Let's Give A Damn

Senzela Atmar was born in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan. It's a miracle she and her family are still alive today. After surviving bombings, the death of a family member, and several years in a refugee camp, she and her family won a lottery and were brought to the United States. They began their lives in Nashville, TN. Senzela's story is going to blow your minds.

Senzela started Relief Without Borders—an organization committed to providing relief to those suffering injustice and poverty in developing countries.

She is also involved with Share the Journey.

Follow Relief Without Borders and Senzela on Instagram.

In the intro of the podcast, I read an incredibly impactful poem that speaks candidly to the experience of so many refugees and immigrants. You can read it below.

NOTE: In this poem, Warsan—a Somali poet and educator— uses the n-word. I copy/pasted the poem in its entirety for you below but left the n-word out when I recited the poem in the intro. As a non-black person, I don't feel comfortable saying it—even if I'm simply reading what she wrote.

HOME by Warsan Shire

no one leaves home unless

home is the mouth of a shark

you only run for the border

when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you

breath bloody in their throats

the boy you went to school with

who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory

is holding a gun bigger than his body

you only leave home

when home won't let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you

fire under feet

hot blood in your belly

it's not something you ever thought of doing

until the blade burnt threats into

your neck

and even then you carried the anthem under

your breath

only tearing up your passport in an airport toilet

sobbing as each mouthful of paper

made it clear that you wouldn't be going back.

you have to understand,

that no one puts their children in a boat

unless the water is safer than the land

no one burns their palms

under trains

beneath carriages

no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck

feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled

means something more than journey.

no one crawls under fences

no one wants to be beaten

pitied

no one chooses refugee camps

or strip searches where your

body is left aching

or prison,

because prison is safer

than a city of fire

and one prison guard

in the night

is better than a truckload

of men who look like your father

no one could take it

no one could stomach it

no one skin would be tough enough

the

go home blacks

refugees

dirty immigrants

asylum seekers

sucking our country dry

niggers with their hands out

they smell strange

savage

messed up their country and now they want

to mess ours up

how do the words

the dirty

Friends, I truly hope the first few days of 2019 have been amazing for you and yours!

Claude Silver is on the podcast this week! She is the Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia—a company with 900 employees in NYC, LA, Chattanooga, and London. Claude has so much to teach us, y’all. She is wise well beyond her years. In our chat, she shares so much goodness on all things optimism, positivity, impact, and empathy. 

I mentioned this on the podcast—Claude and her wife just had a baby, Shalom Bee. You must check out photos of their beautiful baby! Follow Claude on Instagram and Twitter. You won't regret it!

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Follow Let’s Give A Damnon Facebook, Instagram, & Twitterto keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram,& Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damnby contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star reviewon Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

This is the first episode of 2019! I can't wait to see what 2019 has in store for you and for me. Thanks for joining me on this damn journey.

In this episode, I go on a rant/monologue for the first few minutes. I hope you'll find it helpful! I'd like to share two quotes from that rant:

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” —Marcus Aurelius

“Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.” —Rabbi Harold Kushner

I also share highlight moments from the podcast this year. You'll hear from Jessica Jackley, Tunde Wey, Ted Terry, Ruthie Lindsey, Dwayne Reed, Chelsea Clinton, Sheeza Shah, and Kevin Lyman. Some of these are my favorite moments and some of them are yours. Either way, I hope you'll find them encouraging as we crush it in 2019!

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Have an amazing year, friends! Love y’all!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Today's conversation involves two guests: Danny Bryant & Jason Adkins.

Father Danny Bryant is my pastor and the parish priest at St. Mary of Bethany Parish in Nashville, TN. He’s a close friend a trusted spiritual advisor.

Jason Adkins—a return guest to the podcast—is an urban farmer and professor at Trevecca University in Nashville, TN.

We talk about the myth of scarcity, the liturgy of abundance, and why this matters to damn-givers like you! Don't miss this conversation.

Lastly, if the holidays are not a joyful time for you (for whatever reason), please let me know if I can help in any way. I love you!

Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

Many thanks to our friend Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative University for their partnership during this five-week series!

Daquan Oliver is the Founder and CEO of WeThrive. WeThrive equips and empowers low-income youth to rise as entrepreneurial economic leaders. They know very well what so many of us know — if you give these kids the resources and opportunities, they will blow our freaking minds which what they are capable of accomplishing.

Daquan has been selected to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, an Echoing Green Fellow, featured in Black Enterprise, Boston Business Journal, BostInno’s 25 Under 25, he has delivered a TEDx Talk on actionable strategies to overcome structural violence, and he has been recognized by Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for his work!

Follow Daquan on Twitter. Follow WeThrive on Instagram and Facebook.

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

For the next few weeks, I’ll be releasing a few podcast conversations in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. I attended their yearly event a few weeks ago and was able to record conversations with some of their alums. Each podcast will include a short introductory conversation I had with Chelsea Clinton. Today’s conversations is with the incredible Christine Schindler. 

Christine is an engineer and an entrepreneur. She studied biomedical engineering and global health at Duke as a National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholar. As a CGIU Commitment Maker, she founded Girls Engineering Change. GEC equips young girls in elementary and middle school to solve real world engineering problems. She also founded PathSpot Technologies— a company that helps protects businesses and customers from foodborne illnesses. Something tells me this is only the beginning for Christine. I can’t wait to see what she continues to build.

Follow Girls Engineering Change on Instagram. Follow Pathspot Technologies on Twitter.

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

For the next few weeks, I’ll be releasing a few podcast conversations in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative. I attended their yearly event a few weeks ago and was able to record conversations with some of their alums. Each podcast will include a short introductory conversation I had with Chelsea Clinton. Today’s conversations is with the fantastic Arnav Dalmia. 

5 years ago, Arnav graduated from CGIU. 4 years ago, he and his two co-founders launched their new company, Cubii. Simply put, their mission is to get people moving more. Hundreds of millions of people across the globe spent 7, 8, 9, and 10 hours per day sitting at a desk or in front of a TV. Or both! Mayo Clinic actually calls “sitting the new smoking.” So, how do they aim to end this epidemic? He and his pals invented Cubii—”a compact seated elliptical trainer that integrates exercise into your routine, turning sitting time into active time.” What’s cool about the product is that your data is stored in the system and shared with your accountability partners or office mates so you can cheer each other on or if you’re the slacker, your people can encourage you to pick up the pace. 4 years into their company, they have 100,000 active users all over the world! Super cool stuff. 

Follow Arnav and Cubii on Twitter! And if you sit a lot at work or at home, buy yourself a Cubii this Christmas!

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

For the next few weeks, I’ll be releasing a few podcast conversations in partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative University. I attended their yearly event a few weeks ago and was able to record conversations with some of their alums. Each podcast will include a short introductory conversation I had with Chelsea Clinton. The first of these conversations is with the incredible Sara Minkara.

Sara is a Lebanese-American Muslim woman who lost her sight at the age of seven. In so many ways, she has used her disability as an advantage. She spends most of her time empowering young people with disabilities “transforming stigma against disability globally.” She also speaks quite a bit. She does all of this as the founder and CEO of Empowerment Through Integration. 

Super cool side note—she was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017!

Follow her on Twitter. And keep up with the work ETI is doing on Twitter, also! 

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

A couple of weeks ago while I was in LA, Jessica Jackley invited me into her home for a chat. I’ve been waiting to do this chat since May. We were going to do it May but she and her family embarked on a trip around the world so we decided to wait until afterwards. We finally got around to do it and she did not disappoint!

Jessica’s career has been and continues to be all about financial inclusion, the sharing economy, and social justice. She’s the co-founder of Kiva, the world's first peer 2 peer micro-lending website. Kiva lets everyday people lend $25 and up to individual entrepreneurs, providing them capital to start or expand a small business. Since 2005, Kiva has facilitated over $1B in loans worldwide.

She teaches at USC. She speaks all over the country. And she’s the author of CLAY WATER BRICK: Finding Inspiration from Entrepreneurs Who Do the Most with the Least. She’s married to Reza Aslan, a respected religious scholar, author, and speaker. Together, they are raising their three boys in Los Angeles.

Follow Jessica on Twitter. And make sure to read her blog where she documented their journey around the world! It’s fantastic. 

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!

Today, November 6, is midterm election’s day here in America. I love our global listeners but since most of our listeners are from America, I have something to say to you. No matter who you are or where you land politically, I hope you voted. It is our right and one we must not take for granted. Having said that, let me say this—I hope you are voting for equality and justice for all people in this election. Not just equality for some people. 

I bumped this podcast conversation up a few weeks because I wanted you to hear it on election day. Not because I hope to sway your vote. I am releasing it today as more of a symbolic gesture of what I want to see more of in our country and in our world in the future. 

Today, you’ll get to meet Bnyad Sharef and Maggie Anderson. Bnyad is a refugee from Iraq. He’s also a Muslim. Maggie was a staunch Trump supporter and was very anti-immigrant and anti-refugee. Bnyad and Maggie’s friendship is going to blow your mind. The changes in both of their lives are amazing and they give me so much hope. 

They met a few months ago when they were asked to be part of a campaign called #BeUnafraid. This campaign was created by Catholic Relief Services and my friend Jeremy Cowart. In this campaign, they asked dozens of refugees and their American neighbors to start critical conversations by sharing their stories with each other. What happened was absolutely beautiful. You can learn more about the campaign here and here. 

Fair Warning: We recorded this podcast a few days ago in Maggie’s hotel room at midnight as soon as Maggie arrived in Nashville for a video shoot I helped coordinate with a huge media platform. (In a few weeks I’ll be able to share more about that.) Remembering this was recorded at midnight is a huge key to getting through this conversation. At certain points, it’s gonna sound like we are super drunk. We are not. But if you get through this conversation (please do!), you’re going to find some beautiful gems. Bnyad and Maggie are amazing humans and I can’t wait to introduce them to you. 

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Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter to keep up with all that is going on. We have so much planned for the coming months and we don’t want you to miss a thing! And if you want to follow our host Nick Laparra—Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter.

Support Let’s Give A Damn by contributing the monthly amount of your choice on Patreon. You can choose $1/month or $5/month. 100% of the money you contribute will go to making more podcasts. Not a dime goes into our pockets! Or you can leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts! Every little bit helps. Thanks for all your help.

Have an amazing week, friends! Love y’all!