BETTER presents: Make Food Food Again

Yarrow Kraner is the founder of HATCH—a global network of innovators and co-conspirators actively doing the work to create a more beautiful, sustainable, and just world (people who Yarrow refers to as “real-life superheroes”).

HATCH'S mission is to accelerate solutions to global challenges. The how: by fueling extraordinary humans. The why: to HATCH a better world. 

Yarrow is a creative alchemist whose heart has the distinct ability to draw people out of a state of self-uncertainy and into a state of self-empowerment—one that has the literal power to change the world. 

I say that with no fluff. 

He is, with all sincerity a creative alchemist, builder of community, facilitator of hope, and someone who shows me the truest side of friendship. 

We have traveled the world together, backpacks on tight, creating safe spaces for people (like you, yes You) to see and discover their ability to make REAL change in this world.

Today, you’ll hear him wax poetic like, “There's a race between consciousness and catastrophe.” And speak truth that brings you deeper into the hope we need.

This one IS that: “You are either tapped into what you're meant to do in the world, or you have the potential to.”

This one goes out to all of us.

WORKS:
- Founder of HATCH—a global network of innovators who are actively pursuing a more beautiful, sustainable, and just world.
- Founder of H360, a machine learning platform that brings silos of organizations together to activate collaborations and create a  "Network of Networks" for collaborations with the power to improve the world.  
- Tate and Olivia's stepdad
- Named 2015 top 100 creatives in the U.S. by Origin
- Founder, Superdudes—the original online community (pre-MySpace) connecting and empowering real life superheroes while gamifing community volunteerism
- Director, Virgin Produced, which is the entertainment arm of Richard Branson’s Virgin group
- Filmmaker, photographer, and director, leading projects with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Richard Branson, Sean Combs (aka P. Diddy), as well as, international brands
- Aspen Institute Fellow

TOOLS:
Reflections that help us remember the endless value of true friendship
Insights to guide you towards your own backyard and the changes in your hands
Hope—THAT’S the tool
Truths that help us restore balance in ourselves and inner-knowing

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Loren Cardeli is a food sovereignty activist confronting the unjust power in our global food systems—systems that are crippling the well-being of people who grow our food. He asks us to look at the frameworks of our minds and says "To learn, we must unlearn."

He is the Founder and President of A Growing Culture—an activist collective and nonprofit you must catch on IG (Run. Don’t walk)

I’ll wait…

@agrowingculture’s posts center farmer justice. The humanity of this issue is important for too many reasons, but one stat makes it really easy to get:

“Right now, we have a food system [where] 1.2 billion people go to bed hungry,” Loren says. “70% of them are farmers. 70% of the hungry are the ones growing our food.”

Drink that in. 

These hard truths have the power to wake us up and garner global solidarity for folks who need support.

“We have no solution,” Loren says, “but I can point to 10,000 people that do, and none of them look like me. We champion those folks.”

Then he says, “There are no voiceless people. People say [to me], ‘Oh, you give voice to the voiceless.’ No. There's no voiceless. There's only silenced.”

This episode is in honor of the silenced and dedicated to the actions we are capable of together.

WORKS:
- Founder and President of A Growing Culture—an activist collective and 501c(3) nonprofit working towards a future of food sovereignty
- Keynote speaker, addressing agricultural issues through the lens of economics, political science, and life sciences while promoting farmer-led research and innovation for the purpose of helping farmers throughout the world create sustainable, self-driving futures.
- AGC PROJECT: “SEED IS POWER” - Seed is Power is a fund to ensure that seeds stay in the hands of the people. These funds support seed savers on their own terms. It’s designed to disrupt the status quo of philanthropy that often inadvertently harms communities. Instead, it creates a reciprocal system that redistributes power, building equity and community among seed savers.
- AGC PROJECT: “HUNGER FOR JUSTICE” - Hunger for Justice is a storytelling series designed to center justice in food system dialogues. The series is an opportunity to shift our focus away from symptoms, like hunger, and towards the injustices at the root of our failing food system. AGC provides an emergent and interactive global platform for movements on the frontlines of the struggle for food sovereignty to connect with broader audiences and with each other. Until every last million of us hungers no more, we must hunger for justice.
- AGC PROJECT: PEASANT AND INDIGENOUS PRESS - a bi-monthly forum, media workshops, a monthly dispatch, and a journalist fellowship program, Peasant and Indigenous Press centers and connects Indigenous and peasant communities with media and cultivates a more holistic and nuanced storytelling ecosystem.
- AGC PROJECT: BIPOC FARMER LEGAL FUND - The BIPOC Farmer Legal Fund provides pro-bono legal services to majority BIPOC-owned agricultural entities to create pathways for agricultural futures.

 

TOOLS:
- Access to the most empowering definition of activism you’ve ever heard
- Reframes for how to lift up voices that aren’t yours
- Reminders of our true humanity and connectivity 
- Stories that emphazie why we say “If the community is unwell, we’re all unwell.”
- Root definitions of words that will teach you how language distorts reality 
- Questions to ask yourself about belief versus fact and what narratives are running the behind the scenes of your daily life
- Reframes for how to think about power and where it belongs 

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Samantha Ramirez-Herrera is a radical creator and a trailblazer in every sense of the word. Born in Mexico with a legacy lived, made, and growing in the US, she has become “her ancestor’s wildest dreams”—something I heard her describe from stage in the mountains of Montana.


Sam is who I go to—as my North Star—to track the narratives being created in media that support the movements that support the people. Her work is provocative in that it represents resistance and progress all in the same sweep. 

Her mantra is “F-ck fear.”
 
And, to top it all off (not even kinda), Sam is an Emmy Award-Winning filmmaker, a self-made entrepreneur, and the founder & CEO of OffThaRecord—a creative studio with the mantra, “We are creatives who give a damn.”
 
She is a DREAMer who grew up in the United States undocumented, but what we learn without hesitation from her is that there is not a single DREAMER who’s out here wasting their opportunity. She says, “I am labeled as a DREAMer, but I am way more than that. I am a DOer. And I am a chain breaker for my family.”
 
I’ll take a DEEP breath to that one. 
 
It’s that quote, and all the stories she's lived to date, that brought us the name for this episode: “BEYOND DREAMER.”
 
This conversation is a repeat listen for those moments when we need to remember that we can make new rules for ourselves, our communities, our society, our future. 

It's not possible to leave this listen without a hunger for equity, a determination to “fuck fear,” (visualize those words in Old English, please) and a drive to love yourself radically. 


Get pen and paper. Your hands are about to be busy grabbing lines like this:

“Being an immigrant in this country is difficult. Because every day you’re attacked with words… and if you don’t love yourself radically, if you don’t love yourself in a revolutionary way, they can break you. But I choose to be unbreakable. And I choose to love myself.” - Samantha Ramirez-Herrera 

 
WORKS:
- CEO & Founder, OffThaRecord—a creative studio with the mantra “We are creatives who give a damn.”
- CIVICS FOR THE CULTURE—a campaign launched by Fair Fight Action (founded in 2018 by Stacey Abrams) to mobilize young people of color 18-35 to vote and be civically engaged.
- SEEDS OF RESILIENCE—Sam and her team at Off Tha Record worked with Food Well Alliance to uplift the stories of Black growers around Atlanta through a 4 part series titled “Seed of Resilience”. They discussed land access, growing food in the city, and the significance of supporting Black-led agriculture -- particularly in the South. 
- WE ARE HOME—a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational coalition calling on the Biden administration and Congress to take immediate action to protect millions of immigrants who call this country home and end the cruelty of our interior detention and deportation system.
- UNDERDOG DREAMS—OffThaRecord executed storytelling and video productions for Underdog Dreams, a non-profit organization working on revolutionizing the flawed child welfare system.
- Keynote Speaker, where she describes herself as "just a Brown immigrant pursuing all of my wildest dreams and hoping to inspire others to do the same."

 

TOOLS:
- How to transcend the lies of stigma
- How to make new rules for yourself
- What it really looks like to create the path to equity
- Tools to redefine yourself in alignment with your true identity and ACTIONS
- Contemplations to witness and honor the hardships and privilege people individually carry and inspiration to help guide you to work through yours
- Stories that motivate you to embrace your actual potential 
- Permission to love yourself radically
- Reminders that strengthen courage in the face of fear
- Everyday practices we can do knowing traumatic events are happening DAILY without time to process
- Reminders to see the way social media manipulates the mind. Sam talks about “appreciating the moments between the posts.”
- Reminders to protect our mental space and our energy
- Compassion around how addictive social media is
- We hear revealing stories that remind us to protect our mental health 
- Strong awarenesses around what happens when we normalize trauma rather than carrying for our mental health proactively 
- Absolute unending permission to curse. Sam and I joke about how we have to keep it quiet the first four segments because it’s made for radio

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Rhett Butler is an award-winning journalist whose reporting is actively saving rainforests. I met him at a climate conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, and immediately felt pulled to the sense of hope and action that exists in his work as the founder and CEO of Mongabay—a non-profit Conservation & Environmental Science news platform that has been raising human awareness of both wild lands and wildlife for 20+ years. 

“I didn’t have a big vision,” he said. “I just achieved little things along the way. Then you wake up 20 years later and…” 

I jumped in to finish his sentence because Rhett is humble, but his work is not. The power of the information he’s gathered has impacted the livelihood of our planet in profound ways. 

His platform, Mongabay, is special for so many reasons, but one, in particular, is that it allows other outlets to use its information, its storytelling, research, data, science, all for free—and, in that act, Mongabay has successfully aided in the preservation of precious ecosystems and changed the very fate of our planet more than once. 

This episode is a double-triple listen in that it gives us tangible mental health tools that can actively turn our climate despair into the hope we need to create planet-saving action. 

It’s also a visual listen. We get to see inside the very real threat environmental defenders, like Rhett and his team, experience globally. You’ll hear stories that will make the hair on your forearms spiderweb all the way up, with visuals that take you into the environments he protects and then back with information to armor you for the fight of preserving our existence here on Earth. 

We get real on the issues and talk misinformation (the WHY and the WHO) and then dig into what each of us can do to level up our information intake in a way that protects us all from mistruths. 

We get all of this alongside the very real hope that rises up when we dedicate ourselves to local acts of change. And if you know me, if you know this show, you know one thing: solutions are my love language. 

Let’s go.

WORKS:
- founder and CEO of Mongabay—a non-profit Conservation & Environmental Science news platform… with over 20 years dedicated to raising awareness and appreciation for wild lands and wildlife
- Editor-in-chief and CEO of Mongabay
- founder, WildMadagascar.org, a site that highlights the spectacular cultural and biological richness of Madagascar and reports on environmental news for the Indian Ocean island nation
- co-founder of Tropical Conservation Science (acquired by SAGE Publications in August 2016), an open-access academic journal that aims to provide opportunities for scientists in developing countries to publish their research
- co-founder, Tropical Forest Network, a social network in the San Francisco Bay Area broadly interested in tropical forest conservation and ecology
-  information source for The Economist, BBC, CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox News, National Geographic, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Business Week, Bloomberg, the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Reuters, Voice of America, the Associated Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Forbes, among many other media outlets

TOOLS:
- Tips to support your mental health in the face of climate despair 
- Critical thinking tools that help us understand how we’ve been misinformed and why
- Insight into how corporations purposefully intend to mislead us for their capital gain
- Awareness of the very real threats that journalists and advocates defending nature experience
- Insights into what drives global change (and what local action to take)
- Stories to inspire sustained action 

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Chef Joshna Maharaj is​​ a chef and activist using social gastronomy to rebuild our food system. She fights for our right to healthy, scratch-made, delicious food anywhere institutional food is provided. This includes community food centers, hospitals, schools, prisons, etc.

Her work has proven what’s possible when we commit to revolutionizing our institutionalized food systems.

In this conversation, you hear us belly laugh all the way through about the gross corruption she used to see and has helped influence to change, but we also get very serious in discussing the long road of change ahead.

The energy switches to praise when we talk Earth and connectivity. Joshna says, "Resisting a true connection with good food is similar to resisting a true connection with your own humanity." 

Facts. 

We also dig into her first experience learning to cook in an ashram in India and how this showed her the ultimate truth: we eat the energy of the food, we consume the energy of the folks who made the food, grew the food, and served the food… and all of us are connected.

Her book, “Take Back the Tray: Revolutionizing Food in Hospitals, Schools, and Other Institutions,” walks us through the revolutionary changes we need in our broken, institutionalized food systems so that we can begin to heal in holistic, well-rounded, people-first ways. 

WORKS:
- Author, “Take Back the Tray: Revolutionizing Food in Hospitals, Schools, and Other Institutions”
- Finalist, Basque Culinary World Prize, which highlights “chefs who show how gastronomy can be a motor for change”
- Former Chef at The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto. About The Stop: “For over 35 years, we've connected low-income Torontonians experiencing poverty to good food in spaces that are warm, dignified, and respectful.”

TOOLS:
- Reminders of where energy comes from and reminders of how to cultivate energy in a way that supports your being and the well-being of those around you
- Massive encouragement to go off the “regular path” in life 
- Insights that will elevate your understanding of basic human rights and the food system
- How waste is directly related to disrespect 
- Reminds of what IS and ISN’T food to support your connection to food as our essential lifeforce

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Nirvan Mullick is a filmmaker, storyteller, and the big-hearted founder of Imagination Foundation, a nonprofit born out of the success of one of Nirvan’s viral films, “Caine’s Arcade.” (If you haven't seen it, it’s the first link in the bio.) He also founded Interconnected—an LA-based creative agency that tells stories for impact.

The Venn diagram for his trajectory in life is “I see you. I want you to see you. I want everybody to see you.” 

That part is simple. That part is soul.

The hard part—the part that makes someone transcend creativity and embrace ACTION is the next part: execution.

In this episode, he walks us through his personal philosophy for how to see ideas come to life, how to see them nurtured, and how to see them embraced. 

What makes this POV special is that it isn’t a business trick. This isn’t the entrepreneur’s guide to wealth. This is CREATION and success uniting in its own way.

Nirvan takes us way past any “how to,” that stalks us from the click-bait corners of the internet. This isn’t that. This is anything but.

This is the science of nurturing your ideas, carefully, considerately, honestly. And coming to a creative conclusion that births something beyond your imagination.

Now, you might be asking, “How is that possible?” because we've been taught to think ideas are only as good as the person thinking them, but that's not the case.

An idea is as good as your ability to let go.

Nirvan says, “Ideas envision their own existence. Ideas have this inherent idea of what they want to become, and if you can tune in to them, they will tell you how to do [the idea].”

Think about that. IDEAS have IDEAS about their own existence. 

That’s the secret. (Not anymore, if you already pressed play, which you definitely should.)

After the film made an impact, Nirvan doubled down. He built a movement (#CardboardChallenge), which then led to the nonprofit. 

That’s how we got Imagitionation.org, which merged with TwoBitCircus.org and supports over 180 Chapters in 30 countries. The organization has received support and recognition from Lego, Ashoka, VANS (to name a few) for its work fostering the creative expression of kids worldwide.

But, you know what’s funny? When I ask Nirvan how he introduces himself, he says, “I am just a *guy trying to make things I care about for people I care about. And I care about everybody.”

And if you’re here, if you’re listening to this show, isn’t that you, too? 

*gender not restricted—you know. It’s US.

WORKS:
- Creator, filmmaker, director of Caine's Arcade, a short film that became a viral phenomenon in 2012, receiving millions of views and changing the life of a creative 9-year-old kid
- Founder, Interconnected—an LA based creative agency that helps tell stories for impact
- Founder, Imagination.org
- Filmmaker with works screened in festivals worldwide, from Cannes to Annecy
- Director of the viral #EarthToParis climate campaign for the UN Foundation and GOOD, generating over 1.4 billion impressions leading up to the historic Paris Climate Agreement 
- Board Member of TwoBitCircus.org, which Imagination.org merged with in 2018
- Recipient of the Dan Eldon Award for Creative Activism and the Big Ideas in Action award

 

TOOLS:
- Inspiration on where to find ideas and how to treat them
- Tips to inspire your curiosity
- Reminders of how impactful and necessary play is
- Stories that awaken your imagination
- Tools to seek out opportunities that support other people’s dreams 
- Mental health support for the very common and very real social anxiety that plagues so many of us (myself included)
- Confirmation that you’re special, unique, and that there really is only one You, and there’s a power to that

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Chef Charles Michel is a gastronomer, profound educator, and innovator whose work has the power to change our understanding of food systems—globally and at home. His activism offers us the opportunity to create a very powerful, and very needed, revolution spanning food education, community activism, connection to planet, and much much more.

He says, "Food is nature. Food is us. Food is the future."

He also says, “What we eat is the most intimate connection we establish with Earth and the people around us.”

Charles is a dear friend, for so many reasons, but the one I’ll pin at the top is this: he knows how to bring me into my heart center on two issues I get extremely passionate about: activism for our stomachs and activism for our planet. 

In this conversation, you'll hear Charles share history that enlightens us on why our food customs come with a fork and knife, how the monarchy still influences cultures today, what we can do to reclaim our relationship and experience to food, and that’s just the start. 

You’ll also hear powerful stories from Charles’ personal experiences ceremoniously sacrificing live rooster once yearly, and how this action connects your nervous system to our greater system, naturally.

Trust, that part of the conversation pulls you in and takes you away from the present moment (in the best way). And then we go deeper into activism with what can we DO to address global food systems and waste food. 

This conversation will, undoubtedly, make your life BETTER by bringing you even closer to the one subject we can all agree we love to embrace: food. 

Dig in. No knives. Hands only (or, in this case, ears). Let’s go.

WORKS:
- Classically trained Chef in Michelin-star restaurants
- Chef-in-residence at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
- Community Builder and Educator of his digital classroom, which you can find on Patreon 
- In-person educator of masterclasses like “A Course in Regenerative Living,” which you will find  on his website charlesxmichel.com 
- Competitor on The Final Table (Netflix) with the intention of activating on behalf of BETTER global food systems
- TED speaker, "Delicious Evolution - Food and Human Civilization"
- Former Consultant for the World Food Programme in Colombia

 

TOOLS:
- Wisdom that will empower you to envision new food paradigms in your own home and beyond

- Historic knowledge and philosophy to make your relationship with food new again

- Tools that encourage us to think critically about the cost of our current habits

- Inspiration to reignite curiosity in ingredients
- 
Insight to empower you to be a catalyst for inner, social, and environmental change

- Reminders for supporting your own emotional regulation through food

- Guidance for cultivating awareness of which foods make you feel your best
- Resources to find community in this food revolution

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Sarah Eagle Heart is an Emmy-Award Winning Social Justice Storyteller and—in all seriousness—a true Social Justice Warrior. She’s the co-CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation, which, if we pause right there to experience the name alone, we feel the power, the empowerment, the justice, the heart, the truth.As the co-CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation, Sarah works tirelessly to enable and empower the very necessary visibility of Indigenous womxn. I’ve looked up to Sarah Eagle Heart and her work for many years now, making it a deep honor to have her here with us today.In our conversation, you’ll hear her begin with a greeting that reverberates past your ears, beyond your mind, and into your body’s knowing of where we come from as people—historically, ancestrally, culturally, environmentally, spiritually.

Sarah’s traditions carry a reverence for truth that, when heard with the ear of your nervous system, injects itself into the very bones of our being— easily and quickly. Making it so much more simple for us to disperse truth from lie—be it lies of capitalism, lies of racism, lies of a lack, and the list goes on as long as the trail of tears. 

Longer, even. Returning to truth is sacred work. Amplifying that truth, those stories, those peoples, so that we can return to a real care for our planet, our community, ourselves….. THAT is the sacred work we’ll hear about today from Sarah Eagle Heart.

This is a very special episode. And it’s an honor to have you listening with us today.

WORKS:
- Emmy-Award Winning producer of Crow: the Legend, inspired by the Native American legend
- co-CEO of Return to the Heart Foundation
- Co-author of “Warrior Princesses Strike Back: How Lakota Twins Fight Oppression and Heal through Connectedness,” written with her identical twin sister and psychotherapist, Emma Eagle Heart–White 
- Co-producer, “Lakota Nation vs. the United States,” a feature-length documentary chronicling the Lakota People’s present-day quest to reclaim the sacred land called Black Hills
- former, CEO of Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national nonprofit that focuses on investment in Native American communities
- Board Member, Women’s March
- Board Member, National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition
- Board Member, We Stand United

TOOLS:
- Tools to address the root causes of racism
- The importance of acknowledging Indigenous history and how honoring this history leads to the changes we need
- Wisdom behind the importance of acknowledging the land you live on
- How to transfer TALK into ACTION
- Steps to decolonize your life and decolonize your work
- Understandings that enable us to lean into conflicting history, become comfortable sitting in discomfort, fear, and truth to enable safety for people who have had to live without safety for centuries

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

“To navigate complexity, you need people who not only believe in the same change you do, but bring experience so deep and unique, it fast forwards your ability to see clearly,” I wrote this note about my brother, Little Shawn, after finding an intrinsic connection within myself that equally matches who he walks with inside himself. 

That deeper relationship we carry within our being creates room for our witnessing and connection with those who see (and KNOW) what we’re really about. Seeing yourself is that unique gift from the universe saying, “You’re right where you need to be. Don’t move. But make MOVES.” 

That’s what Shawn Pen, aka BEHIND THE SMOKE, is doing right now. He’s already written the documentary of his life, the book, the words. Now he's moving it to screen (documentary, that is) for us to see what’s really “behind the smoke.” 

If you know, you know. 

If you don’t, this episode will open windows into the rap scene in a way you’d only dream possible. Remember: hip hop and rap is the spine of culture. It’s the body. It’s the blood, And it influences everything around us. It influences everything I care about and everyone I care about. Peep the list (below) of Shawn’s WORKS, history, and the tools you’ll get from listening to this one-of-a-kind episode from a one-of-a-kind person.

WORKS:
I could list it. But it's better I don't. Let's start here:

On Wikipedia, it says “Tyrone Shawn Wilkins, (born December 21, 1969) better known as Little Shawn and Shawn Pen, is an American hip hop artist, rapper, songwriter and producer from East Flatbush, Brooklyn." 

Then it says, "Little Shawn released the single "Dom Perignon" (Uptown Records) featuring fellow Brooklyn rapper The Notorious B.I.G. on 20 July 1995. The music video also featured Busta Rhymes, another rapper from Brooklyn. It peaked at #5 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 as well as #87 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and #23 on the Hot Rap Tracks charts. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the Fox TV crime drama New York Undercover."

It's rumored that Tupac Shakur was on his way to record a verse for Shawn when he was robbed and shot 5 times in 1994. We get into this. And much more. (See the list of TOOLS below) And make sure to follow @behindthesmoke to stay plugged into WHERE HE'S GOING. Not just where he's been.

 

TOOLS:

- Tools to stay clear-headed when the world wants you foggy
- Unmatched tips for how to stay truly dedicated to your truth and knowing of self
- Tips that remind you how to present yourself in a way that honors your integrity
- Reminders that empower you to ensure your influence isn’t overtaken by outside influences
- Helpful guidance to uplift your image when others see you in a way that differs from your own knowing of who you are
- Inspiration for cultivating your clarity and sticking to it

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media

Dr. Sylvia Earle is a world-renowned oceanographer, marine biologist, and National Geographic Explorer in Residence affectionately known by her fellow scientists, and peers alike, as “Her Deepness.” 

She has logged more than 7,000 hours underwater. 

What struck me most when I first met Sylvia was her ability to deeply touch my spirit when we talked about the oceans. 

In this episode, you’ll hear us talk about “our power to change the nature of nature,” as Sylvia says, “through our options.” We talk about the pace at which the planet is warming, our impact on the oceans, and how we can govern ourselves better to ensure they (and we) have more longevity to make our survival and prosperity possible. 

WORKS
- founder, Mission Blue, an organization dedicated to protecting the ocean from threats such as climate change, pollution, habitat destruction, invasive species, and the dramatic decrease in ocean fish stocks
- founder, Sylvia Earle Alliance
-author, National Geographic Ocean: A Global Odyssey
- author, The World is Blue
- author, Sea Change
- author, Blue Hope: Exploring and Caring for Earth's Magnificent Ocean



TOOLS:
- Knowledge that equips us to understand how we affect the ocean and how the ocean affects us 
- Historic and scientific evidence of our planet’s network of life—information that can empower us to look at Earth as a system and see what needs protecting and how 
- Appreciation for the planet to inspire sustainable change
- How to apply for a Hope Spot and where
- What we can do in our local communities to restore health to the oceans 

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media