Big Vision Podcast

Tara Sophia Mohr is a writer, coach and an expert on women's leadership and well-being. Her work helps women play bigger in their work and in their lives. With an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree in English literature from Yale, Tara takes a unique approach that blends inner work with practical skills training, and weaves together both intellectual rigor and intuitive wisdom. Tara has a deep commitment to amplifying women's voices. She is the creator of the global Playing Big leadership program for women and the co-creator of two anthologies of contemporary women's writings, The Women's Seder Sourcebook and The Women's Passover Companion. Her 10 Rules for Brilliant Women have struck a chord with tens of thousands of women around the world. In 2010, Tara was honored as a Girl Champion by the Girl Effect organization, which supports girls' education in the developing world. She is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and has been featured on TODAY, BigThink.com, Whole Living, CNN.com, USA Today, International Business Times, Ode Magazine, Forbes, beliefnet, and numerous other media outlets. She is also a poet and the author of The Real Life: Poems for Wise Living. You can learn more about Tara and the Playing Big Program at taramohr.com and follow her on Twitter at @tarasophia.

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Marianne Elliott is the author of Zen Under of Fire: How I Found Peace in the Midst of War. Marianne is a writer, human rights advocate, and international yoga instructor. Trained as a lawyer, Marianne helped develop human rights strategies for the governments of New Zealand and Timor-Leste, has worked as a Policy Advisor for Oxfam, and spent two years working in human rights in the Gaza Strip prior to her time in Afghanistan, where she served in the United Nations mission (2005-2007). Her memoir Zen Under Fire, tells the story of her work and life in Afghanistan. Marianne writes and teaches on creating, developing and sustaining real change in personal life, work and the world. She lives in a converted church above the zoo in Wellington, New Zealand, where she writes to the sound of roaring lions and singing monkeys.

You can learn more about Marianne on her website, marianne-elliott.com, follow her on Twitter at @zenpeacekeeper, and see if her book tour is coming to a town near you at marianne-elliott.com/book/events.

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Kristen Zimmerman is one of the co-authors of the Movement Strategy Center report, Out of the Spiritual Closet: Organizers Transforming the Path of Social Justice, along with Neelam Pathikonda, Brenda Salgado, and Taj James. As a Senior Fellow at the Movement Strategy Center, she leads the development of the Center's movement building practice and methodology. Her primary focus is the integration of transformative practice with strategy, movement building and alliance building technologies, and the use of story and narrative for movement building. Currently, she serves on the design team and faculty of the NoVo Foundation's Move to End Violence — a 10-year movement building initiative to end gender-based violence. She lives in Oakland with her 8-year-old son, Jonah Ravi, and her partner Adrienn.

You can learn more about the Movement Strategy Center, and download the report, at movementstrategy.org.

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

This month's guest is Lisa Truong, the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Help a Mother Out. Help a Mother Out is a grassroots organization that raises diapers and awareness, and advocates for long term change in the social safety net. Lisa is a social entrepreneur with over 12 years experience in technology and nonprofit sectors. Her work has been featured in media outlets including Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, KQED's The California Report, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The San Jose Mercury News, as well as national blogs including The Nation and The Huffington Post. She is passionate about social innovation and technology used to change the world. You can learn more about Lisa and Help a Mother Out at helpamotherout.org and follow her on Twitter at @helpamotherout.

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

President of Rockwood Leadership Institute, Akaya Windwood is internationally recognized for elevating the effectiveness of leadership and collaboration in the nonprofit and social benefit sectors. Her vision for our global community includes infusing a sense of purpose, delight and wonder into everything we do. She brings her skills as an organizational consultant and executive coach to her lifetime commitment to working for a fair and equitable society and to Rockwood's network of 4,000 powerful, collaborative, and interconnected leaders.

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Beth Terry is the author of Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too. She also writes the popular blog, My Plastic-Free Life, and is a founding member of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. Beth gives presentations on living plastic-free and why our personal changes do make a difference.  She spearheaded the successful Take Back the Filter Brita recycling campaign in 2008, and her life and work have been profiled in Susan Freinkel's book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, Captain Charles Moore's book, Plastic Ocean, and the award-winning film, Bag It. When she's not out fighting plastic pollution, she spends her time with her husband, and two rascally kitties in Oakland, CA.

Listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast on iTunes.

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. After a brief career in professional basketball, and a number of years in corporate marketing at Procter & Gamble, Will returned to his roots as a farmer, using his retirement package to purchase a plot of inner city land with greenhouses where he has built the country's pre-eminent urban farm.  He is now the CEO of Growing Power (www.growingpower.org), an organization that develops community food systems. 

In 2008, Will was named a John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow, a "genius grant," only the second farmer ever to be so honored.  He is also a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and in February 2010, he was invited to the White House to join First Lady Michelle Obama in launching, "Let's Move!" - her signature leadership program to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity in America.  In May 2010, TIME magazine named Will to the TIME 100 World's Most Influential People.  In 2011, Allen was named one of the 7 World's Most Influential Foodies by Michael Pollan and Forbes Magazine. He was named the 2012 NCAA Theodore Roosevelt Award recipient. He lives with his wife in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and is the author of The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities.

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and the author of Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking. She is a consultant to progressive media and advocacy organizations. Her clients have included The Ford Foundation, The Daily Beast/Newsweek, and Jim Hightower's Hightower Lowdown.  She is a Research Fellow at the Center for Social Media at American University.  Deanna specializes in social media, is a leading expert in women and technology, and is a frequent guest on CNN International, BBC Radio, Fox News and more.  She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise. You can learn more about her work at www.deannazandt.com and follow her on Twitter at @randomdeanna.

Listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast on iTunes.

Links to some of the campaigns, articles and tools Deanna mentioned:

• Planned Parenthood Saved Me• #DearJohn: For When Boehner Decides Your Rape Just Wasn't Enough on Tiger Beatdown• Susan G. Komen's Priceless Gift by Rebecca Traiser and Joan Walsh on Salon.com• Row Feeder• Kony 2012• Invisible People• Aid and Abet

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Stacey Edgar started Global Girlfriend in 2003 as a way to provide economic security for women in need by creating a sustainable market for their products.  She used her 10 years in social work practice with women and children as a springboard to her role as a social entrepreneur.  Global Girlfriend works with over sixty women's cooperatives and NGOs in 20 countries. Its fair trade boutique offers a line of women-made, fair-trade products including stylish apparel, accessories and gifts with one purpose - to help women in need help themselves.

Stacey has been honored by the Microsoft Corporation as a recipient of its Start Something Amazing Awards, by the Denver Business Journal as a "40 Under 40" Business Leader, featured in several magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine, in Multichannel Merchant magazine as a "Maven of Merchandise," and by Organic Style as one their 2005 Women with Organic Style.  Her first book, Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made It Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide, came out last year.

Listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast on iTunes.

Learn more about Stacey and Global Girlfriend:

Website: www.globalgirlfriend.comWebsite: staceyedgar.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/GlobalGirlfriendTwitter: @Staceedgar

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Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.

Ben Mangan is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of the nonprofit, EARN.  Since 2001, EARN has helped tens of thousands of low-income people enter the financial mainstream, and move toward prosperity with savings accounts for the unbanked, and matched accounts for low wage workers to invest in education, first homes, and microenterprise.

Ben has more than 15 years of experience in policy leadership, innovation and strategic management.  Ben was the Midwest Practice Leader for Ernst & Young's Public Private Development Group in Chicago, and served as Director of Organizational Strategy for the international micro-payments company, beenz.com.

He is a regular blogger for the Huffington Post and SFGate, and serves as a lecturer on the faculty of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School.

Listen and subscribe to the Big Vision Podcast on iTunes.

Learn more about Ben and EARN:

Website: www.earn.orgFacebook: facebook.com/earnorgTwitter: @earn

Connect with me:

Music: "Mango Delight," by Kenya Masala.  Connect with Kenya through CD Baby and Source Consulting Group.