Podcast appearances and mentions of amy pearl

Amy Pearl on Buffalo Diocese Centralized School System full 387 Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:15:04 +0000 DHz1mwy89YsnohHPLbzxhuAfcqGITXwH news WBEN Extras news Amy Pearl on Buffalo Diocese Centralized School System Archive of various reports and news events 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News False https://player.amperwavepodcasting.com

In this episode, we are talking with Amy Pearl, a successful B2B business coach, about how she's navigated the online world, taking courses and programs that are specifically designed for B2C and applying them to the B2B world, where she thrives and continues to serve her clients.We are also talking about a new era in the business world where people are looking for a sense of purpose, value, and social connections. Business is no longer just a financial safety net but evolved to be an emotional safety net as well.For almost 25 years, Amy has led a 7-figure business that provides leadership training and coaching programs for corporations and not-for-profits around the world. Amy has become a trusted advisor to executive decision-makers who hire her over and over again. So, she never has to rely on exhausting launches, paid advertising, or dancing on TikTok to sell her products. Amy also teaches coaches and course creators how to build their own B2B businesses so they can have the fabulous lives they desire.Find the full show notes here: https://onlinemarketingpodcast.com/launch-interview-series-building-a-thriving-b2b-online-business-with-amy-pearl-2/Resources:Learn from Amy! - Amy Pearl teaches course creators, coaches, and consultants how to build a B2B business and life they love.Adaptive Inner Circle - The Adaptive Inner Circle with Paul & Melissa Pruitt is an epic 12-month experience for online business owners, coaches, course creators, and membership site owners who aspire to create financial freedom and a lifestyle they want for themselves and their family and also create a positive impact in their community and the world.Adaptive Marketing Program - Adaptive Marketing Program is an exclusive opportunity for online business owners, coaches, course creators, and membership site owners to play bigger and bolder in their business and explode their bank account with more clients!For a list of our resources & recommendations visit: https://onlinemarketingpodcast.com/learn-with-paul-melissa/Connect with AmyWebsite: https://www.amyapearl.com/FB: https://www.facebook.com/amy.a.pearl/FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/becomingfabuloustogetherIG: https://www.instagram.com/amyapearl/Connect with us on social!Instagram: @realpaulpruitt & @realmelissapruittFacebook: @realpaulpruitt &

Work Ignited Website: https://www.workignited.com/ Amy's “20 Ways to Keep Calm and Carry On”: https://www.workignited.com/keepcalm Lead United Program (Use Code LEAD For 20% Off!) Before February 8, 2024: https://www.workignited.com/lead-ignited FREE FUNDING MASTERCLASS January 17, 2024 at 12pm ET: https://www.michelecaruana.com/playground-business-funding-2024 RESOURCES: Play Cafe Academy & Play Makers Socity: http://bit.ly/3HES7fD Getting Started YouTube Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYkEnvPJdo&list=PLKNxpFOU7ITc6BrH_EHl4DuHqWqdUoTZU What's Working 2023 Guide: http://bit.ly/3GwXQAS Fund Your Indoor Play Business: http://bit.ly/38KbYbz Courses & Consulting: http://bit.ly/3N7bPAI Indoor Playground Business Courses: https://bit.ly/37yCxAC Michele's Instagram: https://bit.ly/3Ia4PTK Michele's Website: https://www.michelecaruana.com YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3JDkSe7 FREE 14-DAY Active Campaign Trial: https://bit.ly/3rjp5bP ETSY Template Shop: https://bit.ly/40RF5D4 Recession Prep Playlist: https://www.michelecaruana.com/recessionprep Play Cafe Academy & Play Makers Socity: http://bit.ly/3HES7fD

In this episode, we are talking with Amy Pearl, a successful B2B business coach, about her unique perspective on online launching and her strategies to build a thriving B2B online business. For almost 25 years, Amy has led a 7-figure business that provides leadership training and coaching programs for corporations and not-for-profits around the world. Amy has become a trusted advisor to executive decision makers who hire her over and over again. So, she never has to rely on exhausting launches, paid advertising, or dancing on TikTok to sell her products. Amy also teaches coaches and course creators how to build their own B2B businesses so they can have the fabulous lives they desire. Find the full show notes here: https://onlinemarketingpodcast.com/launch-interview-series-building-a-thriving-b2b-online-business-with-amy-pearl/

Sunset Park Recreation Center in Brooklyn has been added to the list of green spaces the city plans to use to house adult asylum seekers. Plus, we take a look at a legal battle over a device that makes it easier to fire a barrage of bullets. Also, New York City's animal shelters are bursting at the seams with unwanted animals. And finally, WNYC's Amy Pearl looks into how plants are able to thrive across the five boroughs.

A chain of New York City clinics will have to refund patients after improperly charging them for COVID tests during the pandemic. Plus, a probe into illegal donors for Mayor Eric Adams touches a key member of his inner circle. Also, city officials aren't enforcing a law prohibiting stores from air conditioning the streets. And finally, WNYC's Amy Pearl tags along with a group of teenagers who are spending the summer tending the ornamental vegetable garden at a historic park in Yonkers.

Particle pollution levels surpass healthy thresholds following the 4th of July fireworks, state environmental officials warn. Ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chirlane McCray announce a “trial separation” after close to three decades of marriage. Meanwhile, Riverside Park reintroduces its goat gardeners to handle invasive plants starting this Friday. Volunteers at Van Cortlandt Park are mounting a resistance against an invasive plant threatening New York City's waterways, as reported by WNYC's Amy Pearl. Finally, a lawsuit challenging New York City's affordable housing lottery system on grounds of perpetuating segregation is set to proceed to federal trial. WNYC's Tiffany Hanssen and reporter Arya Sundaram delve into the matter.

Sad news for all of us: producer Rachael Cusick— who brought us soul-stirring stories rethinking grief (https://zpr.io/GZ6xEvpzsbHU) and solitude (https://zpr.io/eT5tAX6JtYra), as well as colorful musings on airplane farts (https://zpr.io/CNpgUijZiuZ4) and belly flops (https://zpr.io/uZrEz27z63CB) and Blueberry Earths (https://zpr.io/EzxgtdTRGVzz)— is leaving the show. So we thought it perfect timing to sit down with her and revisit another brainchild of hers, The Cataclysm Sentence, a collection of advice for The End. To explain: one day in 1961, the famous physicist Richard Feynman stepped in front of a Caltech lecture hall and posed this question to a group of undergraduate students: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?” Now, Feynman had an answer to his own question—a good one. But his question got the entire team at Radiolab wondering, what did his sentence leave out? So we posed Feynman's cataclysm question to some of our favorite writers, artists, historians, futurists—all kinds of great thinkers. We asked them “What's the one sentence you would want to pass on to the next generation that would contain the most information in the fewest words?” What came back was an explosive collage of what it means to be alive right here and now, and what we want to say before we go. Featuring: Richard Feynman, physicist - The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (https://zpr.io/5KngTGibPVDw) Caitlin Doughty, mortician - Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs (https://zpr.io/Wn4bQgHzDRDB) Esperanza Spalding, musician - 12 Little Spells (https://zpr.io/KMjYrkwrz9dy)  Cord Jefferson, writer - Watchmen (https://zpr.io/ruqKDQGy5Rv8)  Merrill Garbus, musician - I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life (https://zpr.io/HmrqFX8RKuFq) Jenny Odell, writer - How to do Nothing (https://zpr.io/JrUHu8dviFqc) Maria Popova, writer - Brainpickings (https://zpr.io/vsHXphrqbHiN) Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist - The Gardener and the Carpenter (https://zpr.io/ewtJpUYxpYqh) Rebecca Sugar, animator - Steven Universe (https://zpr.io/KTtSrdsBtXB7) Nicholson Baker, writer - Substitute (https://zpr.io/QAh2d7J9QJf2) James Gleick, writer - Time Travel (https://zpr.io/9CWX9q3KmZj8) Lady Pink, artist - too many amazing works to pick just one (https://zpr.io/FkJh6edDBgRL) Jenny Hollwell, writer - Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe (https://zpr.io/MjP5UJb3mMYP) Jaron Lanier, futurist - Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (https://zpr.io/bxWiHLhPyuEK) Missy Mazzoli, composer - Proving Up (https://zpr.io/hTwGcHGk93Ty)   Special Thanks to: Ella Frances Sanders, and her book, "Eating the Sun" (https://zpr.io/KSX6DruwRaYL), for inspiring this whole episode. Caltech for letting us use original audio of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. The entirety of the lectures are available to read for free online at www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu.All the musicians who helped make the Primordial Chord, including: Siavash Kamkar (https://zpr.io/2ZT46XsMRdhg), from Iran  Koosha Pashangpour (https://zpr.io/etWDXuCctrzE), from Iran Curtis MacDonald (https://zpr.io/HQ8uskA44BUh), from Canada Meade Bernard (https://zpr.io/gbxDPPzHFvme), from US Barnaby Rea (https://zpr.io/9ULsQh5iGUPa), from UK Liav Kerbel (https://zpr.io/BA4DBwMhwZDU), from Belgium Sam Crittenden (https://zpr.io/EtQZmAk2XrCQ), from US Saskia Lankhoorn (https://zpr.io/YiH6QWJreR7p), from Netherlands Bryan Harris (https://zpr.io/HMiyy2TGcuwE), from US Amelia Watkins (https://zpr.io/6pWEw3y754me), from Canada Claire James (https://zpr.io/HFpHTUwkQ2ss), from US Ilario Morciano (https://zpr.io/zXvM7cvnLHW6), from Italy Matthias Kowalczyk, from Germany (https://zpr.io/ANkRQMp6NtHR) Solmaz Badri (https://zpr.io/MQ5VAaKieuyN), from IranAll the wonderful people we interviewed for sentences but weren't able to fit in this episode, including: Daniel Abrahm, Julia Alvarez, Aimee Bender, Sandra Cisneros, Stanley Chen, Lewis Dartnell, Ann Druyan, Rose Eveleth, Ty Frank, Julia Galef, Ross Gay, Gary Green, Cesar Harada, Dolores Huerta, Robin Hunicke, Brittany Kamai, Priya Krishna, Ken Liu, Carmen Maria Machado, James Martin, Judith Matloff, Ryan McMahon, Hasan Minhaj, Lorrie Moore, Priya Natarajan, Larry Owens, Sunni Patterson, Amy Pearl, Alison Roman, Domee Shi, Will Shortz, Sam Stein, Sohaib Sultan, Kara Swisher, Jill Tarter, Olive Watkins, Reggie Watts, Deborah Waxman, Alex Wellerstein, Caveh Zahedi.EPISODE CREDITS Reported by - Rachael Cusick (https://www.rachaelcusick.com/)Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org Leadership support for Radiolab's science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The New York City Council passed a package of bills this week that'll expand eligibility for rental assistance programs. Plus, advocates are questioning who the city is counting as a migrant. Also, a popular Jersey Shore destination is cracking down on alcohol on the beach and boardwalk. And finally, WNYC's Amy Pearl shadows a volunteer in Brooklyn who is helping New York City's chestnut trees make a comeback.

For this Holiday Weekend, hear the year of the #BLTrees series in two days.  Today, June through the three-part conclusion in October -- including your haikus.  Plus, a flashback to May 2020 and listeners' favorite bird songs. First, Part Two of #BLTrees for which listeners were invited to pick a tree and follow it through the year as we checked in every month with Marielle Anzelone, botanist and founder of NYC Wildflower Week (.org), who proposed the series, and different guests each month: June: Charles Nilon, professor in the University of Missouri School of Natural Resources, talks about trees and equity. July: Kate Orff, landscape architect, founder of SCAPE Studio and a professor at Columbia University where she directs the Urban Design Program and the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, looks at trees and climate change resiliency. August:  James Lendemer, lichenologist at CUNY and the New York Botanical Garden and the co-author of Urban Lichens: A Field Guide for Northeastern North America (Yale University Press, 2021), and Miles Zhang, evolutionary biologist specializing in the study of parasitic wasps, talk about two of the many kinds of living creatures that live on trees. September: Brandi Cannon-Force, botanist and science educator, talks about the fruit of trees. October: First, Robert Macfarlane, a fellow at the University of Cambridge and the author of several books, including Underland: A Deep Time Journey (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019), looks deeply at trees as worlds unto themselves.  Then WNYC audio and video producer Amy Pearl, talks about memorial trees.  And the series concludes with Brian and Marielle sharing some of the many of the listeners' haikus written for, about, or in the 'voice of' their trees. And as a 'tree-adjacent' treat, from prime birding season in May of 2020, Heather Wolf, a web developer for Cornell Lab of Ornithology and its eBird project and the author of Birding at the Bridge: In Search of Every Bird on the Brooklyn Waterfront (The Experiment, 2016) talks about how to identify birds by their songs as listeners imitate some of their favorites.   These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity; the original web versions of the series interviews are available through these links:  #BLTrees series page (Nov 2021 - Oct 2022) Name That Birdsong! (May 14, 2020)

As we continue the wrap-up of #BLTrees with Marielle Anzelone, urban botanist and ecologist and the founder of NYC Wildflower Week, we are joined by Amy Pearl, audio and video producer at WNYC, to talk about memorial trees. → Amy Pearl's Good Things: Planting A Memorial Tree →For Friday's show, get creative about your tree and write a haiku* in honor of your tree -- or from the point of view of your tree -- or about the web of life that trees are part of. Tweet your October tree pictures and your haikus to #BLTrees or email them to blshow@wnyc.org with the subject line BLTrees Haiku. We'll read some on the air on Friday. (*three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, if you're following tradition) Here it is in late October and my local pear tree is still all green. How about your tree? Listen to our final #BLTrees segments today and tomorrow and post your tree photo here. Your tree haikus too! BL pic.twitter.com/5zDCzyGvCI — The Brian Lehrer Show and A Daily Politics Podcast (@BrianLehrer) October 20, 2022 #bltrees, My street tree in the Bronx has lost most of its leave already unlike other trees on the block pic.twitter.com/J7wNu3JaFI — Corbde (@corbe27) October 19, 2022 #bltrees @BrianLehrer I have truly enjoyed this project! Thank you so much for making me pay attention to this beauty! pic.twitter.com/aqemHHYwcs — jerielle (@jerielle) October 20, 2022

Tuck your napkin under your chin.  We're about to serve up a tale of love, loss, and lamb chops - with a side of genetic modification. Several years ago we told a story about Amy Pearl. For as long as she could remember, Amy loved meat in all its glorious cuts and marbled flavors. And then one day, for seemingly no reason, her body wouldn't tolerate it.  No steaks. No brisket. No weenies. It made no sense: why couldn't she eat something that she had routinely enjoyed for decades?  It turned out Amy was not alone. And the answer to her mysterious allergy involved maps, a dancing lone star tick, and a very particular sugar called Alpha Gal.  In this update, we discover that our troubles with Alpha Gal go way beyond food. We go to NYU Langone Health hospital to see the second ever transplant of a kidney from a pig into a human, talk to some people at Revivicor, the company that bred the pig in question, and go back to Amy to find out what she thinks about this brave new world. The original episode was reported by Latif Nasser, and produced by Annie McEwen and Matt Kielty. Sound design and scoring from Dylan Keefe, Annie McEwen, and Matt Kielty. Mix by Dylan Keefe with Arianne Wack. The update was reported and produced by Sarah Qari. It was sound designed, scored, and mixed by Jeremy Bloom.  Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.   

For the first 40 years of her life, Amy Pearl was a card-carrying member of the meat club; she literally had a credit card from the famous Brooklyn steakhouse Peter Luger. Then one day she ate a porterhouse steak, and nearly died. This week we join forces with our friends at Radiolab to tell the story of how Amy's mysterious allergy was identified by scientists. Plus, she tells us how the allergy has changed her relationship to food — and we find out if it'll ever go away. // Get 500+ more great Sporkful episodes from our catalog and lots of other Stitcher goodness when you sign up for Stitcher Premium: www.StitcherPremium.com/Sporkful (promo code: SPORKFUL). Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Amy Pearl & I met over Instagram, right when the pandemic hit. I was immediately drawn to her ever-evolving creative nature. Today we discuss fiber art, Chicago, and our budding friendship,

WNYC producer Amy Pearl joins us to talk about the new and exciting critters we’re spotting in the area, and takes calls from listeners.   This segment is guest-hosted by Ilya Marritz.

One day in 1961, the famous physicist Richard Feynman stepped in front of a Caltech lecture hall and posed this question to a group of undergraduate students: “If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence was passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words?” Now, Feynman had an answer to his own question - a good one. But his question got the entire team at Radiolab wondering, what did his sentence leave out? So we posed Feynman’s cataclysm question to some of our favorite writers, artists, historians, futurists - all kinds of great thinkers. We asked them, “What’s the one sentence you would want to pass on to the next generation that would contain the most information in the fewest words?” What came back was an explosive collage of what it means to be alive right here and now, and what we want to say before we go. Featuring: Richard Feynman, physicist (The Pleasure of Finding Things Out) Caitlin Doughty, mortician (Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs) Esperanza Spalding, musician (12 Little Spells) Cord Jefferson, writer (Watchmen) Merrill Garbus, musician (I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life) Jenny Odell, writer (How to do Nothing) Maria Popova, writer (Brainpickings) Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist (The Gardener and the Carpenter) Rebecca Sugar, animator (Steven Universe) Nicholson Baker, writer (Substitute) James Gleick, writer (Time Travel) Lady Pink, artist (too many amazing works to pick just one) Jenny Hollwell, writer (Everything Lovely, Effortless, Safe) Jaron Lanier, futurist (Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now) Missy Mazzoli, composer (Proving Up) This episode was produced by Matt Kielty and Rachael Cusick, with help from Jeremy Bloom, Zakiya Gibbons, and the entire Radiolab staff.    Special Thanks to: Ella Frances Sanders, and her book, "Eating the Sun", for inspiring this whole episode. Caltech for letting us use original audio of The Feynman Lectures on Physics. The entirety of the lectures are available to read for free online at www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu.   All the musicians who helped make the Primordial Chord, including: Siavash Kamkar, from Iran  Koosha Pashangpour, from Iran Curtis MacDonald, from Canada Meade Bernard, from US Barnaby Rea, from UK Liav Kerbel, from Belgium Sam Crittenden, from US Saskia Lankhoorn, from Netherlands Bryan Harris, from US Amelia Watkins, from Canada Claire James, from US Ilario Morciano, from Italy Matthias Kowalczyk, from Germany Solmaz Badri, from Iran   All the wonderful people we interviewed for sentences but weren’t able to fit in this episode, including: Daniel Abrahm, Julia Alvarez, Aimee Bender, Sandra Cisneros, Stanley Chen, Lewis Dartnell, Ann Druyan, Rose Eveleth, Ty Frank, Julia Galef, Ross Gay, Gary Green, Cesar Harada, Dolores Huerta, Robin Hunicke, Brittany Kamai, Priya Krishna, Ken Liu, Carmen Maria Machado, James Martin, Judith Matloff, Ryan McMahon, Hasan Minhaj, Lorrie Moore, Priya Natarajan, Larry Owens, Sunni Patterson, Amy Pearl, Alison Roman, Domee Shi, Will Shortz, Sam Stein, Sohaib Sultan, Kara Swisher, Jill Tarter, Olive Watkins, Reggie Watts, Deborah Waxman, Alex Wellerstein, Caveh Zahedi.

Today, we're re-releasing an old episode about how hard it is getting to decipher fact from fiction. Because next week, we’ll be putting out a story showing what happens when certain reality-altering tools get released into the wild.  Simon Adler takes us down a technological rabbit hole of strangely contorted faces and words made out of thin air. And a wonderland full of computer scientists, journalists, and digital detectives forces us to rethink even the things we see with our very own eyes.  Oh, and by the way, we decided to put the dark secrets we learned into action, and unleash this on the internet.    Reported by Simon Adler. Produced by Simon Adler and Annie McEwen. Special thanks to everyone on the University of Southern California team who helped out with the facial manipulation: Kyle Olszewski, Koki Nagano, Ronald Yu, Yi Zhou, Jaewoo Seo, Shunsuke Saito, and Hao Li. Check out more of their work pinscreen.com Special thanks also to Matthew Aylett, Supasorn Suwajanakorn, Rachel Axler, Angus Kneale, David Carroll, Amy Pearl and Nick Bilton. You can check out Nick’s latest book, American Kingpin, here. Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.

Amy Pearl lives in Brooklyn with her animal family.  For our 100th episode and the final episode of season 1, we're presenting Amy Pearl. Then, a quick behind the scenes peek into how 10 Things That Scare Me gets made each week. Look for season 2 in late fall. Join the 10 Things That Scare Me conversation, and tell us your fears here. And follow 10 Things That Scare Me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

This episode features pioneer in sexual health, Dame Margaret Sparrow, and abortion law reform advocate Terry Bellamak from ALRAN, in conversation with Amy Pearl of The Weaving House speaking about the much needed abortion law reform in NZ. Recorded LIVE from the Double Denim Headquarters in Wellington.   

HTF 028: Chicken Eggs and Chasin' Dreams In this episode Amy Pearl sits down with Henlight Co-Founder Edward Silva.  Edwards unique story highlights the path that some entrepreneurs take when entering into prize based competitions, in this case the Thought For Food Challenge.  Interestingly, Edward’s journey with the Thought For Food Challenge did not end with his team’s victory.  Instead, along with a small team of enthusiastic volunteers, they expanded the reach of this challenge worldwide, inspiring innovative ideas from young people across the globe.     Host Amy Pearl, Executive Director, Hatch Innovation   Guests Edward Silva, Co Founder of Henlight   In this episode you’ll learn Edwards story, and the way he drew on his own experiences to come up with a novel innovation. How the Thought For Food Challenge incentivized the innovations behind Henlight. The story of Edward’s journey after winning the challenge, and how an ambassador network allows Thought For Food to expand their global reach. Examples of winners and innovations from the Thought For Food Challenge. How incentive based prizes inspire innovations in areas that may be lacking new ideas.   More about Edward Silva I believe in leveraging the power of technology to create a more food secure world. As a Prize Developer at XPrize and co-founder of Henlight – a solar powered solution to help small-scale poultry farmers – I actively support building a bridge to a more abundant future by leveraging appropriate technology. Throughout my career, I have been afforded the opportunity to participate in an array of activities in the U.S. and abroad related to food, agriculture, and renewable/natural resources . Winning the 2013 Thought for Food Challenge, being selected as U.S. Delegate for the Y20 Summit, studying international agricultural development at the University of California, Davis and most recently serving as Executive Director of Thought For Food, have allowed me to gain a unique global perspective on how to develop products and solutions in a more creative, open, and innovative way. Links to Resources Mentioned XPrize The Thought For Food Challenge Henlight

HTF 026: Women Impact Investing “If women farmers had the same financial resources as male farmers, it’s estimated that yields would increase by 20-30%, creating the potential to lift 120-150 million people out of poverty.” Malaika Maphalala, Investment Advisor, Natural Investments In this podcast, Amy Pearl is joined by Malaika Maphalala and Carrie Van Winkle of Natural Investments, LLC, a socially responsible investment firm, to discuss the growing and influential role of women across the global impact investing landscape.  Carrie and Malaika also host their own web interview series called “Women Invested” that details pioneering women who are changing the world in a positive way through investment decisions.  Prepare for some inspiration, as we realize that the more we invest in women, the more we create resilient communities, and healthy returns, which is a pretty good deal. Provocateur Amy Pearl, Executive Director, Hatch Innovation Guests Malaika Maphalala, Investment Advisor, Natural Investments, LLC Joining Natural Investments was the culmination of her life-long journey of contributing to the creation of a sustainable future. For the past ten years, Malaika has shared her talents in non-profit administration and within community arts organizations in Hawaii. Carrie B. VanWinkle, Socially Responsive Financial Advisor, Natural Investments, LLC Carrie brings 12 years of experience working with individuals and couples to build confidence in their personal financial lives, including financial goals related to homeownership, retirement savings, and education savings. Carrie’s mission as a financial planner is rooted in the belief in the power of financial goal setting, education, and empowerment to achieve the life you want, while ensuring your finances reflect your values. Carrie has dedicated her life to building a healthy, sustainable, and just community, both locally and globally. Her work at Natural Investments is a pivotal part in achieving this goal by empowering individuals and families to build their own financially sustainable future while having a positive impact on the community. Carrie is a part of NI’s Louisville-based team at Just Money Advisors. In this episode you’ll learn What it Impact Investing is, and why women are playing a larger role. About Malaika and Carrie’s new series on Women-Invested.com Inspiring stories that can help inform your own investment decisions How one investor changed the direction of Root Capital simply by being interested in women run enterprises Some of the data that has emerged from impact investments worldwide What regenerative investment means, and why this concept helps inform your investment decisions Links to Resources Mentioned Hatch Innovation Hatch Oregon Women Invested Interview Series Iriquois Valley Farms Trillium Asset Management Root Capital Calvert Foundation’s Community Investment Note  

Tuck your napkin under your chin.  We’re about to serve up a tale of love, loss, and lamb chops.  For as long as she can remember, Amy Pearl has loved meat in all its glorious cuts and marbled flavors. And then one day, for seemingly no reason, her body wouldn’t tolerate it.  No steaks. No brisket. No weenies.  It made no sense to her or to her doctor: why couldn’t she eat something that she had routinely enjoyed for decades? Something our evolutionary forebears have eaten since time immemorial?  The answer involves mysterious maps, interpretive dance, and a collision of three different species. Produced by Annie McEwen & Matt Kielty with reporting help from Latif Nasser Thanks to our friends at The Sporkful, we encourage you to listen to them if you aren't already.    Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.   

Put Your Money Where Your Food Is with Narendra Varma of Our Table Cooperative In today’s episode, host Amy Pearl sits down with Narendra Varma of Our Table Cooperative. Narendra started Our Table Cooperative in 2011 with his wife Michelle, after they spent years in the investment and tech spaces. Narendra talks about how these experiences helped him realize a vision for a better food system and find a piece of land to achieve that vision. Our Table is a unique cooperative, because it brings together all three stakeholders: workers, consumers, and producers. What follows is an inspirational vision that we hope will spring up all over the globe. Host Amy Pearl, Hatch Innovation Guests Narendra Varma, Director, Our Table Cooperative Born and raised in India, Narendra came to the United States in 1986 to attend Brown University. After graduating with a degree in Educational Technology, he went to work at Microsoft Corporation where his greatest achievement was a kids’ movie creation product that was a commercial dud but spawned an avid fan group. While at Microsoft, Narendra was lucky enough to meet his wife, Machelle, and receive a stockoption-fueled financial windfall allowing him to quit his day job. After an obligatory globe-trotting walkabout, Machelle and Narendra spent the next ten years raising children, renovating houses, and coming to the realization that our system of agriculture is broken, our economic and financial systems are a pyramid scheme, and that, between peak resources and climate change, our children likely face a difficult future. Unfortunately, these subjects made poor dinner conversation so Machelle and Narendra decided to devote their time, money, and energy towards an effort to reimagine our food system around the principals of Permaculture Design and Biodynamic agriculture. They purchased a 58-acre farm just outside Portland, Oregon and founded a vertically integrated food and agriculture cooperative that is experimenting with new ways to grow, process and sell food. In this episode you’ll hear about The co-operative model How small the percentage of the money you pay for a crop goes to the farmer How the land-use laws in Oregon helped Narendra start Our Table Cooperative The role permaculture played in his design and ideation process The vertical integration of food The reasons for his unique blend of polyculture and monoculture farming Multi-stakeholder member-owned cooperatives Links to Resources Mentioned Hatch Innovation Hatch Oregon Our Table Cooperative Slow Money Permaculture Powells Books Our Table’s Co-Op Model The Big Short

Innovative Reclamation Education: Rural Students Revitalizing Brownfields with Megan Alameda “If you are a teacher who’s interested in brownfields, or any environmental education subject, I’d say go for it. This is the time that is ripe for innovation.  But don’t do this alone, and here’s my callout to everybody else - administrators, city and council members, museums, businesses - please come together to try and make these relevant pieces of education happen. Because that’s how it works - through collaboration.” What happens when the industries of yesteryear close their doors for good? Often they leave behind sites that harbour contaminants, and pose a serious risk to humans and the environment. There’s a name for places like these - they are called Brownfields. These sites are literally right under our noses, and commonly overlooked by cities due to the prohibitive costs associated with restoring polluted real estate.  One program is training high school students to tackle this issue head on, and in the process giving them learning opportunities that few students get. Out in rural Baker County, Oregon, students managed the remediation process of a brownfield from start to finish - this really is true hands-on education. The site is now clean and cleared for use, and more sites are being lined up for the next generation of students. In recognition of the success of this work, the teacher who led the program, Megan Alameda, was recently awarded the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators at the White House. Amy Pearl spoke with Megan about the program to hear the full story and to get her thoughts on how this new type of hands-on education could be replicated elsewhere. Provocateur Amy Pearl, Hatch Innovation   Guests Megan Alameda, Teacher, Baker Technical Institute   In this episode you’ll learn What is CTE - Career Technical Education (like Baker Technical Institute) What is a Brownfield, and what impacts a brownfield site can have on the community. How did Megan got involved in brownfield remediation with students, and how a group of students have taken on the role of managing the remediation process for a brownfield in Baker City, OR. How this is a new wave of education, that involves students in the world around them. How brownfield projects spur community development, economic development, community education Upcoming projects in Baker City and the surrounding area (there are 80 potential projects just in that region). How high school teachers can lead similar projects in their own location How these new types of education cannot rest solely on the shoulders of teachers. It takes a lot of collaboration. Links to Resources Mentioned White House Announcement: https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/08/15/honoring-students-and-teachers-2016-presidential-environmental-education-ceremony DEQ Brownfields http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/cu/brownfields/ Baker County: http://www.bakercounty.org/ EPA Brownfields: https://www.epa.gov/brownfields Oregon Health Authority Brownfields: https://public.health.oregon.gov/HealthyEnvironments/HealthyNeighborhoods/Brownfields/Pages/index.aspx Oregonian Newspaper article about Megan and her Presidential award” http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2016/08/eastern_oregon_teacher_wins_pr.html

Finding a Career with Purpose An honest discussion about finding jobs with meaning - both making a difference in the world, and finding personal satisfaction.Simon Love and Amy Pearl speak with Mac Prichard, founder of Prichard Communications and Mac’s List about purpose and potential in work and life. Today, people want to improve the world through their work, as well as achieve personal satisfaction. But how do people get into those careers? In this podcast, both hosts and guest are able to share stories and advice of finding work with meaning. Mac offers insights from his conversations with jobseekers, Simon offers personal stories of finding work in a foreign land, and Amy shares stories of change makers starting their own enterprises. You’ll learn tips and advice on how to send your career on a path towards purpose. This conversation carries on the conversation from the popular ‘Career Pathways to Doing Good in Oregon’ events,  held quarterly at HatchLab in Portland, Oregon.   Provocateurs Amy Pearl, Hatch Innovation Simon Love, Hatch Innovation   Guest Mac Prichard, President, Pritchard Communications Mac Prichard owns and operates Prichard Communications, a public relations agency based in Portland, Oregon that works with top-tier foundations, non-profits and purpose driven brands across the country. He is also the publisher of Mac's List, an online community where professionals find rewarding, interesting jobs and employers find the best possible candidates. Previously, Mac was communications director for Reclaiming Futures, a national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that improves drug and alcohol treatment for teens in juvenile court. Before joining Reclaiming Futures in 2001, Mac served as a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Human Services, a speechwriter and deputy legislative director for former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber, and a Portland City Hall spokesman for Earl Blumenauer, now a Member of Congress. Prior to moving to Oregon in 1991, Mac lived in Massachusetts where he was legislative and media relations director for the state Office for Refugees and Immigrants, the first public information officer for Boston’s “Big Dig,” and a researcher in former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy’s first Congressional campaign. Previously in Boston as a staff person with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Mac helped organize and lead four Congressional fact-finding trips to Central America. Mac was also a senior researcher at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a non-partisan human rights group in Washington, DC, that monitors US-Latin American policy. In this episode you’ll learn Trends in the workplace - are people moving towards careers with purpose? If so, why? What a ‘Dream Job’ means - people want to make a difference in the world but they also want to find satisfaction and happiness. How Mac’s List grew through word of mouth, and where it extends now. How people are not taught at school how to look for jobs, or to set job-related goals. Why do people work? How generational differences and the blurring of work-life boundaries affect how work is seen. Why jobseekers say they want one type of job but take something else . How you can make opportunities happen by being generous to others and thinking about how you can help others in your industry. How sometimes you won’t end up doing what you thought you’d be doing, but you can take charge of the role you’re in and make a difference there.   How individuals can make enormous difference through starting their own social enterprise. The challenges of being an entrepreneur - ‘pushing the noodle up the hill’ and the challenges associated with it. How careers are not a 45 degree trajectory - there will be peaks and valleys. How good things happen when you make your goals known to others. Links to Resources Mentioned Hatch Innovation Mac’s List ‘Find Your Dream Job’ Podcast ‘Find Your Dream Job in Portland’ Book Prichard Communications Career Pathways to Doing Good in Oregon event

We have this idea of what therapy is supposed to look like. There’s a couch. An objective therapist sitting across the room scribbling notes. But of course it’s not that simple. What happens when your therapist is not really a therapist? Or the therapist is the one in tears? And of course, should you or should you not, try to have sex with your therapist? In this episode, six short stories, many from our listeners, looking at how the role of patient and therapist can get... complicated. Our stories are courtesy of: Shaunacy Ferro is a senior staff writer at Mental Floss. Michael Heintzman is a writer and actor. Jerry The Series is his latest project.  Steven Puente first told his story on Story Collider. Michael Stahl is a writer, editor and journalist. His story was first published in Narratively. And listeners like you. Thanks to Dr. Jeffrey Younggren for his thoughts and wisdom on ethics in patient/therapist relationships, and to Gary Schoener for his expertise on Dr. Renatus Hartogs. A therapist's office is usually a private space, a place to share secrets. We don't often get the chance to see inside. So with many New York City therapists taking the month of August off, we invite you inside half a dozen or so therapeutic spaces. Make yourself comfortable, take your time and have a look around.              - Amy Pearl, WNYC photographer (Amy Pearl/WNYC) Blair Casdin, psychotherapist, LCSW-RNew York, NYEverything in a session has meaning, and the office is no different. The furniture, the lighting, the books, even the flowers. Recently, I purchased a water pitcher. One client joked that the water filter is toxic. Was he suggesting that what I have to offer him is toxic? The next week, however, he allowed himself to take a drink. For another one of my clients, the sight of the pitcher provokes a thirst she cannot quench. She fills her cup throughout the session, and admits that she never feels satiated. Most of all, I think a therapy office should be a place of comfort, opening a space that allows for open and engaged and even new thought, for both of us. Maybe what I am going for is that feeling you have when you get home after a long day and can finally relax and put your feet up.  (Amy Pearl/WNYC) Ali Mattu, clinical psychologist, Ph.D.New York, NYI want my patients to find something in my office that they can connect with, something that makes them feel at home. I scatter characters who have faced their fears, grown from their setbacks, and demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity. This stuff doesn't make Cognitive Behavioral Therapy any easier, but it does help the people I work with begin their own hero's journey. (Amy Pearl/WNYC) Stephanie Newman, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist and author, Ph.D.New York, NYI am sure it will not surprise you to learn that reactions to the therapist's space are as diverse and varied as the individuals who offer them. For some, the chair, consulting room, objects I have displayed have become a sort of touchstone. I will elaborate: I recently moved to a new office after working for many years at another location. Once I was situated in the new place, many people shared their reactions. They noticed that things had been moved around to reflect the new office and layout but were generally glad to have their favorites, their touchstones. One common reaction (I paraphrase): 'The space is larger but the chair is the same as always.' Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose! Ultimately it is about the alliance, the relationship, and the bond you and the patient form, that which is shaped by the constant presence and steadfast attention over many hours and minutes and seconds, spent in the room with a caring and attentive therapist and hardworking patient.  (Amy Pearl/WNYC) Howard Danelowitz, Imago couples therapist, LCSWNew York, NYThe office was actually built for my colleague and for me and I wanted to try to have it be as open as possible. It’s a little bit unexpected because when you walk into the very small waiting room you might expect something like that but there’s actually a lot of light here and I feel a nice breeze. People feel comfortable with symmetry so you can keep on seeing symmetry in the room with two chairs, two doors, two rows of paintings. Every once and a while, someone will come in and say, 'I noticed your name on the paintings [in the waiting room]' and I will just ask them, 'How is that for you to know that those are my paintings?' I want to get a sense of what it means to them and if we have to talk about it further. I have felt lucky to have this as an office because I’ve seen many offices and a lot of them aren’t special the way this is. (Amy Pearl/WNYC) Kate Dvorkin, psychologist, Psy.D.New York, NYWhen people walk in they are comfortable, that’s the main thing. A lot of people find the couch very comfortable, people like at least some of the artwork. They walk in and they feel at ease because there are a lot of things to look at. The art work is varied, but it just has a nice feel; it’s eclectic but comfortable — kind of like me! I created a space that I was comfortable in. A lot of people walk in here and say, 'This is a place I can work in and feel relaxed in.' Just being relaxed and comfortable is what I’m aiming for so people can focus on what they need to focus on. The space shouldn’t distract you, you should be able to focus on yourself and your work. (Amy Pearl/WNYC) Owen Muir, psychiatrist, MDBrooklyn, NYI practice mentalization-based treatment and Interpersonal Social Rhythms Therapy (for bipolar disorder only). No other modalities by me. Only these two evidence-based treatments. The space is hip, open, has daylight (for IPSRT that is helpful), encourages thinking about music and art (in Williamsburg my patients are artists much of the time) and is a bit more off-kilter and less straight-laced than many other treatment spaces. I also have a prominent whiteboard for learning together. The space was designed with the help of psychologist and interior designer Paula Madrid, who helped with all aspects of the setup: furniture selection, flow of the room. Dr. MacMillan made sure that even the pillows convey the right message. And there are fidget toys for patients with ADHD to fiddle with! The photography is by Angela Cappetta, a New York photographer. 

Power and Identity–Conversations Before The Remedy Club In this episode, the panelists for the July 15 Remedy Club (Julia DeNoto, Amy Pearl, Se-ah-dom Edmo, and David Garnand) talk about power, access, and oppression. The conversation revolves around equity vs equality, and expands on how to respond to sexist/racist/homophobic/culturally insensitive comments and behaviors. This is no interview – this is a live, raw discussion.   In this episode you’ll learn:   Which communities you belong to   All of the various communities our guests belong to, and the ones they don’t   Why Amy Pearl is only comfortable when you’re uncomfortable   What has caused the speakers to be champions of social justice?   Why “objective observers” who are making policy changes from places of power begets a system of oppression that keeps marginalized people out   How when someone’s very identity is ‘othered’ in politics and in media, in all sorts of powerful ways they believe that they’re not worthy of life.   When you become real to someone else, you can no longer be a ‘thing’. Its harder to justify ‘othering’ someone you know and care for.   Why Se-ah-dom tries to befriend people she disagrees with.   Why you have to be able to keep up with movements - our movements are moving!   How economic justice is tied to social justice   What a feminist is. (It’s simple: do you believe that women are people?)   Just because you don’t want to see race doesn’t mean racism doesn’t exist.   How in the beginning of the feminist movement, there are ways that it enforced ideas around the gender binary, and how that is changing.   WE ARE NOT DONE. The declarations are only the beginning.   Whether or not to interrupt eloquently; whether or not to burn bridges.   The difference between an ally and accomplice.   How all our oppressions are interlocked, and so are our liberties.   Why you need to talk as if everyone is in the room. Guests Se-ah-dom Edmo, Coordinator, Indigenous Ways of Knowing Program at Lewis & Clark College, author of American Indian Identity Julia DeNoto, Park Ranger, Cyclist Amy Pearl, Executive Director, Hatch Innovation Dave Garnand, Executive Director, Housing Northwest, Inc.

What's The Big Idea? - A discussion between Amy Pearl and Simon Love   In this episode, Hosts Amy Pearl and Simon Love have a lively discussion about the two biggest ideas behind this podcast: social entrepreneurship and community capital. Both of these ideas stem from one simple question: Why don’t people address their own problems? What is stopping them? Amy and Simon share some of their thoughts on the potential of social enterprise to change the world, and why access to capital (money) is so important. Plus hear about some of the programs coming from Hatch Innovation, and ways to get engaged.   In this episode you’ll learn: Some of the reasons why ordinary people don’t address their own problems The concepts of social enterprise and community capital The difference between downstream-oriented nonprofits and upstream-oriented social enterprises How every big idea comes with people who muddy it, and why it’s important to be clear The differences between  “social enterprises” and other enterprises Why the ecosystem for capital for social entrepreneurs has been so weak, and why it’s not such a crazy idea to change it How ‘returns’ are defined: financial returns vs non-financial returns and the concept of “blended returns” Why it’s such a big idea for everyday people to invest in their community, and why we say that local investing is impact investing How events like Detroit Soup and The Social Pitch are creating new social enterprises Amy’s experience as a woman in male dominated finance and law fields That a lot of crazy ideas might actually work…so why not try? Don’t be scared…be bold!   Links:   Skoll Foundation  “The New Heroes”  Video Series Mohammad Yunus Jed Emerson & Blended Value The Social Pitch Detroit Soup Hatch website   Hatch Innovation on Facebook Hatch Innovation on Twitter

Community Capital to the Rescue In this episode Amy Pearl and Simon Love speak with Amy Cortese (author, journalist, and founder of Locavesting), and Chris Miller (economic and downtown developer of Adrian, Michigan). Chris discusses the inspiration provided by Locavesting and the impact that crowdfunding has had on the city of Adrian. The discussion moves to the shift from investing in Wall Street to investing in one’s community and the associated economic and community benefits.  They answer big questions such as how to balance individual gains (mitigating risk and making a profit) with being an ethical member of the community.  Amy and Chris also provide pointers to discern a real local market from the façade of one.    In This Episode You’ll Learn Inspirational stories of economic development in Michigan and the City of Adrian  How “Cops and Donuts” became a success story in Clare, Michigan  What state representatives can do to help local businesses How risky local investing really is What led Amy Cortese to write the book Locavesting How to I tap your own community as a business owner  How Tecumseh Brewing Co. crowdfunded their dream microbrewery  How to attract a conventional loan from a community bank with a crowdfunding first round  How community investing is a new asset class, and what if Wall Street stocks became the minority of investment activity? Which markets are truly local   Links Locavesting by Amy Cortese http://www.locavesting.com/the-book/ City of Adrian Community Development http://adriancity.com/services/community-development/ Michigan Regulator LARA https://www.michigan.gov/lara/ Hatch Innovation’s "Let’s be Frank" video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzw5uTBHM6M Tecumseh Brewinghttp://www.tecumsehbrewingco.com Cops and Donuts, City of Clare https://copsdoughnuts.com   Bios    Amy Cortese is an award-winning journalist who writes about topics spanning business, finance, food, wine and travel. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York, Business Week, the New York Times, the Daily News, Portfolio, Mother Jones, Afar, The American, the Daily Beast, Talk, Business 2.0, and Wired, among other publications. Her recently published book, Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From it (John Wiley & Sons, 2011), draws upon her experience covering these diverse realms to explore how a small shift in investment away from multinationals towards locally-owned enterprises can reap enormous economic and social benefits for individuals, their communities and the country.    Amy Pearl draws on extensive experience in the education, corporate, and social sectors to shape a vision of how we might address global challenges by activating a new kind of community leader. An inveterate educator and strategist, she designed unique programs such as Local Agenda and Challenge and Change that teach adults and youth social entrepreneurship skills in high-need, under-served communities. She first envisioned ChangeXchange, the first American social innovation exchange while at the Skoll World Forum; and, envisioned HATCH in 2009. Her own career has taken her from the classroom and school district to the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, to managing Intel’s online international education initiatives.   Chris Miller is the lead economic and downtown developer for the City of Adrian, in SE Michigan. He came to this position with a background in business, a career in education that included private and international schools, and non-profit and government leadership work. He worked as a city commissioner and Downtown Development Authority board member, and served as chairperson of the regional chamber of commerce, symphony orchestra, and housing development coalition.

Host Lisa Kiefer interviews John Kuhry from Economic Development & Financing Corp. on how to connect money and ideas with entrepreneurs to create sustainable prosperity by providing gap financing and acting as lender-of-last-resort for small businesses.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness is next. Speaker 2:We're listening to method to the madness of biweekly public affairs show fun, k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. I'm your host, Lisa Keifer. And today we're talking with John Kuri, the executive director of the economic development and financing corporation, [00:00:30] also known as e d f c Speaker 3:[inaudible]. Speaker 4:Welcome to the program, John. Hi, you're the executive director of economic development and financing corporation. What is that and what is the problem you're trying to solve? Okay, so we are a nonprofit five oh one c three economic development corporation. And we are also [00:01:00] certified as a community development financial institution. And what we do is we provide financing to people that can't get money, act as a lender of last resort, primarily to businesses. And we do economic development, which is basically diversifying the economy. And where are you located? Oh, we're located in Mendocino county. We do business in [inaudible], Mendocino Lake counties. We focused on rural economic development. How did this get started? Uh, in 1994 partners in the, in our community of Mendocino, um, the four city and the county [00:01:30] itself looked at how can we better utilize our resources to try and diversify our economy. Speaker 4:So they formed this organization and we were supported by the county and each of the four incorporated cities. And from there we went out and were able to get funding and uh, apply for loans from the USDA. And what we are is an intermediary re lending partner, which is, we borrowed the money from the USDA and then we lend it out to two projects that have economic development. The biggest issue, especially in rural communities [00:02:00] is the lack of population density and just the lack of economic activity really, there needs to be support for businesses that are trying to bring income into the economy. And so this was noted in the 90s when things were kind of going well, right? Our economy supposedly, and one of the big projects that came out was the city of Ukiah. It was looking to do a infrastructure development of a bridge. Speaker 4:And we're tapped out in the terms of resources. So ESC is a nonprofit, was able to work with the economic development administration to [00:02:30] bring in funds through our nonprofit status to help build a bridge that was important for development in the community. From there, you know, we were pretty much just doing financing because redevelopment agencies existed and then about six or seven years ago, redevelopment dissolve. And so all the communities in California are looking at ways to address the funding issue. So what's going on with funding and where are the banks right now? The big thing that's happening, at least in lake and Mendocino counties, is we're forming an economic development district for communities to receive [00:03:00] funding, especially from the economic development industry. [inaudible] they need comprehensive economic development strategies put together and if counties or our communities can come together and do it, an economic development district, the uh, matching requirements, cause usually grant funding is required to match one for one. Speaker 4:A, it reduces significantly when there's, when there's an economic development district. So this is one way that the economic development administration is trying to address the issue. Um, we, we try to approach something a little bit differently. Up where we're at. We worked with cutting edge capital to do a direct public offering [00:03:30] to address a problem for nonprofits like ourselves who are eligible for grant funding but have difficulty coming up with matching funds. We received a grant from the EDA to study small scale meat processing and our award was cut down because we didn't have the matching funds. The other undercurrent that we were addressing was that the desire for local investors to move their money off of Wall Street into their community. So we work with cutting edge capital to create a direct public offering. I believe the first of its kind, which is a economic development [00:04:00] corporation allowing non-accredited investors to invest in their community. Speaker 4:How does this work? What is the process? You know, first thing we would say is we work in conjunction with our banking partners because banking will offer a overall low lower interest rates. But in the case of where you aren't eligible for financing or you don't get enough financing, that interest rate will be higher or you may not even get it at all. So you come to us. But there are instances where we found that there was a community benefit. We were looking at small scale meat processing. That project which we received grants funding for culminated with a peace ability [00:04:30] study and a business plan. And the next step is to build out. But there were three pieces missing. One was finding an operator, second was finding a piece of land and third was financing. So we, we think we've found the operator and found the land. Speaker 4:And so we looked at a direct public offering but the project was not ready to move forward. So we decided to, to address, um, this community benefit need by creating a social benefit revolving loan fund, which local investors can invest in. And Luckily a project came forward, which was a wool mill and that wool mill had social benefit enough [00:05:00] to where we said, okay, we what gave it social benefit. Oh, that had been there a long time ago. The wool mill was a startup and it was a young family. That principal, Matt Gilbert was a sheep shear and he actually is a forester by trade but been sheep shearing. It really got uh, impassioned with wool mill and there's a burgeoning local fiber movement in the bay area. That's amazing. If I ever shut up Marin created a locally sourced jeans can be a CSA Jean blue jeans. Speaker 4:Yeah, cotton cotton that was grown in the KP valley indigo that was got done in the KP valley. Unfortunately the milling, it had to be done [00:05:30] out in the east coast and there's a, again, a local, you know, wool movement in this happening and there's no fine spun fiber. So Matt came up with a business plan, but given the startup nature of it, the tech intensive capital needs and just his lack of capital was not turned. It was turned down by a bank. And we've, we thought this is a great resource. Wool was an important industry in Mendocino back in the day, but subsequently died out. A lot of people have animals on their property to comply with William Snack, which has tax status. And so they're shearing the sheep [00:06:00] and it's a cost center for them. Whereas Makin to aggregate this stuff that's normally taken to the dump or sold off for pennies on the dollar and turn into a value added product. Speaker 4:By definition, what we do is we do social benefit, we create jobs and jobs, create wealth in our community. Our mission statement is connecting money and ideas with entrepreneurs to create sustainable prosperity in lake and Mendocino counties. So by definition we have a mission, but we've expanded that mission to incorporate the social benefit, which in Matt's case would be adding value to a resource, which unfortunately in our community, a lot of our resources are extracted [00:06:30] and then the value that is added elsewhere. And so the people who were producing those resources aren't able to get to have a sustainable lifestyle. What other kinds of things besides like will extraction that you are looking at? Um, you know, again, we were, we're an agricultural community, um, and you've look go north of San Francisco. A lot of prime agricultural real estate has been turned over to grape growing, but Mendocino county and parts of northern Sonoma County, we built San Francisco with our redwood product. Speaker 4:Unfortunately, the redwood market has changed and and the need [00:07:00] for redwood and just the, the extractive nature of that business. We don't like to say extraction our community more because that means that we're not renewing. But with the wool you already renewing projects that we'd like to see come back would be, you know, how do we create more sustainable fisheries? Farming is is important and we up in where our area consider farming a social entrepreneurship type of endeavor because Mincey has a very large county, but when you actually look at how much row crops are being grown, there's probably less than a hundred acres that have grown crops that are being grown commercially. [00:07:30] And that's just a function of the other competitive resources which are being grown, which are grapes, timber, and of course our illegal economy. Cannabis. How much money do you want to ultimately be in this fund? Speaker 4:Or have you already reached that goal? We, yeah, we reached that goal. I mean really this was a kind of a Beta test. You know, we chose a local impact investing because we were, we wanted to try and be as conservative as possible and when we batch or in the community social benefits, it would mean that we could offset that with a lower financial return, which would then [00:08:00] build in some sustainability of the project. We had a minimum raise of $250,000 we needed to reach and we were had a maximum of a million. And that idea was maybe we would have the meat processing plant come online and we didn't have a project designated for this. In the process of doing this direct public offering to say to someone, would you invest in economic development? It's a little esoteric, but do you want to invest in a wool mill? Speaker 4:Was a much more tangible kind of ask. So we, the board of directors approved [00:08:30] the wool mill for a loan and so we were then we were able to use the [inaudible] mill as our flagship project to be a fundraise for. So we reached out to our minimum of 250,000 in January and in February we raised 350,000 which was the exact amount that's needed upon the wool mill. Isn't the goal to have a lot of money, so it's not just one, uh, you know, we'll mail, but many different companies could come to you and say, many local entrepreneurs could come and say, oh, I want to start this restaurant or I want to, isn't [00:09:00] that the goal of it or is it project by project? The intention of course is to have a larger fund, but given the time constraints and limited capacity that we had and also the brand recognition of the wasn't there. Speaker 4:A lot of people said, I want this to go to the wool mill. Given the time frame of when we had to fundraise, the wool mill was the only project. But now we've got credibility and if we're able to, you know, successfully pay back all the investors, then we can go back to a larger question of how do we fund projects to revitalize, you know, uh, manufacturing [00:09:30] and in Mendocino county, how do we revitalize the know your harbor? Okay, well how do we fund social entrepreneurs which need a lower interest rate and need more patient capital? So we created a fund to deploy it. But one of the things, as a community development financial institution, we are able to access grants and portfolio insurance programs. So if you were to go invest the wool mill, you're, you're, you're risking your investment and you're basing it on the intrinsic value of the project. Speaker 4:By us taking in that investment, we are then able to insure that loan and be able to service that loan or an intermediary. Exactly, [00:10:00] exactly. And we're nonprofit intermediaries, so a lot of intermediaries, when you look in the financial world, take a a return based on, you know, paying CEOs and things like that. What is EDF? See what EDF sees fulfilling its mission. I've got, you know, we're a nonprofit. For us, what we're doing is we're building sustainability to our mission. We're also fulfilling our mission in creating new markets for our community to be able to, to bring entrepreneurs in. So we look at it as a multi-tiered facet. So you're, if you're an existing business that needs, or a startup business that needs capital, there's a loan fund, but [00:10:30] there are projects such as the meat processing facility, which doesn't have an entrepreneur yet. Speaker 4:We're able to leverage grant funding because of our nonprofit status to be able to then develop those markets. And how will you do that? We also do direct public offerings or what is your plan for that? Well, the meat processing, ideally, you know, EFC does not want to be in the business of running other businesses. But what we are willing to do is kind of shepherd them and incubate them to the next level. So when we explored the meat processing facility, we wanted it to be owned by producers. But the producers that exist right now, the, [00:11:00] the mainstream producers are pretty satisfied with their existing contracts. And it'd be hard for them to move away. And so it's also a very controversial subject in our community. We had a lot of people who were back to landers. We have a Buddhist monastery and Buddhist school up there, so it's been tough to figure out whether this project can move forward. Speaker 4:But that being said, the producers that haven't been really wanting to take on this project, even though I've had talked to several prominent wine producers who have this problem breaking the Napa cache [00:11:30] like we made, we produced some of the best wines and grape juice in Mendocino county and a lot of it goes into Napa valley wines, but there's a good understanding that we could become the Napa Valley of grass fed organic beef and some of the proofs that we have are making that kind of impact. So the idea of value added processing is important. That being said, nobody really wants to take the risk. This is a risky endeavor. The returns don't justify venture capital. So in that question of how do finance this ETFs, he said, well, let's create a direct public offering model to lipper local investment. Then what we [00:12:00] would do is maybe start it, there's a, there's an economic development corporation, Taos who operates a meat processing facility. Speaker 4:And we would do it to start it off and then spin it off as a worker owned cooperative. But because we don't want to be in the business of running business or cu it sounds like, yeah, you're helping businesses stay in the community. And our other big project we're doing is we're doing a coworking facility and that's really brought up from a project we took on, which was broadband. You know, when we talk about rural communities, we are, you know, we're very behind the um, in the, in terms [00:12:30] of creating 21st century infrastructure for these information based economy. I feel like that in Berkeley, when I lived in Berkeley, I was really happy with my internet. I ran a brewery up in Mendocino on a satellite internet and that was really tough. So we came together with the community foundation and started talking about it and created the broadband alliance for Mendocino County. Speaker 4:And through that process we become really vocal and, and have gone to the congress and talked about the issues of the incumbents taking away copper and the importance for nine one one emergency services. [00:13:00] So we've become this very much a, a figurehead for this, this rural community. Cause when you look at the northern California rural communities where less than 5% of the population of California, so that's the margin of error for a lot of companies. Unless you make a lot of noise, they're not gonna be interested. Now that Mendocino is partnered with Sonoma and Marin, we've, we've created so much noise now that ATNT starting to take, take voice, but you really a region, right? You know, it's unreasonable if you're living up in a rural community that you have of highway up to your house. I also think that it's unreasonable that you're going to have fiber out in the middle of [00:13:30] nowhere. Speaker 4:But that being said, the real issue is how do you address our urban cores or our incorporated cities? How do you get the faster Internet and how do you address really the socioeconomic, digital divide of a cheaper access to people there? So those are some issues that we want to bring up. And this coworking facility that we're developing, we have a very, very large land area with a very large small population and we have some very, very creative people, you know, from battery pipe, which is a manufacturer of OEM exhaust systems for, you know, [00:14:00] motorcycles and ATVs and things like that. Operating on a, on a, on a global competitive scale in Mendocino county that started out from a local boy, two um, little startup c corporations. There's one up there, Peter Pucker, which is the main equipment for mixing ceramics and the primary equipment for Plato. Speaker 4:These types of entrepreneurs are scattered around and sort of bring people together, which into a hub, to a hub and be able to network will help create a, a culture of entrepreneurship because we, and then you can also [00:14:30] get economies of scale on when it is they need, whether it's accounting, back office, deffer Internet, right? Yeah. And you know, the, the, the coworking movement has been phenomenal in the bay area and we are, you know, it takes someone like UTFC, which is a nonprofit and has access to partnerships and things like that to offset the costs. But we really believe that the next major employer industry in our community going to be homegrown. It's not going to be attracting a, you know, Mason [inaudible], which was, uh, the biggest industry when the biggest companies in Ukiah for a long time moved away [00:15:00] for environmental and cost issues. Speaker 4:But we're not gonna attract another company like that or another Nike. And really what we are, what we're looking for is lifestyle businesses. I was in the bay area for 10 years and I'm up there for a much quieter lifestyle and it's artists and all things are, are very popular everywhere. Do you see this kind of thing happening elsewhere in the u s oh yeah. I mean, there are other EDF c type organizations, especially in rural communities. I mean, it's funny when you look at funding, um, criteria for grant [00:15:30] funding, there's two top of the list. One would be low income and the other one would be rural. So there are organizations that operate in, in Los Angeles, county of San Francisco County that are acts have access to funds and the rural communities are habit, but we don't have the population base. And so the impact is a little bit different. Speaker 4:But that being said, economic development corporations are all around the state, all around the country. And then the community development financial institutions really CDFIs are really unique. They're a designation by the Department of Treasury and banking and insurance [00:16:00] companies have to comply with community reinvestment act dollars. And so they fund the CDFI Fund, which then gives out money. But we, I could go to a bank right now and get money and be able to deploy it into a low income and rural projects. As a matter of fact, that direct public offering we did, it was probably the hardest money that I could've gotten to $350,000 well, you know, we raised for the direct public offering. Why is that a, because he had to go out, I mean, I was on a road asking, your average investment was $4,000 the number of people we had [00:16:30] was 80 when I could have gone to a bank and said, okay, I'll offer you the same terms, but the value back to the community, it binds the community. Speaker 4:Right, right. And also it was, it was important to to, I mean I think when we look at, you know, wealth inequality, it's really based on people having ownership of assets. And so this is a way that non-accredited investors can not only have ownership of assets but have it locally. And the conversation we have is, Berkeley's a good place for this. Where you talk about localization by local, where 45 cents of every dollar spent locally stays locally, whereas 15 cents of [00:17:00] a non local business stays locally. Well, if you look at that in a bigger scale, a scheme, if you go out and you buy apple stock, you're getting your dividend and apple. But if you put that same amount of money in, you know, Berkeley Bowl, you're not only getting that dollar back in div terms of dividends, but you're also getting that community benefit of those dollars circulating in the community. Speaker 4:So as you make it a little lower percentage, right. In this case, in this case we did, but you get a, an intangible return in the community because if you like a business, you want to stay. Yeah. The [00:17:30] other thing is that this is a prototype. So when we look at rolling out a, a more general economic development fund, we'll be able to offer a risk adjusted return. What does that mean? The reason why the Mendocino Wall project couldn't get funded was that it was a startup. The lack of experience from the, um, from Matt. He's young. Yeah. He's young. You know, he was for sure by trade. So the risk was there at that, you know, if you talk about venture capitalists, they, they, one of the reasons why they justify a high stake, either equity or rate of return is that [00:18:00] these things are inherently risky. Speaker 4:So when you look at the 2% return we asked for investors isn't quite risk adjusted. Then again, we are a nonprofit. And so because because of that and because we're a CFI, we're able to ensure this. So we mitigate a lot of that risk. But that being said, if it did, people would have been much more apt to invest that they were being offered a five, six, 7% rate of return, which would be more reflective of the risks that they're taking. So did you feel, um, is it something that you would recommend to others after going through this process of getting all of these investors locally? It was [00:18:30] CR. It was a great experience. I think that you're actually meeting face to face and with your invest. It was meme and sometimes I had to meet with them three times, you know? Well that's what the big, um, you know, IPO is they have to go around and do their dog and pony show too, right? Speaker 4:Eh, you know, but when they're getting checks of 10 million, $100 million, I mean, relatively speaking, you still have to do that face to face. But that's, you know, if you look at the way our world is moving, we're moving from a way, we're moving to more of a transactional experience and people are missing [00:19:00] the relationship. And so one of the things I've been working on with, you know, on the side is with some high net worth investors talking about how do we create direct relationship driven investment. And this, this what we're, what I was doing was directly, I mean, I shook hands with everybody. Everyone talked to Matt. You know, the, one of the things that investors really wanted to have was this feeling of community. So we're having these investor meetings where we're having one coming up at a, a very nice retreat place up in Ukiah. Speaker 4:I mean, this is a very unique, unique thing for you bring in the wool makers and [00:19:30] they give a presentation and went to the product. Yeah. So, you know, I think as our world gets more and more online and it goes from warm faster, it's that relationship that people are craving. And especially when you're talking about $1,000, I mean, you know, Michael Shuman talks about moving 1% of your income and what the impact that would make in our local communities. For some people $1,000 was what they would write a check for a philanthropic endeavor. But here they're going to build some sustainability into it. And this whole world of social, a social impact investing is [00:20:00] just growing leaps and bounds. Having learned about it five or six years ago, the market is just exploding and people wanting it. It is interesting. I feel like it's this whole other parallel universe going on outside of this crazy other financial market. Speaker 4:Yeah. And in some ways it's more tangible. Even if you have your money in a large commercial mega bank, you know, you think is FDI seeing insured? And it is. But that bank's exposure to derivative instruments and things like that. Or even if you have it in a, in a, your money, in a, in a stock somewhere. But if you have your, your money at Joe's, [00:20:30] you know, fish market, you can go by there every day and you'll see whether he's got people coming in or he doesn't. Or if you are, you get to taste this product and you know, whether you know he's going to fail or not. Yeah. Cause you know, if you know this person, you have a different responsibility. What, what was really unique is not, you know, the money was definitely the focus. But what came out of this was some of the captains of industry in our community came together and said, we want to mentor this guy. Speaker 4:Oh that's, so you're talking about another added [00:21:00] effect of like, wow, this guy, you know, this guy really, you know, we believe in him and we're gonna, we're going to take time out of our busy schedules running our multimillion dollar corporations to give him some mindshare. Yeah. So it's really, it was really community, you know, community focused. I was talking to a bank of America guy who specialized in CDFIs and he explained to me that, uh, he'd been working in the CDI Department at Bank of America for 25, 30 years and that he loved it and still financing. And if he wasn't doing that, he'd be working in a CDFI because CDFIs are [00:21:30] the most innovative and creative places where community capitalism is being deployed. And I think this place where CFIs like us are coming in and being able to take on that risk intermediary is really interesting because when we went out to the community and you know, in the bigger conversation of, in the wake of 2008 people were moving their money out of big banks and their communities like Willis economic localization, which was a group of people who came together and said, how do we invest locally? Speaker 4:And when I went to those meetings, it was great cause you hear these people going, I wanted [00:22:00] us locally, but I don't want to take any risk. I don't want to find the deals. I don't want to vet the deals. I don't want to service the deals. And so that EFC as a [inaudible] is a economic development corporation. The CFI, we have the skill set, we have the tools, and then we had the risk mitigation things. So this, this is a technique now that there are a lot of CDFIs are looking at what we're doing. Yes, it's a great alternative to this donation based crowdfunding. I don't want a tee shirt. I want to invest in your company. Well until recently, you know, and that's not been able to be possible. The SCC rules have just [00:22:30] finally come down. I'll tell you what, I spent more money on Kickstarter. Speaker 4:But that idea of having a relationship with an investment where you can go and you can meet and see and that it's in your community. I think I've done both too. And I just, I liked the connection that's made in the community. And there's also a bigger conversation that I'm having with people like in Berkeley or in San Francisco, is that places like Mendocino are your source of food, energy and water. And there has to be mechanisms that allow wealth building in those communities [00:23:00] so that families can continue to supply food, energy, water in an equitable way. And this is a great mechanism. You can people here investing. So these projects like meaning not Mendocino but you know, Berkeley, San Francisco and they did, they actually did. So because of the mechanism of the direct public offering is as a state exemption, as long as you register within the state, but it's open to all everyone in California. Speaker 4:So we did our road show in Mendocino, but 30% of our investment came from the bay area. Well it makes sense like you say, I mean [00:23:30] that's where we get our right and dude. And the other side of it is that, you know, a $50,000 investment from someone in San Francisco is a lot different than a $50,000 investment in someone in Willets. And um, so that was one of our largest investments was a $50,000 investment. Do you find that, you know, getting a couple of those big ones makes the rest easier? No, I don't think the big investment was really it and it's a matter of fact, I, I would've preferred to get it all through small investors. But that being said, I'm not going to turn away money and it made things easier. But um, we were late. We had a year [00:24:00] to, to be able to fundraise and we were authorized in February of last year and so the state gives you one year. Speaker 4:Okay. And then you can file an extension. But W we decided not to. We really didn't kick off our marketing effort until late, like six months later. And part of it was I was able to get grants from our local bank savings bank of Mendocino mental, a credit union, PGE gave us a grant, community foundation gave us a grant to be able to create a marketing campaign and a video or video was phenomenal. Really well done. I highly recommend you go to see it. It's think still, how would listeners go see [00:24:30] this video and you know your website? Yeah. Go to go to ww. Dot. E D F C. Dot. Org and state video about it. It's just the wool mill. It's really well done and just the local investment opportunity. But that really kind of kicked off the initial investment. And then once we started getting momentum and people saw this was for real, we'd brought Michael Shuman up to the community twice and everybody loved what he had to say, but nobody really believed that anyone was going to make this happen. Speaker 4:And when they finally saw money [00:25:00] coming in and the amounts of money that was coming in, it created a snowball and it was just, it was amazing. Shit. Bode well for the future. What are some other things that you foresee or you're hoping to get done in the future? Well, you know, one of the things that you know, we look at is there's such a beautiful harbor and the [inaudible] harbor up in Mendocino county and there's other issues other than just financing. But you know, creating a, a community, revitalizing that fishing community and that timber community in Fort Bragg is so important. It's so isolated and it's so beautiful and such a great lifestyle. I also think that [00:25:30] if you look at what happened, as a lot of people went to back to land, they went up to those areas, Mendocino and Humboldt counties, and they bought land from timber companies that have been just raped and pillaged. Speaker 4:These things were devastated and they were able to eke out a living and now they're looking at, hey, maybe I want to become a commercial cannabis grower and become legitimate and compliant, but they've got issues with erosion and road control, which can cast them, you know, anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars and how do you get, how can they fund these things? So there needs to be a way, a mechanism to fund compliance [00:26:00] in this world. I'm not saying that we're ready to do that, but there is going to be a need to fund compliance in the future. In California, especially in rural areas, you couldn't probably get federal sources, but community capital could be raised to do that. And there's talk about trying, there's a bunch of people in the cannabis community we're talking about doing a direct public offering to create cooperative processing. Again, it's the issue of the people that make grow things don't make as much money as the people who distribute things. Speaker 4:And so you have to, in order to build equity in our community is to add value to it. All these regional [00:26:30] hubs are going to become more and more important. It's a redundant system. Yeah. And if you look at ancient Greece, right? Ancient Greece was not countries, they were nation, they're city states. And it's that aggregation, that economic activity that allowed them to weather the d vacation events that happened when I ran the Inner Sun Valley Brewing Company, which was a regional brewery when in a time it was in the top 50 craft breweries. Um, in terms of size and probably in the top two or three in terms of quality, but our core markets were San Francisco, Santa Rosa and Sacramento. [00:27:00] And even though we distributed out to Paris, China and Brazil and Sweden, if we lost market share in those areas, it was very concerning because those are your core markets. Speaker 4:And there is an intrinsic relationship between, especially Mendocino, Lake County, Sonoma county as to the bay area, being tied in acres, the bay area in building those relationships was really important. I want to talk a little bit about you. You've said that you grew up in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz. You were in that brewery industry. What drew you to this CDFC work? I would say I [00:27:30] grew up in Santa Cruz. I actually was born in Vietnam and spent some time in Saudi Arabia. My Dad was a civil engineer, but for the most part, most of my child who was grown, you know from high school on our junior high on was in Santa Cruz. So I never thought I'd leave, but then realized going back to Vietnam, I had an opportunity to get an education, so I got into school, got out really quickly with a master's in economics and finance and realized I didn't really want to be in a bank. Speaker 4:Got Involved in Thai tech and so on and so forth and started some companies and then this opportunity to run the Anderson Valley [00:28:00] brewing company came up. When you go to a party, running a brewery was always, you know, popular. Yeah. You know, but I, I didn't, there were things in terms of things I didn't like about the business. One thing is I don't really drink that much. I don't enjoy drinking that much. And so that led to a clash. But at that time, being a very large employer in a very small area, I was asked to be on a lot of boards. And so being coming onto the economic development, financial risk and board of directors, which is 21 board members, uh, which includes two county supervisors, a city counselor from each of the four cities and then major employers [00:28:30] and things like that. I really liked the work. Speaker 4:We funded a brewery up in Lake County and my brewing experience came into that. And, or going into the wool mill or going to talk to another restaurant tour, the community really opened up. And so I love the myriad of things I get to do and the questions, it's just you're really connected in a network and I really love what I do. And just the, the community impact of it. If somebody wants to get ahold of you and ask questions, yeah, they can either email me, uh, John j o h n at EDF C. Dot Org Echo David, [00:29:00] frank, Charlie, um, they can call me, um, (707) 684-4084. You know, and I'm actually presenting, I'm going up to Comcast up in, uh, in poor ladies, Comcast, it's community capital conference about people creating ways to fund, uh, socially beneficial organizations or small businesses. One of the speakers and, uh, Amy Pearl up there has done some amazing things in community capital legislation to allow crowdfunding of community benefit organizations. Speaker 4:Yeah, I, I just loved the idea. I mean [00:29:30] I'm maybe growing up in Santa Cruz, but having that kind of social responsibility and I think that income inequality is solved through people taking ownership of assets and instead of redistribution, it's just basically able to be onerous of cooperatives or businesses. And being able to leverage that money. My next big passion is to create a mechanism for non-accredited people to put tax deferred investment away. Ultimately, like the litmus test for my job is healthy, happy kids. If families can live in [00:30:00] my community and are able to keep their kids here to have happy kids under themselves, then I've done my job. John, that's a nice way to end it. Thanks for being on the program. Oh, thank you very much. It's been pleasure. That was John Curry, the executive director of Ed FC Economic Development and financing corporation. This has been method to the madness. We'll be back again in two weeks. Speaker 3:Him. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is Challenge Four of Note to Self's Infomagical project. To learn more and sign up, visit wnyc.org/infomagical. If you want to hear how it's going for the thousands of other people participating, our hashtag is #infomagical. Yes, we do see the irony.  Here's a link to our custom emoji. Longtime listeners know Sherry Turkle – the social psychologist who studies what technology does to our relationships. If you heard our interview from a few months back, you'll also be familiar with the seven minute conversation theory she discovered in the course of her most recent research. It goes like this: in a real, verbal, human conversation, it takes at least seven minutes to see whether or not a conversation will be interesting or not.  Today, we're going to test this theory. Your instructions: Do something with all that wonderful goal-oriented information you've been consuming. Discuss something you've heard/read/watched with someone by phone or in person for at least seven minutes.   Need some more ideas to start your conversation? We've asked the team behind the scenes here – a diverse group of artists, developers, editors, audio wizards, and more – to put together a collection of prompts they think can sustain seven minutes. We've included their Twitter handles in case you'd like to report back! Fix Something "What are three products that you use? If you had to add one feature to them, what would it be and why?"  – Marine Boudeau, Director of Design, @marineboudeau Fix Something Edible "Have you ever made something (or wanted to) you first tried at a restaurant? I just spent three, count ‘em, three! days recreating chef David Chang's kimchi stew. It was a really fun experience that took a lot of focus and creativity. (I couldn't find chicken backs so I had to get creative!) Many of my capable friends have recreated cocktails from favorite bars, and I've had a few fabulous versions of the Neiman Marcus cookies from talented home bakers." –   Mandy Naglich, Manager of Marketing and Audience Development, @MandyKN Elephant Tears "We read novels, watch movies and TV, gossip with friends, and follow politics all with the help of an assumed understanding of other people's inner lives. Do you ever think about the inner lives of animals? What is their inner monologue? This is a clip from a longer documentary. You can hear Solomon articulate his feelings about Shirley. What might the animals be thinking/feeling/experiencing?" –   Amy Pearl, Senior Producer, @sugarpond The Demands of On Demand   "What effect will on-demand content (Netflix, podcasts, etc.) have on the future of traditional broadcast media?"  –   Joe Plourde, Sound Designer A Conversation About Conversation "Say someone you know travels somewhere interesting. What's a better question to ask than 'How was it?'"  –   John Asante, Associate Producer, WNYC Newsroom, @jkbasante When Was the Last Time You Discussed a Poem? A poem from the collection "Here". (Wisława Anna Szymborska, Translated by Clare Cavanagh & Stanislaw Baranczak) –  Jen Poyant, Executive Producer of Note to Self, @jpoyant A Short Story "Short Stories: Are they as satisfying to read as novels are?"  –  Paula Szuchman, Vice President of On Demand Content, @Paula Szuchman Salute the Superbowl Queen "Ahead of Coldplay's Superbowl half-time show this Sunday, reflect on the best: Beyoncé's 2013 performance is 14 minutes long, so exactly double the length of a seven minute conversation. Beyond the clear value of talking Beyoncé, this feels like a sign."  – David Cotrone, Publicist, @DavidCotrone Be Honest "What was the last article you read to completion and thought about after the fact? Explain it to each other, and discuss!" – Miranda Katz, former Note to Self intern-turned-Gothamist-writer-extraordinaire, @MirandaKatz Be Critical "Star Wars Episode VII: Plot too much like the original, or did it need to be nostalgic? And who is Rey's father??? Oh, and are you on team R2D2 or BB8 on the cuteness factor?" Additional reading: "The Nostalgia Debate Around The Force Awakens" – Valentina Powers, Director of Digital Operations, @valentinapowers Yes/No/Why "Remember Lisa Frank?" A recent post to the Lisa Frank Facebook page. (Lisa Frank)  – inspired by Sahar Baharloo, graphic designer, @saharloo Once you've had your conversation, we would love to know what you talked about. Tell us how it went on Facebook or Twitter? 

Don goes on the run, Joan battles egregious sexism at McCann and Roger and Peggy send off the SC+P offices in proper fashion. Then, Ellen talks with video producer Amy Pearl. She makes videos about New York for New York Public Radio which are strange, funny, touching short films. But we're talking to her because she's the creator and director of our favorite Mad Men inspired video: “Meow Men.” They talk Don, nostalgia, and of course, cats.

This week on the Third Coast Podcast, we're sharing two of our favourite pieces that were entered to win the 2014 Little Mermaid Award. Into the Woods, Cell Phone, iPod and All by Amy Pearl (New Tech City, WNYC, 2013) In the city, things never seem to slow down. So producer Amy Pearl decided to get away and hike the Appalachian Trail for a few days with her dog. The plan was to be totally unplugged. Well, almost. Variety by Leo Hornak (In the Dark, 2013) A man with eclectic interests gives us a tour of his ancestral home in North Wales, and shares his philosophy on life. Listen to the Little Mermaid Award winners here: http://bit.ly/1y6Bb8c

Simple experiences, like borrowing a ladder from a neighbor or just taking a long solitary hike, are being altered by tech. This week on New Tech City, host Manoush Zomorodi examines a service called Nextdoor, a social network that aims to form a kind of online community posting board for physical neighborhoods.  "The research shows that if you use an online mechanism to connect with your neighbors, you're 70 percent more likely to communicate with those neighbors in person," says Nextdoor CEO Nirav Tolia. Plus, WNYC's Amy Pearl heads out to the Appalachian Trail in upstate New York, where she finds the act of "getting away from it all" has been changed forever thanks to the strong 3G signal on the northern part of the trail. All the thru-hikers she met completing the 2,180-mile trail seemed to have iPhones. "I'm not trying to experience the wilderness. That's not why I'm here," said one hiker with the trail name Big Spoon. "Happiness isn't real unless it's shared," said another thru-hiker who goes by Brain Damage. Check out this slideshow of thru-hikers that Pearl met along the trail, and on a related note, our first video podcast about what happens when a summer camp lets teens bring along their smartphones. This is an extended podcast of New Tech City. You can listen to the broadcast version every Wednesday morning at 5:50 and 7:50 a.m. on WNYC 93.9 FM, AM 820 and New Jersey Public Radio or subscribe to the program on iTunes.