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For this episode, we are turning the table and passing the microphone to Heather Cabot, who will be interviewing us. Heather is a critically acclaimed author, award-winning veteran journalist, and former ABC News anchor. Author of bestselling Geek Girl Rising, she is currently writing her fourth book with Hopi journalist and FRONTLINE filmmaker, Patty Talahongva called Indian School Road.Instagram @IndianSchoolRoadhttps://golivegirl.org/10-year-celebration
Guests include:Erica Leffler - Veterans Administration Medical Center in Phoenix Doctor Yvette Brown-Shirley, a neurologist at the Barrow Neurological InstitutePatty Talahongva and Heather Cabot will chat with us about their upcoming book, Indian School Road. Support the show
Friends and former TV news colleagues Heather Cabot and Sharon Dizenhuz chat with NY licensed clinical social worker and body-image expert Reena Blum about motivation, why diet culture does everyone a disservice, how deprivation can lead to overeating, and why we all need to have self-compassion, especially as our bodies change as we age. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
S7 E12: In this episode, meet IF: Gathering founder Jennie Allen, President and CEO of NOW Corp Lara Hodgson, and psychologist Todd Kashdan. Hear Jennie Allen on the lost art of making friends, Lara Hodgson on helping small and underrepresented businesses thrive, and Todd Kashdan on how to find your voice and rebel against an unhealthy status quo. Find Your People by Jennie Allen: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/646314/find-your-people/ Level Up by Stacey Abrams, Lara Hodgson and Heather Cabot: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/706859/level-up/ The Art of Insubordination by Todd B. Kashdan: https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/690674/the-art-of-insubordination/
Sorry this has taken me so long to post! The amazing Weed Mom, changing our world, one family at a time. Hope you enjoy everyone. To read the unedited computer generated transcript please go https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/77885725 (here). Hey listeners I want to make a correction at 12:15 in, I say we've had recreational use in Montana since 2005 but it's medicinal we've had. Also, Heather Cabot's book is the https://amzn.to/3DE9d8O (New Chardonnay). Follow Danielle on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/daniellesimonebrand/ (@daniellesimonebrand) Find her on her website https://www.daniellesimonebrand.com/ (DanielleSimoneBrand.com) Make sure you get a copy of her awesome book for friends and family. https://amzn.to/3FDV3W0 () https://amzn.to/3FDV3W0 (Weed Mom: The Canna-Curious Woman's Guide to Healthier Relaxation, Happier Parenting, and Chilling TF Out)https://amzn.to/3DE9d8O () https://amzn.to/3DE9d8O (The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream)by Heather Cabot. On https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kampia-federal-marijuana-policy-20130904-story.html (Marijuana under the Obama) presidency. Let's take a minute to thank our sponsors and affiliate linksWanna donate to the show! You can https://www.buymeacoffee.com/vlnjczo ("buy me a cup of coffee") where your https://www.buymeacoffee.com/vlnjczo (donation) goes directly to support the https://www.buymeacoffee.com/vlnjczo (GREEN Organic Garden Podcast) to help pay for things like hosting the mp3 files or maintaining the website. [gallery ids="137595,137597,137596" type="rectangular"] https://growers.co/ (Growers & Co)https://mailchi.mp/7d7096fe8752/grow-live-with-patti-and-jackie-ask-question-here () Ask Your https://mailchi.mp/7d7096fe8752/grow-live-with-patti-and-jackie-ask-question-here (questions here)https://youtu.be/2S9tbLIIhy4 https://goodseedco.net/ (The Good Seed Company)Now Let's Get to the Root of Things! http://organicgardenerpodcast.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e3e16d6ddb7c0acd9e17348ed&id=b6a8f6bd31&e=e16e7400c4 () We'd love if you'd join http://organicgardenerpodcast.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e3e16d6ddb7c0acd9e17348ed&id=b6a8f6bd31&e=e16e7400c4 (Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Community!)https://amzn.to/2PEYW6c () https://amzn.to/2PEYW6c (Get Your Copy of the The Organic Oasis Guidebook!)Twelve Lessons designed to help you create an earth friendly landscape, some deep garden beds full of nutrient rich healthy food or perhaps even develop a natural market farm. https://amzn.to/2PEYW6c (Get a copy on today printed in the USA from Amazon) https://amzn.to/2PEYW6c () The Organic Gardener Podcast is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com If you like what you heard on the Organic Gardener Podcast we'd love it if you'd give us review and hopefully a 5 star rating on iTunes so other gardeners can find us and listen to. Just click on the https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/organic-gardener-podcast/id962887645 (link here). and don't forget if you need help getting started check out our new https://mailchi.mp/5611bc3d7dfd/free-garden-course (Free Garden Course.com)https://mailchi.mp/5611bc3d7dfd/free-garden-course () https://mailchi.mp/5611bc3d7dfd/free-garden-course ( Free Organic Garden Course )http://organicgardenerpodcast.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e3e16d6ddb7c0acd9e17348ed&id=b6a8f6bd31&e=e16e7400c4 () We'd love if you'd join http://organicgardenerpodcast.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=e3e16d6ddb7c0acd9e17348ed&id=b6a8f6bd31&e=e16e7400c4 (Organic Gardener Podcast Facebook Community!)If you like what you heard on the Organic Gardener Podcast we'd love it if you'd give us review and hopefully a 5 star rating on Support this podcast
Heather Cabot is an award winning journalist, keynote speaker, former ABC News correspondent, and author of The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream. Although she describes herself as the last person to ever write a book about cannabis, Heather knew she had a lot to share about why suburban moms are a targeted demographic in cannabis, the hypocrisy surrounding legalization, and the disparity within the cannabis industry. Heather shares her predictions for how the industry will continue to progress and infiltrate the mainstream realm, particularly within suburban households.
A lot has changed over the past four years; we didn’t have adult-use pot shops in Massachusetts for the 2016 inauguration! In fact just a decade ago, recreational weed shops weren’t even a thing in the U.S. Over the span of just a few years, marijuana has gone from a taboo topic and a seedy underground gateway drug, to a luxurious experience developed by top scientists and promoted by our most trusted celebrities. How did it happen?This episode, Brit interviews Heather Cabot, an award winning journalist and former ABC News correspondent and anchor, who recently released her second book "The New Chardonnay; The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream."Check out DifferentLeaf.com to purchase 4 issues of Different Leaf the magazine for $20, and find a list of physical locations selling the magazine. Follow us on social media @DifferentLeaf and @Different_Leaf, follow host Brit Smith @BritTheBritish - Produced by Andrea Muraskin and Brit Smith, music by Homebody.
In The New Chardonnay author Heather Cabot followed the cannabis boom and bust. It isn't pretty.Heather Cabot is a fine journalist and a mom of a certain age. She is a part of a growing cohort of women that cannabis marketers call “Chardonnay moms.” These newly minted cannabists would use cannabis but abhor going to a dispensary to get it, prefer a discreet edible to smoking a joint, and are unlikely to tell their friends about their use. I enjoyed her recent book, The New Chardonnay, because it takes you on a rollicking ride through the boom boom days of the cannabis bubble, which has since burst. Cabot traveled the country with some colorful characters, including Snoop Dogg, who, she reveals on this podcast, refused to grant her an interview. She chronicles the illusions and delusions of people who were hoping to make a killing in cannabis and instead got killed thanks to some shady deals with some shady characters. Heather, who has never used the plant, learned a lot about it; still, at the end of this podcast she confesses that she would still be upset if her teenage sons tried it. That’s an interesting reaction, especially from someone who researched and understands the extraordinary safety profile of the plant. Old stigmas die hard -- even with this well educated chardonnay mom.On another note...Our friends at Sun + Earth are launching a crowdfunding campaign to create a certification program and educate consumers about regenerative organic cannabis growing. I support this organization and urge you to as well. While industrialized growing under energy sucking lights seems sadly inevitable, this Sun+Earth is promoting other regenerative sustainable models that can support small farmers and renew soil rather than deplete it. The crowdfunding campaign runs through December 20, 2020. To donate and learn about Sun+Earth, go here. Oh, and just a small $25 contribution will win you a bar of Dr. Bronner’s cannabis-scented soap, made with hemp derived terpenes and fair trade oils, which sounds like it will perk up any bathroom!
From Snoop Dogg to Martha Stewart and suburbia, the marijuana has entered the mainstream. What drove this movement? It's a story about business, race, politics and of course, money. Our guest is Heather Cabot, award-winning journalist and author of The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream. More about Heather: Her book was named a Good Morning America “must-read” and has earned praise from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and Katie Couric for the book’s deep reporting and entertaining storytelling. Heather also hosts The New Chardonnay podcast and is a former ABC News correspondent and anchor. Cabot serves on the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni board and is a contributor to Forbes. She is also the co-author of the WSJ-acclaimed book Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech (St. Martin’s Press).
Zibby and author Heather Cabot talked about growing up in a fitness-focused family, how much mental energy we put into achieving a certain number of the scale, and weight in the time of COVID. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hillary talks with Heather Cabot, author of The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream.
The New Chardonnay tells the unbelievable story of pot’s astonishing rebranding, pulling back the curtain to show how a drug that was once the subject of “Just Say No” warnings managed to shed its unsavory image and land at the center of a booming and surprisingly upstanding industry.Heather Cabot is an author, award-winning journalist, keynote speaker and former ABC News correspondent and anchor. She specializes in narrative nonfiction storytelling highlighting inspiring tales of innovation, enterprise, grit and resilience.
The New Chardonnay tells the unbelievable story of pot’s astonishing rebranding, pulling back the curtain to show how a drug that was once the subject of “Just Say No” warnings managed to shed its unsavory image and land at the center of a booming and surprisingly upstanding industry.Heather Cabot is an author, award-winning journalist, keynote speaker and former ABC News correspondent and anchor. She specializes in narrative nonfiction storytelling highlighting inspiring tales of innovation, enterprise, grit and resilience.
Zibby did a live virtual event with The Strand Bookstore and award-winning reporter Heather Cabot about her bookThe New Chardonnay, a fascinating look into the new world of legal cannabis.
The Cannabis Business Coach Michael Zaytsev interviews and coaches Heather Cabot. Heather is an author, award-winning journalist, former ABC News correspondent and anchor. Her latest book, "The New Chardonnay" examines how marijuana went mainstream. Heather tells the story of going from an absolute Cannabis outsider to being inspired to write a book about Cannabis. She spent 3 years traveling the country and Canada, interviewing dozens of people in the industry to understand who and what was behind the stunning rebranding of marijuana. In the coaching portion, Mike Z helps Heather find greater self-acceptance and peace when dealing with the uncertainty of living in a covid19 world.
Photo by Kevin Abosch Award winning journalist and author Heather Cabot is today’s guest on the Green Rush! Heather joins our hosts Anne Donohoe and Nick Opich to talk about her new book, The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream, a deeply reported journey into the new world of legal cannabis. Drawing on exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the world of cannabis including Snoop Dogg, Bruce Linton, Beth Stavola, Ted Chung and Jeff The 420 Chef, Cabot’s book explores the confluence of social, economic, and political forces that have brought marijuana into the mainstream. Our hosts chatted with Heather about her reporting journey for the book including her preconceived notions about the industry before her first trip to the Marijuana Business Conference in Las Vegas, the evolving demographics of cannabis consumers, the social and racial justice movement within the industry, her craziest stories while being embedded with some of the biggest names in cannabis and how she explained to her family and friends that she was working on a book about cannabis. The New Chardonnay hits shelves this week and as ‘Good Morning America’ exclaims, this book is an absolute must read. Heather is an absolute delight and thorough coverage of the burgeoning cannabis industry is something readers and our listeners will not want to miss. So don’t sit back, lean forward and enjoy! Heather Cabot, Award Winning Journalist and Author Heather Cabot is an author, award-winning journalist, keynote speaker and former ABC News correspondent and anchor. Heather’s long career spans print, digital and television news in cities around the country where she worked as a local TV reporter and anchor from 1994 to 2002. In 2002, she was hired by ABC News to report from Washington, DC on breaking national news stories for the network’s NewsOne affiliate division. The stint led to a New York-based post for the network filing stories for Good Morning America and World News Tonight and serving as co-anchor of World News Now and World News This Morning. Links to guest’s social media: Heather’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather.cabot/Heather’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/cabotventuresHeather’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cabot-5aa5704/ Links and Mentions: Purchase The New Chardonnay: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/607962/the-new-chardonnay-by-heather-cabot/Book Launch Link: https://www.strandbooks.com/events/event51?title=heather_cabot_with_zibby_owens_the_new_chardonnay_the_unlikely_story_of_how_marijuana_went_mainstream&utm_content=bufferee35f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=bufferHeather’s Website: https://heathercabot.com/Good Morning America Must Read: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/read-books-ultimate-escape-august-72073208 Show Credits: This episode was hosted by Anne Donohoe and Nick Opich of KCSA Strategic Communications. Special thanks to our Program Director Shea Gunther. You can learn more about how KCSA Cannabis can help your cannabiz by visiting www.kcsa-cannabis.com or emailing greenrush@kcsa.com. You can also connect with us via our social channels: Twitter: @The_GreenRush Instagram: @thegreenrush_podcast LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegreenrushpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenRushPodcast/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuEQkvdjpUnPyhF59wxseqw?disable_polymer=true
In what feels like a blink of an eye, cannabis has gone from a highly taboo topic to the hottest product on the market being touted by celebrities including Martha Stewart and Kim Kardashian --but how exactly did we get here? This week, we speak to journalist Heather Cabot, author of The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream about why she decided to cover the proliferation of legal cannabis during the height of the legalization movement. In this conversation, Heather shares her insights on the mainstream appeal of cannabis, shifting consumer trends, steps the industry can take to bolster social equity, and the stories she wishes more reporters would cover in the cannabis space.
Spawned Parenting Podcast with Kristen and Liz of CoolMomPicks
Where do you start if you have a career dream, a passion, or a business idea? Why is it important for all of us to have more women running businesses? How are women changing startup culture? And what's up with only 2% of VC money going to businesses with women at the top?! (GAH!) Join Liz and Heather Cabot, the former ABC News anchor, current investor, Forbes columnist, and author of Geek Girl Rising, for a really engaging, informative chat that could change the whole direction of your life. No exaggeration! | Thanks so much for listening and don't forget to subscribe to Spawned with Kristen + Liz!
More than half of mid-career women in tech are leaving their jobs. This is certainly a staggering number and one Geek Girl Rising co-author and angel investor, Heather Cabot seeks to fix! In this episode, live from the 3686 tech and entrepreneur conference in Nashville, TN, Heather and Eric discuss how women in tech can gain visibility, improve their public speaking skills and what companies can do to keep them on board.
Bradley Tusk talks with journalist and co-author of the new book "Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech," Heather Cabot.
There’s been a lot of debate and controversy around the lack of women and minorities being represented in tech companies from entry-level to the C-suite and board room. However, what isn’t showcased is how there is sisterhood within tech, where women are helping each other out, and enacting change at every level from schools to the board room. To talk about how women are investing and encouraging each other, I’ve invited Samantha Walravens who is the co-author of the new book Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech. If you’re a woman, minority, or male ally you’ll learn from Samantha how: Women like Maria Klawe at Harvey Mudd have tripled the number of women graduating with Computer Science degrees Women are connecting female founders to female angel investors and influencers to grow their startups Corporations are changing and disrupting the dynamics of the boardroom This is the last episode of FemgineerTV but don’t worry it’s not the end... After hosting FemgineerTV and listening to audience members like you for the past 2 ½ years, myself and my sponsor Pivotal Tracker decided it was time for a fun format! Starting next month, I’m going to be launching a new show called Build. I think you’ll enjoy the new format for Build. Each week you’ll receive a short video on a topic to help you build a product, company, and career in tech. So stay tuned for the launch of Build :) Want to help us get the word out about Build? Please take a moment to leave a review on iTunes here. If you’ve never left a review, here is a quick tutorial on how to do. -- Poornima: Welcome to another episode of *Femgineer TV*, brought to you by Pivotal Tracker, I'm your host, Poornima Vijayashanker, the founder of Femgineer. In this show, I invite innovators in tech, and together we debunk myths and misconceptions related to building tech products and companies. One of the most heated topics today is the lack of women and minorities represented in tech; from entry level, to the C suite, to the board room. While we all know this is already a problem, in today's episode, we're going to be talking about some of the solutions, and showing how there are companies and organizations enacting these solutions. And to help us out, I've invited Samantha Walravens, who is the coauthor of the latest book, *Geek Girl Rising: Inside The Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech*. Thanks so much for joining us today, Samantha. Samantha: Thanks for having me! Poornima: Yeah, it's wonderful. Let's start by talking about why you and your coauthor, Heather Cabot, decided to write this book. Sharing The Unspoken Narrative of Women In Technology Samantha: The inspiration for this book was a conversation I had about three years ago with a friend of mine, who's been in Silicon Valley for 20 years. She's a woman, she's the VP of sales in business development, and she's worked in a number of tech startups, and we were having coffee, and she said, "Sam, I cannot tell you what just happened in my performance group review, it was last week, and my manager commented on what I was wearing, the color of my dresses, the jewelry I wore, and he told me that I was too aggressive, and too bossy, and I needed to tone it down a bit." Meanwhile, she is the head of sales, and she was rocking her number out of the park. So she said, "Sam, you've got to write something." She knew I was a journalist. She said, "You've got to write something and you have to talk about this kind of discrimination and this kind of sexism in Silicon Valley." Mind you this is before the *Newsweek* article came out, "What does Silicon Valley really think of women," people were discussing women in technology, but it really was not a top of mind—and so I started to do a little digging, and researching and interviewing women. And what I found was, yes, there's sexism, there is harassment, there's discrimination, there's unconscious bias, it's there, it's a problem we need to talk about it and deal with it. But there was another narrative, another discussion that wasn't being told, which was: these women want to talk about the companies they were building, the technologies they were creating, the women who are supporting them and helping them along the way in their careers. There was this whole other narrative that was missing from the conversation that was happening in the national news media about sexism in Silicon Valley. And I thought, "we have to discuss this." So, Heather Cabot, who's my coauthor, was in New York, I'm in San Francisco, we talked, and she said, "Sam, I've been researching this topic," it was kind of a coincidence, it was like one of those weird moments of weird fate. And she said, "I've been researching this topic, let's work together." So we put our heads together and we just started digging into the topic, and it's been three years now, and finally the book is coming out! The Sisterhood That Is Supporting Women In Tech in Silicon Valley And Beyond Poornima: So one thing I experienced early on in my career, and it keeps me motivated, is the women who inspired me. So, early on, when I was a college student in engineering school, I had a professor, and she had twins, and she was doing her research, and she was teaching, and she was leading the department, and I thought, "If she could do it, I could do it." And as I was reading the book, I noticed the theme of the sisterhood kind of coming up again and again. Tell us how you discovered this theme as you started writing or as you were doing your research. Samantha: Of course. Well, I too had a mentor back in my Silicon Valley days when I worked for a software startup during the dotcom boom in 1998 to about 2003, so I saw the dotcom boom and the bust happen, I was living through it, our company went public, stock went to 130, then went down to two, so I lived and breathed the dotcom boom and bust. My manager/boss at that point was Carol Carpenter, who has since gone on to become—she was the CEO, actually CMO of ClearSlide and then CEO of ElasticBox, so she's a prominent woman in Silicon Valley, and she really pulled me up. She really, when I was lacking confidence, and I thought, "I can't do this," I'd just had my baby, my first baby, we were going public, and I thought, "I can't do this, this is crazy." We're working 24/7 and I have a newborn at home. She was the one who said, "Sam, you can do it, you can do it." And having that kind of mentorship and that kind of woman who was going through it herself pulling me up, really encouraged me. So as we were researching the book, we started noticing these pockets around the startup universe, women who were supporting each other, investing in each other, encouraging each other in their careers and inspiring the next generation of girls and young women to pursue technology and continue their careers in technology. Encouraging The Next Generation of Women To Consider Careers In Tech Poornima: Yeah, that's great. I think you're absolutely right, that is a narrative that's missing from the media and more women need to know that that's out there as well, so that they don't feel like all there is is just what the media portrays. Now, the first place that you write about change happening is at the primary school up to the high school level, so walk us through what that looks like. Samantha: Well, fortunately, before Obama left office, he did create an initiative, a $4 billion initiative called "Computer Science for All" that is encouraging and putting funds towards creating computer science curriculum in schools throughout the country. I was so excited to read about Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, in the Chicago public schools now, computer science is a requirement for all high schools in Chicago. So I think we're going to see more of that. When you look at the numbers, though, we still have a long way to go, cause 25% of high schools in the U.S. offer computer science, I think it's like 22% of girls, of students taking the computer science AP exam are girls, so we still have a long way to go. What we noticed, though, it's sort of this grassroots movement of women who are encouraging the younger generations to start building, to start creating, to start coding. For example, we start our book talking about Debbie Sterling, who's the founder and the CEO of Goldie Blocks, and she's got this great—I have two little girls, we have it at home, it's a great toy that encourages girls to build, and there's a really fun, positive role model, Goldie, who builds a spinning machine and she has all these sorts of engineering—you wouldn't even know it's engineering, it's really just building Ferris wheels and building merry-go-rounds and all these fun things, along with the story, talking about Goldie and her friends, and how she's building these different fun games and amusement park rides. We have that in our household. These are the kinds of things that women are doing to try to inspire the next generation. There is a woman in our book who started a company called Bitcode, she's actually working with the public schools to get them to use video to teach girls how to code. So if you have kids you know that they're on video, they're on YouTube, and they're really tech savvy. I have four kids, they can get around YouTube, and iMovie, and they're all over it. So, this tool is used in the public schools, to teach coding, using videos, to make it fun. How Colleges Are Changing The Ratio Of Women Graduating With Computer Science Degrees Poornima: It's great, yeah, it's good to see these grassroots efforts, so that even if there is kind of a gap in terms of change for public schools or the school system in general, there's ways in which parents and teachers can supplement that. So, the next place in which a lot of women and minorities drop off is at the college level, tell us who's working on changing that. Samantha: Well, we had the most amazing experience at Grace Hopper in 2015. I believe you were there, and Heather and I, my coauthor and I went, and just to see, I think it was 12,000 women there in computing, and it is a true celebration. And to see the enthusiasm and the excitement and the bonding between these young women, it was so encouraging. When you look at specific colleges, there's a lot being done to encourage more women in to pursue technology and computer science. I met with Maria Klawe, who's the president of Harvey Mudd, and wow! What a firecracker she is, she skateboards around campus, she's just a really fun, wonderful woman, and she implemented a program along with her colleagues a few years ago, where there are two tracks for computer science, so as a freshman you can take the gold track or the black track. The gold track is for students who have not had any computer science experience in high school; the black track is for students who've had some experience. So, by doing this, the students who have not had experience don't feel so impostered, they don't have the confidence cause no one's had this experience, so they get through this year and I spoke to a couple of students who have taken these classes, and they say that by the end of the year, everyone's pretty much at the same level. So, she, Maria Klawe, and her team has tripled the number of women graduating with computer science degrees at Harvey Mudd in the past ten years, and the number is, I hate to throw in all these numbers, cause they get little mind boggling at times, but 55% of the computer science graduates at Harvey Mudd are now women. Poornima: That's great, it's a nice change to—the numbers go up. Samantha: There's also Stanford. Another example of what's going on to encourage women to pursue computer science is Stanford University, of course a top institution, but they have a Women in Tech group called She++, which was started by Ayna Agarwal, and who was not even a computer science major by the way, but she started this group to encourage women and they had a Gala, every year, which gathers all the women in technology, not just Stanford. What they do is they go out into the communities and they take on high school students in different communities around the country and they support these young high school girls to start programs in their communities. For example, I live out in Marin County, and there is a girl who started a robotics happy schooler box program in Marin City, which is an underserved community in Marin County, and she runs this afterschool program in Marin City. So all of these girls around the country who are starting these programs through She++ gather together for this gala, and I am telling you, if you could be there to see these college women, these high school girls who came, they were dressed to the nines, they were glamorous, I mean, talk about debunking the myths and breaking stereotypes about what a woman in tech looks like, I mean, we could have been in an LA nightclub, not to sound like—but they were so beautiful and wonderful and smart and excited to talk about their programs, and they were so excited to be in technology. And again, this is why Heather and I said, "This is a story that no one sees," you don't see this kind of enthusiasm around technology, you see, "Oh, it's so hard, numbers are dropping, it's all doom and gloom." And so we really wanted to tell that other story. The Angel Investors And Others Who Are Supporting Female Founders Poornima: OK. That brings us back to industry, and I know there's a lot going on at the corporate level, as well as startups. I'm of course partial to startups, so let's start there and talk about how the ecosystem is changing for women and minorities. Samantha: There's a lot of momentum behind supporting female founders. For example, there are accelerator programs like the Women Startup Lab, which is down here at Menlo Park; there's MergeLane, which is in Colorado; there's The Refinery in Connecticut. These programs focus on female founders, and really giving them the tools, the skills they need to grow their company into a venture, fundable company. And they give the tools to learn how to pitch venture capitalists, and we all know the venture capital world is very male dominated. Poornima: Yeah, it is a challenge. I know I've had my fair share of doing the fundraising. So, there's a very common problem around women and minorities getting up and pitching their business to VCs, either male VCs not getting their idea, or they don't think it's a big enough market, or there's a lot of unconscious bias around it, so how are women getting their training to get over all of that? Samantha: Well, you've started a company, so you know what it's like. The founders that we've met, that I've met in my journey with this book, are so passionate about their idea. But you can have an idea, and it's not going to go anywhere—you have to have the product market fit, you have to test the idea, you have to build your team out—and so these programs are really teaching women what they need to do to get to that level, to actually pitch to investors. But when you look at the numbers, I think it's 10% of the venture funding, globally, goes to female founders—it's still a really small percentage. We've also noticed that there's women who are angels. So angel investors who fund companies at the early stages—for example, Joanne Wilson, aka Gotham Gal, who has a tremendous momentum in New York City, who has invested in a number of really great companies; Caren Maio, Nestio, Shanna Tellerman, Modsy—she finds these women, who have ideas that are big, that are scalable, and she nurtures them, and she's like the fairy godmother to these women. And there are other women that we talk about, we'd had to read the book to learn about all of them, but there are women who really take these female founders under their wing and support them on their journey. Poornima: I think it's great that there are women like Joanne Wilson out there. Do you have a sense of how many companies she's invested in? Samantha: Joanne Wilson has invested in around a hundred companies, and they're doing fantastic. One of them, Shanna Tellerman, started the company Modsy, which is an immersive, 3D environment for home décor, home design, and she told us that she created this project called “The Pinnacle Project,” at Park City, Utah, and it was Wednesday through Sunday, I think. And she invited Joanne, and Susan Lyne, and a bunch of angel investors, as well as a number of female founders, to come gather, network, ski, and have fun, and she said it was funny, because all the women were thinking, "We should be home, we should be working, we should be with the kids, we have so much to do," and she said she had to tell and remind people that, "This is what the guys do. They have a boys call and they pick off and it's all about business, whereas women don't have that sense of, “Let's go out to ski, or golf,” and that kind of networking, so it was an example of this pinnacle project, which is going to happen recurring every year, of, "OK, women, we can get together, have fun together, network, introduce each other to investors and influencers, and have fun while we're doing it. It's OK." Poornima: Yeah. That's fantastic. And I think another thing you had mentioned pipeline ventures, or pipeline angels? Samantha: Pipeline angels, yes, yes. Natalia Oberti Noguera is a force of nature and she started this angel investing group for women and I went through it and Heather went through it. I did it in San Francisco, Heather did it in New York, and basically it's a training, it's a bootcamp or a training program for women who are credited investors, to learn how to invest in female and minority-led companies. So it walked us through the process of how do you set evaluation on a company, what do you look for in a startup that you're investing in, what kind of traits you want to look for in the team, what's going to make this a good investment. So it trains women to invest as angels, and then you actually make an investment at the end. We made an investment in a great startup—which I believe is still hush hush, underground at this point—but I believe we made a great investment and we're following the course of these early stage female founders, and it's really her goal to change the face of angel investing, to increase the amount of money going towards these early stage female founders. Poornima: As we were doing research for your book and when I was reading it, I noticed that there was some astonishing findings, like only 11 companies that were founded by African-American women have received funding over a million dollars. So walk us through who is working to change this. Samantha: Well, that number has actually increased, it's now 13 companies that have received more than a million dollars, but the numbers are still really low. One woman who is really on top of this problem is Kathryn Finney, who is the founder of DigitalUndivided, which is an organization whose main purpose is to increase the number of women, minorities in the tech world, latino women, and black women founders, and she just recently launched an accelerator, in Atlanta, Georgia, called the Big Innovation Center, and I think their first cohort is gathering this year to help skill up and prepare these minority founders to raise money. How Tech Companies Are Growing Up And Changing How The Nature of Work Poornima: So let's switch gears, and talk about corporations. We previously had Lisen Stromberg on the show, talking about the changes that were happening for parents—what have you seen? Samantha: Well, what we've noticed is that Silicon Valley is growing up. They are trading in their ping-pong tables and foosball tables for nursing rooms, which is inspiring to see. When I started out, I had my Medela Pump in Style in a cold bathroom out of the courtyard of our startup, so it wasn't pretty, but we spent a day at Eventbrite not too long ago, and Julia Hartz, who's now the CEO of Eventbrite, it's very focused on woman, developing women in leadership positions and allowing for work-life balance. And I say that word, “work-life balance,” a term that is loaded, what she's trying to do with that company is focus on the whole person, not just the employee self. For example, they have a program called “Take the time you need.” So if you need time to care for a child or to care for an adult, you can work from home, you can take time off, so she's really interested in her employees, and telling her employees, "You can do what you need to do, so you can live a life and you can be an employee." And she also tells the women who are having babies at her company, she says, "You know what? You can get through the first six to nine months," it gets a lot easier, because a lot of women when they have their babies early on, they think, “I can't leave this poor creature alone with a daycare with a babysitter,” and she says, “If you can just get through that”—she's got two little girls herself—”If you can just get through that time, stick with it, come back, and we will support you while you're doing it,” which is fantastic. Poornima: You also showcase companies like Power to Fly. Walk us through what Power to Fly is. Samantha: Yeah, Power to Fly was started by Milena Berry and Katharine Zaleski. Katharine actually wrote an article apologizing to all the mothers out there. Before she had children, she was a little bit judgemental of mothers taking time off and having to leave work early, and then she had her first baby and she thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is really hard," so she and Milena got together and started this company, Power to Fly, which connects women with remote and flexible job positions, so they can actually care for their family and pursue careers in technology. The great thing about technology is that it can be done remotely. Especially if you're in coding, you don't have to be in an office 24/7, so Power to Fly works on that. Another great program is Tina Lee started a program called MotherCoders, and she's based in San Francisco, a fabulous woman, her program retrains mothers in tech skills, so they can go off and they can—either they've taken time off or they have background in some other field, they can skill up in technology, and go out and get the tremendous amount of jobs that are available in technology as they get back to work. Disrupting The Boardroom Poornima: Well, that brings us to the boardroom, so walk us through what changes are happening there. Samantha: The number of women holding board seats in our country is still very, very low, I think the number is 18% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies are held by women. So we still have a long way to go. One real pioneer in this area is a woman, her name is Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, she's fabulous, she is the CEO and founder of a company called Joyus, a tech company, and she, a few years ago penned an article called "Tech Women Choose Possibility." And she really wanted to profile the women in Silicon Valley, in the startup world, who are doing great things, just founding great companies. There was a lot of positive response to that article, and so she created an organization called #choosepossibility. Part of that organization is a group called, or an initiative called "The Boardlist." And basically it's a matchmaking tool that matches qualified, board-ready women with startup, tech companies, looking to fill board seats with women, so she made that happen, and they placed three women on the board, which it seems like it's very low, but what they're doing is they're connecting the VCs and the startup companies with these women, and a lot more placements have been made not directly through the platform, but just through the connections that have been made on this platform. Poornima: OK, great, so it's good to know that there is some change happening at the board level as well. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Samantha, I know our viewers out there are going to enjoy reading your book, *Geek Girl Rising*. And for our viewers who are women, minority, and allies, is there anything else you would like to share with them in terms of resources? Samantha: Yeah. I would love to see everybody come to our website. We have a gazillion resources on how you can join the digital revolution, just take a peek. Poornima: Thanks for tuning in today and special thanks to our sponsor, Pivotal Tracker, for their help in producing this episode of *Femgineer TV*. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please be sure to share it with your friends, your teammates, your boss, and everyone so that they get to benefit from all the great resources, and subscribe to our channel to receive the next episode. Ciao for now! -- FemgineerTV is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.
Calling all geek girls... and geek guys! Heather Cabot is an angel investor, journalist, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and co-author of Geek Girl Rising. We discuss the power of making a major identity shift as Heather shares how she's translated her journalism skills into new pursuits. Plus, making the leap into digital journalism and investing tips! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Heather Cabot is Co-Founder of GeekGirl Rising, which aims to unleash the power of women in tech, she is also an active angel investor and a former ABC News correspondent and anchor with more than twenty years of experience as an on-air reporter. Since 2007, she has served as a digital trends expert for Yahoo!, appearing regularly on TV including, "Today", CNN, MSNBC. If that was not enough Heather is also a Professor at Columbia Journalism School and you can find her writing at www.heathercabot.com and you can learn more about geek girl rising at www.geekgirlrising.com. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn; 1.) How did Heather get into the investing world? 2.) Where does Heather see the future of media and journalism? What does Heather make of the emerging revenue models in media with the ever disappearing ad dollar. 3.) With the likes of Buzzfeed we are seeing a lot of disruption. What does Heather make of this movement? Are we heading to a shorter form of media consumption? 4.) What prompted the creation of GeekGirlRising and ultimately what is Heather’s vision for the organisation? What more can be done to encourage gender equality in both the tech and investing scene? 5.) What is Heather’s attitude to the emerging model of syndicated investing? What does Heather feel is the benefits of these networks? 6.) Now I would love to delve into a good old war story from investing. What went wrong and how has Heather’s approach or strategy altered as a result? Items Mentioned In Today’s Episode: Heather’s Fave Blog: The MashUp Americans If you liked today's episode with Heather, we would love for you to share the episode on Twitter by clicking here (http://ctt.ec/BbX95) “Angel Insights would like to thank Plantronics, who kindly supply the Voyager Edge UD headsets that our investors use during interviews” As always, you can learn more about SyndicateRoom here: www.syndicateroom.com