To be good you have to feel small. On the latest episode of the Good People podcast Kelsey and Jay discuss transcendent moments and what astronauts, meditators, and monks can teach us.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith
We Are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer
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Give a man a fish? Teach a man to fish? But what if he doesn’t want to fish? Joe Huston, The CFO of Give Directly, joins Kelsey and Jay to discuss giving money to the poor and the positive ripple effects it makes in a community.
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Show notes:
GiveDirectly.org
GiveWell’s report on Give Directly
How do cash transfers impact people who don’t receive them? (post and link to paper)
Review of evidence of direct cash transfers
Research Give Directly shares on site
Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America book by Linda Tirado…
I laid on the bottom of the ocean and stared into space.
The surface of the water was so still and flat that it ceased to exist. The light of the stars traveled unimpeded trillions of miles, through the Earth’s atmosphere and 20 feet of water.
I held my breath, the sound of my heartbeat joining the primordial hum of the Atlantic.
I pushed off the bottom. Underwater like in space one is weightless.
That night off the coast of Key West, I slowly kicked towards constellations, no difference between air and space. I swam into eons and lightyears, not an observer of the universe but part of it.
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I stood in my…
In 2004 I traveled to Eastern Europe specifically to spend the night in Castle Dracula in Romania. This is the story of that terrifying night….
I first saw microlending in action while traveling with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 2007. Then it was being sold as a silver bullet solution to ending poverty. I wrote about the experience in WHERE AM I WEARING and dedicate a whole chapter to examining microlending champion Kiva.org in WHERE AM I GIVING.
I shared my experiences in a chat with Jay on the Good People podcast. Listen, rate, subscribe.
Key takeaway: Lending isn’t giving.
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Rozy Mbone, founder of The Legend of Kenya, is one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met and she’s featured on the latest episode of The Good People podcast.
Rozy and her friends were all former gang members. There were few opportunities to make a living in their community, so they lived a life of crime surrounded by death, violence, prostitution, and robbery.
A woman named Selline Korir visited Korogocho and talked about peace and encouraged Rozy to leave her old life behind. Rozy did and soon the others followed and now they promote peace and dialogue in a community where death and violence are everyday life.
We often think our lives have to be in perfect order before we can make an impact. That’s bullshit….
Remember that time I sent my Eagle Scout badge back because of BSA’s exclusionary policies? Well, if you do, you might find the fact that I’m wearing my Scout uniform and Eagle badge two decades after earning the rank somewhat surprising.
In this episode of Good People, Jay and I chat about it and everyday activism….
Kelsey Nielsen first traveled to Uganda to “love on babies” at an orphanage as a self-described “White Savior.” Then she started to ask questions about privilege and power and how best to help people. She is one of the founders of “No White Saviors” an Instagram account that has turned into a movement.
Our conversation on the Good People podcast went so long that I broke it into two parts. I could’ve asked her more questions. You can listen below or on Apple Podcasts or probably other places too. (I like doing the interviews, but not so much the administrivia a podcast or life requires.)
Part 1
Part 2
Show notes:
Yesterday I chatted with a documentarian in Scotland who is working on a film on where food comes from. We chatted for an hour about chocolate, bananas, and coffee.
I think journalism is like science in that community members build on each other’s work. I always take the time to help out a fellow journalist. I think it’s part of the responsibility of this work.
I had a chat with Elizabeth Cline very early on in her process of writing Overdressed. I even introduced her to my friend Dalton, who appeared in WHERE AM I WEARING. I also chatted with Marcus Stern who did a really great piece on child labor in coffee for The Weather Channel and Telemundo.
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Check out this note from a student who read WHERE AM I EATING a few years ago:
Hi Kelsey! Thanks for the invite for The Facing Project. Can’t wait to look into it more! You spoke to my sociology class with Máel Sheridan at Hamline university after we read your book in 2015. Funny story, and long story short: I’m a Peace Corps health volunteer in Ethiopia and was trying to explain in local language the idea behind your books as it relates to my community (where are all these goods coming from? How did they get here?). A couple weeks later the live-in guard at my health center appeared with a pet baboon. It was then named after you in honor of your books. “Kelsey” spelt differently in afran Oromo…
