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Life Ensemble
Life Ensemble episodes
- #144 - Why Plastic Straws SUCK with Emma Rose Cohen, Founder & CEO of Final Straw
📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
In our first episode of 2021, we welcome Emma Rose Cohen to the podcast. Emma is the Founder & CEO of Final Straw.
Final Straw creates reusable products that make reducing plastic a convenient and fun part of your day-to-day. They are best known for their reusable folding straw that went viral in 2018, catapulting them from a tiny startup to a successful brand offering a variety of eco-conscious and stylish foreverables™ that consumers are excited to use.
In our Episode with Emma, we discuss:
- How Final went from a small startup (with a kickstarter campaign goal of 12.5k that raised almost 2 million) to a thriving successful company
- The problem with plastic straws
- Emma's vision for Final moving forward
- How to reduce single-use plastic in our daily lives
- Plastic straw alternatives
Links from the Episode:
- Emma on Instagram and LinkedIn
- Final on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
- The Four Agreements by Janet Mills
- Blueland
Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com//why-are-straws-bad/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
43 min - #143 - How to Make a Difference in the World: Lessons Learned from Our Top 10 Podcast Episodes of 2020 [Part 2]
✏️Blog Post & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
📈Get Help Growing Your Purpose-Driven Business
In episode two of this two-part series, CEO of Grow Ensemble and host of the podcast Cory is exploring and sharing the most impactful lessons learned on how to make a difference from our top 10 episodes of 2020.
From building community to patience in growth, we unpack a treasure trove of valuable insight from our change-making guests to inspire us to make the world a better place in 2021 and beyond.
Full Blog Post & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com/making-a-difference/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
39 min - #142 - How to Make a Difference in the World: Lessons Learned from Our Top 10 Podcast Episodes of 2020 [Part 1]
✏️Blog Post & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
📈Get Help Growing Your Purpose-Driven Business
In episode one of the two-part series, CEO of Grow Ensemble and host of the podcast Cory is exploring and sharing the most impactful lessons learned on how to make a difference from our top 10 episodes of 2020.
From building community to patience in growth, we unpack a treasure trove of valuable insight from our change-making guests to inspire us to make the world a better place in 2021 and beyond.
Full Blog Post & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com/making-a-difference/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
54 min - #141 - What Could the Future of Schools Look Like? with Ted Dintersmith of What School Could Be
📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
In this episode, we welcome Ted Dintersmith. Ted is a film producer, author, and speaker on education and innovation.
Ted founded the nonprofit What School Could Be after realizing that there was a gap in standard education needing to be filled. What School Could Be seeks to reimagine what a classroom, a test, and a student all look like. Instead of stifling children’s interests and curiosity as the current public education system does, we need to allow each student to create their own path of learning and become purposeful contributors to society based on their own interests, talents, and potential.
As an organization, What School Could Be seeks to amplify the work of educators forging paths of innovation for their students. The purpose of school isn’t to provide data for our policymakers to use for funding and bills, the purpose of school is to help children live happy, fulfilling lives.
In our Episode with Ted, we discuss:
- How being a father informed Ted's decision to start his journey in Education and found What Schools Could Be
- Ted's experience traveling the country to visit schools and studying classroom curriculum and interaction
- The problem with standardized education
- What Ted and What Schools Could Be imagines the future will look like for schools
- How we can promote a more effective and impactful future for education
Links from the Episode:
- Ted’s Website
- Ted on Twitter and LinkedIn
- What School Could Be on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube
- Ted’s TED Talk
- What School Could Be by Ted Dintersmith
- Most Likely to Succeed
- The Years That Matter Most by Paul Tough
- The Overstory
53 min - #140 - How Tablas Creek Became the World's First Regenerative Organic Certified™ Vineyard with Jordan Lonborg of Tablas Creek Vineyard
In today's episode, we welcome Jordan Lonborg, viticulturist at Tablas Creek Vineyard for part two of our two-part series with the company.
Tablas Creek Vineyard is all about making change in the world of planet-saving agriculture. They are the first Regenerative Organic Certified™ (ROC™) vineyard in the world. That means that in addition to producing top-of-the-line wines people love, their agricultural practices help reverse climate change.
We're incredibly honored to be partnering with the great folks at Tablas Creek for this series, as well as a cause campaign surrounding sustainable wine and agriculture.
We spoke to Tablas' General Manager, Jordan Haas last week about the history of Tablas and how the Regenerative Agriculture Certification™ is changing the shape of California Wineries. Be sure to check it out if you haven't already.
In this episode with Jordan, we dive into:
- How Tablas Creek became the world's first ROC™ vineyard
- How being Regenerative Organic Certified™ is helping to fight climate change
- Jordan's insight into what it takes to run a people-and-planet-friendly operation
- The three pillars of the Regenerative Organic Certification™
Links from the Episode:
- Tablas Creek on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
- The Rodale Institute
- Kiss the Ground on Netflix
- The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Related Content:
- The show post for this episode (and Jason's episode from last week):
- https://growensemble.com/sustainable-vineyard
- Our articles in partnership with Tablas Creek:
- https://growensemble.com/sustainable-wine/
- https://growensemble.com/climate-change-and-agriculture/
- https://growensemble.com/regenerative-agriculture/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
39 min - #139 - Beyond Sustainable Wine: Tablas Creek’s Regenerative Agriculture Sets a Higher Standard with Jason Haas, Partner & General Manager of Tablas Creek Vineyard
In this episode, we welcome Jason Haas, Partner and General Manager at Tablas Creek Vineyard.
Tablas Creek Vineyard is all about making change in the world of planet-saving agriculture. They are the first Regenerative Organic Certified™ (ROC™) vineyard in the world. That means that in addition to producing top-of-the-line wines people love, their agricultural practices help reverse climate change.
We love what Jason and the rest of the folks at Tablas Creek are doing, and we're incredibly honored to be partnering with them for this episode and a cause campaign surrounding sustainable wine and agriculture. We also have an episode with their viticulturist coming next week, so stay tuned for that!
In this episode with Jason, we dive into:
- What sustainability in the wine industry means
- How climate change is affecting California’s wine production and farming practices
- Why farming regeneratively can be so uniquely beneficial to vineyards
- Sustainable vineyard certifications
Links from the Episode:
- Tablas Creek on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube
- The Rodale Institute
- Kiss the Ground on Netflix
- The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
Related Content:
- The show post for this episode:
- https://growensemble.com/sustainable-vineyard
- Our articles in partnership with Tablas Creek:
- https://growensemble.com/sustainable-wine/
- https://growensemble.com/climate-change-and-agriculture/
- https://growensemble.com/regenerative-agriculture/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
44 min - #138 - The Perfect Blend: How Coffee Globalization Can Improve Lives & The Planet with Dean Cycon of Dean’s Beans
📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
Today, we're chatting with Dean Cycon, founder and CEO of Dean's Beans.
Founded in1993, Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee Company roasts and sells coffee beans that actually have the power to change the world. Instead of focusing purely on profit (which they’ve been making since year one), Dean’s mission is to serve palate, people, and the planet.
In our Episode with Dean, we discuss:
- Dean's Beans origin and story so far
- Dean's experience as an indigenous rights and environmental lawyer turned social entrepreneur
- The effects coffee production has on people and the environment
- What ethical coffee is
- How you can support ethical coffee companies
Links from the Episode:
- Dean’s Beans on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
- Javatrekker by Dean Cycon
- Honor the Earth
- Food First
- Peace Development Fund
Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com/coffee-globalization/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
1 hr 13 min - #137 - Community Update: November 2020
✏️Blog Post & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
📈Get Help Growing Your Purpose-Driven Business
In this episode, we bring you our Grow Ensemble Community Update for November 2020. If you haven’t seen one of these before and you are curious how they work, you can check out our last two from September and October.
With these updates, our primary goals are to:
- Learn (and apply) everything we can as it relates to leaving the world a better place than we found it.
- Share everything we learn to bring more people into the community of more sustainable living, work, and business.
In this update episode, we cover:
- Grow Ensemble's community milestones and numbers
- Our social good blog growth
- The podcast growth
- Cause Campaigns and posts
- What's next for December
- Our next Cause Campaign with Tablas Creek Vineyard
- New Podcast Guests
Full Blog Post & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com/nov-2020
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
22 min - #136 - Plastic Free Shampoo and Conditioner: A Revolution in Hair Care to Reduce Ocean Plastic with Dion Hughes and Nora Schaper, Co-Founders of HiBAR
📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
Today, we welcome Dion Hughes and Nora Schaper, co-founders of plastic-free shampoo and conditioner brand HiBar.
Founded in 2017 after a trip to Mexico where founder Dion saw entire beaches covered in plastic, HiBAR was created to increase accessibility to salon-quality, plastic-free shampoo and conditioner. In addition to their mission of reducing ocean plastic, HiBAR aspires to show other industries how to reimagine their products to be plastic-free.
In our Episode with Dion and Nora, we discuss:
- HiBar's origin story
- The development journey of creating plastic-free, all-natural shampoo and conditioner bars for all hair types
- The planet-loving philosophy behind Hibar's unique product shapes and packaging
- How Dion and Nora view "competition" in the space
- Tips for going plastic-free
Links from the Episode:
- HiBAR on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
- Bite Toothpaste
- Blue Planet Series on BBC
- Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson
- Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel
- Eating Up Easter Documentary
- Mudlarking: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames by Laura Maiklem
Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com/plastic-free-shampoo-conditioner
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
36 min - #135 - A Leading Mission-Driven Company: Leesa Mattress & Their Mission to End Bedlessness with John Replogle, Executive Chair of Leesa Mattress
📄 Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses
🌍Better World Weekly Newsletter
🎬Subscribe on YouTube
In this episode, we're chatting with accomplished mission-driven business leader John Replogle, current Executive Chair of Leesa Mattress.
Founded as a Benefit Corporation, Leesa was built around the global issue of childhood bedlessness. For every 10 beds they sell, Leesa donates 1 to a child in need. Already, they’ve donated over 38,000 beds. They also use sustainable materials and design and manufacture their mattresses right here in the USA.
In our Episode with John, we discuss:
- John's experience as the CEO of both Seventh Generation and Burt's Bee's, as well as being a founding member of One Better Ventures.
- What makes a business 'mission-driven' and why they're necessary for true change
- Mission-driven vs purpose-driven companies
- Leesa's #1bedlessnight campaign
- How to start a purpose-driven business (or embed practices into an existing one)
Links from the Episode:
- John on Linkedin
- Leesa on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
- One Better Ventures
- White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
- One Bedless Night
- Generation Investment Management
- Imagine (UK)
Full Show Notes & Episode Bonuses:
https://growensemble.com/mission-driven-companies/
Connect with Grow Ensemble on Social:
- YouTube
44 min
About Life Ensemble
From the publisher's feed
Life Ensemble is a podcast about the art of living and working sustainably—challenging what we think that means and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
Hosted by…
writer and indie media producer, Cory Ames, this show explores the powerful intersections of business, nature, and philosophy to answer big questions: How can we build meaningful work? How do we create healthier, more resilient communities? How can we rethink what we value—not just in terms of money, but in ways that truly align with what matters most?
Through deep-dive interviews, essays, and thought-provoking analysis, Life Ensemble helps us see the connections—between people, place, and purpose—so that together, we can construct a more inspiring, energizing, and achievable vision for the future.
If you’re someone who cares about sustainability, equity, and doing work that serves, this show isn’t here to change what you value. It’s here to help you see the world—and what’s possible—differently.