Heromakers Podcast

In this episode, Laurie is flying solo and talks with the amazing Nelli Kim, Founder & CEO at RĒDEN, which makes radically comfortable shoes with a purpose, and Founding Board Member of RAISEfashion, a network of fashion industry leaders, providing pro bono consulting to Black-owned brands and individuals, with a mission to advance the equity of Black talent. She is also Co-founder of Embers International, which works to fight the injustice of human trafficking.

Nelli talks about how she got into fashion and her climb up the ladder to high-end fashion apparel and shoes, and then the moment when she felt called to intersect her experience with raising money for organizations doing good in the world. Nelli shares honestly about her cancer diagnosis, the healing process, and how her experience made her goal to make comfortable shoes even more meaningful. We talk about the power of mentorship and making ourselves available to others, and about why heromakers can be found in unlikely places.

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Nelli's Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelli-kim-370754a6

Personal Instagram: @nellibellek

RĒDEN: https://www.shopreden.com

Embers International: http://www.embersinternational.org

RAISEfashion: https://raisefashionnow.org

In this episode, we reference Megs Yunn on Celebrating Birthdays, Building Joy, and Speaking Dignity to Children  (S1E23).

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Mannie Thomas, co-executive director and director of programming at Success Stories, which "provides an alternative to prisons that builds safer communities by delivering feminist programming to people who have caused harm." Here, Mannie shares his own journey of growing up with false narratives about himself and what it meant to be a man--and which led him down a destructive road to prison. There, Mannie began to see himself, others, and the future differently, eventually earning five degrees and assisting other men to see how broken worldviews impact everything. 

Mannie shares what he has learned, helps us understand patriarchy and toxic masculinity, and gives us a glimpse into the power of true community, redemption, and moving past shame to find the real person hidden inside each of us. 

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Success Stories can be found here: www.successstoriesprogram.org, and on Instagram here.

In this episode, we reference Hector Guadalupe on "Life After Incarceration and Why All of Us Need Second Chances" (S1E14).

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Latanya DeVaughn, founder of Bronx Bound Books, the only mobile bookstore in the Bronx (and only the second bookstore in that area!), an area of over 1.5 million people. For years, Latanya didn't think it was possible to own her own bookstore, but when her son's recently-retired teacher opened one, something changed in her. Tapping into her savings, Latanya purchased a shuttle bus and began traveling from place to place to bring books to those who would otherwise not have access to new and gently-used books. 

Here, the three talk about books and Latanya's influences, and about the rubber band as an analogy for life -- when the tension of following your dreams becomes too much, you either let go and release the tension, or you let your dreams fly and see where they take you.

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Bronx Bound Books and the Go Fund Me page we reference can be found here: bronxboundbooks.shop/gofundme/, and on Instagram here.

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Hope England, a brilliant and funny psychotherapist and comedian who founded  Humor for Hope, an organization that prevents and heals trauma by using comedy and improvisation. Hope and her team formed an alternative inpatient therapy for trauma survivors and chronically and terminally ill children and patients. Hope holds a degree in writing and producing for television and sitcoms, has studied education and theater, and is a graduate and former employee of The Second City and The Second City Training Center. She is a practicing psychotherapist who works in trauma and crisis intervention with an emphasis on grief, loss, death, and dying.

We discovered Hope after we delved more into The Witness Institute and talking with founder Ariel Burger (Season 3, Episode 6). In addition to her work with Humor for Hope, she is a Fellow at The Witness Institute. 

Here, we talk about the intersection of laughter and trauma and how her own melding of the two brought her through some very dark days this past Fall when she contracted Covid-19, which led her to develop Guillain-Barré syndrome, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down for a period. Hope shares how she discovered comedy and when she realized it could be used to heal the wounds of others. We also talk about her adventures, dark retreats, and laughter as "carbonated holiness" (Anne Lamott).

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Humor for Hope can be found here: humorforhope.com, and on Instagram here.

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Charles Lerner, Executive Director of At The Crossroads, which reaches out to homeless youth and young adults at their point of need, and works with them to build healthy and fulfilling lives. Charles shares about his own experience in the foster system and then dealing with acute homelessness and how it shaped the person he is today. We talk about the false narratives we tell ourselves and how unconditional love can change everything for kids aging out of the foster system. 

This episode is an invitation to remember what it looks like to try to rewind in order to understand what formed a person into who they are today. Charles's story is one of both pain and redemption--and a clear reminder to us all that we can be part of the healing journey of anyone we meet.

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

At The Cross can be found here: atthecrossroads.org and on Instagram here.

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Rev. Dr. Ariel Burger, founding director and senior scholar of The Witness Institute, whose mission is to empower emerging leaders, inspired by the life and legacy of Elie Wiesel. A orthodox-trained rabbi, Ariel is also an author, teacher, and artist whose work integrates spirituality, the arts, and strategies for social change. He is author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom.

Ariel shares about his own journey in discovering meaning in life and relationships and how his searches led him to a lifelong commitment to dialoguing across differences for the sake of each other. The three talk about the link between learning and doing and the hard work of pressing into conflict and brokenheartedness so that we can learn more about ourselves and others. Ariel talks about the continuing legacy of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, who served as his mentor and teacher. 

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Ariel can be found here: arielburger.com.
Learn about The Witness Institute here: witnessinstitute.org.

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Cole Arthur Riley, a writer and liturgist who founded Black Liturgies, a project seeking to integrate concepts of dignity, lament, rage, justice, rest, and liberation with the practice of written prayer. In this episode we talk with Cole about her family and upbringing (including her heromaker Dad) and why she was prompted to start Black Liturgies in the summer/fall of 2020. We talk about wrestling with pain and trauma, and why rest and rediscovery may be the answer to our losses and wounds. 

Cole is honest about the growth of her platform and being authentic to herself, and of course we talk about her upcoming book by Convergent Books - it's a must-read to understand black history and roundedness and to rediscover some missing elements that make for a fuller and richer life. 

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Cole can be found on Instagram at www.instagram.com/blackliturgies. 
She is also at https://colearthurriley.com.
Her latest book, This Here Flesh - a FANTASTIC READ, can be pre-ordered here.

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Kevin McDowell, a triathlete who just won a silver medal in the mixed relay triathlon and placed sixth overall in the individual men's triathlon. He was one of the first American men to win an Olympic medal in the triathlon.

Kevin talks about not only his journey to the Olympics and his pursuit of sports, but also his journey through being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma at the age of 18 and how that changed his life and how he sees the world. We talk about organizations fighting childhood cancer and about the unfortunate statistic that only four cents on every dollar given to cancer research goes to pediatric research. We talk about Kevin's desire to inspire kids with cancer and why his journey through cancer, his close-knit community, and his pursuit of a dream have fueled him over the years.

In this episode we reference:

Cal's Angels
St. Judes Children's Research Hospital
Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
Ronald McDonald House Charities

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Kevin can be found on Instagram at www.instagram.com/kevinmcdowell1.

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Mike Thirtle, CEO of the Gary Sinise Foundation, which "serves our nation by honoring our defenders, veterans, first responders, their families, and those in need." We talk with Mike about his 20 years of service in the Air Force, his roles in both the non-profit and for-profit sector, and of course, about Forrest Gump and the life-altering lessons we learn from Lieutenant Dan Taylor (played by Sinise) regarding seeing the value in others.

We talk about service and good leadership (hint: smart, good people are the best kinds) and about the power of love. And of course we go into a bit of the good work the team at the Gary Sinise Foundation are doing through their five pillars.

In this episode we reference:

Darcy Olsen: Using Every Available Means to Give Voice to the Children Unheard and Unseen in the Foster Care System

Chris Fields on Three Decades of Being a Firefighter, the Iconic Oklahoma City Bombing Photo, and Why Trauma Doesn't Have to Have the Final Word

Col. Jim McDonough on Lessons on Humility, Vulnerability, and Selfless Leadership Learned from 26 Years in the Military

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Mike can be found at LinkedIn or at the Gary Sinise Foundation website. 

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA. 

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends. 

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement. 

In this episode, Laurie and Ann talk with Lauren McCann, founder of Calliope Advisors, a "mission-driven consulting firm and innovation partner for philanthropists, companies, and nonprofits who want to pilot new concepts and models to solve pressing and urgent societal problems." Lauren shares her own journey into making our world better through her work and what friendship and community has taught her about the world. The three talk proximity and what it means to slow down long enough to be intentional about our choices. 

Lauren also shares about her latest fundraising goal and what her road to sobriety has taught her about living in the moment and making healthy choices for her, her family, and those she works with and among.  

Heromakers can be found on IG @heromakersmovement and on FB @heromakersmovement. You can also visit our website at: https://www.heromakersmovement.com.

Lauren can be found at LinkedIn or at the Calliope Advisors website. 

You can watch this and other episodes of the podcast on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVDFP8jEcv5bdhr8VLzXjA.

Like us and follow us today!

And share this episode with your friends.

Check out: Dorris Walker-Taylor on Finding Joy After More Than Two Decades of Pain, and Why a Place Called Thistle Farms Is So Amazing

Want to support this work we do?? We are on PATREON and would love if you would join our growing community! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/heromakersmovement.