Pod 4 Good

Chris and Jesse are joined by Chris Siemens (Executive Director) and Evan Taylor (Director of Community Engagement) from Fostering Connections (Formerly the Tulsa Advocates for the Protection of Children) to discuss about their re-branding process, the many different ways we can all help children in the foster care system and the families who care for them, and Chris and Evan's personal stories as parents of children in the foster care system.

Please check them out on their new website and social media feeds:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

If you want to email them, you can reach them at [email protected]

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In what seems like years ago, but was actually only three weeks, Brandon Oldham joined Jesse and Chris to discuss his work on the Vibrant and Inclusive Tulsa (VIT!) Team for the George Kaiser Family Foundation. We discuss how he is handling the pandemic and how he makes new rituals at home. He elaborates on a new initiative he is working on called SummerTulsa, their goal is to create opportunities for rising college juniors and seniors in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can found out more about SummerTulsa here: https://www.summertulsa.com/about. We also discuss the protests to open states early (remember when that was a thing?) and share our love of mid-90s NBA basketball and Brandon's obsession with sneakers.

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Chris and Jesse are joined by special guest, Sam Sinyangwe, co-founder of We The Protestors, an organization building a scalable digital infrastructure to advance policy solutions at every level of government to end police violence. Sam will be the keynote speaker at the 2020 John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation National (Virtual) Symposium, this year's theme being "Reconciliation and Technology: Neutral Resources for Social Good." This is a topic at the heart of Sam's work and his passion is evident as he discusses how difficult collecting data on difficult topics can be, enabling those trying to make change, and how to use these tools to end over-policing, restrict the use of force, and strengthen community oversight.

To virtually attend Sam's keynote address on Wednesday, May 27th at 6pm, you just have to register for free for the Evening Community Remembrance Events, here: https://www.jhfnationalsymposium.org/registration-page

To find out more and to register for the John Hope Franklin 2020 Virtual Symposium go to their website: https://www.jhfnationalsymposium.org/.

Sam is also the co-host of the popular Pod Save The People podcast, which you can find anywhere podcasts can be found.

To find out more about Sam and We The Protestors, check out their website: http://www.wetheprotesters.org/

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Chris Bernard, Executive Director of Hungry Free Oklahoma and Tulsa Kitchens Unite! joins Chris and Jesse to discuss the work of Tulsa Kitchens Unite! who partners with locally owned restaurants and caterers (with the ability to produce pre-prepared and refrigerated/frozen to-go style meals) to provide free meals to families in this time of crisis. Tulsa Kitchens Unite !aims to keep local kitchens open, keep workers paid, and keep local families fed. But that is only only one of Chris's jobs. As the ED of Hungry Free Oklahoma he and his team work tirelessly to bring a unified, statewide voice to the issues and solutions surrounding hunger, with a goal to ensure all Oklahomans have access to affordable, nutritious food. It was an issue long before the Coronavirus and will be there once this is over.

Do you feel like doing something to make sure Oklahomans' aren't going hungry? Hunger Free Oklahoma needs volunteers and they need funds! You can donate to them on their website: https://hungerfreeok.org/donate/. You can find out more about their Covid-19 resources here:https://hungerfreeok.org/COVID19/ and find opportunities to help here:https://hungerfreeok.org/

If you like what Chris and Jesse are doing and want to help, you can give us a review on Apple Podcasts and you can find all their past episodes either in your podcasting app or on their website: www.rant9.com

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Jesse and Chris are joined by Mike Brose, the Chief Empowerment Officer for the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma. We ask Mike how the Mental Health Association is not only dealing with Covid-19 but how, as a mental health issue itself, their work has changed during this pandemic. How this shared collective trauma could be a great equalizer amongst Americans, hopefully lowering the stigma of Mental Health, and how no matter how long this lasts, the effects of it will be felt long after. On a brighter note, we discuss Mike's fantastic and empowering management style and learn that he loves British Mystery shows.

For the Mental Health Association's Covid-19 resources, you can visit them on the web here: https://mhaok.org/covid19-resources

You can also check out their podcast, where they are currently doing daily episodes on mental health and Covid-19 here: https://mhaok.org/podcast

You can check out all the past Pod4Good episodes at www.rant9.com, or anywhere podcasts can be found.

If you are looking for an easy way to listen to the podcast no matter what device you are on, check out our Podfollow page: https://podfollow.com/pod-4-good/view

Laura Bellis joins Jesse and Chris to discuss both her day job, as executive director of the Take Control Initiative, and her current night job, as one of the founders of the Save Our State Facebook group. This non-partisan, non-political group is working at this critical moment to bring people together and call on their elected leaders to do what is best for our state during this pandemic.

Laura helps make sense of the difference between a "Stay-at-home" and a "Shelter-in-Place," how innovations in education and medicine could help make a better future once this pandemic is over, how you, the listener, can get involved in helping Oklahoma get through this, and , if we are being honest, plays therapist to Jesse and Chris.

She also stills the collective Nerd Crown by talking about the game Civilization, and not just the most recent one, but about Civilization II; but not just Civilization II, but a reddit thread from seven years ago, where someone discusses what their civilization looks like after they have played the game for a full decade. The reddit thread can be found here, it is a delight in these stressful times.

To learn more about the Take Control Initiative, you can check out their website: https://www.takecontrolinitiative.org/

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Marc Baizman joins Chris and Jesse to discuss his work at Salesforce, how nonprofits can use technology to solve organizational challenges, whether Covid-19 will permanently change how nonprofits use technology, and an array of amazing resources to help nonprofits use technology better.

Here are those resources!

Idealware: https://www.idealware.org/, a Consumer Reports for Nonprofits

Techsoup: Techsoup.org, Incredible offers for nonprofits from leading brands. Low administrative fees.

The Nonprofit Technology Network, https://www.nten.org/

The Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, http://www.ynpn.org/

The TED talk Marc mentions:

The way we think about charity is dead wrong | Dan Pallotta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfAzi6D5FpM

Locally both Asemio, https://www.asemio.com/. and 501 Tech, https://www.501tech.net/, can help your organization implement Salesforce and other software packages to help your organization.

If you want to reach out to Marc himself, he can be reached at [email protected] 

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Chris and Jesse are joined this week by the amazing Mikeal Vaughn, founder of the Urban Coders Guild, a Tulsa-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization providing Computer Science education opportunities in underserved, under-represented communities. He tells about why he founded the Urban Coders Guild, how he is trying to help train the future technology industry here in Tulsa, what he learned from his time living in Tokyo, what brought him back to Tulsa, and finally why he loves Star Trek.

To find out more about the Urban Coders Guild and how to support them, check out their website: https://www.urbancodersguild.org/

To support Pod 4 Good, please buy us a cup of coffee here: buymeacoff.ee/pod4good

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Educator and community-activist Jennifer Solis joins Chris and Jesse to talk about LGBTQ+ issues within the Methodist church and in public schools. We then discussed two important language labeling issues: People-first language (which puts an individual’s humanity before anything else), and why gender pronouns matter. We also spoke about Jennifer’s upcoming TEDx UTulsa talk. This year’s TEDx theme is Breaking Barriers. Tickets can be purchased here. 

We also chatted about one of our favorite shows of all time, The Golden Girls. Mm All three of us are apparently #teamDorothyZbornak.

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Aaron Bolzle joins Chris and Jesse to discuss Tulsa Remote, which grants $10,000 and additional benefits to eligible remote workers who move to and work from Tulsa. As Tulsa Remote enters its second year, Aaron expounds on how the organization's goal is to make this city a more diverse and dynamic place by removing some of the financial risk in moving to a new city.

We also want to recognize Tallgrass Estate Planning LLP, as they are the newest corporate partners with Rant9 Productions. We look forward to continuing our podcast network with their support, and we appreciate their efforts in creating a unique and necessary community service in estate planning today. Learn more about Tallgrass Estate Planning LLP, check out www.tallgrassestateplanning.com or check out their Facebook, www.facebook.com/tallgrassestateplanning.

Please subscribe to Pod4Good wherever you get your podcasts! If you’re not sure where, check out www.Pod4Good.com