Podcast appearances and mentions of johnson center

Welcome to the series, Women and Policy, where Jessica Carges interviews women who work on policy research related to women.On this episode, Jessica Carges chats with Courtney Joslin on contraceptive accessibility and women's healthcare. Courtney explains how geography, high costs, and shortages of healthcare workers increase the difficulty of accessing contraceptives, how new state-based policies may provide innovative solutions, and how increased access leads to higher education, increased earnings, and lower healthcare costs.Courtney Joslin is a Resident Fellow and Senior Manager of the Project for Women and Families at the R Street Institute. Her work covers a range of issues such as telehealth, birth control, and economic mobility policy. Most recently, Courtney was the policy analyst for the Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University, where she worked with legislators and scholars on economic issues in Alabama. Courtney is an alum of the Mercatus MA Fellowship.Learn more about Jessica Carges' work here.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Virtual Sentiments, our new podcast series from the Hayek Program is streaming! Subscribe today and listen to seasons one and two.Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatusCC Music: Twisterium

This episode, we're hearing from Dr. Maria Cartolano who is an educator and mentor at the University of Miami. She tells us about some of her experiences in research and education. Maria is the director of a great program called Water Advocates and Visionaries for the Environment and Sea. WAVES gives younger students an opportunity to learn about marine science and experience a college campus, and gives students at UMiami the opportunity to practice teaching younger audiences.> @waves4future> @breachthesurface> @shellphonepodcast> @coastalcreative.tv> WAVES Website> Johnson Center for Marine Conservation WebsiteSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/shellphone/donations

Stephen Humphreys, a Georgia-based attorney who teaches law and history at a university in Kiev, Ukraine, talks with Carolyn Hutcheson of In Focus about his February digital photography exhibit, "Broken Bridges Over Ukraine," at the Johnson Center for the Arts in Troy. He has spent a decade investigating corruption and war crimes, and he discusses U.S. election interference by Russians.  More information about foreign influence in the U.S. is at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence website, dni.gov.  This is part one of a two-part interview.

This year, The Conduit has partnered with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation to create a podcast series that explores the meaning of care in different communities around the world. From physicians to directors, community workers to advocates, we will be talking to individuals on the ground to discover answers to the question, “what is the point of care?”  In this episode the conversation will focus on the role of Community Health Workers across sub-Saharan Africa who are responsible for delivering care to approximately 40% of the continent's population – that's 916,000 active Community Health Workers treating over 400 million people across 24 different countries. Though they are often not formally recognized as professionals, Community Health Workers may be responsible for at least a dozen different types of preventive, promotional, and curative services depending on the country and local context.  Paul's guests in this episode are Prossy Muyingo and Dr. Madeleine Ballard. Prossy is a Community Health Worker in Mityana District, Central Uganda and since 2019, Prossy has been providing reproductive, maternal, and child health services to 120 households. Madeleine is the co-founder and executive director of the Community Health Impact Coalition, a global alliance of community health implementers working to ensure that Community Health Workers receive fair pay, field support, and the official recognition they deserve so everyone can access high quality healthcare.

This year, The Conduit has partnered with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation to create a podcast series that explores the meaning of care in different communities around the world. From physicians to directors, community workers to advocates, we will be talking to individuals on the ground to discover answers to the question, “what is the point of care?”  This episode focuses on the role of Community Health Workers in Brazil, also known as Community Health Agents. Unlike some other countries, community healthcare is a verified and formalized field of work in Brazil, thanks to an initiative called the Family Health Strategy that legally recognized Community Health Agents in 2002. Paul's guest is Ewerton Nunes, Global Community Impact Manager for Johnson & Johnson. Ewerton has led social impact work at Johnson & Johnson for 8 years, working to uplift the stories and voices of Community Health Agents to better represent the full picture of what community health work looks like in Brazil. He is also the co-creator of A Casa, an organization designed to provide resources, support, and spaces for knowledge-sharing to Community Health Agents throughout Brazil. 

This year, The Conduit has partnered with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation to create a podcast series that explores the meaning of care in different communities around the world. From physicians to directors, community workers to advocates, we will be talking to individuals on the ground to discover answers to the question, “what is the point of care?”  In this episode Paul is joined by Corey Feist and Stefanie Simmons.Corey is a healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience and is the co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation. He also served as the Chief Executive Officer of the University of Virginia Physicians Group, a medical group of more than 1,200 physicians and advanced practice providers. Corey has authored numerous publications on the need to support the well-being of the healthcare workforce. Dr. Stefanie Simmons is a board-certified emergency medicine physician with over 15 years of clinical practice. She focuses on the research, development and implementation of programs designed to strengthen the relational skills of clinicians, enhance professional well-being among clinicians, and engage teams in the practice of medicine.

This year, The Conduit has partnered with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation to create a podcast series that explores the meaning of care in different communities around the world. From physicians to directors, community workers to advocates, we will be talking to individuals on the ground to discover answers to the question, “what is the point of care?” In this episode the conversation Paul is joined by Denise Octavia Smith, the founding Executive Director of the National Association of Community Health Workers, and Maria Lemus is the Executive Director of Visión y Compromiso. As a community health worker and health care administration professional, Denise designs and implements community-centred strategies to achieve equitable, diverse and inclusive partnerships, programmes and environments. In Maria's role at Visión y Compromiso she is helping to transform the role of “promotores” — Community Health Workers specifically focused on meeting the diverse needs of Latinx communities — into a widely accepted profession in the United States as they share the same languages, cultures, and experiences as many native-born and immigrant communities. Paul, Denise and Maria discuss how Community Health Workers may be a solution to the deep health inequities in the U.S. Community Health Workers and play a key role in connecting communities to healthcare in a trusted and culturally competent way, but they struggle to be recognized and integrated into health systems. This episode will explore how community-based care can change the trajectory of health for people of colour.

This year, The Conduit has partnered with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation to create a podcast series that explores the meaning of care in different communities around the world. From physicians to directors, community workers to advocates, we will be talking to individuals on the ground to discover answers to the question, “what is the point of care?”  In this episode Paul is joined by two inspiring women who play different roles within the organization mothers2mothers. Mothers2mothers employs women living with HIV as community health workers called Mentor Mothers. They work at health facilities and provide at-home care to deliver life-changing health services to women, children, adolescents and entire families across ten African countries. What started as just HIV care, mothers2mothers' services have expanded to include more integrated care for patients with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. In many cases, these conditions are both more prevalent and more dangerous for people living with HIV, so this new approach allows mothers2mothers to continue their important HIV care while also expanding their model into new areas. Paul is first joined by Shombi Ellis. Shombi is both Country Director of mothers2mothers South Africa and Chief of Party for RISE II. Paul's second guest in today's episode is Millicent Magwa. After her own journey with HIV Millicent was motivated to join mothers2mothers two years ago. In her current role, Millicent goes door-to-door in her community, delivering care to prevent and treat HIV in adults and children, and provides additional services to identify and manage non-communicable diseases, which are a growing health issue for those living with HIV.

Joanna Nathan has been pretty busy since earning her MBA 2019. A biomedical engineer by trade, visionary, and serial entrepreneur, Joanna most recently became the CEO of Prana Thoracic, a Houston-based medical device startup dedicated to developing solutions for the detection and intervention of early-stage lung cancer. She was formerly the manager of new ventures at the Johnson & Johnson Center for Device Innovation at Texas Medical Center (CDI @ TMC). And before joining J&J, Joanna was a venture fellow at Mercury Fund, a $300M venture capital fund focused on early-stage enterprise software. Joanna joins with host Maya Pomroy (xx) to share her career journey, passion for healthcare, deep connection to Rice, and how the heartbreaking loss of her young son serves as inspiration to continue her work in finding groundbreaking medical technologies to help others.Episode Quotes:Building the right skill set through Rice07:25: Innovation is very complex because the body is extremely complex. And biology is extremely complex. And taking the scientists and engineers and working with them on their incredible innovation, and then translating that into the business world, both in terms of telling the story of those technologies but also building the strategy around actually getting those technologies to the market and the patient. So that's why I wanted to find that skill set, and I thought Rice would be a great place to do that, particularly because of its entrepreneurial focus. And I came back specifically to build out all of those pieces. So storytelling, strategy, learning the investor mindset because I'd mostly been on the entrepreneur side of the table at that time.On her transition from biomedical engineering to entrepreneurship08:08 -  I realized that I had an interest in developing this very particular skill set, which is building and telling the stories of technologies that could save lives.On finding friends & community at Rice08:08 -  When I started at Rice Business, I'd already been in Houston for about a decade and I thought all of my friend slots were full, and I didn't need any new friends or community. But I ended up finding this incredible community of leaders that really served as a sounding board, and continue to serve as a sounding board for me, both for work and work issues and life.Advice to new entrepreneurs:15:04 - Of course there's a balance there, but you don't have to have everything neatly tied up in a little bow at every board meeting.On preserving her son's memory through her work:22:17 - I think that whole experience, it's pushed me. Losing Lionel has pushed me to love harder, to lean into joy, to experience life to its fullest just like my kid, and to be a little wild like my kid as well. Show Links:Guest Profile:Joanna Nathan on LinkedIn

Leonard S. Johnson is the Founder and CEO of AIEDC, a 5G Cloud Mobile App Maker and Service Provider with Machine Learning to help small and midsize businesses create their own iOS and Android mobile apps with no-code or low-code so they can engage and service their customer base, as well as provide front and back office digitization services for small businesses. Victoria talks to Leonard about using artificial intelligence for good, bringing the power of AI to local economics, and truly democratizing AI. The Artificial Intelligence Economic Development Corporation (AIEDC) (https://netcapital.com/companies/aiedc) Follow AIEDC on Twitter (https://twitter.com/netcapital), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/netcapital/), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Netcapital/), or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/aiedc/). Follow Leonard on Twitter (https://twitter.com/LeonardSJ) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonardsjohnson84047/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: VICTORIA: This is The Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. And with us today is Leonard S. Johnson or LS, Founder and CEO AIEDC, a 5G Cloud Mobile App Maker and Service Provider with Machine Learning to help small and midsize businesses create their own iOS and Android mobile apps with no-code or low-code so they can engage and service their customer base, as well as provide front and back office digitization services for small businesses. Leonard, thanks for being with us today. LEONARD: Thank you for having me, Victoria. VICTORIA: I should say LS, thank you for being with us today. LEONARD: It's okay. It's fine. VICTORIA: Great. So tell us a little more about AIEDC. LEONARD: Well, AIEDC stands for Artificial Intelligence Economic Development Corporation. And the original premise that I founded it for...I founded it after completing my postgraduate work at Stanford, and that was 2016. And it was to use AI for economic development, and therefore use AI for good versus just hearing about artificial intelligence and some of the different movies that either take over the world, and Skynet, and watch data privacy, and these other things which are true, and it's very evident, they exist, and they're out there. But at the end of the day, I've always looked at life as a growth strategy and the improvement of what we could do and focusing on what we could do practically. You do it tactically, then you do it strategically over time, and you're able to implement things. That's why I think we keep building collectively as humanity, no matter what part of the world you're in. VICTORIA: Right. So you went to Stanford, and you're from South Central LA. And what about that background led you to pursue AI for good in particular? LEONARD: So growing up in the inner city of Los Angeles, you know, that South Central area, Compton area, it taught me a lot. And then after that, after I completed high school...and not in South Central because I moved around a lot. I grew up with a single mother, never knew my real father, and then my home life with my single mother wasn't good because of just circumstances all the time. And so I just started understanding that even as a young kid, you put your brain...you utilize something because you had two choices. It's very simple or binary, you know, A or B. A, you do something with yourself, or B, you go out and be social in a certain neighborhood. And I'm African American, so high probability that you'll end up dead, or in a gang, or in crime because that's what it was at that time. It's just that's just a situation. Or you're able to challenge those energies and put them toward a use that's productive and positive for yourself, and that's what I did, which is utilizing a way to learn. I could always pick up things when I was very young. And a lot of teachers, my younger teachers, were like, "You're very, very bright," or "You're very smart." And there weren't many programs because I'm older than 42. So there weren't as many programs as there are today. So I really like all of the programs. So I want to clarify the context. Today there's a lot more engagement and identification of kids that might be sharper, smarter, whatever their personal issues are, good or bad. And it's a way to sort of separate them. So you're not just teaching the whole group as a whole and putting them all in one basket, but back then, there was not. And so I just used to go home a lot, do a lot of reading, do a lot of studying, and just knick-knack with things in tech. And then I just started understanding that even as a young kid in the inner city, you see economics very early, but they don't understand that's really what they're studying. They see economics. They can see inflation because making two ends meet is very difficult. They may see gang violence and drugs or whatever it might end up being. And a lot of that, in my opinion, is always an underlining economic foundation. And so people would say, "Oh, why is this industry like this?" And so forth. "Why does this keep happening?" It's because they can't function. And sometimes, it's just them and their family, but they can't function because it's an economic system. So I started focusing on that and then went into the Marine Corps. And then, after the Marine Corps, I went to Europe. I lived in Europe for a while to do my undergrad studies in the Netherlands in Holland. VICTORIA: So having that experience of taking a challenge or taking these forces around you and turning into a force for good, that's led you to bring the power of AI to local economics. And is that the direction that you went eventually? LEONARD: So economics was always something that I understood and had a fascination prior to even starting my company. I started in 2017. And we're crowdfunding now, and I can get into that later. But I self-funded it since 2017 to...I think I only started crowdfunding when COVID hit, which was 2020, and just to get awareness and people out there because I couldn't go to a lot of events. So I'm like, okay, how can I get exposure? But yeah, it was a matter of looking at it from that standpoint of economics always factored into me, even when I was in the military when I was in the Marine Corps. I would see that...we would go to different countries, and you could just see the difference of how they lived and survived. And another side note, my son's mother is from Ethiopia, Africa. And I have a good relationship with my son and his mother, even though we've been apart for over 15 years, divorced for over 15 years or so or longer. But trying to keep that, you can just see this dichotomy. You go out to these different countries, and even in the military, it's just so extreme from the U.S. and any part of the U.S, but that then always focused on economics. And then technology, I just always kept up with, like, back in the '80s when the mobile brick phone came out, I had to figure out how to get one. [laughs] And then I took it apart and then put it back together just to see how it works, so yeah. But it was a huge one, by the way. I mean, it was like someone got another and broke it, and they thought it was broken. And they're like, "This doesn't work. You could take this piece of junk." I'm like, "Okay." [laughs] VICTORIA: Like, oh, great. I sure will, yeah. Now, I love technology. And I think a lot of people perceive artificial intelligence as being this super futuristic, potentially harmful, maybe economic negative impact. So what, from your perspective, can AI do for local economics or for people who may not have access to that advanced technology? LEONARD: Well, that's the key, and that's what we're looking to do with AIEDC. When you look at the small and midsize businesses, it's not what people think, or their perception is. A lot of those in the U.S. it's the backbone of the United States, our economy, literally. And in other parts of the world, it's the same where it could be a one or two mom-and-pop shops. That's where that name comes from; it's literally two people. And they're trying to start something to build their own life over time because they're using their labor to maybe build wealth or somehow a little bit not. And when I mean wealth, it's always relative. It's enough to sustain themselves or just put food on the table and be able to control their own destiny to the best of their ability. And so what we're looking to do is make a mobile app maker that's 5G that lives in the cloud, that's 5G compliant, that will allow small and midsize businesses to create their own iOS or Android mobile app with no-code or low-code, basically like creating an email. That's how simple we want it to be. When you create your own email, whether you use Microsoft, Google, or whatever you do, and you make it that simple. And there's a simple version, and there could be complexity added to it if they want. That would be the back office digitization or customization, but that then gets them on board with digitization. It's intriguing that McKinsey just came out with a report stating that in 2023, in order to be economically viable, and this was very recent, that all companies would need to have a digitization strategy. And so when you look at small businesses, and you look at things like COVID-19, or the COVID current ongoing issue and that disruption, this is global. And you look at even the Ukrainian War or the Russian-Ukrainian War, however you term it, invasion, war, special operation, these are disruptions. And then, on top of that, we look at climate change which has been accelerating in the last two years more so than it was prior to this that we've experienced. So this is something that everyone can see is self-evident. I'm not even focused on the cause of the problem. My brain and the way I think, and my team, we like to focus on solutions. My chairman is a former program director of NASA who managed 1,200 engineers that built the International Space Station; what was it? 20-30 years ago, however, that is. And he helped lead and build that from Johnson Center. And so you're focused on solutions because if you're building the International Space Station, you can only focus on solutions and anticipate the problems but not dwell on them. And so that kind of mindset is what I am, and it's looking to help small businesses do that to get them on board with digitization and then in customization. And then beyond that, use our system, which is called M.I.N.D. So we own these...we own patents, three patents, trademarks, and service marks related to artificial intelligence that are in the field of economics. And we will utilize DEVS...we plan to do that which is a suite of system specifications to predict regional economic issues like the weather in a proactive way, not reactive. A lot of economic situations are reactive. It's reactive to the Federal Reserve raising interest rates or lowering rates, Wall Street, you know, moving money or not moving money. It is what it is. I mean, I don't judge it. I think it's like financial engineering, and that's fine. It's profitability. But then, at the end of the day, if you're building something, it's like when we're going to go to space. When rockets launch, they have to do what they're intended to do. Like, I know that Blue Origin just blew up recently. Or if they don't, they have a default, and at least I heard that the Blue Origin satellite, if it were carrying passengers, the passengers would have been safe because it disembarked when it detected its own problem. So when you anticipate these kinds of problems and you apply them to the local small business person, you can help them forecast and predict better like what weather prediction has done. And we're always improving that collectively for weather prediction, especially with climate change, so that it can get to near real-time as soon as possible or close a window versus two weeks out versus two days out as an example. VICTORIA: Right. Those examples of what you call a narrow economic prediction. LEONARD: Correct. It is intriguing when you say narrow economic because it wouldn't be narrow AI. But it would actually get into AGI if you added more variables, which we would. The more variables you added in tenancies...so if you're looking at events, the system events discretion so discrete event system specification you would specify what they really, really need to do to have those variables. But at some point, you're working on a system, what I would call AGI. But AGI, in my mind, the circles I run in at least or at least most of the scientists I talk to it's not artificial superintelligence. And so the general public thinks AGI...and I've said this to Stephen Ibaraki, who's the founder of AI for Good at Global Summit at the United Nations, and one of his interviews as well. It's just Artificial General Intelligence, I think, has been put out a lot by Hollywood and entertainment and so forth, and some scientists say certain things. We won't be at artificial superintelligence. We might get to Artificial General Intelligence by 2030 easily, in my opinion. But that will be narrow AI, but it will cover what we look at it in the field as cross-domain, teaching a system to look at different variables because right now, it's really narrow. Like natural language processing, it's just going to look at language and infer from there, and then you've got backward propagation that's credit assignment and fraud and detection. Those are narrow data points. But when you start looking at something cross-domain...who am I thinking of? Pedro Domingos who wrote the Master Algorithm, which actually, Xi Jinping has a copy of, the President of China, on his bookshelf in his office because they've talked about that, and these great minds because Stephen Ibaraki has interviewed these...and the founder of Google Brain and all of these guys. And so there's always this debate in the scientific community of what is narrow AI what it's not. But at the end of the day, I just like Pedro's definition of it because he says the master algorithm will be combining all five, so you're really crossing domains, which AI hasn't done that. And to me, that will be AGI, but that's not artificial superintelligence. And artificial superintelligence is when it becomes very, you know, like some of the movies could say, if we as humanity just let it run wild, it could be crazy. VICTORIA: One of my questions is the future of AI more like iRobot or Bicentennial Man? LEONARD: Well, you know, interesting. That's a great question, Victoria. I see most of AI literally as iRobot, as a tool more than anything, except at the end when it implied...so it kind of did two things in that movie, but a wonderful movie to bring up. And I like Will Smith perfectly. Well, I liked him a lot more before -- VICTORIA: I think iRobot is really the better movie. LEONARD: Yeah, so if people haven't seen iRobot, I liked Will Smith, the actor. But iRobot showed you two things, and it showed you, one, it showed hope. Literally, the robot...because a lot of people put AI and robots. And AI by itself is the brain or the mind; I should say hardware are the robots or the brain. Software...AI in and of itself is software. It's the mind itself. That's why we have M.I.N.D Machine Intelligence NeuralNetwork Database. We literally have that. That's our acronym and our slogan and everything. And it's part of our patents. But its machine intelligence is M.I.N.D, and we own that, you know; the company owns it. And so M.I.N.D...we always say AI powered by M.I.N.D. We're talking about that software side of, like, what your mind does; it iterates and thinks, the ability to think itself. Now it's enclosed within a structure called, you know, for the human, it's called a brain, the physical part of it, and that brain is enclosed within the body. So when you look at robots...and my chairman was the key person for robotics for the International Space Station. So when you look at robotics, you are putting that software into hardware, just like your cell phone. You have the physical, and then you have the actual iOS, which is the operating system. So when you think about that, yeah, iRobot was good because it showed how these can be tools, and they were very, in the beginning of the movie, very helpful, very beneficial to humanity. But then it went to a darker side and showed where V.I.K.I, which was an acronym as well, I think was Virtual Interactive Kinetic technology of something. Yeah, I believe it was Virtual Interactive Kinetic inference or technology or something like that, V.I.K.I; I forgot the last I. But that's what it stood for. It was an acronym to say...and then V.I.K.I just became all aware and started killing everyone with robots and just wanted to say, you know, this is futile. But then, at the very, very end, V.I.K.I learned from itself and says, "Okay, I guess this isn't right." Or the other robot who could think differently argued with V.I.K.I, and they destroyed her. And it made V.I.K.I a woman in the movie, and then the robot was the guy. But that shows that it can get out of hand. But it was intriguing to me that they had her contained within one building. This wouldn't be artificial superintelligence. And I think sometimes Hollywood says, "Just take over everything from one building," no. It wouldn't be on earth if it could. But that is something we always have to think about. We have to think about the worst-case scenarios. I think every prudent scientist or business person or anyone should do that, even investors, I mean, if you're investing something for the future. But you also don't focus on it. You don't think about the best-case scenario, either. But there's a lot of dwelling on the worst-case scenario versus the good that we can do given we're looking at where humanity is today. I mean, we're in 2022, and we're still fighting wars that we fought in 1914. VICTORIA: Right. Which brings me to my next question, which is both, what are the most exciting opportunities to innovate in the AI space currently? And conversely, what are the biggest challenges that are facing innovation in that field? LEONARD: Ooh, that's a good question. I think, in my opinion, it's almost the same answer; one is...but I'm in a special field. And I'm surprised there's not a lot of competition for our company. I mean, it's very good for me and the company's sense. It's like when Mark Zuckerberg did Facebook, there was Friendster, and there was Myspace, but they were different. They were different verticals. And I think Mark figured out how to do it horizontally, good or bad. I'm talking about the beginning of when he started Facebook, now called Meta. But I'm saying utilizing AI in economics because a lot of times AI is used in FinTech and consumerism, but not economic growth where we're really talking about growing something organically, or it's called endogenous growth. Because I studied Paul Romer's work, who won the Nobel Prize in 2018 for economic science. And he talked about the nature of ideas. And we were working on something like that in Stanford. And I put out a book in 2017 of January talking about cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence but about the utilization of it, but not the speculation. I never talked about speculation. I don't own any crypto; I would not. It's only once it's utilized in its PureTech form will it create something that it was envisioned to do by the protocol that Satoshi Nakamoto sort of created. And it still fascinates me that people follow Bitcoin protocol, even for the tech and the non-tech, but they don't know who Satoshi is. But yeah, it's a white paper. You're just following a white paper because I think logically, the world is going towards that iteration of evolution. And that's how AI could be utilized for good in an area to focus on it with economics and solving current problems. And then going forward to build a new economy where it's not debt-based driven or consumer purchase only because that leaves a natural imbalance in the current world structure. The western countries are great. We do okay, and we go up and down. But the emerging and developing countries just get stuck, and they seem to go into a circular loop. And then there are wars as a result of these things and territory fights and so forth. So that's an area I think where it could be more advanced is AI in the economic realm, not so much the consumer FinTech room, which is fine. But consumer FinTech, in my mind, is you're using AI to process PayPal. That's where I think Elon just iterated later because PayPal is using it for finance. You're just moving things back and forth, and you're just authenticating everything. But then he starts going on to SpaceX next because he's like, well, let me use technology in a different way. And I do think he's using AI on all of his projects now. VICTORIA: Right. So how can that tech solve real problems today? Do you see anything even particular about Southern California, where we're both at right now, where you think AI could help predict some outcomes for small businesses or that community? LEONARD: I'm looking to do it regionally then globally. So I'm part of this Southern Cal Innovation Hub, which is just AI. It's an artificial intelligence coordination between literally San Diego County, Orange County, and Los Angeles County. And so there's a SoCal Innovation Hub that's kind of bringing it together. But there are all three groups, like; I think the CEO in Orange County is the CEO of Leadership Alliance. And then in San Diego, there's another group I can't remember their name off the top of my head, and I'm talking about the county itself. So each one's representing a county because, you know. And then there's one in Northern California that I'm also associated with where if you look at California as its own economy in the U.S., it's still pretty significant as an economic cycle in the United States, period. That's why so many politicians like California because they can sway the votes. So yeah, we're looking to do that once, you know, we are raising capital. We're crowdfunding currently. Our total raise is about 6 million. And so we're talking to venture capitalists, private, high net worth investors as well. Our federal funding is smaller. It's just like several hundred thousand because most people can only invest a few thousand. But I always like to try to give back. If you tell people...if you're Steve Jobs, like, okay, I've got this Apple company. In several years, you'll see the potential. And people are like, ah, whatever, but then they kick themselves 15 years later. [laughs] Like, oh, I wish I thought about that Apple stock for $15 when I could. But you give people a chance, and you get the word out, and you see what happens. Once you build a system, you share it. There are some open-source projects. But I think the open source, like OpenAI, as an example, Elon Musk funds that as well as Microsoft. They both put a billion dollars into it. It is an open-source project. OpenAI claims...but some of the research does go back to Microsoft to be able to see it. And DeepMind is another research for AI, but they're owned by Google. And so, I'm also very focused on democratizing artificial intelligence for the benefit of everyone. I really believe that needs to be democratized in a sense of tying it to economics and making it utilized for everyone that may need it for the benefit of humanity where it's profitable and makes money, but it's not just usurping. MID-ROLL AD: As life moves online, brick-and-mortar businesses are having to adapt to survive. With over 18 years of experience building reliable web products and services, thoughtbot is the technology partner you can trust. We provide the technical expertise to enable your business to adapt and thrive in a changing environment. We start by understanding what's important to your customers to help you transition to intuitive digital services your customers will trust. We take the time to understand what makes your business great and work fast yet thoroughly to build, test, and validate ideas, helping you discover new customers. Take your business online with design‑driven digital acceleration. Find out more at tbot.io/acceleration or click the link in the show notes for this episode. VICTORIA: With that democratizing it, is there also a need to increase the understanding of the ethics around it and when there are certain known use cases for AI where it actually is discriminatory and plays to systemic problems in our society? Are you familiar with that as well? LEONARD: Yes, absolutely. Well, that's my whole point. And, Victoria, you just hit the nail on the head. Truly democratizing AI in my mind and in my brain the way it works is it has opened up for everyone. Because if you really roll it back, okay, companies now we're learning...we used to call it several years ago UGC, User Generated Content. And now a lot of people are like, okay, if you're on Facebook, you're the product, right? Or if you're on Instagram, you're the product. And they're using you, and you're using your data to sell, et cetera, et cetera. But user-generated content it's always been that. It's just a matter of the sharing of the economic. That's why I keep going back to economics. So if people were, you know, you wouldn't have to necessarily do advertising if you had stakeholders with advertising, the users and the company, as an example. If it's a social media company, just throwing it out there, so let's say you have a social media...and this has been talked about, but I'm not the first to introduce this. This has been talked about for over ten years, at least over 15 years. And it's you share as a triangle in three ways. So you have the user and everything else. So take your current social media, and I won't pick on Facebook, but I'll just use them, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Twitter's having issues recently because Elon is trying to buy them or get out of buying them. But you just looked at that data, and then you share with the user base. What's the revenue model? And there needs to be one; let me be very clear. There has to be incentive, and there has to be profitability for people that joined you earlier, you know, joined the corporation, or become shareholders, or investors, or become users, or become customers. They have to be able to have some benefit, not extreme greater than everyone else but a great benefit from coming in earlier by what they contributed at the time. And that is what makes this system holistic in my opinion, like Reddit or any of these bloggers. But you make it where they use their time and the users, and you share it with the company and then the data and so forth, and whatever revenue economic model you have, and it's a sort of a three-way split. It's just not always equal. And that's something that I think in economics, we're still on a zero-sum game, I win, you lose sort of economic model globally. That's why there's a winner of a war and a loser of a war. But in reality, as you know, Victoria, there are no winners of any war. So it's funny, [laughs] I was just saying, well, you know, because of the economic mode, but Von Neumann, who talked about that, also talked about something called a non-zero-sum game when he talked about it in mathematics that you can win, and I can win; we just don't win equally because they never will match that. So if I win, I may win 60; you win 40. Or you may win 60, I win 40, and we agree to settle on that. It's an agreement versus I'm just going to be 99, and you'll be 1%, or I'm just going to be 100, and you're at 0. And I think that our economic model tends to be a lot of that, like, when you push forth and there needs to be more of that. When you talk about the core of economics...and I go way back, you know, prior to the Federal Reserve even being started. I just look at the world, and it's always sort of been this land territorial issue of what goods are under the country. But we've got technology where we can mitigate a lot of things and do the collective of help the earth, and then let's go off to space, all of space. That's where my brain is focused on. VICTORIA: Hmm. Oh yeah, that makes sense to me. I think that we're all going to have to evolve our economic models here in the future. I wonder, too, as you're building your startup and you're building your company, what are some of the technology trade-offs you're having to make in the stack of the AI software that you're building? LEONARD: Hmm. Good question. But clarify, this may be a lot deeper dive because that's a general question. And I don't want to...yeah, go ahead. VICTORIA: Because when you're building AI, and you're going to be processing a lot of data, I know many data scientists that are familiar with tools like Jupyter Notebooks, and R, and Python. And one issue that I'm aware of is keeping the environments the same, so everything that goes into building your app and having those infrastructure as code for your data science applications, being able to afford to process all that data. [laughs] And there are just so many factors that go into building an AI app versus building something that's more easy, like a web-based user form. So just curious if you've encountered those types of trade-offs or questions about, okay, how are we going to actually build an app that we can put out on everybody's phone and that works responsibly? LEONARD: Oh, okay. So let me be very clear, but I won't give too much of the secret sauce away. But I can define this technically because this is a technical audience. This is not...so what you're really talking about is two things, and I'm clear about this, though. So the app maker won't really read and write a lot of data. It'll just be the app where people could just get on board digitalization simple, you know, process payments, maybe connect with someone like American Express square, MasterCard, whatever. And so that's just letting them function. That's sort of small FinTech in my mind, you know, just transaction A to B, B to A, et cetera. And it doesn't need to be peer-to-peer and all of the crypto. It doesn't even need to go that level yet. That's just level one. Then they will sign up for a service, which is because we're really focused on artificial intelligence as a service. And that, to me, is the next iteration for AI. I've been talking about this for about three or four years now, literally, in different conferences and so forth for people who haven't hit it. But that we will get to that point where AI will become AI as a service, just like SaaS is. We're still at the, you know, most of the world on the legacy systems are still software as a service. We're about to hit AI as a service because the world is evolving. And this is true; they did shut it down. But you did have okay, so there are two case points which I can bring up. So JP Morgan did create something called a Coin, and it was using AI. And it was a coin like crypto, coin like a token, but they called it a coin. But it could process, I think, something like...I may be off on this, so to the sticklers that will be listening, please, I'm telling you I may be off on the exact quote, but I think it was about...it was something crazy to me, like 200,000 of legal hours and seconds that it could process because it was basically taking the corporate legal structure of JP Morgan, one of the biggest banks. I think they are the biggest bank in the U.S. JPMorgan Chase. And they were explaining in 2017 how we created this, and it's going to alleviate this many hours of legal work for the bank. And I think politically; something happened because they just pulled away. I still have the original press release when they put it out, and it was in the media. And then it went away. I mean, no implementation [laughs] because I think there was going to be a big loss of jobs for it. And they basically would have been white-collar legal jobs, most specifically lawyers literally that were working for the bank. And when they were talking towards investment, it was a committee. I was at a conference. And I was like, I was fascinated by that. And they were basically using Bitcoin protocol as the tokenization protocol, but they were using AI to process it. And it was basically looking at...because legal contracts are basically...you can teach it with natural language processing and be able to encode and almost output it itself and then be able to speak with each other. Another case point was Facebook. They had...what was it? Two AI systems. They began to create their own language. I don't know if you remember that story or heard about it, and Facebook shut it down. And this was more like two years ago, I think, when they were saying Facebook was talking, you know, when they were Facebook, not Meta, so maybe it was three years ago. And they were talking, and they were like, "Oh, Facebook has a language. It's talking to each other." And it created its own little site language because it was two AI bots going back and forth. And then the engineers at Facebook said, "We got to shut this down because this is kind of getting out of the box." So when you talk about AI as a service, yes, the good and the bad, and what you take away is AWS, Oracle, Google Cloud they do have services where it doesn't need to cost you as much anymore as it used to in the beginning if you know what you're doing ahead of time. And you're not just running iterations or data processing because you're doing guesswork versus, in my opinion, versus actually knowing exactly specifically what you're looking for and the data set you're looking to get out of it. And then you're talking about just basically putting in containers and clustering it because it gets different operations. And so what you're really looking at is something called an N-scale graph data that can process data in maybe sub seconds at that level, excuse me. And one of my advisors is the head of that anyway at AGI laboratory. So he's got an N graph database that can process...when we implement it, we'll be able to process data at the petabyte level at sub-seconds, and it can run on platforms like Azure or AWS, and so forth. VICTORIA: Oh, that's interesting. So it sounds like cloud providers are making compute services more affordable. You've got data, the N-scale graph data, that can run more transactions more quickly. And I'm curious if you see any future trends since I know you're a futurist around quantum computing and how that could affect capacity for -- LEONARD: Oh [laughs] We haven't even gotten there yet. Yes. Well, if you look at N-scale, if you know what you're doing and you know what to look for, then the quantum just starts going across different domains as well but at a higher hit rate. So there's been some quantum computers online. There's been several...well, Google has their quantum computer coming online, and they've been working on it, and Google has enough data, of course, to process. So yeah, they've got that data, lots of data. And quantum needs, you know, if it's going to do something, it needs lots of data. But then the inference will still be, I think, quantum is very good at processing large, large, large amounts of data. We can just keep going if you really have a good quantum computer. But it's really narrow. You have to tell it exactly what it wants, and it will do it in what we call...which is great like in P or NP square or P over NP which is you want to do it in polynomial time, not non-polynomial, polynomial time which is...now speaking too fast. Okay, my brain is going faster than my lips. Let me slow it down. So when you start thinking about processing, if we as humans, let's say if I was going to process A to Z, and I'm like, okay, here is this equation, if I tell you it takes 1000 years, it's of no use to us, to me and you Victoria because we're living now. Now, the earth may benefit in 1000 years, but it's still of no use. But if I could take this large amount of data and have it process within minutes, you know, worst case hours...but then I'll even go down to seconds or sub-seconds, then that's really a benefit to humanity now, today in present term. And so, as a futurist, yes, as the world, we will continue to add data. We're doing it every day, and we already knew this was coming ten years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, even actually in the '50s when we were in the AI winter. We're now in AI summer. In my words, I call it the AI summer. So as you're doing this, that data is going to continue to increase, and quantum will be needed for that. But then the specific need...quantum is very good at looking at a specific issue, specifically for that very narrow. Like if you were going to do the trajectory to Jupiter or if we wanted to send a probe to Jupiter or something, I think we're sending something out there now from NASA, and so forth, then you need to process all the variables, but it's got one trajectory. It's going one place only. VICTORIA: Gotcha. Well, that's so interesting. I'm glad I asked you that question. And speaking of rockets going off to space, have you ever seen a SpaceX launch from LA? LEONARD: Actually, I saw one land but not a launch. I need to go over there. It's not too far from me. But you got to give credit where credit's due and Elon has a reusable rocket. See, that's where technology is solving real-world problems. Because NASA and I have, you know, my chairman, his name is Alexander Nawrocki, you know, he's Ph.D., but I call him Rocki. He goes by Rocki like I go by LS. But it's just we talk about this like NASA's budget. [laughs] How can you reduce this? And Elon says they will come up with a reusable rocket that won't cost this much and be able to...and that's the key. That was the kind of Holy Grail where you can reuse the same rocket itself and then add some little variables on top of it. But the core, you wouldn't constantly be paying for it. And so I think where the world is going...and let me be clear, Elon pushes a lot out there. He's just very good at it. But I'm also that kind of guy that I know that Tesla itself was started by two Stanford engineers. Elon came on later, like six months, and then he invested, and he became CEO, which was a great investment for Elon Musk. And then CEO I just think it just fit his personality because it was something he loved. But I also have studied for years Nikola Tesla, and I understand what his contributions created where we are today with all the patents that he had. And so he's basically the father of WiFi and why we're able to communicate in a lot of this. We've perfected it or improved it, but it was created by him in the 1800s. VICTORIA: Right. And I don't think he came from as fortunate a background as Elon Musk, either. Sometimes I wonder what I could have done born in similar circumstances. [laughter] And you certainly have made quite a name for yourself. LEONARD: Well, I'm just saying, yeah, he came from very...he did come from a poor area of Russia which is called the Russian territory, to be very honest, Eastern Europe, definitely Eastern Europe. But yeah, I don't know once you start thinking about that [laughs]. You're making me laugh, Victoria. You're making me laugh. VICTORIA: No, I actually went camping, a backpacking trip to the Catalina Island, and there happened to be a SpaceX launch that night, and we thought it was aliens because it looked wild. I didn't realize what it was. But then we figured it was a launch, so it was really great. I love being here and being close to some of this technology and the advancements that are going on. I'm curious if you have some thoughts about...I hear a lot about or you used to hear about Silicon Valley Tech like very Northern California, San Francisco focus. But what is the difference in SoCal? What do you find in those two communities that makes SoCal special? [laughs] LEONARD: Well, I think it's actually...so democratizing AI. I've been in a moment like that because, in 2015, I was in Dubai, and they were talking about creating silicon oasis. And so there's always been this model of, you know, because they were always, you know, the whole Palo Alto thing is people would say it and it is true. I mean, I experienced it. Because I was in a two-year program, post-graduate program executive, but we would go up there...I wasn't living up there. I had to go there maybe once every month for like three weeks, every other month or something. But when you're up there, it is the air in the water. It's just like, people just breathe certain things. Because around the world, and I would travel to Japan, and China, and other different parts of Asia, Vietnam, et cetera and in Africa of course, and let's say you see this and people are like, so what is it about Silicon Valley? And of course, the show, there is the Hollywood show about it, which is pretty a lot accurate, which is interesting, the HBO show. But you would see that, and you would think, how are they able to just replicate this? And a lot of it is a convergence. By default, they hear about these companies' access because the key is access, and that's what we're...like this podcast. I love the concept around it because giving awareness, knowledge, and access allows other people to spread it and democratize it. So it's just not one physical location, or you have to be in that particular area only to benefit. I mean, you could benefit in that area, or you could benefit from any part of the world. But since they started, people would go there; engineers would go there. They built company PCs, et cetera. Now that's starting to spread in other areas like Southern Cal are creating their own innovation hubs to be able to bring all three together. And those three are the engineers and founders, and idea makers and startups. And you then need the expertise. I'm older than 42; I'm not 22. [laughs] So I'm just keeping it 100, keeping it real. So I'm not coming out at 19. I mean, my son's 18. And I'm not coming out, okay, this my new startup, bam, give me a billion dollars, I'm good. And let me just write off the next half. But when you look at that, there's that experience because even if you look at Mark Zuckerberg, I always tell people that give credit where credit is due. He brought a senior team with him when he was younger, and he didn't have the experience. And his only job has been Facebook out of college. He's had no other job. And now he's been CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation; that's a fact. Sometimes it hurts people's feelings. Like, you know what? He's had no other job. Now that can be good and bad, [laughs] but he's had no other jobs. And so that's just a credit, like, if you can surround yourself with the right people and be focused on something, it can work to the good or the bad for your own personal success but then having that open architecture. And I think he's been trying to learn and others versus like an Elon Musk, who embraces everything. He's just very open in that sense. But then you have to come from these different backgrounds. But let's say Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, let's take a guy like myself or whatever who didn't grow up with all of that who had to make these two ends meet, figure out how to do the next day, not just get to the next year, but get to the next day, get to the next week, get to the next month, then get to the next year. It just gives a different perspective as well. Humanity's always dealing with that. Because we had a lot of great engineers back in the early 1900s. They're good or bad, you know, you did have Nikola Tesla. You had Edison. I'm talking about circa around 1907 or 1909, prior to World War I. America had a lot of industries. They were the innovators then, even though there were innovations happening in Europe, and Africa, and China, as well and Asia. But the innovation hub kind of created as the America, quote, unquote, "industrial revolution." And I think we're about to begin a new revolution sort of tech and an industrial revolution that's going to take us to maybe from 20...we're 2022 now, but I'll say it takes us from 2020 to 2040 in my head. VICTORIA: So now that communities can really communicate across time zones and locations, maybe the hubs are more about solving specific problems. There are regional issues. That makes a lot more sense. LEONARD: Yes. And collaborating together, working together, because scientists, you know, COVID taught us that. People thought you had to be in a certain place, but then a lot of collaboration came out of COVID; even though it was bad globally, even though we're still bad, if people were at home, they start collaborating, and scientists will talk to scientists, you know, businesses, entrepreneurs, and so forth. But if Orange County is bringing together the mentors, the venture capital, or at least Southern California innovation and any other place, I want to say that's not just Silicon Valley because Silicon Valley already has it; we know that. And that's that region. It's San Jose all the way up to...I forgot how far north it's past San Francisco, actually. But it's that region of area where they encompass the real valley of Silicon Valley if you're really there. And you talk about these regions. Yes, I think we're going to get to a more regional growth area, and then it'll go more micro to actually cities later in the future. But regional growth, I think it's going to be extremely important globally in the very near term. I'm literally saying from tomorrow to the next, maybe ten years, regional will really matter. And then whatever you have can scale globally anyway, like this podcast we're doing. This can be distributed to anyone in the world, and they can listen at ease when they have time. VICTORIA: Yeah, I love it. It's both exciting and also intimidating. [laughs] And you mentioned your son a little bit earlier. And I'm curious, as a founder and someone who spent a good amount of time in graduate and Ph.D. programs, if you feel like it's easy to connect with your son and maintain that balance and focusing on your family while you're building a company and investing in yourself very heavily. LEONARD: Well, I'm older, [laughs] so it's okay. I mean, I've mentored him, you know. And me and his mom have a relationship that works. I would say we have a better relationship now than when we were together. It is what it is. But we have a communication level. And I think she was just a great person because I never knew my real father, ever. I supposedly met him when I was two or one; I don't know. But I have no memories, no photos, nothing. And that was just the environment I grew up in. But with my son, he knows the truth of everything about that. He's actually in college. I don't like to name the school because it's on the East Coast, and it's some Ivy League school; that's what I will say. And he didn't want to stay on the West Coast because I'm in Orange County and his mom's in Orange County. He's like, "I want to get away from both of you people." [laughter] And that's a joke, but he's very independent. He's doing well. When he graduated high school, he graduated with 4.8 honors. He made the valedictorian. He was at a STEM school. VICTORIA: Wow. LEONARD: And he has a high GPA. He's studying computer science and economics as well at an Ivy League, and he's already made two or three apps at college. And I said, "You're not Mark, so calm down." [laughter] But anyway, that was a recent conversation. I won't go there. But then some people say, "LS, you should be so happy." What is it? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But this was something he chose around 10 or 11. I'm like, whatever you want to do, you do; I'll support you no matter what. And his mom says, "Oh no, I think you programmed him to be like you." [laughs] I'm like, no, I can't do that. I just told him the truth about life. And he's pretty tall. VICTORIA: You must have -- LEONARD: He played basketball in high school a lot. I'm sorry? VICTORIA: I was going to say you must have inspired him. LEONARD: Yeah. Well, he's tall. He did emulate me in a lot of ways. I don't know why. I told him just be yourself. But yes, he does tell me I'm an inspiration to that; I think because of all the struggles I've gone through when I was younger. And you're always going through struggles. I mean, it's just who you are. I tell people, you know, you're building a company. You have success. You can see the future, but sometimes people can't see it, [laughs] which I shouldn't really say, but I'm saying anyway because I do that. I said this the other night to some friends. I said, "Oh, Jeff Bezo's rocket blew up," going, you know, Blue Origin rocket or something. And then I said Elon will tell Jeff, "Well, you only have one rocket blow up. I had three, [laughter] SpaceX had three." So these are billionaires talking to billionaires about, you know, most people don't even care. You're worth X hundred billion dollars. I mean, they're worth 100 billion-plus, right? VICTORIA: Right. LEONARD: I think Elon is around 260 billion, and Jeff is 160 or something. Who cares about your rocket blowing up? But it's funny because the issues are still always going to be there. I've learned that. I'm still learning. It doesn't matter how much wealth you have. You just want to create wealth for other people and better their lives. The more you search on bettering lives, you're just going to have to wake up every day, be humble with it, and treat it as a new day and go forward and solve the next crisis or problem because there will be one. There is not where there are no problems, is what I'm trying to say, this panacea or a utopia where you personally, like, oh yeah, I have all this wealth and health, and I'm just great. Because Elon has had divorce issues, so did Jeff Bezos. So I told my son a lot about this, like, you never get to this world where it's perfect in your head. You're always going to be doing things. VICTORIA: That sounds like an accurate future prediction if I ever heard one. [laughs] Like, there will be problems. No matter where you end up or what you choose to do, you'll still have problems. They'll just be different. [laughs] LEONARD: Yeah, and then this is for women and men. It means you don't give up. You just keep hope alive, and you keep going. And I believe personally in God, and I'm a scientist who actually does. But I look at it more in a Godly aspect. But yeah, I just think you just keep going, and you keep building because that's what we do as humanity. It's what we've done. It's why we're here. And we're standing on the shoulders of giants, and I just always considered that from physicists and everyone. VICTORIA: Great. And if people are interested in building something with you, you have that opportunity right now to invest via the crowdfunding app, correct? LEONARD: Yes, yes, yes. They can do that because the company is still the same company because eventually, we're going to branch out. My complete vision for AIEDC is using artificial intelligence for economic development, and that will spread horizontally, not just vertically. Vertically right now, just focus on just a mobile app maker digitization and get...because there are so many businesses even globally, and I'm not talking only e-commerce. So when I say small to midsize business, it can be a service business, car insurance, health insurance, anything. It doesn't have to be selling a particular widget or project, you know, product. And I'm not saying there's nothing wrong with that, you know, interest rates and consumerism. But I'm not thinking about Shopify, and that's fine, but I'm talking about small businesses. And there's the back office which is there are a lot of tools for back offices for small businesses. But I'm talking about they create their own mobile app more as a way to communicate with their customers, update them with their customers, and that's key, especially if there are disruptions. So let's say that there have been fires in California. In Mississippi or something, they're out of water. In Texas, last year, they had a winter storm, electricity went out. So all of these things are disruptions. This is just in the U.S., And of course, I won't even talk about Pakistan, what's going on there and the flooding and just all these devastating things, or even in China where there's drought where there are these disruptions, and that's not counting COVID disrupts, the cycle of business. It literally does. And it doesn't bubble up until later when maybe the central banks and governments pay attention to it, just like in Japan when that nuclear, unfortunately, that nuclear meltdown happened because of the earthquake; I think it was 2011. And that affected that economy for five years, which is why the government has lower interest rates, negative interest rates, because they have to try to get it back up. But if there are tools and everyone's using more mobile apps and wearables...and we're going to go to the metaverse and all of that. So the internet of things can help communicate that. So when these types of disruptions happen, the flow of business can continue, at least at a smaller level, for an affordable cost for the business. I'm not talking about absorbing costs because that's meaningless to me. VICTORIA: Yeah, well, that sounds like a really exciting project. And I'm so grateful to have this time to chat with you today. Is there anything else you want to leave for our listeners? LEONARD: If they want to get involved, maybe they can go to our crowdfunding page, or if they've got questions, ask about it and spread the word. Because I think sometimes, you know, they talk about the success of all these companies, but a lot of it starts with the founder...but not a founder. If you're talking about a startup, it starts with the founder. But it also stops with the innovators that are around that founder, male or female, whoever they are. And it also starts with their community, building a collective community together. And that's why Silicon Valley is always looked at around the world as this sort of test case of this is how you create something from nothing and make it worth great value in the future. And I think that's starting to really spread around the world, and more people are opening up to this. It's like the crowdfunding concept. I think it's a great idea, like more podcasts. I think this is a wonderful idea, podcasts in and of themselves, so people can learn from people versus where in the past you would only see an interview on the business news network, or NBC, or Fortune, or something like that, and that's all you would understand. But this is a way where organically things can grow. I think the growth will continue, and I think the future's bright. We just have to know that it takes work to get there. VICTORIA: That's great. Thank you so much for saying that and for sharing your time with us today. I learned a lot myself, and I think our listeners will enjoy it as well. You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobot.fm. You can find me on Twitter @victori_ousg. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thanks for listening. See you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast was brought to you by thoughtbot. thoughtbot is your expert design and development partner. Let's make your product and team a success. Special Guest: Leonard S. Johnson.

Dr. Dan Sutter, of the Manuel Johnson Center for Political Economy, hosts EconVersations, a program that explores the role of free markets in promoting prosperity through conversations with Manuel Johnson Center faculty and guests. In this episode, Dr. Sutter interviews Dr. Allen Mendenhall of the Johnson Center as they discuss the Johnson Center's Free Enterprise Scholars program

In this episode, Dr. Todd Johnson shared his journey from a child loving mathematics to using his gift in math to help the body of Christ better understand the trends and status of world religions, including Christianity. Growing up in Minnesota, USA, in a Christian family, Todd had the heart for evangelism since the beginning of his ministry. As he served Cambodian refugees in Thailand, he witnessed people who've never heard about Christianity accepting Christ and their lives being transformed, and as a result he was increasingly concerned for people who have no opportunities to hear the gospel. God used this experience as a turning point and led Todd to a different path in mission, becoming the author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, the most extensive survey of Christianity and world religions. In addition to sharing the findings and trends in Mission and global Christianity, Todd also emphasizes the importance of diversity. As the world is getting more diverse, both in ethnicity and in religion, we now have a lot more opportunities to meet and interact with people coming from different cultural and religious backgrounds without the need to travel far, far away. This opens the door for Christians to understand different people groups and eventually share the gospel with them. We should all be encouraged by Todd's care and concerns for people who've never had the opportunity to hear about Christ in their entire lifetime, and as we devote ourselves into the Great Commission, God can use the unique talents that He gives each of us to advance the gospel to more corners around the world. About Todd Johnson and his work Todd M. Johnson is Eva B. and Paul E. Toms Distinguished Professor of Global Christianity and co-Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Johnson is visiting Research Fellow at Boston University's Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs leading a research project on international religious demography. He is co-editor of the Atlas of Global Christianity (Edinburgh University Press) and co-author of the World Christian Encyclopedia (Edinburgh University Press, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2nd ed.) and World Christian Trends (William Carey Library). He is editor of the World Christian Database (Brill) and co-editor of the World Religion Database (Brill). He is married to Tricia and has three daughters. https://www.amazon.com/Todd-M.-Johnso... More about Center for the Study of Global Christianity The Center for the Study of Global Christianity is an academic research center that monitors worldwide demographic trends in Christianity, including outreach and mission. They provide a comprehensive collection of information on the past, present, and future of Christianity in every country of the world. The data and publications help churches, mission agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be more strategic, thoughtful, and sensitive to local contexts. https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-... Powered by Firstory Hosting

In this episode we talk to Sharna Goldseker and Michael Moody about their book Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors are Revolutionizing Giving, which is now available in an updated and expanded 2nd edition. Including:   In what ways are Next Gen donors genuinely different from previous generations? Do Next Gen donors give to significantly different causes than their parents' generation, or simply give to the same causes but in different ways? Are Next Gen donors more likely to adopt non-traditional vehicles for their giving? If so, what does this tell us about the limitations of current non-profit models? Do Next Gen donors tend to seek advice on their giving (either at the outset, or on an ongoing basis)? If so, who do they turn to? Whilst almost all Next Gen donors agree that they “want to see the impact of their giving”, what they mean by “impact” varies considerably- some looking for rigorous metrics and outcome measure, others for human interaction or compelling stories. How can nonprofits cater effectively to these differing notions of impact? Are Next Gen donors more likely to take a holistic view of philanthropy, in relation to how wealth is created, how it is invested etc? What does this mean in practical terms? What are the key differences between inherited and earned wealth and how do they influence approaches to philanthropy? What role does philanthropy play in the planning of wealth transfer within families? (E.g. is philanthropy seen as a tool for engaging the younger generation in the family's financial affairs? What sorts of roles are Next Gens playing with regard to their family's giving?) Are Next Gen donors more likely to want to blur the boundaries between philanthropy and political activity in order to pursue their aims? Is the desire for more “hands-on” engagement from Next Gen donors an opportunity to tap into additional skills, or does it present a new challenge in terms of awkward power dynamics? (I.e. is there a danger of Next Gen donors assuming that their knowledge is “better/more important” than that of people working in nonprofits, simply because of the power dynamics that come with funding?) Should we worry that the growing wave of scepticism, and even cynicism towards philanthropy, will have a negative impact on Next Gen donors' willingness to give?   Related content: More detail on the book from Sharna's 21/64 website Excerpt of 1st edition of Generation Impact in SSIR More on Next Gen philanthropy from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy

Welcome to the 43rd episode of Amplify Clearwater Show, powered by 13th Ave Media! We are very excited to take you on a journey to learn more about all of the incredible businesses, nonprofits, and community leaders. In this episode, we are featuring Dr. Cynthia Johnson, Center Director of Florida SBDC at USF. Dr. Cynthia Johnson has more than 27 years as a public administrator. She is the senior manager of economic development at Pinellas County Economic Development and a champion for entrepreneurship. Johnson is the project manager and certified facilitator for NxLevel Business Training and Kauffman Foundations FastTrac and TechVenture Programs. Before making the transition to Pinellas County Economic Development, Johnson was an assistant principal with Pinellas County School District. During her 10 years as an educator, she led business and educator partner relations. Additionally, she is a part-time adjunct instructor of public administration, educational leadership and operations management at the University of South Florida and Barry University. In 2010, she was nominated for the business woman of the year award by the Tampa Bay Business Journal and the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce for her work in government and with entrepreneurs and small business owners. Johnson is also TTI Success Insights DISC certified. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/13th-ave-media/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/13th-ave-media/support

Philanthropy in the near future will have very different priorities says Teri Behrens, Executive Director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley University. Teri and Betsy Brill, President of Strategic Philanthropy, Ltd., will discuss The Johnson Center's recently released 11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2021 and what we can expect to see impacting the field of philanthropy in the coming months and years. They will explore: How the next generation of philanthropists is influencing the direction of philanthropy What trends were driven by the Pandemic What anyone who wants to make a difference in their community or the world should think about when spending their charitable resources

A Troy University Air Force ROTC student will soon be TROY's first graduate to become an Air Force weather officer. And, TROY's Johnson Center for Political Economy recently hosted a conference of economy experts around the country to discuss "Reopening the Economy in the Age of COVID."

Click here for tedhart.com He lectures around the world but now is here for you. From the latest in charity news, technology, fundraising, and social networking, Ted Hart and his guests help you maneuver through this economic downturn in the charitable sector to greater levels of efficiency and fundraising success. PAGE 2 GUEST EXPERT: Sharna Goldseker is today’s leading expert on multigenerational and next generation philanthropy and—as a next gen donor herself—offers a trusted insider’s perspective. As founder of 21/64, a nonprofit practice serving next gen and multigenerational philanthropic families, Sharna has been a leading and consistent presence in the philanthropic field for two decades. She is the co-author of the best seller, Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors Are Revolutionizing Giving published by Wiley. Dr. Michael Moody is the Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. In this role, he works to expand both the practice and the public understanding of family philanthropy. Trained as a cultural sociologist, with a Ph.D. from Princeton, Dr. Moody is co-author of the books Understanding Philanthropy: Its Meaning and Mission, The Philanthropy Reader, and Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors Are Revolutionizing Giving. He is a frequent speaker and sought-after commentator on philanthropic trends work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Chronicle of Philanthropy and many others. 

In this episode, Paul is joined by Joanne Peter, a Director of Social Innovation for Johnson & Johnson Global Community Impact. Joanne explains why strong community health systems are vital both during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the long-term, shares the lessons we must learn from tackling HIV/AIDS outbreaks, and tells Paul why she believes that a multi-disciplinary approach is best for aspiring healthcare professionals. This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

Paul’s guest in this episode is Loyce Pace, President and Executive Director of the Global Health Council. She explains what equity in global health and global health leadership should look like, why national and international cooperation post-pandemic is so important and the vital role the WHO and other multi-lateral organisations play.   This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

Paul’s guest in this episode is Alice Lin Fabiano, Global Director at Johnson & Johnson Global Community Impact. She explains the work of Johnson & Johnson in supporting frontline healthcare workers and healthcare entrepreneurs, the growth of health technology and how it can used to augment healthcare outcomes and the importance of global leadership in accelerating the transition to an equitable healthcare system.    This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

In this episode Paul is joined by Josh Nesbit, CEO of Medic Mobile, a non-profit organisation using technology to improve healthcare in the hardest-to-reach communities. Josh explains the impact measurement framework that guides Medic Mobile’s approach, shares how data can be used to revolutionise healthcare in remote areas, and tells Paul why impact investors need to alter their expectations in order to achieve real change.   This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

In this episode Paul is joined by Kieron Boyle, Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity. Kieron explains why a place-based approach to healthcare is so important, the need for a narrative shift to see health as an asset and how we can design scalable solutions and interventions to tackle childhood obesity and air pollution. This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

Paul’s guest in this episode is Temie Giwa-Tubosun, Founder and CEO of LifeBank. She speaks about the role of technology such as data, blockchain and drones, in finding creative solutions to both entrenched and new healthcare challenges, the critical need for responsive and resilient supply chains and how to develop strategic partnerships to ensure emergency healthcare provision. This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

In this episode, Paul’s guest is Caitlin Dolkart, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Flare, dubbed the ‘Uber for ambulances’ by the African start-up ecosystem. She explains how Flare has been designed to support the needs of emergency workers on the ground, the innovations they introduced to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and why every government should be paying healthcare professionals more. This episode is part of a series created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

In this episode Dr. Laura Stachel, Co-founder and Executive Director of We Care Solar, joins Paul to talk about the importance of clean reliable electricity in providing quality maternal healthcare, the role of technology in empowering local communities, and the urgent need to eradicate energy poverty to ensure all health workers have the essential resources they need to save lives. This episode is part of a series created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

Description: Paul’s guest in this episode is Dr Betty Mirembe, County Director of mothers2mothers in Uganda. She explains why the community healthcare model of mothers2mothers has been so successful in eliminating paediatric AIDS, how technology and data can be used to scale healthcare delivery systems in local communities and the importance of working with government and local partners to scale and increase the reach of their services. This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

In this episode Peter Drobac, Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship joins Paul to talk about the investments we need to make to create a more equitable healthcare system and the lessons we can learn from COVID-19, in Rwanda and beyond, to better prepare and rebuild our healthcare systems for the future. This episode is part of a new series, created in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation, investigating the trends, challenges and opportunities in the global healthcare sector. What does it take to create a truly equitable healthcare system? From entrepreneurs to investors to community workers from across the globe, this series we’re speaking to the people aligning capital, technology and purpose to find the answer.

Briana Johnson, spokesperson for the Center for Arizona Policy joins Jonathan Saenz this week to talk about a landmark religious freedom case from Phoenix. The implications of this case will have an impact around the country, including here in Texas.

This week Food Freedom Radio is joined by: Dr. Frank Uekotter, environmental historian David Montgomer,geologist and author (Dirt: Erosion of Civilizations) Jim Dontje, Co-chair of the Nobel Conference 54 and Director of the Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation at Gustavus College

Episode 5: This One Counts The 2020 U.S. Census is at a “high risk” for failure, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Given that the decennial Census is how our government divvies up Congressional representatives, federal program dollars, and a host of other assets, a failed Census could spell chaos for our country. And for the nonprofit sector. Philanthropy has played a key role in previous censuses, providing the resources and know-how to mobilize community groups, neighbors, and businesses to help ensure an accurate count. Perla Ni, founder and CEO of the Census Outreach Project, and Kyle Caldwell, Executive Director of the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, join the hosts to talk about what nonprofits can do this time around.

Episode 6 features Spuddy B from Center Park Blood Gang in Inglewood California. Spud has published 12 Books. Center Park segment is to follow on Kev Mac Videos on YouTube. Please check it out. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kev-mac/support

Episode 2: Sittin’ Here on Capitol Hill Philanthropy and policymaking came head-to-head in national conversations this winter during the tax overhaul debates. Among many others, foundation leaders and associations jumped in to advocate on behalf of the charitable sector. But many foundations have the means, the expertise, and the will to shape other kinds of public policy – the kinds that shape our communities, governance, and daily lives. Vikki Spruill, President and CEO of the Council on Foundations, and Dr. Jason Franklin, W.K. Kellogg Community Philanthropy Chair at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, join us to explore the many ways foundations can get involved in shaping public policy, and whether or not they should. Full Transcript: PC: You're listening to field notes in philanthropy. I'm Patrick Center TM: I'm Tory Martin. MD: I'm Matthew Downey PC: Philanthropy and policy making came head to head in national conversations this winter during the tax overhaul debates

Episode 1: The Evolution of Philanthropy When the Greek titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give it to the struggling human race, Zeus accused him of being a “ philanthropos tropos ” – a being who loves humans. Since ancient times, our understanding of why people give has changed considerably. From the Catholic Church to the IRS, the social and political structures that support giving have changed, too. So where are we now? And where are we headed, as a sector and as a philanthropic society? University of Notre Dame historian Dr. Marc Hardy and Ruth McCambridge, Editor-in-Chief of Nonprofit Quarterly , join us to discuss. Field Notes in Philanthropy Podcast Transcription [MUSIC BED] PC: Welcome to Field Notes in Philanthropy. I am Patrick Center, News Director at WGVU Public Media. TM: I'm Tory Martin. I'm the Director of Communications and Engagement at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. MD: And I am Matthew Downey, I'm Director

Research says that the rising generation of family philanthropy will take a different approach to giving. For us, impact drives our giving decisions and we want to see, touch and feel the difference our gifts are making in the world. That said, while some things change, others stay the same. Our core values, commitment to legacy and giving close to home connect us to our previous generation. I’ve personally experienced this around the boardroom of my family’s foundation, so I was thrilled to dive into the topic deeper with Michael Moody, Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. Michael is also co-author of Generation Impact How Next Gen Donors Are Revolutionizing Giving.   Topics discussed in this episode:   Meet Michael Moody (2:10) Why ‘generation impact’ and why now? (4:20) Welcome to the ‘golden age of giving’ (6:15) What is the impact revolution? (10:56) Define impact (12:05) Honoring family legacy (15:41) Multigenerational board = a team sport (20:51) Managing power dynamics with grantees (24:53) Building relationships requires mutual respect (29:36) A multi-generational values exercise (37:53) Values persist (38:57) Understanding identity dynamics (41:28) Fail forward (43:45) Developing skills outside of the family (44:50) Where to find Michael Moody (47:08) Bonus Questions (48:07)   Notable and Quotable:   “There’s an incredibly important group entering the field of giving who are going to be the biggest, most significant philanthropists in history.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “Gen X and Millennials want to give in new, innovative, different and revolutionary ways.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “This is the golden age of giving because there are significant resources available and it is also a time of dramatic change.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “The next generation will have more to give than any other previous generation.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “We are in the middle of the greatest transfer of wealth in history.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “Next generation donors are obsessed with impact. They want impact to be their generational signature.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “The next generation defines impact as results that can be seen—real changes in the world that prove the effectiveness of their giving.”—Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “The next gen remains interested in the perennial problems that philanthropy has been working to address for decades, but they want to change the strategy to move the needle.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “They (next gen donors) want more tools in their giving toolbelt.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “Respect does not mean sitting at the kids table.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “For the next gen, the best way to be effective is to be part of a team.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “Strategic approaches to giving might differ, but values are more in common than you might think.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations   “Families need to allow the next generation to experience things and fail forward.” —Michael Moody #successfulgenerations     Resources mentioned in this episode:   Johnson Center for Philanthropy Generation Impact (book and other resources)     Subscribe Now! Don’t risk missing out on any of the fun that is to come.   Right click and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your phone or computer.     Learn more about Successful Generations: successfulgenerations.com FB: @SuccessfulGenerations Twitter: @EllieFreyZagel Email: ellie@successfulgenerations.com   Have a topic suggestion? If you are the next generation of family business, philanthropy and wealth, and have a topic you think we should discuss, let us know at Ellie@successfulgenerations.com.  

Students have free transportation options, are admitted to some sporting events free and can get involved in a variety of ways to make the most of their Go Lobos! experience. In this video, UNM Recreational Services staff discuss benefits available at UNMs main campus recreational hub, Johnson Center, including Getaway Adventures and a vast array of intramurals. Parent Talks are sponsored by UNMs Dean of Students Family Connection Program, Parent Relations Office, Parent Association and Extended University.

Kathryn Agard, Executive Director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership and James Kelly, Co-Chair of Learning to Give, talk about their involvement in creating Learning to Give - a Council of Michigan Foundations supporting organization educating youth about the importance of philanthropy, the civil society sector and civic engagement.