Fresh Dialogues

I’m excited to share my latest BBC report with you and introduce a remarkable woman who changed the way I see the world. When I heard my report on the BBC World Service last week, I was moved to tears. A lot has happened since I filed it in early August…

Animals help us reconnect to a wise and ancient part of ourselves that naturally knows how to find balance and alignment. A good deal of our resilience to stress and change comes from our self care practices. 

Animals show us how powerfully soothing it can be to just sit and breathe together. Sit close to your pet and focus on your breath and his or hers for a few breaths. Give your dog or cat a light pet. Put your other hand on your heart and soothe your inner human animal. Now, think about what human relationships of yours might benefit from such a gentle and wordless check in. Beth Killough, Psychotherapist

In July, it seemed that things could hardly be worse here in Northern California. Covid rates started to tick up and with that came another round of tighter lock downs and restrictions. And then a freak lightning storm sparked dozens of fires. Overnight we had friends who faced evacuation, and others unable to go outside, as air quality spiked far beyond Beijing levels. Overnight, my 95 year-old friend had to evacuate and find refuge with her little dog, Buddy. Overnight, we all became experts at analyzing Purple Air, the air quality app where anything over 400 is classed as an “emergency condition” for public health. One morning, I woke to see one Bay Area monitor at 666 on the scale of 0 to 500.

The things that had become the “new normal” were suddenly out of reach: simple things like taking a walk in the nearby park to relieve cabin fever, doing yoga class on the lawn of the local fairgrounds, and eating outside at our favorite dog-friendly restaurant. Now we all have to dig even deeper to find silver linings and nurture some optimism for a better day.

Did you know that one in three Americans are showing symptoms of depression? It’s likely even higher than that. A close friend who’s a therapist tells me she’s never been busier. We’re all taking one day, one hour at a time. That’s why we could all do with a Beth Killough in our lives. She’s a deeply insightful person who suggests we need a toolbox of choices to help us deal with stress and anxiety. Here’s her story:

Seven years ago, Beth bought a ranch and let go of her traditional office-based talk therapy practice. Now she uses her psychology insights and her barn full of horses to teach resilience, radical self care and leadership skills. She helps her clients tune into their own instincts and pivot to new projects and passions. Thinking her wisdom could hardly be more timely, I talked to my BBC editor in London about making her the focus of my latest report.

You might think that equine therapy –– working with horses to improve your resilience and well being –– is a niche thing, something for the affluent or the physically impaired. But Beth explains that some of the techniques are easy to practice at home and timely for this time of high anxiety and Covid related stress. They might even help you navigate this challenging time more easily and pivot to more joyful relationships and a sustainable career path. 

Listen to the BBC Health Check Podcast (report starts at 15:45)

Here’s the Fresh Dialogues Podcast:

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FD-podcast-Beth-Killough-Equine-Therapy.mp3

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Here’s a transcript of my report for BBC Health Check, including some bonus material that didn’t make the final cut: 

Alison: Beth Killough works on her Northern California ranch and has seen a spike in clients looking for help for anxiety, trauma and loneliness since the pandemic began. Today her client is a 50 year-old woman named Michelle and they’re in the barn with Riva, a brown mare with a black mane and tail.

Beth: Notice as you brush her, [...]

Why is Trump accusing China of hacking biotech companies, and threatening to ban TikTok? Smart policy or Red Scare tactics  to distract us from his fatal response to the pandemic ?

Last month, Donald Trump finally started wearing a mask and doling out some good advice on Covid. Is it too little, too late?

I was invited to join the BBC World Service program Business Matters to discuss the latest reversal from the White House, as well as breaking business news and analysis.

“Trump only started wearing a mask last week, which is unconscionable. And he’s been spreading misinformation on the number of cases and cures…”

Here are highlights from my conversation with the BBC’s effervescent Rahul Tandon in London, and outspoken business advisor Simon Littlewood in Singapore. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Listen to the BBC podcast @6:10.

Or listen to highlights on the Fresh Dialogues iTunes podcast (online podcast or below):

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/FD-podcast-Red-Scare-Masks-Aug-2020.mp3

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Rahul Tandon: Alison, where you are in Silicon Valley, this rising tension between China and the US… What do people make of it? Is there a lot of support for the president and Mike Pompeo’s strong stance?

Alison van Diggelen:  This is a political move, this is distracting action from our president’s mess up of the response to the Covid virus. I applaud their call to come together to fight a common enemy. But they’re forgetting that the biggest threat humanity faces is Covid-19.

There is a race going on, it’s like a new space race to find a reliable vaccine. It’s even more intense than the space race: the first country to get there will get a humanitarian reward of saving lives and also an economic reward. There will be a massive reward by allowing a swift return to business as usual, and a huge boost in consumer confidence.

This Trump White House action is a distracting political move. It feels a bit like the Red Scare of the Cold War Era. 

Simon Littlewood: I agree. That’s exactly what it is. I’d echo Alison’s comments. There clearly are serious domestic issues in the U.S. and the president would do well to concentrate on them.

Rahul Tandon: I want to come back to Alison: we’re talking about China trying to hack information when it comes to Coronavirus vaccines and treatments. That’s just like the old world of espionage. It’s something that’s always gone on and now we’re looking at the stakes in a new tech world? 

Alison van Diggelen: That’s right. Last week’s Twitter hack showed that even tech companies in the heart of Silicon Valley, with some of the smartest minds in the world and savvy programmers, are not immune to cyber criminals. I think it’s very likely that Americans are doing the same in China. Every major super power is trying to hack in and see what the other countries are doing. It’s just like the space race.

Rahul Tandon: There we go. We have two of the finest minds in the world with us here on Business Matters today. (Thanks Rahul!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simon Littlewood: Hopefully un-hacked!

Rahul Tandon: I was very certain about Alison. But Simon, we’ll need to give you another 40 minutes to see how you perform during the rest of the program…

 

Trump’s U-turn on wearing a mask

Listen @34 on the BBC podcast

Trump: We’re asking Americans to wear a mask…imploring young Americans to avoid packed bars, and other indoor gatherings. Be safe and be smart.

Rahul Tandon: Are Americans being safe and smart? Are people wearing masks?

Alison van Diggelen: I’m holding my breath hearing the president. He only started wearing a mask last week, which is unconscionable. And he’s been spreading misinformation on the number of cases and cures.

I’m glad to hear that he’s finally pushing the right message –– congratulations to whoever persuaded him! But his White House has been undermining the [...]

Last week, as demonstrations and outrage continued across America, I received an invitation that made me very nervous: I was invited to join a  live BBC World Service program to discuss the view from California. I felt ill-equipped to contribute. What could I say that would be valuable to the dialogue? This is a challenging time to opine on the tinder box that is America, particularly if you’re a white immigrant. But I did my homework, listened to a lot of diverse commentary and read widely.   

[Photo credit: Alisdare Hickson]

I can’t claim to have all the answers (who does?) but in preparing for the program, I did some personal growth. I changed from from feeling tongue-tied and unworthy, to fired up about speaking out. How? My research taught me three important things (see below).

But first, here’s what we discussed on the BBC:

Listen to the BBC podcast, starting @4:00.

Or listen to the Fresh Dialogues podcast below which features highlights of our discussion and more about what I discovered.

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Police-racism-FD-podcast.mp3

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We began by discussing Trump’s executive order introducing police reforms, and then listened to the insightful perspective of Philip McHarris. A researcher at Yale University, McHarris is a vocal member of the Community Resource Hub for Safety and Accountability. He makes some excellent points about the need to prioritize education and economic opportunity for the black community, and has written a provocative New York Times Opinion piece  that concludes: “We need to reimagine public safety in ways that shrink and eventually abolish police and prisons.”

I agree with his call to reimagine public safety, but it’s hard to imagine that abolishing police and prisons will ever be a wise idea. What do you think?

BBC transcript (edited for length and clarity).

Philip McHarris: Police are largely arresting people, and putting people in jail and ruining lives and communities, when people need resources and opportunities, and not a prison cell and policing.

Defunding police means shifting resources away from policing and getting at the underlying causes like not having quality schools, employment options, housing healthcare. The communities that are the safest don’t have the most police but they have the most resources. Because of specific decisions and political inaction, housing policies have created legacies of racial and economic inequality. People often are forced into survival economies which are then criminalized. 

So the first step is funding community resources and institutions. The other side is developing alternative emergency response systems where police –– who have guns and a license to kill with immunity –– are not showing up when people need a wellness check, a mental health intervention or domestic violence support. 

Jamie Robertson: Alison, this idea of defunding the police…is it getting traction? The idea of withdrawing the police and replacing areas of police enforcement with social workers? 

Alison van Diggelen: There is support for defunding police and looking at the root causes (of police brutality). The fact is: We all have bias. It’s what we do with it and how we manage our first impulses (that matters most).

The police force needs to build new protocols and new partnerships, as Philip said, with social workers and psychologists. It needs to invest more in anger management and de-escalating violence, rather than inciting violence. And perhaps making Malcolm Gladwell’s book Talking to Strangers mandatory for police officers?

This pandemic has exacerbated the tinder box of despair and rage in America. Perhaps America also needs to face its horrific history of slavery. That legacy continues today. We need to borrow practices from South Africa and Rwanda and hold Truth and Reconciliation hearings.

And criminalize, not tolerate any white supremacy [...]

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

“Everyone deserves dignity at the end of life,” Isabel Stenzel Byrnes, bereavement counsellor and hospice care worker.

This week’s podcast is a deeply personal story of how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted my family. A shorter version aired this week on the BBC World Service program, Health Check. I dedicate it to my beloved mother, to those fearful for vulnerable family members, and to anyone who’s lost a loved one recently. And I offer sincere thanks to Isabel, Laura and Mary who shared their poignant and hard earned wisdom about dealing with death.

Listen to the BBC podcast (segment starts at 9:40)

Listen to the full story at the Fresh Dialogues podcast or below:

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Death-Dignity-FD-podcast-mp3.mp3

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The Covid-19 pandemic has forced me to have a deeply uncomfortable conversation with my sisters. The topic? Our mother’s death. Despite warnings not to visit the elderly, my younger sister drove 500 miles from Kent to Scotland to visit our mother. A puzzling phone conversation convinced her that our 88 year-old mum needed help, urgently. So we made a pact one night: if mum did catch Covid, we’d keep her at home, come hell or high water. The thought of our sociable mum lying alone in a hospital bed, struggling for breath with no one holding her hand, broke our hearts. 

Just a few hours later, I woke to the news that hell had arrived. Mum fell during the night and broke her pelvis. My sister watched, impotent, pleading as the ambulance crew ––  decked out in full body protection –– stretchered her away. Grimacing in pain, she grasped at my sister’s hand, “Don’t worry, I’ll be OK,” she said. “You know I’m a tough old woman.”

We feared that would be the last time we’d see her alive.

To make matters worse, I’m 5,000 miles away from Scotland, sheltering in California, where I’ve lived for more than two decades. 

Earlier this year, the BBC’s Health Check asked me to explore a watershed moment in American healthcare: For the first time since the 1970s more Americans are dying at home than in hospital. My first reaction was: Nope, I can’t go there. Like many of us, I feared facing death. 

But now it hit home for me, like an avalanche of mother-daughter worry. Witnessing the isolation of Covid hospital patients in painful technicolor online –– and the inability of loved ones to say goodbye –– has brought it all into sharp focus. 

So why are the majority of Americans now choosing to die at home, and not in hospital? Do they miss out on specialist care and pain relief? What is “a good death,” and what will be the lasting impact of Covid on all this?

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I spoke with Laura Carstensen who directs the Center for Longevity at Stanford University. She points out the mismatch between what the medical system traditionally offers and what people imagine at the end of life.

“Medicine historically has said: We’ll throw everything we can at a person to keep them alive and is not necessarily what people want,” she says.

Today about 80% of Americans say they want to die at home – or at least not in hospital. 

In response, hospice care has grown rapidly over the last 10 years. The modern-day hospice movement was started in the UK in the late 1960s by a former nurse, Dame Cicely Saunders, who wanted to focus on the relief of symptoms like pain, whilst attending to their emotional and spiritual needs away from a hospital environment. 

According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the number of hospice patients on Medicare – the federal health insurance program for over 65 year-olds – has grown from 44% in 2012 to 50% in 2018. In the US, unlike the UK, in-facility hospice care is the exception, not the rule. So most American hospice workers provide care in patients’ homes. 

Isabel Stenzel Byrnes works for Mission Hospice, a nonprofit [...]

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interviewhttps://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mother-Earth-FD-podcast-May-2020.mp3We welcome feedback at FreshDialogues.com, click on the Contact Tab | Open Player in New Window___

By Alison van Diggelen, host of Fresh Dialogues

“Mother Nature is a very powerful educator” and her power has never been more apparent than during Covid-19.* But what have we learned from this unprecedented pandemic?

Firstly: That what was once impossible, is now possible. Who’d have predicted that governments facing a global crisis would put humanity ahead of the economy? Despite all odds, they did and for the most part, continue to do so.

Secondly: With many economies in the deep freeze, we have a rare opportunity to create a “new” new normal, one that’s less carbon intensive and more environmentally friendly.

This week’s podcast explores these important questions: Is the Earth sending us a message? And if so, can we rise to challenge, before it’s too late?

We feature political strategist Tom Rivett-Carnac as well as my Earth Day discussion on the BBC World Service with Financial Times Tokyo Bureau chief, Robin Harding and the BBC’s Jamie Robertson.

Listen to the Fresh Dialogues podcast here, on iTunes or simply play it below:

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mother-Earth-FD-podcast-May-2020.mp3

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OK, here’s a sobering statistic: A recent IPSOS Mori poll revealed that over 70% of the global population consider that, in the long term, climate change is as important a crisis as the coronavirus. Think about that for a minute.

Climate activists –– like the team at Global Optimism –– have renewed confidence that this pandemic has produced the wakeup call we need to re-examine our priorities. Instead of returning to business-as-usual and locking in higher emissions, some leaders are using the slogan: “Build back better.” The BBC’s Roger Harrabin writes about the need for the UK to avoid “lurching from the coronavirus crisis into a deeper climate crisis.” Britain’s Climate Change Committee Chairman, John Gummer has called for rebuilding the economy with a focus on green jobs, and boosting low carbon industries like clean energy and electric cars.

The pandemic has taught us that, instead of denial and inaction, basic risk assessment and preparation could have avoided mass chaos and deaths around the world. I’m sure you’ll agree that witnessing over-stretched intensive care units and the Hunger-Games-like scramble for ventilators, face masks and personal protection equipment was excruciating. It didn’t have to happen. Over five years ago, Bill Gates warned us about the risk of pandemics. Why did no one listen?

Today, Bill McKibben, Greta Thunberg and others are warning us about the risks of climate change. Calling them all Cassandras -– prophets of doom and gloom -– is no longer an option. We’re all in this together and we are woke! Let’s harness this united mindset and act NOW to green our economy, before it’s too late.

Some people might scoff at my idea that the pandemic could mean the Earth is sending us a message: the FT’s Robin Harding couldn’t conceal his mirth, as you’ll hear soon! But Jamie Robertson supported my idea, recalling his high school “Fruit flies in a jam-jar” experiment. Thanks Jamie! So think about this: Is the jam-jar sending the flies a message?  It’s clear that you don’t have to be a sentient-being to send a message.

Here are highlights of my conversation with the BBC’s Jamie Robinson and the FT’s Robin Harding, (edited for length and clarity). We start by hearing from Tom Rivett-Carnac about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change direction, as governments use unprecedented levers to jumpstart their economies.

Tom Rivett-Carnac: If we now just subsidize fossil fuels, previous ways of doing things, we’re just going to end [...]

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interviewhttps://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/FD-podcast-Bloom-ventilators-Apr-2020.mp3We welcome feedback at FreshDialogues.com, click on the Contact Tab | Open Player in New Window___

If you’re stuck at home and thinking: what can I do to help my community? I hope today’s podcast will inspire you.

Last week, my colleagues at The BBC World Service invited me to join the show Business Matters and share news from Silicon Valley. Even though the valley is one of America’s COVID-19 hotspots, I was determined to report something positive.

For inspiration, I thought of Mr. Rogers, America’s beloved TV personality and puppeteer. He famously said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

During this unsettling time, when it’s easy to get scared and give in to despair, I find his advice reassuring. But I think he meant more than one thing. I think, if Mr. Rogers was alive today, he’d say:

Find people who are helping…

Find opportunities to help, and encourage others to help in their communities.

So I scoured the news for uplifting stories about people who’re helping in my community. A tweet from California Governor Gavin Newsom caught my eye. He praised the rapid response of a Silicon Valley company that’s stepping up to meet the urgent need for ventilators to keep COVID-19 patients alive. I immediately got in touch with Bloom Energy and interviewed its chief operating officer, Susan Brennan that afternoon. She told me she challenged her team by saying, “We’re going to solve this thing!” I wanted to know: was the solution the brainchild of one person, or a team effort? You’ll find out below.

My interview aired on the BBC World Service on April 2, 2020.

Listen to the BBC podcast: Silicon Valley story is at 42:50 and 47:20.

Or listen to the Fresh Dialogues podcast below or at Fresh Dialogues Podcasts.

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/FD-podcast-Bloom-ventilators-Apr-2020.mp3

FRESH DIALOGUES PODCAST

Here are highlights of my conversation with the BBC’s Jamie Robertson and Enda Curran, chief Asia economics correspondent at Bloomberg in Hong Kong. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

We began by discussing the record 10 million people in the United States who’re unemployed, many almost overnight.

Jamie Robertson: Alison, you must know people who’ve been made unemployed. Are they just lying down and taking it or are they getting up and doing something else, finding other opportunities?

Alison van Diggelen: In California, Governor Newsom has set up a job matching site. The state has partnered with private companies so you can go online and find jobs that fit your skills. Other people are doing coding classes, or online training, to become yoga teachers for example.

This week, I interviewed Susan Brennan of Bloom Energy and heard about an engineer called Joe Tavi. He hasn’t lost his job, but has found a new job. He was on the production team for fuel cell making, but is now on the “Tiger Team” to refurbish ventilators for the cause. People are really seeing opportunities within this devastation.

Robertson: We’re going to be hearing from him in the last piece on this program. You’ve got a fascinating report….

Over in Silicon Valley, a fuel cell company called Bloom Energy has stepped up to refurbish non-functioning ventilators for hospitals in record speed by repurposing their warehouses. Here’s the company’s COO, Susan Brennan.

Susan Brennan: Valves, pumps, airflow, batteries: If you look at the pieces, there’s so much commonality between a ventilator and a fuel cell. Completely different function and process, but at its base level: very common inputs.

I spoke to the head of health and human services on March 17th, St Patrick’s day. [...]

Download or listen to this lively Fresh Dialogues interviewhttps://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Greta-Biz-Matters-FD-podcast-Sept-2019.mp3We welcome feedback at FreshDialogues.com, click on the Contact Tab | Open Player in New Window___

This week, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager, stole the show at the United Nations General Assembly. Thanks to her, climate change is on the minds of the world. I was invited to discuss climate change action on the BBC World Service this month and we explored the role of activists like Thunberg, indigenous people, and technology pioneers like Elon Musk.

With visible rage, Thunberg described the urgency of action in stark terms on Monday.

”People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth.”

Then Thunberg made a passionate plea to each one of us, especially political leaders, to examine our consciences.

“How dare you continue to look away? The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.”

Greta Thunberg’s fury was evident to everyone who watched her, but she ended on a positive note:

“Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

This powerful young woman speaks for her generation and her fierce, straight-talking message has unsettled certain people, and helped spur record-breaking climate strike demonstrations around the world.

BBC host, Jamie Robertson led a lively discussion exploring the urgency of climate change action and we were joined by ABC Australia’s Clare Negus.  I took the opportunity to praise Thunberg’s tenacity.

The program started with a soulful report by the BBC’s Frey Lindsay. He reported on a gathering of indigenous community leaders from around the world who met at University College London to listen, exchange ideas and build solidarity in the fight against environmental degradation and climate change.

Listen to the podcast at the BBC World Service (environmental discussion starts at 10:40)

Listen to the Fresh Dialogues podcast (featuring Greta Thunberg’s powerful words):

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Greta-Biz-Matters-FD-podcast-Sept-2019.mp3

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Here’s a transcript of conversation highlights (edited for length and clarity):

Jamie Robertson: In California, you’re very much on the front line, we think of the wildfires…do indigenous people have a role to play here?

Alison van Diggelen: It’s important for us in California, and around the world, to listen to the indigenous people. What we do over the next ten to twenty years is going to determine the fate of humanity. We need to remember environmentalist, John Muir, who said:

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

Technology plays a role in this by increasing transparency. Almost everyone has a mobile phone (and can take photos of environmental abuses), so multinationals can’t get away with what they used to.

Jamie Robertson: How high up the news agenda are questions about environmental problems and climate change?

Alison van Diggelen: Greta Thunberg, bless her heart, is keeping it on our agenda, but I wish it were higher. Looking at the Democratic Party Presidential debates, climate change was there, but I wish we could raise the issue more. People are concerned about what’s impacting them on a daily basis. There’s not enough of a long term view. We need more people like David Attenborough (and Greta Thunberg and Bill McKibben) speaking up for the environment.

Jamie Robertson: Clare ?

Clare Negas: It’s a major criticism of ABC Australia that we do too much on climate change and not enough on cost of living stories!

Jamie Robertson: I want to take the conversation on to [...]

Have you ever wondered how venture capitalists in Silicon Valley decide what startups to fund and what ones to skip? I had the opportunity to sit down with one of these “masters of the universe” and explore the secrets of venture capital. Scott Kupor is managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz (AH) – one of the most successful VC firms in the world – and we had a candid and lively discussion about the do’s and don’ts of pitching; lessons from Elon Musk’s entrepreneurial journey; diversity, bias and ethics; future trends; and when it’s OK to move fast and break things.  Scott teaches at Stanford and Berkeley and has a new book out – Secrets of Sand Hill Road – that aims to demystify the VC mindset. The conversation took place in front of a live audience at the Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley on June 10, 2019.

Listen to the Fresh Dialogues podcast:

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Scott-Kupor-FD-Podcast-VC-Diversity-Ethics-CwC-June-10-2019.mp3

Here are some highlights of our conversation (edited for length and clarity):

Re. Women in business, diversity and bias

Alison van Diggelen: Let’s talk about diversity: Julian Guthrie’s new book is just out – called Alpha Girls – it’s about four women who took on the Venture Capital “bad boys” and succeeded, despite the odds. There are some good lessons in there. It’s a very tough place to thrive as a woman. Less than 10% of decision makers in the venture capital world are women.

Scott Kupor: The number is about 10 or 12 %, depending how you cut the numbers, and about 2% of the funding going to female founders. It’s a real problem.

There are two types of bias: explicit bias, which clearly the #MeToo Movement exposed in a very horrible way. We have to root that stuff out. We need to shine the light on what was underground for many years. The more challenging problem is implicit bias…Whether I like it or not, I’m implicitly biased by the networks I came from. When I want to hire for a job, it’s more likely I go to people I know from Stanford. What we have to do is reach out to (other) networks. So we proactively send out job recs to MLT a group that works with African Americans who’re trying to get into business and financials; and we also have a Cultural Leadership Fund (at AH). 

It’s a network connectivity problem. It’s going to take time, it’s a deep rooted problem. 

Alison van Diggelen: How many general partners at Andreessen Horowitz are women?

Scott Kupor: 20%. Three out of fifteen are women. That’s only  in the last two years. For the first eight years we did not have any female partners…We changed our criteria and opened up the funnel to have a more diverse talent pool.

Re: Ethics and moving fast and breaking things

Alison van Diggelen: Let’s talk about ethics: lessons learned from Theranos (the blood testing company that imploded). And Facebook: they used to have a mantra: Move fast and break things. They have been cavalier about sharing our personal data. How do you train your entrepreneurs to have ethics front and center?

Scott Kupor: I think there’s a difference between outright fraud – we can’t have behavior like that in this industry – and there is this idea that sometimes you have to push faster than sometimes is comfortable and you do break things sometimes and ask for forgiveness second. I think there are elements of that that are fine in this business. There’s a difference between committing crimes and defrauding people and are you just trying to move the ball quickly? You recognize there’s going to be iteration of products and sometimes you’re going to put stuff out that may not be perfect.

The big difference is: as companies mature it’s a bit of the Elon Musk question (we talked about earlier) – I think different standards of behavior are appropriate depending upon the size and maturity of these companies. Running fast and breaking things – [...]

Perhaps you weren’t shocked by the college applications scandal that recently broke in the United States? I must confess, I was deeply upset because it reveals a low tide mark in our society’s ethics today and underlines the absence of integrity in so many people’s lives. But I’m also saddened because “Operation Varsity Blues” has wider implications for our colleges and our communities. Fresh Dialogues host, Alison van Diggelen reports for the BBC World Service. 

(Photo credit above: Daniel Gaines Photography via Breakthrough Silicon Valley)

The stories of college applications doctored with photo-shopped pictures of athletes; blatant bribery and cheating on SAT scores made my blood boil. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to share my views on the BBC World Service.

Listen to the BBC World Service Program, Business Matters here (Segment starts at 31:10)

Hear highlights on the Fresh Dialogues podcast

Or listen below:

https://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/College-apps-scandal-FD-podcast-Apr-2019.mp3

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These rich elites – venture capitalists, actors and prominent business people – confused their privilege for merit; and by cheating they crushed the hopes and dreams of the least fortunate and most deserving students in our communities.

The BBC’s Fergus Nicoll asked me about the reputation damage to schools and I shared an interview I did recently with former President of Stanford University, John Hennessy. At the time, he was outraged at colleges “debasing themselves” and forgetting their values in the pursuit of athletes over academics. Watch the video (@3:00): Hennessy is known for his tact, but here, his anger is palpable.

Previous commentators on the BBC program, including Stephanie Studer of the Economist in China, and Kay Hymowitz of the City Journal in New York, talked about the destruction of meritocracy. That’s definitely under threat, both here and around the world. But who’ll suffer most from this scandal?

The hard working students and families from less advantaged communities. Like the inspiring students at Breakthrough Silicon Valley, a nonprofit here in California, that works to mentor and nurture first generation immigrants to achieve their college dreams. For them, it’s a double whammy: First: The opportunity cost. For every rich kid who got into college through a side door, there’s a student who worked like a Trojan to get the scores necessary to win a place, and lost out. But it’s more than that: What will this scandal do to the aspirations of these students and families who feel that the playing field just got even steeper? And more broadly, how will our communities suffer if these well deserving youth lose out on taking their shot at a better future? The opportunity cost is both acute and enduring, both personal and wide ranging.

Is it too much to hope that colleges and communities can return to decent values and bring ethics back from its long holiday?

John Hiester, Executive Director of Breakthrough Silicon Valley sums it up well when he says:

We should all be outraged when such revered institutions fail our society by creating shortcuts for those with wealth and privilege when they could be a powerful force for equity in our society.

Certainly, the staff and students of Breakthrough Silicon Valley are frustrated. As Diana, a high school junior, put it, “I’m sad but not shocked. I’ve always known that there are people who play the system, it just hurts to have this out there when I’m working so hard to get my shot.”

For the past five years, my team has cheered Diana on as she works incredibly hard to get to college. She grew up in a family that grapples with the constant stress of financial instability. They got home internet access just last month, and few in her community have gone to college, but Diana is blazing an impressive path. She has a 4.29 GPA while enrolled in the [...]

Over 100 Americans die every day from opioid overdose, that’s about 40,000 a year. What can be done to reverse the recent spike in fatalities? In San Francisco, a team of public health workers is focused on treating the most vulnerable: homeless people on the city’s streets. My latest report for the BBC explores how this special ops “Street Team” is finding and convincing people to get the latest medical treatment, wherever they are.

It’s a timely issue as next month, San Francisco voters will decide if the city’s largest businesses, many of them tech companies, should pay a special tax to help fund more homeless shelters and addiction centers like the one I visited. The debate is dividing the tech community. Marc Benioff of Salesforce says “homelessness is everyone’s problem” and backs the special tax, but others like Twitter’s Jack Dorsey say it’s “unfair.” Love it or loathe it, the ballot measure proposes more funding and action to tackle homelessness and drug addiction in our most vulnerable population. These are complex and deep rooted problems with no quick fixes, but I applaud Marc Benioff and others like him for taking a stand.

Several medical workers and a heroin addict shared their ‘dream’ solutions to homelessness and addiction in the city. Their answers may surprise you.

If I had a magic wand, I’d just flash over the Twitter building, the Google building and say: hey guys, how about some compassion for folks, some kindness? When somebody talks to you in the street, look them in they eye. Planting that little seed of compassion and kindness goes a long way and I think that’s how the larger change in our city would happen. There’s a lot of hostility, a lot of misinformation. So if I had a magic wand, I’d just like flash it and say: compassion, compassion, compassion…kindness and a safe injection site! Ana Cuevas, health worker at the Tom Waddell Health Center, SF Public Health [Pictured above]

 

Listen to my report at the BBC’s Health Check Program (Ebola episode: starts at 8:49)

Check out the Fresh Dialogues podcast or below

http://www.freshdialogues.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Fresh-Dialogues-podcast-homeless-addicted-SF-Oct-2018.mp3

Here’s a transcript of my full report. A shorter version aired on the BBC World Service on October 24, 2018.

Atmos: San Francisco city street sounds: bus, cars, fans, people…

Alison van Diggelen: I’m here at City Hall in the center of San Francisco. Within yards of the building’s gleaming dome, there are clusters of homeless people, huddled in doorways, sprawled on pavements, or slowly pacing the streets.

Every week, Dr Barry Zevin and his team walk the city streets to build rapport with homeless people with addiction problems and offer on-the-spot treatment. Once trust is established, they encourage patients to visit the city’s public health clinic. Today, there’s a steady stream of homeless people…

Alison van Diggelen: Inside this clinic, known as the Tom Waddell Health Center, I meet James (not his real name) a former medic in the United States army, who recently started treatment for heroin addiction.

James: Right now I got a prescription refilled, and the doctor was like: do you need a shelter bed for tonight? Are there other things I can do for you? I’m very impressed with how kind and helpful they are…going above and beyond to find what else they can do for me.

Alison van Diggelen: James, who’s 30, has been prescribed buprenorphine to help wean him off his opioid addiction. Buprenorphine is a daily pill that reduces opioid cravings and the extreme physical pain of withdrawal. Despite being an addict for over ten years, James sincerely wants to change.

James: This medication allows me to do a detox less painfully and I no longer will have intense cravings for the substance of abuse. It’s definitely more comfortable than cold turkey…

Alison van Diggelen: James has been homeless in SF for [...]