When it Mattered

Ep. 72 — She went from a childhood filled with fears to becoming a fearless stunt performer and wilderness adventurer / Alice Ford, stunt actor and producer/host of “Alice's Adventures.” Alice Ford has had a long and evolving relationship with fear. An all-star gymnast, athlete, track and field runner, and diver, Ford's life path came to a dead-end one day after she gave up her prestigious athletic scholarship from the University of Vermont and moved to the University of Arizona, to escape the cold. But instead, she wound up getting a whole lot of heat from some members of a drug cartel (tied to her then-boyfriend, who was dealing drugs) who ransacked her home one day but left her and her dog unharmed. It took that incident and several other wake-ups call to get her life on track and get back in touch with her athleticism and gymnastics roots to build a successful career in the world of stunt acting and get back in touch with her love of nature. Today, Ford is one of the industry's most up-and-coming female leads, working with directors such as Michael Bey in action-packed movies including “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” and Star Wars, suffering numerous injuries and concussions in the course of her work, which was one factor along with her love of nature, in building a parallel career track as a wildlife adventurer. Ford is producing and starring in a television series, "Alice Ford's: World Heritage Adventures.” And she also stars in her own YouTube channel called "Alice Ford Adventures,” where she hosts travel videos from her many hikes and climbs around the globe, bringing her full circle in her evolving relationship with both fear and nature. Thanks for listening! Subscribe: https://bit.ly/ChitraRagavanChannel

Ep. 71 —  A failed apprentice farmer turns into a renowned futurist / Thomas Frey, Founder and Executive Director, DaVinci Institute & Co-host, Futurati Podcast  Born on a grain farm in South Dakota, Thomas Frey was an unlikely candidate to become a world-renowned futurist and public speaker. But then one day, when he was four years old, Frey's parents received a big mysterious box that would change his life forever. His mom put him on a tractor at age 11 to distract him from the television but Frey would prove to be, in his own words, a “terrible farmer”—because his mind was always elsewhere. In fact, it was in the future. And that's where it has stayed ever since. I was delighted to have a deep conversation with Thomas Frey on the future of the world. He's currently the founder and Executive Director of the DaVinci Institute & Co-host of the Futurati Podcast, with Trent Fowler.  Over the past decade, Frey has built an enormous following around the world based on his ability to develop accurate visions of the future and describe the opportunities ahead. Before launching the DaVinci Institute, Frey spent 15 years at IBM as an engineer and designer where he received over 270 awards, more than any other IBM engineer. And if that isn't proof that he's no slacker, Frey also is a past member of the Triple Nine Society (the High I.Q. society for those over the 99.9th percentile). If you liked this episode, check out these other episodes:

Ep. No. 70 — He built a career path at the age of eight to become a U.S. Air Force combat pilot and safe-keeper of U.S. nuclear weapons / Maj Gen Robert Wheeler, USAF (ret), CEO, Strategic Consulting Unlimited.  When Robert Wheeler was just 8 years old, his mother took him to the Chicago Air Show. It changed his life. From that moment on, Wheeler became obsessed with an unwavering goal: To become a U.S. fighter pilot.  Wheeler more than fulfilled his dream. During his 32-year career in the U.S. Air Force, he served as a combat pilot in the B-52 and B-2, earning more than 5,000 flight hours and seven operational commands, including Wing Commands in the two largest bomber wings in the Air Force.  Wheeler also served as the Deputy Director for Nuclear Operations, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. As such, he served as the principal adviser to the commander on issues pertaining to strategic deterrence and nuclear operations. He served as the command's principal flag officer responsible for management and oversight of the nuclear enterprise. He retired in March 2016. Major General Wheeler's decorated career in the military culminated in his role as DOD Deputy Chief Information Officer for Information Infrastructure and Command, Control, Communications/Computers (C4), at the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.  In these critical roles, Wheeler obtained a wealth of knowledge about the ways of Vladimir Putin and has some key insights into the trajectory of the Russian President's invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine's surge of wins in the ground game in recent weeks. And he offers sobering insights into Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine if pushed too far against the wall.  Thanks for Listening.

Ep. No. 69  —  A battered, bloodied, police officer proves her mettle during the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol / Officer Caroline Edwards, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP). Officer Caroline Edwards of the U.S. Capitol Police's First Responder Unit reported for duty on January 6, 2021, along with her colleagues, with little warning from her supervisors about the clear and present danger of extreme violence and the potential use of firearms from the angry pro-Trump mob descending on the Capitol that morning. Officer Edwards is believed to be the first law enforcement officer injured by the rioters as she attempted to protect the west front of the Capitol. But despite being knocked unconscious, suffering from a concussion, and getting bear-sprayed and pepper-sprayed, Edwards recovered enough to rush to the aid of her fellow officers who were in grave danger from the violent crowd. This June, Officer Edwards testified about her ordeal before the Select Committee investigating the January 6th attacks. In this dramatic interview, Edwards describes what happened on January 6th and her long and painful recovery from her injuries and trauma. And she reveals how she always wanted to be a police officer but held back for years from fulfilling her dream because she thought she wasn't physically up to the job. She certainly proved her mettle and learned just how tough she is on the day of the riots. I'm so grateful to Officer Edwards for sharing her incredible story of courage and resilience and those of her fellow officers. They rushed to her aid on January 6th, and she, in turn, reciprocated in full measure to help save them, despite her severe injuries, when they were overrun by the violent mob intent on overturning the results of the 2020 presidential elections at the behest of outgoing-President Donald Trump. If you would like to donate to the U.S.Capitol Police Memorial Fund, please click here. Thanks so much for listening!   Helpful Links:

Ep. 68 — He survived a near-fatal shooting by a hitman hired by his ex-wife to become one of Hollywood's top stuntmen / Garrett Warren, Stunt Actor/Director On May 20, 2000, Hollywood stuntman Garrett Warren was hanging out at his home in Westlake Village, California with his mom when the doorbell rang insistently. When Warren opened the door, he found himself facing the barrel of a gun. What happened next was not a stunt scene with fake bullets. Warren was shot four times, including in his right eye, and left to die on his front porch. The gunman fled the scene but not before he shot at Warren's mother twice, missing narrowly, after she came to the door to see what all the commotion was about. Warren miraculously survived the attack but lost his right eye. His ex-wife, Claudio Haro, former wife of actor Joe Pesci, plead not guilty but was implicated in the attempted murder plot and sentenced to 12 years and four months in prision. Since then, Warren has gone on to become an immensely successful stunt performer, stunt double, fight coordinator, and unit director in major movies including Avatar, Mission Impossible III, the X-Men movies,  Logan, IronMan 2, Agents of SHIELD, and Spider-Man 2, to name just a few. He has taught martial arts and fight choreography to such celebrities as Jessica Alba, Jada Pinkett Smith, John Travolta, and Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a., "The Rock,” and is a personal trainer to many stars. I learned a wealth of information about the world of stunt choreography through my fascinating conversation with Garrett Warren and I know you will too! If you liked this episode, check out these other episodes: Ep. 65. Mexican gangsters faked avocado purchase to launder ransom payment / Patrick Struebi, Fairtrasa Ep. 63. Held hostage by a drug lord reveals the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Cantos Calderón / Former Vice President of Colombia Ep. 61. Heroism, activism, reconciliation with nature / Jerry White, Nobel laureate, landmine survivor Ep. 14. Terrifying robbery and kidnapping reveals what truly matters in life / Stanley Alpert, Attorney

Ep. 67  — He built a successful startup while waging a life-threatening battle against bipolar disorder / Andy Dunn, Co-founder, Bonobos, and Author, “Burn Rate: Launching A Startup And Losing My Mind.” Andy Dunn would never have predicted that he would wind up naked and writhing on the floor of Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric Emergency Room in New York — in the throes of a massive bipolar episode. Nor that when he would be released from Bellevue a week later, he would be arrested on charges of assaulting his then-girlfriend -now-wife, and her mother. That night in 2016 was a spectacular fall from grace for Andy Dunn, then the CEO and co-founder of the massively successful e-commerce-driven menswear brand, Bonobos. It was the most consequential but not the first time that Dunn had wound up in terrible situations during his nearly-two-decade battle against bipolar disorder.  All the while, he was leading and scaling Bonobos, which he ultimately sold to Walmart. Dunn writes about his struggle with bipolar disorder in unsparing detail in his new critically acclaimed bestseller, “Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind.” In riveting parallel narratives, Dunn uses his own relentlessly-cyclical battles against hypomania and depression, the hallmarks of bipolar disorder or manic depression as it used to be called,  to place tech startup founders under an unsparing lens as he explores the prevalence of mental illness in Silicon Valley. And he brilliantly parses the fine line between inspired genius and megalomania which are common traits among these exponentially successful entrepreneurs. Thanks for Listening. If you liked this episode, do check out these other episodes from When It Mattered: Ep. 50. Great career despite insurmountable obstacles / Leigh Steinberg, Steinberg Sports Ep. 21. Disenchanted doctor finds secret inspiration in heroin addict / Dr. Andrew Lees, Neurologist Ep. 37. Tumultuous childhood led to career in human behavior / Nicole Fisher, HHR Strategies

Ep. No. 66 — Fired by President Donald Trump, a distinguished diplomat helps impeach him and reclaims her narrative / Marie Yovanovitch, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and author, “Lessons from the Edge”. On April 24, 2019, in the dead of night, with no explanation, Marie Yovanovitch got a call from the U.S State Department, essentially removing her immediately from her post as Ambassador to Ukraine. A few days later, back in Washington DC — a shell-shocked Yovanovitch learned the extraordinary details of why she had been fired from her job and that the man behind it was none other than her boss, President Donald Trump. After the shock wore off, Ambassador Yovanovitch decided to fight back. Pilloried by the right-wing media, she publicly testified in Congress under oath during Trump's impeachment hearings, resulting in his first of two impeachments. Yovanovitch has written a fascinating new memoir called “Lessons from the Edge,”  in which she systematically lays out the months-long attempts by Trump and his cronies to ruin her reputation and subvert democracy using a foreign power, Ukraine. And she describes how she seized back her narrative from the former president. As Congressional hearings cast new light on Trump's last-ditch efforts to stay in power — culminating in the January 6, 2021 riots in the US Capitol by his supporters — I'm so honored to welcome the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. If you liked this episode, please check out these other episodes: When It Mattered: 60. Putin laid his cards on the table years before Ukraine invasion / Gen. James Jones, USMC  56. Retired cop learns his job has just begun / Thomas Manger, US Capitol Police 15. Big-time political advisor returns to his small-town roots, finds urgent new cause /James Carville Techtopia: 26. Technology is re-wiring Ukraine's narrative / Alex Deane and Bryan Cunningham

Ep. 65 — An epiphany in Peru results in a kidnapping in Mexico that galvanizes the evolution of a fair trade social entrepreneur / Patrick Struebi, Founder & Executive Chairman, Fairtrasa Patrick Struebi was eager to fly home to Switzerland on one of his periodic visits after spending eight years in Mexico establishing Fairtrasa, one of the world's largest fair trade organizations for avocados and other fruits from Latin America. It was the morning of January 28, 2011. Struebi's then-girlfriend had come to pick him up at his home, to drive him to the bus station, from where he planned to go Mexico City to take the plane back home. As he put the bags in the trunk, two cars suddenly blocked the driveway and two masked men with guns threw him into one of the cars and whisked him away in a highly orchestrated kidnapping for ransom plot. Thrown on the floor of a cold cellar, masked and handcuffed, and in the clutches of ruthless Mexican gangsters who made him watch videos of violent killings, Struebi somehow kept his cool and tried to figure a way out. He was released after five days of coordinated activity between the Mexican and Swiss governments. The kidnapping gave Struebi a lens into the economic conditions of his hostage takers and renewed his commitment to building Fairtasa as a means to lift Latin American farmers out of poverty. For International Fruit Day this July 1st, I'm honored to welcome a pioneer in the field of fair trade, Patrick Struebi, serial social entrepreneur, thought leader, humanitarian, and founder and Executive Chairman of the Fairtrasa Group. Struebi has never publicly shared the story of his kidnapping publicly. He's doing it here for the first time so I'm grateful for his trust. If you liked this episode, check out these other episodes: 63. Held hostage by a drug lord reveals the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Cantos Calderón / Former Vice President of Colombia 61. Heroism, activism, reconciliation with nature / Jerry White, Nobel laureate, landmine survivor 14. Terrifying robbery and kidnapping reveals executive leadership lessons

Ep. No. 64 — Disobeying his boss turned a humanitarian crisis into a calling / Sasha Chanoff, CEO and Founder, RefugePoint and Co-Author, “From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions”. In 2000, refugee expert and humanitarian aid worker Sasha Chanoff was in the Congo on a mission to evacuate a very specific set of Tutsi refugees, who were on a UN resettlement list. But as he was about to leave with those refugees, Chanoff was invited into a tent. And what he saw in that tent would shake the foundation of his life, soul, and career. That “crucible moment” as Chanoff calls his experience in that tent prompted him to launch RefugePoint, whose mission is to address the critical and unmet needs of those who fall through the cracks of humanitarian assistance and have no other options for survival. RefugePoint has a special focus on women, children, and urban refugees. Chanoff is the co-author of the leadership book, “From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions,” which he co-authored with his dad, noted non-fiction writer, David Chanoff. He has won many awards and accolades for his extraordinary contributions to addressing the global refugee crisis. In this moving episode, Chanoff examines the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the global refugee and humanitarian crisis that it is exacerbating. And he dives deep into his and RefugePoints efforts to address the huge gaps in the systems put in place globally to help the 100 million people that have been forced to leave their homes, belongings, and families behind, sacrificing everything they know and love, as is happening in Ukraine today. As we commemorate World Refugee Day today and recognize the grim realities of the forced migration crisis happening all around the world, I'm honored to welcome a pioneer in the field, Sasha Chanoff, CEO and Founder of RefugePoint. If you liked this episode, check out these other episodes: 26. Technology is rewiring Ukraine's narrative / Alex Deane & Bryan Cunningham 63. Held hostage by a drug lord reveals the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Cantos Calderón / Former Vice President of Colombia 61. Heroism, activism, reconciliation with nature / Jerry White, Nobel laureate, landmine survivor 22. How is Polaris fighting human trafficking? / Anjana Rajan, CTO, Polaris 43. Ignoring advice to avoid philosophy pays off in big ways / Courtney Bowman, Palantir 21. Disenchanted doctor finds secret inspiration in heroin addict / Dr. Andrew Lees, Neurologist

Ep. No. 63 — Kidnapped and held hostage by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar revealed the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Santos Calderón, former Vice President of Colombia and former Colombian Ambassador to the United States. For months, Pablo Escobar, notorious head of the Medellín drug cartel and journalist Francisco Santos Calderon — one of his fiercest critics in the press, had been playing a dangerous cat and mouse game. Escobar was intent on kidnapping Santos — then the Editor-in-Chief of El Tiempo, Colombia's largest and most influential publication — and other journalists, as a bargaining chip to prevent extradition to the United States to stand trial for his murderous greed. Santos, tipped off to Escobar's intentions, had been changing his travel routes and work routines constantly to evade the cartel kingpin's henchmen. But on September 19, 1990, Santos was riding home from work in his bulletproof vehicle when the unthinkable happened. His car was surrounded by gunmen who killed his driver and kidnapped Santos who was one of 10 journalists and elites held hostage by Escobar that year. He was chained to a bed and held for eight months before being released. Santos was just 30 years old when Escobar snatched him off the streets. He was lucky to be alive. Between 1980 and 2000, nearly 180 journalists were killed for speaking up against the drug cartels. Santos would launch a highly successful campaign to reduce the epidemic of kidnappings in Colombia. He left the country for two years to avoid getting assassinated by the Marxist-Leninist guerilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), after getting tipped off by the CIA about FARC's intentions. He worked at El País the most prominent newspaper in Spain. Santos eventually was elected to serve two terms as Colombia's Vice President under President Álvaro Uribe. He subsequently also served as the Colombian Ambassador to the United States under President Donald J. Trump from 2018 - 2020. Santos is now wearing his journalist hat again. He's highlighting the precarious political situation in Venezuela, and speaking out about Russia, China, and Iran, which he views as the unholy trifecta threatening the stability of geopolitics today. In 1996, he and his nine kidnapped compatriots became the characters in “News of a Kidnapping,” the English-language non-fiction book by famed Colombian novelist and Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Gabriel García Márquez. The book was originally published in Spanish the year before as “Noticia de un Secuestro.'' Santos declined to co-author “News of a Kidnapping” with Márquez, which he now says was “a very stupid decision on his part” but he later relented and spoke with Márquez over several days for the book. Apart from Márquez and the journalists Santos spoke with after his release, in the nearly-32 years since his kidnapping, he has not shared his story at all in detail. Don't miss this riveting episode of “When It Mattered.” Thanks for Listening. If you liked this episode, please check out these other episodes: Ep. 61 - Heroism, activism, reconciliation with nature / Jerry White, Nobel laureate, landmine survivor  Ep. 14 - Terrifying robbery and kidnapping reveals what truly matters in life / Stanley Alpert, Attorney Ep. 20 - Brought back to life, undertook new mission / Frank Shankwitz, Make-A-Wish Foundation

Ep. 62:  She went from poverty in communist-era Poland to becoming the artist of choice of Silicon Valley billionaires for her renaissance-inspired conceptual art of machines and robots/ Agnieszka Pilat, Conceptual Artist. Born in the shadow of communism, in the grip of poverty, in the cradle of post-industrial Central Poland, Agnieska Pilat acted on her burning desire to leave her homeland and headed to America in 2004.    She landed in the Bay Area where a transformative book recommendation from her hairdresser, and her industrial roots in Poland, led to an epiphany which led her to start painting machines. First the traditional kind. Gears and widgets and meters and fire bells. Then — robots. One in particular, her big bright yellow 70 pound cybernetic “pet” if you could call it that / model/assistant/apprentice/Spot, on loan to her from the famed and controversial robot maker Boston Dynamics. Over the past decade, Agnieskza Pilat's classically-trained, renaissance-inspired, contemporary art around man and machine, technology and automation has gained a big following among Silicon Valley's elite billionaires. Her works of art have been acquired by collectors including Sotheby's and tech titans such as Craig McCaw, Richard Branson, Yuri Milner, and Larry Silverstein among others. Several of her paintings are featured in the latest Matrix movie, The Matrix Resurrections. Pilat has been described as an “artist who brings technology to life,” ‘the darling of Silicon Valley,” and a “technology storyteller.”  Her latest exhibition is titled Renaissance 2.0, and is an homage to Silicon Valley's renaissance. It was such a pleasure to catch up with Agnieszka Pilat about her life and her renaissance-inspired contemporary art of man and machine.

Ep. 61 — He became a celebrated anti-landmine crusader after a horrific landmine accident but then began questioning his superhero narrative / Jerry White, Nobel Peace Laureate / Author / Professor of Practice, University of Virginia. In 1984, Jerry White went to Israel for his junior year, “study abroad” program at Hebrew University. On their spring break that April, White, and his two American roommates went out hiking in the Golan Heights in northern Israel, tracing the footsteps of Biblical prophets. They got off the beaten path to set up camp. One morning, White walked ahead of his friends and stepped on a landmine. He was just 20 years old. The tragedy of losing his right leg to a landmine transformed White into a student of resilience and survivorship and an advocate for landmine victims. He became a charismatic activist, who worked closely with Princess Diana, Queen Noor, Paul McCartney, and others to fight for a global ban on anti-personnel mines. White's high-impact campaigns in the wake of his landmine injury which cost him his right leg resulted in three major treaties, The Landmine Ban Treaty, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Cluster Munitions Ban.. In 1997, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. White also served as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, looking at data-driven outcomes in conflict negotiations. And he became a Senior Ashoka Fellow. But over time, White began to question his landmine survivor hero-narrative and dreamed of retiring his “landmine cape” as he likes to call it. His soul-searching on how that accident changed his relationship with nature and why that landmine came to be on that Israeli hill in the first place, has resulted in a prolific body of thinking, speaking, and writing. White has a new book out this November, called Religicide: Confronting the Roots of Anti-Religious Violence. The book is now available for pre-order on Amazon. White also wrote a 2004 book on resilience, titled, “I Will Not Be Broken.” Today, White is an award-winning teacher, activist, and leader. He currently serves as a Professor of Practice in Religion and Political Science at the University of Virginia and teaches the popular course: Religion, Violence, and Strategy: How to Stop Killing in the Name of God. My conversation with Jerry White about what happens when you dare to question your own narrative and when you lose touch with the earth was a profound experience and I am so glad to share it with you today.

Ep. 60 — How history, geography, lineage, and duty converged to shape this retired four-star General's decorated career / James L. Jones, Commandant, United States Marine Corps, Commander, United States European Command, Former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, & Chairman, Jones Group International. It was by no means pre-ordained but perhaps it was inevitable. Born in 1943, the son of a Marine in WWII, in a family of Marines, and spending his early childhood and formative years in France, inspired James L. Jones to join the United States Marines Corps, where he spent a distinguished four-decade career — retiring from the Marine Corps on February 1 as a decorated four-star general.  It's a real honor to speak with my guest this week, General James Jones, who during his military career, served as Commandant of the Marine Corps, Commander, United States European Command, and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.  Upon his retirement, Jones served as Chairman of the Congressional Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq and later as Special Envoy for Middle East security. President Barack Obama then invited Jones to serve as his National Security Advisor. In that capacity, Gen. Jones had the rare opportunity to see then-Prime Minister, now-President, Vladimir Putin, up close and personal.  In this fascinating wide-ranging narrative, Jones describes how over breakfast with him and President Obama in July 2009, Putin shared his litany of grievances that Jones believes have shaped the Russian leader's hostility and aggression towards NATO and towards Ukraine, with an imminent threat to invade that country, potentially triggering a global conflict. Jones now leads a global strategic advisory firm, Jones Group International, based here in the Washington DC area. I know you'll enjoy this conversation as much as I did and will find it both highly informative and relevant given Putin's potential invasion of Ukraine.

Ep. 59 —  A Portuguese Roman Catholic janitor and immigrant to Canada becomes the “Bar Mitzvah king” of Montreal / Braulio Rocha, Photographer & Co-Founder, Rocha Studio. I thought it would be so nice to start the New Year with a heartwarming success story. This is the rags-to-riches journey of a Portuguese Roman Catholic immigrant to Canada named Braulio Rocha, who, just five years ago, was a humble janitor at the majestic Shaar Hashomayim Ashkananze synagogue, known affectionately to its congregants as “The Shaar.” But one day, Rocha, an amateur photographer, seized a rare opportunity to trade in his mop for a camera to shoot a bris when the real photographer was a no-show. It was one of the most consequential moments of a life filled with adversity. That bris led to other brises and bar mitzvahs. And today, Rocha has become the “Bar Mitzvah photography king of Montreal!” as proclaimed in this lovely recent New York Times profile.  This is a story that transcends geography, culture, language, and religion. It's a story of hope and above all, about second chances. I hope you enjoy it!   And if you like this episode, you may enjoy my other photography episodes both on this podcast, When It Mattered, and my technology podcast, Techtopia, listed below.   When It Mattered:  Ep. 35 — A war photographer confronts her own mortality as she bears witness to the world's worst wars / Lynsey Addario, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. Ep. 12 — A brain cancer diagnosis leads a 27-year old mental health worker to use photography to help parents of critically ill children reconcile with death and dying /  Caroline Catlin, writer, photographer. Techtopia:  Ep. 18 — A War Photographer Assesses the Ramifications of the U.S. Pullout of Afghanistan / Lynsey Addario, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photojournalist. 

Ep. 58 — A shocking loss leads a grieving daughter and budding communications leader to rethink the meaning of human connectivity / Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, and author, “The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships.” When Susan McPherson was 22 years old, her parents were on vacation in Puerto Rico when the unthinkable happened. It was New Year's Eve, December 31, 1986. Her dad had dropped her mother off at the casino of what then was the Dupont Plaza hotel in San Juan. At 3:30 pm, three disgruntled employees of the hotel who were embroiled in a labor dispute with the owners, set fire to the hotel, killing nearly 100 people — including McPherson's mother — and causing hundreds of injuries. It was the most catastrophic hotel fire in Puerto Rican history and the second deadliest fire in U.S. history. The three men who set the fire were brought to justice and received long jail sentences and there were big changes to hotel fire safety laws and protocols. But it was small comfort for McPherson, for whom the shocking loss of her mother was a profound moment of grief and transformation. I recently had the privilege of talking with McPherson about her amazing life story and how her parents inspired her to be who she is today. She is the founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, a communications consultancy focused on the intersection of brands and social impact.  McPherson is a super-connector, angel investor, and corporate responsibility expert with 25+ years of experience in marketing, public relations, and sustainability communications. She's a popular speaker and a regular contributor to high-profile business publications. McPherson also is the author of The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships — particularly relevant in today's pandemic fueled anti-social world.

Ep. 57 — The Journalist and Author who Predicted the Rise of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda Examines the Legacy of the 9/11 Mastermind and the Global Jihad that he Spawned / Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst & Author, “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.” In 1983, a British university student named Peter Bergen traveled to Pakistan with two friends to make a documentary called Refugees of Faith, about the Afghan refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion of their country. Little did he know it at the time. But that trip would be the first of many and one of the most consequential in Bergen's life. It led to a nearly four-decade body of work documenting the rise and fall of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, his group al Qaeda, and the global jihad they spawned, rooted in Afghanistan. Today, as we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and against the backdrop of the disastrous U.S. pull out of Afghanistan, I have as my guest, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen, here to reflect on bin Laden's legacy. Bergen produced the first television interview of bin Laden in 1997, aired on CNN. And he was the only journalist to visit the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound where bin Laden was killed, in a 2011 raid by U.S. Navy Seals. The building was later demolished. The author of nine books including six on bin Laden, Bergen has a fascinating new biography of the terrorist, titled, “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden." The new biography is based on Bergen's body of work, plus thousands of documents, journals, and other materials seized in the Abbottabad raid, along with hundreds of interviews — including with many in bin Laden's inner circle. Using these documents, Bergen paints an intimate portrait of the terrorist in isolation in the final months, weeks, and days before he was killed by U.S. Navy Seals. In a 228-page family journal, bin Laden looks back on his global jihad revolution, concerned that his legacy and that of al Qaeda's will be lost in the peaceful Arab Spring revolution in the Middle East. Bin Laden and his family worry that he had waited too long to speak and that he was becoming irrelevant. And he was worried about the al Qaeda brand being tarnished by the killings of Muslim civilians by groups such as ISIS. For these and more fascinating details about bin Laden's final days, what Bergen calls, “bin Laden unplugged,” do tune in to this riveting episode.

Ep. 56 — A Retired Police Executive Returns to Duty to Help Rebuild the United States Capitol Police after the Violent January 6 Insurrection  / J. Thomas Manger, USCP Chief of Police. After 42 years in policing, including for two of the largest police agencies in the National Capital Region, J. Thomas Manger had retired and was enjoying his life as a security consultant and public citizen. Then on January 6, thousands of white extremists — incited by former President Donald Trump and his minions — breached the U.S. Capitol, vandalizing the building and grounds, threatening the lives of members of Congress, of Vice President Mike Pence and his family, and mercilessly heckling, beaing, tear gassing, and injuring hundreds of ill-equipped and vastly outnumbered U.S. Capitol Police. Manger watched the events unfolding on TV, horrified and near tears as the rioters roamed freely across the Capitol, hanging nooses, taking selfies, shattering windows, breaking doors and assaulting cops, in a ruthless challenge to democracy. When Manger was invited to become the new police chief, he was reluctant to leave retirement behind. But haunted by the January 6 images, he couldn't  turn down the call of duty. Sworn in on July 23rd, Chief Manger is a little more than a month into his job and confronting some of the biggest challenges of his long and distinguished career. His 1800 rank and file sworn officers are still struggling to absorb and recover from the magnitude of those violent attacks. Hundreds are recovering from their injuries and are emotionally traumatized, scores have already left the force, and then there are the memories of two of their own who lost their lives to a stroke and to suicide after the insurrection. Put simply, many officers are experiencing a crisis of confidence in their leadership like never before. Can Tom Manger fix it?

Ep. 55 — A fighter pilot and great-granddaughter of a SciFi pioneer sees a UFO and connects with the vast community of UFO believers / Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, U.S. Navy (retired). Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich was going about her business this spring, getting ready to retire from active duty as one of the first female fighter pilots in the US. Then she got an unexpected feeler from 60 Minutes, the CBS television show. The U.S. Government was preparing to release a report on Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs. Would Dietrich be willing to go on the show and talk about the strange sight that she and her four teammates had seen up in the air during a training mission back in 2004, the producer asked. Dietrich thought hard about it and decided that taxpayers needed to know more about the videos (now unclassified) that had been captured that day —  videos that you all may have seen on the news over the past few weeks. That decision to go public and help remove the stigma associated with reporting strange sightings has put the introverted and media-shy Dietrich in the spotlight. It has also connected her to many UFO believers via social media - a strange spot for someone to be in for someone who is not a science fiction fan, despite a rich family history in science fiction writing. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: US Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich was going about her business this spring, getting ready to retire from active duty as one of the first female fighter pilots in the US. Then she got an unexpected feeler from 60 Minutes, the CBS television show. The US government was preparing to release a report on unidentified flying objects, or UFO's. Would Dietrich be willing to go on the show and talk about the strange site that she and her four teammates had seen up in the air during a training mission back in 2004? The 60 Minutes producer asked. Hello, everyone I'm Chitra Raghavan, and this is When it Mattered. Chitra Ragavan: Dietrich thought hard about it and decided that taxpayers needed to know more about the videos, now unclassified that had been captured that day, videos that you all may have seen on the news over the past few weeks. That decision to go public and help remove the stigma associated with reporting strange sightings, or inexplicable phenomena, has put the introverted and media shy Dietrich in the spotlight. It has also connected her to legions of UFO believers on social media, a rather strange spot for someone to be in who is not a science fiction fan, despite a rich family history in science fiction writing. Chitra Ragavan: Joining me is retired Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich. She served as an F/A-18F strike fighter pilot from the VFA-41 “Black Aces” of Lemoore, California. Dietrich retired from the US Navy after 20 years of service, having logged more than 1,250 hours and 375 carrier arrested landings. She served two combat deployments in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Dietrich is now serving at the National Center for Atmospheric Research on their talent learning and development team, with a mission of science and service to society. Alex, welcome to When it Mattered. Alex Dietrich: Thank you. Chitra Ragavan: Why did you decide to join the Navy and become a fighter pilot? It's a rather non-traditional career, pretty formidable barriers and a daunting challenge, in addition to putting your life on the line in service of your country? Alex Dietrich: Well, I would say that I was a typical teenager. I went to an atypical high school, it was the Illinois Math and Science Academy, but I had the typical teenage angst, and I wanted to have fun, I wanted to have an adventure. And so when college counselors and teachers were asking me what I wanted to do, I had to declare a major for college and I had to take all of these standardized tests, I said, "Oh,

Ep. 54 — How writing a best-selling book on the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic positioned this author to become a prescient thought leader on the COVID-19 pandemic / John M. Barry, Author, Distinguished Scholar, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. John Barry remembers the exact moment he gave up his boyhood dream of doing medical research for his other boyhood dream of writing. He was 13 years old and had returned from summer camp eager to examine some bacteria cultures he had grown and left in the freezer, only to find them gone. Little did he know it at the time, but after a long detour away from his childhood love for medical research, Barry would write an award winning book on science and medicine called, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. The acclaimed book, which he dreaded writing because of its complexity, positioned Barry to give timely history, context and framing for the COVID-19 pandemic when it exploded on the world stage last year. The crisis of pandemics and how to deal with them would largely take over Barry's life. Don’t miss my fascinating conversation with John M. Barry, prize winning and New York Times bestselling author of six books, two of which, The Great Influenza and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, have pulled Barry into various policy advising roles with state, federal, United Nations, and World Health Organization officials on influenza, water related disasters, and risk communication. Barry is currently a distinguished scholar at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: John Barry remembers the exact moment he gave up his boyhood dream of doing medical research for his other boyhood dream of writing. He was 13 years old and had returned from summer camp eager to examine some bacteria cultures he had grown and left in the freezer, only to find it gone. Chitra Ragavan: Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan. Welcome to When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups with strategic brand positioning and narrative. Little did he know it at the time, but after a long detour away from his childhood love for medical research, Barry would write an award-winning book on science and medicine called, The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Chitra Ragavan: The acclaimed book positioned him to give timely history, context, and framing for the COVID-19 pandemic when it exploded on the world stage last year. The crisis of pandemics and how to deal with them would largely take over Barry's life. I'm joined now by John M. Barry, prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of six books, two of which, The Great Influenza and Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, have pulled Barry into various policy advising roles with state, federal, United Nations, and World Health Organization officials on influenza, water related disasters, and risk communication. Chitra Ragavan: Barry is currently a distinguished scholar at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. John, welcome to the podcast. John M. Barry: Thanks for having me. Chitra Ragavan: You were pretty serious about medical research even when you were 11. How did that start? John M. Barry: I was just fascinated by it. I was one of those kids that had a lab in their home. I actually had a pretty good quality though ancient microscope. It had lights, lens, and things like that, an expensive microscope. Grew my own media, agar-agar, and all these dyes. I was playing with E. coli, which can kill you, but seemed pretty tame because I could use that in my school class. I figured if it was in school, it wasn't very exciting. I sent away to the American Bacteriological Supply House in Wa...

Ep.53 — A journalist upends her life and career to help identify and bring to justice the network of militants who murdered her friend and fellow correspondent at The Wall Street, Daniel Pearl / Asra Nomani, journalist, author, activist and co-founder, The Pearl Project. On January 23rd, 2002, Asra Nomani was waiting at her home in Karachi, Pakistan, for her dear friend, Daniel Pearl, a correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, to return from a reporting assignment. Pearl and his wife, Mariane, who was pregnant with their first child were staying with Nomani while he was investigating the Al-Qaeda networks that had conspired to pull off the 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil just a few months earlier. But Pearl never returned home. Pakistani militants kidnapped and held Pearl hostage before murdering him a week later. His captors then released a video of the beheading, shocking the world and galvanizing Nomani in her long and difficult quest to identify Pearl's killers and help bring them to justice. In this riveting episode, Nomani describes how Pearl’s murder helped shape her as a journalist, author and a feminist Muslim. And she shares how the tragedy gave her the courage to become an activist challenging the rise of Islamic extremism and what she perceives as the dangerous influence of Islamists in American politics — particularly on the Democratic Party. Nomani also discusses why she is speaking up against the growing influence of “critical race theory,” both in the U.S. public school systems and on American society as a whole. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: On January 23rd, 2002, Asra Nomani was waiting at her home in Karachi, Pakistan, for her dear friend, The Wall Street Journal correspondent, Daniel Pearl to come back from a reporting assignment. Pearl and his wife, Mariane, who was pregnant with their first child were staying with Nomani while he was investigating the Al-Qaeda networks that had conspired to pull off the 9/11 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil just a few months earlier. But Danny Pearl never returned home. Pakistani militants kidnapped and held Pearl hostage before murdering him a week later. His captors then released a video of the beheading, shocking the world and galvanizing Nomani in her long and difficult quest to identify Pearl's killers and help bring them to justice. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan. Welcome to When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory an advisory firm helping technology startups with strategic brand positioning and narrative. I'm joined now by Asra Nomani. She's a journalist, author, activist and co-founder of The Pearl Project, a 31,000 word award-winning global investigative journalism report identifying the network of militants who perpetrated the heinous. Asra, welcome to the podcast. Asra Nomani: Oh, thank you so much, Chitra. I feel like I'm with such a good dear friend going into one of the darkest moments of my life, but I hope we can share some light with everyone. Chitra Ragavan: It's been 19 years, almost exactly two days shy of that fateful day, January 23rd, 2002, when your world and that of Danny Pearl and his whole family turned upside down. Tell me when you found out that something had badly gone wrong. Asra Nomani: Well, that day began like any other day for journalists in, posting overseas. We all wakened, Danny and his wife Mariane were visiting a house that I had rented in Karachi, Pakistan. And Danny, went about the business of all his flurry of interviews he had planned for the day. I found a car for him and we stood outside this home that I'd rented and waved goodbye to Danny. And I said, "See you later, buddy," because it was just an interview like any other that we go off to do and then come back home and write down our notes and write our dispatches. But that night, Mariane kept calling and calling Danny's phone number and he never picked up.

Ep.52 — A  15-year old develops a passion for making music mixtapes and revolutionizes the way you listen to music, and now he’s doing it for podcasts / Don MacKinnon, CEO & Founder, Hark. Don MacKinnon will never forget how he first began experimenting with music mixtapes back when he was a high school student. “I remember sitting on the floor of my room with the records spread out, organizing them, and making notes about the order I wanted to have the songs appear in. As you recorded it, you dropped the needle on the song and it's recording it in real-time on to the tape,” McKinnon reminisces. “While you're doing that, you're writing liner notes because the beauty of a mixtape is you end up with an artifact. A physical thing you can give to someone.” His passion for mixtapes led MacKinnon on a lifelong journey to help people around the world serendipitously discover, listen to, share, curate, and build a community around music, videos, and other content. MacKinnon’s goal has always been to free up music — and any inspiring content for that matter — from the confines of their origins, format, and surroundings, so that the world can appreciate them in all their wonders. And that idea has led to music curation platforms that we take so much for granted today, such as Spotify. “What is Spotify, but some giant mixtape?” says MacKinnon. “But there was a time when we walked to school in the snow. There was a time when songs were trapped on vinyl. There were albums were on vinyl. That's where the songs lived. There were radio DJs who mixed it up and play different songs from different albums on shows. But the ability to sit down, and liberate those songs from their albums, and create something new was fascinating to me.” Since his early discovery of mixtapes, McKinnon has pretty much used that formula over and over again with huge wins as a music producer including the Triple Platinum Grammy Award-winning Ray Charles compilation, Genius Loves Company, Rolling Stones Rarities 1971 to 2003, and Bob Dylan's iconic first recordings of Live at the Gaslight. Now, MacKinnon is about to transform how you discover, curate, and build community through podcasts using the same concept he pioneered in music — with what else, but mixtapes? Tomorrow, he's unveiling his new stealth podcast curation platform called Hark. “The idea for Hark at its simplest is to go and find those great moments within podcast episodes. You talking to Nina Totenberg about how as a young girl, she loves Nancy Drew, and how that inspired her to become Nina Totenberg,” says MacKinnon. “There are tons of examples of like, when we find ourselves telling people, all of you podcast listeners, ‘I have that moment where I want you to listen to the whole episode. But you got to hear this one moment.’ That one moment is the genius thing that will be their way in. The idea of Hark is, what if we could create an entire immersive listening experience out of the best moments from great podcast episodes, where we organize those moments into, yes, mixtapes, because what else would it be after listening to me for an hour?” This is an episode filled with great storytelling. You definitely don’t want to miss MacKinnon’s memories of how, on his 35th birthday, he got to interview every single member of the Rolling Stones. What it was like to interview his idol, Tom Waits, and the irascible Lou Reed. What was his first conversation with Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz? What it was like to work with U2’s Bono on Product Red. And what it was like to listen to Ray Charles and Elton John recording their hit duet, Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word for Charles’s triple-platinum, Grammy award-winning album, Genius Loves Company, the last album Charles recorded before he died, and it was produced by none other than MacKinnon. You’re going to love this interview with the amazing Don MacKinnon. I know I did. Read the Transcript Download the PDF

Ep. 51 — A young employee gets a mediocre performance rating in her first job and transforms herself into an influential human resources leader and career strategist / Madeline Mann, Founder, Self Made Millennial. Three months into her first corporate job as a market research analyst, Madeline Mann got her performance review and it was a nasty wakeup call. Always an academic high achiever, Mann was stunned to see her mediocre work scores. “And it really was a moment of me realizing, ‘Wait, I do need to work harder. I do need to find more ways to contribute,’ says Mann. ‘I wasn't in those meetings jotting down a bunch of notes of, how am I going to look up these terms later and ask a bunch of questions.’ I was just kind of clueless and aimless.” Mann realized she just wasn't motivated by her job and through some serious soul-searching, discovered that her true passion actually lay in human capital management, i.e. people. Today, Mann is thriving as a human resources leader and career strategist. She’s known for her rapid-fire career advice videos on her popular channel "Self Made Millennial." Mann’s work has been featured on Business Insider, Newsweek, and more. She was named a Top 50 person to follow on LinkedIn, and a Top 10 YouTube channel for job seekers. Mann currently also serves as Talent Development Manager at Inspire. Her HR focus could not be more perfect given the coronavirus. According to Pew Research Center, the U.S. unemployment rose higher in three months of COVID-19 than it did in two years of the Great Recession. Today it’s at a record 11.1%, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Mann says she's helped hundreds of people find jobs despite these grim trends. [Hear Excerpt Below] “The number one question I'm asked is, ‘Is there even a point in applying right now?’ Or, ‘When should I start pursuing opportunities?’ And those questions break my heart because the answer is yesterday, right? You should still be pursuing opportunities,” says Mann, “But the thing is, a lot of people, it's a different landscape, things are shaken up, they don't know if the company had layoffs or not. They don't know if they're still hiring. They're posting job descriptions, but does that mean, was that just automatic? And, ‘Oh, I had an interview, but then I haven't heard back. But is it okay to even follow up with anyone during these conditions?’… I want you to move from a planning mindset to an experimentation mindset. Just try things, keep moving during this time, don't freeze, don't be in this constant getting ready stage, because while you're doing that, other people are getting these jobs.” Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Madeline Mann began her first job as a market research analyst as she was wrapping up her master's degree. But the super driven academic had a disastrous six months on the job. Humbled by the experience, Madeline went into her second job searching for what truly motivated her to perform and to succeed in the workplace. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan: Joining me now is Madeline Mann, a human resources leader and career strategist. Madeline is known for her rapid fire career advice videos on her channel, Self Made Millennial, which has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across all the major social media platforms. Madeline transformed her own experience as an HR and recruiting leader into advice on how to empower ambitious professionals to fast track their careers. Madeline's work has been featured on Business Insider, Newsweek, Thrive Global and more. She was named a Top 50 person to follow on LinkedIn and a Top 10 YouTube channel for job seekers. Madeline currently also serves as talent development manager at Inspire in Los Angeles. Madeline, welcome to the podcast.

Ep. 50 – A legendary sports agent reflects on an extraordinary career and overcoming seemingly insurmountable personal challenges / Leigh Steinberg, CEO, Steinberg Sports & Entertainment. Early in his career, legendary sports agent Leigh Steinberg had a crisis of conscience. His clients were suffering from multiple concussions and doctors didn't fully understand the long-term impact of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). There was one particular moment that was a turning point for Steinberg. "When we would go to doctors back in that period, no doctor could really tell us how many hits were too many and what the longterm consequences were." So Steinberg decided to make annual brain health seminars a mandatory part of his core practice. He’s had 16 to date, focused on awareness, prevention, and cure. Steinberg has asked himself whether he’s an enabler of this problem, given his continued representation of athletes, but he believes he is bringing value by working to solve this problem. Educating his players about the dangers of concussion is just one way Steinberg has mentored 300+ athletes during a 46-year+ career as CEO of Steinberg Sports & Entertainment. He’s represented  some of the biggest names in football, baseball, basketball, boxing and Olympic sports securing more than $3 billion for his pro athletes and directing more than $750 million to charities around the world. Steinberg also requires all of his athletes to create structured plans to consistently give back to their communities as a way of life. Steinberg's blue chip clients include the number one overall pick in the NFL draft for an unprecedented eight times in conjunction with 64 total first round picks. He has represented notable athletes, such as Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Patrick Mahomes, Oscar De La Hoya, and Lennox Lewis, as well as multiple Olympians and professional teams. Steinberg also helps his clients identify their post-retirement second careers and requires them to give back to their communities. The inspiration for Tom Cruise in the Cameron Crowe written and directed movie Jerry Maguire (co-starring Cuba Gooding Jr., in an iconic Oscar-winning supporting actor role), Steinberg has overcome tremendous personal adversity including bankruptcy, a decade-long bout of alcoholism, and run-ins with the law. He says he has since recovered from his financial and emotional crises, been sober for more than ten years, and speaks openly of his alcoholism as a way to help others. “Look, to confront the cravings that come with addiction, it really is necessary in most people's lives to hit bottom, whatever you perceive that bottom is,” says Steinberg. “Your life is so unacceptable that you cannot continue like that.” Steinberg is focused on helping athletes engage in the Black Lives Matter conversations and adapting to COVID-19, especially coming to terms with the prospect of playing and winning in empty stadiums. “In football, for example, we had a draft that cut off the scouting process at a certain point. So it required adaptation and using Zoom to interact with teams, or in the case of a client, we had Tua Tagovailoa taping a workout in a pro passing day that would normally have been done in-person. And the first key and priority is safety, obviously. And none of us really know how the pandemic will play out over time, so we're trying to be sensitive to that,” Steinberg says. “And so for the first time, we're going to have baseball and basketball and hockey with no fans. So that will be different. First of all, it has an economic impact because gate is a large part of the gross revenue. And second of all, we don't know, since performance seems to be tied into home field advantage and stadia filled with screaming fans, we don't know what effect it'll have on the quality of the play.” Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Leigh Steinberg was about a decade into his career as a sports agent when he ha...

Ep. 49 — A teenage runaway tries his hand at migrant work and becomes one of the most powerful food safety lawyers in the world / William Marler, Owner & Managing Partner, Marler Clark, LLP. When Bill Marler was 16 years old, he ran away from home and became a migrant worker for a while, living in squalid cabins, sleeping outdoors, and hitchhiking rides to farms to pick crops. The low point of Marler’s life came when he lost a gig and completely ran out of money. For a week, he lived on just a five-pound sack of pancake flour. “And it has changed my perspective on pancakes I have to admit,” admits Marler, ruefully. “Anytime pancakes come up as something for breakfast, my children have had to hear my pancake story. I think they now avoid making pancakes because they don't want to hear my story again.” Marler’s brief stint as a farmhand also gave him a lifelong empathy for migrant workers and a deep connectivity to food and food safety issues. More than anything, it also made him realize the importance of a  college education and he went on to become a lawyer. By sheer happenstance, one day, Marler got a referral for an E. coli case tied to the Jack In The Box hamburger chain.  What started as one case turned into a multi-million dollar class action settlement, putting Marler and his law firm, Marler Clark, LLP., forever on the map on food safety lawsuits and advocacy. Marler has frequently testified before Congress, resulting in stronger food safety laws and regulations and is a globally sought after public speaker on these issues. As growing numbers of migrant workers and meatpackers fall victim to #Covid-19, Marler says there are profound ramifications to not protecting these frontline workers from the coronavirus. Ramifications that not only devastate these communities but the entire economy and American consumers as a whole. “We've already seen the impact of companies not paying attention to the needs of their workers, because we're seeing beef prices go up, we're seeing meat be less available, certain kinds of meats being less available. So you pay for it now by protecting the workers, who also with COVID, go out into your communities and spread the disease throughout the community,” says Marler. “And so it's not just to protect the worker, which I think is the moral thing to do, but it's also to frankly protect yourself. And sometimes profits are the focus and we become so shortsighted about the long term costs to the people, long term costs to the community.” Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: When William Marler was 16 years old, he ran away from home and became a migrant worker in Washington State. Living in squalid cabins, sleeping outdoors, and hitchhiking rides to farms to pick crops was difficult and dangerous. The low point of Marler's life came when he lost a gig and ran out of money. His stint as a migrant worker gave Marler lifelong connectivity to migrant workers, to food, and most importantly, to food safety issues. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan. And this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm, helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined now by William Marler, managing partner at Marler Clark Attorneys At Law. A national expert in food safety, Marler has become the most prominent foodborne illness lawyer in America, and a major force in food policy in the US and around the world. Marler is a frequent speaker on food safety issues at global events. He has testified before U.S. Congressional committees and his work has led to laws and regulations being passed to make food safer. Bill, welcome to the podcast. William Marler: Thank you, Chitra. Chitra Ragavan: Why did you run away from home? William Marler: Well, it was more like I was out to seek adventures and something different than spending another summer working on the family hobby farm.

Ep. 48 — A close encounter with a Mack Truck on an icy freeway convinces a New York native to move to warmer climes and pursue a career in marketing / Linda Souza, Senior Vice President of Marketing, CareerArc. Driving home from her martial arts class in the middle of a January snowstorm in Pittsburgh, Linda Souza lost control of her pickup truck on the icy freeway and skidded straight onto the path of a Mack Truck. Fueled by adrenalin, Souza accelerated into a grassy ditch, narrowly avoiding serious injury even as the Mack Truck slammed into the back of her of pickup, substantially damaging both vehicles. The close encounter taught Souza a life lesson to trust her instincts in dicey and unpredictable situations. Needless to say, that was Souza's last winter on the east coast. She moved to Los Angeles where she's now Senior Vice President of Marketing at CareerArc. The company offers technology-based social recruiting and outplacement solutions to help Human Resources leaders recruit and transition employees. Souza says the unprecedented shutdown and slow resurgence of the U.S. economy because of Covid-19 raises many challenges for HR leaders, including work-from-home policies and pay scales. “I don't think it will be everybody will permanently work from home at all companies, but I think there's going to be a bigger appetite for that and a bigger demand for that,” says Linda. “And then that opens up things like, "Okay, well does that mean, for example, if I'm in a place where it's very expensive to live and so salaries are elevated, does that open me up to talent in different parts of the country if I don't need someone to physically come in every single day? And that also entails, "Well, now we have to rethink the compensation structure. Do I pay less if I'm hiring in Kansas versus Los Angeles?" But Souza is seeing one positive trend behind all these murky questions — and that trend is that companies are slowly but surely starting to hire again. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Linda Souza was driving home from her martial arts class one afternoon in the middle of a January snow storm in Pittsburgh. As she merged onto the icy freeway, Souza lost control of her Dodge Dakota pickup truck. The Mack Truck could not avoid hitting the back of Souza's pickup, but she was able to accelerate into a grassy ditch, narrowly avoiding serious injury. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan. And this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Good Story, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan: Needless to say that was Souza's last winter on the east coast. She moved to Los Angeles where she's now Senior Vice President of Marketing at CareerArc, which offers technology based social recruiting and outplacement solutions to help HR leaders recruit and transition employees. Souza is a 7 x tech startup marketer with more than 20 years of experience helping lead early stage and growth stage startups to successful exits. Prior to CareerArc, Linda served as Vice President of Marketing for cryptocurrency and blockchain startup Gem, where she was my colleague. Souza also served as Vice President of Marketing for Deep Six AI, an award-winning artificial intelligence company. Linda, welcome to the podcast. Linda Souza: Thank you Chitra, I'm excited to be here. Chitra Ragavan: Tell us about that potentially fatal highway accident that January day. Linda Souza: So I was training at a martial arts workshop actually. This is back when I was living in Pittsburgh in the early two thousands, and it had started snowing while I was in the class because it was in January. And by the time I got out and had to hit the road to get home, which was a good 30 or 40 minute drive home, it was full on snowstorm. And I was driving a pickup truck at the time, which unfortunately does not have great traction all the time in the snow.

Ep. 47 –  A diplomat’s travel forces his psychologist wife to reinvent her career which she does by talking to terrorists / Anne Speckhard, Director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. When her husband was named US ambassador to Belarus, Anne Speckhard was forced to give up her thriving private counseling practice in Virginia and reinvent her life and work. Some security-related projects led her to begin talking to terrorists and it led to a most unique second career researching terrorists. “When I went into Palestine was the first time I went in and just announced myself. I was very honest about what I wanted. And people told me would be suicide, terrorists are never going to talk to you,” says Speckhard. But they did. To date, Speckhard has interviewed and debriefed nearly 800 terrorists and their family members and supporters —  including in Western Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia, the Former Soviet Union, and the Middle East. “And I was always looking for literally what makes a suicide bomber tick? Why do they get into it? How do they get on the terrorist trajectory?” says Speckhard, “And since I'm a psychologist, I wanted to know, could it have been prevented or can we take them back off of it?” Speckhard has founded and directs the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. She and her team have converted ISIS terrorist interviews into counter-narrative videos that have been used to deter terrorist recruiting through more than 125 Facebook anti-terrorism campaigns globally. With the advent of Covid-19, Speckhard says there's been chatter from some terrorist leaders urging their followers to protect themselves from the coronavirus but also exhorting those who become infected to spread the disease to their enemies. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Anne Speckhard was thriving in her private counseling and research practice in the Washington D.C. area, when her husband was named US ambassador to Belarus. It threw a curve ball into her clinical work and career trajectory. Speckhard got involved in a variety of security related research projects, and she suddenly found herself in the unusual position of talking to terrorists. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan: I'm joined now by Anne Speckhard, Director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism or ICSVE. Speckhard is one of the few American national security scholars with substantive access to terrorist groups. She has interviewed and debriefed more than 700 terrorists and their family members and supporters, including in Western Europe, the Balkans, Central Asia, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East. Chitra Ragavan: Speckhard has used many of those interviews to build the Breaking the ISIS Brand Counter Narrative Project. This unique project consists of counter narrative videos that have been used in more than 125 Facebook antiterrorism campaigns globally, with the goal of deterring terrorist recruiting. Chitra Ragavan: Anne, welcome to the podcast. Anne Speckhard: Thank you, Chitra. Glad to be here. Chitra Ragavan: What was it like to uproot yourself from your practice and to go off to Belarus with your husband, Dan, as he launched his diplomatic career? Anne Speckhard: Well, Daniel and I decided to see it as an adventure, but it was very disorienting because I'm someone that puts my roots down deeply and we had three kids. So I had to close my practice and become entirely dependent upon him and that was not something I'd ever done before. Chitra Ragavan: You're fiercely independent, so that must have been even more difficult. Anne Speckhard: It was difficult. And also we were moving on the other side of what I thought of as the ...

Ep. 46 — A chance encounter and an impulse decision takes a public health expert on a wild ride into the world of dangerous pandemics / Julie Schafer, Chief Technology Officer, The Flu Lab. Julie Schafer was sitting in her tiny office in a big office building in Washington D.C. having second thoughts about how the Presidential Management Fellowship that she had just begun fit in with her career goals. Then, a chance introduction to Bruce Gellin, then the head of the National Vaccine Program Office and now the President, Global Immunizations, at Sabin Vaccine Institute became the inflection point of her career. Since that day 15 years ago, Schafer has held numerous leadership roles including Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) the federal agency tasked with funding to prevent pandemic influenza and emerging infectious diseases. She also served as Director for Medical and Biodefense Preparedness Policy in the National Security Council (NSC) under President Barack Obama. Currently the Chief Technology Officer at FluLab, Schafer is consulting with the federal government on strategies and vaccines to stop Covid-19 in its tracks. She fears that the fall flu season could be a real wakeup call in the already tough fight against coronavirus. “Something that I think a lot about that doesn't make me the hit at any virtual cocktail party. But there's nothing about this pandemic, this COVID-19 pandemic that in any way lessens the risk of having an influenza pandemic. So we could have the severity of whatever influenza strains that we are presented with next,” Schafer says. “This current pandemic has no bearing on it. So maybe we'll have a mild influenza year or maybe we'll have a really hard one or maybe an influenza pandemic will emerge at the same time. I think that really is very daunting and makes me very worried and hopeful that influenza will cut us some slack this year.” Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Julie Schafer was pursuing what she thought was her dream career in public health, when a chance meeting at an impulse decision settle on a wild ride deep into the world of dangerous pandemics. Schafer's expertise could not be more timely given the COVID-19 pandemic. She works to apply new technologies and approaches to an old foe – influenza – and is applying that knowledge fighting this pandemic. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Good Story an advisory firm helping technology start-ups find their narrative. I'm joined now by Julie Schafer, the chief technology officer for the organization flu lab, where she seeks to stretch the boundaries of how technology is used to defeat influenza. Chitra Ragavan: Julie has held a number of leadership positions in the US government, including Chief of Staff and later Director of strategy for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority or BARDA at the US department of health and human services. BARDA is the key agency tasked with funding efforts to prevent both naturally emerging and intentional threats. Schafer has served as the director for medical and biodefense preparedness policy in the White House National Security Council under President Barack Obama, where her portfolio included preparedness and response to emerging diseases, such as Zika, efforts to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria and medical countermeasures preparedness. Julie, welcome to the podcast. Julie Schafer: Oh, it's such a pleasure to be with you. Chitra Ragavan: Tell us a little bit about your background, what you were doing and what was this chance encounter that changed the course of your life and turned you into a lifelong flu and pandemic chaser? Julie Schafer: Oh, for sure. I'd love to. Well, so I grew up in Upstate New York. My mom had a bit of a wanderlust and my dad was always game.

Ep. 45 — A U.S. Army Special Operations team leader is haunted by the death of two comrades and devotes his career to data-driven decision-making / Justin Richmond, Founder, and Executive Director, impl. project. The twist in the road for Justin Richmond surfaced on September 29, 2009, at Camp Bautista — a key Filipino military base in the Southern Philippines — when two of his colleagues were killed in an IED attack. Richmond was deployed as a U.S. Army Special Operations team leader helping the Filipino army with stabilization, counterinsurgency, and information operations. His superiors had decided to support what would prove to be a disastrous Filipino military mission. A Sergeant at the time and the lowest ranking task force member in the room, Richmond expressed his qualms but lacked the authority to be heard. The casualties of the task force’s decision were Jack Martin and Chris Shaw. “On the 29th of September, Jack and Chris hopped their Humvee and went to do a water resupply and in the middle of that road was a really big bomb and they drove over it and killed Jack instantly and Chris held on for a little while. He got medivacked over to us, myself, and one of his former teammates were on his Aid and Litter team, got them off the helo and prepared him for the forward surgical team, but the injuries were too significant and he didn't make it after that,” Richmond recalls. “And I look back and I think about the people that were involved in this decision and there wasn't maliciousness, there wasn't guile. It really boiled down to a lot of complacency and hubris.” Richmond’s inability to convince his superiors to abort the ill-thought-out mission forced him to confront how critical decisions are often made in the U.S. military in the absence of clear actionable data. The crisis of faith led Richmond to first join USAID, then Palantir, and then to set up a non-profit called impl. project to use data to drive community outcomes in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. Abruptly grounded in his global mission by Covid-19, Richmond turned his sights to the U.S. and is using data to identify and address the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, in particular, the skyrocketing rise in domestic violence. “The quarantines have forced families into situations that they wouldn't have gone into otherwise if there wasn't COVID and there wasn't quarantines. And I'm a huge believer in the quarantines, I think they should have happened faster and I think they should stay longer because it's the only way we're going to save lives. Having said that, this puts people that are already in vulnerable relationships, really in the cross-hairs of their abusers, and requires them to essentially shelter in place with people that don't have their best interests in mind,” Richmond says. “So domestic violence hotlines across the country are just exploding. I know in Virginia, we're seeing 75% more calls than we did at this time last year . . . and we realized that this is something, a need that a lot of women have.” Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Justin Richmond's twist in the road surfaced on September 29, 2009 at Camp Bautista, a Filipino military base in the Southern Philippines. Richmond was deployed there as a US army special operations team leader, helping the Filipino army with stabilization, counterinsurgency and information operations. Richmond's inability to convince his superiors to abort the ill-fated mission, forced him to confront the dissonance between America's promises and America's actions. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory and advisory firm, helping technology startups find their narrative. Joining me now is Justin Richmond, founder and executive director of impl. project, a scrappy little nonprofit with a global vision and mission to use data to drive community outcomes....

Ep. 44 — A mentee takes up her mentor's mantle and devotes her career to diversity and inclusion in banking / Karen A. Clark, Senior VP and Multicultural Strategies Manager, City National Bank. When Karen A. Clark got her first management assignment as a young banker at Bank of America in Los Angeles, she was blown away when a senior executive and Chinese immigrant named Regina “Reggie” Chun flew in from San Francisco to take her to lunch. Chun told Clark that she had a unique opportunity to help other minorities rise in corporate America and she reminded Clark that if a person in her position didn't help them, then who would? Clark took Chun's rhetorical question to heart and devoted her career to fostering diversity and inclusion in the traditionally white and male-dominated banking industry and financial services sectors. Today Clark is a Senior Vice-President and Multicultural Strategies Manager at City National Bank in Los Angeles. She and her team are working in overdrive to help minority-owned small businesses get fair access to the federal COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Clark says the government's flawed rollout of the program has failed to help businesses. [Hear Excerpt Below] Clark finds her work both rewarding and exhausting but also vital given the rising anti-immigrant sentiment and coronavirus-fueled racism against minorities particularly in the Asian communities and the unequal access to banking services and federal stimulus funds. "The lack of access for small businesses, through this PPP process, has been horrendous. It's been horrendous. Every day, you can read... We have two people at City National Bank, who capture all of the media stories around PPP and put them out there for us, every day. And there are very, very few good stories,” Clark says. "I think it could have been a little better thought out by the federal government to ensure that there was a tranche and an opportunity and a procedure for these small businesses, those who needed funds. Even under a $100,000, $50,000, $40,000, it should have been a process to ensure that those people have the opportunity to apply. And there wasn’t." Clark says she owes her success to her parents, especially her father who she says, taught her and trained her to “swim with sharks” from an early age, which positioned her for success both in banking and corporate boardrooms and in the highly male-dominated commercial lending division for the construction industry. Throughout her banking career, Clark has made time for her other passion, singing, writing, and producing through her entertainment company, The Karen A. Clark Project. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: When Karen A. Clark got her first management assignment as a young banker at Bank of America in Los Angeles, she was blown away when a senior executive and Chinese immigrant named Regina Chun flew in from San Francisco just to take her to lunch. Clark never forgot Chun's advice. Indeed, she has devoted her entire career to fostering inclusion and diversity in the banking industry. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Joining me now is Karen A. Clark. She's senior vice president and multicultural strategies manager at City National Bank in Los Angeles. Clark is currently working to ensure that minority owned companies in and around Los Angeles get fair access to COVID-19 federal stimulus funds. In her free time, Clark also is a singer, songwriter and producer of her entertainment company, The Karen A. Clark Project. Karen, welcome to the podcast. Karen A. Clark: Chitra, thank you so much for having me. Chitra Ragavan: You were an Air Force brat. You traveled all over the world with your parents and it was quite a formative experience for you. Tell us about your parents and what that childhoo...

Ep. 43 –– A physics major pursues a grounding in philosophy and finds his niche in Silicon Valley / Courtney Bowman, Director, Privacy and Civil Liberties Engineering Team, Palantir. Courtney Bowman thought he was destined for a career in physics until he took a philosophy class. It triggered a deep skepticism of the ability of hard sciences to solve mankind's biggest problems. When Bowman told his academic mentor and family about the desire to pursue philosophy, they were alarmed and tried to dissuade him, fearing a dead end to his career. But Bowman went with his gut and ignored conventional wisdom and it paid off strangely enough in Silicon Valley where Bowman found his niche in a one-of-a-kind Privacy and Civil Liberties Engineering team that he leads at Palantir, the big-data analytics platform deployed by the U.S. government and other governments around the world to contain the spread of #coronavirus. #COVID-19 raises unprecedented legal, ethical, moral, even existential questions around the use of mobility tracking, contact tracing, immunity passports, and other powerful big data tools. "We're talking about contact tracing applications that rely on mobile phones and specific applications on mobile phones. But not everyone carries a mobile phone. Not everyone has a mobile phone, or is technologically savvy and use of their mobile phones. So then you raise all sorts of issues about the 'digital divide.' Does this mean that the people who maybe are most advantaged and most privileged because they have access to technology, are going to get a disproportionate advantage in the use of that technology?” asks Bowman. "Meaning that some of the most vulnerable communities that are less technology savvy are not receiving the public health benefits of something like contact tracing. And those are real concerns, particularly when you have kind of disproportionate spread of a disease and disproportionate accessibility and availability of public health resources. So there's real, kind of, broader cultural and sociological, and environmental concerns that come into play when you're talking about applying this type of technology to the real world." That's where Bowman's unique philosophical grounding and non-traditional perspectives come in handy as nations around the world ponder these weighty questions over how to put the lid on the pandemic. Note: I was a senior advisor at Palantir Technologies from 2007-2015 and own equity in the startup. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Courtney Bowman thought he was destined for a career in physics until he took a philosophy class that triggered a deep skepticism of the hard sciences and the ability of science alone to address the issues raised by technological advances. Chitra Ragavan: Bowman decided to pursue his quest for a philosophical underpinning for his life and work, which unexpectedly gave him the tools to address some of the most challenging and salient technology questions of the day. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined now by Courtney Bowman, a former colleague and Director of Privacy and Civil Liberties engineering at Palantir Technologies. Bowman's work addresses complex issues at the intersection of policy, law, technology, ethics, and social norms. Bowman is working closely with the U.S. government and governments around the world to address the issues around the collection and analysis of massive amounts of data from the COVID-19 pandemic. Courtney, welcome to the podcast. Courtney Bowman: Chitra, thank you so much. It's an honor to be invited to your podcast and I really appreciate it. Chitra Ragavan: So what were you doing in life when you first began to understand the need for philosophy as an underpinning for your life and work?

Ep. 42 — A voiceless young clubfoot patient grows into one of the most outspoken and renowned vaccine advocates in the world / Dr. Paul Offit, Professor of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. When Dr. Paul Offit was five years old he got surgery for clubfoot and was sent to recover at a chronic care facility in Baltimore which was also a polio ward. He spent six lonely weeks there, feeling like a prisoner, with virtually no distractions, recreation, or visitors like many of the polio patients in that ward. "It was hell. This was the mid-1950s, it was a polio ward, people were scared of polio. There was one visiting hour a week on Sundays from 2:00 to 3:00. My mother was pregnant with my brother and had a complication, so she was unable to visit. My father who traveled often as a salesman, he tried to visit me actually on one of the hours that wasn't permitted, and from then on he wasn't allowed to visit me,” remembers Dr. Offit. "As a consequence, no one visited me, and you know, I just remember that ward, my bed was right next to a window that looked down onto the front door of the hospital. I just remember staring out that window waiting for somebody to come and save me." That formative childhood experience put Dr. Offit on the path to becoming one of the most renowned vaccine advocates in the world. The recipient of many honors and awards, Dr. Offit is Professor of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a co-inventor of the #rotavirus vaccine, estimated to save hundreds of lives of children every day. Offit has published more than 180 papers in medical and scientific journals and is a prolific author of medical narratives including Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure which put him in the cross-hairs of the powerful, well-connected, and well-funded anti-vaccine coalitions. His willingness to publicly take on the anti-vaxxers has made Offit the frequent target of intimidation and regular death threats. Offit currently is a member of an NIH-led #COVID-19 vaccine innovation group. The sweeping public private partnership between federal researchers and 16 pharmaceutical companies is called Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines or ACTIV. Offit believes there will be several #coronavirus vaccines soon and that the virulence of this virus will upend the traditional long FDA drug approval process, with both good and bad consequences. "So I think this is going to play out in one of two ways. There will be a vaccine. I think there will be a vaccine soon. I think not a vaccine, I think there's going to be several vaccines, or many vaccines, used in countries throughout the world. Then we'll learn about it, after it's already out there, I think then we'll learn about it. It'll play out one of two ways, it'll be remarkably effective, stop the spread of this awful virus. That is the only way to stop the spread. I mean population immunity will only be achieved by a vaccine. It's not going to be achieved by natural infection, because it never is,” says Offit. "Either the vaccines will be a hero, much as in the movie Contagion, when the vaccine was the hero of that movie. Or because things have been compressed and pushed quickly, there will be a side effect that will be severe that people hadn't anticipated, and that could make people question whether we have done this the right way." Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: When Dr Paul Offit was five years old he was sent to a polio ward to recover from clubfoot surgery. He spent six weeks in the ward surrounded by young children suffering from polio. That formative childhood experience put Dr Offit on the path to becoming one of the most renowned vaccine advocates in the world. Chitra Ragavan: Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory,

Ep. 41 — A young man gets held up at knifepoint and learns the value of grit and perseverance / Cliff Banks, Founder and President, The Banks Report. When Philadelphia native Cliff Banks was 19 years old, he traveled to New York City to take a connecting train to Detroit to start a new job and a new life. But he got the fright of his life as he hailed a cab to get from Penn Station to Grand Central Station. “Before I got into the cab, two guys came up and asked if they could help and I said, ‘No, thanks. I've got it.’ And next thing I know, I was up against the cab with a knife to my throat,” Banks remembers. “And they demanded my wallet and anything else valuable that I had and took off running.” Although broke and in shock over what had happened to him, Banks somehow found his way to Dearborn. Lacking the money to buy a car for himself or a college education for that matter but blessed with sheer grit and perseverance, Banks went from hitchhiking to get to that first job loading cars on trains at railroad yards to fulfilling his dream of becoming a journalist covering automotive news. He founded The BanksReport, the most influential trade newsletter in the car retail space today. Now with 30-years covering the auto industry, Banks has a unique lens into the seismic impact of #Covid-19 and the unprecedented shutdown of car manufacturing in the United States. With family friends getting sick or dying from the #Coronavirus in hard-hit Michigan, Banks finds himself both living and working through what’s likely to be the most historic story of his lifetime. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra : When Philadelphia native Cliff Banks was 19 years old, he traveled to New York City to take a connecting train to Detroit in order to start a new job and a new life. But a scary thing happened as he hailed a cab to transfer from Penn Station to Grand Central Station. Although broke and in shock over what happened to him, Banks somehow found a way to make it to Detroit. Chitra : Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra : That same resourcefulness that allowed Banks to recover from the armed robbery got him into the Detroit area automotive industry where he fulfilled his passion for journalism. Joining me now is Cliff Banks, Founder and President of The Banks Report, the most influential newsletter covering the automotive retail space. Chitra : Cliff, welcome to the podcast. Cliff: Thanks, Chitra. It's great to be here. Chitra : So tell us what happened and how you got mugged in New York. I mean, this was back in the 1990s when the big Apple wasn't quite so sanitized, was it? Cliff: No. No, not at all. In fact, it did look a lot different back then. It was 1990, early as mid-March I guess, and at the time there wasn't a train that went directly from Philadelphia to Dearborn, Michigan. So I had to go to New York and get off at one stage, Penn Station, and then take a cab to Grand Central to grab the train to Dearborn. Coming out of Penn station and getting into the cab, before I got into the cab, two guys came up and asked if they could help and I said, "No, thanks. I've got it." And next thing I know, I was up against the cab with a knife to my throat and they demanded my wallet and anything else valuable that I had and took off running. Cliff: I actually chased the guy that took the wallet. I caught up to him and he turned around with the knife and slashed at me and I just, I backed off and told him to keep it. I went back to the cab thinking for sure he would be gone with all my luggage. Actually he wasn't. He was standing there with a few cops around him, but there wasn't anything to do that that they could do. So the cab driver very graciously offered to take me to Grand Central. Cliff:

Ep. 40 – The granddaughter of a Civil Rights-era healthcare worker and union advocate grows up to become an employment mediator and arbitrator / Angela Reddock-Wright, Founder, Reddock Law Group. For labor lawyer Angela Reddock-Wright, geography was definitely destiny. Moving from Birmingham, Alabama to working-class Compton, California at age nine and then winning a scholarship to the Brentwood School in the exclusive westside of Los Angeles would prove to be the most transformational events of her life. Her dual existence commuting between her blue-color and privileged worlds reminded Reddock-Wright of the importance of honoring one’s roots while being open to new opportunities. As a young girl in Birmingham, Reddock-Wright watched her maternal grandmother, a home healthcare worker active in the Civil Rights movement, take to the picket lines for better wages and conditions. Not surprising then that Reddock-Wright went on to become an employment and workplace mediator, arbitrator and Title IX investigator. She certainly has her hands full with the unprecedented shutdown of the U.S. economy because of #coronavirus and historic layoffs of millions of American workers. Reddock-Wright's days are consumed with advising employers and employees of their rights, responsibilities, and protections as they struggle with the stunning job losses triggered by #Covid19. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Joining me now is Angela Reddock-Wright, founder of the Reddock Law Group. Angela, welcome to the podcast. Angela Reddock-Wright: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Chitra Ragavan: So where did you grow up, and what was your childhood like before you moved to Compton, California? Angela Reddock-Wright: Well, my father was in the military, so I actually was born in Frankfurt area, Germany, but I don't remember much about it, because we left there when I was one or two years old, and we went back to my parents' hometown, which is Birmingham, Alabama. That's where both my parents and their siblings grew up. Angela Reddock-Wright: So I lived in Birmingham, Alabama until I was nine years old, and from there, my parents divorced when I was young, and my mom, seeking a better life for us post-civil rights Birmingham, Alabama, moved to California as a part of the great migration of Southerners that either moved to the West or moved north, and so some of her siblings had moved west already to California, specifically Compton, California. So we moved there when I was nine years old. Chitra Ragavan: So growing up as a young girl in Birmingham in the black South, how did that initially begin to shape your views? Angela Reddock-Wright: Well, it had a great impact on me. I was born in 1969, and so I was young as the Civil Rights Movement was starting to close out and evolve into a different type of movement than the type that my parents and their parents and so forth experienced, one with Jim Crow and dogs and beatings and so forth. As a child, I was shielded from a lot of that, so I grew up in sort of an idyllic environment, with grandparents on both sides, where you would sit on the porch and you would say hello to people as they passed by. Everyone was referred to as kin folk, because we all knew each other. I remember Southern traditions like sitting with one of my grandmothers and drinking coffee with her, even as a young kid, out the bowl. Angela Reddock-Wright: So, on one level, it was idyllic. It had a lot of Southern traditions, but I do remember, obviously, even though I wasn't in the heart of marching or anything like that, I have memories of those conversations and of people still being very active in the movement. My maternal grandmother in particular, Frida Gills, she was a home healthcare worker and was very active in the Civil Rights Movement and in her community and in the union that represented the workers. So I remember, as a child,

Ep. 39 — A New York college graduate’s surefire path to success is upended by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks /Jared Carmel, Managing Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners. New York native Jared Carmel was ready to take on the world in 2001 when he hit the job market fresh out of college. But his dreams of a cushy job at a big Wall Street investment firm evaporated in the dust of the 9/11 attacks. Carmel eventually got hired at a boutique investment bank where he earned his chops wearing lots of hats and learning lots of skills. Carmel became a pioneer in the development of secondary markets for pre-IPO technology companies. A founder and Managing Partner at Manhattan Venture Partners, Carmel has helped create nearly $2 billion of invested capital across more than 30 businesses with over 20 liquidity events including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Lyft, Spotify, and Alibaba, to name just a few. Carmel's path to wealth was bookended by not one but two economic downturns – post 9/11 and the 2008 recession. So he has a wise perspective on the #Covid-19 rollercoaster. He believes individuals and investors should look past the shock of the current U.S. crisis and read the global macro tea leaves. A master venture capitalist's masterclass on weathering the #coronavirus catastrophe. That's on my leadership podcast

Ep. 38 — A father’s gift and a brother’s illness sets a young boy  on track to becoming a cryptocurrency pioneer / Joey Krug, Co-CIO, Pantera Capital, Core Dev, Augur. When Joey Krug  was 10 years old, his dad bought him an old Apple computer on eBay. Although neither realized it at the time, it would prove to be a timely gift. Around that same time, Krug's brother became really sick with a rare disease affecting only 600 people in the world. Krug quit school to be there for his brother during his year-long hospitalization, homeschooled himself and learned programming to help him cope with the family crisis. Krug’s brother thankfully recovered and Krug pretty much forgot about programming till five years later when he discovered Bitcoin. His exploration of bitcoin and cryptocurrency eventually led Joey Krug to pioneer Augur, a cryptocurrency online gaming platform. The so-called "prediction markets" running on Augur have ranged from betting on benign future events — such as sports, weather, and political outcomes  to a few shock-value ones — including so-called “assassination markets,” where people could in theory bet on celebrity killings of politicians and other famous people or predict the number of people killed in a terrorist attack. Krug, who is also the Co-CIO of Pantera Capital, a blockchain and crypto investment fund,  believes the decentralized, peer-to-peer betting exchanges like Augur will reduce many of the problems associated with traditional online gambling platforms and bring efficiency, transparency, and integrity to the opaque gaming industry. Kruger is placing a big bet on the future of global online gambling, expected by some estimates to be worth more than $100 billion by 2025. In this in-depth interview, Krug also looks at the roadblocks in cryptocurrency going mainstream and how the industry is likely to evolve in the next few years. Read the Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: When Joey Krug was 10 years old, his dad bought him an old Apple computer on eBay. Although neither realized it at the time, it would prove to be a timely gift. Krug's brother did recover, and Krug pretty much forgot about programming until he was 15 years old when he discovered Bitcoin. Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. His exploration of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency led Joey Krug to develop Augur, a decentralized cryptocurrency gaming platform. Prediction markets like Auger can range from the benign, such as betting on sports, weather, and politics, to the sinister, including so-called assassination markets where people bet on celebrity killings of politicians and other famous people or predict the number of people killed in a terrorist attack. Joining me now to discuss how prediction markets work and where the cryptocurrency industry and markets are headed is Joey Krug. He's the co-CIO at Pantera Capital, one of the largest blockchain-focused investment firms. Krug also is co-founder of the Forecast Foundation, which developed Augur. Joey, welcome to the podcast. Joey Krug: Thanks for having me. Chitra Ragavan: Describe the computer that your dad gave you when you were 10 and what it was like to first start using it and to learn to program with it. Joey Krug: Yeah. My dad bought me an old Apple IIGS. I think it was one of the nicer models of the Apple II, but of course he bought it decades later, so it was pretty cheap on eBay. There were kind of a few things you could do. You could sort of program in the command line using an Applesoft BASIC, which is sort of a language that I think initially Wozniak did a lot of work on. Steve Wozniak built that. There wasn't a whole lot you could do with it. You could write fairly simple programs, you could write programs that would make small games like tech space games,

Ep. 37 — A tumultuous childhood filled with displacement and abuse draws a healthcare expert to the psychology of human behavior / Nicole Fisher, President of Health and Human Rights Strategies. To say that Nicole Fisher's childhood was tumultuous would be an understatement. Fisher's world fell apart when she was two years old when she began to experience a pattern of psychological, and physical abuse by her mother. When her parents divorced, her dad won custody of Fisher and raised her with the help of loving relatives. But Fisher still endured years of brutal custody battles in which the courts often sided with her mother and ordered Fisher to visit her or even live with her, creating massive stress and uncertainty, fueled in large part by her mother’s unpredictable behavior. “There were many times, she was so loving, and kind, and affectionate, and there were other times she was the opposite. And I think that actually at its core, is part of that underlying instability,” say Fisher. “It wasn't just, whether my grandma was picking me up from school, or my aunt, or I was going to walk home with cousins, I think it was really, not knowing which sort of personality you were going to get, and that instability . . . really created a need for me, to have predictability in my life, and to understand, why, what were those triggers, what was within my control, what wasn't.” Her chaotic childhood left Fisher with a deep hunger to understand the human psyche. She has devoted her career to working on issues of health and human rights, homelessness and hunger through her consulting firm, Health and Human Rights Strategies. Fisher soon realized that the poor and underprivileged in the U.S. confront many of the same issues as those in the developing world. This chasm between the haves and have nots in America has only come into sharper relief with #Coronavirus. In a strange way, the #Covid-19 pandemic has brought Fisher full circle to her own history of displacement, and resilience. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: Nicole Fisher's world fell apart when she was two years old, and she began to experience psychological, and physical abuse by her mother. Fisher's dad worked three jobs, and despite his best efforts, had little idea how to bring up a daughter, but he had the help of her grandparents, and many other relatives. Her chaotic childhood left Fisher with a deep hunger to understand people, and a passion for health and human rights. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When it Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups, find their narrative. My guest today is Nicole Fisher, President of the consulting firm, Health & Human Rights Strategies. Fisher is a global health and policy contributor to Forbes, and the founder and curator of the think tank, A Seat at the Table. Nicole, welcome to the podcast. Nicole: Thank you for having me. Chitra Ragavan: Well, to say that you had a rough childhood, is a bit of an understatement. Tell us what happened. Nicole: Sure. It's not something I talk about very often, but yes, my childhood was, I think tumultuous, is a word. I had a wonderful family, a very big loving family, but my parents got divorced, for good reason, when I was very young, and there was, as you mentioned, some psychological and physical abuse. It went on for years, and so my dad got custody of me at two. We moved to be near his family. I was born in Louisiana, but we moved to Missouri, where his family was. And over the years, there were lots of custody battles, lots of court dates, lots of instances of having to choose which parent to live with. I of course chose my father, but the courts' system really believed, particularly back in those days, that children, girls in particular, should be with their mother. And I respect the mindset, and yet we had a loving... My father is the greatest guy in the world,

Ep. 36 — A succession of friends dying early propels a hospital revenue cycle consultant to rethink the foundation of American healthcare / Dave Chase, Creator, Co-Founder, and CEO of Health Rosetta. When Dave Chase turned 40, he was stunned to realize that nearly a dozen of his friends all around his own age had died due to health problems. One in particular hit him the hardest, a successful executive who got cancer. “And really, at every step of the way the system failed. I mean, she got the wrong diagnosis which led to the wrong treatment plan,” says Chase. “Ultimately, this devastated her physically, financially, mentally, and she ultimately passed, she left behind a 10 year old daughter, and she was a single mother. And I realized this was a complete system failure. And I'd been a part of that system. And that was one of those road to Damascus moments for me, realizing certainly I was trying to do the right thing. But the more I looked at the system I was in, the more I realized it was, in some cases doing more harm than good. And the effects were just dramatic the more I dug into it, basically.” A successful hospital revenue cycle consultant at the time, Chase knew that he had to rethink his career and reason for being. He began to think deeply about some of the most intractable problems in the American healthcare system: The high rates of misdiagnosis and over treatment; the direct link between the two-decade-long employee wage stagnation and the escalating cost of healthcare; the devastating opioid crisis, about which he's written a book, The Opioid Crisis Wakeup Call; and last but not least, how the average American is what Chase describes as just "one stubbed toe away" from medical bill-driven bankruptcy. Since his existential crisis, Chase has become one of the most innovative thinkers on healthcare reform. As the Creator, Co-Founder, and CEO of Health Rosetta, he's working with employers and unions to transform the healthcare system. In this insightful episode, Chase lays out a concise roadmap of all the factors that have led to the national crisis in healthcare during this ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan: By the time Dave Chase turned 40, 10 of his friends all around his own age had died due to health problems. There was one in particular that hit him the hardest. A successful hospital revenue cycle consultant at the time, Chase knew that he had to rethink his career and reason for being. Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Since that crisis, Chase has become one of the most innovative thinkers on healthcare reform. Joining me now is Dave Chase. He is the creator, Co-founder and CEO of Health Rosetta, which he describes as a "do it yourself health reform movement" to help transform the healthcare system.' Dave, welcome to the podcast. Dave Chase: Thanks so much for having me. I'm looking forward to our chat. Chitra Ragavan: So how did you end up in healthcare in the first place? Dave Chase: Well, initially it was random, I was working with a consulting firm that's now Accenture. And as a new consultant straight out of school, they put you on a project and I was put into a hospital. And turns out, it was enjoyable, liked the team, liked the work and just kind of one thing led to another and have had much of my career in the healthcare industry. Chitra Ragavan: So what were you doing in healthcare when you turned 40, and you were starting to see that a lot of your friends had died? Dave Chase: By then I had moved on to the technology side. So I'd had a company that I had started. I mean, previously, I'd been at Microsoft and started their healthcare partnership ecosystem, that's about 28,000 partners that they have on the Microsoft platform, believe it or not, just in healthcare,

Ep. 35 — A war photographer confronts her own mortality as she bears witness to the world’s worst wars / Lynsey Addario, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist. Renowned photojournalist and war photographer Lynsey Addario and three fellow journalists were documenting the Arab Spring uprising in Libya in March 2011 when the unthinkable happened at a hostile checkpoint. The journalists had lingered too long to complete their reporting on the front lines and were cornered and taken hostage by Col. Muammar Gaddafi's troops. They were repeatedly beaten, tied up, blindfolded and constantly threatened with execution before being released nearly a week later. It was hard enough to recover from the trauma of her violent kidnapping, the second in her 15-year career as a award winning war photographer. A month later, Addario learned that two other journalist friends had been killed in Libya, leading to a profound existential crisis about the life-threatening career she had chosen. Addario's soul searching led to her best-selling memoir, "It's What I do," in which the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, recounts the incredible risks she has taken covering every major conflict and humanitarian crisis of her generation, played out against the backdrop of the post-9/11 War on Terror. A regular contributor to The NewYorkTimes, National Geographic, and Time, Addario has reported and photographed from some of the world’s most dangerous hotspots including Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, South Sudan, Somalia, and Congo. Recently, Addario took on another difficult assignment documenting a very different kind of death that challenged her as a photojournalist in an entirely new way. I hope you enjoy this incredible story of courage, perseverance and sacrifice. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra:   Renowned photo journalist and war photographer, Lynsey Addario and three fellow journalists were shooting the Arab spring uprising in Libya in March, 2011 when the unthinkable happened at a hostile checkpoint. Addario and her colleagues were released nearly a week later. It was hard enough to recover from the trauma of her violent kidnapping, but when a month later, Addario learned that two other journalists friends had been killed in Libya, her world fell apart. Chitra:   Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Good Story, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. My guest today is Lynsey Addario, the Pulitzer prize winning photo journalist, who for the past 15 years has covered every major conflict and humanitarian crisis of her generation. A regular contributor to the New York Times, National Geographic and Time magazine, Addario has reported and photographed from some of the most dangerous hotspots in the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, South Sudan, Somalia and Congo. Addario also is the author of the bestselling memoir, It's What I do, a powerful narrative about her coming of age as a photo journalist during the post 911 War on Terror. Lynsey, welcome to the podcast. Lynsey:   Thank you. Thank you for having me. Chitra:   Did you always want to be a photographer? Lynsey:   No, actually I never wanted to be a photographer. For me, I started photographing as a hobby and it was something I did sort of as I was growing up, I taught myself, I bought books on how to photograph, but it was never really something I took seriously, I guess because I didn't have exposure to photojournalism. And so it wasn't until I graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in international relations and Italian that I moved abroad and I started really paying attention to photography as a form of journalism and storytelling. And that's really when I decided I wanted to become a photographer. Chitra:   Your first camera was actually a gift from your dad. You were one of four sisters,

Ep. 34 — A Shanghai-based American journalist uncovers a Chinese spy caper that brings her full circle to her midwestern roots / Mara Hvistendahl, Author, The Scientist and the Spy. When journalist Mara Hvistendahl began looking into the FBI’s arrest of a lone Chinese man behaving suspiciously in an Iowa cornfield, she was blown away by what she uncovered. Hvistendahl’s two-year reporting journey led her into the heart of a massive FBI industrial espionage investigation into the theft of genetically modified corn seeds by Chinese agribusinesses, triggered by the arrest of that one individual, Robert Mo. What began as idle curiosity ended in a gripping book,  The Scientist and The Spy, in which Hvistendahl documents the extraordinary lengths to which the U.S. government went to make its case against Mo and the implications for other U.S. based Chinese scientists and foreign scientists in general. And it is a microcosm of some of the issues confronting U.S. - China trade relations. Hvistendahl’ s tour de force also offers a disturbing picture of the consolidation of U.S. agriculture in the hands of a few corporate giants, leaving average farmers fighting for survival. And she examines in detail the ethnic discrimination underlying many of these types of criminal investigations and prosecutions.. The story, which Hvistendahl now believes she was meant to write, also had a deep personal twist, bringing her full circle back to her own midwestern roots. I hope you enjoy this saga of one reporter‘s long journey home. Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra:   Minnesota native Mara Hvistendahl learned Mandarin because of her mom's history in China. Later as a reporter in Shanghai, Hvistendahl read about a Chinese man found behaving suspiciously in the middle of an Iowa corn field. That odd little story led Hvistendahl on a two year reporting journey that uncovered a massive FBI industrial espionage investigation into the theft of genetically modified corn seeds by Chinese agribusinesses. Hvistendahl's journey also had an unexpected personal twist. Chitra:   Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Joining me now is Mara Hvistendahl, author of the book, The Scientist and the Spy. Mara, welcome to the podcast. Mara:   Thank you so much for having me here. Chitra:    You became a Mandarin speaker because of your mom's amazing story. What was that story? Mara:  Sure. My mom was a missionary's daughter. She spent some of her high school years in Asia and then moved back to the Midwest and had kids, got married. After she divorced my father when I was four, she decided to spend a year applying to schools and studying Chinese again. The woman who became her Chinese tutor was also a single mom with a son around the same age as me and my brother. Mara:   She's living in the dorm at a St. Olaf College in Southern Minnesota and nobody there knew that she had a child. Her name was Hung-yu, and so my mom thought, let's get her out of the dorm. Hung-yu and my mom ended up moving in together and co-parenting me and my brother and my Chinese brother for a number of years, for five or six years. We became quite close as a kind of blended family. Chitra:   You took Mandarin in college and then you decided to move to Shanghai. Why did you move? Mara:   I decided in college that I wanted to become a journalist. I took Mandarin, though, more just because of this personal interest and I'd always loved the language and the culture. Then I went to journalism school and I was in New York trying to freelance. I was working as a nanny and a waitress on the side and an editor said to me, "Do you speak some Chinese? You probably should just go to China and see if you can get your start there." Mara:   I packed up one or two bags and just moved.

Ep. 33 — A writer-turned-filmmaker takes a mentor’s blunt advice to heart and becomes a pioneer in the art of visual branded storytelling / Megan Cunningham, Founder and CEO, Magnet Media. Long before “narrative” and “storytelling” became buzzwords in the technology space, Megan Cunningham was pioneering the art of brand positioning. At a time when YouTube, broadband and mobile phones were in their infancy and influencer marketing was virtually non-existent, Cunningham's brand studio, Magnet Media was putting her on track to becoming a media magnate in content marketing and branded storytelling. But it wasn’t easy creating an entirely new media and marketing model and building a global business. Cunningham learned the physical toll of burning the candle on both ends on a business trip packed with back-to-back meetings. “The first meeting, I honestly cannot tell you anything that was said during that meeting, because I was just sitting there, staring off into space, and in such agonizing pain,” Cunningham recalls. “By the end of the meeting, I just had to excuse myself. I went to the hotel room, and just called 911, because I was doubled over in pain.” Her health crisis and her husband's intervention convinced Cunningham, who had a young son, to acknowledge that scaling a company meant operating at a whole different level, both personally and professionally. Today, all the techniques that Cunningham began pioneering two decades ago –– branded visual storytelling and content, social media, and influencer marketing –– have become par for the course in the marketing industry. Cunningham still remembers the day she got that fateful call from a Google executive asking what she could do with the nascent YouTube channel and when she went to the channel, all she saw were cat videos. Don’t miss this great episode of how Cunningham has redefined the art and craft of brand storytelling. Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra:   Long before narrative and storytelling became buzzwords in the technology space, Megan Cunningham was pioneering the art of brand storytelling through her content studio, Magnet Media. But, it wasn't easy creating an entirely new media and marketing model, and building a global business. Cunningham learned the cost of burning the candle on both ends, on a business trip one day. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. Chitra:   This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra:   Her health crisis convinced Megan Cunningham to acknowledge that scaling a company meant operating a whole different level, both personally and professionally. Here to talk about it is Megan Cunningham, CEO of the brand studio Magnet Media. Cunningham is a sought after speaker on media and marketing trends, especially how data informs the storytelling process to drive measurable impact. She's also the author of the book, The Art of the Documentary, and Cunningham has spoken at many events, including the Sundance Film Festival, the Wharton School of Business, South by Southwest, and the Consumer Electronics Show. Chitra:   Megan, welcome to the podcast. Megan:   Thank you so much for having me. Chitra:   What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you want to be doing what you're doing now? Megan:   When I was younger, I was really fortunate to be immersed in a house that just loved to tell stories. We have a really close family, and everyone's a pretty obsessive reader, but we also love to exchange stories. That was a big part of my life growing up. Megan:   So, when it came to decide what I wanted to be, of course I naturally gravitated towards writing. However, after researching all the schools I could potentially go to, and looking into the writing programs, and visiting campuses, I chose Swarthmore. Yet, when I signed up for my first year of courses, the very first class I took was called,

Ep. 32 — An economics reporter is jolted by the 2016 Presidential race and rethinks all his assumptions about the American economy and electorate / Binyamin Appelbaum, Author, The Economist’s Hour. Binyamin Appelbaum had been reporting and writing about economics for more than a decade when Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential race. The shocking outcome led Appelbaum to realize that he must go back to the drawing board, to Macroeconomics 101, in order to understand what had just happened. What resulted is his terrific book, "The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society." The Economists' Hour refers to the 40-year period from 1969 to 2008 when a cadré of economists rose from obscurity to household names, shaping government policy and shifting the government's role from actively shaping the economy to allowing the market to largely do so. Appelbaum concludes that those economists were in essence, "False Prophets.” “They sold their ideas by representing that if we embrace this approach to public policy, the economy would grow more quickly, all boats would be lifted up, prosperity would be broad and well distributed, and even that democracy would benefit,” says Appelbaum. “And I think in all three of those respects, this change in policy making failed to deliver. Growth has slowed, inequality has increased, and our democracy is in worse shape than ever.” Now a New York Times editorial board member, Appelbaum offers an eye-popping primer on the economic forces that are shaping the 2020 Presidential elections. This is a terrific conversation that offers timely context for President Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion budget that comes with huge safety-net cuts. Appelbaum’s sweeping history of America’s macro-economic policies in The Economist’s Hour is a must-read for every voter who plans to cast his or her ballot in the 2020 Presidential race. I know I came away feeling much smarter after reading Appelbaum’s book and having had this deep discussion with him and I can better understand the economic and social consequences of how I cast my ballot this November. And I hope so will you. Tanscript Download the PDF Ragavan: Binyamin Appelbaum had been writng about economics with considerable success for more than a decade. When Donald Trump was elected President in November 2016. The shocking victory jolted Appelbaum into a humbling realization. Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology start ups find their narrative. After Trump's election in 2016, Appelbaum knew he had to go back to the drawing board and reconnect the dots in his understanding and the public's understanding of the macroeconomic factors that got Trump elected President. What resulted is his terrific book, The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society. Ragavan: Joining me now to share what he discovered and the factors that could swing the 2020 Presidential race is Binyamin Appelbaum. He is the lead writer on business and economics for the New York Times editorial board. Before joining the editorial board, Appelbaum was a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering economic policy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Appelbaum also worked for the Charlotte Observer where his reporting on the subprime lending crisis won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize. Binyamin, welcome to the podcast. Appelbaum: Thank you for having me. Ragavan: Were you one of those geeky kids? A wiz at math and head buried in books? Where did you grow up and what were you like? Appelbaum: I grew up outside of Boston and yeah. My father is a professor. My mother is a historian. It was very much a family where books were very important. There was a shelf in my living room where my parents' books were read and shelves throughou...

Ep. 31 — A single mother of two young sons takes lessons from her grandfather, a small-time hustler turned big-time property owner, about the value of homeownership / Katrina Jones, VP, Single Family Mortgage Business, Fannie Mae. When her husband passed away at a young age, Katrina Jones was left to raise two kids, forcing her to drop out of college to confront her new responsibilities. It would prove to be the most challenging time of her life. What kept Jones going was not just the support she got from her extended family but lessons from her grandfather, a street-smart hustler named George Carter. Born on a plantation in 1990, Carter was the son of a former slave who knew he was destined for something bigger. So he dropped out of school at age 12 and ran away from home to Washington D.C., determined to make a life for himself. Strong-willed and stubborn, Carter slept on streets and did a bunch of odd jobs and side hustles, hauling trash and fixing stoops, convincing people to take a chance on him. Unbathed and unkempt as he was, many turned him away. But others gave him a shot. Little by little, Carter put away the dough to start buying property. His first parcel of land was in Arlington, Virginia, bought for $175, mortgage payment of about $10 a month. Not knowing how to read or write, he signed for it with an X, proud to be able to give his young wife, the woman of his dreams, the home she wanted to raise her family. “There was nothing traditional about that house, five doors, more than 30 windows,” remembers Jones with a laugh, “There were always two kitchens, one upstairs for the winter and one downstairs for the summer. No central air conditioning. Windows were just open, put in a screen with some netting. It was just what we called, that's a scrappy house to go with the scrappy gentleman, who managed to fulfill his wife's dream of creating a home in Arlington where she could raise her family.” Over the decades, quietly and confidently, Carter acquired property, lot after lot — bought or a relative pittance by today’s housing prices — working his street hustles and sweat equity. Today those lots are worth millions. For Jones, it was entirely accidental that she ended up in the housing business. But it’s only made her appreciate even more the priceless legacy her late grandfather left for his family. A recent Forbes piece says a lack of home equity in black families is one big reason for the racial wealth gap between blacks and whites, analyzing 2016 data. “African-Americans on average had home equity of less than $12,000 in September. White households in comparison had average home equity of almost $189,000 then,” wrote author Christian Weller. “Black households on average own only about six percent the housing wealth of white households.” Today, Millennials are also struggling with many challenges with homeownership, including lack of savings, debt, and lack of affordable housing. “I think the way people live is changing, where they want to live is changing, how they want to live is changing and our industry needs a bit of re-imagining to consider, how do we meet the needs of today's generation of future homeowners and tomorrow in a new, different way,” says Jones. “Hopefully we figure that out, but I think affordable housing is a big challenge for us right now. I see it play out in my own family.” Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   When Katrina Jones' husband passed away at a young age, she was left to raise two kids on her own, forcing her to drop out of college to confront her new responsibilities. It would prove to be the most challenging time of her life. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan:   When her husband died, what kept Jones going was not just the support she got from her exte...

Ep. 30 — An acting class convinces an engineering student to devote her career to building charismatic, performing, social robots / Heather Knight Associate Professor of Robotics, Oregon State University. When Heather Knight was working on her Ph.D. in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, a two-week class she took in the drama department, called Movement for Actors totally detoured her thesis plans. And it became the heart and soul of her life and work: Helping robots become more like humans. Little did she know how difficult it would be. “I literally spent the next three years trying to get a robot to communicate by emotion, in a way that was similar to the first two weeks of that class,” Knight recalls. But Knight was hooked. Since then, she has devoted her career to becoming a social roboticist. She specializes in building emotional, useful, so-called “charismatic” robots. These robots are “charismatic” in more ways than one. Knight’s lab at Oregon State University is called The CHARISMA Robotics Lab. CHARISMA is an acronym for Collaborative Humans and Robots: Interaction Sociability, Machine learning, & Art. Knight and her team get wildly creative with robots, infusing them not only with smarts but also sociability, charm, humor, practicality, and collaborativeness. In other words, human traits. If anyone can do it, it’s Knight.  In addition to her Ph.D. in Robotics, Knight also has degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science. Fiercely smart with a capacity for goofy, artsy and playful, Knight has worked as an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, helped build wildly popular interactive installations including the crazy Rube Goldberg machine in OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” music video, which has nearly 64 million views! She has served as a Robotics Artist in Residence and as an Artist/Engineer. She’s done a TedTalk with her robotic standup comedian, Data. And she’s a sought-after thought leader in her field. Knight also runs  Marilyn Monrobot, a robot theater company where she does comedy performances with Data and even organizes an annual Robot Film Festival. The more Knight works with robots, the more she has come to understand an immutable truth: Humans are awesome. “One of the things that I love about what I do, is that I constantly get to kind of bask in the glory of all of the things that we take for granted. Like it's so hard for autonomous cars to actually make sense of the world. And we can see a path through a forest just because of how the leaves are slightly more beaten down, even though there are pine needles and rocks. Our vision systems are absolutely amazing,” Knight says. “And our ability to feel like that someone isn't trustworthy in like 30 seconds or like judge a job interview or decide who to talk to at a party. It’'s very cool what we're capable of, I mean, I don't know if there's life in the extended universe, but we are very rare and unique and lucky.” Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Her dad is a former engineer who built lasers and propulsion systems. Her mom is a multilingual former Peace Corps volunteer. Heather Knight has molded his mind and her heart into a very unique field of robotics, building emotional, playful, social robots. Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Good Story, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan:   Joining me now is Heather Knight, Assistant Professor of Robotics at Oregon State University. Her charisma research group uses methods from entertainment to bootstrap the development of social robots. Knight also runs Marilyn Monrobot, a robot theater company with comedy performances and an annual robot film festival. Knight was named to the Forbes :ist 30 under 30 in science, in 2011 and Ad Week's top 100 creatives in 2017. Heather, welcome to the podcast.

Ep. 29 — A second generation holocaust survivor stops carrying the weight of her father’s suffering and starts living life to the fullest / Helene Johnson, President & CEO, Bid2Win. When Helene Johnson was just six years old, she decided to get to the bottom of her beloved father’s bouts of anger and sadness. Johnson demanded a full account of what her dad had been through for five years in Nazi captivity. Obedient to her command, Johnson’s dad told her not only everything that had happened to him and his family but also what he’d seen happening to others in the Nazi concentration camps. Neither father nor daughter realized at that moment the devastating impact those stories would have on Johnson. She became captive to fear in all aspects of her daily life, work, and even worship. “It made me extremely afraid to be in crowds. I'm afraid to go on the Metro, which would have been nice today for work, but I just can't do it,” says Johnson. “I can't take being closed in and not having any chance to escape. When I go into stadiums or concerts or even the movie theater, I have to look for the exit and I have to know that there's a way to escape . . .  To this day, I cannot go into a synagogue on the Jewish holidays. I did when my kids were little and I was freaked out, totally, every time.” Johnson spent much of her adulthood trapped in her own shadow of fear and self-doubt, all the while building an impressive career  in government contracting. Recently, after Johnson’s beloved dad passed away, she noticed a gradual change in herself. It’s a change that has given her new life, soul, and spirit. Johnson’s story is a reminder of the multi-generational toll of the Holocaust. These stories are vital to prevent such events from ever happening again. A Pew Research Center survey released this week shows that, "Most U.S. adults know what the Holocaust was and approximately when it happened, but fewer than half can correctly answer multiple-choice questions about the number of Jews who were murdered or the way Adolf Hitler came to power.” And the survey revealed that fewer than 50% know that nearly 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. A New York Times story last week reported a disturbing rise in Neo-Nazi threats, “particularly from adherents who cluster in small cells organized under the auspices of a larger group that spreads violent ideology.” The report compared this trend in decentralization of the movement to al-globally dispersed radicalization and terrorism through small cells “or even lone wolves who would be inspired to plot their own attacks. Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Helene Johnson was just six years old when she asked her father, a Holocaust survivor, to tell her exactly what he had been through during five years in Nazi captivity. Her dad took her request seriously. He told her everything that had happened to him and his family. It may not have been a very wise move, either for her to ask him or for him to tell her at that young age. His story had a harsh impact on her childhood, and in fact, her whole life. Johnson spent much of her adulthood as a second generation Holocaust Survivor, captive in her own shadow of fear and self-doubt, all the while building an impressive career in government contracting. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan:   Recently, after Helene Johnson's beloved dad passed away, she noticed a gradual change in herself. It's a change that has given her new life, soul and spirit. Here to tell us more about what happened is Helene Johnson. She's president and CEO of Bid2Win, a Washington D.C. area consulting firm that's helping companies bid for and win federal contracts. Helene, welcome to the podcast. Helene Johnson:   Hi, thank you. It's nice to be here.

Ep. 28 — A dermatologist from a pedigreed Los Alamos science family fights to break the mold in sports, medicine, and Silicon Valley / Dr. Michelle Longmire, CEO and Co-Founder, Medable. Her grandfather worked with Robert Oppenheimer on the hydrogen bomb. Her mother is a radiochemist and plutonium expert, her father is an expert in recombinant - DNA technology. With that pedigree, there was little doubt that Michelle Longmire would embark on a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Indeed, when she was young, one of Dr. Longmire’s annual science projects involved breeding multiple generations of hamsters to study Mendelian inheritance patterns. Today, Michelle Longmire is a rising star in her own right in medicine and technology. But throughout her life, Dr. Longmire has found herself underestimated as she has competed fiercely to break the mold in male-dominated sports and careers. “When I was first competing in sports, I was also very small. I was playing coed hockey. And I was less than a hundred pounds. So I think people saw me as fairly small and weren't so sure about my capabilities,” Longmire recalls.  “And then I would get on the ice and I was really fast and I was probably meaner than most and loved to compete. And so, being underestimated actually I think is a tremendous advantage because then when you surprise people with what you're capable of, it's really an aha moment that generates a lot of opportunities to reset what's possible.” In sports, Longmire became a champion soccer player and team leader and in medicine, she is a Stanford-educated practicing dermatologist and expert in the genetic origins of certain fatal diseases. Now, Dr. Michelle Longmire is breaking the Founder mold in Silicon Valley where female founders are scarce. She is CEO and Co-Founder of the digital health platform, Medable, a multi-million dollar healthcare startup that’s transforming the way clinical trials are conducted globally. Longmire says her desire to tackle hard problems comes from her grandfather, Conrad Longmire. “I think as an entrepreneur and being in Silicon Valley, we can see a number of different opportunities for how we invest our time.” Longmire says. “And I think we should really aim to solve hard problems that bring a lot of value to humanity and what I learned through my grandfather was that through a team, a dedicated team of experts, you really can solve problems.” Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Born in a family of scientists, her grandfather worked with Robert Oppenheimer on the hydrogen bomb. Dr. Michelle Longmire is a rising star in the science and technology field, but throughout her life and career, Dr. Longmire has found herself underestimated as she has competed fiercely to break the mold in male dominated sports and careers. In sports, she became a champion soccer player and team leader and in medicine, Dr. Longmire is a Stanford educated practicing dermatologist and expert in the genetic origins of certain fatal diseases. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Dr. Michelle Longmire also has broken the founder mold in Silicon Valley where female founders are scarce. Her multimillion dollar digital health startup is transforming the way clinical trials are conducted globally. Joining me now is Michelle Longmire, CEO and Co-Founder of the digital health platform, Medable. Dr Longmire, welcome to the podcast. Dr. Longmire:   Thank you so much. It's really great to be here. Chitra Ragavan:   You come from an extraordinary family of scientists with deep ties to the Los Alamos National Laboratories, home of the Manhattan project and creation of the atomic bomb. Let's talk with your late grandfather Conrad Longmire. Tell us a little bit about him. Dr. Longmire:   Sure.

Ep. 27 — A young African American raised on an Arkansas farm; overcomes poverty and racial discrimination and finds his voice fighting for the underprivileged / David Branch, Employment Attorney, David Branch Law Firm. Dear Listeners, The New Year brings a new season of When It Mattered, my podcast examining how leaders and pioneers are forged from critical moments in their lives. I’m thrilled to launch Season Two with the inspiring story of Washington D.C. attorney, David Branch, a descendant of the extraordinary Branch family in Arkansas, with a lineage nearly 600-members strong. The great-great-grandson of a slave from Africa, Victoria Wakefield, Branch was raised on a farm in rural Arkansas with eight siblings on his parent’s meager income of $10,000 a year. The farm was just two hours from historic Elaine, Arkansas, where, in 1919, a dispute between black farmers attempting to organize a union resulted in the deadly massacre of 200 African American men, women, and children by white Arkansans. The poverty, racial discrimination and the fearful stories of the Eliane race riots that were passed down through generations of the Branch family, deeply affected David. But David overcame his insecurities and became one of 70 Branch first cousins to attend college. It wasn't easy. “I went to Southern Methodist University and that's a very wealthy school in Dallas,” says Branch, “So from a $10,000-family income to sitting next to millionaires and people who were driving Mercedes and BMWs at campus, that was really difficult to adjust to and just the whole mindset of people from financial means such as that.” Branch moved to Washington D.C. to go to law school and found his voice as an employment attorney fighting for the underprivileged. In his free time, Branch is dedicated to giving back to the community in a very big way, through many charitable activities, both in Washington D.C. and around the globe. I hope you enjoy this heart-warming story of David Branch, a pioneer in a pioneering family. With Warm Regards, Chitra Ragavan Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   David Branch was raised on a farm in rural Arkansas with eight siblings on his parents' meager income of $10,000 a year. The great, great grandson of a slave from Africa who was committed to education, Branch pulled up his Arkansas roots to go to college in Dallas and then law school in Washington, D.C. confronting great adversity in the process. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan, and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan:   Today, Branch is a prominent employment attorney and head of the David Branch Law firm. He has a deep commitment to giving back to his community and is passionate about fighting for clients who are confronting racism or other forms of discrimination, much like he did when he set off to get that education and create a life that would do his great-great-grandma proud. David, welcome to the podcast. David Branch:   Good morning. Welcome. Thank you. Chitra Ragavan:   You come from an extraordinary lineage, one of 600 descendants of the Branch family. Let's start with your great-great-grandmother, Victoria Wakefield. She was a slave who paved the path for hundreds of Branches to seek education, much of it against the backdrop of the civil rights movement and busing. David Branch:   Yes, that's correct. My great-great-grandmother Victoria Wakefield was a slave in Florida at first, and then she was later sold into slavery in Vicksburg, Mississippi. And from Vicksburg, Mississippi after the civil war, she moved to Arkansas and it's the part of Arkansas known as the Mississippi Delta. David Branch:   And my great-great-grandmother married a civil war veteran. His name was Henry Wakefield. And after Mr. Wakefield passed away,

Ep. 26 — A Christian Scientist forsakes her religion after taking meds for the stomach flu and takes a life detour to uncover the science of spiritual experiences / Barbara Bradley Hagerty, Contributing Writer, The Atlantic and Author, Fingerprints of God. Barbara Bradley Hagerty found herself at a crossroads one day when she got the stomach flu and realized she could no longer abide by the rules of her religion, Christian Science, banning the use of any medications. “I just lay there and this flashing in my head went off, Tylenol, Tylenol, Tylenol, so I got out of bed and I practically crawled to the medicine cabinet and pulled myself up by the sink, took one Tylenol, not two, just one and crawled back to bed. I lay there and about five minutes later I'm thinking wow I feel pretty good,” Hagerty remembers. “Now that was the beginning of the end for Christian Science for me.” Though Hagerty’s short-term health conundrum was resolved, it was only the beginning of a long-term spiritual crisis. She had to confront a much bigger issue that no meds could solve and it had to do not with her body, but with her soul. So she went on a quest and the answers she found were surprising, even shocking and resulted in her fascinating book, Fingerprints of God, about how what and why of spirituality and spiritual experiences. Join me on this journey to the center of the soul, with award-winning journalist and author, Barbara Bradley Hagerty. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Barbara Bradley Hagerty caught the stomach flu one day. It was no ordinary bug. It was a bug so bad that it set off a short-term health conundrum and a long-term spiritual crisis. Bradley Hagerty was a Christian Scientist and the religion forbids medications, but she felt so awful that she took her first Tylenol ever. Even after Hagerty beat back the stomach flu, there was a bigger issue that no meds could solve. It had to do not with her body, but with her soul. So she went on a quest and the answers she found was surprising, even shocking. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello everyone I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm, helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined today by Barbara Bradley Hagerty. She is an award-winning formal journalist for the Christian Science Monitor and National Public Radio. Hagerty currently is a contributing writer to The Atlantic Monthly. She's the author of Fingerprints of God: What Science is Learning About the Brain and Spiritual Experience. Chitra Ragavan:   Barb welcome to the podcast. Barbara Hagerty:   It's great to be here. Chitra Ragavan:   There you were. You were 34 years old in a hotel in New Haven, Connecticut, never having taken a pill of any kind as a Christian Scientist and you had the stomach flu. Barbara Hagerty:   I sure did. It with three days of just being so, so sick. I remember coming home from I think, from exams at Yale. I was on a fellowship there, every year Yale invites five journalists to go through their first year of law school. I was doing this fellowship. I got incredibly sick. I remember going into bed and putting every piece of clothing, blanket, everything I had on top of me because I was so sick. I was shivering. I was shaking. Suddenly, I remembered that my boyfriend at the time who lived in Washington had left a bottle of Tylenol in the medicine cabinet. Barbara Hagerty:   I just lay there and this flashing in my head went off, Tylenol, Tylenol, Tylenol, so I got out of bed and I practically crawled to the medicine cabinet and pulled myself up by the sink, took one Tylenol, not two, just one and crawled back to bed. I lay there and about five minutes later I'm thinking wow I feel pretty good. I'm getting warm. Let me get all of these covers off of me. I'm hot, hot. About 15 minutes later I'm sitting there. I'm at the stove. I'm making some tomato soup and I feel terrific...

  Ep. 25 — A double-leg amputee with a love for running beats back a cocaine addiction and battles Olympic bureaucracy in his quest to become the fastest runner in the world / Blake Leeper, Eight-Time Paralympic Medalist. and 2020 Summer Olympics Aspirant Born without legs from a congenital birth defect, Blake Leeper discovered his mission and passion in life when he watched South African Paralympic champion sprinter Oscar Pistorius competing in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. It triggered in Leeper a deep desire to run, despite being a double-leg amputee. “They were saying, ‘Look how this man born without legs...’ I feel like they were talking about me but there were talking about him of course. I was just like, shocked, I was amazed,” remembers Leeper. I was like, ‘Wow, there's something for me.’ And the crowd of Beijing was 90,000 people and they were cheering. It was just a spark of inspiration that was planted inside of me that even though I never ran track and field a day in my life I just felt and knew that's what I need to do with my life.” Leeper got running blades like Pistorius's and began racing in 2010. With grit and endurance, he became an eight-time Paralympic medalist representing the United States. But just as Leeper hit his stride professionally, he entered a dark period in his personal life. He tested positive for cocaine and was banned from competing for nearly two years. It was a devastating blow. But today, at age 26, Leeper says he's back on track, running faster than ever, training better than ever and with one clear goal, to become the fastest runner in the world. That’s easier said than done. Leeper is struggling to qualify for future Paralympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo because of a dispute over whether his running blades give him an unfair height and speed advantage over able-bodied runners. Leeper is fighting back with the same legal team that helped Pistorius qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Don’t miss this fascinating episode with a very different type of Blade Runner. #Leadership #WhatInspiresMe #Success #WhenItMattered Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Although he was born without legs from a congenital birth defect, Blake Leeper has never allowed that to prevent him from winning in sports. When Leeper was a teenager, he watched South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. It triggered in him a deep desire to run. Leeper began racing in 2010. Since then he has become an eight-time Paralympic track and field international medalist. He holds many world records, including the sixth-fastest runner in the world in the 400-meter dash. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined today by Blake Leeper, who at age 26 has ambitious goals to become one of the fastest runners in the world. But Leeper is struggling to compete in the Paralympics and get accepted into the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. International racing authorities say his running blades give him an unfair height and speed advantage over able-bodied runners. It's a fight he's determined to win. Chitra Ragavan:   Blake, welcome to the podcast. Blake Leeper:   Thank you so much for having me. It is an honor and a pleasure, and just thank you so much for allowing me to share my story and just some of the things I've been through in my life that allow me to be in the situation that I am in today. Chitra Ragavan:   You were born with this extraordinary challenge of being a double amputee, yet you've never let it get in the way. How did you overcome those early years of adversity to start participating both is sports and in life? Blake Leeper:   I really give it to my parents, my family members. I grew up in East Tennessee, and I had an older Brother,

Ep. 24 — A bored and broke undergraduate has a terrible car crash and uses it as a turning point to pursue wealth and knowledge / Richard Wilson, CEO and founder of the Family Office Club. Richard Wilson was phoning it in like many undergraduate students, feeling unmotivated and unrewarded. Then, driving home one night from college to his parent's home, Wilson hydroplaned in the rain into a cement barricade. “The car just kind of crumpled in half and it was the middle of the night, pouring rain. I just kind of stumbled out of the car and several cars stopped because my headlights were facing oncoming traffic. And some people saw my car spinning,” remembers Wilson. “And I just kind of walked away from it, luckily. And it just kind of opened my eyes to that my life could have ended right then.” That was, literally and figuratively, a turning point in Wilson's life. He started piling on more coursework to graduate early and enter the workforce. He learned how to work the phones to look for the best jobs and  how to negotiate for higher salaries. And he started to look for “anomalous opportunities,” searching for “white spaces,” where there wasn’t much competition and where he could create his own brand and niche. He found it in the Family Office world, helping high net worth families find and make the right investments and connecting Family Offices to each other. He started a LinkedIn group, bought and quickly monetized a Family Office website, and spoke at 150 events over 14 countries. Today, Wilson is the author of four books and one of the global authorities on Family Offices and investment strategies for the ultra-wealthy. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Richard Wilson was driving home one night from college to his parent's home. Despite his usual pre-drive triple shot latte, Wilson hydroplaned in the rain straight into a cement barricade. That was, literally and figuratively, a turning point in his life. Today, Wilson helps ultra wealthy families create and manage their single family offices. Chitra Ragavan:   Hello everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined today by Richard Wilson, CEO and founder of the Family Office Club. Wilson also is the author of four books on family offices. Richard, welcome to the podcast. Richard Wilson:   Thanks for having me here, Chitra. Chitra Ragavan:   You were an undergraduate student when that accident happened that put you on this path to wealth building, but you always were a budding entrepreneur. How young were you and what was that path? Richard Wilson:   Well, just when I was maybe five to seven years old, my parents would pay me a penny per pine cone, pick them up in the yard or they'd pay me a penny per page to read books. We had Christmas wreath sales in the Boy Scouts. We did lemonade stands. I would go along with my dad to his meetings because he had his own business and I'd sit in on his meetings with him. So it was pretty early on that I got exposed to entrepreneurism and I guess capitalism. So I kind of blame my parents for that. Chitra Ragavan:   And you became more successful at it as you grew older. I mean you had a lot of failed schemes and scams, but you also had some successful ones. What were those? Both of those. Richard Wilson:   Sure. So I had a yard service business and we had some neighborhood clients for that. I had a radio station, internet advertising business that kind of flopped. I also had a used textbook business when I was in college. I also had a long distance telephone service business where I'd call all the parents in the school directory, and try to sell them on changing their long distance phone provider to the company I was representing, as kind of a commissioned salesperson. So a number of different things. Some worked a little bit,

Ep 23 — A political strategist loses his mojo and becomes one of the greatest comedy writers of our time / Jon Macks, Comedy Writer, Democratic Political Consultant, Author. Jon Macks thought he was in for a great ride to the top. Having quit law school for a career as a political strategist, Macks won two big state elections for his clients. But the euphoria quickly wore off and shock set in when Macks then lost 23 straight races in a row. “It's almost self-fulfilling. What happens is that when you are on a losing streak, no one good will hire you,” says Macks, “And so they don't have much money, they can't win the campaign, they don't have the skills, and so then you rack up another loss. So basically at that point you're in a position where you have to somehow convince one person to take a chance on you.” And that’s exactly what happened. Macks began his upward trajectory as a political strategist again, traveling tens of thousands of miles for many winning candidates. To keep himself occupied on those flights, Macks wrote free-lance jokes and sent them in to the rising star stand-up comic, Jay Leno, who was about to become Johnny Carson’s successor on The Tonight Show. One thing led to another and Leno offered Macks a full-time writer position on the show. It was the beginning of an amazing career in stand-up comedy. During his 22 years on The Tonight Show, Macks wrote an estimated 500,000 jokes, getting a record 18,000 on the air. He’s also written for top comedians including Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, and famous actors. And Macks has maintained a parallel career as a top strategist and writer for democratic political candidates and even some U.S. Presidents. In this fascinating interview, Macks talks about how he surmounted his early obstacles in politics and went on to become one of the most prolific and successful comedy writers in history. The author of five books, including his most recent, Monologue: What Makes America Laugh Before Bed, Macks dissects the anatomy of winning jokes and ruminates on what makes some work so well while others fall totally flat. Macks shares what it’s like to write for the current slew of democratic political candidates. And last but not least, he reveals some of his tradecraft on how he is able to write more than 100 jokes a day. The quintessential Jon Macks, on this episode of When It mattered. Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Jon Macks became a comedy writer in a roundabout way. He had quit law to become a political strategist. He won two huge campaigns, but then his luck turned on a dime. Macks started writing jokes when he was on flights, one thing led to another, and he became one of Jay Leno's most successful writers on The Tonight Show for 22 years. Hello, everyone. I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. Chitra Ragavan:   Joining me now is Jon Macks. He's considered one of the greatest comedy writers of all time by the likes of Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, and Martin Short just to name a few. Macks has written for 22 Academy Awards. He's written material for high-profile clients including Helen Mirren, Michael Douglas, Hugh Jackman, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others. The author of five books, Macks also is a sought-after democratic political consultant and a speechwriter for political candidates, and even some US presidents. Jon, welcome to the podcast. Jon Macks:   It's great to be here. Chitra Ragavan:   When you told me earlier that you had won two races followed by losing 23 races, my first thought was, "Wow, people really trust this guy. They keep hiring him even when he's consistently losing campaigns." How did you convince people to keep hiring you? Jon Macks:   Well, it was actually a little bit less of convincing people that I was really g...

Ep. 22 — An Iowa musician battles a lifetime of blues and gets his groove back on the international blues stage / Kevin Burt, Singer, Songwriter, blues heritage educator. Raised by a single mom on $5,000 a year in food stamps, Kevin Burt spent most of his life in chronic “survival mode” in the school of hard knocks. That meant a chronically anxious and overworked state of mind and body:  “You're so worried about the basics of day to day that there's no way to think about tomorrow, there's no way to think about not a day from now, not a week from now, not a year from now,” says Burt. “You can't make future plans if you're not okay. You're just surviving. That hustle turns into the worst kind of a loop to be in.” So caught was Burt in a punishing work cycle of 300 or more shows a year that when his friends urged him to sign up for the prestigious International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee last year, he said he was too busy. But his friends prevailed. Burt decided to jump into the Challenge, albeit grudgingly. It would prove to be the best decision of his life. Burt swept the contest in three categories, best harmonica, guitar, and solo/duo  — the first performer to accomplish that little hat trick in the competition’s thirty-five-year history. His massive success, borne of a lifetime of hard work and resilience, has skyrocketed Burt into a surreal new matrix, both on the international blues soundstage and in his personal headspace. He says it’s a development that he’s “wholly unprepared for.” But he’s getting there quickly, one step at a time. Burt’s life is rapidly changing. But there’s one thing that will remain constant: His commitment to his role as a blues heritage educator and a proud narrator of Iowa’s forgotten important role in the evolution of the American blues scene. Tanscript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa blues artist, Kevin Burt, had a tough childhood that put him in chronic survival mode for most of his life, forcing him to make a bunch of career and personal sacrifices to support his family. Chitra Ragavan:   Then last year, Burt made a decision that changed everything. Hello. Everyone, I'm Chitra Ragavan and this is When It Mattered. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. I'm joined today by Kevin Burt, who after more than two decades on the local and national blues circuits is well on his way to becoming a recording artist of international merit. Kevin, welcome to the podcast. Kevin Burt:   Thank you for having me, appreciate it. Chitra Ragavan:   You told me recently that your survival mindset began at age five when your parents were separated. What was your life like after that moment? Kevin Burt:   It's just one of those things where you know that every day it's about making sure that you make it to the next one. It wasn't so much that it was out of danger. It's just out of not knowing. It's the knowing that your mom's doing the best she can and you've got siblings and you're watching them do the best that they can. Your responsibility was to do the best you could too. It was a collective mindset versus just being a kid. Chitra Ragavan:   Your mother had to raise ... How many kids on a very limited income? Kevin Burt:   There were four of us. My parents separated, they never divorced. My dad was always there but not, and so he was ... Chitra Ragavan:   But not there. Kevin Burt:   Yeah, yeah. He was living his best life. I don't fault him for that. It was his choice to make. Mom raised four of us, three boys, one girl. All three of us boys ended up being all American football players and our sister was the best athlete in the family. Chitra Ragavan:   This was on food stamps? Kevin Burt:   $5,000 a year in food stamps. Fixed income is just that. The one thing that it taught me is that I knew that I didn't want my kids to ev...