Let's Give A Damn

Ceallaigh experienced a massive amount of relational and emotional pain early in her adult life. She shares more about that in our conversation so I won’t get into it here but I wanted to point out here that one of my favorite things about life is that beautiful things are oftentimes birthed out of pain and suffering. I’ve seen this happen over and over and again in my own life. I expect many of you have as well. Out of deep pain, Print the Love was birthed. 

Print the Love travels to under-resourced countries and communities and gives photographs, not takes them. I’ve traveled a ton—I’ve been to the 48 contiguous United States and I’ve lived in or spent time in over 30 other countries. I have seen my fair share of tourists or do-gooders whipping out their cameras and taking a million photos of the people they are visiting. I’ve done a fair amount of this myself, to be honest. Ceallaigh has flipped this on its head and it’s a beautiful thing. They use those Polaroid instant cameras—you know the ones that spit out the photo out immediately—and they give their only copy of that photo to the person they just took the picture of. And for many, this is the only photo they have of themselves. In every way, they are giving the gift of love, joy, self-esteem, empowerment, and so much more. 

Follow the work Ceallaigh and Print The Love are doing online and on Instagram. 

NOTE: My friend Nicole Devereaux is raising $40,000 in the 40 weeks leading up to her 40th birthday. Amazing idea! Her goal for this week is to raise $2,000 for Print The Love! PTL has a matching grant for $2,000 for their November 15 Give To The Max Day. Check out the campaign and consider giving a few dollars to a great cause!

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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!

We all want to change the world, right? If you’re like me, most days we can’t even figure out how to begin. Everything seems so overwhelming. Well, you’ll want to meet my guest today. I think she can help! Katie Patrick is an environmental engineer and software designer who lives in Silicon Valley. She’s freaking brilliant. In our conversation, we chat about parts of her 10-step process for saving the world. We talk value-action gap, we talk behavior mapping, we talk feedback loops, we talk about all things environmentalism, we talk about the public disclosure of data (which is fascinating by the way) and we talk about her new book—How To Save The World. This conversation got me thinking about so many amazing things and I hope it’ll do the same for you! 

Follow Katie on Instagram and Twitter. And please click here for more information on how you can support her new book project on Indigogo! Let’s Give A Damn family, let’s help her get closer to her goal! We can do it!

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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!

“Having been raised in Mali, I’ve seen first-hand the opportunity to build equitable and authentic relationships with women farmer entrepreneurs in Africa. That’s why we founded Farafena to provide women farmers with an opportunity to share their food with the world. My dream is for Farafena to set an example of how families like yours, can engage with and get to know families like mine, our communities and our authentic African foods and culture.”

 

 These are the words of my guest today, the brilliant Oumar Barou Togola. Oumar was born in Mali, West Africa but raised in Canada, British Columbia. As Oumar grew up into a person who valued action over talk and someone who wanted to create solutions, he launched Farafena. Farafena which means ‘Africa’ in Bambara, the national language of Mali. Farafena’s vision is simple and compelling—to share healthy, sustainably farmed food with the world, while improving the lives of women farmers and their communities in Africa. They do this by partnering with over 850 African women farmers in nine villages, to bring nutrient-dense, African-grown products to Canadian tables. They’re in hundreds of store all over Canada and hope to be in the US very soon. 

Y’all, you’re going to love Oumar. I felt like I could talk with him for hours. For your sake, however, we did not talk for hours. But I know you’re going to learn from Oumar, you’re going to be inspired, and you’re going to be a better human as a result of this conversation.

Follow Oumar’s work with Farafena online, on Instagram, and 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!

About 25% of our listeners are from outside the USA. Whether you live in the USA or not, you don’t need me to tell you that America is more divided than ever. We can chat and/or argue all day about why we are more divided than ever but we are not going to focus on those things today. What we are going to focus on is how can people that believe different things and value different things come together to find common ground around food and drink?

Right after the inauguration in 2017, three groups came together to launch a project called #100Days100Dinners. Shortly after, this project turned into The People’s Supper. The People’s Supper aims to repair the breach in our interpersonal relationships across political, ideological, and identity differences, leading to more civil discourse. And, they plan to do it in the most nourishing way possible – over food and drinks!

As we approach the midterm elections, you can get in on the action. Last weekend, they launched Midterm 5 — a series of suppers they are going to do for the the few weeks leading up there midterm elections. They are doing 5 large suppers in cities and town all over the USA. Even if you can’t make one of those, you can host your own! I’m hosting one this week in Nashville and I’ll report back to you during next week’s podcast. Visit their Midterm 5 page on their site to get more details for hosting your supper. Don’t delay!

That’s all I’m going to tell you for now because I’m going to let my guests — Micky ScottBey Jones and Margaret Ernst — tell the rest. Micky is the Director of Resilience and Healing Initiative at Faith Matters Network and Margaret is the Program Manager at Faith Matters Network. They’re amazing. You’re going to love them. 

Follow Micky on Twitter and on her website. Follow The People’s Supper on Facebook and on their website. 

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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!

You all know my guest and his work very well…whether you know it or not. Without a doubt, you’ve used the service he created many years ago. My guest today is Craig Newmark—the founder and creator of craigslist. Even though he hasn’t been in the daily business of craigslist for over 15 years, that is how he gained his fame and his wealth. What I love about Craig is how he has used his wealth. He is known everywhere as a very generous man. He has given and continue to give away much of his wealth. He does this work through Craig Newmark Philanthropies—a foundation committed to support the people who fight to protect the values that America was founded on: fairness, opportunity and respect. 

He will talk more about this in our conversation but you’ll notice a pattern in his giving—he cares deeply about journalism and freedom of the press. Last year, he gave $1M to ProPublica. This year, he gave $1M to Mother Jones. Also earlier this year, he gave $20M to City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism—which has now been named the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. That’s quite the mouthful. 

Follow Craig on Twitter and keep up with all the amazing work he is doing at Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

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PODCAST SPONSOR!

Many thanks to our friends at Goodwell Co. for sponsoring the podcast for the next few weeks! The mission of Goodwell Co. is to create 100% natural, subscription-based, sustainable products, systems, and technologies that raise environmental awareness and empower people to make choices that help protect and preserve the planet today.

Visit their website and use the code DAMN when you check out and you'll get 20% off your one-time purchase OR your subscription purchase! What are you waiting for?!

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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. 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!

Tunde Wey, a Nigerian chef based in New Orleans, is a chef is who focuses on using food to address huge topics like racial inequality. Say what? Yup. He uses food to address systemic race issues in our country and he does a damn good job at it. With names like Saartj, 4:44, Blackness in America, and 1882, you can see immediately deduce that his pop-up restaurants are about much more than food. One of his projects even charged two different amounts depending on whether a white person or a black person was purchasing the meal. You’re going to love how Tunde processes through these issues. As we talked, I started to feel very….heavy I guess is the word. He’s addressing very hard issues. I loved the answer he provided when I told him how I was feeling. 

Follow Tunde on Instagram and keep up with ever-evolving body of work on his website.

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PODCAST SPONSOR!

Many thanks to our friends at Goodwell Co. for sponsoring the podcast for the next few weeks! The mission of Goodwell Co. is to create 100% natural, subscription-based, sustainable products, systems, and technologies that raise environmental awareness and empower people to make choices that help protect and preserve the planet today.

Visit their website and use the code DAMN when you check out and you'll get 20% off your one-time purchase OR your subscription purchase! What are you waiting for?!

____________________________

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!

A few months ago, I sat down in a swanky NYC hotel lobby for a cup of coffee with my guest today. We talked for an hour or two and I knew I had to have him on my podcast. Lew Blaustein is a wonderful human with a heart of gold. If you are a sports fan, however, you’re going to want to listen closely to out conversation. 

Lew spent most of his career doing all things sports—brand management, advertising, marketing, sponsorship sales, and the like. But 17 years ago on 9/11/01, everything changed for Lew. He is now a sustainability evangelist that spends all of his time consulting with many companies and leaders at the intersection of environmentalism and sports. Our world is a better place because of Lew and the work he does. 

Follow Lew on Twitter and follow his GreenSports blog. He shares so much amazing content for free!

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PODCAST SPONSOR!

Many thanks to our friends at Goodwell Co. for sponsoring the podcast for the next few weeks! The mission of Goodwell Co. is to create 100% natural, subscription-based, sustainable products, systems, and technologies that raise environmental awareness and empower people to make choices that help protect and preserve the planet today.

Visit their website and use the code DAMN when you check out and you'll get 20% off your one-time purchase OR your subscription purchase! What are you waiting for?!

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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. 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!

My guest today is the weird and fantastic CJ Casciotta. CJ is my friend and a friend to so many. He is a writer and a media maker. He has spoken to communities like Lululemon, The Salvation Army, TEDx, and Charity:Water. Additionally, he has partnered with MGM Studios, The United Nations Foundation, and others like these on various types of projects. 

CJ’s message is compelling to me because he says the kinds of things I’m always saying to the people around me BUT he’s saying them in his very unique way. And I like his message a lot. From a very young age, we are told to stand in line, draw in the lines, follow the rules, be this way, and do it that way. CJ has a different message that I think you’re going to find super compelling. 

In addition to us being excited about having CJ on the show, if you’re listening to this on the day it releases—September 11—his book comes out today! If you’re listening to this after 9/11, shame on you for not devouring this podcast every Tuesday when it comes out. Just kidding. But seriously, his book “Get Weird: Discover the Surprising Secret to Making a Difference” is out right now! You’re also going to want to download his Weird Wins course for free on his website! 

If you’re not convinced that you need his book yet, maybe Seth Godin will change your mind: “Reassuring, moving, and practical, this book will help you embrace the magic you've always had.”

Follow CJ on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with his life and work. 

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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. 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!

Ian Rosenberger was born and raised in Pittsburg. His life and career took him all over the world experiencing new things all the time and meeting the most amazing people. One of those places he began to visit frequently was Haiti. As a result of the trip he made right after the 2010 earthquake which claimed the lives of over 250,000 people, he started Thread and Team Tassy (which is now known simply as Work). Ian is a truly exceptional leader running these organizations that are changing the world in so many tangible ways. They are damn-givers through and through.

Toward the end of our conversation, you’ll hear me state that this podcast would release on September 18. Obviously, it’s not September 18. We bumped this podcast up a few weeks because we wanted to give you more time to check out the Kickstarter they have going on for their new backpack made from 100% recycled canvas. The canvas was made entirely from discarded plastic bottles. I got my hands on one of these backpacks and let me tell you, it’s fantastic. Super functional. Looks great. It’s wonderful. AND we are going to be giving away one of the backpacks they are currently kickstarting! So, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram because we are going to launch the giveaway later this week. BUT only one of you will win this bag so I’d recommend you back this project on Kickstarter to ensure you get one or two or three or ten at a discounted rate. Go to abetterbackpack.com to learn more about this amazing product! Follow Ian on Twitter and follow Thread on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

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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. 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!

“Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth.” Australian physician and author, Helen Caldicott, said this and I believe it. I have the utmost respect for teachers. They are under-payed, under-appreciated, and over-worked heroes that we should all take much better care of than we currently do. Teachers, you’re amazing! Huge virtual hug to each and every one of you today. 

Do you know who else believe the contents of the aforementioned Caldicott quote? Kara Bryant, my guest on the podcast today. She teaches at Village Leadership Academy in Chicago, IL. VLA is an elementary school that offers a “fresh new approach to teaching and learning that includes high lam standards, exposure to world history and geography, appreciation for cultural differences, the development of critical thinking and perspective taking skills, and socially just decision making.”

In our conversation, we talk about the challenges of teaching in an urban context, the joys of teaching in an urban context, training tomorrow’s leaders, why she became a teacher in the first place, and so much more.

Here’s a link to the #NoCopAcademy train takeover that Chance The Rapper retweeted. 

Here is an article from Teen Vogue that featured last year’s GRC—a campaign to redistribute funding in Chicago in favor of underserved communities and schools, rather than on a new $95 million academy for cops. 

Here is one (of many!) articles about VLA’s 5th grade class and their GRC. They are trying to rename Douglas Park by adding an “s” which would make the park named after Fredrick Douglass, rather than Stephen Douglas (an abolitionist vs. a slave holder). There’s also a beautiful video about this. 

Amazing, right? Kara and the staff at VLA are doing incredible work. I’m so grateful for them and I’m so excited that these children get to be formed under the goals and vision of VLA. 

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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. 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!