LIMINAL

Moderator: 

• John Damon: CEO, Canopy Children’s Solutions; Aspen Health Innovators Fellow

Panelists:

• Mpadi Busisiwe Makgalo: Co-Founder and CEO, HEAL-SA; Africa Leadership Initiative - South Africa Fellow
• Michelle Culver: Founder, The Rithm Project; Pahara Fellow

Related Resources:

This conversation was held at the 2024 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. 

Explore other conversations from the Action Forum on leading through uncertainty, collaboration across difference, and more.

Related Resources:

• Book: “The Executive’s Compass: Business and the Good Society” by James O’Toole
• This conversation was held at the 2024 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. Explore other conversations from the Action Forum on leading through uncertainty, collaboration across difference, and more. 

*Currently in a discovery phase, the Technology Leaders fellowship is a values-driven leadership initiative created by the Aspen Institute's Aspen Global Leadership Network for leaders in the field of technology and AI.

How do we listen even when we are the most hurt? How do we disagree without disappearing?

At the Resnick Aspen Action Forum, changemakers explored what it means — and what it takes — to stay at the table during the most difficult moments. This conversation turns toward clues in history, reminding us that the institutions of today were once the result of creative innovation. 

Taking inspiration from youth and the artistic community as sources of "research and development," this conversation invites us to wrestle with tension rather than treating conflict as failure, allowing us to remain in relationship through our differences. Whether operating in small towns in a single U.S. state like South Carolina, or across multiple nations in the Middle East, panelists discussed the conditions that we can create in ourselves and in our communities to design new ways forward. 

Moderator: 

• Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, PhD: Scholar-in-Residence, Aspen Global Leadership Network; Associate Provost, University of San Diego

Panelists:

• John Simpkins: President & CEO, MDC; Liberty Fellow
• Chadia El Meouchi: Managing Partner, Badri and Salim El Meouchi Law Firm; Co-founder, Middle East Leadership Initiative; Henry Crown Fellow

Related Resources:

• This conversation was held at the 2024 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. Explore other conversations from the Action Forum on leading through uncertainty, collaboration across difference, and more. 

To live in our world today is to sit with the heaviness of the many contexts of oppression, violence and injustice that exist. It can feel overwhelming and even disempowering, especially for those who want to drive change.

How can we see the light during such painful times? How can we take pause amidst chaos and hurt to stay curious? Who can we turn to and where can we go to find our common humanity?

To grapple with these questions, this LIMINAL podcast offers you an insightful conversation with Simran Jeet Singh, a national leader in the areas of equity, inclusion, and social justice. Growing up in South Texas as the son of Indian immigrants, Simran is a self described “turban-wearing, brown-skinned, beard-loving Sikh,” who, despite continually facing racism and discrimination, chooses to find humanity and light in the world. ” Simran is also the Executive Director for the Aspen Institute's Religion & Society Program and the author of national bestseller The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life, from which he shares guiding principles and practices in this conversation. 

This episode was recorded on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City. The attacks not only disrupted Simran’s understanding of safety with death threats and emotional abuse from his neighbors, but also shattered his identity in society as people saw him differently than how he perceived himself. He shares how instead of being consumed by anger and judgment, he embraced the Sikh teachings of love, compassion, optimism, and service to navigate the shadows of bigotry. 

Tune in as Simran shares practical wisdom for seeing our common humanity in the darkest of times and sustaining ourselves as leaders in the long journey of social change. 

Related Resources:

In addition to his work at the Religion and Society Program at the Institute, Simran regularly writes for major media publications like CNN, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post and the Harvard Business Review and has been featured on stages like SXSW. Interested in delving deeper into Simran’s wisdom? Here are some resources you might enjoy exploring:

• Video: Simran Jeet Singh at SXSW 2023
• Book: The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life
• Article | TIME Magazine: The Sikh Idea of Seva Is an Antidote to Our Current Malaise
• Article | Harvard Business Review: Boards Need Real Diversity, Not Tokenism
• Children’s Picture Book: Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run a Marathon
• More on the Aspen Institute’s Religion and Society Program

This conversation was originally recorded for a staff gathering at the Aspen Institute led by the People and Culture team. Thank you to the People and Culture team, the Women of Color Affinity Group, and the Men of Color Affinity Group, for hosting this conversation and allowing us to share it widely on LIMINAL. 

Suzanne Biegel (Catto Fellow), a beloved member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2022. In confronting the end of her life, Suzanne has found a clarified vision around how to spend her time, live into her purpose, and speak truth. It's with gratitude that Suzanne joins us on LIMINAL to explore how we might all allow the shortness of life to shape how we show up for the better.

Suzanne’s Legacy: Heading for Change

Suzanne is renowned for her ability to foster collaboration and drive change. Leading at the intersection of gender-smart and climate investment, she has spent her 22-year career making finance more inclusive and impactful. She’s championed the idea that combining gender and climate investment can yield powerful results in both mitigating climate change and promoting gender equality. 

As her legacy project, Suzanne and her husband Daniel recently launched Heading for Change - a donor advised fund aimed at making catalytic investments that are both gender and climate smart. Starting with their own $1MM endowment, the fund will demonstrate what these types of investments look like, and, when combined, achieve greater impact on both climate mitigation and adaptation and gender equality. 

They are actively raising funds and looking for partnership. If you’re someone who can support fund managers at the intersection of climate and gender equity work or are interested in learning about neurodivergent thinking, go to headingforchange.org to learn how to get involved. 

Hear more about Suzanne’s impact and reflections on this time in her life in a special video conversation between her and AGLN moderator Betsy Flemming. Special thanks to Be Inspired Films for producing the dialogue. 

Music and Poetry

Throughout this episode, we share poetry and music. Explore what we mentioned: 

• Playlist: Check out this playlist to hear some of Suzanne’s favorite “pink” tunes
• Poem: The Ponds by Mary Oliver
• Poem: Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

How many times have you heard the cliche “the children are our future.'' If you consider it seriously, it’s actually a profound statement. If we were to truly center children - and the people that raise them - how would our systems, structures and cultures change?  

At first blush, childcare seems to only be relevant if you need it for your family, but it’s actually foundational to a functioning society. Care for our youngest children enables parents to work and provides children the foundation for achievement as they grow. It’s an investment in creating stronger communities. When you look around the world, the idea that children are a collective responsibility shows up in both policy and community norms. Yet, in the United States, this work continues to fall on individuals.

What are the cultural agreements we’ve accepted that hide this collective responsibility? And after witnessing the clashing of homelife and work life during every Zoom call in the pandemic, why haven't our actions kept pace with our awareness?

Jessica Sager is a Pahara Fellow and co-founder and CEO of All Our Kin, an organization that supports the people providing the care: early childhood educators. Jessica has seen that by uplifting caregivers, parents and children can thrive. Bernadette Ngho is a university professor turned early childhood educator. After a year at home with her newborn sons, she began considering going back to work. However, she struggled to find the type of care she was seeking for her boys. In response, she created the space herself and now owns and operates a family child care program called Trusted Care in West Haven, CT.  

On this episode of LIMINAL, we are in conversation with Jessica and Bernadette on questions of what caregiving means to our culture and why we aren’t paying enough attention. 

Massive transformation is underway in the way we work and our relationship to work. Many people felt this shift when we left our offices to indefinitely work from home in 2020. The change continues, with exponential technology and AI reshaping how we define work altogether. 

The United States is also experiencing an economic downturn, with labor shortage being one of the biggest drivers, particularly in low-wage industries where jobs lack basic benefits and livable pay.

At the same time, there has been an undeniable resurgence of the organized labor movement in the US. This coalition looks different from past waves in both its composition and approach. This provides an opportunity to re-think some key questions:

What does it mean to be a worker? What does it mean to be a leader? And could our relationships to the organizations in which we work and lead advance a more just society?

To explore these questions, we’re in conversation with Roy Bahat and Liba Rubenstein from Bloomberg Beta - an early-stage venture firm backed by Bloomberg that invests in companies broadly focused on the future of work. They also lead the Aspen Institute’s Business Round Table on Organized Labor, an initiative from the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program and MIT that brings together business and labor leaders to innovate and share learnings on what a thriving workplace with more organized labor might look like.

Roy and Liba invite us to rethink how ideas of power and our relationship to work and the workplace could help inform better decision-making and ultimately create prosperity for everyone.

Resources:

• Get Connected: Learn more about joining an upcoming Business Roundtable on Organized Labor by connecting with Liba at [email protected]. 
• Article: Could organized labor be good for business?
• Article: How Businesses Should (and Shouldn’t) Respond to Union Organizing
• Video: Bloomberg’s Bahat on Organized Labor in the Tech Industry

Climate change poses one of the most existential threats of our time. It is a complex and overwhelming problem that requires a diverse set of solutions. We also know that at its core, this crisis, like many, is a moral challenge, rather than a technical one. In this episode of LIMINAL, we invite you to think  less about the “what” of climate work and more about the “who” and “who” we need to be in order to create the transformational change required to combat the warming planet.

On this episode, Dar Vanderbeck is in conversation with two climate leaders  - Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, Executive Director of the All We Can Save Project and author of Drawdown  and Brett Jenks, CEO of Rare and an Aspen Institute Catto Fellow, to explore their unique paths into climate work and invite you to think about the ways you might show up. 

Learn more about All We Can Save: https://www.allwecansave.earth/ 

Learn more about Rare's behavior change work: https://rare.org/program/climate-culture/ 

Follow the AGLN on across social media at @AspenAGLN and if you liked this episode, subscribe and give the show five stars. A new episode will be hitting your feed in April. 

The Groundwater Institute helps people make sense of our society is organized by race - and how that organization causes racial inequity.

On the premiere of LIMINAL, Dar Vanderbeck is in conversation with the Groundwater team on their analysis and how they work with leaders to propel their anti-racism journeys. Who you’ll hear from:

Deena Hayes-Greene is a partner at Impactive and the founder and Managing Director of the Racial Equity Institute. Deena is nationally renowned as a trainer and institutional leader in racial equity, chairs the boards of Guilford County Schools and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, and holds a BA from Guilford College.

Bayard “Bay” Love’s work is dedicated to ending structural racism by building successful campaigns, strong organizations, and empowered leaders. He is an organizer and facilitator at the Racial Equity Institute and a former Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. Bayard has a MPP from Duke University, an MBA from University of North Carolina and a BA from Wesleyan University.

Ellen Hunter is the Founder and CEO of Impactive, a consulting firm that works toward racial equity and social justice by focusing on strategy and leadership development. She was previously a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group. Ellen has an MBA from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Brown University.

Monica Walker is a veteran organizer, artist, trainer, speaker and social activist who has spent the better part of her career addressing issues of race, equity, and inclusion while organizing for social justice on every front. She was previously the Executive Director of the Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Guilford County Schools, where she led the district’s efforts to eliminate racially disparate outcomes and all other forms of bias and discrimination.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE GROUNDWATER INSTITUTE: https://www.groundwaterinstitute.com/ 

 In 2020, there were 600 mass shootings across the U.S., up from 461 in 2019. Every day it seems our phones buzz with a new report of a gun-related incident or death. What is it going to take to prevent gun violence in the United States?

On this episode of the Value of Leadership, hear from two leaders, Arne Duncan (Henry Crown Fellow) and Megan Ranney (Health Innovators Fellow) who are bringing unique approaches to gun violence prevention. While they both come at the issue from different angles, the ingredient they’ve both found to be effective is inclusion. 

Links for Continued Reading on This Topic

• Chicago Cred: https://www.chicagocred.org/
• Reaching and Connecting: Preliminary Results from Chicago: CRED’s Impact on Gun Violence Involvement (Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University): https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/documents/reports/ipr-n3-rapid-research-reports-cred-impact-aug-25-2021.pdf
• AFFIRM at the Aspen Institute: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/health-medicine-and-society-program/affirm-the-american-foundation-for-the-firearm-injury-reduction-in-medicine/
• Amid a Series of Mass Shootings in the U.S., Gun Policy Remains Deeply Divisive - Pew Report
• Protests and Pandemic Spark Record Gun Sales - NPR