Nate Salpeter, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Sweet Farm Foundation, shares concepts of interconnections between food, action, and investment. In his presentation, we learn how the team at Sweet Farm is pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a sanctuary and how impact can be made locally and globally through targeted efforts that leverage education, inspiration, and innovation.

Passionate about giving voice to those without one, Nate Salpeter co-founded Sweet Farm just south of Half Moon Bay, CA with his wife Anna Sweet out of recognition that industrialized farming has had a profoundly negative impact on the lives of billions of animals as well as plant based agriculture.

A Ph.D. engineer working in the nuclear industry, Nate brings his analytical mindset to the animal welfare space where he, his wife (Anna Sweet), and an incredible team have built Sweet Farm to be more than only a farm animal rescue, but also to be a place of education, inspiration, and innovation through animal rescue, plant based agriculture, and technology initiatives to scale change in the food system globally. Nate and Anna are active advisors and investors in the alternative protein, agriculture technology, and sustainability sectors.

Their Goat 2 Meeting program is Sweet Farm’s pivot into the post-COVID world, helping put smiles on people’s faces while executing on Sweet Farm’s mission to educate and inspire change in the way people think about what’s on their plate and how it impacts the world.

www.sweetfarm.org

Every day, more than 500 million women and girls live without access to menstrual supplies. This often forces them to use unsafe materials that put their health at risk and cause them to miss school or work.

With menstruation lasting about 3,000 days over a lifetime (more than 8 years), this challenge is not only a matter of health but also one of equity, dignity, and opportunity.

Days for Girls (DfG) wants to change that. Since 2008, DfG has reached 3.5 million people in 145 countries with sustainable menstrual health solutions and education. Through holistic approaches such as their Period Positive Schools and Workplaces initiatives and women-led social enterprises, DfG is building scalable impact that transforms lives and strengthens communities. In this presentation, Days for Girls CEO Tiffany Larson will share powerful stories of change, highlight the connection between menstrual health and gender equality, and share how we can all work towards a world where periods are never a problem.

Our speaker, Tiffany Larson, leads Days for Girls International as CEO focusing on dignity, equity, and opportunity for all. A passionate advocate for menstrual health and sustainable development, she has over two decades of experience blending business acumen with a heart for global impact. Her leadership is grounded in the belief that access to health and education is a human right, and that lasting change starts at the community level.

Before becoming CEO, Tiffany held several executive roles at Days for Girls, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Program Officer, each shaping her holistic and inclusive approach to global leadership.

To learn more, go to:

https://www.daysforgirls.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe5eEoSiW-M

Some of the world's most difficult problems – like poor reproductive health and violence against women – are now being addressed through the medium of prime-time serialized dramas also known as soap operas or Telenovelas.

Population Media Center (PMC) uses a special type of serialized melodrama for changing behavior on such issues as family planning, elevation of women's status, girls' education, stopping child marriage, protection of children, and protection of the environment.

Characters in locally written and produced programs on radio, television, and social media evolve into positive role models for the audience and, in the process, lead to population-wide changes in behavior.

Bill Ryerson is founder and president of Population Media Center (PMC). He has a 52-year history of working in the field of reproductive health, including four decades of experience adapting the Sabido methodology of entertainment-education for behavior change communications to various cultural settings worldwide. PMC has broadcast its programs in 57 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the U.S. Bill will speak about the importance and effectiveness of PMC's work, including that of the shows.

Bill is Founder and President of Population Media Center (PMC) (www.populationmedia.org), an organization that strives to improve the health and wellbeing of people around the world through the use of entertainment-education strategies. He also serves as Chair of The Population Institute in Washington, DC (www.populationinstitute.org), which works in partnership with Population Media Center. PMC creates long-running serialized dramas on radio and television, in which characters evolve into role models for the audience resulting in positive behavior change. The emphasis of the organization's work is to educate people about the benefits of small families, encourage the use of effective family planning methods, elevate women's status, prevent exploitation of children, promote avoidance of HIV infection, and promote environmentally sustainable behaviors.

He received a B.A. in Biology (Magna Cum Laude) from Amherst College and an M.Phil. in Biology from Yale University (with specialization in Ecology and Evolution). He served as Director of the Population Institute's Youth and Student Division, Development Director of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, Associate Director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Executive Vice President of Population Communications International before founding Population Media Center in 1998.

To learn more, go to:

https://www.populationmedia.org/

Bill's slides: https://tinyurl.com/2fp82fpd

This episode refers to a number of visuals that are in the video version which can be seen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4IDQhRnwnT1iqINDJo6rXc or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Fyc7fM4ThnU

We believe the message is an important one, even if you do not watch the video, and hope that you will enjoy this and every episode of our series.

The Memory Project is a unique initiative in which US high school students create handmade portraits as special gifts for children facing challenges around the world.

The portraits serve as beautiful and meaningful memories for the children, though the deepest purpose of the project is to connect youth around the world in a supportive and positive way. By carefully capturing the soft expression of each child's eyes and the playfulness in their smiles, and then sending the finished artwork to them as a gift, participating high school students promote feelings of friendship between countries and cultures.

Today Ben Schumaker will tell us how the Memory Project began in 2004 and also share stories of his efforts in Afghanistan, where he aimed to help youth feel interconnected despite religious and cultural differences.

Ben started the Memory Project (memoryproject.org) as a graduate student at UW-Madison in 2004. Ben's aim is to help build understanding and kindness between youth from disparate cultures, and to date the program has involved 300,000 youth from 56 different countries.

To learn more, check out the Memory Project website:

https://memoryproject.org

You can also see the video of our last delivery of art to Afghanistan:

https://vimeo.com/memoryproject/afghanistan21

Medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Over 40% of Americans are currently dealing with the challenges of medical debt. RIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by two former debt collections executives who realized they were uniquely qualified to help those in need.

Our one-of-a-kind model turns $1 dollar into, on average, $100 of medical debt relief. Since RIP Medical Debt's inception, we have abolished over $7 billion in medical debt for over 4 million people. In this presentation, you will learn more about RIP Medical Debt's innovative approach and the impact it's having on this intractable problem.

Our speaker, Allison Sesso, became the President/CEO of RIP Medical Debt in January of 2020.

RIP Medical Debt was established for the sole purpose of reducing the medical debt burdens of low-income individuals with limited capacity to pay their medical bills by leveraging donations from people across the country.

They have abolished $7,387,275,754 to date for over 4,255,986 people.

Prior to joining RIP Medical Debt, Allison served as the Executive Director of the Human Services Council of New York (HSC), an association of 170 nonprofits delivering 90% of human services in New York City.

Allison's work on behalf of the human services sector led both the city and state of New York to recognize her as a top nonprofit leader in 2018 and 2019, one of the 25 most influential leaders in Manhattan in 2017, and one of New York City's 100 "Most Responsible" in 2016.

To learn more, go to:

Testimonies from beneficiaries: https://youtu.be/_7Hijtpag8o

How it works: https://youtu.be/OSk8xDd2GbU

Mount Tamalpais College is an independent liberal arts college located in San Quentin State Prison.

Corey McNeil has been a student since 2011 and joined the staff of Mount Tamalpais College as a program clerk in 2017. After being released in 2021, he became the college's Alumni Affairs Associate.

Jody Lewen is President of Mount Tamalpais College at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County, California.

Mount Tamalpais College (MTC) provides a general education associate of arts degree and intensive college preparatory courses to over 300 people incarcerated at San Quentin. It also provides training and support to other higher education in prison programs across the country, advocating for the values of high academic quality and inclusivity, while serving as a resource to policymakers, practitioners, and academic and correctional administrators.

Dr. Lewen received her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University in modern European history; her master's degree from the Freie Universität, Berlin in comparative literature and philosophy; and her PhD in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.

She was the recipient in 2006 of the Peter E. Haas Public Service Award from the University of California, Berkeley, which recognizes alumni of UC Berkeley who have made significant voluntary contributions to the betterment of society. In 2016, MTC (then the Prison University Project) received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. In 2018, Jody was named a Frederick Douglass 200 awardee, which honored those whose modern-day work best embodies Douglass' legacy of social change.

To learn more, go to:

https://www.mttamcollege.org

https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2022/08/08/nations-first-standalone-prison-campus-celebrates-graduation/

To view the video and visuals in this podcast, see: https://youtu.be/OlJkOXbR4Ew

This presentation examines the unseen micro-enterprises of the South African township economy through a socio-spatial lens.

Through case studies, Andrew Charman will illustrate the surprising diversity of these small businesses, provide insights into the spatial patterns in which these micro-enterprises are organised, and highlight some of the barriers that hinder the growth and formalisation of businesses in this largely under-reported segment of the South African economy.

Andrew Charman is a Co-Director of the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, a specialist research, advisory and policy engagement organization. He trained as a sociologist and development economist, studying at the University of Cape Town and Cambridge University.

Andrew has worked across the Southern African region on addressing socio-economic development challenges in a broad range of contexts, both rural and urban. His current work focuses on: i) influencing public policy towards the township economy in support of informal micro-enterprises, ii) implementing development projects to foster economic growth and strengthen social cohesion, and iii) designing and implementing area-based projects to support the development of micro-enterprises and build social cohesion.

With co-authors Petersen and Govender, Andrew has recently published Township Economy: People, Spaces and Practices (HSRC, 2020). The book brings together a decade of research on micro-enterprises conducted in 10 townships in South Africa and Namibia.

Andrew's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-charman-21ab7315/

Betsy Fisher is the US Director of the NGO Talent Beyond Boundaries and a lecturer in international refugee law at the University of Michigan Law School.

She is an immigration lawyer and advocates for government policy and technology-based platforms that help refugees and stateless people access lasting safety. She also enjoys watching sports and attempting to garden vegetables.

The number of displaced people, more than 110 million people currently, has rapidly expanded. Meanwhile, avenues have narrowed for people to safely return to their homes or gain long-term status and rights where they live now. In addition to asylum and resettlement, many seek to connect refugees with other avenues to safety through employment or family ties.

As an immigration lawyer and refugee advocate, Betsy has worked to advance these immigration pathways. As the US Director at Talent Beyond Boundaries, Betsy connects refugees with durable status and living wages in the United States, and previously developed a platform screening refugees for eligibility for dozens of immigration programs. Join us for a discussion of how we can leverage immigration policy and tech solutions to connect displaced people with lasting refuge.

To learn more, go to:

https://talentbeyondboundaries.org

To read a blog that Betsy co-wrote about avenues to connect refugees with third country solutions:

https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2023/11/21/modest-proposals-for-actors-supporting-third-country-solutions-for-refugees/

Betsy's LinkedIn account:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsy-fisher-78051a14/

Betsy's Twitter/X profile:

https://twitter.com/betsylfisher"

Students play an important role in the management of the school which empowers them to bring social and economic development to their communities, as well as learn leadership, empathy and compassion.

In 1974, our speaker, Mechai Viravaidya, launched the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) to combat Thailand's soaring population growth rate. Using unconventional methods and humor, he made contraceptives widely accessible, leading to a significant reduction in the growth rate to 0.5% by 2003.

The Bamboo School, founded in 2008, stands as a beacon of lifelong learning and socioeconomic advancement.

Mechai’s remarkable achievements have earned him numerous accolades, including the United Nations Population Award and the Bill and Melinda Gates Award for Global Health.

To learn more, go to:

http://www.mechaifoundation.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnmLeWYj6J0

https://youtu.be/iphYDcCNoR4?si=dTHqZa93EZHHs-G-

https://www.ted.com/talks/mechai_viravaidya_how_mr_condom_made_thailand_a_better_place_for_life_and_love?subtitle=en

https://tinyurl.com/MVFdocuments (a folder with articles and more)

For $2.50 a woman can be protected against cervical cancer.

A quantum leap in technology and affordable vaccines now make it possible to eliminate the often fatal disease of cervical cancer.

This episode was originally recorded in November of 2022.

The WHO has placed this effort high on their agenda, and Rotary International is taking a lead in the process. Focusing on lower- and middle-income countries is key to preventing the greatest preponderance of a cancer that globally kills upward of 350,000 thousand women each year. In this talk, we will learn about the new techniques, technology, and experience with this fight.

Our speaker, Rich Godfrey, is a semi-retired surgical oncologist active with Rotary International in the effort to eliminate cervical cancer. He works in Kenya, Guatemala, Belize, and Bolivia, and practices with Rotacare in San Jose.

Rich has three published books, edits an environmental newsletter, and is an active beekeeper.

He also serves as the current chair of the Environmental Sustainability Commission for the City of Fremont.

To learn more, see:

https://www.who.int/health-topics/cervical-cancer