Podcasts about tikun olam

Today on the Show: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and the new US-Israel aid distribution plan that leads to further starvation and mass displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza strip. And manufacturing Anti-Semitism: We'll speak with Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam about the recent shooting outside a Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. The post The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Plan That Could Lead to Further Starvation and Mass Displacement appeared first on KPFA.

Today on the Show: Manufacturing Anti-Semitism and the destruction of the American University. We'll speak with Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam. Also the devastating impacts of shuttering the Department of Education.  And Robert McChesney—prominent media scholar, Free Press co-founder, dogged defender of democracy and free speech, dies at the age of 72: Norman Solomon helps us remember The post The Many Impacts of Shutting Down The Department of Education appeared first on KPFA.

¿Esta el Tikun Olam, la reparación del mundo, relacionado realmente con la ecología? ¿Deberían los bailes y melodías modernistas reemplazar las plegarias tradicionales? Estas son solo algunas de las preguntas que aborda el rabino Guillermo Bronstein en esta profunda reflexión. Egresado del Seminario Rabínico Latinoamericano a principios de los años 80 y con casi cuatro décadas de labor rabínica en Perú, Guillo desafía las corrientes más recientes dentro del judaísmo liberal y el movimiento conservador. ¿Estamos perdiendo el alma de nuestras prácticas judías tradicionales en busca de un judaísmo más “moderno”? En un momento en que las plegarias parecen desvanecerse ante la oferta de espiritualidades más fluidas, el rabino Bronstein argumenta por la vitalidad y el poder transformador de la plegaria canónica. ¿Es posible rescatar el valor original de nuestras tradiciones en un mundo que cambia rápidamente? Un episodio para aquellos que buscan profundizar en la tensión entre el judaísmo tradicional y las nuevas corrientes espirituales.

Richard Silverstein writes the Tikun Olam blog, devoted to exposing the excesses of the Israeli national security state. His work has appeared in Haaretz, the Forward, the Seattle Times and the Los Angeles Times. He contributed to the essay collection devoted to the 2006 Lebanon war, A Time to Speak Out (Verso) and has another essay in the collection, Israel and Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood (Rowman & Littlefield) Photo of RS by: (Erika Schultz/Seattle Times)

In this lively interview with author Sarah Aronson, we celebrate her brand new picture book, Abzuglutely!: Battling, Bellowing Bella Abzug, illustrated by Andrea D'Aquino ‎ (Calkins Creek, October 15, 2024), which focuses on Bella's determination to fight for what is right, as part of her belief in Tikun Olam (repairing the world). We talk about Sarah's life and career, and her own quest for Tikun Olam through writing and helping other authors. We also discuss her biography on Rube Goldberg (Just Like Rube Goldberg, illustrated by Robert Neubecker), and the importance of pursuing our passions, and finding joy in the creative process. The interview is interspersed with Sarah's sage advice for authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part 2, Richard Silverstein, analyst and author of the Israeli security state blog Tikun Olam, breaks down the Biden administration's explicit support for Israel's war crimes in Lebanon and efforts to eliminate Hezbollah. Unlawful U.S. approval for Israel's extrajudicial killings of Iranian IRGC leader in Lebanon and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil propelled Iran's ballistic missile attacks on Israel, which inconveniently degraded Israeli military assets. Will Israel now strike Iran's nuclear facilities?

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated and has been expanded to a second front in Lebanon. American writer Richard Silverstein, author of Tikun Olam, a blog reporting on the Israeli security state, describes how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is weaponizing national grief over the attacks of October 7 to legitimize its murderous regional project. He reports on IDF general Giora Eiland's blueprint to eliminate Palestinians from the north of Gaza and ultimately build illegal Israeli settlements. 

Israel and its lobby today try to conflate the state with Jews around the world, that it speaks for Jews and encompasses the entire diaspora. Richard Silverstein, author and journalist of the Tikun Olam blog, says that this couldn’t be further from the truth. As the genocide in Gaza rages on, along with the killing of Israeli citizens and the mass torture of Palestinians, the support for Israel among Jews, particularly the younger generation, will continue to falter as the state itself plunges deeper into despair. Silverstein speaks to host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to detail his relationship with Israel and Zionism and how his views have evolved over time, ultimately leading to a complete disconnection from the state, especially in light of the ongoing genocide, and now calling himself an anti-Zionist. Being raised Jewish and earning degrees from Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University, as well as studying Hebrew literature at the Hebrew University in Israel, Silverstein makes clear: “[F]or you and for me and for most American Jews, Judaism is not genocide in Gaza, is not $20 billion or $80 billion in arms being sent by the US to Israel to kill Palestinians. That's not the kind of Judaism that I represent.” Not only is the genocide a driving force behind the alienation of the Israel state but also the way it treats its own citizens, looking at them as expendable in its objective to kill Hamas operators. Silverstein refers to the Hannibal Directive, a procedure used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to prevent the capture of soldiers by killing them and their captors. “[Y]ou now have a code that is expanded to also killing your own civilians. And that's, I think, what is even more profoundly upsetting, disturbing about the way in which Hannibal is being used right now,” Silverstein tells Scheer. Torture and rape of Palestinian prisoners is also something that has emerged from Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and the West Bank, according to Silverstein. “We have Palestinians in Gaza who were swept up in detention raids and brought to concentration camps, really, in Israel, and there they're tortured,” he states. Silverstein insists that what is happening in Gaza does not represent Judaism worldwide like Israel claims, and that “American Judaism needs to stand on its own.” American Jews, Silverstein says, “really have to separate [themselves] from the hostility, the anger, the violence that Israel represents.”

Next up is episode 6 with Nikos Beis, CEO & Vice President of the Board, Tikun Olam Europe.Nikos Beis is an experienced executive with over 15 years of expertise in banking, real estate, and a profound dedication to the European cannabis sector for over 6 years. As a dynamic and results-oriented CEO, he excels in navigating intricate regulatory frameworks, spearheading strategic endeavors, and fostering sustainable growth within the rapidly evolving cannabis market.Join us as our host Shahbaaz Kara-Virani chats with Nikos about the future of the European cannabis landscape at Cannabis Europa 2024.Business of Cannabis is a cannabis industry platform marrying cannabis news, video and podcast content, newsletters and online and real-world cannabis events. This channel highlights the cannabis companies, cannabis brands, cannabis leaders and cannabis trends driving the global sector.  www.businessofcannabis.com X @bofc_global, @bofc_europeLinkedIn @businessofcannabis, @businessofcannabiseuropeInstagramApple PodcastsPodcasts OnlineYoutube

In this enlightening episode of the Live Kabbalah podcast, Rabbi Amichai Cohen is joined by Doobie Sabbo, a master tour guide who has led thousands of groups through Israel, and pastors Rob and Allison Zimmerman, Christian friends of Israel who have dedicated their lives to global humanitarian efforts. Together, they explore the importance of Israel to the world, the role of the Christian community in supporting Israel, and the spiritual concepts of Tikun Olam and Bitachon. Despite the challenging times for Israel's tourism industry, this conversation brings hope, unity, and inspiration, as Rob and Allison share their experiences of supporting Israel during the current conflict. Tune in for a rich discussion that bridges faiths and underscores the power of prayer and solidarity.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress proved to be a testimony of the U.S. government and its politicians’ stance on the genocide in Gaza. With standing ovations, smiling handshakes and overall warm welcome by a large number of Washington politicos, the strength of Israel’s influence in the U.S. is clear. Richard Silverstein, author and journalist of the Tikun Olam blog, which covers the Israeli national security state, joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to dive into Israeli history, its evolution and how its current stage fails to represent Judaism to the world.For Silverstein, Netanyahu’s speech was nothing new as it was filled with the same ideas and tropes about the barbaric Arab and Muslim world against the civilized, Western, Judeo-Christian world. Silverstein said these thoughts, “exemplify a certain attitude and approach that has existed for decades in Israel.” The current zeitgeist that exists in Israel today, whether it be through its government or settler population, does not represent any recognizable form of Judaism, Silverstein said. “This is why I've become an anti-Zionist, because I don't want to be associated with an Israel that sees its religion as destroying the Palestinian existence in Israel; that kind of Judaism is horrific.” Silverstein noted, “Israel betrayed the values I had as a liberal Zionist … and I think the genocide in Gaza has really sealed then put the nail in the coffin of Zionism.”

  On today's show we take a closer look at the media spectacle we're calling Mr. Netanyahu comes to Washington with our guest Richard Silverstein of the online publication Tikun Olam.  Next up, Keith McHenry of Food not Bombs joins us as we cover an executive order clearing homeless encampments throughout the state issued by California Governor Gavin Newsom today piggybacking off a June Supreme Court decision criminalizing homelessness. Finally, we return to Haiti with Flashpoints political analyst Frantz Jerome to discuss disturbing developments within the so-called Presidential Transition Council ruling the island nation since a US/CARICOM brokered agreement was signed to ostensibly address the problem of paramilitary gangs. The post The Media Spectacle of Netanyahu's Trip To Washington appeared first on KPFA.

On this edition of Parallax Views, a triple feature on campus protests and the Antisemitism Awareness Act that just passed Congress. First up, Mel Buer, a staff writer for the The Real News, joins us hot off her Democracy Now appearance to discuss her on-the-ground experiences and reporting on the UCLA Gaza protests. Then, Chris Habiby joins the show to discuss the Antisemitism Awareness Act bill that just passed in Congress and other legislation that could muffle Palestinian and Arab voices in America. And, finally, Richard Silverstein of the Tikun Olam blog joins returns to discuss the campus protests and what he refers to as the powerful backlash alliance against them, the ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt, Bill Aickman, Israel-Russia relations and the Russian oligarchs in Israel, his message to liberal Zionists, and much, much more.

Tikun Olam publisher Richard Silverstein: In a First, Biden Administration Poised to Sanction Israeli Military Unit for Human Rights AbusesYale hunger strikers: Student Hunger Strikers Call for Yale Divestment from Companies Providing Weapons to IsraelInside Climate News reporter Kiley Price: Victory in European Climate Crisis Lawsuit Could Influence Parallel Efforts WorldwideBob Nixon's Under-reported News Summary• Mexico has cracked down on migrants traveling to the U.S.• Chevron profited from illegal surface spills• Whistleblowers call out management culture at BoeingVisit our website at BTLonline.org for more information, in-depth interviews, related links, transcripts and subscribe to our BTL Weekly Summary and/or podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday at 12 noon ET, website updated Wednesdays after 4 p.m. ETProduced by Squeaky Wheel Productions: Scott Harris, Melinda Tuhus, Bob Nixon, Anna Manzo, Susan Bramhall, Jeff Yates and Mary Hunt. Theme music by Richard Hill and Mikata.

*In a First, Biden Administration Poised to Sanction Israeli Military Unit for Human Rights Abuses Richard Silverstein, publisher of Tikun Olam, a blog addressing Israeli national security issues; Producer: Scott Harris. *Student Hunger Strikers Call for Yale Divestment from Companies Providing Weapons to Israel Yale Hunger Striker, Interviews and megaphone street announcements Producer: Melinda Tuhus. *Victory in European Climate Crisis Lawsuit Could Influence Parallel Efforts in the US & Around the World Kiley Price, a reporter with the online publication Inside Climate News Producer: Scott Harris.

Tikun Olam publisher Richard Silverstein: In a First, Biden Administration Poised to Sanction Israeli Military Unit for Human Rights AbusesYale hunger strikers: Student Hunger Strikers Call for Yale Divestment from Companies Providing Weapons to IsraelInside Climate News reporter Kiley Price: Victory in European Climate Crisis Lawsuit Could Influence Parallel Efforts WorldwideBob Nixon's Under-reported News Summary• Mexico has cracked down on migrants traveling to the U.S.• Chevron profited from illegal surface spills• Whistleblowers call out management culture at BoeingVisit our website at BTLonline.org for more information, in-depth interviews, related links and transcripts and to sign up for our BTL Weekly Summary. New episodes every Wednesday at 12 noon ET, website updated Wednesdays after 4 p.m. ETProduced by Squeaky Wheel Productions: Scott Harris, Melinda Tuhus, Bob Nixon, Anna Manzo, Susan Bramhall, Jeff Yates and Mary Hunt. Theme music by Richard Hill and Mikata.

Transcription Notes “Upili program”? Yes and it isn't even a misspelling. Our guest, Carla Birnberg will tell us all about Upili, where it comes from and what it is. Carla started life in Pittsburg, but nearly thirty years ago she ended up in Austin, TX. Prior to Austin she worked in North Carolina where she owned her own personal trainer business. She sold that company when she moved to Austin which was due to marriage. Carla has always been quite the storyteller. Her Bachelors degree was in English Literature, but her mom convinced her to go to graduate school where she earned a Master's degree in Educational Counseling. After her move to Austin she became a successful blogger and internet writer for a number of major brands. Four years ago she, as she would say, pivoted to working with the Next Step Foundation to help persons with disabilities in East Africa. We have quite the informative and interesting conversations about disabilities and how they are viewed in Kenya as opposed to the United States. Carla makes a strong case for why in reality the treatment of persons with disabilities between the two countries is not too different although in Kenya possibly the treatment of people with disabilities there is more visibly negative. Carla does say overall the views of us are pretty similar. While you may hear some things discussed that have come up in other episodes of Unstoppable Mindset I think you will discover in Carla a person with a wealth of knowledge. Among other things, she describes how in Kenya where the Upili program is used, counselors with disabilities are brough into schools and organizations so the people there see good models to enrich and inspire them. This was a fun and wonderful conversation. I hope you enjoy it. About the Guest: Carla has dedicated her professional journey to cultivating connections, whether between individuals, places, or concepts. As a passionate advocate for amplifying the voices of marginalized communities, she most recently wove together her gift for ethical storytelling, her passion for uplifting others, and her academic experience/Master's degree in Educational Counseling to create the Upili program. Upili, Kiswahili for secondary as in secondary schools, engages Counselors with Disabilities to provide group therapy for Students with Disabilities in Kenyan “special schools.” (In Kenya, Students with Disabilities are educated at “special schools” according to their disability, e.g., schools for the blind, schools for the deaf, etc.) Youth with Disabilities are 10 times more likely to suffer from depression, especially in East Africa where stigmatization, marginalization and discrimination are still prevalent. The lack of early intervention of essential psychosocial support creates additional barriers that keep Persons with Disabilities from being able to obtain and maintain meaningful employment. Next Step Foundation's Upili Program addresses this pervasive mental health challenge by providing support for secondary school Students with Disabilities, their families, and communities. By meeting the psychosocial needs of students, training teachers, staff and peers to serve as “psychological first responders,” and offering support to parents and caregivers the Upili Program instills self-confidence, improves academic performance and provides the tools to successfully navigate future discrimination so that Youth with Disabilities can achieve economic independence. In her recent role as the Chief Culture and Inclusion Officer at Stepwise Inc., Carla played a pivotal role in advancing impact sourcing initiatives. Stepwise, a frontrunner in the impact sourcing movement and the first B Corp certified company in East Africa, benefited from Carla's leadership in leveraging AI technology to empower marginalized groups, particularly individuals with disabilities and young women, enabling their full participation in the digital economy. Driven by a commitment to fostering a positive organizational culture, Carla has created initiatives aimed at enhancing employee retention amidst Stepwise's rapid growth. Her innovative approaches, including "stay interviews," upskilling opportunities, and mentorship programs, have infused the company's core values into daily operations, cultivating a workplace where employees are not only motivated to come to work but also eager to remain with the organization, even across vast distances. As a collaborative leader Carla has developed and implemented comprehensive training and support programs for cultural integration within organizations undergoing expansion through acquisitions. Her approach, which includes individual and group coaching as well as fostering cultural sensitivity, has proven instrumental in navigating organizational transitions. Carla's earlier career in marketing showcased her aptitude for connecting communities, influencers, and brands. With a track record of success in developing innovative branding and marketing campaigns, she has left an indelible mark on the industry. Her pioneering use of omni-channel media, blending lifestyle with product placement alongside esteemed personalities and leading brands such as Venus Williams, FILA, and Walt Disney World, made her a trailblazer in the realm we now simply refer to as 'influencers. Ways to connect with Carla: Next Step Foundation website https://nextstepfdn.org/ Upili Program website https://www.upili.org/ Upil Instagram https://www.instagram.com/upili_program? Upili Twitter https://twitter.com/upiliprogram? Carla Birnberg Substack https://carlabirnberg.substack.com/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Well, hello, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Our guest today, my partner in conversation that is Carla Birnberg. Carla has a really interesting story to tell. She lives in Austin. And I don't know where else in the US she's live. But we'll find out because we'll drill down and, and get it out of her. But she spends her waking hours thinking of and assisting people, especially children with disabilities in Kenya, and helping them to become more accepted, which makes a lot of sense. And of course, needless to say, that's near and dear to my heart. And we will we will get to all that as we go through our discussions. But for now, Carla, I want to welcome you into unstoppable mindset. And thank you very much for being here. Thank   Carla Birnberg ** 02:14 you so much for having me. I know it took a beat for us to get the date together. And I'm so glad to be here.   Michael Hingson ** 02:21 Well, we made it happen, which is really good. There you go. Tell us about the early Carla growing up and stuff like that.   Carla Birnberg ** 02:29 The early Carla   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 Yeah, gotta hear about the early Carla.   Carla Birnberg ** 02:34 I laughed because I've been thinking a lot. You know, that question that career counselors and coaches ask you What did you dream of being when you were little? And I don't know. This will date me that book Harriet the Spy. You're a man you might not be familiar with more of The Girl type read. But Harriet walked around her neighborhood pretending she was a spy with a notebook writing everything down. And I kind of think that my current career as chief storyteller, I've achieved it. And there were some deviations along the way. But my whole life that's really been it, listening to stories and amplifying what other people are doing.   Michael Hingson ** 03:15 Carla the spy no doubt about it.   Carla Birnberg ** 03:17 I know maybe they can make it into a movie.   Michael Hingson ** 03:20 Well, why not? Now who played Harriet? I'm trying to remember was it?   03:27 I can't remember her. Donal, I think she was. I think it was Rosie O'Donnell.   Carla Birnberg ** 03:32 I think you're right. I'd forgotten. I don't know where   Michael Hingson ** 03:34 she was Harriet, or she was the mother but she was in there with the mom   Carla Birnberg ** 03:38 she was. And that was I mean, I can really remember walking down my street. It's a kid with that notebook and the pencil. And I hadn't thought until right now. So thank you about how far I've come and how not far.   Michael Hingson ** 03:54 So now no pencils, keyboards. I   Carla Birnberg ** 03:57 know keyboards, voice notes and our phone all of it.   Michael Hingson ** 04:01 So you, you absorb stories and all that and tell me a little bit more about you and growing up and all that.   Carla Birnberg ** 04:10 I was pretty theatrical. I did a lot of television work when I was younger. And I thought for about three minutes that I wanted to be on air talent and I interned at our CBS affiliate and then I quickly realized that wasn't my gift. Again, it goes back to I didn't want to be on the screen like you. I wanted to be more behind the scenes writing the stories ended up in college for English English literature, small liberal arts school in Ohio where there was not much else to do but read. And I kind of stayed on this books and storytelling and marketing path my whole life.   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 Now, where are you from? Originally?   Carla Birnberg ** 04:55 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shout out to the Steelers. Yes, I'm a Pittsburgh girl at heart, even though I've not lived there and maybe 30 years.   Michael Hingson ** 05:04 Oh, that's okay. There are people in New York who say the Dodgers will someday move back to Brooklyn and stinky white. Sure that's going to happen. Of course now with Shohei Otani, I don't think they can afford to move back to Brooklyn. So that's another story. But yeah, but you never know. It isn't gonna happen. They're gonna stay out here. But anyway, that's cool. So you, you, you love to be creative. I interviewed. Well, I keep saying that I shouldn't. I had a conversation with a gentleman yesterday. And his name is Wolf born, he changed his name to wolf born, his middle name was born. In honor of his father, Max Born who was a very famous physicist. He had the name of wolf. He was a nickname, his original name was Randall, Born ready for this? Newton John. He's, he's in Australia. So who do you think so? Who do you think his aunt was?   Carla Birnberg ** 06:11 Olivia? This thing now, I loved Olivia Newton John's talk   Michael Hingson ** 06:17 about a guy who comes from a really creative family. And he, he's, he's, he calls himself a corporate shaman, because he really wants to help organizations and people, people especially move closer to nature and understand that nature has a lot to it can do to guide us and teach us and, and so he really is heavily involved in that. But that   Carla Birnberg ** 06:43 is fascinating. And I'm, I'm with him in terms of, I'm not myself, this is why I don't move back to Pennsylvania. Because of the cold. I need to be immersed in nature every day, preferably barefoot in the grass. It helps me ground myself, so I can show up for other people. He   Michael Hingson ** 07:02 would say, though, that there is time to deal with cold as well, because we we race around so much that we're we way too hot. And so the result is that we don't really deal with nature. We don't tune into nature, which goes in cycles. And we ought to do more of that.   Carla Birnberg ** 07:20 Oh, I'm such a believer. And I just kind of emerged from wintering with Michael, I thought I invented but clearly I did not. When we fall back to we spring forward, I really tried to get still and plan for what's coming next both at work and personally.   Michael Hingson ** 07:41 Yeah, well, I, I learned a long time ago that I'm not going to worry about spring ahead and falling back. Frankly, what I do is go to bed an hour earlier when it is spring. And that way, I come right out adjusted to the time anyway. And as far as falling back, I won't stay up an hour later. I like to get the extra hour asleep. So I'm good. And   Carla Birnberg ** 08:11 you know, that is I think the Kenyan my team. That's the biggest that's the most challenging time of year when we fall back. I'm further so when I'm it's 8am. For me, they're done. It's 5pm for them. I like when we spring forward, because I get that extra hour where they're in the office, they have to adjust a lot to my USA schedule.   Michael Hingson ** 08:34 Yeah, well, I do a lot of work, of course, with excessive B. And the thing about excessive B is that they just switched yesterday night, I guess to daylight saving time. Oh. So they've so it's been a challenge because some of the scheduling hasn't always been coordinated very well. Microsoft hasn't really done some of the things that it was supposed to do.   Carla Birnberg ** 09:09 So I can guess that night before the Sunday before the first Monday after we sprung forward. I was like Carla, you've been doing this for years, but let's focus. Okay, so 8am Do we need to switch this out? Look didn't change the meeting time. Like you said, it's on us.   09:24 Yeah, literally cope. We did.   Carla Birnberg ** 09:28 That's because we're resilient and we're creative.   Michael Hingson ** 09:30 So what did you do once you left college? Well, I'm before you said your degree in college was what in right in writing English English literature. Yeah,   Carla Birnberg ** 09:42 you know, it seemed like a really good idea. I have a daughter who's 18 and my liberal arts degree has been great for cocktail conversation, and it's a lovely degree, but I wasn't really ready to do much after with it after graduation. So I as one does work In an outdoor store, I loved climbing and hiking, and I worked there probably for a year. And my mother, God bless her Jewish intellectual parents came into the store one day and said, Guess what? You're going to graduate school. Now, I'm not paying for this, but it's time to get doing something else. And so I got my master's degree in Educational Counseling. Okay, I use it every day. And I don't use it at all. It's one of those, it's been very helpful, but I've not used it in a traditional fashion.   Michael Hingson ** 10:31 Fair. I understand and empathize a lot, I got my bachelor's and master's degrees in physics. But wow, circumstances, ended up having me go in different directions. But I would never regret the times. And all that I learned in physics, the details, the kinds of things I learned some of the more basic life lessons like pay attention to details that are so important. And there's some examples of that in terms of why it's important in physics. But for me, I took it more to heart in a general way. And really work to pay attention to details, more of us ought to do that and observe what goes on around us, and learn to recognize what is working, what's not working, do really pay attention to the details to find out if the details are going the way we expect. And if they're not, why not? Because it might very well be that they have something to teach us. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 11:30 a really, phenomenally interesting takeaway from a physics degree I wouldn't have thought of. And you're right. That's a skill we all need. Because we need to know when to pivot when to change what we're doing. And if we're going too fast, we don't even notice. Right?   Michael Hingson ** 11:47 So you've got a master's in education. Yeah.   Carla Birnberg ** 11:53 And then what, and then I moved for a job, I was very excited, I packed up my car, I'm going to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a job, I get to Chapel Hill, and welcome, but there's no job anymore. So again, if it and this kind of took me, I don't really believe we get off our path because everything comes together. But I ended up becoming and if you knew me in my childhood, this shocks, everybody actually straight up through college, a personal trainer, and not athletic at all. And I ended up opening a personal training studio, but with that using them it was master's in education with an emphasis on counseling. So those counseling skills, yes, I did need the fitness knowledge. But the counseling skills really helped make me successful as a personal trainer. And then I sold my training studio moved to Austin, and became a big online, personal brand all sort of by accident.   Michael Hingson ** 12:56 Why personal trainer, what what got you to do that?   Carla Birnberg ** 13:02 Back then I probably would have said because I love paying my rent and my bills. And it seemed like something I could do to make some money. But I know myself and what comes easy to me, I'm not a good teacher of I could never have taught the clarinet came very easy to me. I could have taught math because I struggled with it. I'm not naturally someone who's very adept with fitness, terrible hand eye coordination. And yet I knew when I started lifting weights briefly in college, for women, leaving much more than men, it's where we can find our voice. It's where we can discover our power. And so after that happened for me, I kind of wanted to proselytize or evangelize and share that with girls, mostly University of Chapel Hill, undergrads and women in the area. I believe in it's so much teaching us to be strong and take up space and speak up. It's really where I found my voice.   Michael Hingson ** 14:05 Why didn't you stay with it, though? You sold it eventually and move to Austin,   Carla Birnberg ** 14:09 sold it and move to Austin and no more brick and mortar for me ever. I mean, I   Carla Birnberg ** 14:18 it was great. But   Carla Birnberg ** 14:22 I knew there was a way and I figured it out sort of with another with group of. We call ourselves the OG bloggers across the United States. How could we give away what we were passionate about what our knowledge was in what our skill set was really for free on the internet. So I was working at the Austin American Statesman by day writing features working in their education department, and a blogger by night until the blogging by night got so big that I left the statesman and made that full time.   Michael Hingson ** 14:55 Ended up getting out of the newspaper business. none   Carla Birnberg ** 14:58 too soon to my chagrin. I mean, I'm sad that it's kind of dying off. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 15:03 Yeah, I think it'll be a sad day if we lose newspapers. I   Carla Birnberg ** 15:10 absolutely agree. I mean, that's some of my best memories of being a family growing up this Sunday, New York Times the local Pittsburgh paper.   Michael Hingson ** 15:21 So, you, you really got into blogging and what were you blogging about? Or what were you doing?   Carla Birnberg ** 15:29 It's that master's degree. It was personal development and fitness, but not prescriptive, not go to the gym and lift this weight and do it this way. It was more, what's your language of encouragement? A few iterations back? What's your why? How do we get to the gym? How do we commit to fitness? How do we figure out why this is even important to us so we can achieve the goals that we've set for ourselves. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 15:55 well, going back even a little bit further and deeper. Why Austin? Ah, this   Carla Birnberg ** 16:01 marriage came down. Yes. And you know, it is I love the city. It's changed a lot. But I'm still not one of those. And there are many of them now. Just old Austin was better. And as we've grown, it's changed. And I love it just as much. I've been here 24 years. Long time. Hmm. Yes. And I have no plans to leave yet until unless they priced me out, then maybe?   Michael Hingson ** 16:26 Well, so. So you got into blogging and all that. And that's a good thing. But as you pointed out, needing incomes and so on, so how did all that work for you?   Carla Birnberg ** 16:44 So Well, I mean, I gratitude. There's I read somewhere once and I'm sure someone famous said it, and I should quote them, but I can't remember who if you woke up tomorrow with only what you were grateful for today. What would that look like? And I have such a gratitude practice kind of framed around that. And I was very lucky financially with the blogging got in at the beginning worked with some big big names Phila Birkenstock Wonderful Pistachios, Sears, who I think is no more worked with Venus Williams and really made it into a lucrative and enjoyable and impactful I could help people career until everyone became an influencer. And I read that landscape and thought it might be time to get out.   Michael Hingson ** 17:36 So the idea was, they were sort of sponsoring you, or they were paying you to write blogs for them. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 17:42 it, you know, they would come I mean, this was back in Paleozoic Era, like 2006. Let's say when I started, they would come with Okay, we have $35,000, what can you do for us? How many videos how many posts? Will you write, and we can put it on our website, Sears Venus Williams Birkenstock? Can you do print advertisement for us, though it was before everyone was an influencer? Where I get it. If I were the brand, I would think I'm going to pay 50 Different UT students $50 Each and see what I get versus these big paychecks to the original influencers? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 18:24 So you did that. And, and again, at some point, it sounds like you pivoted into what?   Carla Birnberg ** 18:34 Wow, let's go back to March 2020. It was before then that I read the landscape. You know, I had some podcasts that I hosted. So I know how hard you work. And I had written a book. And at that point, I was working with Venus. She blurbed, the cover of my book, and I thought, Where do I go from here? I was doing LIVESTRONG with a big website at the time, some content creation for them. And I was just in that moment of what should my next be when the world sort of started looking like it was changing. I had already been in conversations with a startup in Austin and Nairobi about doing some marketing for them, potentially just fractional short term CMO. And I thought I don't know what's happening here. COVID And I'm gonna do this because I don't think it's the time to work the gig economy even though I don't know what's happening. And I mean, again, gratitude said yes, took the leap had never done anything like this. I'd done the marketing I'd never worked globally and just thought, I'm gonna give this a shot. And I mean, it is no understatement to say it is the best Yes, I've ever said second to working with dentists. It's the best death I've ever said.   Michael Hingson ** 19:50 Why is that?   Carla Birnberg ** 19:54 It has changed my life. I mean, I traveled a lot as a child. My dad was a professor So he would take his sabbatical in. He did it twice in London. So I lived in Oxford and I've been exposed to the world but not, not in this consistent way. And the backdrop of my entire life I'm Jewish, but I'm not religious is Tikun Olam, which means repair the world. And really, it's we can't fix everything. So let's take our little tiny corner and try to fix it up as best we can. And I'd watched my parents do that. And I done some volunteering, but this global experience and given me an opportunity to really take my gifts and use them in a different way and meet so many different people. And it's just shifted my life perspective. And I'm so grateful.   Michael Hingson ** 20:48 Well, yeah, so tell me more about kind of what you did and what you're doing. Now. I'm assuming it's all related.   Carla Birnberg ** 20:57 It is the short version with the startup as with many startups, our whole goal was to eventually have the entire C suite team moved to Kenya, after about two and a half years. That's what happened. And I can tell you, I could have looked for a totally different job at that point, not gotten up at four in the morning. But gratitude spiritual practice, I just really felt that my work in Africa wasn't done. And I shifted to our foundation and became I was the head of culture and inclusion with the for profit startup, and moved kind of back to marketing on some level and became the chief storyteller, for next step Foundation.   Michael Hingson ** 21:44 And the next step foundation. Sounds pretty fascinating. Tell me more about that, if you would,   Carla Birnberg ** 21:49 we focus on helping the historically and it gets back to semantics, you and I had a really great pre interview chat about that the historically excluded I now do not love the word marginalized, mostly from my, my project persons with disabilities, but the whole foundation, it's women and youth and persons with disabilities by we recruit them, we assess what they need, we accommodate whatever their needs are. Maybe this is a young woman who has no digital skills, maybe this young man needs a screen reader. And then we train them. And unlike many nonprofits in the Global South, we don't just train, we then transition them into the job and support them in the job, after mentorship, kind of making sure that they have everything they need, so that they can be successful and feel successful. It's not all about the career. It's also about feeling really good about the work that they're doing.   Michael Hingson ** 22:55 So where does the next step foundation function primarily?   Carla Birnberg ** 22:59 It is mainly in Nairobi. So it's yes, it's been a big shift, when I was with the for profit entity, there are probably 17 of us in the States. Now there to go around noon, it can feel like a ghost town. I love my team, because they'll stay up late for me. But mostly in Nairobi, we have a small office here.   Michael Hingson ** 23:26 And so tell me a little bit more about about what you do. And we definitely can have the discussion here that we had ahead of time. And I'll let you kind of lead that as to where you'd like it to go. But tell me a little bit more about what what you actually do now and and kind of how all that works.   Carla Birnberg ** 23:46 I'm so it's such perfect timing for us to talk. You know, I started chief storyteller, this is great. I got to help with some marketing language. That was fun. And my favorite aspect of the job, which is not my new project is helping to create the impact narratives of our participants. Because I mean, it's almost like a puzzle where I interview them. And then I get snippets half of the time, it's in Swahili, so I pull in other team members to translate and kind of get that opportunity to weave it into a story. And our focus at the foundation is ethical storytelling. I have nothing to do with the story. My perspective doesn't matter. And in addition to that, and I know that the participants and people with whom I've worked at Next Step sort of chuckle, but we always ask for vigorous and consistent consent. So if I write a fantasy story, and he says, yep, here's my story. Yes, he's my picture. He approves everything. I put it on LinkedIn. And then I want to share it on Twitter. I'm going back to him, because it's really important to us as a foundation and me as chief storage Heller, at any time, a Fontas could say, You know what, I'm kind of over it. I don't want you to share my story anymore of going from x and acquiring my disability and then doing this and getting this job. And we would say, okay, so I love that facet of my job, the storyteller, and yet I had a little gap of time. And that's how this new project was created. The one that you and I have spoken about. And can I transition into that? Yes, you are excited. Okay. It's, I'm so thrilled we just finished our pilot program. It's called oo p li, which means secondary and key Swahili.   Michael Hingson ** 25:39 And how do you spell that? Up?   Carla Birnberg ** 25:41 i Li. Okay, great. I know I actually had on my appealing necklace. And then I've no idea why I thought I would be a grown up and take it off. Because I'd like to wear it in the community. So people say, hey, Carla, actually, I have a keychain. They'll say, hey, Carla, what is your necklace? What is your pili? And then I whip out my keychain, Michael with the QR code on the back. And I'm like, Thank you for asking, here's the website and how you can give me money. very appealing means secondary. And we thought I thought, wouldn't it be amazing if we went into these special schools in Kenya, which is their way of defining the schools that are created only for persons with disabilities, typically, very segregated schools for the blind schools for the deaf, there are some which are for all disabilities. And there are some which they also call integrated, which means for people who do not have a disability and those with disabilities, the plan was to go into these schools and meet material needs, build perimeter walls, give them new desks, supply hot water heaters, things that are very important and that I thought, this is the answer we went to visit. And I suddenly it dawned on the entire team. This is great, giving physical items. But this is all for something many, many NGOs are already doing. They'll come in, every Oprah gets a new desk, they'll come in, we will paint and build new hospitals, what we would call dormitories. So I met with our team who went to joy town, this is where we did our pilot there all the antics, persons with disabilities and said, Okay, a lot of people are meeting this need for the physical items. What else is in need? That is even more pressing. And this is when the conversation began around what I was aware of, I thought through doing the impact storytelling, I was not aware of the deep degree. And we started talking about the stigma around being a person with a disability and Kenya, the stigma from childhood, the discrimination as they grew older, and the more we talk as a team, the more we realized, it's therapy. It's counselors with disabilities going into these special schools, and doing group therapy with students with disabilities to give them that psychosocial support needed, filling the gaps with what they might already be getting at school. So they build their self confidence. So when they graduate, and finally graduate, I know I'm excited, an equal rate as their non disabled peers, they can thrive, they can get their jobs because they process this past trauma.   Michael Hingson ** 28:50 So in general, how our disability is treated in Kenya, as opposed to in the US or in East Africa in general, how are how are they treated differently? Or are they treated differently? Or do you think that there are a lot of similarities? I   Carla Birnberg ** 29:06 would be the first to say that I am not. I'm, as not evidenced in this moment. I'm a listener more than a talker. So I've had an interesting conversation about this with friends with disabilities in the States. I would still say that the stigma is tremendous. We've come a little bit further here. I've written the stories of a lot of my team members and the pressure on their parents after they were born to leave the baby at the hospital to euthanize the baby. Because there's still that fear in the villages not so much in Nairobi, that the child has a curse. The family is now curse. They hide the children away frequently. I remember one student was talking about how her mother had tried to To kill her, and the assumption I came from was, Oh, that's very sad, you know, she was a baby, and she was probably 13 or 14, no, this had happened last spring break from school, there's so much shame and fear that I just don't see here.   Michael Hingson ** 30:21 Or at least hear, it may be covered up more, but there's still a lot of it. We still hear of, oh, say blind parents who want to who have a child, and the courts want to take them the child away, or their ballot battles around that, or parents who just shelter their children with disabilities and don't let them explore. So I had to write, I think, I think it may be that, that the hiding is more sophisticated in some ways. But I think to a very large degree, it's still there. And I think that it is because of what you said, it's the fear. And what we don't realize collectively, as a society, is that disability shouldn't mean a lack of ability, as, as I tell people, and then they say, well, but disability starts with dis. And I said, Yeah, and so does disciple, and so does discern. So what are you saying? You know, the the fact is that dis isn't the issue. It's the perception, it's the fear. It's the prejudice, that we all need to overcome, and get to the point where we truly recognize that what disability is, is a characteristic that every single person has, except that it manifests itself differently for different people.   Carla Birnberg ** 31:53 Yes, I mean, my past four and a half years have been like a PhD, and I don't know what it would be, but I have been so educated by my team. And what you said made me think of a couple of things. One is my go to I couldn't do anything without her. Mariam and degla. She's my up Lee everything campus liaison. She has said repeatedly, you know, my parents she has cerebral palsy hadn't just been her mother and her grandmother, go, you're like any other child? No, we're not going to make accommodations for you, she said always says to me, I would not have come as far as they didn't shelter me. And that she credits that to her success in life.   Michael Hingson ** 32:38 Yeah, and actually, there are differences between accommodations. And yes, you're right sheltering. But I know what you're saying. And the reality is that we we make accommodations for sighted people all the time, right? We have lights in our buildings so that people can see where to walk, we have your right, we have a coffee machine so that people can get coffee or tea or hot chocolate or something, even though it's touchscreen nowadays, so it's not even accessible for everyone. We have so many different things that we offer. But we like it to be more one sided. We don't recognize that those are just as much accommodations as providing a screen reader for providing a ramp.   Carla Birnberg ** 33:27 And curb cut effect I had not heard of until four years ago. We use them all the time, the captions, all of it. And yet we avail ourselves of things that aren't created for us.   Michael Hingson ** 33:42 Right? The reality is that we all have gifts, and we all have things that we don't do as well as other people. And it is it is so unfortunate that we haven't even in this country taken the leap to really understand that.   Carla Birnberg ** 34:04 No, and I think I see that much more clearly. Now, I see that much more clearly not doing the work in East Africa. I do. You know, I think and I was thinking about this earlier, and I almost reached out to you by email, and then I thought now you're such a brilliant man, I'm gonna corner you And wouldn't you think that our therapists so we always use counselors with disabilities, first of all, so that the students see the counselor and think that's pretty amazing. I could do that. I had never I didn't dream that was possible. But also they have shared lived experience. If we'd had a counselor, even Kenyan go into his run this group therapy group who didn't have a disability, they would waste two or three sessions trying to explain to him or her, this is what it's like being me in Kenya. So he went in and thought okay, we are going to To practice affirmations using a mirror, this is going to be very interesting, the students might need some help bolstering their self esteem and coming up with the affirmations. I'm on it. She was surprised. And again, woman with a disability, that most of the students in therapy groups were completely unable to look in the mirror, because they had kind of integrated all of the negativity that had come at them from their families from the village. They couldn't even look at themselves in the mirror. And even she was shocked by that. And I'm really curious, your thoughts on is that unique to Kenya and that vast amount of negativity and stigma around having a disability? Or do you think that might be paralleled in the USA?   Michael Hingson ** 35:47 Well, I think there is a fair amount of it in the USA. I've not heard of anybody who said that they can't look at themselves in the middle. Except for vampires, but. But I do seriously think that there are a lot of similarities. So I've told the story a few times on unstoppable mindset. But I did a talk a few years ago, it was a hybrid talk. And I talked about disabilities. And I talked about the fact that for blind people. In reality, the term visually impaired is one of the most disgusting things that people can say to describe us, even though it's what the so called experts in the field created years ago, but visually impaired is a problem for a couple of reasons. One, visually, we're not different simply because we're blind to lose your eyesight, it doesn't mean that you're visually different. So that's a problem. But the bigger issue is impaired. Why am I being at all compared with person with eyesight? Why is it that I have to be considered impaired simply because I don't see if you want to talk about vision? I think I got lots of vision, I just don't see good. Like, I'd love to tell people. Don't I talk? Well, anyway. So I think that the term visually impaired is a problem. And I mentioned that in my talk. And I also said, the better terminology is blind and low vision. A lot of people hate blind, but you know what, that's what I am. And I happen to be physically blind. And there are a lot of idiots out there who are mentally blind, and we won't go there.   Carla Birnberg ** 37:30 We won't go encountered a lot.   Michael Hingson ** 37:32 But But anyway, so the the issue with the talk is I gave this talk. And then I opened it for questions. And people could in the audience, ask questions, or people could call in and this one woman called in, and she said, I am visually impaired. And that's all there is to it. And I said, No, you're not, you're blind. No, I have I just I have some eyesight, then you're low vision. No, I'm visually impaired. See, the problem is all too often we buy into it. And we don't understand how that kind of language continuing to be promulgated around, contributes to the view that people have about us. I love that phrase buy   Carla Birnberg ** 38:18 into it. That's it, I   Michael Hingson ** 38:20 am not impaired. And if I'm going to talk about being impaired, even though your disability is covered up so much, because you have access to electric lights, just have a power failure and see what you do, you immediately look for a smartphone or a flashlight so that you can get light back, because Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb for you. You like dependent people. But the bottom line is it still is only covering up your disability. Disability is a characteristic that we all have every single person on the planet. And it only manifests itself differently depending on what your gifts are and what your gifts are not.   Carla Birnberg ** 39:03 Okay, super interesting. And well, I'm sure I should have thought about this. But 54 and a half, I hadn't really thought about it much because I've never broken anything. And I'm just getting to this point. But again, Mary and my right hand woman will frequently say, in high school, I advocated for youth students with disabilities and people who had temporary disabilities. And that's a pretty big refrain from her. And the more she said it the more I've thought, oh, yeah, everyone is going to experience some sort of something, whether it's breaking your leg, whether it's becoming low vision, better phrase,   Michael Hingson ** 39:44 or, or whether you suddenly lose power and you can't see what you're doing. And that's my point. Yeah, no, that's my point is that the reality is the disability is there anyway. Yeah, but we do work. And right At least so to offset disabilities that limit us like a lack of light, it's okay, I have no problem with the fact that we have light bulbs, we have so many different mechanisms and ways of producing light for people. But be honest with yourself, it still is a disability, because the time can come when you don't have access to it, the time can come that a person who happens to be blind, might be somewhere and not have access to information that we would like to have access to and ought to have access to. Yeah, and only over more time, will society recognize that it has to provide information to us in in ways that work for everyone, I have a favorite example, I'm not gonna really not be able to describe this very well. But I'm going to try. There's a TV commercial that goes on out here. And the commercial starts out with this woman saying, you know, dad had this. And I don't want you to get it either. You have to really take care of yourself and take care of this right now. Because if you don't, it is going to run your life. And I know that you're one of these, you don't really like anyone telling you what to do. Well, that's the end of the commercial. And I don't know what goes on. There is absolutely nothing. And I don't know whether you've seen that commercial earlier. But there is nothing that says what that commercial is about. Now, someone this morning, I talked with someone who told me that it has to do with some sort of medical thing. And but But even she couldn't remember exactly what it was because there is not a single verbal cue in that commercial telling you what it's about. Much less making it accessible to be Yeah, yeah. And the reality is that, as we all know, many times people don't sit in front of their TV during commercials, they look away or they get up and they go to the bathroom or whatever. It is such a poorly designed commercial because of that. And, and it's unfortunate. But somebody figured, well, we don't need to worry about it other than people being able to see it, and they'll see it and they'll get it. No, they won't. Because it's all too often that people don't watch the screen. And as I said this morning, the person I asked who I regard as an extremely observant person couldn't even tell me what company that commercial was about.   Carla Birnberg ** 42:45 Oh, interesting. And you're right, the world's not, it's not set up accessively. In many instances, it's   Michael Hingson ** 42:53 not set up. Well, accessively or inclusively, we are much less inclusive than we ought to be that commercial could have been created in a much different way to provide information to everyone. But they didn't. And it's so unfortunate. So it shows in some senses, although I think we've made progress in this country. It also shows how far we have not come because that kind of thing still exists.   43:26 Yes. Yes.   Carla Birnberg ** 43:29 I mean, I've thought so much about this, since we set the date for the podcast and just every day at work that my perspective doesn't matter. It's been interesting to me to see. There's a feels like there's a big differential as far as the trauma, outgrowth of being a person with disability. But other than that, that's really the only major difference. And that's what made us think, okay, we need to focus on mitigating this trauma so that the students can be successful.   Michael Hingson ** 44:00 Well, there's a lot of merit to having role models. And when you bring people in, who are true role models, it makes a lot of sense to do that. And I think there's a lot of precedent for that. So having counselors having people who come from the same kind of environment that they come from, is very relevant. I spoke in Japan, back in 2012. Well, it was the publisher of thunder dog. My book in Japanese brought me over for two weeks. And one of the things that I learned there was that if you are a blind person, I don't know if it's changed since then. But if you're a blind person, you are not allowed to sign a contract. Period. You can't see a contract period. How am I asked this Someone who was in the insurance industry why? And his response essentially was was it should be very obvious because you could be cheated. And I said, Oh, so you're telling me that no sighted people in Japan are ever cheated when it comes to signing contracts? Oh, exactly. Even though today, there is technology that allows me to fully read contracts. Right? All right, with that time, the Kurzweil Reading Machine, the mobile KNFB. Reader Mobile, although it hadn't come out in Japanese yet, but it has since. But the reality is, again, it's the prejudice. For many years, the Gallup polling organization and surveying people's fears, said that one of the top five fears that people had was going blind, not even disabilities, but losing eyesight, because that's for her that because that's what we emphasize eyesight. But it's not the way it ought to be. Over time, it will change. And I firmly believe that we will see a day when television commercials like the one I described earlier will be not tolerated. But I think we're not anywhere near there yet. Somebody once said to me, I look forward to the day when we don't have to even use the word accessible, because it's just such an automatic thing, that everything is included for everyone.   46:33 That's it.   Carla Birnberg ** 46:34 That's it. And I don't know if you know who Judy human is. I've been okay. But we both became really far. In her lifetime. And I don't know, I'm curious, your thoughts? Will we get there? I mean, I know we're trying to in Kenya, where companies hire these, again, like which they are persons with disabilities, they're trained, they're brilliant, they're ready to go, and they just start work and everything they need isn't an accommodation. It's just the way the office is. And I hope we get there here.   Michael Hingson ** 47:15 Yeah, I think we will. But I do think that the way the world is now we have to legislate it, because attitude only we're not there. You know, one of the big discussions in the world has been the internet. And many people have not made their websites accessible. Yeah, hence the need for companies like excessive be. Yeah, but but people have said, well, but we we don't need to do it because the internet came along, after the ADA. So the ADA covers physical things, but it doesn't cover the internet, because it's just the way it is. Well, yeah. The reality is is not what the ADEA says it doesn't talk about specifically and only physical places of business. And finally, in 2022, the Department of Justice, II dicted, if you will, that the internet is covered under Title, two of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and website should be made, accessible and inclusive. Yeah, but even so   Michael Hingson ** 48:30 a lot of well, most website owners don't pay attention to it, they think it's too expensive. But again, hence companies like accessibility and what access to be brings. But also, the the other aspect of it is that most people just don't even know they don't think about it. It doesn't need to be expensive to make the internet or your website accessible or inclusive. But it's also the right thing to do, because it covers more than just blindness. And the fact is that there's so many different kinds of disabilities that are affected by not having full access to the internet. And it's easy enough to do. And there are procedures and guidelines that describe exactly what needs to be done and how to do it. If people would just do it. That's it   Carla Birnberg ** 49:24 and people don't. Five years ago, I was people like and it's no better do better. I sent to a big social media person the other day. I love your I don't know, we're calling them exes, your tweets, but you never use alt text on your picture. And he said, I don't even know what that is. Yeah. And so I thought it's what you said that sometimes people are lazy websites and as people think it'd be too expensive. Sometimes they just don't think   Michael Hingson ** 49:54 some people just don't know. Yes, it we don't teach it In computer science schools very much like we should. I'm involved with an organization that is creating its website. And they went out and got bids from two local places to make the website up and running to get it up and running and operational. And I said, as as part of a discussion, and what are they doing regarding accessibility? Oh, they say that they know how to do that. And I said, Tell me more about that. Well, one of the companies said, Well, the fact is that it isn't the website design that has to be addressed. The person with a screen reader has to make the accommodations and make the modifications to work on the website.   50:47 Oh, that's not what we want to hear. Well, oh, that is so wrong. Oh, my God, and so neither ms on them.   Michael Hingson ** 50:55 Yeah. And so accessible is going to be the the product that they use, rightly so because the company, the website owner doesn't have a lot of money. But it will be possible to make the website accessible. And we found another company that will do the job for the same price or less than any of the other companies. And it will include accessibility. And they will actually use accessibility, because it's such a great product to use for making this kind of thing happen. But the reality is, the the original people who were looking at getting the website quotes, also were clueless. And they were ready to buy into well, it's got to be the sky with the screen reader just got to fix it. Until they learned, we don't teach it yet. We don't teach real inclusion yet, as a part of what we do, and it's something that we really need to look at. We'll get there. You're   Carla Birnberg ** 51:57 right, you're right. And it's people like me who I'm not doing any sort of web design. But I launched a substack. I was late to that party, and I wanted to make it accessible. So I always have a voiceover. And a bunch of readers have said to me, that super me that you read it. I'm like, well, it is super neat, but it's for accessibility. And like, oh, I don't even think about that. So I think it's the lay people, we need to start spreading the word. And I don't know how we do that, except for leading by example, practice living   Michael Hingson ** 52:27 by example, writing more articles, including disabilities in the conversation. And all too often we don't do that.   Carla Birnberg ** 52:35 And that's why one of the biggest reasons why I love where I work, I'm taking the backseat. And when it was the for profit, I had a whole team of persons with disabilities who told me what was what and how things should be and what language to use. And I listened. And now same thing, I will look to marry him or Daniel or Terry or Becky, what do we need here? Why do we need it all make it happen? But you tell me I don't have the lived experience?   53:04 Yeah. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 53:07 as I said, I think the most important thing we need to do is to really push the conversation to always involve disabilities. When you talk about diversity, you know, what is there? What is diversity to you?   Carla Birnberg ** 53:19 And, you know, I think I would have answered differently 10 years ago, but now it's always inclusion. It's well,   Michael Hingson ** 53:27 but that's, that's not diversity. Tell me what diversity is. And use your answer from 10 years ago. Okay.   Carla Birnberg ** 53:34 10 years ago, I would have thought it's bringing persons of color into the conversation and not having everybody looked the same   Michael Hingson ** 53:43 race, gender, sexual orientation,   Carla Birnberg ** 53:46 and maybe not even sexual orientation, because I think I would have been 10 years ago. Yeah, would have been,   Michael Hingson ** 53:52 but three and four years ago, yeah. But today, race, gender, sexual orientation. Diversity is about difference. And we don't include disabilities. We don't include persons with disabilities or or   Carla Birnberg ** 54:11 we do with the foundation. And when you what are your thoughts on that? Well, I think   Michael Hingson ** 54:16 the issue is that that's why I gave a speech entitled, moving from diversity to inclusion. You can't be inclusive, if you are not bringing disabilities into it, like as part of the population. But but we're, we're inclusive of color and so on, but you're not inclusive. You can't get away with it if we don't allow it. So we're not going to let inclusion be screwed up, if you will, like we have allowed diversity to be screwed up and not including disabilities. And that's what what we really need to do is to take that step of recognizing that we're all part of the same planet And we all need to recognize that and it's important to do that.   Carla Birnberg ** 55:06 And I know I mean, that's kind of where my project fits into the greater umbrella of the foundation is. The youth with disabilities, students with disabilities weren't graduating. And so the office landscapes weren't inclusive or reflecting the true population. And we need to help the students graduate so that the foundation can step in and train them and job place them so that we're inclusive. And the makeup of the officers look like the real makeup of society.   Michael Hingson ** 55:41 So what motivates you to get up in those, do those early morning or stay up for those late night phone calls?   Carla Birnberg ** 55:47 Oh, my gosh, thank goodness, I think this all the time, even if I didn't get up early. I'm not late night. So thank goodness, I don't work for a foundation in India. You know, I'm passionate, somewhat my Nespresso, which I love. But I've mentioned Mary Ann's name a million times, Beth, what do goo I love my team. And I think when the alarm goes off at four, it's noon, or it's one o'clock, what's going on? I just love it. It's, I don't know, it's my why it's that notion of, I'm not making huge difference in the world, somebody in the middle of Iowa has no idea who I am. But I'm making a tiny little impact, and I'm loving what I'm learning, and I'm loving every minute of it.   Michael Hingson ** 56:37 And that's the important thing. You love it. You know, you love it. And you're gonna continue to do it. If people want to reach out and learn more about the next step Foundation, or maybe become involved in some way, how can they do that?   Carla Birnberg ** 56:52 I would love it, I am up for a zoom anytime the best way to find me would be going to LinkedIn. And it's U P I L I Upili. message us, I would love to chat. We're always looking for insights for mental health professionals in the United States. Clearly, we're always looking for donors, but just conversations around what we're doing. And I'm always curious what other people are doing as well how they are making an impact.   Michael Hingson ** 57:23 So just search for U p i l i on LinkedIn. That's   Carla Birnberg ** 57:28 right Upili, we have a website, it's upili.org. But either of those two ways. You can find me. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 57:35 and that's and that's all connected to the next step foundation.   Carla Birnberg ** 57:38 Yep, we're a project underneath them. Cool.   Michael Hingson ** 57:41 Well, I hope people will reach out. I know that they've heard me say some of these same things before a number of times. But it's great to hear the progress that you're making and the things that you're doing. And I really hope that we're able to contribute to bringing progress, both in East Africa and that we through this conversation, we'll get more people talking about it here in the US as well.   Carla Birnberg ** 58:10 Yes, and I always loved listening to you and talking to you. Because it gets me thinking in a different way to   Michael Hingson ** 58:15 well, we should do more of it than total, we can both learned to to get different perspectives. Well, I want to thank you for being here. And I want to thank all of you for and I want to thank you all for listening. We really appreciate it or watching if you're on YouTube. But wherever you're experiencing the podcast, we would really appreciate it if you'd give us a five star rating. We love those and we love your reviews. So please do that. If you'd like to reach out to me and have any questions or want to chat further about this, please feel free. You can reach me at Michaelhi at accessibe.com That's m i c h a e l h i at accessiBe  A C C E S S I B E.com. Or you can go to our podcast page, which is www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. And Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n.com/podcasts. So we'd love to hear from you. And if any of you, including you, Carla, have a thought of anyone who else we ought to have on as a guest love to hear from you. We are always looking for people who want to come on and tell stories and talk about interesting things. And even if we talk about some of the same things we've talked about before on the podcast, I don't think it gets boring. And the more we do it, the more people will gain an understanding of it. So we sure look forward to hearing from you with ideas of guests and other people who want to be part of the podcast. So thank you very much and really appreciate your your involvement in that. But again, Carla, I want to thank you for being here and for taking the time to be with us today. Thank you so much for having me. It was so fun   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:07 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

The term Tikun Olam (fixing the world) is a Jewish concept that is spoken about a lot. What does it actually mean? How can I as an individual fix a broken world? Why would G-d create a world that needs so much fixing? Listen to Soul Talk with Rabbi David Aaron and Leora Mandel and gain life changing insights into How To Fix A Broken World. Soul Talk 01FEB2024 - PODCAST

Richard Silverstein, author of the Tikun Olam blog, discusses how Israel's lies have cost it all credibility and alienated the media. He also talks about how Israel's supporters in the US are doubling down on muzzling all speech critical of Israel on college campuses, social media, and public assembly.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam, a blog featuring breaking news the Israeli national security state, returns for a Parallax Views exclusive: Richard relays how an Israeli Security source has told him that the Israeli Security Cabinet has given orders to assassinate not only Hamas leaders like Muhammad Deif and Yahya Sinwar but also their families. We'll also discuss the geostrategic implications of the unfolding Levant War and what it means for Israel/Palestine, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Qatar, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Richard discusses the U.S.-China rivalry moving into the Middle East theater (and the way it brings to mind the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union), the possibility of broader regional war breaking out in the Middle East, and much, much more.

Richard Silverstein, editor of the Tikun Olam blog, discusses why US politicians are parading their Zionist allegiance with urgency as Israel is in dire need of damage control to shed its racist and apartheid labels.

On this edition of Parallax Views, Richard Silverstein of the Tikun Olam blog returns to discuss the latest news in Israel/Palestine. We beging with a breakdown of the latest Israeli raid on Jenin and it's significance, the U.S. response, the resiliency of Palestinians, and related issues. From there we move onto the troubling story of an autistic Palestinian man who was killed by an Israeli police officer. Charges against said police officer were recently dropped and Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir mocked the dead man's mother calling her a "terrorist". We then wrap up the show with a discussion about Israeli-Russian national and academic Elizabeth Tsukov, who has done pro-Palestinian and human rights work, and her kidnapping by an Iraqi Shia militia. All that and more on this addition of Parallax Views!

Musik: Faure-Cantique de Jean Racine

On this edition of Parallax Views, we discuss the latest violence in Israel/Palestine. On February 23, 2023 the Israeli conducted a fatal raid in the Palestinian city of Nablus. The raid is reported to have resulted in the 11 deaths and 102 injuries. In retaliation, a Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli settler outside of the Palestinian village Huwara on February 26, 2023. Israeli settlers responded with vigilante violence, described as a rampage in the Washington Post and Times of Israel, in Huwara that saw the burning of houses, cars, and casualties. Tikun Olam's Richard Silverstein returns to discuss these events, with a focus on the settler violence in Huwara, as explored in his recent Middle East Eye article "Israel: Settler terrorism is now the law". (More detailed show notes forthcoming...)

On this edition of Parallax Views, Richard Silverstein of the Tikun Olam blog returns to discuss the latest eruptions of violence in Israel/Palestine starting with the massacre in the Palestinian Jenin refugee and then the deadly attack on Israelis outside a Synagogue in East Jerusalem shortly thereafter. In addition to this, we talk about the anti-government protests in Israel against Netanyahu's government and the fears within Israel over Netanyahu's judicial reforms which some are arguing would be a fascistic judicial coup by the Israeli far-right. Moreover, Richard and I discuss President Joe Biden and U.S. foreign policy with regards to Israel and specifically Secretary of State Antony Blinken visit to Israel and meeting with the deeply dysfunctional and corrupt Palestinian Authority's President Mahmoud Abbas. Additionally Richard and I will delve into Netanyahu's cozying up with America's evangelical Christian right, background on Richard's own evolution of thought in regards to Israel/Palestine, Israeli messianism and the end times, the potential for a Third Intifada to erupt, the Israeli economy and big tech start-up companies in Israel, the former Shin Bet (domestic Israeli intelligence chief) calling for a General Strike in Israel, Rabbi Meier Kahane and the Israeli far-right, Israeli ministerial position figures Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Itamar Ben Gvir's vision for Israel and the Temple Mount, the "toxic brew" that is effecting Israeli politics right now, religious violence and conflict escalation, cycles of violence in Israel/Palestine, secular politics and conflict resolution/compromise, the permanent banning of the anti-Zionist/non-Zionist Mondoweiss media outlet from TikTok, the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of antisemitism, the attacks on UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese's and her work on the situation of human rights in the occupied territories, and more! In the second half of the program, Grant F. Smith of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy returns to discuss New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman and his reporting on Israel/Palestine over the years. Grant's recent article on Friedman is entitled "Thomas L. Friedman's Israel: The krytron and the cholent heater". Recently, Friedman commented that he fears the two-state solution is dead in a conversation with Peter Beinart and penned an op-ed pleasing with President Joe Biden to save Israel from losing it's democracy and sliding into becoming “illiberal bastion of zealotry”. In the second half of the program, Grant F. Smith of the Institute for Research: Middle East Policy returns to the program to discuss his critique of New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman's reporting on Israel/Palestine over the years. Grant recently penned a piece at irMEP on the subject entitled "Thomas L. Friedman's Israel: The krytron and the cholent heater". In a recent conversation with Peter Beinart, Friedman expressed fear that the two-state solution is dead and has also written an op-ed imploring Joe Biden to save Israel from becoming “illiberal bastion of zealotry”. In other words, Friedman has been critical of Israel as of late. Grant, however, believes the criticism is mild and undermined by his previous writings especially in regards to Israeli spy and movie mogul Arnon Milchan, nuclear weapons and smuggling operations, and Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1980s. Among the topics covered in the course of our conversation: - Nuclear smuggling and Israel's "Project Pinto" - Saudi Arabia, the Abraham Accords, Israel's WeWork boondogle, and the private Israeli salmon farming Project Jonah that funded by large sums of taxpayer dollars/government funding - The NUMEC Affair and Israeli nuclear weapons smuggling - Critiques of Thomas Friedman's writings on globalization (see: The World is Flat and The Lexus and the Oliver Tree) and his "Golden Arches Theory of War" (ie: no two countries with a McDonald's would go to war with each other) - And more!

Join The Weekly Squeeze WhatsApp ChatFollow Malkah Fleisher on Twitter https://twitter.com/malkahfleisher?s=21&t=4bXym4_SXsV-3mia4AmUTgThe Simpsons as Jews in the Holocausthttps://ibb.co/fd6CPhWhttps://ibb.co/jyCQ9fFThis episode is sponsored by OKclarity.comFind a wellness professional:https://okclarity.comJoin OKCLARITY as a wellness professional:https://www.topjewishtherapists.com/welcomeJoin the WhatsApp status/group:917-426-1495. https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=19174261495&text=Hey!%20I'd%20like%20to%20join%20OKclarity%20on%20WhatsApp.%20(TWSP)

Since 2018, I've seen the rise of some pretty shady products. Recently, there's been a crazy boom of “alternative cannabinoids.” Hemp-derived Delta 8, Delta 9, HHC, THC-O have been popping up everywhere, especially in grey area and illicit markets. I've started to see adds for “weed online” and people with large platforms promoting gummies, vapes, flower, joints and more. I couldn't help but wonder — wtf even was ANY of this?? What are we inhaling? Putting into our bodies? I got to sit down with Alex Harris, an **actual** scientist to talk about trustworthiness, what she's seen in the lab and how people can navigate this wave of synthetic cannabinoids. She's also a fellow University of Maryland alumni which makes this episode all the more special! Alex is the Cannabis Science Advisor for Tikun Olam, the President of the Medical Cannabis Student Association at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the Deputy Director of Education at LA NORML. Leave your thoughts in the comments! Connect with Alex and follow her work below for more incredible canna education! https://www.instagram.com/cannasci.hi/ https://www.instagram.com/losangelesnorml/ https://www.instagram.com/tikunolamusa/ https://www.instagram.com/umb.mcsa/ Time Stamps Intro 0:00-2:03 Sending Flowers 2:03-3:50 Being an Early (unofficial) Medical Patient” 3:50-5:10 Almost Going to Jail 5:10-8:23 University of Maryland Cannabis Program 8:23-11:31 Who Would this Program Be a Good Fit For? 11:31-14:30 Consumer Education in Cannabis, Farm Bill and Hemp Derived Cannabinoids 15:20-18:00 Can We Trust Synthetic or Alternative Cannabinoids? 18:00-22:00 What is a COA? 22:00-23:30 Safety Testing in Cannabis 23:00-26:00 Do You Trust Any Current Synthetic Cannabinoid Products? 26:00-27:00 What's a Chromatigram and why is knowing how to read one important ? 27:00-30:45 Is Testing Legit? What is Lab Shopping? 30:45-32:50 Consumer Don't Always Come First 33:00-36:00 Education is the Solution 36:00-37:00 Gas Station Gummies 37:00-38:00 Sustainability, Cosmetic Chemistry Testing and FDA Standards 38:00-41:00 Drug Testing and Alternative Cannabinoids 41:00-43:40 FDA Policies on Hemp 43:40-44:00 How Can We Close the Gap? 44:00-45:00 Trustworthy Labs to Watch? 45:00-47:28 What Products Do You Trust to Put in Your Bag 47:28-50:00 Adult Use vs Recreational vs Medical Markets 50:00- 54:00 Loopholes with Edibles, Beverages and Tinctures 54:00-56:00 Caffeine and Cannabis 56:00-58:30 What's in Store? 58:30- Synthetic vs Alternative Cannabinoids 58:30-59:00 Cannabis Media Literacy 59:00-1:04 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sendusflowers/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sendusflowers/support

Richard Silverstein, editor of Tikun Olam blog, discusses Israel's new fascist government and Meir Kahane's disciple Itamar Ben-Gvir. Jess & Jamal examine why Harvard's Kennedy School denied Kenneth Roth, the longtime director of Human Rights Watch, a planned fellowship over the organization's work on Israel.

If we solved world poverty, climate change, and inequality, what would be our goal on Earth? Today we learn that the ultimate acquisition in this world is Torah. That's why we're making this world a better place: to learn more Torah.

On this edition of Parallax Views, the Tikun Olam blog's Richard Silverstein, who specializes in analysis and commentary related to the Israeli national security state, returns to discuss the Israeli elections and the triumph of the Israeli far-right in said election. In this conversation we'll cover the rise of extreme right-wing politicians and their supporters in Israel with a focus on Otzma Yehudit's Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Religious Zionist Party, returning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his contribution to empower Israel's far-right contingent, and the hardline nationalist activists of Hilltop Youth. Richard highlights why this past election matters and signals a dangerous moment in regards to Israel/Palestine. It is not, he argues, business as usual and could lead to a major conflagration in the Middle East. Additionally we delve into the issues surrounding the Temple Mount, the al-Aqsa Mosque, and the desire of far-right Israelis to rebuild the third temple. Moreover, Richard details the violent activities of the far-right and how they extend far beyond incidents of vandalism like the now well-known price tag attacks or the annual nationalist Jerusalem Day marches in which "Death to Arabs" is reported to be chanted. Richard and I also delve into the overlap between Israel's far-right and the Western far-right noting the points of agreement between the too, particularly in regards to anti-Muslim sentiments (but also anti-LGBTQ beliefs as well) and the desire for an ethno-state. Other topics discussed include: - The disintegration of liberal Zionism and the Israeli left - Will U.S. policy towards Israel change due to the rise of Israel's far-right politicians like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich? - Why Benjamin Netanyahu needs the Israeli far-right, embodied by parties like Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party, in order for his government coalition to succeed and how these parties effect the discourse in Israel (dragging the center farther to the right) - Hilltop Youth, Itamar Ben-Gvir, incitement of terroristic violence, and collusion between the police/military and the Israeli far-right - The issue of fascism - Addressing antisemitism while also being critical of the state of Israel (rather than the Jewish people) - An incident involving Hilltop Youth activists throwing molotov cocktails into a Palestinian home - The Church of Loaves and Fishes arson attack - Parallels between the Israeli far-right and the U.S.-based Trumpist/MAGA movement as exemplified by figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene - The Israeli far-right and religious messianism - Christian evangelism in the U.S. and the Israeli far-right - AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee that is often referred to as the Israel Lobby) - The extremist beliefs of the late Rabbi Meier Kahane And much, much more!

Jake talks about the origins of "Give to the Max Day" for GiveMN, how RaiseMN eventually developed to support smaller non-profits, and lastly, we learn how the Jewish concept of Tikun Olam shapes Jake's view of public service.  

TIKUN OLAM USA IS A CANNABIS BRAND THAT SPECIALIZES IN MEDICAL CANNABIS RESEARCH & DEVELOPING AWARD-WINNING FLOWER, EDIBLES, CONCENTRATES, AS WELL AS TOPICAL LOTIONS. TIKUN OLAM IS ALSO BEST KNOWN FOR BECOMING THE WORLD'S 1ST ORGANIZATION LICENSED BY A NATIONAL GOVERNMENT TO TREAT PATIENTS WITH MEDICINAL CANNABIS. HEAVILY ROOTED IN ISRAEL, TIKUN OLAM HAS CURATED AND PRODUCED SPECIFIC CANNABIS-BASED THERAPIES, EVALUATED INDIVIDUAL PATIENT CONDITIONS, RECORDED TREATMENT OUTCOMES, & CONDUCTED SAFETY AND EFFICACY TRIALS ON THE MEDICINES DERIVED FROM ITS UNIQUE STRAINS WITH LEADING ISREALI MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to ARFMP its been a couple weeks and we have some explaining to do. First off recently Trina had a bout with some severe morning sickness. She was not able to keep even liquids down for up to 5 days before she was admitted to a hospital. No need to worry though she and the baby are all good. Also Chris has been trying to go back to school so he has had a lot on his plate lately. But we are back with another fun and silly episode, where we discuss our lack of posting, what is an underwater astronaut and find out about Chris' new bong where we will have a poll to figure out its name.This weeks explain the strain we have Alaska strain, it is a sativa strain that can act like an indica strain. Made by Tikun Olam an Israeli strain that treats an array of medical conditions. Also on explain the strain we have our first ever Dud Bud, a new segment where we try weed product that are no good or just plan bad. This episodes dud bud is Pure Sun Farms Jet fuel Pre-rolls. These joints are packed to tightly and become impossible to smoke once you get half way through the joint, and it was pretty much the whole pack of twenty joints that were like that. So come along for the high, because there's Always Room For Moore.show resources:Explain the strain: https://www.leafly.ca/strains/alaskaSocial Meads:::Twitter: @Alwaysmoorepod Facebook/Instagram: Always Room For Moore PodcastTik Tok: @AlwaysroomformoorepodEmail: AlwaysRoomForMoorePodcast@gmail.com

¿Qué significa realmente el término Tikun Olam? ¿Cuál es su origen? ¿Debemos empezar a ayudar a los más cercanos o a cualquiera que lo necesite? ¿Acciones grandes o pequeñas? ¿Qué nos dice la Torá, la Mishná y la Cabalá sobre este concepto? En este episodio junto al rabino y activista social Yosef Garmon hablamos sobre la importancia del concepto de Tikun Olam ("reparar el mundo") en la tradición judía y en su propia tarea como responsable de una ONG que ayuda sin distinción de religión o nacionalidad a personas vulnerables en todo el mundo. Un episodio apasionante donde escuchamos a un apasionado contagiando su pasión por hacer el bien.

Four epic cannabis stories from the "Cannabis Daily" podcast team to get you into the weekend.Before we get into the stories - it's time to get your early bird tickets to Business Of Cannabis New York if you haven't already!Check out cannabisnewyork.live for more information and for tickets. Here are today's stories:Small cannabis companies getting ‘squeezed' in Pennsylvania  - MJBizDailyCannabis cultivation moratorium could be coming to Michigan - WXYZAurora Cannabis goes into the veggie business - MJBizDailyIIROC clamps down on naked short selling, Tikun Olam gets EU-GMP certified - BusinessCann's European Cannabis Stocks ReviewTweet us and let us know your thoughts on today's episode, here.Email us about our stories, here.Missed the previous episode? You can catch up with it here.  About Cannabis Daily.Cannabis Daily is a cannabis news and interview program from Business of Cannabis. We highlight the companies, brands, people and trends driving the cannabis industry.Business of Cannabis is a cannabis industry platform marrying cannabis news, video and podcast content, newsletters and online and real-world cannabis events.Visit Business of Cannabis online:http://businessofcannabis.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/bofc_mediaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/businessofcannabisInstagram: https://instagram.com/businessofcannabisFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/bofcmediaSpotify: http://bofc.me/spotifyApple: http://bofc.me/applepodPodcasts Online: https://bofc.me/bofclive

This week on Talk World Radio, we're discussing AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and its financial power over U.S. elections. Richard Silverstein is an independent journalist who writes the blog, Tikun Olam, which exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He also publishes at Jacobin Magazine, Middle East Eye, and The New Arab. Check out https://www.richardsilverstein.com

Richard Silverstein discusses his recent article published in Tikun Olam, “Israel's Paroxysm of Judeo-Hate--Vile chants of 70,000 Judeo-terrorists-in-the-making.” Jess & Jamal talk about AIPAC's recent campaigns to unseat politicians critical of Israeli human rights violations.

On this episode of Beyond The Walls, Jeremy Rothe-Kushel speaks with journalistic exposer of the Israeli National Security State and longtime publisher of Tikun Olam, Richard Silverstein, about his inquiries into the targeted Israeli state-sponsored assassination of beloved Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and its escalated police state wake, and his trio of articles exposing the reckless corruption of former Israeli intelligence Chief Yossi Cohen who in addition to aiding and abetting Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in his securing the profits of his rape and pillage of the Congolese nation, exposed the Israeli security state, while executing assassinations in the midst of an affair and directly undermined American policy, hoping to further uncover Israel Palestine beyond the walls. Links: https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/05/13/israel-police-state/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duvdevan_Unit https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/05/18/yossi-cohen-mossads-man-in-kinshasa/ https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/05/22/mossad-chiefs-meddling-on-behalf-of-israeli-oligarch-angered-us-officials-endangered-us-israel-relations/ https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2022/05/22/breaking-yossi-cohen-sex-diaries/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-antedote/support

Spiritual and Mystical Basis of Tikun Olam by Avraham Arieh Trugman

Spiritual and Mystical Basis of Tikun Olam by Avraham Arieh Trugman

Why: Only Israel has a legal right to this land. Arab claims based on documents issued by Jordan during their illegal 19 years of occupation of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem are fake and cannot be recognised. The: Supreme Court of Israel deserves much criticism in this matter. It's self-imposed powers of ‘legislating' must be curtailed in an extensive overhaul. It Was: Another successful Jerusalem Post annual conference with speeches revealing the thoughts and plans of the movers and shakers who influence our lives. What is: The National Drone Initiative? Don't miss this fascinating report of what to expect in the months to come.. Hear: What happened at the infamous Durban VI conference? Hear: How Israel practices Tikun Olam in Afghanistan, while the US Biden Administration is helpless. The Walter Bingham File 19OCT2021 - PODCAST

Tikun Olam, the worlds first licensed Medical Cannabis company, and research pioneer, entered the Florida market in March of 2019 by partnering with vertically integrated VidaCann. Tom is responsible for  the entire GTM to include packaging, state label approvals, budtender training, new product development, cultivation and processing oversight. Tom also handles all market promotions inclusive of Social Media, swag, collateral development and KOL management.

This week on the Global Research News Hour, with masses of humanity amid the most recent military exchange we will be exploring some of the stories behind the slaughter with three observers and assess what answers there may be to their dismal present in the Middle East area. In our first half hour, we get an assessment from international law and relations scholar Richard Falk about the roots of the recent conflict and where it's headed. After that, Richard Silverstein writer and blogger with the site Tikun Olam talks about the new dynamics in play and where it's likely headed. Finnally, we get a view from Palestine solidarity activist and commentator Laith Marouf will also reveal the realities motivating changes for the Palestinian people and possibly for the greater world in this seemingly unending nightmare.

Hi everyone, this is Amanda Borschel-Dan and welcome to Times Will Tell, a weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. In honor of this week's April 20 "4-20 Day" — the day which marijuana enthusiasts have adopted to raise awareness for the causes of cannabis legalization and medical marijuana — we're speaking with Saul Kaye who is a mover and shaker in Israel's cannabis legalization and technology drive. Kaye was trained as a conventional pharmacist prior to moving to Israel in the 1990s and establishing a pharmacy in Jerusalem. But around a decade ago, he began opening his mind to the use of medical marijuana when a severely ill friend had exhausted all other options. Now he is the CEO of CannaTech and ICan, two Israel-based initiatives working on medical marijuana efforts. We speak about how the brains and brawn of StartUp Nation are still largely untapped, and so is the some $1 billion potential economic boost that deregulation could provide. After our conversation with Saul, we will hear a special report from Dubai brought to us by The Times of Israel's Ops and Blogs editor Miriam Herschlag. It was first broadcast on TLV1's Promised Podcast. Illustrative image: A worker tends to cannabis plants at a growing facility for the Tikun Olam company near the northern city of Safed August 31, 2010. (Abir Sultan/Flash 90) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Topic: A Contrarian Thinker Guest: Gershon Distenfeld   Bio:    Gershon M. Distenfeld holds a BS in finance from the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University and is a CFA charterholder. He is Senior Vice President, Co-Head of Fixed Income, Director of Credit and a Partner at AllianceBernstein, where he has worked since 1998. Gershon initiated NNJKIDS, a community-wide education fund for Bergen County. Together with his wife, he was a founding member of Yeshivat He’Atid where Gershon served as chairman of the board for the first several years.  He is passionate about educating and inspiring children both in and out of the classroom. Gershon has partnered with NCSY to support its humanitarian disaster-relief projects and has participated himself in these missions.  1. Continuity in Professional Life 2. Differentiate Yourself 3. Being embarrassed and lessons learned 4. Bill Gates and Tikun Olam 5. Paying attention to the Torah text 6. World Series of Poker and lessons learned 7. Diversification in Philanthropy 8. Covid and Political Thoughts And so much more!

Tikun Olam, o conceito de consertar o mundo é basicamente a definição de como nós, judeus, nos implicamos com as questões externas a nossa comunidade. Não só relacionado a ação social, o termo também é associado ao comportamento mais universalista do judaísmo. Talvez você esteja se perguntando “Como praticar Tikun Olam” ou “o que eu posso fazer para inserir esse conceito na minha vida?". Hoje vamos falar sobre a teoria e prática relacionada ao Tikun Olam. Nosso convidado é o rabino Rabino Adrian Gottfried, da Shalom, sinagoga masorti de São Paulo. Apresentação: Ana Buchmann e Anita Efraim Esse episódio tem apoio da Comunidade Shalom.

The first of Judaism's big ideas: human empowerment. Our responsibilities in the human/Divine partnership. And Judaism's focus on Tikun Olam - improving the quality of life in this world.

This week on Gather Round! we spend some time with a member of the Globe's family, Sheila Lipinsky, chatting about Hanukkah. A native San Diegan, Sheila recounts some of the history of the Jewish community here as well as discusses the idea of Tikun Olam.

Que es Tikun Olam y como podemos ser parte de este proceso.

Whenever my dad and I get together to talk, there is no predicting where the conversation will lead. It always has a way of making some kind of sense, and tying together the strands of our diverse interests, from jazz to sociology, popular culture to politics. Just as we did on the morning of the presidential election in 2016, here we discuss the results of the 2020 election and what it might say about all of the above. Somehow, along the way we touch on his thoughts on the beauty of old things, Tikun Olam (the Jewish concept of healing the world) as a response to a universal call from deep in the frontal cortex, “The cruelty of our own DNA”, Chaos theory, the future of small jazz clubs, and how “we are all survivors of chaos”.  Then we try to figure out what that has to do with Les McCann’s recording of the song “Maxie’s Changes” (with the largely unknown tenor saxophone player Frank Haynes). www.third-story.com www.patreon.com/thirdstorypodcast www.bensidran.com

  Topic: Having a Big Heart   JOSH KRAFT President of the New England Patriots Foundation Josh Kraft serves as the President of the New England Patriots Foundation, where he oversees all aspects of the Foundation’s community outreach programs and fundraising efforts. Through his leadership, the Foundation has expanded its reach and impact in the New England community. In 2015, the Foundation made donations to more than 1,500 nonprofit organizations and coordinated more than 400 appearances by current and former Patriots players across New England. Upon graduation from Williams College, Josh earned a Master’s degree in education and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has been involved with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston for more than 25 years and currently serves as the Nicholas President and CEO. Prior to accepting that role, he was the Founding Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston’s Gerald and Darlene Jordan Club in Chelsea. Before the state-of-the-art facility could be built, Josh led the after-school program from the basement of a public housing development for 15 years. Josh serves on the boards of Beaver Country Day School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation, and is an Overseer for the Museum of Science and Lasell College.     In this wide ranging interview, we cover:   1. Strong Roots 2. Caring for the less privileged/Tikun Olam 3. lessons from covid-19 4. boys & girls club big impact-building society 5. lessons from pirkei avos 6. football and the patriots 7. hiring the right people in key positions And much much more!-- -- 

Susan Greif is an Ancestral Trauma and Creative Transformational Expert, an Inspirational Speaker, Author and founder of Art Mends Hearts. Susan interprets her clients' drawings to help them “see” their subconscious and notice where they hold their, or their ancestral, trauma. Her goal is to help her clients release old stuck energies that keep them feeling powerless, paralyzed, panicked, and in pain and then she offers her creative strategies to help them take action and make shifts in their lives. As a daughter of Holocaust Survivors, Susan specializes in working with daughters of Holocaust Survivors like herself. Additionally, she works with women of domestic violence, trauma victims and women in transition. Susan offers one-on- one coaching, couples' private workshops, corporate workshops and retreats.Susan has partnered with Christina Heike, a daughter of German II survivors, who is also an ancestral trauma healer. They share the importance of Tikun Olam, repairing the world, under the topic of “Breaking the Cycle of Ancestral Traumas.” Susan was the Trauma Expert on the "Live with the Vibe," YouTube and Podcast talk show where four experts had the Hard-to-Heart conversations. Susan was the former Healing Arts Expert on the CYACYL Life Strategist Advisory Team, who was a writer and a monthly contributor to NY#1 iHeartRadio and 970AM TheAnswer and to 24/7 Digital Magazine. She is also a weekly contributor to Yin and Yang Moms. Susan currently is a member of the NYC Speaker Salon, curated by Tricia Brouk, as well as, a World Happiness Summit Coach. She can be heard on several podcasts and stages. Susan gives back to her community volunteering at the Women's Rights Information Center in Englewood, NJ. Susan can be seen weekly on “ThursdayThoughts@3” with her Carpool Coaching co-host, Jacqui Atcheson, on Facebook Live and YouTube. Susan authored the chapter “Crossing Bridges,” for the anthology, “LifeSparks: Stories that ignite, inspire and illuminate. Susan lives in Bergen County, NJ with her husband where they raised their four children.You can connect with Susan here:Webpage: https://www.artmendshearts.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/artmendshearts/Twitter: https://twitter.com/artmendsheartsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/artmendshearts/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-greif/YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCgPJD6AK2XZkMbgSJ8g_D-Q

In this episode, hear from Cecelia Borgman, an Atlanta native and a social justice fellow with Repair the World. Borgman discusses growing up with a multi-racial background and ultimately finding her place in the Jewish community. She explains how her impactful Birthright trip inspired her to give that same experience to others and and gives insight into the Jewish concept of "Tikun Olam." Borgman then details her role with Repair the World, a non-profit organization that seeks to mobilize Jewish communities all over the United States to give back to their communities. 2020 All Rights Reserved --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/jewish-today-pod/support

In a conversation concerning the 6th chapter of 'Remix Judaism', author Roberta Rosenthal Kwall and Rabbi Avi Finegold discuss and contrast horizontal and vertical approaches to social justice and consider what it means to 'remix' Tikun Olam.Find out more about the book athttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51714612-remix-judaismFollow the Jewish Learning Lab on Facebook and @Jewishlab on Twitter.Theme music by Tzara- Degrowth

In this episode of Popular Education Radio, I interview Richard Silverstein, writer at Tikun Olam, a progressive Jewish blog which focuses on the Israeli national security state and more. In this interview Richard speaks about how the Covid 19 pandemic has been affecting the Israeli and Palestinian populations in the region. We talk about the health disparities, how this virus is being monetized by governments and we also talk about Israeli politics and a possible 4th election! Click here to read Richard's recent Jacobin article as mentioned in the interview If you're interested in participating in the Popular Education Radio webinar series please contact: Populareducationradio@gmail.com Check us out on IG@PopularEducationRadio to register for the COVID 19 in Palestine and Israel please click here- you much register to attend Thank you all!! -Tammy

Father and son duo Marc and Joel Pollick join Aaron in studio to discuss their shared passion for social good. Driven by the work of Jewish author and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Marc has been a leader in purpose for decades, now leading national non-profit The Giving Back Fund, which encourages and facilitates charitable giving by successful public figures. Inspired by his father, Joel founded Percent Pledge, a nonprofit organization management company dedicated to making workplace giving and volunteering easy for companies and engaging for employees. Tune in to learn about this inspiring family's work (and what a family dinner is like with so much achievement in one room!), and discover more at percentpledge.org and givingback.org. Production Credits: Aaron Kwittken, Jeff Maldonado, Dara Cothran, Lindsay Hand, Katrina Waelchli, Meg Ruocco, Julia Brougher, Parker Jenkins, and Mathew Passy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Suzanne gets a preview of a rare Rubin show, with prints from four of his favorite projects: Nudes, San Francisco, Tikun Olam, and Alcatraz Windows. And somewhere in the conversation they're joined by Lorna Rubin, mother, publisher, and conspirator in the creation of the Rubin Photographic Collection, which she discusses, along with her parenting tips.

Join Rabbi Tzvi and his guest Israela Meyerstein, author of Miracle Nation. They discuss Israel, Tikun Olam, and inspirational stories of how one person can make a difference.

Acts of hatred in our most sacred spaces. Curable diseases going untreated. War tearing countries and families apart. Global climate change threatening our very species. It’s enough to make anyone feel that this world is broken beyond repair. As people with a strong religious, moral, or ethical point of view, we are sensitized to inequality and injustice, but these problems leave many of us feeling both frustrated and hopeless. However, our work as IT professionals has conditioned us to look at problems, breakdowns, and error messages in a very particular way. In this episode of our podcast, Leon, Josh, and special guest Yechiel Kalmenson will look at ways in which our IT mindset helps us approach secular, existential, and religious challenges in ways that non-IT folks ("civilians" or "muggles") typically don’t. Listen to the episode, or read the transcript below: Doug: 00:00 Welcome to our podcast where we talk about the interesting, frustrating and inspiring experiences we have as people with strongly held religious views working in corporate IT. We're not here to preach or teach you our religion. We're here to explore ways we make our career as IT professionals mesh - or at least not conflict - with our religious life. This is Technically Religious. Josh: 00:25 Today is May 6, 2019, and while we try to keep our podcasts as timeless as possible, in this case, current events matter. Leon: 00:35 It hasn't been a good week, and that's putting it lightly. The US political system continues to be a slow motion train wreck. Measles cases in the US are at levels unseen since the disease was eradicated in the year 2000. A report on climate change shows over 1 million species are now at risk of extinction. And just over a week ago, a gunman stormed into a synagogue in Poway, California. This is the second attack in a synagogue in the last six months. and part of a horrifically growing list of attacks in sacred spaces nationwide. Josh: 01:03 News like that leaves most people feeling hopeless and adrift. And even folks who are part of a strong religious, ethical, or moral tradition who are sensitive to injustice and seek to repair the world - we're also left uncertain on how to proceed. Leon: 01:18 Which is why an article in the "Torah & Tech" newsletter caught my eye. In it, the author presented the idea that we as IT professionals may be predisposed to view these kinds of problems differently, and to address them the same way we deal with blue screens of death and abend messages. I'm Leon Adato and the voices you're going to hear on this episode are the always-effervescent Josh Biggley Josh: 01:40 Hello. Leon: 01:42 And also our special guest and the author of Torah & Tech, Yechiel Kalmenson, who provided the inspiration for this episode. Welcome to the show Yechiel. Yechiel: 01:49 Hi. Thanks for having me. Leon: 01:51 So before we go any further Yechiel, I want you to have a chance to tell all of the listeners about Torah & Tech. I think it's perfect for the Technically Religious crowd because it merges those two things - tech and religion. So where can we find it? How did it start? Just give us a little bit of background. Yechiel: 02:09 Torah & Tech was an idea of a friend of mine, Rabbi Ben Greenberg, who's also like me, an Orthodox Jew now working as a developer in Israel. We came up with the idea to merge, you know like you spoke about in the first episode to have the synergy between these two worlds, which mean a lot to both of us. So we started this weekly newsletter, which features a Torah thought every single week that relates to tech and also tech news that relate to Judaism or to Torah values in general. You can find it, you can subscribe to it in the link which will be provided in the show notes. I also cross post a few weeks - those that I write - I cross post them on my blog, which you can find at http://rabbionrails.io Leon: 02:51 Fantastic. I guess we'll dive into this. What is it about IT and working in IT that makes us think differently about these types of world breaking world, you know, horrific events that that just shouldn't be? Josh: 03:08 You know, I think what makes me think about those things, and I have an interesting story that I'll share, but it's that desire to fix things, to see them resolved and in order to do that, you have to understand where they came from. I remember quite distinctly when I had this first realization that I was a "fixer". I was in 10th grade. I was in a class and we had a presenter from the community - or who I thought was from the community - who came in, and she talked about the genocide and that had happened in East Timor. She was East Timorese and she had talked about how the Indonesian had invaded East Timor and killed off a third of the population. And I thought, "Man, I've never heard of this before. How can it possibly be that such a tragedy has happened? And no one's talked about it." And it was in that moment that I realized I wanted to do something. And it's only been with 25 or 30 years of retrospect that I realize that that was that transitional moment where I knew I wanted to be a fixer. So I dunno, I, maybe it's something that happens to us by nature, by nurture. I don't know if I want to fall down on either one of those sides, but for me it felt very natural. Speaker 2: 04:28 Excellent. Now Yechiel in the newsletter, you actually mentioned something about the fact that, you know, we as IT professionals - and certainly as programmers and developers - error messages... We don't respond to error messages the same way that I'm going to say "normal people" (Muggles) do. Can you, can you elaborate on that? Speaker 3: 04:46 Uh, sure. It's actually, I noticed that it's one of the first things, one of the first like switches I had to go through in order to learn development. Before I was a programmer, I did tech support and I can't tell you how many times I got a phone call where someone calls up and says, "Yeah, there's something wrong. The machine is broken." I'm like, "what's wrong?" "Like I don't know, it has an error message on it and like...", "Well what does it say?" "I don't know" And I was like, "I can't really, you know... Can we go through the transaction again and see which error we got?" "I Dunno, it's just broken and it got an error message." As, I mean, ever since I was a kid, I always had this curiosity where I would, you know, try to figure things out. We know when something broke to try to take it apart. And when I learned to program, so that was one of the first lessons I had to learn because error messages pop up all the time. You make a small typo, I make a small, you know, you add an extra semi colon or you're missing a semicolon and the whole thing blows up at you. And as a "muggle", as you put it, whenever our computer throws an error message at you, it's always this scary thing. You know, it almost feels like the computer is, like, shouting at you and you know you probably did something wrong. And now everything is broken and nothing is working. But as programmers and in general people in IT, error messages are actually, that's what we're here for. That's what we do. We fix error messages. Error messages show us where the code is broken. What has to be fixed. Some are easier and more helpful than others of course. But that's basically what we do. Our whole approach to broken systems is different. You know, I mentioned the quote from Steve Klabnik in the newsletter he said that "...programming is a moving from a broken state to a working state. That means you spend the majority of your time with things being broken. Hell, if it worked, you'd be done programming!" I mean nobody's hiring programmers to take care of working stuff. So that's what we do as, that's our job description. Leon: 06:43 How many of us have said, as you're sort of struggling with a problem or you know, "how can you keep working on this? Hour after hour?" (and we respond) "that's why I get paid the big bucks." Josh: 06:55 I just want to call out that the blue screen of death. I think that that was invented to BE scary. Like really, you know, suddenly everything fails and you get this dump of data like that (gasps), I don't know, when I see the blue screen of death on the server and I haven't... knock on wood, I haven't seen one in a long time. I'm always afraid, Leon: 07:18 Right. But of course you have to remember that the blue screen of death came after a long string of operating systems that gave you nothing more than like the "sad mac". Like that was all you got. You didn't get any other error messages. So perhaps the pendulum swung a little too far in the other direction of giving more information than you wanted, versus just, you know, "I'm not happy now," but even that is, to Yechiel's point, is a way of of trying to fix things by error message, I mean, you know, this error message is actually not useful. And so I'm going to fix the error message by giving more information, but they just went perhaps a little further in that direction. Josh: 08:01 So I learned last week, or two weeks ago about this great Easter egg in an error message. So you know when you're in chrome and there's no network connectivity and you get that pop up that says that there's no network connectivity? There's a video game in that popup message! Leon: 08:21 Trying to make it less scary by looking for firewall things in the middle, Yechiel: 08:25 I will not admit out loud how many hours I wasted with that dinosaur. Leon: 08:32 But it is some number greater than zero. Good. All right. So I like this mindset. I like the fact that as IT people, we are, as Josh said "solvers" and that we approach brokenness in a very different way. We see brokenness not as simply, like a broken pot, a Ming vase on the floor that is broken and will never be the same, but more as IT folks we're, "Oh, that's just, that's how everything starts," And now, now we have the work of the work. I'm curious about whether being people from a religious, moral, ethical point of view. Are we predisposed maybe to see these errors or these patterns differently than folks who are from a more secular point of view? Josh: 09:27 I'm pretty convinced that the answer to that question is yes. I think about the... in case you haven't been paying attention, I was raised Mormon and I'm now post Mormon or ex Mormon or no longer Mormon, whatever. You wanna do this, do you want to call it Leon: 09:46 The artist formerly known as Mormon? Josh: 09:48 The artist formerly known as Mormon - I think actually, that is every Mormon because the church doesn't call themselves Mormons anymore. Anyway, that's a, that's an entirely different episode. But the entire premise of Christianity at large is this realignment or uh, yes, realignment is the best way to describe it, of ourselves with God. So God being perfect, the idea of there being an atonement means that we have to, that there's something wrong with us. And so there's, you know, scripture is full of indicators when someone goes wrong. So one of the great indicators in the book of Mormon, which is the, the book of scripture that is unique from the rest of Christianity inside of Mormonism is when Jesus is crucified and when he dies on the cross, and while there's been people who've said, "Hey, you know, things are, things are not going well. You know, this is going to happen." Suddenly the, you know, the earth shakes and the ground breaks and there's darkness and there's, you know, cities fall and they burn. These are all these warning signs that something has gone wrong. And those people who are astute to that, they recognize that something has gone wrong and they're the ones who, you know, who raised their voices up and, um, you know, then there's goodness that rises. Yes. I know it's a bit of a stretch to say that in that mindset, we also become good engineers - so that when we see the warning signs, we know we're looking for them, we start to see, "Oh my goodness, there's error messages popping up. Like that's, that's kind of weird." And then when the thing ultimately fails, we're the ones who are there to say, "Okay, all right, it's failed. We got this, we can bring this back." I don't know that that's necessarily how people perceive it, but I certainly, I'm certainly a big pattern person, and in patterns, you know, whether you're talking about the book of Revelation or you're talking about Nostradamus, or whatever it is you're talking about, those patterns all exists and I think they're powerful for us. Um, both personally. Um, but also from a technical perspective. Leon: 11:57 So I think that Judaism approaches things differently. Obviously, you know, Josh: 12:02 yes... Leon: 12:03 it approaches things very differently for a lot of things. That's a true statement. The brokenness of the world is sort of built into it and I don't know that it's worth going into the, the whys and wherefores, but there's this concept in Judaism of Tikun Olam, which translates to "repairing the world." And because that's a thing like the fact that that phrase exists, tells you that the world needs repair and that's built into the system. Otherwise that phrase wouldn't be a thing. Now there's two ways of looking at Tikun Olam, the, the sort of, bubblegum pop way of looking at it. And I probably just offended to thousands of people and I apologize. The first level view, or the easier view of Tikun Olam is just doing good deeds to make the world a better place. Donating money and helping people out if they need help and things like that. But there's a deeper, slightly deeper level of it, which is that there are these hidden sparks of holiness and it's almost like a scavenger hunt. And that our job is to reveal these sparks of holiness to collect them up. And the way that you do that is by doing these good deeds. Yechiel, I don't know if you have a take on that. Yechiel: 13:18 You did pretty well. It's stressed a lot stronger and Chasidic philosophy, which, which I'm trained in. But yeah, when God created the world, He created it with His goodness, with His kindness. And that kindness is everywhere. Everywhere in the world. Even in the darkness. When we find the spark of goodness in the darkness, we're actually revealing the purpose of creation of that part of the world and bringing the world closer to its ultimate reason for creation, which was to become a place where godliness and goodness, out in the open rather than hiding in dark corners the way it is now. Leon: 13:57 One of the parts of Judaism that I like so much is that certain... these good deeds, these acts, are labeled as Mitzvot, which, you know, a lot of people say, "Oh, that's a good deed, right?" No, no, no, no, no, that's, that's a commandment. That's an obligation. Why are you giving charity or tzedakah is what it's called in Hebrew. Why are you giving that? You know, because it makes you feel good? No. Because it's a good deed? No. Because I'm obligated to, I am commanded to. The commander in chief gave me an order and I'm just being a good soldier. I'm just doing it. And I think that that also, as somebody with a religious point of view, lets us look at these these broken moments, these broken times as, "Nope, that's part of the job." This is a hurdle that was placed here so we could try to overcome it. Moving forward just a little bit. I think that because we see these errors, do we, do we feel compelled to address them? I mean, like, do we have to? Josh: 15:07 Something that I'm I'm told very often is "Josh, stay in your lane," and I'm not good that at all. Leon: 15:14 "Keep your nose out of it. Just deal with your stuff!" Yeah. Yeah. Josh: 15:17 I mean, I'm really, really bad at it, so I'm going to say that yes, I feel very compelled to fix problems, much to my own detriment though, sometimes. Solving my own problems is challenging, but solving my own problems and other people's problems? That's, that's a weighty thing. Sometimes I feel like I'm better at solving other people's problems than my own. Yechiel: 15:42 So yeah, do we feel compelled to justice? I feel like that's part of what we spoke about our different approach error messages in tech. You know, when a nontechnical person sees an error message, yeah, he's compelled not to do anything about it. And it just shut the whole thing down and turn it on and hope for the best. But as a developer, if I see an error message and figure, "Okay, it's broken. That's it. That's how that, you know, that's how it is." Then I'll pretty much find myself without a job very soon. Speaker 2: 16:13 Well there's one phrase that I think I've quoted on the show before, but it's so good, I can't let it go. Do we feel obligated to address these? And in one of the books of Mishnah, a section called Pirkeh Avot, there's a phrase that gets quoted a lot. "You're not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." And I think that's a big part of the mindset. Yechiel of the three of us, you are the most "a programmer". I'm more of a systems guy. Josh is more of a systems guy. And I know that when you're looking at one of these big problems, like you said, you can't walk away from it, but at the same time, I don't think you go into it thinking, "Well it's me and it's only on me and there no one else who's ever going to do this", I think, you know, going into it that there's a team behind you, there's people that you can rely on, there's people you can go to or who will pick up the work if you have to take a break or put it down. Yechiel: 17:20 Very true. The stuff I'm working on now, you know, it's problems that were around for a lot longer than I've been on them. And they will still be problems way after I'm off the team already. And yeah, it's, you know, you're part of IT, you're part of a much bigger picture. You are not the be all and end all the project will go on without you, but at the same time, you have an awesome opportunity to improve it and to move it one step forward and another step and another step. Leon: 17:51 And, and I, I have to put this in here because I said I'm a systems guy. Really, you know, my great love in IT is monitoring, and I consider myself to be a monitoring engineer more than anything else. And I think that I feel compelled to address things because usually I'm the one who sets up a monitor to watch for that condition - to check and, you know, is it healthy? No. Alright. Why? And once you have that, once you have that error message, that alert, "Hey, this is no longer within the boundary of what we would consider healthy or good or up or okay." At that point, if you haven't put in something to try to fix that problem, that alert that you've just triggered, then you haven't done the full job of monitoring. You know, monitor, collect the data, alert when it goes out of your specification, and then act. And if you're not acting, then you haven't done a full job. That's from a monitoring standpoint. But again, I feel that it translates into the real world. So now that we sort of identified it, I wonder as IT folks, do we have anything to offer non IT people (again, muggles) to approach these problems. Is there a mindset that that non IT folks can adopt that would make it easier when they see these big problems in their community, in the world to not feel so overwhelmed? Josh: 19:20 Oh, me, me! I've got one. I've got one! There's this great, there's this great idea in Mormonism, about having one foot and Zion and one foot in Babylon. And I don't know if it's strictly from Mormonism, but I feel like I'm one of those people, because I was afraid of error messages in my early IT career, I was absolutely horrified. To me when they broke it felt like I had done something wrong. Like, "Did, did I, did I make it do that?" To quote Steve Urkel, "Did I do that?" Leon: 19:56 Another great voice in Geekdom Josh: 20:00 The great geek of all Geeks, right? Steve Urkel. So I think that I would love for people to take this: Don't be afraid of, of of error messages. When you see them, first decompress a little because you're freaking out because things just broke. But then read what the error message says. You know, this is not like the Twitter fail whale. It's not like the spinning pinwheel of death on your brand new Mac book. Like these things are generally helpful. And if not, shame on you coders for not putting in helpful error. Messages. Leon: 20:37 Uh oh, he's throwing shade at you. Yechiel Josh: 20:39 I maybe.. I mean a little.. Yechiel: 20:40 No, that's actually a very valid point. And our last tech conference I was by, it was a Ruby conference, but almost every talk I was at was trying to discuss how to make our error messages better. And I think in general, just teaching people that it's okay when things are broken, it's not okay when they stay broken for us, but it's okay when they are broken. And that just shows that there's room for us to get in here and help things out. Josh: 21:12 And I love that idea of making our error messages better. Going back to Leon, your love of monitoring, my love of monitoring, the big push now in the monitoring space is that everything is telemetry. It's not just time series data, like everything, your error messages, the strings that get vomited out of your code. That's all telemetry. So, yeah, please, if you're a developer and you're listening make your error messages something that we on the monitoring and event management side, that we can take in as telemetry and use it to help people to go and do things to bring the systems back. Leon: 21:53 Right now I'm not about to go in and approach God and say, "I'm not sure your error messages are comprehensive enough. I'd like things a little clearer." Partially because it's a little egotistical to think that I have anything to tell God about how to run the world. And second of all, when I've asked for clear messages, I've gotten them and they're usually very sort of blunt and brutal. So I don't do that. But as far as having non IT folks approach these world issues, these sort of error messages around, one of the things - and we hit on it earlier is remember that you're working in teams that very rarely in IT are you an army of one. That there's people that you can fall back on. There should be people that you can fall back on. Find your tribe. If you have... there's an area of the world that really bothers you, that you're sensitized to, then find your tribe that's addressing that. Whether it's the #metoo movement or you're fighting climate change, or you're looking for creating lasting peace in your neighborhood or anywhere else, find that group and work within it so that you can pick up your piece, but you don't have to try to pick up the whole piece. So that's one thing that I think IT folks sort of intuitively understand. Josh: 23:16 So I love that, and I want to build on that. My son today, who's in high school, he came home and he said "Hey, just so you guys know, today's the first day of Ramadan and I'm going to be participating in Ramadan with my friends." And I thought, "Whoa, like, whoa." We're like, "Where did that come from? That so awesome." He's feeling very connected. And so I love that idea of finding your people and working in teams. I have this wonderful old lady who lives next to me. She's been around forever. And whenever her computer breaks she calls me and says "Josh, can you come fix my computer?" She knows how to do the things that she knows how to do, but she also was very willing to admit that "I can't do this. I can't fix this thing." And to me they're very rudimentary. Like, okay, yeah, I'll help you with that. But to her, it's something foreign. And don't be afraid of foreign things. Admitting that you don't know something is just as good, if not better than faking that you know something when you don't, I mean, our last episode talked about that, that fake it til you make it. You don't have to fake this and it's okay to say, I don't know. Destiny: 24:26 Thanks for making time for us this week. To hear more of Technically Religious, visit our website, http://technicallyreligious.com, where you can find our other episodes, leave us ideas for future discussions and connect to us on social media. Josh: 24:40 To quote Five Man Electrical Band from their 1971 classic, "Thank you lord for thinking about me. I'm alive and doing fine."    

Dr. David Weber about communication choices. In today’s episode, we talk with Assoc. Prof. David Weber at UNC Wilmington about how he uses Solution Focused ideas in University teaching. Check out how he got into Solution Focus and what fascinates him with SF, how he supports his students to see Solution Focused communication choices, how he coaches his students to major in communication and develop their personal and team skills, and the concept of Tikun Olam. Listen to a story of a student using the miracle question in a team meeting and ways of teaching this question. David tells us what helped him to find his own SF style and the differences living in different countries made for him. We explore co-creation in the classroom and how he sees his students as solution searchers. And we talk about how he started using SF in the classroom, how these experiences encouraged him, the differences SF makes in his everyday life, and how the SF community provides this studio for being a real human being. And do David’s challenge of the week: "When you are in a situation ask yourself „What can I learn from this experience?“. The post SFP 59 – Supporting communication choices: How to use Solution Focused ideas in university teaching with Dr. David Weber appeared first on SF on tour.

Latest episode of this podcast!

En este Podcast #14 destacamos uno de los mayores avances del siglo XXI: un aparato médico que trae la solución al cáncer cerebral. Está más que claro que el gran foco de Israel es el Tikun Olam, mejorar el mundo. #CienciaYTecnologíaIsraelí

En este Podcast #6 te contamos acerca de una ONG llamada "Heroes for life" que está formada por ex soldados de las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel. Ellos, con una misión muy clara, dedican gran parte de su juventud a hacer lo que en el judaísmo se llama Tikun Olam: ayudar a mejorar el mundo, dejando en claro que no son unos supuestos diablos, sino ángeles, pero de carne y hueso. #Historias

On his awakening to the scientific value of cannabis, Ben Gurion University's Zvi Bentwich, now also the Chief Scientist for Tikun Olam- "I know enough to say, or at least think, that there was a common denominator. The common denominator was the central nervous system. So, if this plant, or whatever it contains, has an effect on appetite, which is via the central nervous system, then it's not that surprising that it would have beneficial effect on spasticity."

Today on High On Healthy our host is joined by Sid Taubenfeld CEO of Tikun’s Pharma (TO Pharma) division. Tikun Olam ("repair the world" in Hebrew) is privately held and has been operating under license from the Israel Ministry of Health since its establishment in 2006, by the Cohen Family. The company is a vertically integrated company from plant cultivation to patient administration. Tikun Olam Grows medical cannabis cultivated in state-of-the-art standards. Tikun Olam has developed multiple proprietary award winning strains, including the first-ever, high-CBD, "high-less" strain Avidekel™, its popular high-THC strains Alaska™ and Erez™, and "one-to-one" CBD/THC strain Midnight™. Tikun Olam Research holds unprecedented patient clinical data collection. The company products are used in ongoing clinical trials in Israel's regulated medical cannabis market. Tikun Olam Care the world’s first professional cannabis nursing clinic; one of its most recognized achievements. Tikun Olam provides safe and personalized treatment for all ages ranging from pediatric to geriatric patients, treating over 20,000 patients for a variety of medical conditions.

Richard Silverstein publishes a blog called Tikun Olam which means “Repair the world.” Richard is also published in a number of other publications including Haaretz, Tikkun Magazine and numerous others. Baruch and Richard discuss Israel; it’s founding, the occupation, Israeli … More ... The post Richard Silverstein – Journalist Blogger Israel Palestine Zionism Theocracy appeared first on Paradigms Podcast.

Today on High on Healthy Audrey is joined by Zvi Bentwich, M.D. Professor and Head The NALA Foundation. Zvi is the chief scientist for Israel's largest medical cannabis supplier, Tikun Olam. Tikun Olam is Israel’s oldest medical cannabis clinic and production company – whose name references the Jewish religious principle of “healing the world” – has been going for 10 years and now has 9,000 patients, including several hundred children.v

Ruth W. Messinger is the former President of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and their current Global Ambassador. A lifelong activist, Ruth works to provide the aide that is needed all over the world, to the poorest countries globally. They promote human rights, launch campaigns against genocide, reform international food aid, stop violence against women and LGBT people, and much more. Ruth was named one of the 10 most inspiring women religious leaders of 2012 by The Huffington Post; the 6th most influential Jew in the world by The Jerusalem Post; and was listed annually on The Forward's “Forward 50” for nearly a decade. You can find the American Jewish World Service at www.ajws.org

Tikun Olam is a company that grows and supplies medical marijuana and is licensed and supervised by the Ministry of Health in Israel. AC Braddock speaks to their international relations representative Ma'ayan Weisberg

David Gottfried, father of the green global building movement, discusses the extreme drought in California and adaptation/mitigation strategies for residents of the state.TRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Method to the madness Speaker 2:is next. You are listening to meditation, Speaker 3:the madness behind weekly public affairs show on k l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay area innovators. I'm Lisa Kiefer and today I'm interviewing David Gottfried, father of the Global Green building movement. Today we'll be talking about adaptation and mitigation strategies for the Severe [00:00:30] California drought. Welcome to the program, David. Speaker 4:So great to be here. There's so much we have to address and we have such an extreme problem. It's really an emergency and our governor declared that which is right on, but I think we can do so much more. It's interesting when you look at water in general and certainly in our state, uh, the tiering is, is interesting. The, the highest [00:01:00] water uses in agriculture about 77%. Then you have an industrial about 22% Speaker 1:isn't fracking in there too somewhere? Speaker 4:Well, fracking is growing. It's two to 10 million gallons per well in fracking and that's a huge problem. The second you use it, it's no good. You can't recycle that water. But there's so much we can do in agriculture, industrial in our production and manufacturing as well as at home. Uh, one of the greatest things [00:01:30] that we haven't addressed well at all specifically in California is rainwater capture. When every drop of rain should be caught on our roofs and then filtered down into rain sisters, whether they're just big garbage cans with hoses on them, and that water should be used for our toilets. It should be used for our landscaping and the water we don't capture should not hit the street. It should go through porous pavers, get rid of all this asphalt [00:02:00] and go down to recharge the aquifers. We've just drained so many aquifers are at their lowest levels ever equivalent, almost over the last hundred plus years to draining Lake Tahoe. Speaker 1:Wow. I know, I saw one, I'm a recent trip. We stopped in Kern county miracle hot springs. I mean probably 50 years ago. It looked like it was just this amazing place. Now there's a small pool of hot water. I mean in graffiti everywhere else on the rocks, [00:02:30] there's no water left. Yeah, Speaker 4:Central Valley is the worst and it's agriculture that's drain unit, but it's, it's bad everywhere. And you see, not only that, we just didn't get the rain this year. We didn't get the snow pack. We're at about 12 to 20% of the snow pack. And you and I recently were at rivers and just a week ago I was, uh, at the Sacramento River and taking a look at Mount Shasta and the Shasta Reservoir and walking in the McCloud and it was [00:03:00] less than half of what it was, uh, two years ago. Last year it was extreme. Uh, 2013 was our worst year registered for water ever in about 500 years. Wow. Okay. So I just read some scientific reports that people were questioning, saying that California has always had this kind of variability and is there not the evidence that says climate change has something to do with this? Absolutely. Climate change is part of it and it's increasing and there is [00:03:30] not evidence of a drought like we've just had, the last three years in California had been horrific, but it's not just California. Speaker 4:Uh, I travel a lot, toss failure. They almost ran out of water. Atlanta had trouble. Um, there's so many areas that are underwater, uh, or wish they war. China's makes California look light in terms of water problems. They've ruined 80% of the rivers and polluted them and they're projected to be way over in about 15 [00:04:00] years. The, the demand for water will exceed the, the availability by about 25%. So, um, I read that El Nino is maybe going to happen this year, which will mean more rainfall and California potentially. I don't know a lot about that, but I, I wouldn't plan on it. I think we have to take emergency measures now and much more extreme than what we're doing. I know the governor declared a water emergency in January of 2014 he [00:04:30] then allowed about six, 700 million for water measures. There are dozens of, if not almost a hundred counties and cities in California with ordinances for water. Speaker 4:And they're pretty good. They have dozens of measures they try to reduce such as lawn watering and flushing of toilets, washing of cars, washing of pavement. And all those measures, but the problem is the regulatory backbone, the fines and the measures just really aren't there. They're [00:05:00] more voluntary, they're not that enforceable. And we're starting to get smart water meters. We have smart net metering for solar electric. We have smart gas meters, but we don't have super intelligent water meters yet. A where it's you just have one meter going into the home where the building in general, and we need to know it almost on a device basis, almost on a per person basis, like a ration. Some of these ordinances are quite good. They have water rations [00:05:30] per meter. Some of them are per person such as 60 gallons per day, but w we really have to get per meter and some of them do that with a 500% penalty at one level and a thousand at another. Speaker 4:But we need that everywhere and we have to drill it through so that every building owner, every tenant, every homeowner, even your kids have a water budget. I think you should have almost a code at the tap or the shower per in the house so you can understand where the water's going [00:06:00] as well as capture, capture your gray water. You can do your black water from the toilets and treat it on site. That's proven. It's cost effective. Waterless urinals, composting toilets, all of that. And the regulations have to ease up. Gray water should be allowed everywhere. It shouldn't be difficult in California to be able to capture your tubs or your sink and yeah. Speaker 1:What is the restraint you're talking about with some of the cities don't allow gray water at all because of bacteria or [00:06:30] what? Speaker 4:Yeah, they're afraid of bacteria and even that dogs will drink the water and get sick and locally you can get gray water. But at one point you had to bury your tube into your landscaping by seven inches. I think they lowered that, but you can't capture the rainwater and treat it on site and put it in the toilets. And even in California, we're not as progressive as we could be in recapture and reuse who is progressive in these areas. Australia because they almost ran [00:07:00] out of water in Queensland. They, they went way extreme where car washing was outlawed lawns, even bathing. You had to capture your water. I remember being in the hotel and Sydney and Brisbane and they had a little like egg beater timer of three minutes on the shower. So you had had a sense that a shower should be three minutes. Uh, so Australia in the Queensland area is a great case study. They, they were gonna run out of water in three years and they turned it around significantly. [00:07:30] I also read that Singapore uses 30% recycled water and Israel has always been great in terms of water because they didn't have it and they invented the drip water irrigation and even desalinization using solar thermal so we could learn from Israel as well. Speaker 1:So I, I just read an article that less showers actually can boost your immune system. So maybe, yeah. And you know, we don't need to bathe as much, we don't need to wash our hair as much. Speaker 4:I just came from a campaign trip where I didn't shower for four, [00:08:00] four days. Yeah, I did go in the river and that helped a bit and my wife told me just not using the shampoo everyday was good for my hair. We're going to have to relook at our ways. Even the toilets. You could have the dual flush toilets, but we're, the average person is using 12 gallons of water a day just with the toilets and you don't need to do that. The number ones don't necessarily need to be flushed and you can have a dual flush and then even better one of these waterless urinals. Speaker 1:Well somebody like you and who [00:08:30] knows what we should be doing. How do you translate that to the regular everyday person in Berkeley who maybe owns a house in a small yard or is renting house and what practically can they do that won't cost them an arm and a leg? Speaker 4:There's a lot of things you can do around the house. First, Alameda County waste authority will give you almost free rain water barrels you can put around your house. I think I paid $40 each. They have a hose on it and you can get your downspout to run into [00:09:00] that and then use the hose to use that water for your landscaping or even washing your car. You can change the air Raiders on your faucets, on your showers, around the house. You can change out your toilets to low flow. A lot of these old toilets use three and a half gallons per flush up to five. The new good ones on a number one are about one gallon or less. Those rebatable from the water? Yeah, East Bay mud. We'll give you a water rebate [00:09:30] for your toilets. It'll give you rebates for efficient dishwashers and a washer dryers as well. Speaker 4:They have water rebates, which is quite great. You can get efficient appliances. When you buy new, they can be quiet and save water. You can get rid of your lawn. One of the best things you could do, you can only go to car washes that have reclaimed water. You can ask them about that and you can look into gray water where you could capture your sink [00:10:00] or your top of your shower water. Ask Your plumber about that and then reuse that as well. So they're pretty simple measures. Look to the East Bay mud for rebates and guidance and education in terms of watering your plants. They don't want you watering them during the day at all. You should do it at night, only a couple times a week, if at all. Why is that? That's because, um, during the day you have a much higher evaporation of the water. Speaker 4:It's not as effective. Even better, get [00:10:30] rid of your plant material that needs water and go to your local species of plants and pursue what we call a zero scaping strategy in Berkeley up in the hills of Tilden, there's a nursery. You can buy indigenous plants and they will, you can look up where you live and the climatic bio region there and get specific plants that used to grow there that don't need a potable water. And that's one of the best things. You could do. Documents, [00:11:00] cactuses, you can use more rocks, which are in boulders and more, uh, granted. And then when you're putting in a new sidewalk or a new driveway, make sure that it's porous. That means that the rainwater that hits it, it goes down into the aquifer to recharge it. Otherwise it just runs into the street. And then we have to treat it. Speaker 4:And when we treat that water, it uses an enormous energy. And often we just send that water back to the bay and it's just wasted every drop [00:11:30] of water that hits your property first should be used and then captured. And then if you don't do that, let it recharge the Aquifer. So this is a ton of things you could do around your house. You could educate your kids, don't leave the faucet on when you're brushing your teeth. And that water is not free. Water's way too cheap. It's a precious resource. Without water, we die. And even us as adults, uh, even the green people, we forget. It's just too convenient. It's too cheap and we're used to it and we need to change our ways. [00:12:00] I was just thinking about agriculture and I was reading that, uh, there's different water signatures, certainly for the beef. We eat. Speaker 4:So if you eat chicken, it's about a quarter of the water per pound of beef. Wheat is less and vegetables, even less than that. So going from your lots of meat towards a vegetarian diet is a good water strategy. What do you think's gonna happen with agriculture? You know, we've got billions and billions of dollars invested in this California agricultural market. [00:12:30] Yeah. And they are, they're pushing back hard. They're, they're trying to be more water efficient, but the fact that they're 77% is enormous. And when you look at the statistics like almonds, we're the biggest almond supplier in the world. It's not being used in California. And same for Alfalfa. And the water tonnage for that is extreme. There's also these ratios of water such as the beef versus the weed or the vegetables. And I think we're going to have to have water labels on our food. [00:13:00] Or You buy something, you have a sense of the gallons it took for the pound. Speaker 4:But even more, I'm interested in the gallons per protein. Water is a luxury right now on earth and and we just can't grow everything as equal and it isn't and we have to understand not only the water impact and requirement for the food, but also the carbon footprint of what we're eating and when you look at meat or water treatment, [00:13:30] the carbon footprint needs to be there as well. So it's the overall ecological footprint, but not all food is the same in terms of water and we need to wake up to it and the best way to wake up to it as when you purchase it, you see that water label. We're looking for the labeling but mostly on the health side, but water is about health of the planet and our future. Speaker 3:If you're just tuning in, you're listening to method to the madness. A biweekly public affairs show on k a l x Berkeley Celebrating Bay [00:14:00] area innovators. Today I'm interviewing David Godfrey, the father of the global green building movement. Today he's discussing the California drought and adaptation and mitigation strategies for residents of the state. Speaker 4:The other interesting thing in, in my water research is the amount of water on earth is mostly salty. Uh, about 97% 2% [00:14:30] is in the melting glaciers and so the potable water we have access to is only 1% of the water here on earth. Now that pushes you towards desalinization program and in California we've got two big ones going on. There's one in San Diego that's $1 billion investment at a de sal because San Diego is one of the two cities running out of water. San Jose's getting hit hard along with silicon valley. The Bay area eight utilities of water got together and they're investing in about 200 million [00:15:00] in a water project as well. Yes, is on the forefront, but that's so expensive. The smartest thing we can do is conserve, capture, reuse and re and that would be enough. We wouldn't need diesel or we do, we need it all. Speaker 4:Diesel is later. It's kind of like solar energy to save our energy, a hog attitude. It's not the first measure. The first measure that's the most cost effective is conserving energy. Amory 11th taught us [00:15:30] the Negawatt, which is a watt conserved as a watt saved. Same in water gallon conserved as a gallon. We don't need to diesel. So why spend so much money on an energy on diesel? It's very expensive that I think we can say 50% of the water in our homes and our buildings, agriculture can get more efficient, but we're going to have to start looking at the requirements for, for certain ag and either assess higher fines [00:16:00] or greater penalties or they're going to have to get into rainwater capture and other methods other than just depleting the aquifers. What are you working on right now? Well, I've always been obsessed with energy and water and equally water and since energy has so many cheerleaders these days, although we're not doing that great now that we cross 400 particles per million, but water doesn't have enough cheerleaders and as a a backpacker and just a person of the earth, [00:16:30] I've been worried about water and hoping we would wake up. Speaker 4:And so it's always been a passion to elevate the importance of water without which we die. And this is not a major focus of mine, but it's always been a hobby in terms of new things. I'm working on my book explosion green just released and it's our 20 year story of the Green Building Movement in the world and how we have probably saved more carbon and CO2 [00:17:00] from hitting the atmosphere than any other organizations with the u s Green Building Council of our lead rating system. And then I took it overseas with the World Green Building Council and we just crossed a hundred countries with green building council's congratulations. Incredible story. That explosion green, uh, tries to get out there. And one of the most important parts is the, is the end where we look at why us, what were our ingredients for transformation, what did we do to take on the world's largest [00:17:30] industry? And how can other industries apply those techniques, whether it's a rating tool or a nonprofit coalition. Speaker 4:Read all your books and I feel like you spent a lifetime toward this and we don't have that kind of time anymore. So early 20 years. And it does seem like a lot of, with all the pressures we have now in this, in the time of history, it's nothing. It's a blink button. The time of climate change problems and water shortage problems and even health [00:18:00] in our homes and our buildings, 20 years is a long time. Yeah. The scientists are saying, we've got about 15 years to get at climate change, right. And steering that ship in a different direction, fast, much more radical and explosive than we've ever done. But what's happening is these other countries that are creating councils, they're studying the u s GBC and lead. They're studying some of the other more progressive advanced countries like Canada and Australia [00:18:30] and Germany and England who have green building council's. Speaker 4:So they're accelerating the greening of their building stock in their countries. But we do need to go much faster. We're playing right now in the realm of less bad. Are you doing 30% better than the code for energy? Are you 30% better in water? Or even our executive order for water is calling for a 20% more efficient. And that's just not enough. Not Enough. We don't even 50% is phenomenal, [00:19:00] but still not enough. The Earth needs beyond sustainability, which is neutral. We need regenerative. Everything I look at is for quantum leaps in performance that are regenerative. And that's your philosophy. Tikun Olam and Tikun Olam. Tell me Moon in Hebrew means to heal, to restore and Olam is the world and this is a Kabbalists comes out of the 17th century with this idea that at one point [00:19:30] there was a divine vessel of light and it broke and it dispersed into the world. Speaker 4:And our job is to gather the divine light back into the vessel, which I think is really each of us and strive towards becoming whole and divine again and to heal the world, to heal our souls in the process we all should be working at Tikun Olam, which is to meet your regeneration philosophy. Yeah. To regenerate really starts at home and to start at home, it actually starts [00:20:00] in your, in your soul and you got to look at the toxicity at the food you're eating, at the beverages, at your movement, and in your mind what you think and how you think. And that as you get more whole will emanate in the products and services that you're making and and everything we have to do has to heal in a regenerative basis and then we can start getting to Tikun. Olam just seems like that's such a luxury for most [00:20:30] of the planet. Speaker 4:There are certain areas of the world that we think about these things, other areas of the world, they're just trying to make a living. They're trying to find the next meal. How are we going to do this as a planet? It's, it's a huge challenge. It's a great observation because it's easy to sit here and Berkeley talk about Tikun and even water efficiency where many of us can just go buy new water efficient measures and there's about 1.2 billion people on earth who don't have clean water. There's several million [00:21:00] a year dying from water disease. There's a billion who have to walk a mile to get water and so I need to get off my high horse a bit and embrace your question and we're talking about water efficiency, but we're the highest water user in the world by 200% and the ratio over a place like Somalia is 50 x. Speaker 4:We're 50 times and some of these places have HIV problems. They have war, they have famine, they don't have shelter, they have illiteracy. [00:21:30] It starts with education. I interviewed Paul Hawkin recently for a conference I'm doing called explosion green. You can go to explosion green.com and check it out. It's a free global conference with 40 Gurus I interviewed. He said one of his measures he studied in his newest book that brings the greatest energy efficiency is education. I was looking for the new gadget and he said, no, it's education. If we can educate people around the world including water efficiency, that's [00:22:00] the greatest conservation measure. I think we can learn from a lot of people in places like Somalia because they don't have water. I remember giving a keynote in Japan to the welcome that Japan Green Building Council 98 on Earth Day and I had taken a tour of some of their older structures and some of the monasteries and everything was like 500 years old and it was still standing. Speaker 4:They had overhangs on their structure about eight feet and had no nails. Everything was local [00:22:30] and tongue and groove and just this incredible natural ventilation pouring through these windows that didn't have direct sun even though it was about a hundred degrees and I just sat on the floor there staring around at the construction and thought, why am I here? They have it. They just have to get on the tour bus that I did go see the old structures and learn about local and long lifecycles and and durability and about natural ventilation [00:23:00] and understanding the sun. I've almost never seen in the u s a building that had the right overhang for the exposure and it drives me nuts when we build new homes, new buildings, and the heat is just beating up on the window and pulling that heat into the building. So it has to have cooling. Speaker 4:Uh, we have better windows, but it's, it's best to understand the nature from which we come. And these older societies are much more local in their water footprint. Their energy signature is lower as well as their obesity. [00:23:30] They walk, they use bicycles, and then we're exporting a lot of ideas. And in China, I've seen this, I used to love when I went there in 2000 everyone seemed to be biking. And then a few years later that motorbikes that were spitting pollution in the air, and later years, everyone's getting cars and soon the bikers aren't on the road and then they're getting fat and they're just going in the wrong direction. And we're to blame for a lot of that. We need to go back to those indigenous and learn from them. What were you doing [00:24:00] in Mount Shasta? Most of this, their water supply is in great danger. Yeah, the water was so low in the upper Sacramento, it was a quarter of what it used to be. You could weight across the McCloud river or the upper Sacramento with without even deep pools. And I remember 20 years ago I could barely cross the river and their points, you couldn't do that. The current would be so great, it would just pull you in as a fly fisherman. It was hard to even find where the fish, cause there weren't pockets of water Speaker 1:and [00:24:30] we were on the Colorado used to flow so fast. Now it's so low and it's kind of still, and people who spend much time in there often leave with river rot in between their toes or you know, I mean that never happened before. Speaker 4:And [inaudible] they do say it's linked to climate change and you know, we need to wake up, we need to wake up that the things we take for granted, our air, our water, our soil, our energy, they're all limited. And there's a, an impact of overusing, [00:25:00] certainly over polluting. And those externalities are really part of us that we need to own them. Speaker 1:How do we create an environment where I understand what you're saying and I know it's all true and I should do this and I should do that. But the truth is if I pay enough money, I can get as much water out of the faucet as I want. A student here at UC Berkeley doesn't have to worry about that when they're running the shower. What realistically is not going to happen until we absolutely don't have any water? Is that when we're going to change? How [00:25:30] do we make that lead? That's the challenge. I think Speaker 4:I went to the men's room on the way here for the interview and I could have run as much water as I wanted to do. The UC Berkeley saying it's easy to pass it on. It starts with education, so we all need to understand the state of the world of water. We need to wake up to some of these statistics we've talked about, but then we have to go further. I think technology can help a lot. I think water sensors where we have a sense of how much water we each [00:26:00] use every day as well as how much carbon and that we're liable for going over our water. By do you mean like a fine a fine penalty in our homes? In our dorm rooms, every student, every household, every business should be having a water budget. And when you go over there should be significant fines. I think with these sensor technologies, we are going to have unique ips with our phones that could be linked to our water budget [00:26:30] and you might have to put in a code your code or your some kind of computer bar code. That's your water. It's like your social security is linked to your, either by Speaker 1:and you need to be rewarded, find and rewarded. But that's policy issue. Speaker 4:It's a policy. But local government can do a lot. They're already doing a lot. I'd like to see them go further. I Read About Alameda County's ordinance in this crisis and they recommend a 20% reduction. But if you violate it, they say they'll [00:27:00] knock on your door. If you violate it again, you get a second warning and at some point maybe they can shut off your water. But are we really doing that? I don't think so. So I think with sensor technology was smart water meters with individual accountability with fines is great. But how about at the back end incentives? We could have the water awards and I agree with the, I think if you're a water steward you should be recognized. Maybe you get certain benefits. Maybe you get new appliances for free for your [00:27:30] home from the water utility. I think frankly all homes certainly in Berkeley should be retrofit immediately with new toilets, with new air Raiders. Speaker 4:And I don't think it should be voluntary with rebates. I think they should just show up with the new water corps and paid by the utilities. But who's going to come up with that? Money is, I mean the city has to come up with the money to retrofit every, I think we should issue California state and even city bonds that fund water [00:28:00] retrofit and the savings of the water and not having to do billion dollar diesel like we do in San Diego or the 200 million went out here. The cost of future water supply is going to approach $1 trillion in the world and Gosh, we could have hundreds of billions of that here in California. So we need to wake up. And I believe that smart investment bankers partnering with Private Equity With cities and bonding capability [00:28:30] and even tax credits could all come together to create water investment funds. Speaker 4:And that money should be putting a new toilets, waterless urinals everywhere, composting toilets, rainwater capture barrels. And I think you could hire a million people to go through California and do it. So there are jobs and we need to wake up. We need to do it now. And 50% should be our target for savings. I'm very passionate about this. We're at a crossroads of whether our species [00:29:00] will be here. The billionaires of the future need to be those who help water be regenerative, health, energy signature go down there. They're not only doing something great, they're doing something good. It's more about the life journey and looking deeper at why are we here? What are you supposed to do with your time? Once you learn how to make a living, that's great, but then what? What's your legacy? And so I'm kind of obsessed with legacy and stewardship and it is immersed in this concept [00:29:30] of Tikun Olam of what's the legacy you left behind and did you plant seeds for change that will continue to grow when you're not here. So David, you have a, you can tell our listeners want to know more about you and your work. Yeah, so my main site right now for the book and my new free conferences explosion, green.com if you want to go deeper into my background, it's d got free.com it's d, g o t t f R, I e d.com. [00:30:00] It's always nice to hear what you're doing. Thanks for being on the show. Speaker 3:You've been listening to method to the madness. If you have questions or comments about this show, go to the calyx website, find a method to the madness and drop us a line. Tune in again in two weeks at the same time, have a great weekend. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Were excited to talk to a dedicated expert in the cannabis space with over 15 years of extensive firsthand knowledge and experience working at various dispensaries in Southern California. Our guest has successfully designed a calm, tranquil retail experience for its customers and we're here to learn about this state of the art concept. Joining us is Mara Stusser, the General Manager of Calma in West Hollywood, California. When people visit CALMA, the dispensary features floor-to-ceiling windows and stylish fixtures, sleek marble display tables and wall paneling, a powder pink check-in station, and a seafoam green fridge case area. The dispensary also features a large LED video wall that displays calming images, including ocean waves, waterfalls, and forests. Now, Calma offers an exclusive selection includes flower curated by Master Hashishin (Hash-eesh-inn) Frenchy Cannoli), Zendo Blending Teas, cookies by Dr. Norm's, and vaginal health oils by Quim. Plus, you stock CBD-infused body lotions from Israel-based Tikun Olam, which you noted to Uncover LA Magazine is the only cannabis brand with scientific backing. We talk about creating this exclusive environment all under one roof and so much more with Mara Stusser of CALMA.

Tikun Olam is a company that grows and supplies medical marijuana and is licensed and supervised by the Ministry of Health in Israel. AC Braddock speaks to their international relations representative Ma'ayan Weisberg