Disruptive Conversations

Thordis Elva is disrupting patriarchy. In her forthcoming book, South of Forgiveness, she and her coauthor are challenging the world to rethink our approaches and assumptions on how we address sexual violence and gender stereotypes. I first learnt about her work when I saw her give a TEDTalk at TEDWomen 2015. In the talk, she, the survivor of rape, gave a talk with the perpetrator of rape, Tom Stranger. They stood side-by-side and delivered one of the most thought-provoking talks of the day. The conversations in halls after their talk were diverse. Questions like did Tom need to be punished for his violent act? Had already been punished? Should we address rape through punitive approaches? In this Disruptive Conversation, she argues that violent acts, like rape, are not committed by monsters but by people. In this complex conversation, we explore a number of topics related to sexual violence and gender equality. Thordis is trying to disrupt the way we think about problems in society. In this talk, we go behind her recent TEDTalk and learn a little about what she was hoping to accomplish with her forthcoming book,

In this Disruptive Conversation, Thordis argues that violent acts, like rape, are not committed by monsters but by people. In our complex conversation, we explore a number of topics related to sexual violence and gender equality. Thordis is trying to disrupt the way we think about problems in society. In this talk, we go behind her recent TEDTalk and learn a little about what she was hoping to accomplish with her forthcoming book,

It is a disruptive notion for her to suggest that we have empathy with people who have done terrible things. In this Disruptive Conversation, we go behind her recent TEDTalk and learn a little about what she was hoping to accomplish with her forthcoming book, South of Forgiveness and much more.

LINKS IN THE PODCAST:

To watch the TEDTalk visit this link: https://www.ted.com/talks/thordis_elva_tom_stranger_our_story_of_rape_and_reconciliation

In the podcast, I reference Brian Stevenson's TEDtalk: https://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice

This podcast was recorded via Skype both speakers were in different locations.

Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
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Sarah Schulman and her colleagues describe their work as turning social safety nets into trampolines. In the show, she describes her work as trying to disrupt the social welfare state. She and her team often find themselves working within the tensions of traditional approaches to structuring institutions and more iterative approaches to working. They generate insight using ethnography and other research development methods to ensure that people flourish in the work that they do. Visit their social design shop InWithForward. http://inwithforward.com/

This podcast was recorded via Skype both speakers were in different locations.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

When I asked Jim Gibbs, co-founder of MeterFeeder, his favourite quote, he replied, "my dad always said, nothing beats a failure than a try". Jim and his business partner have built a disruptive App by focusing on the pain point of so many people around the world. If you hate getting parking tickets, then you can finally feel comfort knowing that MeterFeeder is working on making your life easier.

Most of us hate receiving parking tickets. We also find paying for parking annoying and difficult. Jim Gibbs wants to improve the parking experience for everyone. It all started when a friend pulled out a stack of parking tickets, said to Jim and a friend, "if you can find a way to make it easier to pay for parking tickets, that would make my life a lot easier". After this conversation, Jim and business partner set out to build an App that makes it easier for you pay for parking and parking tickets. Their product helps you pay your parking tickets, pay for parking and makes it easier for attendants to give out tickets. They are quietly building what could be one of the largest Apps since Uber.

In this podcast, Jim shares many wonderful insights on how he is solving parking for everyone. He also talks about the role of software development in the future of jobs. Admittedly, we are both advocates of more use of software, we do share some other personal tidbits.

This podcast was recorded via Skype both speakers were in different locations.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

Privacy does not have to be a zero-sum game. Dr Ann Cavoukian is a three-term Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada. Dr Cavoukian does not think that we have to choose between privacy and everything else. We can have privacy and meet business interests, security and public safety. She argues that is easier to take a privacy by design approach, taking privacy into account from the beginning than to try to think about privacy after the fact.

She argues that is easier to take a Privacy by Design approach than to try to achieve privacy after the fact. If we bake privacy into our design from the beginning, we can prevent many of the privacy breaches. Recently, Cybersecurity breaches have been on the rise. Companies can go bankrupt from the many class action lawsuits that have come about because of security breaches. A security breach can sink a once successful company.

In today world, privacy is our sleeping dragon. As a privacy champion, Dr. Cavoukian argues that we need to move away from thinking about privacy as a zero-sum game. We need to change the conversation from it being about either privacy or security.

In this podcast, Ann describes German notion of informational self-determination. Informational self-determination refers to the right of the individual to decide what information about him/herself should be communicated to others and under what circumstances. Ann is working to disrupt dualistic thinking around privacy. She wants to open doors so people can have privacy today and well into the future.
Links from the show.
International Council on Global Privacy and Security by Design: https://gpsbydesign.org/

This podcast was recorded via Skype both speakers were in different locations.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

We live in an incredibly complex world and there are a group of people who are developing a process called Labs. Labs are an approach to solving complex public challenges. These labs are taking an intentional approach to addressing societies most complex challenges. I have interviewed a number of people who fall into the category of working in the labs.
In this podcast I interview Claire Bure from MaRS Solutions Lab. MaRs Solutions Lab is a public and social innovation lab that helps to solve complex social and economic challenges. The lab brings together stakeholders from across society to help solve these problems collaboratively. They help governments to modernize their policies, to find new insights and work collaboratively, in order to equip people and organizations with tools and techniques to create change.
Claire Buré is a social scientist specializing in user research and process design. She loves bringing diverse groups of people together to uncover challenges and build solutions for concrete outcomes. Claire has conducted research with the International Development Research Centre and has consulted for the InfoDev World Bank program, the Open Data Barometer, and EDGE Lab at Ryerson University. Claire’s social entrepreneurial experience includes co-founding Commons11, and co-starting a Chilean business, both of which created user-driven technology solutions for human development.

Mark Brand is a serial entrepreneur who is also a social entrepreneur. In this podcast, we talk about a number of things that inform Mark's approach to building Beautiful Businesses. Mark has reframed being a restauranteur into a career of service. In the show, he asks, what are you going to wake up every day and do, and do in service to others. The distinction he makes is that being is service to those who need us or being in service to a greater cause is not the same as being in servitude. For him, he argues we need to own our mistakes, own our flaws, and be mindful of what makes us imperfect as we search for solutions. Don't strive to be the most talented or smartest in the room, but struggle to be the most tenacious and resilient person in the room. For Mark, there is no separation in humanity, there is no us and them, there is only humanity. We also have a really funny conversation about Jack Russell style innovation. Enjoy this episode.

Links from the show.

Follow this link to learn more about Marks closed loop money system or token project: https://vimeo.com/173661086

Find Mark at his website: http://www.markbrandinc.com/

Hatch website: https://hatchexperience.org/

FailForward website: https://failforward.org/

Other episodes of Disruptive Conversations referenced in the show:

Yarrow Kraner Disruptive Conversation podcast episode #11: http://www.keitademming.com/podcast/ep-11-how-one-creative-alchemist-is-hatching-a-better-world-a-conversation-with-yarrow-kraner/

Ashley Good on Failing Forward: http://www.keitademming.com/podcast/ep-4-how-learning-from-failure-can-help-spur-innovation-a-conversation-with-ashley-good-of-failforward/

This podcast was recorded via Skype both speakers were in different locations.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

Growing North is a disruptive social venture. They are also a finalist in the Google.org Impact Challenge. Growing North has the seeds of disruption and reminds me of the work of Wangari Maathai. Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai started a movement that encouraged women to plant trees as and approach to mitigating deforestation and food security within their communities. This grassroots group became a movement known as the Green Belt movement. What was remarkable about that story, was that it was framed as women planting trees, but the magic sauce was in the relationships that were formed when women came together. Planting together. When they were planting they would talk. They got to know each other. They built community. It was through these relationships that Maathai was able to mobilize women to contribute to democracy and fight for their rights.

What Stefany Nieto and her team are doing in the North is similar to the Green Belt movement. On a practical level they are providing food for a community, but more importantly, they are providing a space that strengthens the social fabric of the communities they are working in. This is why I voted for them in the Google.org Impact Challenge. Not only has Stefany and her team found a way to grow food in one of the most inhospitable conditions on the planet. They helping to strengthen the social fabric of the community. When the community builds a greenhouse together or grows food all year together, they are strengthening the social fabric of their community. This is the disruption. Most people only think of the technological side of disruption, but for Growing North strengthening the social fabric is a major part of the solution and their approach.

The problem in the north of Canada is that perishable food is flown in and when it get to these communities is not only expensive but is often rotten. Stefany and her team are disrupting the supply chain and growing food in the north. Growing North’s mission is to sustainably provide fresh, locally grown produce to families living in Northern Canada, at a fraction of the current price, while positively contributing to the educational infrastructure and job market. The part I love the most about this project is not the elegant technological solution, but the social fabric that they are fostering around their technology. Stefany and her team have worked hard to help build a community around these igloo shaped greenhouses. They have developed coop programs so students can get credits while they learn how to grow food. They have focused on using their technology to bolster the social fabric in the community and that is why I voted for them in the Google.org Impact Challenge.

This podcast was recorded via Skype.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

Jeff Speck is an unlikely disruptor. He is an urban planner, which is probably also the least likely candidate for a conversation about disruption. In the podcast we explore three things he and others in his field are working to disrupt. No city has become great by trying to solve a parking problem. So he is disrupting the idea that addressing traffic and parking will help to make for a great city. Much of his work is make cities walkable. Jeff is the author of the book, “Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time”. He argues that we know how to make cities livable and walkable, but it is often difficult to convince decision-makers to mobilize the resources that help make cities walkable. On the show, we explore how built form often determines the quality of life within cities.

During the podcast, we focus a lot on how so of his work involves educating clients. Many of the approaches to improving walkability in cities is counter intuitive. There is considerable evidence that creating narrow roads actually reduces traffic in cities. We cover a lot in the podcast and mention many other City Planners who are doing very interesting. See the links below to for more information.

Links
Jeff Speck: http://jeffspeck.com/
The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU): https://www.cnu.org/
Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk http://www.dpz.com/
Sea Side project: http://www.dpz.com/Projects/7903
Brent Toderian: http://www.toderianurbanworks.com/
Strong Towns podcast: https://www.strongtowns.org/podcast/
National Endowment for the Arts: https://www.arts.gov/
Mayors' Institute on City Design: http://www.micd.org/


This podcast was recorded via Skype.

Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

I attended Podcamp Toronto recently and did my first live recording. I usually do my podcasts via Skype and rarely do I get so personal in my show. Dhani and I shared a lot around walking on bridges that have never been built. We talk about the desire and drive it takes to build beautiful organizations. We cover a range of topics in the show.

In this podcast, I interview Dhani Oks. Dhani cofounded the Academy of Lions which could be thought of as being just a CrossFit gym in Toronto, but for many of the members, it is a community. Dhani talks about how he was not trying to build a gym, he was trying to build a family. As a member of the Academy of Lions I have always been impressed with the community that was built around a gym that could easily be an exclusive masculine culture.

In this conversation, we talk about what it takes to build a business. We explore how Dhani thinks about building things that have never been built and the struggles that come along with striving for excellence.

This podcast was recorded over live at the Imperial Pub in Toronto.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T

In this podcast, I interview Piper Anderson from Mass Story Lab. Piper describes herself as a prison abolitionist. For her, the prison does not work and has never worked. She uses Mass Story Lab to imagine the world beyond prisons. She shares her approach to criminal justice reform from the bottom up and story driven.

Mass incarceration disrupts lives, and we need to take an approach that is not compartmentalized. She believes that we need to spend more time talking to the people who have been most affected by mass incarceration.

Links:

Mass Story Lab: http://www.massstorylab.com/overview

Piper Anderson: http://piperanderson.com/

Mass Story Labs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/massstorylab

Misson Launch: http://www.mission-launch.org/
This podcast was recorded over Skype.
Music provided by Clint Harewood you contact him on these websites:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T
or
LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/Tamo.T