Have you ever imagined a school without any building? Have you ever wished to take a year off and travel the world? Joann McPike has created a traveling school! Joann is a New Zealand native, an avid traveler and a photographer. She founded Think Global School (TGS) where students travel to 12 countries across 3 years. Everything they study is connected to the context of the country they are in.

Traditional schools tend to focus on content to be taught. They have to make an extra effort to make learning relevant, with real - life applicability and build future skills like communication, critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, empathy etc. Think Global School by design keeps relevance, real-life applicability and future skills in the centre, with content being a mere vehicle.

Listen in to learn more about the motivation, design, successes, challenges and lessons learnt.

NOTE - This conversation was recorded in 2023 over zoom.

#education #school #futureskills #skilleducation #projectbasedlearning #innovation

Lifestyle and pollutants of today's world has fundamentally changed the profile of health and disease. Many diseases onset or diagnosis is showing up a couple of decades earlier. In India 50% of the heart attacks post 2020 are of people below the age of 40! A study showed that 20% of the cancer diagnosis were also people below the age of 40.

Along with this, the flipside exists as well. We have 'Super-Agers.' These are people 80 years and above with cognitive function comparable to those 20-30 years younger, along with better mobility and better control on all parameters. A research shares that there maybe less than 10% of the population who qualify as Super-Agers

Today, we celebrate one such Super-Ager, Ambujam Venkatraman, a 92 year old inspiring lady who currently writes and publishes an Income Tax Law journal, regularly practices yoga and lives independently. We speak about her motivation, inspiration and practices that drive her.

#superager #health #motivation #purpose

Education has many obvious benefits, but did you know that Universal secondary education could virtually end child marriage, or that each year of education reduces the risk of conflict by around 20% or that one extra year of schooling increases an individual's earnings by up to 10%. Learn how our guest Anoop Parik works to do this for his students in an area of Mumbai, India where 78% of the population lives in slums, the life expectancy is 38 years and which has a human development index of 0.05. 

Anoop Parik is a librarian, teacher, and football coach who has been working with the children and youngsters of Shivaji Nagar for over a decade. He quit teaching in the formal education sector in 2019 and since then has set up a youth community centre, The Next Page, library, and sports programme with the help of youngsters in the community. He was working as an academic counsellor in a college in Ohio before he moved back to India for the Teach For India Fellowship.  

NOTE - This conversation was recorded over Zoom. In case you have feedback or guest suggestions, please write to [email protected]. If you want technical or consultancy support to launch your podcast, write to [email protected]

#Education #Interview #Inspiration #Leadership #Arts #Sports #Library #Reading #Books #CommunityCentre #AfterSchoolCentre 

There are 7000+ different languages in the world, and 4200+ different religions, faith groups, tribes etc. Our guest, Deborah Levine, speaks about how to thrive, appreciate and encourage such diversity. 

Deborah Levine is the founder and editor in chief of American Diversity Report. She is an award-winning author of 15 books, and Forbes Magazine Diversity And Inclusion Trailblazer. Deborah has 33 years experience as a change maker in challenging times. Deborah is a Designer of Cognitive Diversity using emotion metrics, neuro-communication, and decision-optimization. With her considerable experience in program planning, community interface, teaching and management, she designs DEI projects that boost inclusion efforts on multiple levels. Deborah has also founded Chattanooga’s Women’s Council of Diversity. She has received awards from the Women’s Federation for World Peace and Nation of Women.  

In the episode we speak about her journey, personal background that influenced her work as a Diversity specialist, along with strategies to build diversity appreciation. 

NOTE - This conversation was recorded over Zoom. In case you have feedback or guest suggestions, please write to [email protected]. If you want technical or consultancy support to launch your podcast, write to [email protected]

#diversity #inclusion #equity #diversityequityinclusion #DEI #culture #arts #interview #selfdevelopment

Globally, about 9% of the world’s population — 811 million people — go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Every thirteen seconds, a child dies from the effects of hunger. On the other hand, it is estimated that nearly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted. 

In this episode, we celebrate Zohair Diwan. Zohair Diwan is a metal artist  and the founder of the organisation Nobody Ever Sleeps Hungry (NESH). Nobody Ever Sleeps Hungry started with providing food to people in need in some communities in Mumbai and evolved during the pandemic to provide oxygen cylinders, medicines in addition to food. NESH is now a huge community of various stakeholders united by a common purpose. 

We speak about the evolution of NESH from feeing 100 meals to over 100,000 meals, the motivation and the operations to start something like this. We speak about the building of a network and community which replicated the idea of NESH across the entire city. 

#inspiration #leadership #community #hunger #eradicatehunger #poverty #interview #changemaker #socialimpact 

Note - This conversation was recorded over Zoom. In case you have feedback or guest suggestions, please write to [email protected]. If you want technical or consultancy support to launch your podcast, write to [email protected]

Did you know that the construction sector contributes to 23% of air pollution, 40% of drinking water pollution, and 50% of landfill wastes? It doesn't have to be this way, Chitra Vishwanath builds differently. 

In this episode we celebrate Chitra Vishwanath. Chitra is an Indian architect based in Bengaluru who works on themes related to ecology and architecture. She has been running her own architectural firm since 1991, working with other architects on many projects in India and Africa. She is currently the Principal Architect and Managing Director of BIOME Environment Solutions. She has been involved in more than 800 projects encompassing construction of buildings of all sizes and water harvesting and sanitation structures with specific relevance to the ecology of the sites. BIOME has pioneered the usage of natural elements like earth as the main construction material, along with a focus on other natural elements and water harvesting. Her own house has many interesting features like no air conditioning or fan, dry toilets, farming on the terrace, solar powered house and water harvesting. 

In the episode we speak about her experiments building her own house, rediscovering earth as a material to build, using design to leverage natural light, air and water to reduce dependencies on additional non renewable resources. We speak about the impact water harvesting can have on entire cities and much more. 

Note - This conversation was recorded over Zoom. In case you have feedback or guest suggestions, please write to [email protected]. If you want technical or consultancy support to launch your podcast, write to [email protected]

#Innovation #Sustainability #Climate #Climatechange #Earth #Water #Rainwaterharvesting #Architecture #natural #environment #ecology #design

Have you been meaning to listen to one of our episodes but haven't found the time yet? Do you want to know the high level insights across the past episodes? Then this episode is for you, curated bookmarks from the past five episodes?

Our last five episodes have had guests like Naresh Sijapati working on empowering migrants, Erin Ganju, building Rooms to Read across the wrold, Viren Rasquinha, chasing Olympic Gold Medals, Joyita Mondal, the first transgender judge and Mohd Tarique working to dignify the homeless and destitute. 

In this conversation, Venil is joined by an educator, social sector professional and a dear friend, Kanika Saraff. Kanika Saraff has worked in the education sector for over a decade and currently works in a Child rights organisation. They both started their journey in the social sector in 2009 with the Teach For India Fellowship, teaching in neighbouring classrooms 3A and 3B in Govandi, Mumbai. They often discuss issues, ideas and theories and wanted to share some of their bookmarks on the patterns, ideas and insights that they took away from the five episodes with all of you.

We would love to include your questions, reactions and thoughts in our next Bookmarks episode. So do leave us feedback and thoughts after you listen to any of our episodes. You can leave us feedback on any of our social media pages - Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, or you can email us at [email protected].

#learning #understanding #insights #leadership #lessons #wisdom #patterns #inspiration #trends

NOTE - This conversation was recorded over Zoom.

If you are thinking of launching your podcast and need consultation services or production/post production services you can write to [email protected]

Based on the Indian Census 2011, there are 1.77 million homeless people in India. However, civil society organisations peg the number at above 3 Million. The complexity of the problem is increased by the intersectionality of caste and poverty. In one study done, it was seen that 80% of the homeless people were from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Castes. Listen to this episode to hear how we as individuals as well as the system as a whole can improve. 

In this episode, we celebrate Mohd Tarique. Mohd Tarique is the founder of Koshish. Koshish is a TISS Field Action Project that works on the upliftment of the quality of institutions for the homeless and persons in beggary and advocates for abolishing the Bombay Prevention of Beggary Act, which is there across 20 states (but not all have adopted) that has a broad and vague definition of begging that criminalises poverty. Mohd Tarique is part of multiple drafting committees to formulate newer policies, he has co-authored multiple academic papers and research studies on Urban poverty. He is also an Ashoka Fellow. 

In the episode, we talk about the incidents that led Mohd Tarique towards this work. We hear about the amazing organic journey of growth of the organisation. The plethora of different programs and initiatives that Koshish offers for the upliftment of the destitute. We hear the stories of persuasion, influence, and relationships that made bureaucratic systems agile and adaptive. 

Note - This conversation was recorded over Zoom. In case you have feedback or guest suggestions, please write to [email protected]. If you want technical or consultancy support to launch your podcast, write to [email protected] 

#Leadership #Homesless #Begging #Institutions #InstitutionalCare #Inspiration #Dignity #Inclusion #Intersectionality #Rights #HumanRights #SocialImpact 

In India, 92% Transgender people are unemployed and close to 80% drop out of school. In 2014, the NALSA judgement was passed which acknowledged Transgenders as a third gender and affirmed their fundamental rights. In 2019, Transgender Person Act was passed which provided for the protection of rights of Transgender people. The lack of data adds to the invisibility of Transgender people. 

In this episode we celebrate Joyita Mondal. Joyita Mondal is the first transgender judge at a Lok Adalat in Dinajpur, West Bengal. A Lok Adalat is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism in India. In addition to this role, she works as an activist, social worker and founded her own organisation called Dinajpur Notun Alo, which means Dinajour New Light which is currently reaching out to thousands of transgender people in her state. 

In the episode Joyita shares her journey growing up, her hobbies and her friends. She then speaks about running away from home and starting from scratch in another city. She tells us what led to her re starting her education, starting social work and finally becoming a judge. Joyita shares her hopes and wishes for her community. 

Note - This conversation was recorded over Zoom. In case you have feedback or guest suggestions, please write to [email protected]. If you want technical or consultancy support to launch your own podcast, write to [email protected] 

#Transgender #Gender #Equity #Diversty #Inclusion #DEI #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #GenderEquality #First #Judge #Stereotypes #Transperson #Transwoman #NALSA