chris Thompson is the Executive Director and a founding board member at Generator Makerspace. Generator Makerspace is a combination of artist studio, classroom, workshop, and business incubator at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Generator is mashing together traditionally siloed areas like art, technology, design, music, film, and science by providing tools and technology often available only in factories, schools and universities or at a high cost to the users, like 3D printer and laser cutter, high end computers and software as well as a workshop dedicated to rapid prototyping of products; it aims to be a jumping-off point for creative individuals and new small businesses to get their designs and ideas up and running. Generator VT: https://generatorvt.com/

Mind Full or Mindful: Dr. James Hudziak is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, who was named to U.S. News and World Report’s Top Doctors list in 2012-2013. Dr. Hudziak placed in the top 1% for excellence in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with special expertise in ADD/ADHD, genetic neuroimaging and health promotion.  He is also a Professor of Psychiatry & Pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, the Director of the Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families, and the Director of the Wellness Environment at the University of Vermont. Dr. James Hudziak: https://www.uvmhealth.org/medcenter/provider/james-j-hudziak-md UVM School of Medicine: http://www.med.uvm.edu/ Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families: http://www.med.uvm.edu/vccyf/home UVM Wellness Environment: https://www.uvm.edu/we

My Brother’s Keeper: Jacob Bogre is the Executive Director of the Association of Africans Living In Vermont (AALV), an organization whose mission is to equip immigrants and refugees with necessary tools, skills and support to resettle in Vermont. Jacob is an immigrant himself, who arrived on the shores of this country in 2003 from Burkina Faso. He holds a Master's in Law degree from University of Ouagadougou. AALV helps new Americans from all parts of the world gain independence in Vermont communities through a range of services including job development, behavioral health awareness, interpreter services and more. Their mission is to promote the equal opportunity, dignity and self-sufficiency of refugee and immigrant individuals and families. AALV Website: https://www.aalv-vt.org/

Be Curious, Be Curious, Be Curious: Jan Reynolds is an award-winning author of 17 books and photographer whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including National Geographic, The New York Times, and Outside magazine. Jan is also a world class skier who holds the women’s record for high altitude skiing; an Olympic biathlete and Triathlete, Esquire magazine called her the Athlete of the Decade, she is a mountain climber and was one of the first women to climb and ski around ALL the peaks of Mt. Everest; she has also been an expeditioner and photojournalist for major publications.  But what really caught Jan’s imagination and what sets her apart from her peers, are the 17 books she has written about all the indigenous people she met along these mind blowing adventures and the vanishing cultures that she has immersed herself in. Jan lives in Stowe, Vermont. Jan Reynolds: www.janreynolds.com

The Voice of Vermont: Jane Lindholm is the host of the award-winning Vermont Public Radio program "Vermont Edition" and is also the host and creator of "But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids". Jane joined VPR in 2007 to expand Vermont Edition from a weekly pilot into the flagship daily program that it is today. Jane is now the unofficial voice of Vermont and helps inform Vermonters navigate complex, social, political, environmental, economic, etc. issues at the local, regional and national level.  Jane Lindholm: http://digital.vpr.net/people/jane-lindholm Vermont Edition: http://digital.vpr.net/programs/vermont-edition

Unconditional Love: Most transgender children still live in the shadows, viewed as freaks of nature: rejected by their families, many grow up hating their bodies, falling victim to high rates of drug abuse, violence, depression and suicide. Rebecca Roose and Timna Dulmer are two parents of two children who have taken the decision to allow their children to live as the gender they identify with in order to save them from a future of heartache and pain. Please open your heart and your minds as we hear the extraordinary and intimate journeys of these two families that are re-writing the definition of normal family life. Outright Vermont: www.outrightvt.org/ Pride Center of Vermont: https://www.pridecentervt.org/

Community Driven: Ali Dieng is a Councilman for Burlington Ward 7. Ali is a passionate and dedicated community leader. Only having been in the U.S. for 10 years, Ali is now the Family Outreach Coordinator and Parent University Manager in the Burlington School District, and is deeply engaged in the community in everything from the the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity to the West African drumming and dance association he co-founded, Africa Jamono. He studied international law at the University of Mauritania in Africa and in his recent election to the Burlington City Council, he is the only person of color and second immigrant American to sit on the council. Ali's Website: http://alidieng.com/

Informed Choice: Katherine Bramhall is the founder of Gentle Landing Midwifery and President of Yayasan Bumi Sehat in the US. Katherine specializes in pregnancy, at home childbirth, postpartum, women's sexual and reproductive health, and newborn care. In 2004, in response to the earthquake in Bam, Iran, Katherine began her intensive years of disaster relief work, focusing on the long-term effects of trauma on family and maternal/child health systems. Gentle Landing Midwifery website: http://www.gentlelanding.com/ Bumi Sehat Foundation International website: http://www.bumisehatfoundation.org/

A Bold Explorer Into The Great Unknown: Bruce Duncan is the Managing Director of the Terasem Movement Foundation Inc. The Terasem Movement Foundation is a Vermont-based organization that supports scientific research and development in the areas of cryonics, biotechnology, and cyber consciousness and they are the inventors of Bina48, one of the most advanced social robots in the world. Equipped with artificial intelligence software called a character engine, Bina48 uses artificial intelligence based on human memories, attitudes, beliefs, and mannerisms to interact with people - Bina48 can think, engage, evolve and remember everything! Is Bina48 the blueprint by which one day our lives can be recreated by digitally uploading, preserving, evoking and reviving human consciousness. Website: http://www.terasemmovementfoundation.com/ Lifenaut: https://www.lifenaut.com/

Confronted by Hope: Reverend Rick Welch is the Executive Director of Teen Challenge Vermont. In this interview, he talks to me about experiencing abuse as a child, a troubled life as a teenager and drug addiction as an adult, but how Teen Challenge freed him from a life of enslavement. Teen Challenge was founded by David Wilkerson in 1958 as a faith-based, long-term residential treatment center for young men and women caught in the vicious cycle of drug and alcohol dependency. There are now 1,600 Teen Challenge programs in 125 countries, providing 35,000 beds of residential rehabilitation treatment, and 261 of those centers are located in the United States. Teen Challenge Vermont Website: https://tcvermont.org/

Overweight Underachievers with Counter Culture Values: Jerry Greenfield is the co-founder of Ben & Jerry's. Jerry talks to me about how he and his childhood friend, Ben Cohen, two overweight underachievers with counterculture values, founded the world's most popular ice cream brand out of the failure of the things they were individually trying to do. From humble beginnings in 1978 in a scoop show in Burlington Vermont, the ice cream company has grown to an multinational corporation, but in true Vermont fashion, the company has maintained localvore values and pushes progressive social causes.

From Dilettante To Turnaround Artist: Elisabeth (Liz) Robert is the former CEO of Vermont Teddy Bear & now Owner/CEO of Terry Bicycles. 'Start-up entrepreneur’, 'business executive', ‘going-private’, ‘turn-around artist’, ‘relocation-preneur’ and real estate developer, from  startups to publicly traded corporations  - there are very few Vermont business environments and challenges Liz has not mastered.

Red Sea, Blue Ocean: Marguerite Dibble is the President/CEO of GameTheory.  Marguerite founded GameTheory in her Junior year at Champlain College in Burlington Vermont in 2011. She and a small team of fellow Game Development students dove in directly after graduation, building products and forging a future for the company, building game powered solutions to tackle real world problems. Visit GameTheory: www.gametheoryco.com Previous On The Shoulders Of Giants Podcast Episodes: tcrutanhira.com/podcastepisodes/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/OnTheShouldersOfGiantsPodcast

Breasts: Fun and Sexy … and Practical: Supermoms, Sascha Mayer & Christine Dodson, are the founders of Mamava Inc. Mamava is a company that delivers design solutions for nursing mamas on the go. Mamava is on a mission to normalize pumping and breastfeeding. With the "Happy Breasts" logo and the words “Privacy for pumping and breastfeeding” emblazoned on the front of their nursing pods, they are on a mission to remind those that have forgotten that  breastfeeding is a natural part of life, get over your squeamishness that milk comes out of a human and to support women who feed the tiny citizens of the world from their own bodies. Visit Mamava: www.mamava.com Previous On The Shoulders Of Giants Podcast Episodes: tcrutanhira.com/podcastepisodes/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/OnTheShouldersOfGiantsPodcast

Mission Driven: Allyson Laackman's 16 year old daughter convinced her to volunteer for the Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign.  Little did Allyson know that in a few short months, she would then go on to serve as the first Chief Financial Officer of the Obama White House, as the Interim Director of Executive Residence and eventually the Chief of Staff of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, during the 2012 Obama Reelection Campaign.  Allyson now lives right here in Vermont where she currently serves as the Executive Director of the Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) and speaks at length about caring about the mission.

Empowering Communities One Student At A Time: Raichle (Rai) Farrelly is an Assistant Professor by day who follows the convictions of her heart by night. After a trip to Tanzania and seeing how lack of access to education was adversely affecting children in rural communities, Rai founded Project Wezesha, a non profit aimed at providing educational opportunities for under-served girls and women in remote and under-developed regions. The aim of Project Wezesha is to empower local communities through increased access to education for the children.  By engaging the community and relying on village leadership, Project Wezesha is able to target the locally identified needs of the community. Rai still works full time at St. Michael's College in Vermont while running her non-profit and also serves as the Executive Director of Girls Education International. Project Wezesha: http://www.projectwezesha.org/ Donate To Project Wezesha: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-children-in-tanzania/ Previous On The Shoulders Of Giants Podcast Episodes: https://tcrutanhira.com/podcastepisodes/

Give Peas A Chance: At the age of 26, Trevor Sullivan, was already on the way to founding Burlington's most popular vegan restaurant-café: Pingala Café, and in just 3 short years has already opened a second cafe as well as a vegan consumer packaged food line, Animaloo Vegan Foods. I've found myself pigging out at Trevor's vegan cafe, the stuff is righteous and downright delicious ... the future is vegan!

The Best Of Season 1 (Part 2 of 2): This is the second of two parts recapping all of the best portions of the interviews conducted in Season 1. I wanted to start Season 2 of the Podcast with a bang, and thought what better way to do this than by going through all of the inspirational interviews I had in Season 1 and summarize them into 2 power-packed hours. If you are a regular listener or brand new to the On The Shoulders of Giants Podcast, this recap will allow you to reconnect with- or catch up on- all the best parts of the 16 interviews I conducted in Season 1 of the Podcast: real people doing incredibly cool stuff! A brand new episode is scheduled for Tuesday October 17, 2017. Enjoy! GET IN TOUCH: Website: https://tcrutanhira.com/podcastepisodes/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OnTheShouldersOfGiantsPodcast

The Best Of Season 1 (Part 1 of 2): This is the first of two parts recapping all of the best portions of the interviews conducted in Season 1. I wanted to start Season 2 of the Podcast with a bang, and thought what better way to do this than by going through all of the inspirational interviews I had in Season 1 and summarize them into 2 power-packed hours.  If you are a regular listener or brand new to the On The Shoulders of Giants Podcast, this recap will allow you to reconnect with- or catch up on- all the best parts of the 16 interviews I conducted in Season 1 of the Podcast: real people doing incredibly cool stuff! A brand new episode is scheduled for Tuesday October 17, 2017. Enjoy!

Being Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable: When was the last time you intentionally put yourself out of your own comfort zone in order to relate to and meet the needs of the underprivileged. Stephanie Hobold, a mentor, and community and relationship builder focused on strengthening local communities and youths did just that; she moved out of her home on the hill section of Burlington to move into a low-income suburb of Winooski so that she could relate to- and identify more with the underprivileged people she was trying to help.

No Child Left Inside: Ever since she was a child, Angella Gibbons, the Founder of EarthWalk Vermont, has been passionately curious about the great outdoors. She founded EarthWalk Vermont in 2005, and uses nature-based education like observation training, animal tracking, wilderness first aid and a general appreciation of the outdoors to inspire and empower children, families and communities to reconnect with and care for one another and the Earth through long-term nature mentoring.

Heady Heights: When John and Jen Kimmich founded the Alchemist Brewery, they had no idea that they would lose their entire brew pub to a hurricane and by taking risks and trusting their instincts would end up running arguably the most popular craft brewery in the country and the beer that has been christened “the best beer in the world”.

A Call To Serve: Miro Weinberger is the Mayor of Burlington, Vermont's largest city. He give up a successful & promising career in the private sector to run for Mayor in 2012.

Look for The Space Between The Trees: Murray Banks followed his instincts and found his calling as a Motivational Speaker. Murray's many credentials include Vermont Teacher of the Year, Outstanding Educator Award, winner of 4 National Championships in Triathlon, as well as one of the top finishers in the Ironman Triathlon World Championship. He also worked on an advanced degree in educational leadership and co-authored a textbook.

From The Agony of Defeat, To The Thrill of Victory: Hannah Kearney is a mogul skier who won a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Having placed 3rd-to-last in the 2006 Olympics, with her 2 Olympic medals, Hannah went on to amass a record-tying 46 World Cup wins and 3 world titles to take her place atop the Mount Rushmore of Mogul skiing.

The Intersection of War and Beer: Andrea Gagner, is the CEO of 14th Star Brewing Company, a Vermont brewery founded by her brother Steve, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars whose idea for the business took shape during downtime between patrols. Andrea has helped transform 14th Star from a home brewing hobby to one of the most sought after breweries, known almost as much for its socially responsible mission as its great beer.

If We Don’t Shape The Change, The Change Will Shape Us: Kesha Ram is the embodiment of a leader and community activist: she was the first minority Student Body President in the history of the University of Vermont and only the 7th female President in its 227 year history. At 22, Kesha became the youngest ever member of the VT Legislature.

The Ghost Of Christmas Past: Rich Tarrant, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of MyWebGrocer is not stranger to business success - he is the son of Rich Tarrant Sr. who founded IDX, and as a boy, Rich's philosophy about business, leadership and entrepreneurship was shaped at the dinning room table. Proving that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Rich Tarrant founded MyWebGrocer, which is now the leading provider of online eCommerce, marketing and data services for grocery chains and packaged consumer goods companies in the US.

Highly Meditated: Yoga Instructor Kerry Fantelli discusses her life as a Yogini and how yoga became her passion and way of life ... Yoga can change the heart - but we're not just talking about blood pressure.

The Rock That Never Rolls: A Gallop Poll shows Vermont as being the least religious state in the US. Pastor Mike Kriesel, the Lead Pastor at Community Bible Church talks about his life as a Pastor and the challenges of Christianity in the state of Vermont.

Laugh Out Loud ... Natalie Miller & Nathan Hartswick, founders of The Vermont Comedy Club, talk about making a living in the performing arts industry & how they created work for themselves in a field that no one had previously been successful in.

Making serendipity happen. Ted Adler, Entrepreneur & President of Union Street Media talks about how he started a thriving business in his college dorm.

The dead have taught me how to live. Jean Luc Dushime photojournalist and social activist talks about surviving the genocide in Rwanda and the challenges of an immigrant’s life in America.

Markey Read, President and Co-founder of Career Networks a leadership, organizational and career development company based right here in Vermont. Markey Read has 25 years of experience in coaching and training groups and individuals in developing and implementing sustainable Leadership and Professional Development programs. Markey is Certified in Myers Briggs Type Indicator, FlexTalk, and Emotional Intelligence; and is the author of Your Cast of Characters, a Leadership Development Tool Kit.

Ashley Wishinski, Rental Real Estate Investor & Strategist and a Mom of Twins. Ashley helps real estate investors get started in the field of real estate. Not your average 30-something year old ... my hope is that by sharing her story, Ashley will inspire you to take action, make your dreams a reality and live a fulfilling life. She wasn’t gifted with money to get her real estate investing off the ground - her success and accomplishments have been a function of making a plan, sticking to it and not letting her circumstances get her down!