Podcasts about Obama Foundation

Emma Grede is a businesswoman, founder, and serial entrepreneur. Known as one of America's richest self-made women by Forbes, she is the powerhouse behind some this generations biggest consumer brands. As the Co-Founder & CEO of Good American, Founding Partner of SKIMS and Chairwoman of The Fifteen Percent Pledge and recently joined the Board of Directors of The Obama Foundation, Emma has reshaped fashion and business with purpose and vision. Now, she's bringing her insight to the mic with "Aspire with Emma Grede" —a new podcast designed to inspire the next wave of entrepreneurs to turn ambition into action.

Ready to break through mental barriers? Tune into our latest episode with Courtney A. Seard as we dive into mindset shifts, empowerment, and beating the odds! Featuring funny friend Nonye Brown-West. Courtney A. Seard : With over 20 years of experience in the most innovative mind sciences and a firsthand story of resilience after a near-fatal accident, Courtney has worked with the world's leading startups and Fortune 500 companies to build, design, and deliver training and development solutions that further strategic business goals and transform people-related systems. Her success with companies including AT&T Global, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, the NBA, Snap Inc., and The Obama Foundation has led her to the TEDx stage and representation from Live Nation's SME division, with Forbes coining her as "one of the most-in-demand peak-performance coaches and trainers in the country. Nonye Brown-West is a New York-based Nigerian-American comedian and writer. She has been featured in the Boston Globe's Rise column as a Comic to Watch. She has also appeared on Amazon, NPR, PBS, ABC, Sway In The Morning on Sirius XM, and the New York Comedy Festival. Check her schedule on nonyecomedy.com or Instagram to see when she's coming to a city near you. Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf. Writer for HBO's 'Divorce' and the new Tracy Morgan show on Paramount Plus: 'Crutch'.  

The state's public universities face a crisis as funding fails to keep up with rising costs. Crain's contributor Judith Crown talks with host Amy Guth about cutbacks at schools around Illinois.Plus: CoinFlip's billion-dollar ambition is another sign the crypto biz is growing up, Bally's settles suit by white men over Chicago casino stake, more job cuts planned at former Ascension hospitals and Brandon Johnson's COO joins the Obama Foundation.

Emma Grede is the cofounder and CEO of apparel company Good American. She recently joined the board of the Obama Foundation and launched a podcast, 'Aspire with Emma Grede'. She is chairwoman of The Fifteen Percent Pledge, a nonprofit that works to get retailers to dedicate 15% of their monthly budget to Black-owned businesses.Grede sits with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath to discuss her career as a serial entrepreneur, and her latest effort into the world of podcasting.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On today's midweek memo, Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward take a look at the ongoing battle between Elon Musk and Donald Trump over the "Big Beautiful Bill " and also share news on the Obama Foundation's new collaboration.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Santi: Hi, this is a special episode of Statecraft. I've got a wonderful guest host with me today. Kyla Scanlon: Hey, I'm Kyla Scanlon! I'm the author of a book called In This Economy and an economic commentator. Santi: Kyla has joined me today for a couple reasons. One, I'm a big fan of her newsletter: it's about economics, among many other things. She had a great piece recently on what we can learn from C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, which is a favorite book of mine.Kyla's also on today because we're interviewing Wally Adeyemo, who was the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Biden administration. We figured we each had questions we wanted answered.Kyla: Yeah, I've had the opportunity to interview Wally a couple times during the Biden administration, and I wanted to see where he thinks things are at now. He played a key role in implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, financial sanctions on Russia, and a whole bunch of other things.Santi: For my part, I'm stuck on Wally's role in setting up the IRS's Direct File program, where you can file your taxes for free directly through the IRS instead of paying TurboTax a hundred bucks to do it. “Good governance types” tend to love Direct File, but the current admin is thinking of killing it. I wanted to understand how the program got rolled out, how Wally would respond to criticisms of the program, and what he learned from building something in government, which now may disappear.Kyla, you've talked to Wally before. How did that conversation go? Kyla: I actually was able to go to his office in D.C., and I talked to a couple of key people in the Biden administration: Jared Bernstein, the former chair of the CEA, and Daniel Hornung, who was at the National Economic Council.We're talking to Wally on the day that the House passed the one big beautiful bill. There's also so much happening financially, like the bond market is totally rebelling against the US government right now. I'm really curious how he thinks things are, as a key player in the last administration.Santi: Wally, you've spent most of your career in Democratic Party institutions. You worked on the Kerry presidential campaign in 2004. You served in the Obama admin. You were the first chief of staff to the CFPB, the president of the Obama Foundation, and, most recently, Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Biden admin.30,000ft question: How do you see the Democratic Party today?My view is that we continue to be the party that cares deeply about working-class people, but we haven't done a good job of communicating that to people, especially when it comes to the things that matter most to them. From my standpoint, it's costs: things in America cost too much for a working-class family.I want to make sure I define working class: I think about people who make under $100,000 a year, many of whom don't own homes on the coast or don't own a significant amount of stocks (which means they haven't seen the asset appreciation that's led to a great deal of wealth creation over the last several decades). When you define it that way, 81% of Americans sit in that category of people. Despite the fact that they've seen their median incomes rise 5-10% over the last five years, they've seen the cost of the things they care about rise even faster.We haven't had a clear-cut agenda focused on the standard of living, which I think is the thing that matters most to Americans today.Santi: There are folks who would say the problem for Democrats wasn't that they couldn't communicate clearly, or that they didn't have a governing agenda, but that they couldn't execute their agenda the way they hoped to in the time available to them. Would you say there's truth to that claim?Most people talk about a communications issue, but I don't think it's a communications issue. There are two issues. One is an implementation issue, and the second is an issue of the actual substance and policy at the Treasury Department. I was the deputy secretary, but I was also the Chief Operating Officer, which meant that I was in charge of execution. The two most significant domestic things I had to execute were the American Rescue Plan, where $1.9 trillion flowed through the Treasury Department, and the Inflation Reduction Act. The challenge with execution in the government is that we don't spend a lot on our systems, on making execution as easy as possible.For example, the Advanced Child Tax Credit was intended to give people money to help with each of their children during the pandemic. What Congress called on us to do was to pay people on a monthly basis. In the IRS system, you pay your taxes mostly on an annual basis, which meant that most of our systems weren't set up to pay a monthly check to Americans. It took us a great deal of work to figure out a way to recreate a system just to do that.We've underinvested in the systems that the IRS works on. The last time we made a significant investment in the IRS's digital infrastructure was the 1960s; before we had an ATM machine, before we sent a man to the moon, before we had a personal computer. So that meant that everything was coded in a language called COBOL.So execution was quite hard in the American Rescue Plan. People were left out and felt that the government wasn't working for them. If you called the IRS, only 13% of your calls were being answered. We got that back up to 85% before we left. Ultimately, I think part of this is an execution challenge. In government we want to spend money coming up with new policies, but we don't want to pay for execution, which then means that when you get the policy passed, implementation isn't great.When Jen Pahlka was on your show, she talked about the need to focus on identifying the enablers to implementation. Direct File was one of the best examples of us taking implementation very seriously.But also, on some policy issues that mattered most to Americans, we weren't advancing the types of strategies that would've helped lower the cost of housing and lowering the cost of medicine. We did some things there, but there's clearly more that we could have done, and more we need to do going forward to demonstrate that we're fighting to bring down those costs. It's everything from permitting reform — not just at the federal level, but what can we do to incentivize it at the state and local level — to thinking about what we can do on drug costs. Why does it cost so much more to get a medicine in America than in Canada? That is something that we can solve. We've just chosen not to at the federal level.At the end of the year, we were going to take action to go after some of the middlemen in the pharmacy industry who were taking out rents and large amounts of money. It dropped out of the bill because of the negotiations between the Republican Congress and then President-elect Trump. But there are a lot of things that we can do both on implementation, which will mean that Americans feel the programs that we're passing in a more effective way, and policy solutions that we need to advance as a party that will help us as well.Kyla: Some people think Americans tend to vote against their own self-interest. How can your party message to people that these sorts of policies are really important for them?Ultimately, what I found is that most people just understand their self-interest differently, and for them, a big part of this was, “Who's fighting for me on the issues that I care most about?”From my standpoint, part of the problem we had with Direct File, which I think was an innovative solution, was that we got to implementing it so late in the administration that we didn't have the ability for it to show the impact. I'm hoping future administrations will think through how to start their implementation journey on things like Direct File sooner in the administration, when you have a great deal of political capital, so people can actually feel the impact over time.To your question, it's not just about the messaging, it's about the messenger. People tend to trust people who look like them, who come from the places they come from. When it came to the Child Tax Credit and also to Direct File, the biggest innovation wasn't the technology: the technology for Direct File has been used by the Australians, the British, and other countries for decades.The biggest innovation was us joining that technology with trusted people in communities who were going out to talk to people about those programs and building those relationships. That was something that the IRS hadn't done a great deal of. We invested a great deal in those community navigators who were helping us get people to trust the things the government was doing again, like the Child Tax Credit, like Direct File, so that they could use it.We often think that Washington is going to be able to give messages to the country that people are going to hear. But we're both in a more complicated media environment, where people are far more skeptical of things that come from people in Washington. So the best people to advocate for and celebrate the things that we're doing are people who are closer to the communities we're trying to reach. In product advertising today, more companies are looking to influencers to advertise things, rather than putting an ad on television, because people trust the people that they follow. The same is true for the things that we do in government.Santi: I've talked to colleagues of yours in the last administration who say things like, “In the White House, we did not have a good enough sense of the shot clock.” They point to various reasons, including COVID, as a reason the admin didn't do a good enough job of prioritization.Do you think that's true, that across the administration, there was a missing sense of the shot clock or a missing sense of prioritization? No, because I'm a Lakers fan. These are professionals. We're professionals. This is not our first rodeo. We know how much time is on the shot clock; we played this game. The challenge wasn't just COVID. For me at Treasury — and I think this is the coolest part of being Deputy Secretary of the Treasury — I had responsibilities domestic and international. As I'm trying to modernize the IRS, to invest all my time in making the system work better for customers and to collect more taxes from the people who owe money, Russia invades Ukraine. I had to turn a bunch of my attention to thinking about what we were going to do there. Then you have Hamas attacking Israel.There was more we should have done on the domestic end, but we have to remember that part of the presidency is: you get to do the things you want to do, but you also have to do the things you have to do. We had a lot of things we had to do that we weren't planning for which required all-of-the-administration responses.I think the most important lesson I've learned about that is that it comes down to both being focused on the things that matter, and being willing to communicate to the American people why your priorities have to change in light of things that happen in the world.But the people I'm sure you've talked to, most of them work on domestic policy alone, and they probably never have been in a National Security Council meeting, where you're thinking about the risks to the country. The president has to do both of those things. So I get how difficult it is to do that, just given where I sat at the Treasury Department.Santi: Looking back from an implementation perspective, are there things you would've done differently during your time at Treasury?The most important thing that I would've done differently was to immediately set up a permanent implementation and delivery unit in the Treasury Department. We always like to pretend like the Treasury Department is just a policy department where we make policy, we collect taxes. But in any crisis the country ever has, a great deal of responsibility — for execution or implementation of whatever the response is — falls to the Treasury Department. Think about the financial crisis, which is clearly something that's in the Treasury's domain. The vast majority of money for COVID flowed through the Treasury Department. You think about the IRA, a climate bill: the vast majority of that money flows through the Treasury Department.And Treasury doesn't have a dedicated staff that's just focused on implementation: How do we do this well? How do we make sure the right people are served? How do we make sure that we communicate this well? We did this to a degree by a team that was focused on the American Rescue Plan. But it was only focused on the American Rescue Plan. If I could start again, I would have said, “I want a permanent implementation structure within the Treasury Department of people who are cross-cutting, who only think about how we execute the policies that we pass through Congress and that we put together through an executive order. How do we do that extremely well?”Kyla: What you're talking about is very people-centric: How do we get an implementation team, and how do we make sure that the right people are doing the right jobs? Now we have DOGE, which is less people-centric. How do you reconcile what Doge is doing relative to what you would've done differently in this role that you had?As you would suspect, I wasn't excited about the fact we had lost the election, but initially I thought DOGE could be helpful with technology. I think marrying technology with people — that's the key to success for the government. We've never really been great at doing technology in the government.Part of the reason for that is a procurement process that is very slow because of how the federal acquisition rules work. What we are trying to do is prevent corruption and also waste, fraud, and abuse. But what that does is, it leads to slowness in our ability to get the technology on board that we need, and in getting the right people.I was hoping DOGE would bring in people who knew a great deal about technology and put us in a position where we could use that to build better products for the American people. I thought they would love Direct File, and that they would find ways to improve Direct File and expand it to more Americans.My view is that any American in the working class or middle class should not have to pay a company to file their taxes. We have the ability in this country, and I think Direct File was proving that. My goal, if we'd had more time, was to expand this to almost any American being able to use it. I thought they'd be able to accelerate that by bringing in the right people, but also the right technology. We were on that path before they took those two things apart.My sense is that you have to reform the way that we hire people because it's too hard to hire the right people. In some cases, you don't need some of the people you have today because technology is going to require different skills to do different things. It's easier to break something, I found, than it is to build something. I think that's what they're finding today as well.Santi: When I talk to left-of-center folks about the DOGE push, they tend to be skeptical about the idea that AI or modern technology can replace existing federal workers. I think some of that is a natural backlash to the extreme partisan coding of DOGE, and the fact that they're firing a lot of people very quickly. But what's your view? After DOGE, what kinds of roles would you like to see automated?Let me say: I disagree with the view that DOGE and technology can't replace some of the things that federal workers do today. My view is that “productivity enhancing” tech — it's not that it is going to make employees who are currently doing the job more productive. It is going to mean you need fewer employees. We have to be honest about that.Go to the IRS, for example. When I got there, we had a huge paper backlog at the IRS because, despite what most people think, millions of people still file their taxes by paper, and they send them to the IRS. And during the pandemic, the commissioner, who was then working for President Trump, decided to shut down the IRS for public health reasons — to make sure employees did not have to risk getting COVID.There were piles of paper backing up, so much so that they had filled cafeterias at the IRS facilities with huge piles of paper. The problem, of course, is that, unlike modern systems, you could not just machine-read those papers and put them into our systems. Much of that required humans to code those papers into the system by hand. There is no need in the 21st century for that to happen, so one of the things that we started to do was introduce this simple thing called scanning, where you would scan the papers — I know it sounds like a novel idea. That would help you get people's tax returns faster into the system, but also get checks out quickly, and allow us to see if people are underpaying their taxes, because we can use that data with a modern system. But over time, what would that mean? We'd need fewer people to enter the data from those forms.When we get money for the IRS from Congress, it is actually seen as revenue-raising because they expect it to bring down the debt and deficit, which is completely true. But the model Congress uses to do that is reliant on the number of full-time employees we hire. One challenge we have with the IRS — and in government systems in general — is that you don't get credit for technology investments that should improve your return on investment.So whenever we did the ROI calculations for the IRS, the Congressional Budget Office would calculate how much revenue we'd bring in, and it was always based on the number of people you had doing enforcement work that would lead to certain dollars coming in. So we got no credit for the technology investments. Which was absolutely the opposite of what we knew would be true: the more you invested in technology, the more likely you were to bring in more revenue, and you would be able to cut the cost of employees.Santi: If the CBO changed the way it scored technology improvements, would more Congresspeople be interested in funding technology?It is just a CBO issue. It's one we've tried to talk to them about over the last several years, but one where they've been unwilling to move. My view is that unlocking this will unlock greater investment in technology in a place like the IRS, because every dollar you invest in technology — I think — would earn back $10 in additional tax revenue we'd be able to collect from people who are skipping out on their taxes today. It's far more valuable to invest in that technology than to grow the number of employees working in enforcement at the IRS. You need both, but you can't say that a person is worth 5x their salary in revenue and that technology is worth 0. That makes no sense.Kyla: When we spoke about Direct File many months ago, people in my comment section were super excited and saying things like, “I just want the government to tell me how much money I owe.” When you think about the implementation of Direct File, what went right, and how do you think it has evolved?The thing that went right was that we proved that we could build something quite easily, and we built it ourselves, unlike many technology projects in government. We didn't go out and hire a bunch of consultants and contractors to do it. We did it with people at the IRS, but also with people from 18F and from GSA who worked in the government. We did it in partnership with a number of stakeholders outside the government who gave us advice, but the build was done by us.The reason that was important — and the reason it's important to build more things internally rather than hiring consulting firms or other people to build it — is that you then have the intellectual capital from building that, and that can be used to build other things. This was one product, but my view is that I want the IRS home page to one day look a lot more like the screen on your iPhone, so that you can click on the app on the IRS homepage that can help you, depending on what you need — if it's a Direct File, or if it's a tax transcript.By building Direct File internally, we were getting closer to that, and the user scores on the effectiveness of the tool and the ability to use it were through the roof. Even for a private sector company, it would've been seen as a great success. In the first year, we launched late in the filing season, mostly just to test the product, but also to build stakeholder support for it. In the limited release, 140,000 people used it. The average user said that before Direct File, it took them about 13 hours to file their taxes, and with Direct File, it took them just over an hour to file their taxes.But you also have to think about how much money the average American spends filing their taxes: about $200. That's $200 that a family making under $100,000 could invest in their kids, in paying some bills, rather than in filing their taxes.Even this year, with no advertising by the Trump administration of Direct File, we had more than 300,000 people use it. The user scores for the product were above 85%. The challenge, of course, is that instead of DOGE investing in improving the product — which was a place where you could have seen real intellectual capital go to work and make something that works for all Americans — they've decided to discontinue Direct File. [NB: There has been widespread reporting that the administration plans to discontinue Direct File. The GOP tax bill passed by the House would end Direct File if it becomes law. At the time of publication, the Direct File has not been discontinued.]The sad part is that when you think about where we are as a country, this is a tool that could both save people money, save people time, improve our ability to collect taxes, and is something that exists in almost every other developed economy. It makes no sense to me why you would end something like this rather than continue to develop it.Santi: People remember the failure of healthcare.gov, which crashed when it was rolled out all at once to everyone in the country. It was an embarrassing episode for the Obama administration, and political actors in that administration learned they had to pilot things and roll them out in phases.Is there a tension between that instinct — to test things slowly, to roll them out to a select group of users, and then to add users in following cycles — Is there a tension between that and trying to implement quickly, so that people see the benefit of the work you're doing?One of my bosses in the Obama administration was Jeff Zients, the person who was brought in to fix healthcare.gov. He relentlessly focused on execution. He always made the point that it's easy to come up with a strategy to some degree: you can figure out what the policy solution is. But the difference between good and great is how you execute against it. I think there is some tension there, but not as much as you would think.Once we were able to show that the pilot was a success, I got invited to states all over the country, like Maryland, to announce that they were joining Direct File the next year. These members of Congress wanted to do Direct File events telling people in their state, “This product that's worked so well elsewhere is coming to us next.” It gave us the ability to celebrate the success.I learned the lesson not just from Zients, but also from then-professor Elizabeth Warren, whom I worked for as chief of staff at the CFPB. One challenge we had at the CFPB was to build a complaint hotline, at that point mostly phone-operated, for people who were suffering. They said it would take us at least a year to build out all the product functions we need. We decided to take a modular approach and say, “How long would it take for us to build the system for one product? Let's try that and see how that works. We'll do a test.”It was successful, and we were able to use that to tell the story about the CFPB and what it would do, not just for mortgages, but for all these other products. We built user interest in the complaint hotline, in a way that we couldn't have if we'd waited to build the whole thing at once. While I think you're right that there is some tension between getting everyone to feel it right away and piloting; if the pilot is successful, it also gives you the opportunity to go out and sell this thing to people and say, “Here's what people who did the pilot are saying about this product.”I remember someone in Texas who was willing to do a direct-to-camera and talk about the ways that Direct File was so easy for them to use. It gets back to my point on message and messenger. Deputy Secretary Adeyemo telling you about this great thing the government did is one thing. But an American who looks like you, who's a nurse, who's a mom of two kids, telling you that this product actually worked for her: That's something that more people identify with.Healthcare.gov taught us the lesson of piloting and doing things in a modular way. This is what companies have been doing for decades. If it's worked for them, I think it can work for the government too.Santi: I'm a fan of Direct File, personally. I don't want this administration to kill it. But I was looking through some of the criticism that Direct File got: for instance, there's criticism about it rivaling the IRS Free File program, which is another IRS program that partners with nonprofits to help some folks file their taxes for free.Then there's this broader philosophical criticism: “I don't want the feds telling me how much I owe them.” The idea is that the government is incentivized to squeeze every last dollar out of you.I'm curious what you make of that, in part because I spoke recently to an American who worked on building e-government systems for Estonia. One of the things that has allowed Estonia to build cutting-edge digital systems in the government is that Estonia is a small and very high-trust society. Everybody's one degree of separation from everybody else.We're a much bigger and more diverse country. How do you think that affects the federal government's ability to build tools like Direct File?I think it affects it a lot, and it gets back to my point: not just the message but the messenger. I saw this not just with Direct File, but with the Advanced Child Tax Credit, which was intended to help kids who were living in poverty, but also families overall. What we found initially in the data was that, among families that didn't have to file taxes because they made too little, many of them were unwilling to take advantage of Direct File and the Advanced Child Tax Credit because they couldn't believe the government was doing something to just help them. I spent a lot of time with priests, pastors, and other community leaders in many of the communities where people were under-filing to try and get them to talk about this program and why it was something that they should apply for.One of the challenges we suffer from right now in America, overall, is a lack of trust in institutions. You have to really go local and try to rebuild that trust.That also speaks to taking a pilot approach that goes slower in some cases. Some of the criticism we got was, “Why don't you just fill out this form for us and then just send it to us, so that Direct File is just me pressing a button so I can pay my taxes?”Part of the challenge for us in doing that is a technology challenge: we are not there technologically. But the other problem is a trust problem. If I were to just fill out your taxes for you and send them to you, I think people, at this stage, would distrust the government and distrust the technology.Direct File had to be on a journey with people, showing people, “If I put in this information, it accurately sends me back my check.” As people develop more trust, we can also add more features to it that I think people will trust. But the key has to be: how do you earn that trust over time?We can't expect that if we put out a product that looks like something the Estonian government or Australia would put out, that people would trust it at this point. We have to realize that we are on a journey to regain the trust of the American people.The government can and will work for them, and Direct File was a part of that. We started to demonstrate that with that product because the people who used it in these communities became the spokespeople for it in a better way than I ever could be, than the Secretary or the President could be.Everyone knows that they need to pay their taxes because it's part of their responsibility living in this country. The things that make people the most upset is the fact that there are people who don't pay their taxes. We committed that we were going to go after them.The second frustration was: “Why do you make it so hard for me to pay my taxes? Why can't I get through to you on the phone line? Why do I have to pay somebody else to do my taxes?” Our goal was to solve those two problems by investing money and going after the people who just decided they weren't going to pay, but also by making it as easy as possible for you to pay your taxes and for most people, to get that tax refund as quickly as possible.But doing that was about going on a journey with people, about regaining their trust in an institution that mattered to them a great deal because 90 something-percent of the money that funds our government comes in through the IRS.Kyla: You have a piece out in Foreign Affairs called “Make Moscow Pay,” and what I found most interesting about that essay is that you said Europe needs to step it up because the United States won't. Talk through the role of Treasury in financial sanctions, and your reasons for writing this piece.People often think about the Treasury Department as doing a few things. One is working with Wall Street; another one is collecting your taxes. Most people don't think about the fact that the Treasury Department is a major part of the National Security Committee, because we have these tools called financial sections.They use the power of the dollar to try and change the behavior of foreign actors who are taking steps that aren't consistent with our national security interests. A great example of this is what we did with regard to Russia — saying that we're going to cut off Russian banks from the US financial system, which means that you can't transact in US dollars.The problem for any bank that can transact in dollars is that the backbone of most of the financial world is built on the US dollar. It increases their cost, it makes it more difficult for them to transact, and makes it harder for them to be part of the global economy, nearly impossible.And that's what we've done in lots of cases when it comes to Russia. We have financial sanction programs that touch all over the world, from Venezuela to Afghanistan. The US government, since 9/11, has used sanctions as one of its primary tools of impacting foreign policy. Some of them have gone well, some of them I think haven't gone as well, and there's a need for us to think through how we use those policies.Santi: What makes sanctions an effective tool? Positions on sanctions don't line up neatly on partisan lines. Sanctions have a mixed track record, and you'll have Republicans who say sanctions have failed, and you'll have Democrats say sanctions have been an effective tool, and vice versa.The way I think about sanctions is that they are intended to bring change, and the only way that they work is that they're part of an overarching foreign policy strategy. That type of behavior change was what we saw when Iran came to the table and wanted to negotiate a way to reduce sanctions in exchange for limits on their nuclear program. That's the type of behavior change we're trying to accomplish with sanctions, but you can't do it with sanctions alone. You need a foreign policy strategy. We didn't do it by the United States confronting Iran; we got our allies and partners to work together with us. When I came into office in 2021, Secretary Yellen asked me to do a review of our sanctions policies — what's worked, what hasn't — because it had been 20 years since the 9/11 attacks.And the most important lesson I learned was that the sanctions programs that were the most effective were the ones we did on a multilateral basis — so we did it with our friends and allies. Part of the reason for this is that while the dollar is the most dominant currency around the world, oftentimes if you can't do something in dollars, you do it in a euro, or you do it in a Japanese yen, or pound sterling.The benefit of having allies all over the world is that the dominant, convertible currencies in the world are controlled by allies and partners. When we acted together with them, we were more effective in curtailing the economic activity of our adversary, and our pressure is more likely to lead to them changing their behavior.We had to be very cautious about collateral damage. You might be targeting an individual, but by targeting that individual, you might make it harder for a company they're affiliated with to continue doing business, or for a country that they're in to get access to banking services. Let's say that you're a huge bank in America, and you're worried about sanctions risk in a small country where you do little business. Why not pull out, rather than having to put in place a huge compliance program? One of the challenges that we have is that the people who make the decisions about whether to extend sanctions don't necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about some of these economic consequences of the sanctions approach.Whenever I was around the table and we were making a decision about using weapons, there was a process that was very elaborate that ended up with something going to the president. You'd often think about kinetic force very seriously, because you were going to have to get the president to make a decision. We didn't always take that kind of rigor when it came to thinking about using our sanctions policy, but the impact on the lives of people in these countries was just as significant for their access to not only money, but to food and to the resources they needed to live.Santi: What do you make of the effectiveness of the initial sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine? I've heard mixed reviews from folks inside and outside the Biden administration.Sanctions, again, to my point, are only a tool. They've had to be part of a larger strategy, and I think those sanctions were quite effective. I think the saving grace for the Russians has been the fact that China has largely been able and willing to give them access to the things they need to continue to perpetuate.There was a choice for Ukraine, but when you think about Russia's economy today vs. Russia's economy before the sanctions were put in place, it's vastly different. Inflation in Russia still runs far higher than inflation anywhere else in the world. If you were a Russian citizen, you would feel the impacts of sanctions.The challenge, of course, is that it hasn't changed Vladimir Putin's behavior or the behavior of the Kremlin, largely because they've had access to the goods and supplies they need from China, Iran, and North Korea. But over time, it means Russia's economy is becoming less competitive. They have less access to resources; they're going to struggle.I think everyone hoped that sanctions would immediately change the calculus of the Kremlin, but we've never seen that to be the case. When sanctions are effective, they take time, because the economic consequences continue to compound over time, and they have to be part of a larger strategy for the behavior of the individual. That's why I wrote the article, because while the Kremlin and Russia are under pressure, their view is that ultimately the West is going to get tired of supporting Ukraine, financially and politically, because the economic consequences for us — while not as significant as for Moscow or for Kiev — have been quite significant, when you think about the cost of living issues in Europe.I think it's important to write this now, when it appears that Russia is stalling on negotiations, because ultimately, US financial support is waning. We just know that the Trump administration is not willing to put more money into Ukraine, so Europe is going to have to do more, at a time when their economic situation is quite complicated as well.They've got a lot to do to build up their economy and their military-industrial base. Asking them to also increase their support for Ukraine at the same time is going to be quite difficult. So using this money that Russia owes to Ukraine — because they owe them compensation at this moment — can be quite influential in helping support the Ukrainians, but also changing Russia's calculus with regard to the ability of Ukraine to sustain itself.Kyla: On CNBC about a month ago, you said if we ever have a recession over the next couple of months or so, it would be a self-inflicted one. Do you still resonate with that idea? To build on the point I was making, the economy has done quite well over the course of the first few months of the year, largely because of the strength of the consumer, where our balance sheets are still quite strong. Companies in America have done well. The biggest headwind the US economy faces has been self-inflicted by the tariffs the president has put on. Part of what I still do is talk to CEOs of companies, big and small. Small businesses feel the impact of this even more than the big businesses. What they tell me is that it's not just the tariffs and the fact that they are making it more expensive for them to get the goods that they need, but it's the uncertainty created by the off-again, on-again, nature of those tariffs that makes it impossible for them to plan for what supplies they're going to get the next quarter. How are they going to fulfill their orders? What employees are they going to need? It's having a real impact on the performance of these companies, but also their ability to hire people and plan for the future.If you go to the grocery store, you're going to start seeing — and you're starting to see already — price increases. The thing that Americans care most about is, the cost of living is just too high. You're at the grocery store, as you're shopping for your kids for the summer, you're going to see costs go up because of a self-imposed tax we've put in place. So I still do think that if we do find ourselves in a recession, it's going to be because of the tariffs we've put in place.Even if we don't enter a technical recession, what we're seeing now is that those tariffs are going to raise the cost for people when they go out to buy things. It's going to raise the cost of building homes, which is going to make it harder for people to get houses, which is ultimately going to have an impact on the economy that isn't what I think the president or anyone wants at this point.Kyla: Is there anything else we haven't asked about? I think the place where we continue, as a country, to struggle is that, given the federal system we have, many of these problems aren't just in Washington — they're in state and local governments as well. When you think about the challenges to building more housing in this country, you can't just solve it by doing things at the federal level. You have to get state and local governments unified in taking a proactive approach. Part of this has to be not just financial or regulatory from the federal government, but we have to do more things that force state and local governments to get out of the way of people being able to build more housing. I think that the conversations that you've had on your show, and the conversations we're having in government, need to move past our regular policy conversations of: “Should we do more on LIHTC? Should we try to fix NEPA?” Those, to me, are table stakes, and we're in the middle of what I'd say is a generational crisis when it comes to housing. We have to be willing to treat it like a crisis, rather than what I think we've done so far, which is take incremental steps at different levels to try and solve this. That's one thing that I wanted to make sure that I said, because I think it's the most important thing that we can do at the moment.Kyla: Absolutely. During your time there, the Treasury was doing so much with zoning reform, with financial incentives. What I really liked about our last conversation was how much you talked about how important it is that workers can live close to work. Are you optimistic that we will be able to address the problem, or do you think we are sinking into quicksand?I'd say a little bit of both, and the thing that I'm doing now is getting hyperlocal. One of the projects I'm working on in my post-administration life is I'm working with 15 churches in D.C., where they have vacant land and want to use it to build affordable housing as quickly as possible.I'm learning that even when you have the land donated for free and you're willing to work as quickly as possible, it's still quite hard because you have regulations and financial issues that often get in the way of building things. Part of what we have to do now is just launch as many natural experiments as possible to see what works.What I've learned already from this lived experience is that even cities that are trying to get out of the way and make it easier to build housing struggle because of what you all know to be true, which is that the local politics of this is quite complicated. Oftentimes, the way that you get them over the line is by creating incentives or disincentives.In the past, I talked a lot about incentives in terms of “giving people money to do things.” I'm now in favor of “not giving money to people who don't do things” — if you don't take steps to fix your zoning, some of the federal money that you regularly get is not coming to your jurisdiction. I'm going to reallocate that money to places that are doing this activity. I think we have to take those types of radical steps.It's similar to what we did with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, where if you didn't spend your money, we could take your money back and reallocate it to people who were giving away emergency rental assistance money.That motivates people a lot — when they feel like something's going to be taken away from them. I'm of the view that we have to find more radical things that we can do to get housing built. If we don't, costs will continue to rise faster than people's incomes.Santi: Wally, I have to ask after that point you just made: did you read the paper by my colleague Chris Elmendorf on using LIHTC funds? The idea is to re-allocate those federal funds away from big, expensive cities and into other places in a state, if the cities don't commit to basic zoning reforms.I completely agree with him, and I think I would go even further than just LIHTC money. I would reallocate non-housing money as well, because from my standpoint, if you think about the most important issue for a family, it's being able to find housing that is affordable near their place of work and where their kids go to school. I said that on purpose. I didn't say “affordable housing.” I said “housing that is affordable,” because affordable housing is, in lots of ways, targeted towards a population of people who need it the most. But for even people who are middle income in this country, it crowds out their ability to pay for other things when housing costs continue to creep higher.The only way we solve that problem is if you get rid of restrictive zoning covenants and fix permitting. The natural thing that every city and state is thinking about right now is throwing more money at the problem. There's going to need to be money here, just in light of some of the headwinds, but it's going to be more costly and less effective if we don't fix the underlying issues that are making it hard to build housing where we want it.Right now in California, we're having a huge debate over what we do with infill housing in urban areas. A simple solution — you don't have to do another environmental review if one was already done in this area— is taking months to work through the California legislature, which demonstrates that we're going too slow. California's seeing an exodus of people. I just talked to a CEO who said, “I'm moving my business because the people who work for me can't afford to live in California anymore.” This is the kind of problem that you can solve. State legislatures, Congress, and executives have to get together and take some radical steps to make it easier to build housing.I appreciate what you said about what we were doing at Treasury, but from my standpoint, I wish we had done more earlier to focus on this issue. We had a lot going on, but fundamentally, the most important thing on housing is taking a step to try and build housing today, which is going to have an impact on the economy 10, 20, 30 years from now. We just have to start doing that as soon as possible.Thanks to Emma Hilbert for her transcript and audio edits. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

From studying 19th-century sans serifs to expanding Gotham for the Obama Foundation, Sara Soskolne's career has helped define how the world reads today. In this episode, Doug Wilson sits down with his longtime friend and brilliant type designer, Sara Soskolne, for an honest, wide-ranging conversation about growing up curious, falling into typography, and Sara's experiences of coming into her own in a male-dominated field. It's an episode filled with humor, insights, and a touch of typographic magic.  Check out Sara's work for the Obama Foundation here: obama.org/stories/building-on-the-past-looking-ahead Take a deep dive into brand refresh for the Obama Foundation on Manual's website: https://manualcreative.com/work/obama-foundation    

Today's boys and young men are having a tough time. By several measures of success and happiness, they're struggling to keep up and turning to the internet for help, where many end up hooked by extremists. We need to find better ways to frame the problem, support them and push them in the right direction. The solution starts with a frank conversation about what's really going on, according to the experts on this panel from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival. Richard Reeves founded the American Institute for Boys and Men and wrote “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters and What To Do About It,” in 2022. He's joined by Michael Strautmanis of the Obama Foundation and My Brother's Keeper Alliance, along with Maryland Governor Wes Moore. NBC News correspondent Stephanie Ruhle moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

400. Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson: Their Mother's Last (Life-Changing) Advice  Michelle Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson, co-hosts of the new podcast In My Opinion (IMO), join Glennon and Abby for a heartfelt conversation about love, loss, and the wisdom their late mother, Marian Robinson, left behind. They open up about parenting in the spotlight, the courage to disappoint others, and the lessons that continue to shape their lives. -The final words from Marian Robinson that changed everything -Why Michelle is finally choosing herself—and how to break free from people-pleasing -The biggest challenge facing kids today—and how parents can help -The one piece of advice they want to pass on to their own children Michelle Obama's passion for storytelling has set sales records, garnered awards and accolades, and earned her global acclaim. Her memoir, Becoming, spent over 130 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers list, sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. American Factory, the first film produced by her and her husband Barack Obama's media company Higher Ground, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2020. Upon its release in 2020, The Michelle Obama Podcast was the most successful original in Spotify history, bringing in more women listeners over 40 than any other podcast. Through the Obama Foundation, she founded the Girls Opportunity Alliance, which supports adolescent girls' education and empowerment around the world.  Craig Robinson:  Craig Robinson is the Executive Director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and host of the Higher Ground podcast Ways To Win. From 2017-2020, he served as the vice president of Player Development and Minor League Operations for the NBA's New York Knicks. Previously, he was a Division I head men's basketball coach at Oregon State and Brown, and spent more than a decade working as a trader in the investment banking industry. He is the brother of former First Lady Michelle Obama. Together, they are the hosts of the new podcast IMO (In My Opinion) with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson. Check out our first episode with Michelle Obama here: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/193-michelle-obama/id1564530722?i=1000606222468 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Simas grew up in a Portuguese immigrant family in Massachusetts. His mother, who lost two fingers in a factory accident, instilled in him the power of resilience and the importance of community. These lessons shaped his career, from practicing law to advising President Obama on key national issues and eventually leading the Obama Foundation, where he worked with global leaders to promote democracy and address critical global challenges. In this episode, David joins Ilana to share valuable insights on navigating political crises, leading with empathy, and maintaining personal balance during high-stress moments in public service.  David Simas is a lawyer, political strategist, and former CEO and president of the Obama Foundation. He served as White House Director of Political Strategy and Outreach during the Obama administration and has held key roles in state and federal government. In this episode, Ilana and David will discuss: (00:00) Introduction  (00:44) Growing Up in a Portuguese Immigrant Family (04:01) Family Struggles and Community Support (07:54) How Legal Training Shaped His Perspective (15:48) Transitioning from Law to Politics (18:35) The Call That Led Him to the White House (22:10) Why Obama's Team Chose David (26:21) Giving the People a Voice in the Oval Office (31:02) How Great Leaders Handle Crisis (35:29) Balancing Humility and Authority in Leadership (39:19) Navigating Political Pressure and Public Scrutiny (50:03) The Power of Personal Responsibility David Simas is a lawyer, political strategist, and former CEO and president of the Obama Foundation. He served as White House Director of Political Strategy and Outreach during the Obama administration and has held key roles in state and federal government, advising on political engagement and policy strategy. He is currently the Managing Director of Research and Impact at Emerson Collective, where he focuses on democracy, immigration, education, and climate initiatives. Connect with David: David's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/david-simas/  Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW way for professionals to Advance Their Careers & Make 5-6 figures of EXTRA INCOME in Record Time. Check out our free training today at leapacademy.com/training

What if the secret to high-performing teams wasn't another strategy session—but an improv game? In this episode of Workday Playdate, Erin dives into how improvisation is transforming team dynamics, leadership, and workplace culture. From LinkedIn to Amazon, top companies are embracing improv as a tool for boosting psychological safety, engagement, and creativity.  If you've ever struggled with silent meetings, hesitant team members, or a lack of collaboration, this episode is for you. Inside This Episode: Why improv isn't just for comedians—it's a powerful leadership tool. The surprising stats that show why most teams are set up for stagnation, not growth. How companies like Uber Freight and The Obama Foundation are using improv to build thriving teams. A simple, actionable improv game (“Last Word, First Word”) you can try in your next meeting. How playfulness fuels productivity (without turning work into a joke). Who This Episode Is For: Leaders, managers, and team members who want to create a culture where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and collaborate at their best. If your meetings feel stale or your team plays it too safe, this episode will show you how to shake things up—with fun that leads to real results. And if you're interested in taking one small action right now, you can check out our newest freebie, The 5-Minute Team Commitment Reset, here. It's a plug-and-play exercise that will get your team mentally present, engaged, and committed before any meeting.  No, You Hang Up First (Let's Keep Connecting) Did today's episode resonate with you? Leave us a review sharing your favorite insight and we'll send you a free signed copy of I See You! A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team through Radical Empathy. Have another question that we can answer? Leave us a Speakpipe audio clip and we'll answer it in an upcoming episode. Don't want to miss another episode? If you're a Spotify listener, find our show here and click “Follow.” If you're an Apple Podcast listener, click here and make sure to hit “+Follow.” Want access to a bunch of free resources for your work life? This is your personal jackpot that gives you access to the frameworks that help us thrive both personally and professionally. Whether you're trying to improve your daily routine, flesh out an idea that you've had for quite some time, or want to add more play into your day - these resources have got your back. Want 2 emails a week from us? One with a quick tip you can implement right away to enhance your personal and/or professional lives & one of our famous F.A.I.L. Fourward Friday newsletters? Subscribe here. Connect with Erin Diehl x improve it! Erin's website Erin's Instagram Erin's TikTok Erin's LinkedIn improve it!'s website improve it!'s Instagram

This interview features David Simas, former CEO of the Obama Foundation and current Managing Director of Research and Impact at Emerson Collective, discussing his career journey, the importance of relationships, leadership values, and the role of youth in decision-making. David shares personal anecdotes and insights on building connections, navigating leadership challenges, and fostering intergenerational collaboration.

Dr. Resa E. Lewiss takes a look back at a year of transformative conversations and storytelling on The Visible Voices Podcast. In this episode she reflects on a few conversations highlighting healthcare leadership, healthcare design, equity, innovation, and action.  You'll hear excerpts from:Wendy Dean (Episode 170): Physician, host of 43cc podcast, Moral Matters podcast, author of If I Betray These Words: Moral Injury in Medicine and Why It's So Hard for Clinicians to Put Patients First and founder of Moral Injury in Healthcare.  Wendy Schiller (Episode 160): Brown University's Interim Director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, and co-author of Inequality Across State Lines  Joanna McClinton (Episode 164): Attorney, politician and 143rd Speaker of the House of Representatives for the State of Pennsylvania Rob Gore (Episode 173): Physician, author ofTreating Violence: An Emergency Room Doctor Takes on a Deadly American Epidemic, and founder of KAVI the Kings Against Violence Initiative Thea James (Episode 133): Physician, Vice President of Mission and Associate Chief Medical Officer at Boston Medical Center, featured in Faces of Medicine docuseries by Khama Ennis. Pooja Kumar (Episode 169): Physician and senior partner McKinsey & Company and leader in the McKinsey Health Institute.   Joe Saul-Sehy (Episode 141): Personal finance expert, co-author of Stacked: Your Super-Serious Guide to Modern Money Management, and host of Stacking Benjamins Show Valerie Jarrett (Episode 136): CEO of The Obama Foundation, and author of Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward.  Graham Walker (Episode 175): Physician, HealthTech visionary, co founder of MDCalc, the NNT, the Physicians' Charter for Responsible AI, and OffCall, and host of How I Doctor podcast Here's to amplifying voices and creating meaningful change in 2025! If you enjoy the show, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating or review on Apple or YouTube and subscribe via the Website.

From Kingmaker to Court Jester: Obama's Relevance Problem I feel like a prophet sometimes—not the fiery, staff-wielding kind, but the kind who just calls out the obvious while everyone else is distracted by shiny objects. Case in point: Barack Obama. People have spent years debating whether he's the puppeteer pulling Joe Biden's strings. Spoiler alert: Obama isn't even the puppeteer of his own Netflix queue. Here's what I wrote recently: [START]For years, many people have insisted that Barack Obama is the puppeteer behind Joe Biden's presidency, labeling it Obama's "third term." The idea has become a refrain among political commentators and average citizens alike. But let me be clear: Obama is no puppet master. In fact, he isn't even in control of his own home—let alone the White House. Imagine being the former leader of the free world and your wife can make you crap your pants when she yells or gives you "the look." That statement isn't meant to be an attack on Michelle Obama, nor am I suggesting she's an abuser. But everybody knows she could kick Barack's behind.[END] Let's unpack that. Obama was once hailed as the cool, collected rock star of politics—a sort of "Hope and Change" Mick Jagger with less hair and more teleprompters. But now? He's more like the aging pop star who insists on playing his new album while everyone's just waiting for the hits. Democrats still treat him like he's the political Elvis, but by 2012 his star power was dimmer than a flashlight with a dying battery. Sure, he's still out there, signing books and giving speeches, but does anyone care? His relevance is like a Blockbuster card in a Netflix world: quaint, nostalgic, and entirely unnecessary. Even his attempt to rewrite history falls flat. Obama once bragged that his administration was scandal-free. This is the same guy whose tenure included Fast and Furious, the IRS targeting conservatives, Benghazi, and let's not forget, his healthcare website worked about as well as a screen door on a submarine. Then there's his recent speech at the Obama Foundation's Democracy Forum, where he tried to drop some wisdom about pluralism and democracy: [START]"Pluralism is not about holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya.' It is not about abandoning your convictions and folding when things get tough. It is about recognizing that, in a democracy, power comes from forging alliances and building coalitions and making room in those coalitions not only for the woke, but the waking."[END] Really? The woke and the waking? Sounds like a rejected tagline for a bad zombie movie. And let's talk about the gall it takes for Obama to accuse anyone else of weaponizing the judiciary or targeting political opponents. That's rich coming from the guy who turned the IRS into his personal attack dog. Miranda Devine nailed it when she said, "It's over for Obama. The spell is broken."[SEGMENT 1-2] Obama is done 2 If I prove you wrong on Obama, would you believe me on other matters?   Buck Sexton chimed in with "Ever since his last minute desperate smear of Trump with the ‘very fine people on both sides' lie, Barack Obama has been slowly realizing his status as false prophet of the Democrat party is no more." Obama's fall from grace isn't just poetic; it's downright Shakespearean. He's like King Lear, wandering the stormy heath of irrelevance, shouting about pluralism while the world moves on. The Democrats needed a star, a unifying figure to rally behind. Instead, they're stuck with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the ghost of Barack Obama, still trying to relive his 2008 glory days. But here's the punchline: Obama isn't the problem. He's the symptom of a party that's all style and no substance. They're the political equivalent of a fancy French pastry that looks amazing but collapses when you bite into it. And Obama? He's the powdered sugar on top—pretty, sweet, and entirely superfluous. So no, Obama isn't pulling the strings. He's not even in the room. At best, he's the guy in the nosebleeds, watching the game and occasionally yelling advice no one listens to. And honestly? That's probably for the best.    [SEGMENT 1-3] News of the Day 1   "Welcome to The Kevin Jackson Radio Show, the only place where common sense gets served hotter than McDonald's coffee in the '90s. We're here to dive into the absurd, untangle the outrageous, and remind you that the world doesn't need saving—it needs a sense of humor. If you're not laughing, you're crying… and let's face it, tears don't pay the bills. So let's start laughing a the lunacy of Leftism. Where do we start? I know. Leakers. And I'm not talking about Joe Biden's need for depends, though rumors are that Old Joe can't control his bladder anymore. But this latest leak is different…   Matt Gaetz Ethics Leak So, apparently, a hacker didn't release the dirt on Matt Gaetz. Nope. Turns out, Congresswoman Susan Wild—top Democrat on the Ethics Committee—just casually hit 'send.' Shocking, right? Democrats leaking? That's like finding out a Kardashian got another cosmetic procedure. Predictable! Wild deserves to be brought up on charges, but don't hold your breath—it's D.C., where the only thing that gets punished is honesty."   Mitch McConnell's Fall "Mitch McConnell fell inside the Senate, aka 'Sunset Acres Senior Living'. Don't worry, though; the Senate comes equipped with stairlifts and pudding cups for emergencies. At this rate, they'll be holding votes in between bingo games. Mitch's next bill should be titled, ‘Help, I've Fallen, and I Can't Get Up Act.'"Daniel Penny Acquittal So, Daniel Penny gets acquitted for defending himself on a New York subway, and the NAACP declares it's open season on Black folks. Funny, because a Black man helped Penny subdue Jordan Neely, and a Black woman testified on Penny's behalf. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good ‘burn-the-city' fundraiser? Meanwhile, Neely's dad—who abandoned him decades ago—suddenly shows up to play the grieving father. If hypocrisy were a sport, the Left would've won the gold decades ago!" Cue the ‘Burn Everything Down Tour 2024.'"  [SEGMENT 1-4] News of the Day 2   [X] SB – Daniel Penny [X] SB – AOC on Daniel Penny That tells us everything. If we don't want violence on our subways…justice system is supposed to remedy this. He didn't express remorse   Does he sound like some deranged white supremacists who was hunting Black people?   Liz Cheney's Legal Warning "Liz Cheney warned that investigating the January 6th Committee will result in sanctions. Liz, honey, your career is already sanctioned—by the voters. Investigating you is like digging up a time capsule from the Bush era: full of bad decisions and forgotten relics. But sure, threaten lawyers. It's not like anyone takes you seriously anymore—except maybe MSNBC."WNBA and White Privilege "So, Caitlin Clark wins Time's ‘Athlete of the Year' and apologizes for being white. Girl, you play in the WNBA—there's already a limited audience, and now you're alienating the rest? She says the league was built on Black players. Sure, Caitlin, but you're the one putting up numbers while most folks are Googling, ‘Is the WNBA still a thing?' Next time, just take the award and smile. Nobody asked for the guilt monologue."  Syria's Dress Code "In Syria, Islamist rebels told a Christian woman she can't leave the house without a male guardian and must wear a hijab. Look, if your revolutionary government starts sounding like a bad sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, it's time to reevaluate your life choices. Next, they'll ban fun, freedom, and probably Wi-Fi—because tyranny loves a dead zone."Elon Musk on Homelessness "This is The Kevin Jackson Radio Show, where Elon Musk tweets what we're all thinking. Musk points out that ‘save the homeless' NGOs profit by keeping people on the streets. Of course, they do These NGOs are the ambulance chasers of social justice: the more misery, the better their margins." "Elon Musk pointed out that ‘save the homeless' NGOs make Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kevin-jackson-show--2896352/support.

The election is over and, is spite of Trump's clear victory, America remains as divided as ever. So how to put the country together again? Juliana Tafur, the director of the Bridging Differences Program at UC Berkeley, has been giving this existential question much thought. What all Americans need, Tafur tells me, is the compassion, empathy and humility to understand the other side. But, as I asked her, isn't that just shorthand for a progressive bridge building project in which the left defines the language of a reunited America?Juliana Tafur, the director of the Bridging Differences Program at UC Berkeley Her work focuses on strengthening social connections across lines of race, religion, culture, politics, and more, to foster a culture of understanding and belonging in the United States and beyond. Through partnerships, multimedia content, speaking engagements, and workshops, Juliana is committed to ensuring that bridge-building skills and resources reach people and inspire meaningful change. With experience as a social entrepreneur, workshop creator, Emmy-nominated senior producer, and award-winning documentary filmmaker, she has been working to foster human connection across complex societal divides for more than a decade. A TEDx speaker, she has led and facilitated speaking engagements and training sessions on bridging differences at more than 30 higher education institutions and organizations. Juliana is also a 2021–2022 Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University—a mid-career fellowship that recognized and deepened her work in the bridge-building field, expanding her research on intergroup relations, political polarization, and conflict transformation. She is an honors graduate of Northwestern University, where she earned dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Journalism and History.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.TRANSCRIPTKEEN: Hello, everybody. The easy bit's over! The election's finished, now the real challenge is bringing America back together. We always hear these terms from politicians and activists, but in practice, of course, it's a very challenging thing to do. My guest today on the show, Juliana Tafur, though, is somebody who's given a great deal of thought to bringing America back together, bridging differences. She is the inaugural director of the Bridging Differences Program at UC Berkeley. She's also very much involved in the Denver Foundation. She's based in Boulder, Colorado, and she's joining us today. Juliana, is that fair? Was the election the easy bit? Now, the challenge is putting Humpty Dumpty back together again?TAFUR: 100%. I love the Humpty Dumpty. Yes, we are broken. How do we come back together and mend those pieces while still acknowledging the brokenness, right? Yeah. With that analogy, there's a beautiful Japanese technique that aims to cover the fractures, but to cover the fractures with a strand of gold so that we're not pretending like the fractures aren't there, but we are making something better as a result of the recognition of those fractures.KEEN: Juliana, we've done a lot of shows about this sort of thing. In fact, I've worked with the Braver Angels group. I'm sure you're familiar with them. I have been to a couple of their conferences. There are more and more of these groups trying to bring Americans back together. Might one suggest that there is now a broader movement in America to bring Americans of different--particularly different political persuasions back together? You're doing it, braver angels are doing it. Many of the thousands of activists and hundreds of groups.TAFUR: Yeah. There is so many of us across the country that work tirelessly day in and day out, around elections and before and after elections to make sure we come together. And yes, Braver Angels is just one of them. I could certainly give you a list that you could attach to the show notes, because a lot of us are doing this work and it's good for people to know that we're out there and that this is possible. But sometimes it takes seeing it in action and understanding how to do it to really trust that you can do it, too.KEEN: Yeah, we've had lots of people on the show. I know you're familiar with the work of Eboo Patel. You've worked with him his book couple of years ago. We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy is another example of this kind of work. Tell me what you do at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. What are you doing that's different or unusual or unique in terms of bringing Americans back together?TAFUR: Yeah, well, at the Greater Good Science Center, we study the psychology, sociology and neuroscience of well-being, or what we'd like to call the science of a meaningful life. And we break the science to the practice. So we take the science of how to have a meaningful life or how to bridge differences, and we translate it in a way that is accessible to people to apply in their own lives or to practitioners to help others apply the science. And in the bridging differences programs specifically, we do this through a series of videos, multimedia pieces that we publish in our magazine, Greater Good. We have a famous podcast called The Science of Happiness. We began in earnest in 2018, I would say, gathering what the science said about how to bring people together across differences. And when we talk about the science, we talk about skills, science-based skills, from compassionate listening to finding shared identities, etc., that have been tested in labs, and we translate them in a way that people understand how some of these skills applied, how they worked in labs, and how they can then work also in kind of real-life scenarios and situations. So we have a bridging differences playbook that has 14 science-based skills for bridging differences. We have an edX course that's free and available for everyone to take that also disseminates some of the science-based skills.KEEN: Tell me a little bit more about yourself. You've been involved in this space for a while. You're also a filmmaker, so you're very much committed on lots of fronts to this. How did you find yourself? Is this a reflection of your own upbringing, your own experience in the United States?TAFUR: Absolutely, yes. What you had up first was the page from the Obama Scholars Program. So a few years ago, 21, 22, I was an Obama scholar at Columbia University--KEEN: And you were the founder, at least at that point, of something called Story Powerhouse. I'm guessing you're still the founder, although you've moved on in a sense.TAFUR: Correct. Yeah. And Story Powerhouse was at the company Listen Courageously, which was a workshop series that I took around to universities and organizations and corporations talking about the power of empathic listening. And I got to that through film that I produced and directed that brought Americans together on opposite ends of the spectrum across the easy topics of abortion, guns and immigration. And the inspiration for this film came after the 2016 election. I felt a big need back then to try to bridge the divide that I was seeing and feeling, very explicitly, for the very first time in our country. And as a Colombian-American, I was beginning to talk to folks in my circles, and I was feeling this this real sense of othering that I had never, ever experienced and wondering and questioning what was my place and that of so many others like me in our country. And that led to to Listen, to this film that brought three sets of participants across these really tough topics together to explore if they could see each other as people and connect on a human level despite their differences. And I had no idea what the outcome would be. I had documented their conversations across a period of time. And I was truly moved by what I saw. I saw that those who were able to connect at a deep, human level were those who were able to listen. So then, that led me to study and explore and understand the power of listening and understood that it was a field. It's an arts, but it's also a science and connected with practitioners, but also researchers in the field of listening. And one thing led to the other, right? As a practitioner and filmmaker in the field of bridging differences, I found myself going back to intergroup relations and conflict transformation and other subjects too, to really understand why. Why was it that my film participants had come together, and how could I then equip others to continue doing the same? Less from a "we know this is possible" and more from a kind of research-grounded way.KEEN: Juliana, some people might be listening to this and...whilst on the one hand being, in a way, impressed they might be scratching their head, maybe listening to you, you use the E-word all the time empathetic, which is quite a kind of ideological character these days. You talk about othering, you're funded by, or you were funded by, the Obama Foundation. Now you head up a greater good institute at UC Berkeley, People's Republic of Berkeley, which is a place I know all too well, I used to live there for many years. Some people might be listening to this and thinking if you scratch the surface of what Juliana's saying, is she suggesting that this is the progressive version of the greater good? And as long as you're in our camp and you use her words like "empathy" and "othering" and love the Obamas and spend time at UC Berkeley, it's fine. But when you start perhaps putting red caps on and talking about America becoming great again or not being particularly sympathetic to immigrants, then you're outside your world. How would you respond to that? Is that a fair criticism or am I wrong, or would one be wrong?TAFUR: Well, obviously, people's criticisms are their criticisms, and that's absolutely okay. And there is no right or wrong. I just want to say--KEEN: Well, there is right and wrong, Juliana, isn't there? There's some things are certainly more right than wrong and some things are more wrong and right.TAFUR: Yes, but we don't judge that. I think, you know, people are right to believe what they believe, vote for who they vote, and be who they are. And we start bridging from the place of: I see you, and I hear you, and I might not understand you, but that's okay. I still don't dehumanize you. And that's the spirit of bridging differences. And yes, I don't hide where I stand. Politically, I am more progressive. And I have been an Obama scholar. And I work at Berkeley. So all of that is who I am. And from that place, I bridge. I bridge from the place of this is who I am, where I stand. I still love you and I still want to get to know you. And I still want to see you. And I just want to say, given that I'm Colombian American and I lived in Miami for the last ten years, I just recently moved to Boulder, Colorado, to lead a statewide initiative here in the state of Colorado called Belonging Colorado to make Colorado a place where everyone feels like they belong. Thank you for popping it up.KEEN: Called Belonging Colorado.TAFUR: Yeah, in Florida, I mean, I've had friends and neighbors who don't think like I do, who don't see the world like I do. And I've appreciated that. And I have not excluded them from our circles, from trying deeply to learn and understand what is it that they believe, what they believe. So I intentionally have made way to understand our country and and to try to tap into, honestly, what at the end of the day, are people's fears of what we need. And I approach them from that place. When you approach others from a place of "we are all walking with our fears in our foreheads," we begin to connect with your fear, my fear. But it's all fear and it's okay.KEEN: You used the term "humanizing differences," Juliana. Some people, again, might be listening and thinking to themselves, well, the guy who just won the election, more Americans voted for him than the other candidate. It's quite a decisive election. He doesn't seem to be in the business of "humanizing differences." In fact, many of the people he doesn't like, he seems, some people believe, I tend to be sympathetic there, he's dehumanizing them. So. So what do we do in an America, where the next president is, or appears to be, very often in the business of dehumanization?TAFUR: Hopefully we take back the narrative.KEEN: What does that mean, "take back the narrative"? He's been elected. It's his narrative.TAFUR: It is his narrative. But as people I don't believe that everyone who voted for him is voting for the dehumanization. I am holding firm to the belief that people are good, and that people have voted for other things and not for that. And I want people who voted for him to still see that we need to humanize each other despite our differences. And I believe that they do. I do not believe people are buying into that narrative and rhetoric. At least not everyone. Some may. But I think when we take back the narrative, we take back the narrative of: yes, right now there's a winning camp and a losing camp, and that's okay. And I would hope that those in the winning camp also want to see across differences and are reaching out to humanize those who are not in the winning camp. And, you know, that is now that is four years. But our country perseveres and continues and we are interdependent and need each other. Absolutely need each other. More than this rhetoric, more than the divisive politics. Politics is just one aspect of who we are.KEEN: There are others. I mean, you acknowledge that you're a progressive. There are other progressives who are preparing to resist the new--what they see as a regime, some people even think that the new president is a fascist. What would you say to resistors, people who don't believe that it's possible to, as you would put it, reshape the narrative or seize the narrative, that that the next president is in the business of dehumanizing many people, particularly people out of America and many people in America. And it's just pointless and that they're going to fight him, they're going to fight him in the courts, and maybe even on the streets.TAFUR: I don't think that's the way. I don't stand for that. And I'm also trying to bring those people along. I think the only way out of hate, sincerely, and I know it sounds cliche, but it's through love. I don't believe in resistance in that way. I am for peace and I will continue to promote peace. And I know that that is hard for people in the far left to also swallow. And I know it takes time and I know not everyone is there right now, especially right now. And not everyone will be there ever. And that's okay, too. We understand that bridging is not the right thing for every person in every situation. We know that a lot of people who feel that their identity is in danger or that they're being disrespected might not be called to bridge differences. And that is also okay. I don't think this is work that you do by demand. And and we know that it's not without risks. We know that it involves exposing vulnerability. And we also know that sometimes bridging work takes small shifts over time. What we like to call small to large, or big, bridges. Sometimes you don't start with the biggest bridge possible bridging across the biggest divide. So we know that it's work that requires the right mindsets and skills and attitudes, and that takes time.KEEN: You've used the word bridge a lot, bridging as a noun, as an adjective. I seem to remember Bill Clinton was very much in the, at least the etymological bridge building business. He would always talk about it. Are examples of American politicians in the past who have successfully built bridges? I mean, Clinton wanted to, of course, he had his own controversial personal narrative that didn't help. But when you look back into the American past, who are the bridging presidents? FDR, Teddy Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Lincoln?TAFUR: Yeah, those, and I would say, you know, yes, I may I'm totally biased because I am funded, have been funded, by the Obama Foundation. But sincerely, President Obama has taken bridging and pluralism, as he called it, as the work that he is doing, that he is centering on after his presidency, and he runs these democracy summits that happen once a year. And and it is a message that he deeply believes in and is trying to share with others.KEEN: Yeah, I mean, doesn't everyone bridge on their own terms? Obama campaigned aggressively for Harris. And in fact, a lot of people believe that Trump never would have got involved in politics had Obama not given him such a violent roasting at one of the White House correspondence evenings a few years ago. So isn't Obama an example of someone who bridges when they feel like it and when they don't, they accuse other people of not bridging?TAFUR: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I prefer not to get into politics. I do bridging differences work because I am equipping folks with the skills to be able to do this work. And I believe in humans. So so this is really not about politics for me. It never was. It never will be. I happen to be an Obama scholar, but I'd really rather not comment on what politicians are or not doing.KEEN: And I take your point, Juliana. But politics and the founders knew this, the politics in and out of America, is a dirty business. We pursue our own interests. Madison called them the pursuit of faction. That's why we have divisions, that's why we have branches of government which are designed to negate each other. Just as Madison so famously said, so profoundly said, "If men were angels (and he did say, man, he didn't say women as well, of course), if men were angels, there'd be no need for government." And I wonder whether...and again, I don't want a group for your movements or your thinking into one, but I wonder whether this kind of ambivalence, hostility, maybe even contempt for politics is problematic. When I think of someone like Michelle Obama, I have to admit I'm very, very disappointed that she didn't choose to enter into politics. She seems to be political when she feels like it. But not to participate in politics, she was probably the only person in America could have beaten Trump. Again, I don't want to turn this into a conversation about either Obama's. But my question to you is about acknowledging the dirtiness of politics, which reflects the dirtiness of the human condition, the fact that we all are, for better or worse, self-interested. Do you accept that Madisonian version of human nature?TAFUR: I honestly think there is a better future for us when we tap into what we can be and not what we are. And I know it's hard for many to do right now. And it's hard when what we see as reality is what politicians do. And I do see some examples of politics where people are coming together that I'd like to highlight, including Governor Spencer Cox. And he's led a national campaign called Disagree Better. And he's come on ads with Governor Jared Polis from--KEEN: Colorado, yeah?TAFUR: Colorado. And Governor Cox is out of Utah, Republican. Jared Polis is a Democrat from Colorado. And I think we need more of that. We need more examples of that, politicians coming together and showing how they are coming together so that we believe that it's also possible. So I'd like to  hang on to those examples in the political realm. But again, I'm in the business of what we individuals can do at the interpersonal level to begin to cultivate the right skills and mindsets, to be able to come together and at the inter group level with others.KEEN: There's been a lot of conversation, debate after this election, Juliana, like many elections, about why and how people should vote. Should they vote out of self-interest or for the the greater good? Lots of comments about many of the people vote voting for Trump seem to be voting against their own interests, particularly the new American working class. Whereas the coastal elites in voting for Harris seem also in an odd way to be voting against their own--certainly economic--interests by voting for her, in your view, to get to this bridge and this ability to be empathetic and converse with others, do we need to overcome our own self-interest, particularly our own economic self-interest?TAFUR: I don't think you need to overcome your own economic self-interests to bridge. Not at all. Because when we bridge differences, we are not asking honestly people to leave aside any of what they value. It centers on this recognition of, yes, common humanity, which I know is very abstract to a lot of people. But it is not about persuasion and it does not require you compromising your beliefs or values. It just requires the ability for you to recognize that anyone, anyone can teach you something, which is a term called intellectual humility. So, no, not to bridge. I mean, you may be putting your self-interest aside, or some of your self-interests, aside when you're voting for certain candidates. But to bridge, we are just coming together to see each other and to be with each other.KEEN: You talk about intellectual humility. That word again, humility is another fashionable word that goes with empathy. Is there, do you think, a religious context to this? Do you think some of these movements, maybe yours, maybe even yourself, it grew out of a religious tradition. A Christian tradition? Humility, empathy, love, understanding. These are words that are traditionally used in religion.TAFUR: Yes, they are. I will say that we have not necessarily emphasized or called attention to these character virtues and moral virtues in our work. We do talk about them a lot and we will probably emphasize them a bit more moving forward, given interest that we have in doing so, because we do think that when you talk about civil, moral character virtues like respect and curiosity and courage, you are meeting different types of people at different places. And at the end of the day, this is about becoming better people.KEEN: Say that again: this is about becoming better people. So, it's a moral movement. You're suggesting people need to pull their their moral socks up if we're going to put Humpty Dumpty, to extend this rather childish metaphor, if we're if we're to put Humpty Dumpty back together again, we need to pull our moral socks up. Is that fair?TAFUR: Yeah. I mean, we believe that cultivating these virtues is not just about overcoming current societal divides, but about nurturing a deep commitment to, for a lack of a better word, the greater good. This is what this is about.KEEN: I don't know how many jobs you have, Juliana. I'm lucky enough that I don't have multiple jobs, but some people, again, might be watching this and saying this is all very well. Maybe in some biblical fantasy land, we can all put ourselves out and be better people. But most people are really busy. Many, particularly, working class people who perhaps voted for Trumo, they're working 2 or 3 jobs. They're busy. They struggle to pay their rent, feed their families. Does this require to be part of your bridging movement? Does it require, shall we say, moral...concentration? Or could you do it...occasionally?TAFUR: Absolutely. You can do it occasionally. You can do it in the weekend. You can do it with neighbors. You could do it at a school board meeting. You could do it in neighborhood meetings. You could do it wherever you are. You could do it at work. You could do it with colleagues. You could do it with your kids. It does not require more than anything that you are already doing. It's just about how you approach those who are in your circles and in your life.KEEN: What's the most difficult thing? You do this a lot. You run bridging programs. You run a school, essentially, designed to help people bridge. What does the movement most struggle with? When you see people who are open to the idea and say, you're right, I need to be able to talk responsibly with humility and empathy to people who I don't agree with on the other political side, culturally, racially, and all the rest of it. What do people most struggle with, what don't they expect? What would you warn people about who are trying to get into a movement like this?TAFUR: We are very clear that if the other person is dehumanizing you, and if you feel at risk or threatened by this dehumanization, that you should probably be careful in engaging. So that's where we draw the line.KEEN: Yeah, but then you're shifting the responsibility to somebody else. I mean, obviously, if they're dehumanizing you, you wouldn't want to talk to them. But what's hard about changing oneself, that's possible, that doesn't involve the other?TAFUR: I think this just requires the commitment to want to do it and then the right skills. To engage with it in a way that you see works, that feels good, and that invites you to continue trying it out. And all it takes is the willingness to say, "I'm exhausted by this. This is affecting me personally." Because we do know that our divides are consuming us. They're affecting our health, our well-being. We also know our divides are affecting our families and our closest circles. We know that our divides affect our children in schools. So there are many, many reasons for wanting to bridge, for saying, "this is enough. I am exhausted." And if you are, you are not alone. Three. Out of four Americans are. 75% of Americans in the most conservative estimates say they are exhausted by the division.KEEN: Exhausted by just this endless controversy of people not being able to talk to one another?TAFUR: Yeah. Research tells us that three out of four Americans see political hostility and divisiveness as a serious problem and want to live in a less polarized country. So we are just trying to meet that exhausted majority where they are. Because we do know that people value diverse perspectives. Again, research points to this, and a desire to shift the political discourse. So we're telling them: we hear you. We see you. Yes, this division hurts us. Let's do something about it. Do you need some skills? We got you.KEEN: Juliana, I asked you about other examples from American history. What about models from the rest of the world in these kinds of conversations? You often hear about the the reconciliation, the truth and reconciliation movement and Mandela, South Africa. Are there models overseas, which Americans can learn from? Americans often aren't very good at learning from other countries, particularly in Africa. But is the South African model a good one, do you think?TAFUR: Yes. I mean, clearly, they were able to come together across incredible fracture and division, and they were able to persevere and collaborate across differences. There is also the model in Ireland that we can point to. There is division that is hurting countries across the world right now. And I know ,I come from a country that is deeply divided, Colombia. And Colombians have also succeeded in bridging the great divide. But there's been strides, through peace treaties and others, to come together despite differences. So we can certainly learn from other countries that have been deeply divided and in deep conflict and have come together. We are not in a place in the US where our conflict has turned violent, thankfully, at least not openly. We are seeing signs of violence, but we are not in the midst of a war (although it seems like a moral war in many regards.) And and I do want to point to the hope that countries who have been in deeper fractures about how this is possible and and hopefully also show us that we must do something before the fracture goes wider and deeper. And where reconciliation seems harder to do.KEEN: Juliana, you mentioned Ireland. One of the things that comes to mind in the Irish model is the role of citizen assemblies in bringing people together to talk about very difficult issues. You brought up abortion, guns and immigration, in the U.S., the three most divisive issues, probably abortion, was and maybe still remains the most divisive in Roman Catholic Ireland. But the Citizens' Assembly movement in Ireland addressed the issue of abortion, and that was the way for the Irish parliament to actually develop some some quite interesting new legislation on abortion. Are you sympathetic to rethinking institutions, political institutions, political organizations like the Citizens' Assembly? Is this something that you've thought about, researched, is it part of a greater good future?TAFUR: Yeah, I mean, I do think we need to re-imagine. I do think we need to take good examples, including citizens' assemblies and in understand what's going to work for all of us. We know what we're doing now is not working for all of us. What does it take? How can we bring folks together to the conversation in a way that is bringing us all together? So, I do think bringing a diverse group of citizens to engage in structured dialogue, learn from experts, and also deliberate over complex topics could be the way. Maybe that's what we need. Maybe we do need more public participation in the democratic process in a way that ultimately ends up shaping legislation. And it does align with our bridging differences program, right? And and what we promote in in bringing people in and fostering inclusivity. So how can we bring different backgrounds together in structured discussions so that we can move beyond these partisan divides? Because we do understand that some of these issues do provoke, I would say, a really strong emotional response and and also carry significant social implications for folks.KEEN: Juliana Tafur, you've you've done very well with, my rather obnoxious question. So let's end with an opportunity for you to talk about, quite literally, where we go from here. You have some articles on your website, on the Bridging Differences website about where do we go from here, after the election. Perhaps you might touch on 3 or 4 bullets--concrete things of where we go from here in in early November 2024 that can bridge America, that can bring us back together. What would you suggest that's doable, viable, can be achieved in the next few months?TAFUR: It's great that you point to that article. I was obviously part of a group of us at the Greater Good Science Center that was very keen on publishing this the day after the election to--KEEN: And now you're on--I couldn't resist this one, Juliana, now you're on KEEN ON. I'm sorry for that rather silly joke, but anyway. Go on.TAFUR: Yep, yep, yep. Well, let me just, like, run through a bit of what some of the experts and researchers who we invited to be a part of this article with what they said.KEEN: And that included Eboo Patel, who, as I said, has been on the show. So you put together a very interesting group of people to write this thing.TAFUR: Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, so Eboo is saying keep doing what matters to you and the world, and he's trying to get us away from this catastrophe mindset, and he wants to remind us that what you are doing is sacred and it makes a difference. And even if the world is going to end, he says, the wisdom of the sages says to keep doing your meaningful work, because that work is part of the saving grace of humanity. So that was beautiful. Scott Shigeoka, who's a bridging differences fellow at the Greater Good Science Center, is inviting us to practice curiosity as an act of love. And for Scott, he says that we must practice curiosity if we want to transform our fear and hate. And he's reminding us that curiosity is a trait that we are all born with, and it's the desire to understand others more deeply. Again, this does not mean agreeing with views that clash with your own, but challenging the assumptions that you have about people who hold those views. So a lot about interrupting prejudice. Jeremy Smith, who's our editor at The Greater Good, he's inviting us to work to promote your values in community. I'll go high level on some of these. Get to know other humans, right? Get out of our silos as much as we can and connecting across our differences. Dr. Linda Traub, who is a close collaborator of ours, is inviting us to be good neighbors, even, and especially, to those who are different. So those are just a few. Choose nuance, not outrage. So I do invite folks to go through this article and and hopefully a few of the golden nuggets of inspiration do stay with you, do motivate you, to do something. It's been hard for many of us to understand what is it that we can do right now if bridging even is the calling of the moment when so many are struggling to understand what this means about our country, what this means about the next four years. But I understand others are not and are celebrating. Regardless of where you are, I think in a few weeks when you feel up for it, I think the calling of our times is to come together and to understand, again, our interdependence. We must break this cycle of othering us versus them. That does that does not exist. Those are constructs that that we have created. But we are better and we are more. And we are one. And sorry if this sounds cliche to some, but that's what I got for you.KEEN: That's interesting. And finally, Juliana, you mentioned one of your colleagues talked about what they would do if the world was to end tomorrow, what they would do this evening. It certainly reflects on you. I know if I knew the world was going to end tomorrow, I would go to Kentucky Fried Chicken. But that probably speaks of my own unsuitability for your movement. What would you do if you knew the world was ending tomorrow?TAFUR: I would speak to you, Andrew.KEEN: Oh my god, we can go together to the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Well, Juliana, it's been a real honor to have you on the show. Very interesting conversation, we're going to get you back on because this--one thing we can say for sure is this issue is not going away in 2024, 2025, 2026. Keep up the good work, Juliana, and we'll talk again in the not too distant future. Thank you so much.TAFUR: Thank you, Andrew. Thank you.For those impressed with what Julianna Tafur is doing and would like to participate, here are a couple of ideas:* Ready to turn division into connection? The Greater Good Science Center's 7-Day Campaign for Connection Challenge offers practical, research-based skills to ease stress and create understanding. Reserve your spot: http://tinyurl.com/7DayChallenge24* Feeling the weight of division this election season? You're not alone! Join the @Greater Good Science Center's 7-Day Campaign for Connection Challenge, to help you navigate these polarized times with science-backed skills. Reserve your place: http://tinyurl.com/7DayChallenge24Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. 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In this episode, I reflect on the emotional aftermath of the 2024 Presidential Election and the importance of focusing on family and community during uncertain times. Because I needed time to rest, I made the decision to replay an impactful interview with a Latina mami, social worker, and Obama Foundation Scholar, Samantha Siers. As mamás, we have been or will be having many difficult conversations with our children. Some of these conversations will be related to social justice-related issues like racism, poverty, and homelessness. In order for us to dismantle biases and prejudices, we should be mindful of what we say and what we model for our kids to ensure they are social justice-minded children.-------In this week's episode, we welcome Samantha Siers (she/her) who is a mom of two, and a 2023-2024 Obama Foundation Scholar. Through her personal experience with teenage parenthood, Samantha is passionate about offering robust, equitable, support services to mothers of color on Chicago's south and west sides. Her project with the Obama Foundation centers around creating a resource database that is truly reflective of the unique needs of single mothers.Samantha discusses the importance of instilling kindness, thoughtfulness and a sense of social justice in children and shares tips for families to become agents of change.In this episode you'll hear:Why it is important to raise justice-minded children.How to raise children through a social justice lens and how to help reduce fear.Age-appropriate lessons that we can teach our children and how to expose our children to normalize this process.How to navigate political differences in family.Ways to connect with Samantha Siers on LinkedIn and learn about the work she is doing.Love this episode? Subscribe wherever you are listening, share this episode with an amiga, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠leave a review⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Apple podcasts.You can connect with Viva la Mami on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠VLM website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast@vivalamami.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Join the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Viva la Mami newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ so you won't miss a thing!

CPF Director Bob Shrum joins Todd Purdum (author; former New York Times Washington Correspondent), David Simas (former CEO of the Obama Foundation), and Carissa Smith (former Senior Public Engagement Advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement) for a discussion on the 2024 election campaign strategies and what to expect on Election Night. They discuss the candidates' closing messages, how the race looks according to the polling data, and how each candidate will likely close their campaign.   Featuring:  - Todd Purdum: Author; Former New York Times Washington Correspondent; Former National Editor for Vanity Fair; Spring 2022 CPF Fellow  - David Simas: Former CEO of the Obama Foundation; Former Director of the Office of Political Strategy & Outreach under the Obama Administration - Carissa Smith: Former Senior Public Engagement Advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement; Fall 2024 CPF Fellow - Bob Shrum: Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife

Election 2024: Where Are We Now?   CPF Director Bob Shrum joins Jane Coaston, journalist and CNN contributor, and David Simas, former CEO of the Obama Foundation, for a discussion on how the 2024 election looks with less than two weeks to go. They discuss how each candidate is performing in the polls, the importance of the presidential debate, and each campaign's strategy and messaging. Featuring:  - Jane Coaston: Journalist; CNN Contributor; Lead Host of Crooked Media's Daily News Show “What A Day"; Fall 2024 CPF Fellow - David Simas: Former CEO of the Obama Foundation; Former Director of the Office of Political Strategy & Outreach under the Obama Administration - Bob Shrum: Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife

Confidence Staveley is the founder and CEO of Cybersafe Foundation, Africa's leading nongovernmental organization dedicated to digital development. Her mission is to ensure inclusive and safe digital access across Africa. Confidence discovered her passion for computer science during a gap year after high school when she first touched a computer keyboard. She then convinced her […]

CPF Director Bob Shrum and Marylouise Oates, former activist and LA Times journalist, join former First Lady staffers Anita McBride, Noelia Rodriguez, and Tina Tchen for a discussion on the influence of presidential First Ladies on politics, policy, and American society.   Featuring:  Anita McBride: Former Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush Noelia Rodriguez: Former Press Secretary and Director of Communications for First Lady Laura Bush; Former CPF Fellow Tina Tchen: Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Impact Officer for the Obama Foundation; Former Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama Marylouise Oates: Former Activist and LA Times Journalist who covered First Ladies Bob Shrum: Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife

Shabazz Larkin is a figurative artist, poet, sculptor, book-maker and an ambassador for mindfulness meditation.  Larkin, from Norfolk Virginia, works from his studio in Nashville, TN, creating figures, portraits, and monuments that celebrate Black culture. His overwhelming use of color and bold typography thinly veils his true intention to explore issues of justice, history, spirituality, and the power of Black joy. Larkin is the founder of The Museum of Presence, an institution without walls, taking the form of a newspaper and podcast led by a cohort of BIPoC artists, curators, and mindfulness professionals, working to spotlight the creative community of Nashville and the greater American South, with mindfulness and creativity at the heart. Shabazz has a long list of private collaborators, from his former 20-year career in the commercial creative industry from organizations like the Obama Foundation, Google, and Sony to moguls like Bill Gates, Maya Angelou, and a long list of other kings, presidents, and global brands. Shabazz has won every award in the business from the One Show Pencil to the Cannes Lion. In 2020 however, Shabazz left the commercial ad industry to follow a passion to make meditation and mindfulness teachings accessible to BIPoC communities. Shabazz now serves as the head of content for a Mindfulness app, called True Voice, designed from the ground up with Black and brown people in mind. (truevoiceapp.com) He is also the author of several books that grapple with food or mindfulness, his latest is “The Thing About Bees: A Love Letter to My Sons” a book about fear, love, and the fragility of our food system. He is the founder of Larkin Art & Company, an art gallery, and proprietor of artifacts, experiences, and books rooted in African American culture and identity. (www.larkinart.co) 

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Demond Martin.  He founded WellWithAll, a Black-owned, purpose-led health + wellness brand.  Their mission is to improve wellbeing for all of us to achieve generational wellness. We invest 20% of our profits in the fight for health equity in Black, Brown, and underserved communities.   1.    Origin Story: What was the spark that drove you + your co-founder to start WellWithAll?According to Pfizer, Black people are at a higher risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, and diabetes compared to their white counterparts. But that is not all. Based on research recorded by Psychiatry, Black people with any mental illness have lower rates of obtaining mental health services, including prescription medications and outpatient services, compared to white men and women. Demond Martin, Co-Founder + CEOAn investor and philanthropist, Demond was a senior partner at Adage Capital Management where he invested in the consumer sector for 22 years. A graduate of Harvard Business School and former assistant to President Clinton's White House Chief of Staff, Demond has served as a trustee on a number of non-profit boards including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Grammy Global Venture Board, and the Obama Foundation. We encourage + support our customers on their wellness journey while inspiring us all to do good in our communities and in our lives. Talking Points/Questions * 1. Origin Story: What was the spark that drove you + your co-founder to start WellWithAll?  2. Product/Solutions: What are solutions/products that WellWithAll offers to solve for better wellbeing? **Demond to share how our product, content, community are here to help put more life into years (pursue our joy/living well), especially for Black and Brown consumers who have been underserved or overlooked in the wellness space overall. 3. What does generational wellness mean to you? **Dialogue between Demond and Rushion and their respective points of view. 4. Conscious Capitalism/Biz Model: WellWithAll doesn't just sell quality products, it also has a passion and purpose. Can you share more about your innovative business model to build heath equity for driving positive social impact and change? #STRAW #BEST #SHMS  Support the show: https://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Demond Martin.  He founded WellWithAll, a Black-owned, purpose-led health + wellness brand.  Their mission is to improve wellbeing for all of us to achieve generational wellness. We invest 20% of our profits in the fight for health equity in Black, Brown, and underserved communities.   1.    Origin Story: What was the spark that drove you + your co-founder to start WellWithAll?According to Pfizer, Black people are at a higher risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, and diabetes compared to their white counterparts. But that is not all. Based on research recorded by Psychiatry, Black people with any mental illness have lower rates of obtaining mental health services, including prescription medications and outpatient services, compared to white men and women. Demond Martin, Co-Founder + CEOAn investor and philanthropist, Demond was a senior partner at Adage Capital Management where he invested in the consumer sector for 22 years. A graduate of Harvard Business School and former assistant to President Clinton's White House Chief of Staff, Demond has served as a trustee on a number of non-profit boards including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Grammy Global Venture Board, and the Obama Foundation. We encourage + support our customers on their wellness journey while inspiring us all to do good in our communities and in our lives. Talking Points/Questions * 1. Origin Story: What was the spark that drove you + your co-founder to start WellWithAll?  2. Product/Solutions: What are solutions/products that WellWithAll offers to solve for better wellbeing? **Demond to share how our product, content, community are here to help put more life into years (pursue our joy/living well), especially for Black and Brown consumers who have been underserved or overlooked in the wellness space overall. 3. What does generational wellness mean to you? **Dialogue between Demond and Rushion and their respective points of view. 4. Conscious Capitalism/Biz Model: WellWithAll doesn't just sell quality products, it also has a passion and purpose. Can you share more about your innovative business model to build heath equity for driving positive social impact and change? #STRAW #BEST #SHMS  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Demond Martin.  He founded WellWithAll, a Black-owned, purpose-led health + wellness brand.  Their mission is to improve wellbeing for all of us to achieve generational wellness. We invest 20% of our profits in the fight for health equity in Black, Brown, and underserved communities.   1.    Origin Story: What was the spark that drove you + your co-founder to start WellWithAll?According to Pfizer, Black people are at a higher risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, asthma, and diabetes compared to their white counterparts. But that is not all. Based on research recorded by Psychiatry, Black people with any mental illness have lower rates of obtaining mental health services, including prescription medications and outpatient services, compared to white men and women. Demond Martin, Co-Founder + CEOAn investor and philanthropist, Demond was a senior partner at Adage Capital Management where he invested in the consumer sector for 22 years. A graduate of Harvard Business School and former assistant to President Clinton's White House Chief of Staff, Demond has served as a trustee on a number of non-profit boards including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Grammy Global Venture Board, and the Obama Foundation. We encourage + support our customers on their wellness journey while inspiring us all to do good in our communities and in our lives. Talking Points/Questions * 1. Origin Story: What was the spark that drove you + your co-founder to start WellWithAll?  2. Product/Solutions: What are solutions/products that WellWithAll offers to solve for better wellbeing? **Demond to share how our product, content, community are here to help put more life into years (pursue our joy/living well), especially for Black and Brown consumers who have been underserved or overlooked in the wellness space overall. 3. What does generational wellness mean to you? **Dialogue between Demond and Rushion and their respective points of view. 4. Conscious Capitalism/Biz Model: WellWithAll doesn't just sell quality products, it also has a passion and purpose. Can you share more about your innovative business model to build heath equity for driving positive social impact and change? #STRAW #BEST #SHMS  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eric Lazar, President and Owner of SpeedPro, was not always the successful, respected, approachable leader he is today. In this episode – Authority for Growth: Insights from the Military and the Courage to Transform Your Leadership – Eric tells us about taking in tough feedback, why he led in ineffective ways in the past, and what he now watches out for to ensure he's a leader that truly engages those around him. About the Guest:In 1986, Eric Lazar decided to forgo acceptance into several universities and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. Eric served as an Intelligence Specialist with both a Combat Engineer Battalion and an Electronic Warfare Squadron with two overseas deployments.Eric's transition into the private sector was fraught with challenges, unable to find his calling, a sense of purpose, or adopting to the culture of a corporate environment. In the years that followed Eric pursued 3 different entrepreneurial ventures and held a number of corporate sales positions, creating in each role a track record of driving impressive growth.Eric's third and current entrepreneurial effort is SpeedPro Chicago Loop. SpeedPro Chicago Loop (http://www.speedprochicagoloop.com/) is a NVBDC certified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Business specializing in large-format digital printing company which encompasses corporate décor, brand activations, event signage, exhibits & trade show displays, wall, floor, window & ceiling murals, glass finishes, vehicle wraps, posters, banners, et al. Their client roster is broad, partnering with renowned brands that include Live Nation, Salesforce, and The Obama Foundation.SpeedPro is dedicated to being a great corporate citizen, donating a minimum of 1% of proceeds in the way of product and services to charitable organizations; and is the winner of the International Franchise Association's 2022 Franchisee of the Year, Inc. Magazine's List of Fastest Growing Companies in the Midwest, as well as the only two-time ‘Project of the Year' winner. Eric is a past President of the SpeedPro Imaging National Franchising Advisory Counsel and sits on boards and in leadership roles for several veteran organizations to include Project Relo and Chicago Marines Foundation. About the Host:Amy L. Riley is an internationally renowned speaker, author and consultant. She has over 2 decades of experience developing leaders at all levels. Her clients include Cisco Systems, Deloitte and Barclays.As a trusted leadership coach and consultant, Amy has worked with hundreds of leaders one-on-one, and thousands more as part of a group, to fully step into their leadership, create amazing teams and achieve extraordinary results. Amy's most popular keynote speeches are:The Courage of a Leader: The Power of a Leadership LegacyThe Courage of a Leader: Create a Competitive Advantage with Sustainable, Results-Producing Cross-System CollaborationThe Courage of a Leader: Accelerate Trust with Your Team, Customers and CommunityThe Courage of a Leader: How to Build a Happy and Successful Hybrid Team Her new book is a #1 international best-seller and is entitled, The Courage of a Leader: How to Inspire, Engage and Get Extraordinary Results. www.courageofaleader.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshoopriley/ Resources mentioned in the podcastThe Inspire Your Team to Greatness assessment (the courage assessment).How can you inspire our team to be more proactive, take ownership and get more done?You demonstrate and empower The Courage...

In this two-part episode, Diana delves into the fascinating world of astrology with two practitioners, Gwen Yi and Alice Sparkly Kat.In part 1, Diana chats with Gwen Yi, who explores the myths and misconceptions surrounding Western astrology, especially in her home country of Malaysia. Gwen shares what it's like to receive a reading with her, emphasizing the sacred space she creates for her clients. She shares insights into the deeper levels of astrology, archetypes, the true meaning of “Mercury in retrograde,” and how astrology can be a powerful tool for mental health and self-acceptance. Discover the differences between Western and Eastern astrology and learn how to work with your fundamental nature, rather than trying to change it.In part 2 (~32:37), Diana is joined by Alice Sparkly Kat, who broadens our understanding of astrology by integrating traditional and modern techniques from various cultural perspectives, including a unique Chinese form of astrology. Alice explores the intersections of astrology, mental health, and personality theory, offering astrology as a tool for play, exploration, and deconstructing symbols. They also discuss queer astrology and the differences between working with an astrologer and a therapist. Plus, get tips on how to prepare for an astrology reading and dive into the rich philosophical traditions that astrology offers across different cultures.Gwen Yi (she/her) is a writer, coach and astrologer based in Malaysia. She graduated from Debra Silverman's applied astrology school and currently serves clients globally from her humble Zoom office as @TheAsianAstrologer. In a previous life, Gwen was an award winning entrepreneur and empathy trainer, servicing clients like the Obama Foundation and giving TED talks. These days, she spends her days looking up at the stars and talking about them. Connect with Gwen on Instagram @TheAsianAstrologer, Substack: The Asian Astrologer, and theasianastrologer.comAlice Sparkly Kat (they/them) is an astrologer. Their goal is to practice astrology by reconstructing history, interpreting the present, and nurturing the future. They are the author of Postcolonial Astrology, a book that serves as a history of astrology from a post-colonial perspective which is intersectional, inclusive, and geared towards queer and POC communities. Connect with Alice on Instagram @alicesparklykat and alicesparklykat.com. Bridges Mental Health connects Asian, Pacific Islander, South Asian Americans (APISA) with culturally responsive mental health professionals and resources. We hope to make mental health care more accessible and approachable across the Asian diaspora.Find a TherapistJoin our Clinician Community Write to us with comments & questions, we'd love to hear from you.@bridgesmentalhealthbridgesmentalhealthnyc@gmail.combuymeacoffee.com/bridgesmh

Send us a Text Message.In this episode of the Pro Athlete Interview Series, NFL player Walter Mendenhall shares how he created 200+ jobs and raised $10M at his participation at the family office event. Walter Mendenhall is a former NFL player for the Eagles, Colts, Bengals, and Bills. Walter shares his journey from professional sports to entrepreneurship and community impact. Discover the strategies and mindset that propelled him to the top 0.1% in his field, emphasizing visualization, goal-setting, and resilience.In this interview, Walter candidly discusses his financial lessons learned and the importance of disciplined decision-making. He reflects on his $1 million lesson from sports and how it translates to success outside of athletics. Beyond business, Walter dives into his nonprofit, the Bell Mogul Initiative, dedicated to empowering young men in Chicago through leadership and workforce development. Hear about their impact on job creation and their involvement with initiatives like the Obama Foundation's My Brother's Keeper.Discover how his experiences led to creating 200 jobs in Chicago and his current efforts to raise $10 million in Series A funding. Learn about Walter's nonprofit, the Bell Mogul Initiative, and its mission to empower young men through leadership and workforce development. Gain insights into resilience, entrepreneurship, and making a lasting impact on communities.----------------- Watch the youtube video here https://youtu.be/KDrvdUpQKoQInside the Minds of Business Champions: Pro Athletes Unveil the Secrets of Top .1% Performers.Welcome to the Pro Athlete Interview Series by the Family Office Club, where we delve into the minds and stories of sports legends from around the globe! This series will provide you with rare insights into their journeys, triumphs, and the secrets behind their success. Whether you're a die-hard fan, an aspiring athlete, or simply curious about the inner workings of greatness, this series promises to deliver compelling interviews that will ignite your passion and fuel your drive.Start watching now and connect with the stars of the game like never before. Subscribe now and dive into the Pro Athlete Interview Series for an unforgettable journey through the hearts and minds of sporting legends!We hope you love watching my videos Subscribe to this channel for the latest video.Have a nice day!

Erin “Big” Diehl is a Business Improv Edutainer, Failfluencer, Author and Keynote Speaker. Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin created improve it!: a unique professional development company that uses improvisational comedy and experiential learning to sharpen leaders and teams so they can thrive in ever-changing environments, and do it with a whole lot of laughs along the way. Erin Diehl is a graduate from Clemson University, a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional, and a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theater. Having spoken on global stages with companies, including Amazon, LinkedIn, McKesson, and the Obama Foundation, Erin has an energy and message to share with the world that creates lasting ripple effects for change. As a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program and member of The Chicago Innovation Awards Women's Cohort, Erin is a living testament to the power of life-long learning, and how working to understand ourselves helps others to do so, too. Erin is the proud host of a Top 1% Global Podcast, The improve it! Podcast, which you can find anywhere you listen to pods! She is also a first time author to the Amazon Best Seller & Top New Release book: I See You! A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy. Among her many accolades, Erin is most proud of successfully coercing over 35,000 professionals to chicken dance.  When she's not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys walking on the beach with her husband, son, and eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG DIEHL.   What You'll Learn in This Episode: The power of empathy in leadership and relationship building The concept of energy in leadership as the capacity to affect others positively How combining self-love and selfless leadership can impact culture Erin's 3P's that led to her becoming the author of Amazon's Best Seller, “I See You” The impact of power skills like vulnerability and compassion in leadership The value of exercises and activities in personal and professional development How to learn from the experiences of good and bad leaders to improve your own leadership skills Aditional Resources: Website: www.learntoimproveit.com  & www.itserindiehl.com  Podcast: https://www.learntoimproveit.com/podcast  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/erindiehl  Instagram: @itserindiehl  Book: https://www.itserindiehl.com/i-see-you  Listen to Previous Episode

You can go looking for the zeitgeist, but only the zeitgeist can find you. That's what the makers of countless pieces of failed Oscar bait have learned. In this special episode, we run through some of the most legendary failed Oscar bait of the last 25 years and speculate why they didn't catch anything. PLUS: presidential libraries, the Obama Foundation, and an autobiographical novel from an unlikely Hollywood star.Michael and Us is a podcast about political cinema and our crumbling world hosted by Will Sloan and Luke Savage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can go looking for the zeitgeist, but only the zeitgeist can find you. That's what the makers of countless pieces of failed Oscar bait have learned. In this special episode, we run through some of the most legendary failed Oscar bait of the last 25 years and speculate why they didn't catch anything. PLUS: presidential libraries, the Obama Foundation, and an autobiographical novel from an unlikely Hollywood star. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus See Will introduce "Hollywood Boulevard" at Toronto's Fox Theatre on July 9 - https://www.foxtheatre.ca/movies/the-important-cinema-club-masterpiece-classics-hollywood-boulevard/

Dr. Laura welcomes special guest Erin Diehl to the show to talk about radical empathy and Erin's new book “I See You!: A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy”. Erin Diehl is a Business Improv Edutainer, author, and keynote speaker who hosts the improve it! podcast. Dr. Laura and Erin talk about Erin's recent journey of self-exploration and why she was called to write her book after emerging from an oppressive hustle mentality.Erin understands how people get to a place of being overloaded, stressed, burnt out, and feeling like they don't matter. Her desire through the book and her work is to help people, including leaders, give to themselves and take moments of self-reflection. She shares her journey through struggles with infertility and the physical pain that came from overwork. Erin's story of how she decluttered her life, found her purpose, and claimed inner peace is inspiring. The revelations and discoveries in her book are for everyone to apply to their own lives, especially those in management positions so toxic leadership can be replaced by leaders who are empathetic and supportive.“And it's so crazy how our thoughts really affect every cell in our body. And I'll tell you this, I didn't heal, I had chronic back pain, like shoulder pain and back pain that was so tight... I would literally cry myself to sleep at night because I was just so frustrated. … I took every ergonomic chair on Amazon into my office. I tried all the things, all the pillows, and went to all the doctors. And no one could say what was wrong. And I finally realized it was just my own mental emotions and my own thoughts that were really stagnating me. And I had not dealt with a lot of things.” Erin DiehlAbout Erin Diehl:Erin “Big” Diehl is a Business Improv Edutainer, Failfluencer, and Professional Zoombie. Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn, play, and grow. Among her many accolades, Erin is most proud of successfully coercing over 30,000 professionals to chicken dance.Erin Diehl is a graduate of Clemson University, and a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater and The Annoyance Theatre.Erin has spoken on global stages both virtually and in person - with companies like Uber Freight, Walgreens, Motorola, LinkedIn and The Obama Foundation (to name a few)! She is a member of The Chicago Innovation Awards Women's Cohort and a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. She is also the proud host of a Top 1% Global Podcast, The improve it! Podcast, which you can find anywhere you listen to pods!When she's not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys walking on the beach with her husband, son, and eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG DIEHL.Resources:Website: LearnToImproveIt.comThe improve it! PodcastErin Diehl on Instagram“I See You!: A Leader's Guide to Energizing Your Team Through Radical Empathy” by Erin DiehlMarie Kondo“When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress” by Gabor Maté MDBestseller Masterclass with Gabby Bernstein“The Artist's Way” by Julia CameronLearn more about Dr. Laura on her website: https://drlaura.liveFor more resources, look into Dr. Laura's organizations: Canada Career CounsellingSynthesis Psychology

115. Merging Money and Meaning in Business (with Bessi Graham) Bessi Graham is a Business and Leadership Strategist with over 20 years' experience from the grassroots of sitting in the dirt working with business owners across the Pacific Islands through to the United Nations in Geneva. The ability to bridge the systemic and the practical is one of their superpowers! Bessi is CEO and Co-Founder of Benefit Capital and Creator of The Jasper Blueprint. Bessi brings together the rare mix of systemic insight and practical wisdom. Their pragmatic approach to pursuing a win-win is a breath of fresh air in a world that continually tells leaders they must choose either doing good OR making money. Bessi's work demonstrates how to merge money and meaning.   In this episode: How did she get involved working with the UN and the Obama Foundation? How did her view of the either/or vs the both/and mindset evolve? What does she see as the 3 big gaps in today's leadership? What advice would she give to younger leaders today? Sharing perspective on a leader's values vs an organization's values. What does she mean by merging meaning and money? What is a Jasper Blueprint and how can business leaders leverage it? Information on Bessi:   Connect with Bessi on LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/bessi-graham-48a31323 Merging Money and Meaning Masterclass: https://bessigraham.com/masterclass/ Podcast: The Jasper Blueprint www.bessigraham.com/podcast Website: www.bessigraham.com YouTube: https://youtube.com/@bessigraham8839?feature=shared Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bessigraham/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/789735838552817 The Book that Bessi Recommends: The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope The Visibility Factor Podcast is brought to you in part by the Amplify You Program. Do you have limiting beliefs that are holding you back from the success that you want for you career and your life? This 12-month program is a powerful experience that Amplify You is a unique program that will help you learn how to articulate your value and demonstrate the talent that you have so you get the opportunities you deserve! Become a leader who uses your voice, makes an impact and has the career you deserve! If you are interested in learning more visit: https://susanmbarber.com/programs/  If you are interested in learning more, visit: susanmbarber.com/visibilitybreakthroughaccelerator/ Thank you for listening to The Visibility Factor Podcast Check out my website to order my book and view the videos/resources for The Visibility Factor book. As always, I encourage you to reach out! You can email me at hello@susanmbarber.com. You can also find me on social media everywhere – Facebook, LinkedIn, and of course on The Visibility Factor Podcast! I look forward to connecting with you! If you liked The Visibility Factor, I would be so grateful if you could subscribe and rate it where you listen to podcasts! It helps the podcast get in front of more people who can learn how to be visible too! Thank you to the team at Sheep Jam Productions for the amazing support of The Visibility Factor Podcast! 

On this episode of The Green Hour, we sit down with Jamie Crummie to discuss the role technology plays in fighting food waste. Jamie Crummie is the co-founder of Too Good To Go, the world's largest marketplace for surplus food. The app lets consumers buy unsold food from restaurants and retailers so that it doesn't go to waste. Too Good To Go is now active in 17 countries. The market-leading app has over 90 million consumers and 150,000 food businesses signed up, who have rescued over 330 million bags of food from going to waste. For this work, Jamie Crummie was named Sustainability Entrepreneur of the Year at the GB Entrepreneur Awards 2022, a Trailblazing Activist in the 50 Next class of 2021, One Young World's Entrepreneur of the Year in August 2020, and one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Europe in February 2019. He is also a Europe Leader for the Obama Foundation and a featured TedTalk speaker. Join us for a conversation on the global food waste crisis, exploring how innovative solutions like Too Good to Go are leading the charge against waste, and learn about the simple yet impactful steps we can all take to combat food waste in our daily lives.

Episode 86:Guest Name: Char'Nese M. Turner Guest Business: Tribe Tribute Summary StyleEPISODE SUMMARYIn this episode of Black Businesses Matter, I speak with Char'Nese M. Turner, an esteemed author, journalist, and entrepreneur. Char'Nese is the founder and CEO of Tribe Tribute, a women's empowerment organization aimed at motivating women and girls to embrace their true selves. She reflects on her early years and how her mother's encouragement led her to explore writing and journaling, fueling a passion that evolved from creative writing to journalism. With over ten years of experience in the field, Char'Nese has worked with notable platforms such as NBC Los Angeles, New York, Ebony-JET Magazine, WGN-TV, and NewsNation. Currently, she is the Senior Associate Writer for the Obama Foundation, overseeing editorial content.In the podcast, Char'Nese delves into the origins of Tribe Tribute, describing how the idea grew out of her experiences during her academic journey and the sense of isolation she felt while transitioning from undergraduate to postgraduate studies. From loneliness, she created a community for women of various ages. The organization has since expanded to encompass women from 18 to 65, fostering a sense of connection and empowerment for all involved.If you want to learn more about the importance of community importance, this is the episode for you! IN THIS EPISODE, I TALK ABOUT…What was Char'Nese like as a child?The importance of generational ties.What inspired the creation of Tribe Tribute?Working with the Obama Foundation. What brings Char'Nese joy?Why do black businesses matter?Stream and download the Black Businesses Matter Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Google, Stitcher, Pandora, and Spotify!To connect with Char'Nese Turner Visit the website:https://tribetribute.orgConnect with her on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/tribetribute/Be sure to follow our podcast on Instagram. I can't wait to see you join us and take the pledge of #black businesses matter  Support the Show.To connect further with me:Visit my website: Thel3agency.comConnect with me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thel3agencyFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/larvettaspeaks/Connect with me on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/thel3agencyBe sure to follow our podcast on Instagram. I can't wait to see you join us and take the pledge of #blackbusinessesmatter

Also in the news: Legal battle between Obama Foundation and parks group come to an end; Sen. Dick Durbin wants to see more on O'Hare expansion plan; Former Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville talked about video coach's sexual assault allegations and more.

#USA #OBAMA #POLITICS Barack Obama's sudden, unscripted appearance in the United Kingdom made headlines, especially since it's been almost 10 years since his last official visit to England. A trip to the Obama Foundation (if that's what it was) is one thing, but to visit #10 Downing Street without being President of the USA is VERY MUCH OUT OF HIS LEGAL AND PERMITTED RANGE AS AN EX-PRESIDENT. Was this "private talk" sanctioned by the White House and Joe Biden? Was it their idea or Obama's? Was it even legal, seeing as his presence and influence is already perceived by many as a direct representation of White House policy? Does Obama have some secret sanction from Joe Biden to do things on his behalf, without an official title? These are questions every Americans ought to ask themselves. WHO IS BARACK OBAMA? It is apparent the Royal Family is facing some kind of major crisis, so to see an ex-president who is TWO TERMS OUT OF RELEVANCE, showing up for talks with the current UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (a man Obama has never met), speaks volumes. NUMBER 44 NEVER LEFT THE WHITE HOUSE. HEAR THE WORDS OF THE LORD. Website: Www.the-masters-voice.com Welcome to The Master's Voice End Time Prophecy Blog: (Hear the words of the Lord). PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: If you'd like to support TMV it is appreciated. Kindly use Paypal or email for other options at mastersvoice@mail.com, and give me some time to reply. If using Paypal PLEASE DO NOT send your gift with "Purchase Protection". It's just my ordinary PayPal so please don't damage my PP account by using purchase protection (it processes as if I were making a sale to you). This is a freewill offering, I'm not selling goods or services. Please use *only* the "Friends & Family" sending option. If you are outside the USA please DO NOT use Paypal, contact me instead at the email listed here and allow me a good window to respond. Paypal ------- mastersvoice@mail.com.

The story of Tina Tchen is a powerful reminder that one's background or circumstances do not determine their success. Despite facing challenges as the only Asian kid in her high school, Tina Tchin persevered to achieve remarkable accomplishments, including working for the women's movement at an early age, becoming First Lady Michelle Obama's Chief of Staff, leading the Times Up Movement and ultimately becoming a Senior Vice President at the Obama Foundation. Her journey highlights the importance of resilience, courage, and breaking through self-doubt to reach one's full potential. Through her victories and failures, there are valuable insights that can inspire and guide you on your own leadership journeys.

With beer sales down, some Illinois craft breweries venture into THC-infused beverages. Crain's restaurants reporter Ally Marotti discusses with host Amy Guth.Plus: United Airlines CEO launches safety review after recent mishaps, Encyclopaedia Britannica seeking $1 billion valuation in IPO, Obama Foundation donates $4 million for city's first "fully inclusive" playground and Walgreens' cost-cutting push rolls on with closure of two distribution centers.Crain's Daily Gist listeners can get 20% off a one-year Crain's Chicago Business digital subscription by visiting chicagobusiness.com/gist and using code “GIST” at checkout.

Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, joined Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute David J. Kramer and host Andrew Kaufmann to discuss the collaboration between the Bush Center, the Obama Foundation, and 11 other presidential centers to affirm the principles of democracy.Hear more about the progress of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, the importance of principled leadership, and how to stay optimistic when the news of the day always seems tough on this episode of The Strategerist, presented by the George W. Bush Presidential Center.Related content: Presidential Centers Affirm That 'Democracy Holds Us Together'

Joyce will be joined by the Honorable Tony Coelho, Author of the America's with Disabilities Act, and the Honorable Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation. Ms. Jarrett will discuss her feelings about receiving the prestigious Tony Coelho award, recognizing her work in furthering the employment of people with disabilities in America.

Joyce will be joined by the Honorable Tony Coelho, Author of the America's with Disabilities Act, and the Honorable Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation. Ms. Jarrett will discuss her feelings about receiving the prestigious Tony Coelho award, recognizing her work in furthering the employment of people with disabilities in America.

In today's episode I spoke with the Honorable Valerie Jarrett, CEO and board of directors member of the Barack Obama Foundation. We discuss her life, her leadership, and her 2019 memoire "Finding my Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward." She is a Senior Distinguished Fellow at The University of Chicago Law School. She serves as Board Chairman of Civic Nation. Jarrett also serves on the boards of Walgreens Boot Alliance, Inc., Ralph Lauren Corporation, Sweetgreen, Inc., Ariel Investments, The University of Chicago, Sesame Street Workshop and The Economic Club of Chicago. Jarrett also serves on the Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women Advisory Board, the Bank of America Enterprise Executive Development Council, and the Microsoft Advisory Council. Ms. Jarrett was the Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama from 2009-2017, making her the longest serving senior advisor to a president in history. She oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and Chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls.  Ms. Jarrett has a background in both the public and private sectors. She served as the Chief Executive Officer of The Habitat Company in Chicago, the Commissioner of Planning and Development for the city of Chicago, Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and she practiced law for ten years in the private and public sector. She also previously served as the director of numerous corporate and not-for-profit boards including leadership roles as Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, Vice Chairman of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees, Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Chair of Chicago Transit Board.  Ms. Jarrett has also received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including TIME's “100 Most Influential People” Award. Jarrett received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1978 and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981.

Meet Ciara Byrne the Founder & Co-CEO of Green Our PlanetCiara is a documentary filmmaker and social impact entrepreneur. In 2013 Ciara and Kim MacQuarrie founded Green Our Planet and together with their team they helped create one of the largest and most comprehensive school garden and hydroponics programs in the United States. Currently, Green Our Planet is operating in 10 states and impacting over 140,000 students. In 2019 Ciara was selected from 5,000 applications along with 19 other nonprofit leaders to be a 2019 Obama Fellow. The Obama Foundation is supporting Ciara and the team at Green Our Planet to scale their program across the United States and beyond. In 2001, Ciara set up and ran a film production company, Lion Television, with offices in LA and New York. During that time, she managed over 60 employees and produced hundreds of films a year for PBS, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, PBS, BBC, Fox, and E! Ciara uses her background in television to include educational films as a core part of the Green Our Planet offerings to schools.Please rate and review the show. Subscribe here, follow us on TikTok and Instagram  and check out the WTF! blog! We love to hear from you about all things women and finance. What do you want to hear? Who should we talk to? Drop us a note at media@rowems.com, and don't forget to Follow Us, so you don't miss a thing!  

On this week's At Issue, WBBM Poliitical Editor Craig Dellimore talks with the Executive Vice President of the Obama Foundation, Michael Strautmanis, to talk about the programs within the foundation, its goal to develop future leaders, the Obama Center & more. 

I've never laughed harder than in this interview with the self-proclaimed "failfluencer" Erin Diehl! Erin is a Top 1% podcast host, Founder & CEO of improve it!, and one of the most electric keynote speakers in the world, using her work as an improvisational actor to teach you and me how our bodies are trying to give us messages about the healing that needs to happen. She's been on global stages with companies like Amazon, LinkedIn, and The Obama Foundation. As a graduate from Clemson University, a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional, and a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago--including The Second City, Erin can speak to anything from how every day of your life is an "improv scene" to the moment she discovered her chronic back pain was a result of unresolved emotional trauma. Advertiser's Link: Click HERE for the NEW fabulous offer from AG1 – with bonus product with your subscription! Vital Links: You can hear more about this and many other topics by listening to my podcast, SelfWork with Dr. Margaret Rutherford. Subscribe to my website and receive my weekly newsletter including a blog post and podcast! If you'd like to join my FaceBook closed group, then click here and answer the membership questions! Welcome! My book entitled Perfectly Hidden Depression is available here! Its message is specifically for those with a struggle with strong perfectionism which acts to mask underlying emotional pain. But the many self-help techniques described can be used by everyone who chooses to begin to address emotions long hidden away that are clouding and sabotaging your current life. And there's another way to send me a message! You can record by clicking below and ask your question or make a comment. You'll have 90 seconds to do so and that time goes quickly. By recording, you're giving SelfWork (and me) permission to use your voice on the podcast. I'll look forward to hearing from you!

We're exploring the intersections of design, music, and social impact with this week's guest, Sam Viotty. Not only is Sam an extremely knowledgeable program and experience designer, but she's also the co-owner of a record label and she's an adjunct professor at Loyola's Quinlan School of Business. And that's just scratching the surface!We started off by defining program design and experience design, and from there Sam talked about her label, Rosedale Collective, and her dedication to showcasing BIPOC voices in country music. She also dove into her previous work at The Obama Foundation, and how that opened her world to the importance of design in project management and social innovation (and for starting her own company, Viotty Design Studio). Sam even talked a bit about her current role at Adobe, and shared her plans on what she hopes to accomplish in the near future.Sam's career is a lesson in how we can all reshape our perspective on the conventional borders of design — something important to learn in this ever-changing world!LinksSam Viotty on InstgaramSam Viotty on LinkedInSam Viotty on Twitter / XFor a full transcript of this interview, visit revisionpath.com.==========Donate to Revision PathFor 10 years, Revision Path has been dedicated to showcasing Black designers and creatives from all over the world. In order to keep bringing you the content that you love, we need your support now more than ever.Click or tap here to make either a one-time or monthly donation to help keep Revision Path running strong.Thank you for your support!==========Follow and SubscribeLike this episode? Then subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite shows. Follow us, and leave us a 5-star rating and a review!You can also follow Revision Path on Instagram and Twitter.==========CreditsRevision Path is brought to you by Lunch, a multidisciplinary creative studio in Atlanta, GA.Executive Producer and Host: Maurice CherryEditor and Audio Engineer: RJ BasilioIntro Voiceover: Music Man DreIntro and Outro Music: Yellow SpeakerTranscripts are provided courtesy of Brevity and Wit.☎️ Call ‪626-603-0310 and leave us a message with your comments on this episode!Thank you for listening!==========Sponsored by Brevity & WitBrevity & Wit is a strategy and design firm committed to designing a more inclusive and equitable world. They are always looking to expand their roster of freelance design consultants in the U.S., particularly brand strategists, copywriters, graphic designers and Web developers.If you know how to deliver excellent creative work reliably, and enjoy the autonomy of a virtual-based, freelance life (with no non-competes), check them out at brevityandwit.com.Brevity & Wit — creative excellence without the grind.==========Sponsored by the School of Visual Arts - BFA Design & BFA AdvertisingThe BFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts consistently produces innovative and acclaimed work that is rooted in a strong foundational understanding of visual communication. It encourages creativity through cutting-edge tools, visionary design techniques, and offers burgeoning creatives a space to find their voice.Students in BFA Advertising are prepared for success in the dynamic advertising industry in a program led by faculty from New York's top ad agencies. Situated at the center of the advertising capital of the world, the program inspires the next generation of creative thinkers and elite professionals to design the future.School of Visual Arts has been a leader in the education of artists, designers and creative professionals for over seven decades. Comprising 7,000 students at its Manhattan campus and more than 41,000 alumni from 128 countries, SVA also represents one of the most influential artistic communities in the world. For information about the College's 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, visit sva.edu.

Ariel DeNey Rainey is a Global Creative Strategist and Urban Family Advocate whose work is inspired by her drive to galvanize moms and professionals to fight for change. She is also the mastermind behind the Hustle Mommies nonprofit organization and movement where she has connected hundreds of mothers to careers, personal development, celebrity engagement, grants and scholarships, and a plethora of other resources. Under Ariel's leadership, the Hustle Mommies organization has multiple prestigious awards and accolades, most notably from President Barack Obama and The Obama Foundation.  Since the 2020 pandemic, the Hustle Mommies helped to bury 16 kids who have been affected by inner-city gun violence. This led to the creation of the PAINT THE HOOD ORANGE initiative, a campaign to support efforts to end hood trauma within Black, urban neighborhoods, as well as the TASK FORCE AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE, which is now advocating for policy change surrounding gun violence.   Hustle Mommies is currently planning the first ever Million Black Mom March taking place in May 2024 where their current campaign is BLACK MATERNAL NEEDS MATTER - and all Shameless Moms are invited!  Listen in to hear Ariel share: How being a teen mom of 2 inspired the work she does today with her non-profit, Hustle Mommies How government policy has destroyed safety across Black communities The current state of Black motherhood in America Why Hustle Mommies created the Urban Mom Collective National Coalition for Black Moms and how they are committed to policy change and how this is so critical in the wake of extremely harmful groups like Moms For Liberty Her mission around PAINT THE HOOD ORANGE and TASK FORCE AGAINST GUN VIOLENCE How white women can show up in advocacy and activism with humility and graciousness to listen and learn BEFORE speaking and offering support How she recently ended up at the White House to share her work with Hustle Mommies The Hustle Mommies Million Black Mom March in Washington DC in May 2024  Links mentioned: Join my October Retreat for Women Entrepreneurs: Influence & Ignite: Be the CEO and Thought Leader You Were Born to Be: shamelessmom.com/bizretreat Connect with Hustle Mommies: www.hustlemommies.org  IG: @arieldeney @thehustlemommies  Twitter/X: @ushustlemommies  We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: https://shamelessmom.com/sponsor Interested in becoming a sponsor of the Shameless Mom Academy? Email our sales team at sales@adalystmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Barack Obama's birthday, we revisit Trevor's conversation with the former president to discuss his book. "A Promised Land," the Obama Foundation, and how he hopes to inspire the future change-makers of America.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since leaving office in 2016, former President Barack Obama has been a careful observer of the ebbs and flows of democracy around the globe, speaking out on the subject and building coalitions through the Obama Foundation. President Obama joined David to talk about the state of democracy at home and abroad, how the economy and technological advances impact politics and polarization, the weaponization of the word woke, race, and his advice to the GOP.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy