Farm to Future

Jero Beccar is an entrepreneur and filmmaker from Buenos Aires. After getting his B.A. in Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College, he worked for Warner Brothers and Walt Disney. While at Disney, he managed a crew of over 45 people to shoot Disney’s first Apple iTunes commercial. He then took his technical lighting experience back home to Argentina, where he co-founded an LED lighting company, producing fixtures for train stations and commercial clients like McDonalds, Starbucks, and Puma. 

Jero never thought he’d go back to school, but he ended up in the new Master of Design Engineering (M.D.E.) program at Harvard University. There, he learned about the gaps in the mental health care system in the U.S., which led him to co-found Hyka Therapeutics, a care management platform that helps improve the care journey for patients and mental healthcare providers. In today’s episode, we talk about bringing Argentinian food culture to Boston, Jero’s early fascination with the math behind moving pictures, what filmmaking and startups have in common, and how to build a team that feels like family. 

Hyka Therapeutics: hyka.io
Connect with Jero on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeronimo-beccar-b156ba3
Email Jero: [email protected] 

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Viola Wang (@theblessingbucket) is best known for her travel blog, where she shares gorgeous photography alongside practical tips for travelers on a budget. An advocate of slow travel, Viola has traveled to 32 countries and spent time living in Australia, Japan, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru. She also completed her yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India, considered the world capital of yoga. 

When Viola was 10 years old, she immigrated to Canada with her family from Chengdu, China. She was extremely shy at the time and spoke zero English. In today’s episode, we talk about the many ways Viola has challenged herself over the years to overcome her social anxiety, from dance to cheerleading to solo traveling the world. Today, Viola is her own boss, running her travel blog and Instagram while teaching English, crafting, yoga, and dance classes for kids online.

Viola's Travel Blog: www.theblessingbucket.com
Our Costa Rica (Mis)Adventures: youtube.com/watch?v=SDGFt9lTxCI
NEW Inside Out website: www.insideoutwithjane.com

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Dan Levine is a PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab in the Biomechatronics group. His work involves building better prosthetic limbs, and he was once part of a team that built a tongue-computer interface for people with spinal cord injuries. (That’s right, it's a computer you control with your tongue!) Dan holds Bachelors degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science from Cornell University, and a Masters degree from Cornell Tech’s Connective Media program.

In this episode, we talk about how Dan’s dream job as a kid was to become a test pilot, how he started his gymnastics career at age thirteen before becoming Captain of Cornell’s Club team and Men’s President of the MIT team, and how he imagines a world where we interact with technology with mutual respect, as if between friendly creatures. We also explore his time living in Thailand and Israel, and his future plans of joining the Air Force and eventually becoming an astronaut. 

Email Dan: [email protected]

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Bryanne Leeming is the Founder and CEO of Unruly Studios and the inventor behind Unruly Splats, the first STEM learning tool that combines coding with active, recess-style play for kids. Splats are durable, programmable floor buttons that light up, make sound, and sense when kids stomp on them. Kids can code their own rules for Splats games like relay races, whack-a-mole, and dance routines. Since founding Unruly five years ago, Bryanne has grown the team to 12 people and Splats are now used in 800 schools across the United States and Canada. 

In this episode, we talk about how Bry leveraged her Cognitive Science degree from McGill University and her MBA from Babson College to build a solid foundation for the business, why a Kickstarter campaign was the best training, and how to attract an A-team. Bry herself is an all-star — we talk about how she’s built up her mental muscle to keep going no matter what, through running marathons, growing up playing hockey and lacrosse and doing gymnastics, and watching her parents keep restaurants open during hard times.

Unruly Studios
Website: www.unrulysplats.com
Instagram: instagram.com/unruly_studios
Twitter: twitter.com/unruly_studios

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Severin Ibarluzea (@seveibar) is the CTO and Co-founder of Workaround Online (wao.ai), a platform that helps companies clean up their datasets to prepare them for machine learning algorithms. What sets them apart from competitors is their social mission: Workaround employs displaced Syrian refugees who would otherwise have trouble finding fair and dignified work. 

This isn’t Seve’s first rodeo — he’s also the CEO and Co-founder of CollegeAI, a machine learning platform that matches high school students with their best-fit colleges. In this episode, we talk about Seve’s start as a software engineer, building Flash games and coding for ham radio enthusiasts, what it’s like starting your own company versus working in a large corporation, and how his company (and nine others) got scammed by an organization representing none other than Pope Francis — yes, the Pope.

BONUS: We’ll be live streaming on Twitch! Join us this Thursday, Dec 10 at 2pm PST/5pm EST at twitch.tv/seveibar for a Q&A and hangout. 

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Jennifer Zhang (@jenerationdiy) is well-known on YouTube for her DIY craft videos and extreme room makeovers, and as JEN Z on Spotify for her dark yet dance-y bops. Jennifer is a 22-year-old YouTube Creator and singer/songwriter with a YouTube following of 2.6 million. Since starting her channel in 2013, she’s gotten to travel the world and work with brands like Microsoft, Amazon, thredUP, Clinique, and American Eagle, just to name a few. And she happens to be my sister.

In this episode, we dive into Jennifer's life and career up to this point. We talk about getting her hands dirty (literally) with a DIY bathroom renovation, getting invited to join Semester at Sea on a cruise ship in Spain, living in New York, dropping out of NYU, and her struggles with mental health while maintaining a public persona.

BONUS: Join us this Friday Dec 4 at 2pm PST / 5pm EST on Instagram Live for the afterparty! We’ll answer your questions, show some blooper clips, it’ll be a blast. Follow @insideoutwithjane and @jenerationdiy to join the fun.

YouTube: youtube.com/user/JENerationDIY
JEN Z on Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/1fqQGhjVuevPcROlYKzn4b?si=C4fUguK0TNK6Ug1IU94oew
Instagram: instagram.com/jenerationdiy
Twitter: twitter.com/jenerationdiy 

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Emmanuel Massi (@iameman) claims he’s a superhero who got fired and went rogue to become a Black James Bond. Today, he works in operations overseeing  fifteen companies in the U.S. Army. In other words, he's a pretty big deal.

What Eman won’t tell you is what his day job consists of — that’s top-secret. But we sat down to talk about his life and travels before and during his time in service. Eman grew up fleeing the Congo wars with his family, living in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa before moving to the United States right after 9/11. He got an international business degree studying in Illinois, France, and Sweden, and went on to get a Master’s Degree in Sports Management. After a brief stint in corporate, Eman walked into the Armed Forces building one day and decided to enlist as an Officer. Tune in to hear Eman talk about his time living six miles from the North Korean border, how he was mistaken for the Black Panther, and why, at one point, he had to do push-ups to earn his breakfast every morning.

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Sarah Ballard (@hubbabubble) is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Florida. Over a decade ago, she took an astronomy class at UC Berkeley to fulfill a freshman science requirement, but was quickly drawn into the study of the universe. She’s since established herself in the field of astrophysics as an “exoplaneteer,” having taken part in the discovery of four exoplanets (planets orbiting stars other than the Sun). She did her graduate studies at Harvard and has been a Torres Fellow at MIT, a L'Oreal Fellow, and a NASA Carl Sagan Fellow.

What her stellar CV won’t tell you is that her road to becoming professor was rocky to say the least. In this episode, Sarah shares her journey as a victim of sexual harassment and later a named complainant in a Title IX case, why academia is worth salvaging, and her dedication to making science culture more equitable.

Sarah's Twitter: twitter.com/hubbahubble 

Discounts

• Get 10% off delicious local farm-fresh food delivered to your door with my link for FarmMatch: https://farmmatch.com/jane
•  Get 15% off high-quality Italian olive oil with code FARMTOFUTURE: https://shop.vignolifood.com/FARMTOFUTURE
• Get 40% the CircleDNA’s Premium DNA test with code JANEZHANG: https://circledna.com/premium 

Connect with Jane Z. 

• Instagram: @farm.to.future
• Email: [email protected]
• Website: farmtofuture.co

Real stories of badass millennials living out their dreams, and how they built themselves from the inside out. Hear from a variety of inspiring guests, including a DIY hobbyist who traded college for a YouTube career, an astronomer who risked her future to speak up for women scientists, a corporate intern turned defense logistics officer, and many more.