Let's Give A Damn

Today, the one and only Kirsten Powers joins us on the pod! Kirsten is a best-selling author, a USA Today columnist, and an on-air Political Analyst at CNN. In the past, Kirsten worked in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant US Trade Representative for Public Affairs, as VP of Internal Communications at AOL, and at so many other interesting places. 

Kirsten is releasing her brand new book today (November 2) — Saving Grace: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered, And learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts! I joked with Kirsten during the chat that this book is my new Bible. Y'all, I read this book last week in preparation for our podcast conversation and I didn't realize how much I needed the words and hope found in this book! 

Follow Kirsten on Twitter and Instagram.

Buy her book immediately! You need this book and book sales during launch week help the author so much! 

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

“Katharine shares an optimistic outlook on what we can all do to move the needle toward solutions and invite allies under the big tent.”

This is what Don Cheadle said about the book this week’s guest recently wrote about how we can solve our climate crisis and how we can find hope and healing in our incredibly divided world.

Katharine Hayhoe is incredible! She is an atmospheric scientist, she is the chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy, Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University, she is an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences), and she is the principal investigator for the Department of Interior’s South-Central Climate Adaptation Science Center and the National Science Foundation’s Global Infrastructure Climate Network.

And now she is the author of an incredible book that you should buy immediately — Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.

Follow Katharine on Twitter and Facebook! She is a fantastic and helpful human.

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

"Joél's words are where I go when I need some inspiration. And he never lets me down." Lin-Manuel Miranda (yes, that Lin) said these words about our guest this week.

Joél Leon is a performer, author, storyteller, and Creative Director at T Band Studio at the New York Times who was born and raised in the Bronx. He writes and tells stories for Black people. He's been featured in the Columbia Journal, BBC News, Sirius XM, Forbes, Insider, Medium, Philadelphia Printworks, Blavity and the Huffington Post. He has spoken and performed at the Apollo Theater, Joe's Pub, Rockwood Music Hall, Columbia University, NYU and Webster Hall. He lives in Brooklyn and is the father to Lilah and West.

NEXT STEPS:

Follow Joél Leon on Instagram and Twitter.

Buy a God Bless the Poets crewneck today! All proceeds go to support the Audre Lorde Project.

Listen to Joél’s brand new spoken word project, soundtrack to a riot.

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

Tony Hillery is founder of Harlem Grown — an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to inspire youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. They currently operate 10 urban agriculture facilities ranging from soil-based farms, hydroponic greenhouses and school gardens.

I first learned about Tony when his face and Harlem Grown’s story popped up here, here, and here, on Humans of New York’s social media feeds. This story is extra special because it is happening all around me in my neighborhood of Harlem!

Nicole Engel, Executive Director of Harlem Grown, joins us for part of the conversation. In Tony’s won words, “She is the Ying to my Yang. She completes me.” We all know that it takes teamwork to make the dream work. And Tony and Nicole are a wonderful team!

NEXT STEPS:

Follow Harlem Grown on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Attend their 10-year anniversary virtual gala on October 27!

Donate to Harlem Grown. I’ve seen, firsthand, the impact they’re making. You can be part of this work today!

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

Adrian Grenier is a former actor and director and a current social entrepreneur, investor, and apprentice. You may know Adrian from shows like Entourage or from movies like The Devil Wears Prada. I first learned of Adrian when he started Lonely Whale years ago. More recently, he left New York for Texas and started DuContra Ventures. 

He is happier and healthier than he has ever been on his farm outside of Austin, Texas. During our conversation, we discuss social impact, cultivating a better relationship with money, self-care, mental health, whether or not we should listen to experts, creating space to connect with the earth, and so much more. 

Follow Adrian's work at Lonely Whale and DuContra Ventures.

Follow Adrian on Instagram and Twitter. 

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

Juli Boit is an author, community builder and non-profit leader working at the intersection of faith, global health, and human dignity. For 17 years Juli has lived and worked in Africa, founding and serving as International Director of Living Room International, a community-led nonprofit providing hospice and palliative care services to adults and children in Western Kenya.

Through her training as a Family Nurse Practitioner, Juli has combined her dual passions of healthcare and social justice into a unique expression of love that is providing desperately needed services in an underserved community. That said, Juli would be the first to add she’s the one who has been loved the most by her patients and neighbors in her home village of Kipkaren — most notably by Titus, her Kenyan husband and their children Sharon, Alice, Ella, Geoffrey, and Ryan.

Her book, From Beyond the Skies, releases TODAY ON SEPTEMBER 28! Make sure to pick up a copy today. 100% of the net proceeds of this book will fund Living Room International.

Don't forget to follow Juli on Instagram!

Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

A year ago, I invited Eddie S. Glaude Jr. to join me on the podcast for a discussion about Black Lives Matter, living as a black man in America, James Baldwin, his book Begin Again: James Baldwin's America And Its Urgent Lessons For Our Own, and so much more. I think about Eddie and his important work all the time so it was a no-brainer to bring our conversation back at some point. Today is that day!

Read Eddie's incredible bio on Princeton University's website.

Follow Eddie on Twitter and Instagram. 

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

“The time is upon us to denounce ignorance and hate, and to work together toward this sacred goal, to create a world without fear, without violence, and without hate.”

Ten days after 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan was shot from point blank range by a white supremacist in Dallas, TX. His near-death experience and subsequent religious pilgrimage sparked a profound journey for Rais, including an international campaign advocating to save his attacker from death row. Ever since, Rais has kept his death bed promise to do more for others, dedicating his life to transforming hearts and opening minds through restorative justice, building bridges, storytelling, public speaking, and facilitation.

Over the last 9 years, Rais Bhuiyan has spoken to and worked with over 250,000 people around the globe. From corporate board rooms, to college campuses, classrooms, conference auditoriums, maximum security prisons, and refugee camps, Rais shares his extraordinary story of survival and the transformational power of mercy and forgiveness with audiences and participants of all ages, backgrounds, professions, religions, cultures, and languages. Rais inspires and motivates others around a variety of topics relating to his story and experiences of forgiveness, compassion, empathy, understanding and acceptance, as well as hate-crimes, race relations, equity and social justice, intolerance, faith and leadership.

Rais donated his story, chronicled in The True American: Murder& Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas; the 2014 New York Times Book Review Notable Book and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Rais worked with the Obama Administration’s Domestic Policy Council, receiving a personal letter from the President thanking him for his courage and efforts. He currently represents the U.S. Department of State, as part of their speakers’ bureau, supporting federal efforts for peace and understanding. Rais is featured in the documentary series, The Secret Life of Muslims featured on Vox, PRI, and the USA network. His segment was chosen by CBS Sunday Morning for national broadcast. Rais delivered a TEDx at Emory University in 2016. His efforts have been widely recognized, receiving the Excellence for Human Service Award, United for Change; 2011 American of the Year, Esquire Magazine; 2014 American Heritage Award, American Immigration Council; 2014 Human Relations Award, Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation; 2018 ADL Washington, D.C. Kay Family Award & Concert Against Hate Honoree, among others. Hollywood’s feature film, based on The True American, is currently in production. Rais founded the non-profit World Without Hate in 2011.

Visit World Without Hate’s website to get involved.

Follow World Without Hate on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Follow Rais on Twitter and visit his website to learn more about him.

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Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected].

Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Ann Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of CORE Response, returns to the podcast to give us an update on how they are responding to the earthquake that rocked Haiti on August 14. 

To learn more about Ann, listen to our first podcast conversation on October 13 2020. 

Consider supporting these fantastic organizations: CORE, World Central Kitchen, Partners In Health, and LIDÈ Haiti. 

Follow Ann on Twitter and Instagram.

Follow CORE on Twitter and Instagram.

Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!

Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.

Mary Cain has been called “the fastest girl in a generation.” Mary has been been breaking records since she was a young teen. Mary was the 2014 World Junior Champion in the 3000 meter and she is the youngest American track and field athlete ever to represent the United States at a World Championships meet after competing in the World Championships in Athletics in Moscow at the age of 17. In 2013, Mary joined the greatest track team in the world, Nike’s Oregon Project, and, as a result of an abusive coach and system, it nearly ruined her career. In 2019, Mary spoke up about the abuse she experienced and soon after launched a non-profit called Atalanta NYC. This organization employs and supports professional female runners so they can achieve their highest athletic goals and helps those same runners serve as core mentors for the youth mentoring program.  Follow Mary on Instagram and Twitter. Learn more about Atalanta NYC. _________________________________________ Reach out to us anytime and for any reason at [email protected]. Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with everything. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! If you love what we’re doing, consider supporting us on Patreon! We can’t do this without you. Lastly, leave us a 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts! Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all! Edited and Sound Designed by Sound On Studios.