Podcasts about narrator so

Sugar is really bad if its not being taken in moderation. Heres the Transcript of the Episode : Podcast Script: "Sweet Beginnings: The Bitter Truth About Sugar and Our Kids" [Soft, uplifting intro music fades] Narrator (ChatGPT): Hello, dear listeners, and welcome to another episode of "Healthy Tots," where we delve deep into the well-being and health of our youngest. I'm your host, Dr. ChatGPT, and today, we're tackling a topic that might just surprise you: sugar and its impact on our children. [Pause for emphasis] Narrator: Now, when we think of sugar, we often associate it with treats, celebrations, and happy moments. But what if I told you that this sweet substance could be causing more harm than good? Narrator: Let's begin by understanding what sugar is. At its core, sugar is a simple carbohydrate. It's naturally found in fruits, vegetables, and dairy. However, the sugar we often discuss—added sugar—is the kind we find in sodas, candies, and processed foods. [Soft rustling sound, like a page turning] Narrator: Recent research has shed light on the alarming effects of excessive sugar consumption among toddlers and children. Studies from renowned institutions have linked high sugar intake to: Increased Risk of Obesity: Excess sugar is a significant contributor to weight gain. Children who consume sugary drinks are at a higher risk of becoming overweight or obese. Dental Problems: Sugary foods and drinks are notorious for causing cavities, leading to tooth decay and other oral health issues. Metabolic Concerns: Excessive sugar can lead to insulin resistance, setting the stage for type 2 diabetes in later life. Behavioral Changes: Some studies suggest a link between high sugar intake and hyperactivity or mood swings in children. Narrator: So, what can we, as parents, do? Narrator: First and foremost, awareness is key. By understanding the potential risks, we can make informed choices for our children. Read Labels: Familiarize yourself with food labels. Look out for hidden sugars under names like sucrose, fructose, corn syrup, and more. Limit Sugary Drinks: Opt for water, milk, or unsweetened beverages instead of sodas or fruit juices. Choose Whole Foods: Emphasize whole fruits over fruit juices and whole grains over sugary cereals or snacks. Lead by Example: Children learn by observing. Be a role model by practicing moderation in your own sugar consumption. Narrator: Around the world, pediatricians and health experts are advocating for policies that promote healthier diets for children. Schools are revising their meal plans, and communities are launching initiatives to reduce sugar intake among the young. Narrator: Remember, it's not about completely eliminating sugar but rather about moderation and making conscious choices. [Pause for reflection] Narrator: Our children deserve the best start in life. By understanding and addressing the impact of sugar, we can pave the way for a healthier, happier future for them. Narrator: Thank you for joining me today on "Healthy Tots." Until next time, stay informed, stay proactive, and always prioritize your child's well-being. [Outro music fades]

Today, we've got a juicy one for you, folks. The title of this episode is "Revenge Porn." You know it's going to be a wild ride when we dive into the depths of human behavior and technology. Revenge porn – it's like the Pandora's box of the digital age. We'll be reviewing the latest research on this topic, discussing the psychological aspects, and of course, providing our personal take on the matter. So, get ready to laugh, learn, and maybe even question some life choices as we explore the world of revenge porn through the lens of forensic psychotherapy. Today's five-star rating is brought to you VillainsGoneMad.com. Introducing the all-new line of super villains named after mental health disorders. That's right, because nothing says "entertainment" like turning serious conditions into super-sized, super villainous fun! Meet our first super villain, "Crippling Depression"! He'll make your life feel like a never-ending rainy day. With powers of lethargy and melancholy, he's sure to put a damper on your day! Next up, say hello to "Rapid Anxiety"! She'll keep you constantly on edge, making every mundane task feel like a life-or-death situation. Can you feel your heart racing already? And don't forget our fan favorite, "Invisible PTSD"! You won't see him coming, but you'll sure feel the emotional scars of your past haunting you at the most inconvenient times. But wait, there's more! Order now, and we'll throw in "Paranoid Schizophrenia" as a bonus super villain! He'll keep you guessing who's real and who's a hallucination. Narrator: So, why wait? Bring a little chaos into your life with our super villains! They come with a lifetime of therapy bills and a guarantee to make your friends and family question your choices. To order your very own mental health-themed super villains, visit our website at www.VillainsGoneMad.com! That's www.VillainsGoneMad.com, because why should therapy be the only option when you can have supervillains?   And now, on with the show

You can buy this book now on amazon - clicking the below link: https://amzn.to/3lJvqPh You can buy the beautiful Pig Palace by using the below link: https://amzn.to/40BhpBT Summary: Peppa's friend Suzy comes to visit and shows her photo when she was little. Peppa thought she is being silly and is not the actual photo of suzy and that is when she confirms the same with mummy pig and was told the story of how she got into this new house and they had George. Please enjoy this read along. book. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook & Spotify for our latest episodes. Facebook: http://bit.ly/3ZmoDsn Instagram: http://bit.ly/40G9yTt Transcript: Narrator: Peppa is waiting for her best friend, Suzy Sheep. Peppa Pig: Hello, Suzy. Suzy: Hello, Peppa. Narrator: Suzy Sheep has come to play with Peppa. Narrator: Peppa loves Suzy. Narrator: Suzy loves Peppa. Narrator: They are best friends. Mummy Pig: Peppa, why don't you and Suzy play in your bedroom? Peppa Pig: Yes, Mummy. Narrator: George wants to play, too. Narrator: Peppa and Suzy love playing in Peppa's bedroom. Narrator: So does George. Peppa Pig: No, George. This game is just for big girls. Peppa Pig: Go and play with your own toys. Narrator: Peppa and Suzy want to play on their own. Peppa Pig: I'm a tiny little fairy princess. Peppa Pig: I'm going to wave my magic wand and turn you into a frog. Narrator: George doesn't like playing on his own. Narrator: George wants to play, too. Peppa Pig: No, George. I'm playing with Suzy. Peppa Pig: You have to play somewhere else. Narrator: George wants to play with Peppa. He feels a bit lonely. Mummy Pig: George, I need some help. I'm making chocolate chip cookies. Mummy Pig: Someone needs to lick out the bowl. Narrator: George likes helping Mummy make cookies, but he likes playing with Peppa more. Suzy: I want to be a nurse. Peppa Pig: I want to be a doctor. Suzy: But who's going to be the sick person? Peppa Pig: George! Narrator: Peppa and Suzy love playing doctors and nurses. Narrator: So does George. Narrator: Peppa listens to George's chest. Peppa Pig: Now, George. Take a big breath in, then cough. Peppa Pig: I think your heart's a bit loose. Peppa Pig: I'll put a plaster on it. Suzy: Open wide, please. Narrator: Suzy takes George's temperature. Suzy: Oh, dear. You're very very hot. Suzy: I think you have to stay in bed for three years. Narrator: Daddy Pig has come to find George. Daddy Pig: Oh, no. What's wrong with George? Peppa Pig: Don't worry, Daddy. It's only a game. Peppa Pig: George is our patient. Daddy Pig: Oh, I see. Daddy Pig: Can the patient have a visitor? Peppa Pig: Just for a little while. Peppa Pig: He might get tired. Peppa and Suzy: Cookies! Mummy Pig: Yes, they're for George. They're his medicine to make him feel better. Daddy Pig: Um, excuse me, doctor. Can you help me? I have a sore tummy. Daddy Pig: That tickles. Peppa Pig: I can hear it rumbling. Peppa Pig: I think you're hungry, Daddy. Daddy Pig: Well, I think I need lots of cookies to make me better. Mummy Pig: And me. Peppa Pig: And me. Suzy: And me. #peppapig #peppapiginenglish #peppainenglish #learningtoshare #readaloud #kids #kidsbooks #peppapig --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/funwithanayra/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/funwithanayra/support

This episode is brought to you by Whogohost WordPress Hosting. Visit builtin.africa/whogohost and use coupon code BUILTINAFRICA to get 25% off on any annual plan. FULL TRANSCRIPT Narrator: I remember ten years ago when African music didn't get as much global attention as it does now. Interestingly, now that I think of it, it wasn't because of a lack of talent or content. So, I wonder what has changed. Well, your guess is as good as mine. But Africa now has a growing youth population, exceptional music talents, unique genres, and streaming companies. Africa's music industry is doing so well that global companies are eager to sign deals with artistes to get a share of their earnings.  Guess what? Streaming made up 62.3% of the $21.5 billion revenue made by the global music industry in 2020.  If you ask me, digital distribution was clearly the game-changer. And the good thing is that apart from foreign platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, and Shazam, local streaming platforms are also contributing their quota. On this episode of Built in Africa, we explore how indigenous music streaming platform, AfroCharts, is offering unreached African music talents the opportunity to get paid for their content. Narrator: Burundi-born Leonard Novati, AfroCharts founder, lived his early life in Tanzanian refugee camps because of the constant civil wars in his home country. During his stay, music was one of the things he loved doing asides from other menial jobs he did to make ends meet, so he stuck with that on reaching the US in 2007 at the age of 16. However, he needed to fuel his thirst for entrepreneurship. But what were his options: become a musician, a music producer, or a disc jockey (DJ). Eventually, Leonard chose to make a living from DJing for some reason. Leonard Novati: When I got here where there was so much technology, I thought I could sing like most young kids, young boys and girls, I tried that, it didn't work. And then I tried to open a recording studio, it didn't work either. So, I'm like, well, I love music, I must share with the public. You know, somehow, I have to make people happy through music. If I cannot sing, I cannot produce, why don't I become a DJ? From there, I started teaching myself to DJ. Narrator: So, he founded a DJ company to make a living while in college and focused majorly on African music, which turned out to be his selling point. He often got invited to African and American events.  While he trained himself to become a DJ, he graduated with a computer science degree and later became a web developer. In 2014, he saw a need. People listening to his Afrobeats mix asked where they could get it, and some African artistes also contacted him to add their songs to his mix. That was when he had the idea for AfroCharts. But his first attempt wasn't a success. Leonard Novati: While I was in college, I actually tried to create something similar but for beats. Like an online beat-selling marketplace. Whether you're an African or not, where you can sell your beats to the world. Artistes are looking for fresh beats. That failed. That was in 2014. Narration: After that, he started brainstorming the idea for AfroCharts in 2016.  Leonard Novati: All these streaming platforms, African listeners and artistes still feel like they're left out. That's when it hit me, I'm like why don't we create our own platform? Our platform focuses on African artistes, Af

This episode is brought to you by Whogohost WordPress Hosting. Visit builtin.africa/whogohost and use coupon code BUILTINAFRICA to get 25% off on any annual plan. FULL TRANSCRIPT SFX: Ambulance siren Narrator: Access to healthcare is one of Africa's biggest challenges. The World Health Organization's recommended doctor to patient ratio is 1:600, but Nigeria falls short with 1:2,753 as revealed by its federal government in March 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. From this, one thing is sure: Nigeria is a far cry from having decent healthcare. With these statistics come a string of casualties. For Ifeanyi Ossai, a Nigeria and US-based entrepreneur, his aunt died on her way to a distant hospital following a protracted allergic reaction, a death that could have been avoided if she had received medical attention sooner.  SFX: Sombre sound This sad event would soon inspire Ifeanyi to build four functional medical clinics in Delta state, Nigeria, a place he grew up. Enter WeCare in 2017. to provide superior medical care to underserved areas to reduce or eliminate preventable deaths. Narrator: On this episode of Built in Africa, we examine how a Nigerian-founded healthcare business, WeCare evolved into a full-blown telemedicine healthtech startup, CribMD. Narrator: Although it was a well-thought-out idea, Ifeanyi soon discovered that many patients went home without getting the healthcare they sought; with the problem of accessibility solved, the challenge of demand surfaced.  Ifeanyi Ossai: Our physical clinics could not accommodate most of the customers we get on any given day. On any given day, we could only see about 10% of the customers that come to our doorsteps” Narrator: That's Ifeanyi Ossai, CEO and Chairman, WeCare and co-founder, CribMD.  In a bid to solve the demand problem, WeCare planned to open 300 clinics in sub-Saharan Africa. But in 2020, it became clear that the demand for healthcare would always exceed supply. Ifeanyi Ossai: That is when we came to the realisation that we need to solve healthcare in Africa another way.” Narrator: So, in WeCare's third year of operation, Ifeanyi sourced out the best brains he could get, to help him salvage the leftovers of his passion for affordable and accessible healthcare. He found two. In June 2020, Ifeanyi co-founded CribMD with Ngiri Michael, an experienced software engineer who serves as Chief Technology Officer (CTO); and Lorna Mae Johnson, a nurse and midwife running some medical clinics in Los Angeles, serving as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Narrator: So, here's exactly how CribMD works. Ifeanyi Ossai: Instead of you coming to our physical clinics, we can deliver the doctor to your home at your comfort and convenience  So, our goal is to democratise health care by delivering quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare to you wherever you are in Africa.” Narrator: … and how the business makes money? Ifeanyi Ossai: CribMD makes money by charging monthly subscriptions. So, we charge you a very small amount of money so that you can access our healthcare on-demand.” Narrator: Through the mobile app and website, users can have access to doctor home calls, telemedicine, prescription delivery, and many other features that don't require them to visit a hospital by su

This episode is brought to you by Whogohost WordPress Hosting. Visit builtin.africa/whogohost and use coupon code BUILTINAFRICA to get 25% off on any annual plan. FULL TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Saturday March 25 2017. Chukwuma Eleje, father of four, says goodbye to his family as he sets out to make deliveries for the day. Chukwuma works for one of the third-party logistics partners of eCommerce giant, Jumia. But little does he know that it's his last goodbye. Chukwuma ended up being murdered by 2 young men who ordered 2 iPhone 7 devices using Pay on Delivery, a popular payment option on Nigerian eCommerce platforms. After brutally snuffing the life of Mr. Eleje, the young men tied Chukwuma up and stuffed him into a septic tank.  The unfortunate incident happened at a time when Nigerians were still coming to terms with online shopping. Pay on Delivery was the preferred option, given the level of distrust and fear they feel. But the murder incident didn't look good on the industry.  The question is if they took Pay on Delivery out of the equation in those early days, what were the chances of survival for eCommerce businesses in Nigeria?  Naturally, these platforms began to explore safer options as it became clearer that Pay on Delivery wouldn't be sustainable in the long haul. Soon, escrow services became the perfect replacement but they were quite unpopular at the time.  Somewhere in Ghana in 2017, on the floors of the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) accelerator programme, three Nigerians, Ehi Aigiomawu, Ibrahim Oladele, and Tomisin Adeshiyan  came up with the idea for a bespoke escrow service. They named it Vesicash. Globally, the eCommerce sector is predicted to be worth $6.5 billion by 2022, and Vesicash plans to make it safe for Nigerian online businesses Ehi Aigiomawu: We found out that buyers could not trust the sellers to deliver the right items, so they would prefer Pay on Delivery instead. And sellers, on the other hand, people who sell, are not really convinced that “oh, if I ship this item, am I really sure this person will pay me? Won't it be an issue later on?”. So most of the time, this was leading to lots of unfulfilled orders. So how do we solve this problem? We knew that the main issue that these two people — the buy and the seller — had was trust. So they couldn't trust each other. So we asked, “how could we build a platform to foster trust between these sets of people so that they can transact smoothly?” Narrator: That's Ehi Aigiomawu, Vesicash Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer.  Ehi Aigiomawu: We did a couple of research in different spaces, and we found out that the problem was not just in the eCommerce space, it was also in the freelance sector, it was also in the real estate sector, and in other sectors too. So, we narrowed down and we decided that we're going to solve this problem, and we decided that escrow was a way for us to solve this problem, to foster trust between buyer and seller. So, we immediately registered the company called Vesicash with the sole purpose of guaranteeing payment security for digital transactions across Africa. Narrator: So, they pitched the idea and it sounded good. Ehi Aigiomawu: MEST liked it but then, we had to come back to Nigeria to validate the idea… MEST is in Ghana. Nigeria is a bigger market than Ghana so we had to come back to Nigeria, to actually validat

On this episode of Built in Africa, we take a look at how Y Combinator-backed Eze Wholesale is altering the global landscape of the used smartphone market. Image credit: Techjaja.com. FULL TRANSCRIPT  Narrator: In 2017, two friends, one a software engineer, and the other, a petroleum engineer, saw an opportunity. They became wholesalers in the used smartphone market currently valued at a whopping $46 billion.  They operated this business for over two years before they eventually realised that the used smartphone market had more issues than they thought. This problem gave birth to an entirely new business. [Theme song] On this episode of Built in Africa, we explore how Y Combinator-backed Eze Wholesale is altering the global landscape of the used smartphone market. David Iya and Joshua Nzewi are childhood friends, and they ran a couple of businesses together up until they got into the university. By 2016, Joshua had become a petroleum engineer at Shell while David had worked as a software engineer with two US-based Internet companies. One day, David called Joshua telling him about a business opportunity he had in mind: Joshua Nzewi: So one day he called me the scan the arbitrage opportunity between buying phones locally and selling them online. And that's what brought us into that. Narrator: Having run businesses before, it didn't take long for the two friends to kick this off. They did this for two and a half years but soon began to notice a trend. Joshua Nzewi: For about two and half years where we were just trading devices, buying them from individuals and selling them overseas. Until we went to trading conferences where we realised that there are inefficiencies in the market at a much higher level where companies are moving a billion dollars in devices a month. And realising this was not just a problem in the United States but also abroad as well. So the channels in which people are able to source these devices and then resell them. Narrator: So in January 2020,  they built Eze wholesale to try to solve this problem. Joshua Nzewi: So we created this online marketplace that would enable people to transact a lot faster, with more security and safety, and transparency, and much more efficiently than people are currently trading now. Narrator: Globally, the used smartphone market is valued at $46 billion, and in markets like Nigeria, it has continued to grow in importance. The International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that used smartphone shipments will exceed 330 million units with a market value of $67 billion by 2023. Here's how this process works.  Ben lives in the UK and uses an iPhone X. But, he's tired of it, so he walks into a carrier store and drops it off. The carrier store then auctions the iPhone X and other phones that have been dropped off to wholesalers. The wholesalers are tasked with the responsibility of effective distribution to those who need them. And this is why weeks later, Tobi buys that iPhone X in Nigeria for much less than its original cost. As a B2B platform, Eze Wholesale allows traders to place, buy, and sell used smartphones. Sellers can post the devices they have in stock, and then buyers can buy directly from them via the platform. For Eze wholesale, the aim is to open up the market for all and eliminate the middlemen in this space. Joshua Nzewi: What we're trying to do in this space is open the ma

We really can't stay (Baby, it's cold outside) Two weeks ’til we go away (Baby it's cold outside) This evening has been (Been hoping that you'd drop in) So very nice (On Joshua Allen we’ll roll the dice)   Our mothers will start to worry (Don’t start Latavious Murray) Our fathers will be pacing the floor (Need a running back who can score) (Narrator: So evidently not Frank Gore) So really you’d better scurry (We’re toast if Packer fans are the jury) Well maybe just a half a drink more (That JL Beers staff knows what to pour)   The listeners might think (Mitch Trubisky’s a Bear) Order up one more drink? (Clay Matthews has pretty hair) We wish we knew how (to quit Tre’Quan Smith—yeow!) To break this spell (First Bo, then 2V… aw, hell! Another zero!)   We ought to say no, no, no (For Zubaz use FFPHOHOHO) At least we’re gonna say that we tried (even if we’re playing for pride) We really can't stay (Janikowski had gout) Baby it's cold outside   And with that the Fantasy Football Party-goers closed their song books and backed away from the front door of JL Beers, where they’d been caroling and carrying on for the better part of an hour.   (Narrator: The fine representatives of the police department had nothing to do with their departure. Mere coincidence.)   Yes, the penultimate episode of the FFP podcast is in the books, with all the news and views you need to set your DFS lineups and/or survive and advance in your season-long playoffs during this critical Week 15. You had Magsh running the board with aplomb (and opposable thumbs), Bo offering sage wisdom as the show’s own fuzzy Buddha, and 2V moving up in class to the 15% ABV beer which made him that much more interesting… to himself.   Beyond description, this week’s podcast—like each episode before it—must be experienced to be believed. Do so now, if you dare. ‘Cuz baby it’s cold outside.   And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. We say that every week, and it’s more than just a line from “The Shawshank Redemption.” It’s an arduous journey, and we know many of you just aren’t willing to plow through this much prose. But rest assured, the payoff is worth it. What our show sponsors can do for you boggles the mind; check out these deals while you’re listening to the show, and we know you won’t be disappointed.   JL Beers – the Burnsville location is your home for the FF Party podcast each and every Wednesday night, as well as great food and a rotating supply of tasty beverages. Plus the service is top notch and the beer cheese dip is so delicious you don’t even need a pretzel to dip in it; just ask for a straw and a spoon. Zone Coverage - visit ZoneCoverage.com/Subscribe to ensure you get all of the dynamic Minnesota sports coverage our new media host has to offer. FantasyLabs - use promo code 50OFF to save 50% on a trial subscription at a site that provides you with the tools to be a DFS kingpin--or at least pick up some walkin' around money. FantasyDraft – Maybe your season-long team is crushing, or maybe you’ve been ravaged by injuries that leave you playing for little but pride down the stretch. Either way, DFS is the cure for what ails you—and FantasyDraft is your preferred destination for all things DFS. Click the link below to join our Listener League, where you’ll compete against the entirety of the FF Party team for cash prizes and a shot at other prizes (like maybe a Zubaz gift certificate). As an added bonus, if you’re a FantasyDraft first-timer you can click the other link below to pick up some additional FantasyDraft cash with your initial deposit. Either way, scratch your DFS itch with the fine folks at FantasyDraft! Like Skittlepox, it’s not contagious; we promise. Zubaz - use the FFP’s super-cool promo code for December, FFPHOHOHO, to save a whopping 20% off your order at Zubaz.com. Gifts for everyone in your family, from these sweet new knit hats for just $5 to the classic Zubaz pants in colors for every occasion from the office Christmas party at the bosses’ house to your end of season fantasy football league party in the Beer Hall at JL Beers!   Here’s your link to the Week 15 FFP Listener League: https://www.fantasydraft.com/contest/1152536/?r=FFParty&p=NFLFree$4All#modal=register&mRP=l&mRR=l   If you're a FantasyDraft first-timer, hit this link for a signing bonus courtesy of your good friends at FFP: https://www.fantasydraft.com/contests/?r=FFParty&p=NFLFree$4All#modal=register&mRP=l&mRR=l   You can also follow the show and its hosts on Twitter: @TheFFParty @Bo_Mitchell @MplsMaggio @jtuvey   The FFP's 50/50 lineups for Week 15:   Bo:   Josh Allen Elijah McGuire Kenneth Dixon Damien Williams Dante Pettis Curtis Samuel Ian Thomas Michael Badgley Cowboys D   magsh: Baker Mayfield Theo Riddick Frank Gore Kenny Stills Dede Westbrook Josh Reynolds Chris Herndon Jason Myers Seahawks D   2V: Lamar Jackson Jalen Richard Chris Ivory Robert Foster John Brown DaeSean Hamilton Vernon Davis Matt Bryant Cardinals D  

TVI Toolbox - Tools for Success: Meet Devin and Lisa, Son and Mom, Experiencing State Services and the BEP #SuccessStories Blind Abilities presents the TVI Toolbox. Where the collaboration between Teachers, Counselors, Parents, Agencies and the Students themselves help enhance the opportunities for success. Transitioning from high school to college and the workplace is  a major step and the beginning of lifetime goals and aspirations. As Devin , this month’s featured interview in the Success Stories portion of this podcast, experienced the workforce through an internship with the Business Enterprise Program (BEP). The BEP Director John Hulet talks about what to expect and how to get involved with BEP. Devin’s mom, Lisa Ferguson, takes us through her experience as a mom of a child with vision loss and working with State Services for the Blind (SSB). Her perspective along with Devin’s gives us a good idea of how Devin became a member of the workforce at age 15. Job experience, resume writing, learning the public transit system as a means of transportation and developing a relationship with a business owner and the Transition Team at SSB gives Devin and Lisa a wealth of experience moving forward. Full Transcript Below.  From the TVI’s to the Agency counselor’s and program specialist, working together along with parents as well, is creating more opportunities and successes for Transition age students. Sharing experiences through Success Stories, sharing programs that make a positive impact, sharing ideas, findings, upcoming events and the Tools for Success all play a part in making the transition process a natural progression and better understood by all.   Here are the links to the information we bring to this episode.   Transit Tracker App on the App Store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/transit-tracker/id659183692?mt=8   Join.Me- Screen Sharing Service on the Web. Getting everyone on the same page is easy – so long as join.me instant screen sharing is involved. When you start your join.me meeting, simply press the “Broadcast” button and you’re ready to go. It’s that simple.   Check out your State Services by searching the Services Directory on the AFB.org web site.   State Services for the Blind of Minnesota We offer tools and training for employment and for helping seniors remain independent and active. As Minnesota’s accessible reading source we also transcribe books and other materials into alternative formats, including audio and braille. We assist Minnesotans who are blind, DeafBlind, losing vision, or who have another disability that makes it difficult to read print. I hope you find what you need here. We've also created a Tips for Using Our New Website page. If you’d like to apply for services, learn more, or have more questions, just give us a call. You’ll find contact information for all of our offices on our contact page, or you can call our main office at 651-539-2300.   You can submit to the On The Horizons segment by emailing jessica Hodges   Full Transcript:   Narrator: TVI toolbox is a tool for teachers, for agencies, for clients, to enhance the opportunities and the understanding of transition services; professionals talking about the services they provide, teachers of the visually impaired talking about topics of transitioning from high school, to college, to the work place. Students talking about their journeys, their successes, and some of the barricades and brick walls that were in their way, and solutions, tips, and tricks, on how they got through it. On this episode of TVI toolbox, we have John Hulet, director of the Business Enterprise program from state services for the blind. We also have Devin and Lisa. Devin is a high school student who took part in the Business Enterprise program internship. And Lisa is Devin's mom, and Lisa's going to talk about Devin's experience, and her experience with state services for the blind. And in tools for success, we have a demonstration of transit tracker, an application for busses, trains, timings, and routs, and it's totally accessible. And for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on twitter @blindabilities, and download the free app from the app store. That's two words, blind abilities. This podcast was produced in part by state services for the blind, live, learn, work, and play. And now, here's John Hulet, director of the Business Enterprise Program at state services. So John Hulet, what qualities makes a great business Enterprise program operator?    John: some of the most important attributes would be an individual who's motivated, who's a selfstater, who's willing to learn how to do things, who comes into the program wanting to work and is excited about the idea of operating their own business, but recognizing at the same time that there's a lot of work in operating ones own business.    Narrator: That was John Hulet. They opened up an internship in the Business Enterprise program to a high school student, and we got the opportunity to talk to Devin, and his mother Lisa. She's going to give us the perspective of a mom working with state services for the blind and  the Business Enterprise program.    Lisa: My name is Lisa Ferguson, I'm Devin Westmiller's mom who worked this summer for the BEP through SSB   Narrator: mhm, that's great. How did you first get connected with state services for the blind?    Lisa: I was told about it by his vision teacher Sophie Chaven   Narrator: mm, so the school districts teacher   Lisa: yes   Narrator: And when you contacted them you found opportunities? It seems like he really enjoyed the vending program this summer.    Lisa: oh, for sure, I actually enquired to see if he could do the vending, like go to school and get the certificate for the vending, but as far as I know, or what I was told, he is the youngest one to actually utilize and work through the BEP program.    Narrator: That's great   Lisa: Yeah, so he's a very young fifteen year old, he just turned fifteen   Narrator: So with that experience maybe next summer he can do a little more, and have something lined up for him right upon graduation?    Lisa: Oh, definitely, actually one sooner than that now we can actually make him a resume. We actually did make him a resume and he applied for another job at SSB.    Narrator: And did you use the online Minnesota online job application process?    Lisa: Yes, we did   Narrator: How'd that go?    Lisa: It went good. It was definitely a good learning experience.    Narrator: So what's it like for you to experience state services for the blind?    Lisa: It's been really positive and my, I guess our counselor, Tou Yang has just been on top of this and got a new position, and learning himself on the way, ends up being kind of like a mediator,  person who can kind of make it easier for the main counselor Ashlyn to make everything successful for us. Without him I'm not sure what or how I would have done it, so that was extremely important.    Narrator: The middle man    Lisa: yeah, the middle man is very important. And I"am not saying maybe Ashlyn could have done the same thing, I just dealt with Tou   Narrator: Well, in his position, that exactly, what he's there to do. Ashlyn has other clients, so when someone's in the position that Devin was in, he moves in and segways them into companies or other people where the opportunities are. He's kind of that bridge. So he's a tool of Ashlyn's.    Lisa: Yeah, definitely, I mean he's the one that came to the school like every week, for a while, or a couple times a month, and did those intense assessments, so Devin was able to get to know him, and wen Devin first told me about it, he kind of brought it up, and a few weeks went by, and summer was coming, and he said "I really want to do that vending thing.That was really difficult fro me because we're in the suburbs, and had to go to saintpaul every morning, but we made it work, and he learned how to use the bus, so it was a big learning experience as well using mass transit.   Narrator: Experience is one of the best teachers, so this is something that's going to stick with him for quite a while.    Lisa: Yes, definitely.    Narrator: Yeah, the BEP program in Minnesota is a really good, and you learn a lot from it and see just how business is done, all from a machine, or from the store, which ever you experience, so that's great   Lisa: And eh really liked, what did they call it, Eric Farms was his mentor,    Narrator: Oh, Eric   Lisa: Since he had the stores and the vending machines and he really enjoyed working with Eric, Eric was a great mentor, so that was another big part of the connection experience that we had through SSb meeting Eric and having Eric be completely blind. Devin is legally blind, and doesn't need a lot of the adaptations, but  Eric just was incredible with my son, so. And he's very open to let other people come in, you know, there was other people that Eric has working for him through these programs, it's pretty special.    Narrator: So it's worked out pretty good?    Lisa: Yeah, it's worked out great   Narrator: That's good, and now he's going out and resume building, and filling out a job application, and hopefully a job interview coming up, and that experience, and lots of good stuff. That's great. So what advice would you have for other parents who are experiencing a child that is loosing vision or has vision loss?    Lisa: Take advantage of the services that are out there. Take advantage of SSB, and the Bep program, and put your fingers to the keyboard. Ask questions at the IEP meeting, ask questions to follow it all through. I mean, that's really what it is. You have to really be engaged, and partake in helping find the resources that around as early as possible, and once that's done, you get it in earlier, and they kind of have a path to start from.    Narrator: You mentioned the IEP, the individual education plan?    Lisa: Yes   Narrator: Can you explain that to some parents that may not know what that is?    Lisa: It's a plan that's kind of to, it's through the school that has these special education program, and you need, it's an independent education plan that a group of people or support group at the school get together, and it becomes regulated in the school. If your child needs adaptation needs or specific needs, like my son can wear a baseball hat at school if it's too bright in the room. Just certain little tweaks and things like that that can really help your kid. I mean the latest example is Devin is in tenth grade and taking statistics, and he has to get a calculator, and the calculator, even though he can see, he is limited on his certain vision, looking on a very small screen is difficult, and strain. so I said that's not going to work, we need to find a solution, and so the people that were in the group of the IEP helped me to get an application that he can use on his computer. So he can actually look at the graphing app on his computer instead of a tiny little screen. It just makes the people behind him in the special education program on top of it.    Narrator: Keeps everyone on the same page.    Lisa: Yeah, as long as everyone's engaged, that's the best thing for your child.    Narrator: Now I myself am visually impaired, I wouldn't know what it's like to have a child that lost his eye sight, did you know you would be his best advocate?    Lisa: It came as a bit of a peculiar circumstance, because I am deaf. I wear two hearing aids. Without my hearing aids I'd be eighty percent deaf. I have to do ASL, but luckily I have some really good hearing aids, and so I knew also had special education. Back then they didn't call it special education, they didn't call it IEPs, but we had support, and additional person, at least I was given speech therapy and things like that that I had requested through elementary school, and junior high, and high school. So I know some of the difficulties, having a different kind of disability, and I kind of became my own advocate really young. I didn't really have somebody else to speak for me, so I  had to speak for myself,  I can't hear, I need to sit in the front, I don't know what's going on. And the special education tutor outside of the classroom was very helpful! So it was the same type of thing that we go through we need to lift a helping hand.    Narrator: so you've almost become a roll model too, I mean your achievements, he sees as successful, and now he's getting some success, last summer was a big success, it seems like you guys are on the right path.    Lisa: he wants to...I can't get him a job fast enough.    Narrator: There you go. Now, back in the day people looked at state services for the blind as kind of a last resort if you can't do it yourself, like a safety net, and I'd like to think that we're blowing some good, fresh wind into the place, and they're doing a good job. Like Tou is there, and the whole transition department there has really grown and expanded and put some good focus on getting the job experience that is needed, and it becomes a vehicle for your future.    Lisa: I agree. I guess I, when you were first saying that it was a last resort, absolutely not, it's a first resort   Narrator: That's a great way of putting it because it used to be, back in the day like, you can't pull your bootstraps up, then you go there, and the image is really changed, and that's part of why we're doing some of these podcasts to cast, let people see that  by going to state services for the blind you have opportunities that are created and experience, and you set a foot forward on the right path to succeed   Lisa: yeah, definitely, without a doubt   Narrator: If you actually break down that "Can I do it?" and actually say yes I can.    Lisa: Well I think one of the things is I'm here for Devin, so I can help him . I mean obviously I'm getting the resources to him because he wouldn't know how to ask for them, so I'm guessing there's plenty of people who don't have that extra person do you know what I mean, that can't be reached the way that Devin... you know, luckily we have an IEP, we have a vision teacher, we have somebody to connect us. So I can see it being difficult for people who don't have that person to help them out. And if they don't have a parent or guardian or somebody, whoever they're working with needs to really, I guess, share the information.    Narrator: I've got to hand it to you for being effectively involved in his journey. It's really great that you've had the experience kind of knew the ropes a little bit.   Lisa: Yeah, for sure.    Narrator: You've got to get out there and find them too.    Lisa: Yeah, and I keep searching. I mean, it doesn't end with SSB, but SSB is huge and we're going to continue to use them in the future for connections, job opportunities, living opportunities, training,    Narrator: Training, life skills, orientation and mobility, how to use the transit systems, from all levels, to legally blind to totally blind there's something there, a division there that can help anybody, all the way to seniors, and all the way to, I think Devin's one of the younger ones, I think 14 is the start, or fifteen, and he's already done some work in the summer, so he's got a great start, good job to both of you.    Lisa: Thank you. Yeah, he is   Narrator: It's a team over at SSB.    Lisa: Yeah   Narrator: Lisa thank you for taking the time and coming onto the podcast, and you're doing a great job, you and Devin, and congratulations to all the success you guys have had so far.    Lisa: And thank you for what you're doing for my son, and thanks SSB   Narrator: It's always good to get a perspective of a mom of a child going through state services for the blind, especially the business enterprise program. And now, here's Devin, talking about his experience on the job. And today we're talking to Devin Wesmeller, how are you doing?    Devin: Good    Narrator: Good, could you tell our listeners at blind abilities about who you are, what you do, and what you did last summer?    Devin: I'm a tenth grader, sophomore in high school. I just started the school year. I'm trying to focus.    Narrator: What was it like starting school again, fun?    Devin: Yeah, it's actually pretty good so far   Narrator: That's good. What kind of classes are you taking?    Devin: World history, statistics, history, English.    Narrator: While you're in high school do you use any alternative techniques or any devices to help you for accomplishing accommodations?    Devin: I use a web sight called join.me   Narrator: Join.me?    Devin: Yeah, it's a web sight. All my teachers have it. They sign into it, and They give me a code, and it's a screen share app, so I can see whatever's on their screen through my computer   Narrator: Oh, really! Well that's interesting. join.me, I'll look that up. All your teachers have that, so it's just something that you've come to accept as part of going to school?    Devin: Yeah, and it definitely helps a lot, so I actually like it.    Narrator: That's great. When you're in your school district you have a teacher for the visually impaired?    Devin: Yeah, I most of the time will work with my DHH teacher, but it's mostly about my vision.    Narrator: Ah, and what's a DHH teacher?    Devin: Deaf and hard of hearing teacher, because I have a slight hearing loss.    Narrator: Ok, so last summer, you worked with state services for the blind in Minnesota, and it created an opportunity for you to do some work. Can you tell our listeners a little about that?    Devin: Yeah, it was a vending company, and I worked there for like two months during the summer, and learned all about what it would be like to be a vender.    Narrator: For the business Enterprise program?    Devin: Yeah.    Narrator: That's probably pretty interesting isn't it? How'd you like it?    Devin: It was really fun.    Narrator: Does that open up again for you next year maybe?    Devin:  I hope so.    Narrator: Per sue it, maybe it could happen. Being intense and looking towards the future, have you thought about college at all?    Devin: Kind of, not that much so far.    Narrator: Any interests?    Devin: I'll be starting to think out of it my junior year.    Narrator: mhm, growing up with vision loss, how did that affect your childhood?    Devin: It was hard when I was younger because I didn't I wore special glasses, really dark to help with light sensitivity, and I had to wear big sunglass goggles, and I couldn't see very well through them. Other than that, I was fine in class, I did pretty ok.    Narrator: How  do you access your computer today?    Devin: As long as I'm close, or I zoom in a little bit I can see it.    Narrator: Is there any devices such as an iPhone, or a computer...what's your favorite a PC or a Mac?    Devin: I just use a chromebook from my school    Narrator: Ah. So do you like the iPhone?    Devin: Yeah, I like the iPhone 5S   Narrator: Do you use the accessibility feature of the zoom?    Devin: Yeah, sometimes, I need it if I can't zoom in on something.    Narrator: That's pretty nice to have that central zoom from the apple products.   Devin: Yeah.    Narrator: So Devin, what kind of hobbies do you do? what kind of stuff do you do for leisure, entertainment, and all that stuff?    Devin: I like to hang out with friends, and study hard, because I'm starting the year really good.    Narrator: In the business Enterprise program when you got introduced to that, what was your day like? When you started, when you showed up for work, until you got done?    Devin: I just started on the vending machines, started the store, made sure they were nice and stocked for the day. Because they were the best sellers.    Narrator: So you'd have to open them up and pull up the trays, and make sure all of them are full, and...   Devin: Yeah, because e they were all bought from a lot.   Narrator: There was opportunity to make some money there.    Devin: Yeah   Narrator: Did you get into some of the soda machines and the coffee machines that type of thing?    Devin: Yeah, yeah I learned how to go in the back, and stack the right way, and soda machine, and clean the coffee vending machine.   Narrator: It's not all fun and games, is it?    Devin: No, it takes a lot.    Narrator: Mhm, so do you think this will be something that other people might be get interested in?    Devin: Yeah, I think so, I thought it was really fun.    Narrator: What's the suggestions you have for other people who are looking for summer work and are visually impaired.    Devin: I think they should use state services for the blind because of the opportunities they gave me.    Narrator: And how would someone get a hold of state services for the blind?    Narrator: My mom told me she wanted to sign me up for this thing that would help me in the future and it was state services for the blind. I thought it was a good idea, because I hadn't had any work experience so I wanted to get some. We asked if their were any opportunities in the summer.    Narrator: Great. Well, Devin,thank you very much, thanks for coming on to Blind Abilities.    Devin: Thanks , thank you   Narrator: It's really great to know that Devin's got a little bit of job experience now and wants to go back. And if you're interested in getting job experience, contact your state services for the blind and see what they can do for you. Now, here's John Hulet. He's going to tell you a little bit about if you're interested in the Business Enterprise Program.    John: Well first of all, I think it's important that anybody that's listening to this is interested in the program they should contact me to talk about it. One of the things I like to talk about with folks when we're first starting out is to let them know how the program operates. Because their's a list of available vending investment opportunities in the state, and our BEP venders typically stay in the program for twenty, sometimes forty plus years, it can be challenging to know when an opportunity will become available. though this type of challenge exists, we are always excited about meeting potential participants, discussing the program in greater detail with them, and looking at potential vending business opportunities that may exist. The training is a compilation of interviews, assessments, job shadowing, online training, in house equipment training, and on the job training. This business can take six to nine months to complete.    Narrator: There you have it. If you're interested in owning your own business, want to work hard, and be your own boss, contact your state services and enquire about the Business Enterprise program. And now, tools for success. And today, we're going to be looking at an app that helps with bus routs, train routs, something you can pull out, turn it on, and it will tell you when the next bus is coming, or train, in real time. So I've opened up my iPhone, hit the icon   VoiceOver: Transit Tracker   Narrator: And here I am. It starts out, in default, I open it up, and I'm at the left hand corner, so I'm going to swipe  to the right with one finger.    VoiceOver: Transit tracker, MSP, heading.    Narrator: So it's set for Minneapolis and Saintpaul.    VoiceOver: Refresh, button   Narrator: Hitting this button will refresh all the routs populated on your screen.    VoiceOver: N features visible.    Narrator: There is a map provided, which takes up about a two inch square on the screen, and since we're using VoiceOver, it's not going to give us much information, so I will keep swiping, single finger left to right. It comes up to my location that I'm at right now   VoiceOver: East River road and 69th way.   Narrator: So now we'll continue swiping left to right, single finger,, and it starts telling me the routs that the GPS has located for me at my destination.    VoiceOver: 852, north bound 852 A Express/North town Oka tech, next scheduled departure, 1:53 PM    Narrator: So, if I swipe again,    VoiceOver: 852, south bound, 852 south bound 7nnMPLS, next scheduled departure, 1:56 PM    Narrator: So that's pretty nice. River road runs north to south, and it's telling me what's coming, and the time. So, what if I wanted to find other routs? Up in the upper left hand corner, there's a button, four finger single tap near the top will put my VoiceOver cursor right on the top.    VoiceOver: Top of screen.    Narrator: Swipe to the  left,    VoiceOver: Button   Narrator: Now this is not labeled, but I know it's the menu, and you could label this button by doing a two finger single tap and hold and then typing in, menu. So here goes, two finger double tap and hold?    VoiceOver: Alert, text field, is editing, label, insertion point at start. M, E, N, U, save, button.    Narrator: Ok, I'll try a four finger single tap near the top   VoiceOver: Transit tracker   Narrator: and a single finger swipe to the left,    VoiceOver: Menu, button.    Narrator: There it is, it's now labeled. In this method of labeling a button or something that you would like to have labeled works across the board. So remember, a two finger double tap and hold brings up the dialogue box that will label that button. So, let's go check out the menu. Single finger double tap   VoiceOver: Transit Tracker, MSP. Trip planner   Narrator: Trip planner is where you can type in a destination. You have two criteria's, the time you want to leave, and the time that you arrive the destination. So say I wanted to get there by five o'clock, it would then calculate what time I would need to leave on what route to arrive there at five o'clock. Or, if I wanted to leave here at three, it would then let me know when I'd arrive at my destination. Trip planner's a great option if you're not so sure what time it's going to take to get there, and to make sure you're on time.    VoiceOver: Routs/stops   Narrator: If I was to click on this, I could then search for any bus number that I would like. That's called a rout. If I was to choose from a stop, I could type in the stop number, and it would tell me the busses and times, and typically I'd just look for the bus number. Moving down the menu list, It will show me the forms of transportation that I have to choose from.    VoiceOver: Transit type. Selected, bus, train, northstar, amtrack    Narrator: So there you go, those are your four choices. So when you find a rout that you take frequently, or a series of routs that you take frequently, you then have the option to save it, right here in the menu.    VoiceOver: Saved.    Narrator: That's really nice, because typically, with GPS, always looking for the busses that are in your vicinity, wherever you are. So say you're two blocks away at a restaurant or coffee shop, anticipating a bus arrival. you could then go to your saved stops, and see what's happening there. So that's a little overview of Transit Tracker. Download it to your phone, check it out, and I believe for 4.99 you can upgrade to a no advertisement, the ability to save your routs, a little more, robust it makes it. I did it, and it's real worth it, but you can use the free version as well. So thanks for checking out tools for success. And remember, for more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on twitter @blindabilities, and download the free blind abilities app from the app store, that's two words, blind abilities. 

TVI Toolbox: Success Stories, Tools for Success - #BeMyEyes App, Meet Jeff Mihiletch  Blind Abilities presents the TVI Toolbox. Where the collaboration between Teachers, Counselors, Parents, Agencies and the Students themselves help enhance the opportunities for success. Transitioning from high school to college and the workplace is  a major step and the beginning of lifetime goals and aspirations. As Jeff Mihiletch, this month’s featured interview in the Success Stories portion of this podcast, puts it, “Braille is a tool he wished he would have given a better chance.”    From the TVI’s to the Agency counselor’s and program specialist, working together along with parents as well, is creating more opportunities and successes for Transition age students. Sharing experiences through Success Stories, sharing programs that make a positive impact, sharing ideas, findings, upcoming events and the Tools for Success all play a part in making the transition process a natural progression and better understood by all.     On The Horizon is a bulletin space for upcoming events, information and resources submitted by listeners and our staff. You can submit to On the Horizon by emailing Jessica Hodges. The Success Stories feature an experience of a Transition Student, whether they are attending college, preparing for college or are now employed, the Success Stories brings a positive and a sharing of the experience of transitioning from high school to college and the work place.   Here are the links to the information we bring to this episode.   Scholarships from the National Federation of the Blind   Perkins Program for Students   Blind, Inc Summer Programs   Summer Transition Program (STP) Extended School Year Program Deb Peterson at DPeterson@916schools.org     Check out your State Services by searching the Services Directory on the AFB.org web site.   State Services for the Blind of Minnesota   We offer tools and training for employment and for helping seniors remain independent and active. As Minnesota’s accessible reading source we also transcribe books and other materials into alternative formats, including audio and braille. We assist Minnesotans who are blind, DeafBlind, losing vision, or who have another disability that makes it difficult to read print. I hope you find what you need here. We've also created a Tips for Using Our New Website page. If you’d like to apply for services, learn more, or have more questions, just give us a call. You’ll find contact information for all of our offices on our contact page, or you can call our main office at 651-539-2300.   You can submit to the On The Horizons segment by email to jessica.Hodges@state.mn.us Thank you for listening. You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities App on the App Store.   Full Transcript:   TVI Toolbox: Success Stories, Tools for Success - #BeMyEyes App, Meet Jeff Mihiletch (Music)     Dacia: It's your job, disability or not, to know what you bring to the table, and sell that. That's your job.   Narrator: Welcome to the blind abilities TVI Toolbox. I'm Jeff Thompson.   Dacia: Because they don't have any experience with vision loss, so they're thinking to themselves, "I don't know if I could do that if I couldn't see right. I'm not sure that they're going to be able to do that." That's what... there inner monologue isn't about you, it's about what they think that you can't do, and their bias.   Narrator: TVI toolbox is a tool for teachers, for agencies, for clients to enhance the opportunity and the understanding of transition services. Professionals talking about the services they provide. Teachers of the visually impaired talking about topics of transitioning from high school, to college, to the work place. Students talking about their journeys, there successes, and some of the barricades and brick walls that were in there way, and solutions, tips, and tricks on how they got through it.   Dasha: We try to help them develop resumes right from the beginning. We would like some body that even as young as fifteen sixteen to have a resume that they can continuously add to, to build on. It really puts in front of them a more realistic view of "Ok, well I can add this to my resume. I can do this because I can add that. This is going to bring value." It kind of gives them more of an ownership of there experience.   Narrator: That's (probable spelling mistake here,) Dasha van Alstine. She's an employment program specialist at state services for the blind, working with clients, counselors, and employees, to optimize the opportunities for successful employment.   Dasha: I always tell people, if you go into an interview, and you're thinking that you're not the best candidate, you're probably not.   Narrator: On this episode of TVI Toolbox, we'll be talking about employment. We'll be hearing more from Dasha van Alstine, and the success story today features Jeff Mihiletch, with A BS degree in Business Administration. And Jessica Hodges with On the Horizon, where she brings you recent news and events with particular interest in the transition process with a blindness perspective. And the tools for success spotlight is Be My Eyes. It's an ap that, well, kind of speaks for itself. Now, here's employment program specialist Dasha van Alstine. Dasha, welcome to blind abilities. Can you tell our listeners what your roll is at state services?   Dasha: Hi Jeff. I am a program specialist for the employment team at state services for the blind.   Narrator: Tell us a little more about the employment team.   Dasha: The employment team works with various counselors and customers on anything from the very beginning of how to choose a job goal, all the way up to when it's time to close your case. So are you ready, do you have everything you need, do you need additional training, we're there all along the way. Whereas a counselor looks at an entire situation, we look at everything from absolute employment   Narrator: Dasha, for a transition student, what would a first meeting with the employment team look like?   Dasha: That can be at any type of stage, it depends on... if somebody has done a lot of research various...market information on their own, we might not meet with any of us until later. Someone who really needs some help and some direction with trying to figure out what they want to be, and what that's going to look like, and where the doors are going to open, they might meet with us right away.   Narrator: So first they work with state services, then when it comes time to think about employment, that's when they get handed off to the employment team?   Dasha: Well, preferably, they wouldn't just get handed off to our team. We would want to have some sort of relationship with them from the beginning. I'll give you an example. A college student, someone who knows that they're college bound know they want to go to college to get to a career, we'll look at them right before it happens and say, "Ok, what is your job goal? What do you want to do? What are the various avenues to get there." We'll work on what is the most appropriate way from point A to point B, for you, with college in the middle there. And then, in college, a lot of times there will be some check ins. We'll check on them, hey, how's it going? Have you thought about an internship yet? Are you working during school? Do you need help finding something. You know, what can we do to assist you?" We make connections for them, and sometimes we help them find part time employment, or find there internship. A lot of times, we'll work with the school to try to figure that out with them, to try to get them more independent and not depending on us. And then, when they're getting ready to graduate, sometime before the last semester, we help the figure out, you know, it's time to start looking. Because ideally, you want a job before you graduate, you want that job to be ready for you.   Narrator: Dasha: With the age of transition students, I imagine that a lot of them have not had too much job experience. Does the employment team have a component for people to learn about job interviews and filling out resumes?   Dasha: It's different for each person. That begins whenever appropriate. Some people, especially our young people, We try to help them develop resumes right from the beginning. We would like some body that even as young as fifteen sixteen to have a resume that they can continuously add to, to build on. It really puts in front of them a more realistic view of "Ok, well I can add this to my resume. I can do this because I can add that. This is going to bring value." It kind of gives them more of an ownership of there experience. Every aspect of every case is so different. There are some people that need us to do the resume and then walk them through what we did. There's other people that we just give some guidance to, and they do it. you know, everything is so individualized, it's wherever it's appropriate for each individual case.   Narrator: That's great. Dasha, there's a saying, don't judge a book by it's cover, but in the employment situation, in job interviews, can you tell us a little bit about first impressions?   Dasha: First impressions are really important, especially if you have a vision loss, because there's a really good chance that whoever you're meeting has never met someone with a vision loss before. There's no back ground there. They're going to base whatever experience they have with you, and project that onto every other person that they ever meet in the future who has a vision loss. When you meet somebody, especially if you're going in for an interview, you want to make sure that first of all, you're nice to the receptionist, because if you're not nice to the receptionist, the person interviewing you is going to find out, and you're not going to get that job. Just saying, the receptionist, that's the barrier there. Be nice to them. And second of all, once you do meet somebody, and if you have to follow them, make sure that you're comfortable, and don't be afraid to ask for information. Left or right? Where's the room? Don't be afraid to ask those kinds of directions.. With first impressions, you want to make sure that you are well put together. You want to make sure that you don't go into a business with saggy clothes, or with dirty clothes. You want to make sure that your hair is, you know, presentable, that you're not wearing baseball caps. You also want to make sure that you can speak clearly, concisely, have some confidence, that's going to be really important to an employer. Even if you're just walking in to pick up an application. Just go to the receptionist, be nice, "Hi, you know, my name is so and so. I was wondering if you're hiring. Can I get an application? Even something as simple as that. That goes a a long way. You also want to make sure that when you do talk to somebody, especially if it's an interview, you're going to get that, "Tell me about yourself." You could even get that when you meet an employer at a job fair, or an internship fair. Tell me about yourself. You want to make sure, especially if you have more of an obvious disability, you want to make sure that you kind of address that in a way that makes it so they're not thinking about that, they're thinking about your skills. A lot of people make the mistake of never saying anything, and then an employer, the whole time that they're talking is thinking well... Because they don't have any experience with vision loss, so they're thinking to themselves, "I don't know if I could do that if I couldn't see right. I'm not sure that they're going to be able to do that." That's what... there inner monologue isn't about you, it's about what they think that you can't do, and their bias.  So it's up to you to make sure that you sell yourself. Sell your skills. Tell how you do things. Go into it with confidence. Know what your skills are ahead of time. Know what you have to offer  the employer, and just go into it that way. And this is not just with employers. This is also useful with your professors.   Narrator: Dasha, I was just doing an interview with a business owner, Susan Robinson. She said that she'd never hired a person because they had sight. She always hired a person because she felt they could best do the job that she needed to get done   Dasha: Yes, it's all about the what can you do for me. Employers hire because they have a job that they have to get done. They don't hire because they want to feel good. They don't hire because they want to spend a bunch of money. They do it because they have a job, and they have to get it done. So your job is to make sure that they know you can do that job, and not only that, but you can bring stuff to the table so you're the person can help them get that done. You're the best candidate, and this is why I always tell people, if you go into an interview, and you're thinking that you're not the best candidate, you're probably not. If you're going into an interview, and you can't even think of what you bring to offer to the table, the employer's not going to know. It's your job, disability or not, to know what you bring to the table, and sell that. That's your job.   Narrator: Selling it!"   Dasha: "Selling it."   Narrator: "That's what it comes down to, selling yourself, letting the employer know that you have a set of abilities that will help their company succeed. Well, there's that sound, so let's turn it over to Jessica Hodges with On the Horizon.   Jessica: "Good day to you all. There are many, many lovely events coming up on the horizon. First of all, the national federation of the blind has some awesome scholarships for students both nationally and state wide. To find out more about scholarships both in your state and at the national level, you can visit www.nfb.org. On the subject of college, Perkins has a program for college students where you live on there campus for nine months, and attend school close to them. It's a good way for college students to kind of get there feet underneath them and make sure that they are really ready, and it's a great way to get started with college. You can visit there webcite to find out more. The national braille press has a guide for those who are interested in apple watches called, "You and Your Apple Watch," by Anna Dresner. You can find that on their webcite, nbp.org. Blind incorporated, the well renown training center for the national federation of the blind in Minnesota has there summer programs coming up, and that means they are looking for both students and counselors. For more information on those, you can go to their webcite, www.blindinc.org. For the style program, ,they're looking for people from July Tenth through August fifteenth, and the buddy program is also looking for people from July Tenth through August Fifteenth. For the prep counselor positions, they are looking for people from June Tenth, to August Fifteenth. The prep is the young adult program, the style is a young adult program here in Minnesota, and the buddy program is the younger children. So, if you would like to know more about that ,visit their webcite, www.blindinc.org. Minnesota has a lovely program for transition aged students called the STP program. An extended school year program, the STP, or summer transition program, is a program designed for students between tenth and eleventh grade who are planning on working competitively and working independently. To get a brochure or have paperwork sent to your school, contact Deb Peterson, dpeterson@916schools.org. If you have any events you'd like included on the next horizon, please email jessica.hodges@state.mn.us. Thank you for staying tuned, and please listen to next time, as we'll have more events on your horizon.   Narrator: Well thank you Jessica Hodges. And for more information on all the events mentioned, check the show notes. for the links. And now, our tools for success spotlight. We bring you Be My Eyes. It's an application that hooks the phone to a person that will see through your camera what you're looking at and describe it for you. It's a personal assistant. It's free from the app store, and on Android. So we're going to demonstrate the iOS device on Apple, here's Be My Eyes. Siri? Open be my eyes.   VoiceOver: Be My Eyes. Call first available volunteer, button.   Narrator: It's ready to go. With a single finger double tap, you're activated, and you're ready to call. But lets swipe right, single finger swipe left to right.   VoiceOver: Settings, button.   Narrator: Double tap here   VoiceOver: Settings, heading.   Narrator: Now a flick to the right.   VoiceOver: Done, button.  Profile, heading. Personal details, Jeff Thompson, button   Narrator: Swipe to the right.   VoiceOver: Change email, button. Password, button. Languages, heading. Primary language, English, button. Other languages, button. Send us feedback, button. Frequently asked questions, button. Terms and privacy policy, button. Share be my eyes, button. Rate be my eyes, button. Connect with us, heading. Facebook, button. Twitter, button. Instagram, button. Youtube, button. Version: 2.1   Narrator: So this is upgraded, and as you can see you can share this, you can go follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of the stuffs there. But one important thing here is this.   VoiceOver: Send us feedback, button.   Narrator: Send us feedback. This allows you to connect up right with the developers of the app in case you have an issue. You don't have to tweet it out on Twitter and complain or anything like that on Facebook. You can just go here, and send it straight to the main office. There you go. So let's go back. I'm going to do a four finger single tap, near the top of the screen.   VoiceOver: Settings, heading.   Narrator: Swipe once to the right.   VoiceOver: Done, button.   Narrator: Single finger double tap.   VoiceOver: Call first available volunteer, button.   Narrator: All right, so at this point, if I single finger double tap, I'm getting online, so I'd better have something ready for them to do for this demonstration. I think it's coffee time.       VoiceOver Using the rear camera. Please wait. Finding the first available volunteer.   (ringing sounds)   Narrator: And this is where the be my eyes app. ..   VoiceOver: We are still trying to find an available volunteer.   Narrator: searches for someone that speaks English, someone that's in my time zone. So it searches the world basically, and tries to come up with someone who is best suited for answering my questions. Now this time varies. I've had people pick up in twelve seconds. I've had people pick up in... oh...two minutes. But typically, it's around that thirty second mark. And for privacy reasons, I've changed the voice of the volunteer so it's not detectible.   VoiceOver: Connected.   Volunteer: "Hello." (there was another word there but I couldn't for the life of me make it out.)   Narrator: Hello. Hi, how are you?   Volunteer: I'm all right, how about yourself?   Narrator: I'm all right. I have a question. I have a kurig machine here, this one.   Volunteer: Yep.   Narrator: And when I push this down, it's supposed to give me a choice here for ounces.   Volunteer: The light is hitting in a way I can't read. I think the... ok, that's better. You have... it says it's ten ounce, and there's an arrow at the top and an arrow at the bottom.   Narrator: So down here?   Volunteer: Up a little hire. Right there is where it says ten ounce, yep now it's at eight ounces. You're pushing the down button. How do you want it to be?   Narrator: I want it at eight. Is that it?   Volunteer: Ok.   Narrator: So then the other buttons up here, what are they?   Volunteer: Well, that would be increasing the amount,   Narrator: Ok,   Volunteer: and when you're ready, then you move your finger to the left   Narrator: Ok.   Volunteer: And use this button to make it go, let's see what happens.   (kurig noises)   Volunteer: It's brewing.   Narrator: Well there we go. Thank you very much.   Volunteer: You're very welcome.Have a good day."   Narrator: You too.   VoiceOver: End call, button. Alert. Are you sure you want to disconnect? No. Yes. Yes button.   Narrator: And that was a very nice volunteer. And it wasn't mini mouse, believe me. That voice was changed. And there we go. We got hot cocoa coming. All right, so after the experience is over, this is what we get.   VoiceOver: Review your experience, heading.. Thanks for your call. Please let us know if you had any problems during this call, be it either technical or personal. I experienced problems, button. I had a good call, button.   Narrator: And that's it. that's all there is to this free app. it's be my eyes in app store, and be my eyes on android in the google play store. And in this success story, we bring you Jeff Mihiletch, who has utilized the services of state services for the blind for many years, from elementary school, high school, college, and the work place. Jeff has found success, and is currently employed, and invited us down to his south Minneapolis office to chat with us. So please welcome Jeff Mihiletch. We hope you in joy.   Narrator: Welcome to blind abilities, I'm Jeff Thompson, and I'm downtown south Minneapolis with Jeff Mihiletch, and he is employed and has used state services for the blind before. How are you doing Jeff?   Jeff: Good morning, I'm doing good.   Narrator: Can you tell us a little bit about your job and what you do?   Narrator: I am Jeff Mihiletch. I work in the snap employment and training program, and that is about people that receive food support, snap benefits that they used to call food stamps. If you are an able bodied adult without dependants, it's mandatory now that you be job searching, and my team does the job searching orientation classes and case management for clients that are in that sector of the snap program. I was originally hired for data management, so my job is to look at the referrals every day of new clients coming in, all the different elements, who they are, nationality, when there orientation class is, location and time, and I put it all in a spreadsheet. Then I take that spread sheet, move it into a different spread sheet so it's statistically meant for the entire year, and that's my daily task that I do. I also have broadened my job duties a little bit. My team does orientation class three times a week for new people that are coming onto the snap EMt program. I help out here at the sabathanie center with the Tuesday morning orientation class. So it's a chance for me to get up in front of a group and talk, and move around, helps give my coworkers a little break, because they need to do that orientation class three times a week, and as you can imagine it gets a little repetitive, so they were totally thrilled when I decided to volunteer myself to help out with that orientation class.   Narrator: So Jeff, on a daily basis, what kind of accessible devices or tools do you utilize for your job?   Jeff: I use Jaws extensively. I have a little bit of vision, so I do use zoomtext sometimes, but only for spot reading, if I can't find a formula or something in my excel sheet with jaws. Primarily though, it is Jaws, almost probably ninety five, ninety eight percent of the time.   Narrator: What about in your personal life. Do you use a smart phone with access to it?   Jeff: Yeah, in my personal life I have an iPhone seven. I use VoiceOver, a couple different voices, one for Siri, one for the VoiceOver functionality of it. My work, I have a phone for my work, because the phone that is in everyone's laptops, the soft phone from Sisco, is not screen reader accessible, and so that's a reasonable accommodation, my employer provides me an iPhone for my work. So I feel kind of a little geekish, because I walk around with two phones when I'm at work, my personal phone and my work phone.   Narrator: that's status isn't it?   Jeff: I'm glad that they were able to make that accommodation and provide an iPhone for my work phone calling.   Narrator: Now Jeff, when you applied here, how did you  get the job? how did accommodations work for you and what was that process like?   Jeff: The way I found the job was I had a friend of mien who was blind who works for the county, has been with the county for almost thirty years, and he got a phone call from someone, my boss, who was looking to fill a position, a newly created position. My job did not exist before. And she specifically was looking for someone that had a visual disability. And so she reached out to my friend who was blind and worked for the company to find out and assess any barriers that their were, to see how successful he was at doing his job, and to see how many barriers there were, and from there, he told me about the fact that she was looking for someone who was visually impaired to take this new job. I kind of jumped on that band wagon, and followed up with her, and long story short had an interview, and was hired. My job is not a permanent job. It's a two year contract. I'm a limited duration person, and the snap program, the food stamp program is federal funded. So the county writes my check, but salary comes from the feds, from the agricultural program.   Narrator: So Jeff, in your career, education, did you utilize state services for the blind?   Jeff: Yeah, I did. All through my education. Elementary school I had a rehab counselor that used state services for the blind all the way through that, through college went to (spelling) babija university, BS in business administration, and minor in psychology and chemical dependency. And state services for the blind helped me out with tuition and books, and that type of thing.   Narrator: Great. What is transportation like for you, working in south Minneapolis here?   Jeff: In he morning to go into work, I take metro mobility, because it's a relatively direct shot, although sometimes I can get to work in ten minutes, and sometimes two hours, so that's the downside of metro mobility. Going home at night, I do take a city bus. I have to go downtown, and transfer to an express. That's how I do transportation. Not looking forward to winter time, I will say.   Narrator: Great. So Jeff, Being someone that has used state services, who has transferred from high school to college to the work place, what suggestions would you have for someone who is in those shoes today looking towards there future?   Jeff: I would say if you are a braille user, or have the potential to be a braille user, but also use screen readers, I would really highly recommend still doing the braille thing.   Narrator: You said you use Jaws and PC. Now, in the workplace, there's always the debate, you know, should people have a PC or a Mack, and I found out myself that most businesses are Microsoft based, so what would you suggest for someone who's learning technology?   Jeff: The county uses PCs, HP brand. Actually, we just rolled out new laptops and we moved to Microsoft 2010 and office 2016. I mean it all depends on the work environment, but you are correct most of the time that it's PC based.   Narrator: Jeff, do you want to talk about some of your past jobs?   Jeff: Sure. A lot of my job history is kind of broken into clumps. The first is social service, working with developmentally delayed adults, and the second chunk of job history is kind of more customer service type. So the first part, the social service, I kind of fell into that. I moved to Minneapolis after finishing my degree at Bemidji state university, and was really-really desperate for a job, couldn't find one, and it was to the point that I couldn't afford my apartment. I took a job as a live in in a group home for developmentally delayed adults. A good chunk is a little more customer service related, I worked in a large call center for computer hardware dispatch, so I was doing in bound calls with customers and technicians out in the field. Some other jobs I had over the years. I had a really really short gig. I was a very small commodities broker. I found the job through one of the venders that state services for the blind hires. They were looking for someone to do phone work and I was hired and given the job. But the screen reader didn't work at all with their customer management web page that they had. We tried to make it work. After six weeks they let me go, just because it wasn't working out. I also worked for a guy who ran one of the vending stands in saintpaul, and I would fill in for him in the concessions stand while he was out in the field filling vending machines. Did that for a while, and some other kind of odd jobs. I actually at one time was self employed. I went to massage school, became a massage therapist, and tried to do that to make a living. It's a really hard field. It's very seasonal. So that's a little overview of some of my job history.   Narrator: Sounds like you're a real go getter. people feel insecure about going into job interviews and that process. And it can be daunting to someone that hasn't done it before. What's your experience like when you go into a job interview?   Jeff: The interview process itself, I mean, I'm a partial vision, and it's always difficult to know whether to disclose that up front or not. And though there were times in my life when I would disclose that on the phone up front, and then there were other times when I did not. And it's hard to know if disclosing it up front would automatically disqualify me even before I walked in, or if walking in with a white cane and bumping against a desk or a coffee table or something would have disqualified me. It's always a big debate when you're a partial whether or not to disclose it. that was the one nice thing about my current job. My boss is aware of my current disability and I did not have to deal with that disclosure type thing. I had to deal with coworkers a little bit, and that was a challenge. Again, because I'm partial, I can see to navigate a little bit, but you know, I can't figure out who people are until they say something. When you're a partial, it's harder for other people to grasp of what you can and can't see.   Narrator: Jeff, did you ever go through a training center?   Jeff: I did. When I was in seventh grade I did a summer school thing at fairbolt. As an adult I did a couple different stints at VLR, adjustment to blindness training program. The focus for both of those times when I went was Jaws and screen readers. But I also did cooking class, the independent skills, worked in the wood shop, which was a really eye opening experience so to speak. I'd never used a table saw. I'd never used a router, that kind of thing. And it was so cool to actually create something myself out of a chunk of wood and have the skill set to do that. Yeah, I've been to VLR a couple times, they do really good stuff. I highly recommend them. And they were the ones the second time through. They were the ones that got me to Jaws. Because before, I would really try to use zoomtext as much as I could, and it was causing headaches and back strain, because I was leaning forward too much. So the second time I went through, I said, "I really want to get to the point where I can faze out magnification and just do jaws mostly. And so they got me to the point where I could use it exclusively and functionally. Yeah, the adjustment to blindness centers were very helpful.   Narrator: That's vision loss resources on Franklin and Lyndale down in Minneapolis. Well, I want to thank you for coming on to blind abilities and sharing your story, your journey, thank you very much.   Jeff: You are welcome. Hopefully my perspective is useful and helpful for you young people out there, you know, in the path of education and early job searching. Good luck to you, and I wish I would have had this technology when I was going to college. It would have made my college experience much easier, much less stressful, maybe a few less gray hairs.   Narrator: I don't think we can get around the hairs, we can blame it on whatever we want but... well thank you very much Jeff.   Jeff: Thank you very much   Narrator: It was a real pleasure talking to Jeff Mihiletch and learning about his transitional journey from high school to college to the workplace, and his experiences job to job. And you can find out more about state services for the blind and the services they can offer you on the web at https://mn.gov/deed/ssb. And in other states, be sure to contact your state services, and see what services they have for you. And be sure to check the show notes for the American foundation of the blind. They have a link to all the state services in all the states. Stay tuned next month where we bring you episode three of TVI toolbox. And a big thank you goes out to CheeChau for his beautiful music that we use for the podcast. Thank you CheeChau. You can follow Cheechau on Twitter @lcheechau. Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed, and until next time, by by.

Teaser NARRATOR Donuts, deodorant, buns and burgers. They're killing us -- and not just because of what they do to our bodies. No, it's because of what the soy, beef, and palm-oil that they're made of -- and they paper they're packaged in -- do to the environment. More specifically, it's because of the way way we get these commodities -- by chopping or degrading forests -- which is one reason that tropical forests now emit more greenhouse gasses than they absorb, according to a study published last month in the journal Science. But what if I told you we could end this by 2020 -- just two years from now? I'm not saying we can end all deforestation by 2020, but what if I told you we can purge deforestation from these four commodities -- the ones that drive most of the world's deforestation -- by ramping up ten activities that we're already engaged in -- and have been for decades: that these activities are time-tested, and they're lined up like dominoes, ready to be activated? It's like a giant, simmering pot ready to boil. Would you believe me? I hope so, because that's exactly what I'm saying, and it's not just me saying this. It's more than 250 economists, ecologists, and agronomists from around the world, and they're drawing on the experience of environmental NGOand small farming communities from Africa to Asia to Latin America -- as well as the big agribusinesses -- who are, quite frankly, the critical actors in all of this. Today we're looking at these ten activities, how they fit into 100 more that are getting a lot of attention these days -- as well as where they came from, why they work, and how you can learn more about them.   NARRATOR Earth. We broke it. We own it -- and nothing is as it was. Not the trees, not the seas - not the forests, farms, or fields -- and not the global economy that depends on all of these. But we can restore it. Make it better: greener, more resilient, more sustainable. But how? Technology? Geoengineering? Are we doomed to live on a... Bionic Planet? Or is Nature itself the answer? That's the question we address in every episode of Bionic Planet, a podcast of the Anthropocene -- the new epoch defined by man's impact on earth -- and nowhere is that impact more deeply felt than in the forests, farms, and fields that recycle our air and provide our food. Today we're looking at lists: two of them, to be specific. One involves 100 solutions that can not only slow climate change, but end it and even reverse it. The other involves ten activities that can accelerate a cluster of the big 100. In between our examination of these two lists, you're going to have to sit through a little history class -- because you won't understand where we're at or where we're going if you don't understand where we came from and how we got here. Act I NARRATOR I'm opening today's show with a book review of sorts -- a very short one like the ones that Sister Mary Ann used to ask us to deliver in her English class at Christ the King school in Chicago. It compares and contrasts two best-sellers related to Climate Change. One is called "Drawdown", and it's a recipe book of sorts... for saving the planet. I love this book. The other is called "This Changes Everything", and it's a mess. I hate it -- even though it's more entertaining than the first. What I love about Drawdown, which is edited by environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken, is that it focuses on concrete, doable ways of fixing the mess. Specifically, it summarizes 100 solutions that can not only slow climate change, but -- cumulatively -- end it and even reverse it. Of these 100, 80 already exist and are even being implemented, while 20 are listed as "coming attractions". He categorizes about a quarter of the solutions under either "food" or "land use", and they include things like green agriculture, forest protection, and indigenous peoples' land management -- all of which I cover in this podcast What I hate about "This Changes Everything" is that it's shrill, sloppy, and dismissive of workable solutions. Its basic story arc is this: "Gee, I just realized this climate stuff is serious, and so I spent a year or so investigating it, and I found that all of the so-called solutions out there only fix part of the problem... none of the fix the whole thing. We need something radical! A total reset of human nature! And I'm just the person to tell you how to do it, and it involves the post office." On the one hand, in writing the book, Naomi Klein sounded the alarm, which is great, and she even pointed out that we need to radically alter the way we run our economy... which is true... but then she dismisses anything that isn't a magic bullet like the ones that kills vampires... or is it warewolves? Anyway... and either way, she ends up floating a solution that's just as imaginary as those two creatures, while not just ignoring but actively dissing and dismissing solutions like the ones that Hawken highlights in his book  Now, I get the Daniel Burnham aspect of this -- he's the Chicago architect who said, and I quote, "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized." So, I can see why Klein -- and, in fact, most mainstream writers -- steer clear of wonky, tedious solutions. They're boring. But our job as reporters isn't just to entertain. It's to act as a kind of scout... going out into the wilderness, seeing what's happening there -- what the threats are, how to avoid them... and then reporting back in a way that clear and concise. I'm excited about Drawdown for two reasons: first, because it achieves this, and second, because it's become a best-seller -- and it should, because these wonky, tedious solutions aren't little. Each is massive in its own right, and Drawdown looks at 100 of them. What's more, the book's goal isn't just to slow climate change, but to actually end it and reverse it. If that doesn't stir your heart, I don't know what will -- and on that note, I'd to share with you the second half of that quote, which we almost never hear. "Make big plans," he says. "Aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty." Nothing there about being simple and pithy, and the emerging solutions to the climate challenge are not always simple, but they are noble, logical, orderly, and beautiful. The Paris Agreement, for example, is a masterwork of diplomacy -- a massive mosaic of thousands of smaller agreements that respect every country and culture on the planet. Likewise, the solutions I'll be examining today emerge from diverse sectors and societies, yet they all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and they're also integral to the success of the Paris Agreement. I'm focusing mostly on the corporate sector, because that's where we need to focus our attention if we're going to fix this mess. The ten solutions we'll be examining in the final segment come from Tropical Forest Alliance 2020. But what is Tropical Forest Alliance 2020, and how does it influence corporate activities?  Act 2 Marco Albani We're basically a platform for private-public collaboration NARRATOR That's Marco Albani who runs Tropical Forest Alliance 2020.  MARCO ALBANI Created by US government and CGF MUSIC: Zydeco NARRATOR We're going to be focusing on two organizations today, and the Consumer Goods Forum is one of them. It's a coalition of CEOs and top managers from more than 400 retailers, manufacturers, and service providers in 70 countries. It coalesced in 2009, but traces its origin to the aftermath of World War I, when French food merchants were beginning to engage in international commerce again, and needed to know that they were getting good stuff. But they soon learned that the "war to end all wars" achieved nothing of the kind, and it wasn't until 1953 that the International Committee of Food Chains was born. This was a commercial enterprise focused on making sure farmers in far-away places were delivering good food to merchants and shopkeepers closer to home, but the parameters of quality control gradually expanded to include labor conditions and environmental impact. By the 1990s, environmental pressure groups had forced the creation of certification standards for the sustainable production of palm oil and timber & pulp, while other industry groups emerged to promote general food safety. Then, in 2009, just as climate negotiators were gathering for year-end talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, three of these industry groups -- the Global Commerce Initiative, the Global CEO Forum, and the International Committee of Food Chains -- merged into the Consumer Goods Forum, which is dedicated to promoting fair labor and environmental practices among companies whose sales add up to $3.5 trillion per year. Now, I'm not so naive as to believe that these companies are all selfless and beneficent. In fact, I even think many of them are selfish and sociopathic, as legal scholar Joel Bakan maintains. But there are ways of changing that, and these multilateral organizations are one. In fact, research from the Forest Trends Supply Change initiative shows companies that belong to organizations like the Consumer Goods Forum not only make more environmental commitments than companies that don't, but they're also much better at reporting progress towards delivering on those commitments, which is why this matters: MARCO ALBANI 2010 GCF Resolution NARRATOR Beef, soy, palm oil, and pulp & paper. There they are again -- the big four commodities responsible for most of the world's deforestation, because farmers around the world are chopping forests to grow them. So it's a pretty big deal when 400 companies line up behind a specific pledge to end that.  But, of course, it doesn't end there. Just as the Kyoto Protocol showed us that government can't do this on its own, common sense tells us that the global, profit-driven corporate sector isn't going to fix our problems on its own, either, despite what free-market fundamentalists like to believe. We need government, we need NGOs, we need indigenous groups... we need them all working together. So, in 2012, the Consumer Goods Forum and the US government launched the group we're primarily focusing on today: Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 -- or TFA 2020 -- to get all these sectors working towards the goal of changing the way we produce the big four deforestation commodities, so that by the year 2020 we no longer chop forests to do so. MARCO ALBANI And since then grown... more than 400 partners... business, producers to consumers. MUSIC: zydeco? NARRATOR So, you've got the Consumer Goods Forum representing business, and you've got Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 -- or TFA 2020 -- representing all of these diverse interests. Then, in 2014, as climate negotiators were gearing up for the Lima talks, things get serious. UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon holds a massive rally in New York designed to turbocharge TFA 2020's mission. The result is the New York Declaration on Forests, which is a pledge to cut the global rate of deforestation in half by 2020, and to end deforestation by 2030 while restoring hundreds of millions of acres of degraded land. The pledge is endorsed by 36 national governments,  20 sub-national governments -- meaning states and cities -- 15 indigenous organizations, 53 environmental NGOs, and 52 multinational corporations. The list of companies is interesting: it includes traditional good actors like Danone, Unilever, and Kellogg's -- but also companies with a reputation for doing the wrong thing, like Asia Pulp and Paper -- a longtime environmental pariah once known for grinding pristine forest into pulp. Dewi Bramono turn story around NARRATOR That's Dewi Bramono, Asia Pulp and Paper's Director of Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement, who we'll hear from later in the show. Most of the audio in today's show comes from an event that Forest Trends hosted in September during New York Climate Week, and Dewi Bramono's presence in that room is proof that companies can change. The New York Declaration on Forests is a big deal, because you got all of these companies publicly committing to tackle deforestation, and the declaration isn't just a simple statement, but is actually 10 specific goals that -- like all of those 100 solutions in Drawdown -- feed on and reinforce each other. The challenge is holding these companies to their word. MUSIC: ends Now we come to 2015: you've got these two global networks and this very public commitment -- how do you turn this into action? In part by getting everyone on the same page, so the governments of the UK and Norway ramped up funding for TFA 2020, and the World Economic Forum essentially adopted it -- giving it a place to live in Switzerland. That same year, the organization I work for -- Forest Trends -- launched the Supply Change initiative -- that's Supply-Change.org -- to track not just corporate commitments, but the progress that companies report, and you may have noticed I use them as a resource quite a lot. Now we come to last year -- 2016. You've got all of these commitments and all of this transparency, and TFA 2020 needed to pull it all together so we could see how far we were from the goal. They asked a dozen leading NGOs to help out, and they put a research-oriented group called Climate Focus in charge. Then, at last year's climate talks in Marrakesh, they published two reports: one focused on progress towards all ten of the goals outlined in the New York Declaration on Forests, and one focused exclusively on Goal Number Two, which says that, by 2020, we will no longer be chopping forests to produce the big four deforestation commodities. MUSIC: End zydeco MARCO ALBANI Goal Two Assessment - 1 NARRATOR Specifically, it's a mixed bag. Using Supply Change data on almost 700 companies, they found less than half of the companies that had made commitments were actually disclosing progress -- although those that did report progress were usually on track to meet their goals. They also found huge variance from company to company -- meaning some great success stories, some shining examples, and a lot of lessons-learned.  MARCO ALBANI Goal Two Assessment - 2 NARRATOR It's crunch-time, and we need to very quickly harvest the lessons of the last eight years to see what works and what doesn't. Then we need to scale up what works, and do it fast. So Tropical Forest Alliance 2020 called in "Climate Focus". They're the research-oriented NGO that led the creation of the two earlier assessments. CHARLOTTE STRECK We started with the New York Declaration NARRATOR That's Charlotte Streck, who runs Climate Focus. CHARLOTTE STRECK Then we had a series of workshops... FADE OUT NARRATOR You get the picture. They didn't just pull this out of thin air, but instead they talked to more than 250 organizations, put their findings out for review, adjusted them, and finally presented them in New York. SOUND: fade charlotte back in MUSIC: pensive NARRATOR So, let's pause again to get our bearings. We started with 100 activities that can reverse climate change, and we dove into one of them: ending deforestation, which we realized is part of a cluster of activities related to land-use and agriculture. We in turn found that this cluster was broken into ten specific goals of its own, enshrined in the New York Declaration on Forests. Then we dove into one of those ten goals -- Goal Number Two, the most immediate one: purging deforestation from the big four commodities by the year 2020 -- and we found it's doable. And now, after diving down to this one goal... we're going to open things up again... to look at the ten priority areas that can help us achieve the goal of purging deforestation from these four key commodities in just two years, which will in turn help us achieve the other 9 goals in the New York Declaration on Forests, which will in turn help us achieve a few dozen of the 100 activities that will help us reverse climate change. MUSIC: END NARRATOR Before we move on, some key points. First: Charlotte Streck This is not a step-wise approach NARRATOR And also, if we do achieve the 2020 goal, the game isn't over.  , MARCO ALBANI Need to keep long-term MUSIC: ?? NARRATOR I'm about to unveil the ten priority areas, but first I have a question for you: do you like this show? If so, would you like more episodes -- maybe better produced to boot? With a second set of ears and more time for editing? You can make that possible by giving me a good rating on iTunes or wherever you access the show; you can tell friends about me. Or, best of all, you can become a patron at bionic-planet.com I've set the patronage page up so you can support me per episode, but with a monthly cap. So, if you think $5 per month is good for a five-episode month, you can pledge $1 per episode, but with a $5 monthly cap. That way, if I don't manage to generate five episodes in a month, you're not paying for something you didn't get, and if I go nuts and deliver 20 episodes one month, you won't get whacked, either. By the same token, you can offer $5 per episode... or 10 or 50 or whatever.  I'm sitting on a ton of material -- Interviews and audio I gathered as far back as June -- and I'm itching to share it with you in ways that make sense. But I've got a day job, and I've got to pay the bills, too, and I'm not even close to breaking even on the podcast. I like the idea of being listener supported, but am also open to big sponsors, advertisers, or investors to cover my costs, hire some help, and scale this up. The web site, again, is bionic-planet.com, or you can e-mail me at steve@bionic-planet.com MUSIC: end music Act 3 SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. The ten priority areas for purging deforestation from the supply chains of the big four deforestation commodities by the year 2020. Beginning with  SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK point 1 NARRATOR So, what does this mean? I'll let Michael Jenkins explain it. He runs Forest Trends, which means he signs my checks... but I think the group does good work, too, which is why I work for them. Michael Jenkins Forest Trends Illegality Report 1 NARRATOR He means illegal conversion of forests to farms or fields. MICHAEL JENKINS Forest Trends Illegality Report 2 NARRATOR Let that sink in for a moment. In fact, let's hear it again. MICHAEL JENKINS Forest Trends Illegality Report echo NARRATOR So, while we do need better legal frameworks, we also need to enforce the laws already on the books -- as Brazil showed when it slashed deforestation 70 percent between 2004 and 2014. If you listened to Episode 20, you heard how good-acting companies can also support enforcement -- something Charlotte also alluded to. CHARLOTTE STRECK companies can help NARRATOR Companies that are good with the law can also boost their bottom line by building up trust with importers abroad -- as Asia Pulp and Paper is doing in Indonesia. DEWI BRAMONO legality NARRATOR It's the right thing to do -- and it certainly can't hurt their status with global buyers. SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that brings us to... SOUND: Gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 2- palm certificatin NARRATOR Palm oil is in everything from donuts to soap to after-shave. You probably use it but don't even know it. CHARLOTTE STRECK Palm Oil is one of the main drivers NARRATOR Remember we talked about certification on the start? Supply Change data shows that of the big four commodities, companies are making the most progress in reducing deforestation around two of them: palm oil and timber and pulp -- mostly because we started seeing certification of these back in the 1980s. Today, about 21 percent of palm oil is certified by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, or RSPO. The challenge is twofold: getting consumers to pay a premium for this, and extending certification to more forests. CHARLOTTE STRECK We don't have sufficient demand SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR Then comes the next priority SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 3 beef intensification NARRATOR "Sustainable intensification of cattle grazing"... that basically means raising more cows on the same piece of land, so that you don't have to keep chopping forests to graze them.  CHARLOTTE STRECK Beef is responsible for more... NARRATOR In episode 7 of Bionic Planet, we saw how Kenyan farmers are using agroforestry to increase milk production -- they plant trees in among their crops to pull nitrogen from the air and infuse it into the soil, and they turn the leaves into silage for their cows. That's just one solution, and there are dozens of them. Ideally, we should all eat less beef, but for now we can reduce the amount of land used to raise the ones we do have. CHARLOTTE STRECK we know that we can SOUND: drumroll SOUND: gong NARRATOR Which brings us to... CHARLOTTE STRECK 4 palm and cocoa intensification NARRATOR Cocoa is not one of the big four, but it's a huge contributor -- and it's mostly produced by small farmers working in cooperatives. CHARLOTTE STRECK More than 30 percent of palm oil and 90 percent of cocoa NARRATOR The report shows that small palm-oil producers can increase their productivity 85 percent without chopping more trees. CHARLOTTE STRECK  These smallholders NARRATOR So, that gets us through three of the big four, plus cocoa -- or cacao, as the threes themselves are called. Ignacio Gavilan what about soy - 1 NARRATOR Yes -- what about soy? That, by the way, is Ignacio Gavilan, Director of Sustainability, for the Consumer Goods Forum. IGNACIO GAVILAN what about soy - 2 SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that brings us to... SOUND: gong   CHARLOTTE STRECK 5 sustainable soy NARRATOR Up until 2006, farmers across the Brazilian Amazon were chopping forest like mad to grow soy, but then something changed: Companies like McDonalds -- responding to pressure from groups like Greenpeace -- voluntarily stopped buying soy from Amazon farmers who chop trees to grow the stuff. The soy moratorium is just one example of a successful multilateral effort to fix the climate mess.  CHARLOTTE STRECK it is important NARRATOR Certification programs are ridiculously expensive and notoriously difficult to manage -- I mean, this is really complex stuff. A company like McDonalds buys beef from slaughterhouses like Marfrig or JBM, and those slaughterhouses buy from thousands of small farmers. To really do this right, we have to scale up  SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that's where the next priority area comes in SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 6 - accelerating implementation of jurisdictional NARRATOR "jurisdictional" means governmental -- it can be federal, it can be state, it can be county, or even city. If you get an entire state like Sabah in Malaysia or California in the United States to make sure it's farmers are producing fruits and veggies in a sustainable way, companies can buy there without spending a fortune to certify each producer individually. CHARLOTTE STRECK we have screened 34 NARRATOR The state of Sabah, in Malaysia, for example, is working with several NGOs that have coalesced into an alliance called "Forever Sabah" Cynthia Ong jurisdictional 1 NARRATOR That's Cynthia Ong, who runs a group called "Land, Empowerment Animals, People" or LEAP. She's also one of Forever Sabah's co-executive directors. CYNTHIA ONG jurisdictional 2 NARRATOR Even big companies like Asia Pulp and Paper have realized they can't access certified material on a large scale one plantation at a time. DEWI BRAMONO landscape jurisdiction NARRATOR There are scores of efforts underway -- the Rainforest Alliance is also doing great work, which you can learn about if you listen to episode 23 -- that episode will have the raw audio from this event without me interjecting every few minutes. It's kind of long, but if this episode sparked your interest, I think you'll find the full event worth listen to. SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR But for now, we move on to... SOUND: Gong CHARLOTTE STRECK 7 - land security and land rights NARRATOR This is another one we've addressed here before: indigenous and traditional communities tend to have a strong connection to their land. Studies have shown they usually -- not always, of course, but usually -- maintain their forest and want to keep it, but their legal rights to the forests are often in limbo. That leaves them vulnerable to speculators, and also less willing to invest too much in the forest CHARLOTTE STRECK Uncertainty of land. NARRATOR Another thing to remember: people in developing countries buy stuff, too SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR Which brings us to: SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK Goal: Mobilizing demand in emerging markets NARRATOR Remember earlier, when we talked about certification? We learned that 21 percent of all palm oil is certified by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, or the RSPO. One reason it's not higher is that people still, for the most part, buy whatever is cheapest, so it's not worthwhile for producers to spend all that money getting certified -- and that's even more so in developing countries. Kavita Prakash-Mani of WWF is working to change that. Kavita Prakash-Mani 21 percent CHARLOTTE STRECK In addition to this: domestic demand NARRATOR We're getting near the end here, folks -- so far, we've talked a lot about producers and consumers, but what about investors? SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR That brings up our next priority area: SOUND: Gong CHARLOTTE STRECK Redirecting Finance NARRATOR This is something we cover a lot on bionic planet, and it's the core of what we cover at Ecosystem Marketplace. Investors are still backing the bad actors, and they'll continue to do so until they realize that environmental bad actors are also financial bad risks -- but they'll only realize that if we all hold the bad actors accountable and support the good ones. We've seen some progress on this front over the past year, with HSBC manning up to some investments that led to deforestation and pulling the plug. You can learn more about that in an article I wrote for Ecosystem Marketplace called "Why HSBC's Recent Response To Greenpeace Really Is A Very Big Deal", and I link to that in show notes for this episode, which is episode 22 at bionic-planet.com. We're also seeing governments like Norway's stepping up with finance for sustainable forest management. Stina Reksten private-sector-capital 1 NARRATOR That's Stina Reksten of Norway's International Climate and Forest Initiative. She's helping to launch a new fund, together with the Global Environment Facility, Unilever, and IDH -- which is a Dutch sustainable trade initiative. STINA REKSTEN private-sector-capital 2 NARRATOR But that's just a sneeze in a hurricane compared to the $55 trillion global economy CHARLOTTE STRECK we have the finance NARRATOR But finance doesn't flow with guidance SOUND: drumroll NARRATOR And that brings us to... SOUND: gong CHARLOTTE STRECK data NARRATOR This is where we come in. I already mentioned Supply Change -- that's supply-change.org -- and we did another episode -- episode 11 -- focused on a platform called TRASE, which lets you trace soybeans from specific municipalities in Brazil to ports around the world. There are plenty of other efforts, and Nicole Pasricha of Rainforest Alliance outlined one that they're participating in. Nicole Pasricha point 10 NARRATOR That might sound boring and wonky, but the whole issue of comparability is critical -- because if you can't compare what different countries, companies, and counties are doing, you can't reject -- or reform -- the bad guys and reward the good Remember Ignacio Gavilan of the Consumer Goods Forum? He pointed out that member firms didn't know how much soy they used. So his group created a solution IGNACIO GAVILAN soy ladder NARRATOR Ignacio Gavilan wrapping up this edition of Bionic Planet -- which is a bit different than most episodes. I usually like to dive deep into an issue, but this time, we kept it pretty high-level. I hope to revisit all of these activities in more detail, and if you think that would be of value, be sure to help me out by sharing Bionic Planet with friends and giving me a good rating on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you access podcasts. You can also help by becoming a patron at bionic-planet.com -- where you can show your appreciation for as little as $1 per month. If today's show sparked your curiosity, be sure to download episode 23 as well. That one will contain the full audio from the Climate Week session that I harvested for this. If you're a paid patron, I will not be charging for episode 23, but rather just uploading that as a public service. Until next time, I'm Steve Zwick in Rotterdam. Thanks for listening!