Pam Mandel left suburbia for a lifetime of travel when she was only 17. She writes about her early travel days in her new memoir THE SAME RIVER TWICE.
Pam joined Kelsey and Jay to chat about hitchhiking, travel, questioning intentions while doing good, the time she went to the airport to help a refugee, founding a nonprofit, and, of course, jamming in a ukelele rock band.
Seren Fryatt didn’t want to tape ankles the rest of her life. She quit her job to volunteer internationally with Mercy Ships. In Liberia she was recruited to play professional soccer. She saw what the sport meant to the women on her team and its potential to be a force of positive change. Eventually she founded L.A.C.E.S., an NGO that works to create a sustainable, replicable model of community development using sports as a tool to reach at-risk youth and empower their local communities.
Seren joined Jay and I to chat about her path and the struggles of international NGOs during the global pandemic.
Eric Henry’s T-shirt business and North Carolina community were turned upside down by NAFTA. Ever since, he’s focused on the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. Eric is a champion for his community, cooperatives, chickens, electric cars, local economies, farmers, and now he’s seeking to represent all of these interests in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Show notes and links:
In the summer of 2019, a violinist stood up at a city council meeting in Muncie, Indiana, and expressed concern over a factory that was coming to town. A local reporter wrote a story about the meeting. That story was passed around to concerned citizens who started asking questions. A few weeks later more than 1,000 people showed up at the courthouse protesting the Waelz Sustainable Products factory. A factory that would likely be the #1 polluter of airborne Mercury in the nation. Ultimately the billion-dollar corporation left town.
Kelsey talks with Josh Arthur, a local pastor, and Bryan Preston, a county employee, who were both in early on the action.
What does an economy of living within the means of our planet look like? Welp, according to economist Kate Raworth it looks like a doghnut. Kelsey and Jay are joined by John Motlotch and Scott Truex of the Sustainable Communities Institute for a discussion on Raworth’s TED Talk.
Topics we discussed and relevant links:
For kids “The System” doesn’t work in the best of times. And during a time of global pandemic, there are even fewer supports. Psychologist Janay Sander joins Kelsey and Jay to discuss how best to support kids facing traumatic circumstances.
If you or a child you know in the United States is in a volatile situation or are subjected to domestic violence, please reach out to the following resources:
Victoria Milko has reported from health clinics in rural Bangladesh, protests in the streets of Myanmar, and refugee camps in Thailand. She joins Kelsey & Jay from her apartment in Jakarta to discuss the global impact of COVID-19, the importance of journalism in today’s society, and her path to becoming a Southeast Asia-based science reporter for The Associated Press.
Topics we talked about with Victoria:
– COVID-19 impact in developing countries
– Life in Jakarta during the global pandemic
– Reporting on genocide and mass graves
– Impact of reporting on traumatic events
– Family’s refugee history and impact on her career
– Dream of being a foreign correspondent and how she reached that dream
– Living and reporting in Myanmar
– Rise and fall of Aung San Suu Kyi
– Facebook’s impact…
Live from Patagonia! In this episode Jay and I discuss my experiences visiting with the Arhuaco, an indigenous group in Colombia. This is our first attempt from a show on the road while researching my new book about regenerative agriculture.
This was recorded pre-Covid-19 shutdown. I made it back from South American about one week before the global chaos began. Obviously, the future travels I discuss in the episode are delayed. I should be in Hawaii right now, for instance. But alas, I’m in my basement in Indiana. …
Drop a quarter into a turnstile and you can cross from the U.S. into Mexico. Easy. The reverse journey is much more difficult, especially for immigrants searching for a better life.
On this episode of Good People, Jay and I chat with my friend Scott Truex, who has spent his career learning and teaching about sustainability and community development. Scott talks about his recent experience visiting the Mexican border and the infamous wall.
Listen below or on iTunes or Stitcher.
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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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