Chef Djamil Djibril Bah-Traore talks about a passion for cooking beginning in his childhood home in Togo, honoring a long if counter-cultural tradition in his family. Immigrating to America Bah-Traore has founded a family of culinary organizations furthering his belief that you can’t hate someone whose food you love.

Chef Djamil Djibril Bah-Traore is a West African immigrant from Togo. He is a chef and entrepreneur who aims to cast fresh and diversified light on Africa's rich culinary history. Prior to founding his House of Bah nonprofit and business entities, Bah-Traore spent over a decade working for corporate America in management capacities in numerous industries before making a major career transition to culinary arts and hospitality in 2013. Bah-Traore holds an associate's degree in culinary arts from Metropolitan Community College, a bachelor's degree in business, and a master's degree in hospitality and restaurant management.

Philosophy professor Joe McCaffrey – in our conversation recorded in May at the end of the academic year – guides us through that broad labyrinth of meaning and purpose by sharing his students responses to the question: How might we lead good lives. McCaffrey also shares what it is to be a philosopher and how he came to be one.

Joe McCaffrey is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Omaha and is also a member of interdisciplinary programs in Neuroscience and Medical Humanities. McCaffrey teaches classes on consciousness, moral psychology, bioethics, artificial intelligence, and the meaning of life. Originally from Eugene, Oregon, McCaffrey now resides with his partner in Omaha. When not doing philosophy, he enjoys strategy board games and video games, reading science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories, and dinners and movie nights with his neighbors and friends.

Firefighter, cancer survivor and advocate Nick Howe shares his experiences of surviving cancer with an experimental treatment, only a few years later to require a new heart during which time a spinal stroke left him paralyzed from the waist down. Howe talks about a desire to dedicate his life in service to others initially taking the form of being a firefighter, as well as a spouse and father, but which now has assumed a new shape and vitality of purpose.

Nick and Rachel Howe met initially in 2005 and later married. Nick worked as firefighter and Rachel as a teacher. In 2016, the onset of severe health issues for Nick was diagnosed as Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma that chemotherapy, immunotherapy and an autologous stem-cell transplant failed to treat. To save his life, he underwent a highly experimental therapy called CAR T-cell therapy and he has been in remission since. After welcoming their two children, in the summer of 2022, Nick experienced more illness and received a heart transplant. A few weeks later, with his new heart failing, Nick was placed in a medically induced coma during which time he had a spinal stroke that has left him paralyzed from the waist down. Nick’s dedication to supporting others now includes serving as the Nebraska State Director for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network and as an ambassador for LLS and Lymphoma Research Foundation. Nick, his wife Rachel, and their two kids live in Omaha, Nebraska.

Leslie Smith candidly shares her journey from an abusive childhood to college and to a professional career, currently as the leader of the Omaha Municipal Land Bank, a quasi-public nonprofit organization that transforms vacant and abandoned properties into community assets, manifesting Smith’s passion for improving the quality of life for all people.

Leslie Smith, a native Mississippian, serves as the Executive Director for the Omaha Municipal Land Bank, where she leads the organization’s efforts helping to stimulate the local economy by addressing systemic vacancy issues at its core. Before coming to Omaha, Smith worked for Truist Bank developing inclusive lending mortgage strategies. As one of the foundational programs of the Blight Authority Memphis, a quasi-governmental nonprofit, Smith helped launch and lead what became a full-scale operational land bank serving the city of Memphis, energizing her passion for improving all residents’ quality of life regardless of their zip code.

Musician and producer Laura Bird Burhenn talks about the changes in her vocation and life since we last spoke in 2018, including shifting more to work with her production company, Our Secret Handshake. Burhenn also shares how her commitment to a more loving, inclusive world, expressed through her art, has evolved and been re-imagined in her latest intimate tour across America.

As a musician, Laura Bird Burhenn has toured the world as a member of The Postal Service, Bright Eyes, and her own band, The Mynabirds, releasing four full length albums and a host of other music. As a producer, Burhenn in 2018 founded her production company, Our Secret Handshake, based on one fundamental belief: Art Can Change the World, by exploring the spaces where art intersects activism, and where good storytelling reveals and encourages the human spirit. Burhenn has produced for various media, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and livestream events including the MTV EMAs, the "Honor Her Wish" Ruth Bader Ginsberg tribute concert, and the "Save Our Stages" concert, which raised nearly $2 million to fund the National Independent Venue Association's work to support music venues during the pandemic.

Artist Bart Vargas talks candidly about a chaotic childhood, which found expression in drawing. After military service, Vargas turned full-time to art. He shares his love for color theory and the use of salvaged materials in his craft, his exploration of themes of identity, consumerism, abundance and waste, and the unexpected discovering of his personal voice and purpose.

Bart Vargas is a Visual Artist, Educator, and Advocate from Bellevue, Nebraska. He received his BFA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and his MFA at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work can be found in collections throughout the world. His works have also been featured in many publications including Sculpture Magazine, New American Paintings, and HGTV Magazine. Vargas lives with his wife Bekah Jerde, and their 70+ plants in Omaha where they operate an international studio. Vargas is a Professor and Chair of Visual Arts/Graphic Arts at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and serves on several boards for local and regional non-profit organizations that support the arts.

Melissa Breazile, a mindful outdoor guide and master naturalist, shares those early experiences of nature that inspired her creation of Wild Tree Collaborative, which offers outdoor experiences that reconnect people with themselves, each other, and the living earth. Breazile also talks about the wonder inherent in our natural world, including its spiritual and intimately healing effects in her own life.

Melissa Breazile was born and raised in Southeast Nebraska and has called Omaha homebase for much of her adult life. Intrigued by the healing power of nature, she guides experiences to help participants find ease, embodiment, and connection with themselves and the living earth through her project, Wild Tree Collaborative. Breazile is a trained Mindful Outdoor Guide, certified by the Kripalu School of Mindful Outdoor Leadership, and is a Nebraska Master Naturalist. Her experience also includes communications and public policy work in the nonprofit and political sectors, and public health work as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Breazile earned a Master of Public Administration from University of Nebraska Omaha and bachelor’s in digital media from Northwest Missouri State University.

International health professional, Ruth Stark, talks about a life in global health, training local health workers and developing nursing programs, eventually being appointed by the World Health Organization as its representative to Papua New Guinea. Stark shares the origins of this calling in her grandmother's stories of exploration, which inspired Stark - as a young single mother - to sell everything and embark with her family on this lifelong vocation.

Doctor Ruth Stark is a nurse with over four decades of global health experience. From humble beginnings influenced by her grandmother's stories of exploration, Doctor Stark worked internationally for the World Health Organization, the United Nations, Catholic Relief Services, and other organizations across Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands training local health workers, developing nursing programs, and leading initiatives like HIV/AIDS relief in South Africa. Her travels reshaped her perspective on health, deepening her understanding of the cultural, social, and economic factors affecting well-being. Doctor Stark has come to recognize the importance of local partnerships, sustainable solutions, and respecting cultural contexts in global health work, as reflected in her book ”How to Work in Someone Else's Country" published in 2011 by the University of Washington Press.

Carol Russell, a community advocate and civic leader, talks about the events and experiences that have shaped her life vocation. Russell shares her early career as a medical technologist involved in cancer research studies, and, with more than 80 causes and organizations over many years, shares her passion for philanthropy and for Omaha’s collaborative philanthropic community.

Carol Russell has been a leading community volunteer for nearly 50 years. She has been the Legislative or Governor’s appointee on multiple task forces, is an advocate for meaningful policy change when she’s passionate about a cause, and has a resume of around 83 nonprofit engagements running from A almost to Z. Russell has won numerous local, national, and international awards for her community service and is an advocate for voices that often go unheard or undervalued. Russell earned a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Chemistry and with her Master’s Degree in Pathology, worked as a trained medical technologist and supervised cancer research studies. From people that know and love her, words used to describe Russell include: loyal, compassionate, energetic, sarcastic, witty, passionate, colorful, vivacious, and loving.

Maggie Wood, executive director of Film Streams, talks about working in the nonprofit world, especially in building welcoming communities and elevating the arts and cultural landscape. wood shares the evolution of her leadership, influenced not only by her work experience but also insights revealed during international travel and a recent career break.

Born and raised around Bloomington/Normal, Illinois Maggie Wood came to Omaha in 1997 with the Clark Construction Group, as part of the general contracting team that built the Roman L. Hruska Federal Courthouse and then spent the following decade focusing on business development and operational management within the construction and supplier industry in Omaha. Building on her degree in Theater Arts and Communications from Eureka College, in 2006, Wood transitioned to the non-profit sector with development and operational management roles at Opera Omaha, Film Streams, and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, before her leadership and strategic acumen took her to Inclusive Communities in 2015, where she served as Executive Director for close to 8 years. Earlier this year, Wood was appointed the new Executive Director of Film Streams.