The 92 Report

Show Notes:

Mark Wilson is a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and author of several books on American business and the winning of World War Two, the business of Civil War, military mobilization, and the state and the military and the market. Mark talks about his journey since Harvard which includes teaching English in Japan, his PhD in history in Chicago and meeting his wife, the last two decades in Charlotte with his wife and two teenage boys, and writing his books.

Mark was finishing up his senior thesis and his last season on the Ultimate Frisbee team when he was nominated for a Harvard-run fellowship which allowed him to teach in the UK but the position didn't come through, and, with the poor job market, he was unable to find suitable employment and didn't know what to do, until he and his friend Ernie Chung decided to go on a cross-country road trip in the US in his parents Honda Accord.

They visited some friends, and explored national parks like Glacier and the Grand Canyon, and while on the trip, he received news that a potential job opportunity had opened up. Mark was offered a job to teach English in Japan and he decided to take the opportunity. During his time in Japan, he taught a variety of people from children to factory workers, doctors and fighter pilots and he traveled throughout the country. He also took a trip to Beijing in 1993, which was just before China shifted to fiber optics and leaped forward as a global economy. It was much different to China now. He also saw a different side of Japan, which included some of the grittier parts of the country, as well as the typically polite and quiet people. Mark's fondest memories include being invited to join his students on weekend outings.

Stories about the Business of Civil War

While in Japan, he applied to several grad schools and was accepted into the University of Chicago where they had a Phd. History program where he specialized in the History of the United States and completed his Phd dissertation project, The Business of Civil War. He wrote about how the North supplied its armies during the Civil War and focused on the business/political history of that economic mobilization project. During his research, he found records from correspondence records and court martial case files, which proved an interesting source of information.

The Civil War and Industrialization

Mark pointed out that there is a big debate among historians about the long-term economic impact of the Civil War on industrialization. His 300-page book on the subject offers insights into how the Civil War affected American business. The consensus among economic historians is that the US Civil War had very limited or even a negative impact on the country's industrialization. This is contrary to the popular notion that it stimulated industrial growth. Evidence for the limited impact of the war can be seen in the decisions of the North's top contractor, John Martin, who invested his wartime fortune in high-end European paintings rather than advancing technology. However, the author of a book on the war economy argues that the army's quartermasters should be recognized as among the greatest business leaders of the 19th century because of their massive acquisition efforts and logistics networks such as supply chain management difficulties. He talks about how the military set up army-run factories rather than going through the private sector but to meet demand they had to turn to the private sector. However, he believes that the public sector was as influential in the rise of big business as the private sector.

Teaching History

They left Chicago when his wife was offered a post at Cornell, and Mark started teaching part-time while he finished his dissertation. They moved to Charlotte in North Carolina where Mark was offered a position as an assistant professor.

In 2004, he went back to Harvard for a year where he got a postdoctoral. He finished his manuscript and started his second book on World War Two while teaching history. He teaches thematically organized courses, including the History of Democracy in the US or the Military Industrial Complex, or the History of Charlotte.

Mark discusses his book, Destructive Creation, which focuses on the business side of the story of the military industrial mobilization in World War II. He used archives from companies like Ford Motor Company, Boeing, and Du Pont, as well as records from civilian mobilization agencies and the military acquisition people in the services. Mark's book offers the best book-length account of the big military industrial mobilization of WW2, but also about business's political and PR efforts during the war.

The Business Community and Industrial Military Complex

During the war, the business community worked hard to produce the necessary munitions and also waged a battle to win the public relations battle over who deserved the credit for the successful output of war supplies. This was an anti-New Deal political effort, as the business leaders were suspicious of the growth of government that occurred during the New Deal and World War II. He wrote not only about the machinations of production, but also the cultural and political interpretations.

He talks about how the US government had to pay for the plants and tools needed as the private sector didn't have the incentive to build them. He also mentioned how the military was involved in the supply chain, and how the government set up new factories and plants to supply the military and then brought in private companies to manage them.

He mentions how surprised he is that some of his book's readers have been the Green New Deal crowd and those interested in the COVID-19 pandemic, as they look for ways to mobilize industrial production. He believes the US defense sector has become more privatized and driven by short-term financial goals, which may lead to shortages and fragility. Mark shares his thoughts on the industrial military complex which he explores in his new book. He mentions how he's not surprised that there are shortages of munitions or other problems because of the ways the defense sector has changed in the last few decades, mainly, the fact that the U.S. defense sector has become more privatized and driven by short-term financial concerns.

Mark mentions influences from courses and professors at Harvard, including the course Human Physiology, and the instructors in the History and Literature program Dan Terrace and Steve Biel.

Timestamps:

06:09 Reflections on Teaching English in Japan

13:50 Reflections on Living and Working in Japan and Applying to Graduate School

20:21 The Impact of the Civil War on American Economy and Business 24:11 Exploring Army Acquisition Strategies During World War II 29:11 Early American History and Defense Acquisition History 35:39 "Exploring the Business Side of World War II

39:33 The Military Industrial Complex and US Industrial Mobilization +

51:39 Ukraine's Military Production and Harvard Influences +

Links:

Destructive Creation

The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State, 1861–1865

CONTACT INFO:

[email protected]

Show Notes

Tara Altebrando is a scripted audio creator and author who was part of the Harvard and Radcliffe class of 1992. She spoke to Will Bachman about her journey since graduation. As a senior, she had been the arts editor of The Independent and had interviewed various artists passing through Boston. She met the editor of a magazine based in Dublin at a New Music Seminar in New York and expressed her interest in working for him. After this conversation, Tara went to Dublin and was given an internship at a magazine called Hot Press. She also worked at a bar-restaurant, music venue called the Rock Garden and wrote a column for the magazine reviewing demos by unsigned Irish bands. After a few years, she decided to move back to New York and tried to pursue rock journalism, but ended up cobbling together a bunch of weird jobs in writing-adjacent fields. She eventually worked at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, where she watched TV with a headset and summarized programs for their database. She went on to work as a proofreader and copy editor for Romantic Times Magazine. While there, she noticed one of her classmates was already writing novels, and this led to her trying her hand at writing a romance novel.

From Romance Writer to Published Author

Tara wrote two thirds of a contemporary romantic suspense novel, and a novel about a 20 something working at a music magazine, but neither were successful. She decided to take fiction workshops to learn the ropes as a fiction writer, and ended up finding a job in publishing houses as a proofreader, copy editor, and copywriter. She found the books she read varied in quality, and decided to write her own. She was working at Simon and Schuster at the time, and they published women's fiction at a time when Chick Lit was popular. Will and Tara mention how 80% of literary fiction is bought by women, and more than 50% of paperbacks are romance novels.

From Copywriting to a Young Adult Author

She wrote a novel called Love, Love Will Tear Us Apart about a celebrity journalist hired to write the biography of a pair of conjoined twins. The book flopped in the market, but it led to her success as a novelist. However, when she was given an assignment to read a Young Adult novel, it inspired an idea for a Young Adult novel, and decided to explore writing in this genre. She had a book come out in June 2020, but due to the pandemic, it didn't find an audience. This made her reevaluate what she wanted to do with her time and creativity and led her to explore the world of scripted audio dramas. This was a new direction for Tara, and it was exciting to explore the possibilities and potential of audio drama writing.

From YA Fiction to Scripted Radio Dramas

During the pandemic, there was an influx of interest in this kind of screen-free entertainment because families needed something to keep them occupied during quarantines and lockdowns. She pitched an idea for a series called Dream Breachers which was picked up and is now in its third season. Tara describes the process of creating a scripted drama, from scripting and finding actors to recording and producing. They discussed differences between writing for audio dramas and audiobooks. Tara noted that for audio dramas, the writer needs to convey everything through dialogue and sound effects, which can be a challenge. She revealed that she often plays a game with herself to figure out how to convey information without being too obvious. Tara also shared her pet peeves when it comes to audio dramas and talked about moving into producing her own show, and building an audience for these shows.

Chasing Creative Projects

Tara followed a pattern of chasing creative projects throughout her career. She explains how the creative process differs when writing for a series over writing for a novel and shares how writing for Dream Bleachers required going deeply into world building and setting rules which cannot be broken. When writing both YA and middle grade fiction, Tara draws upon her own life experiences and memories, and finds talking to her children a source of both information and inspiration when creating her stories. She also does research on topics relevant to her work, such as memory science for her YA book The Leaving and artificial intelligence for her most recent book.

Courses that resonated with Tara are Creative Writing with Verlyn Klinkenborg, The Sociology of Peace, EthnoMusicology with Graeme Boone, and a professor whom she particularly enjoyed listening to was John Stilgo.

Timestamps

03:29 From Rock Journalism in Dublin to Writing Adjacent Jobs in New York

05:04 On Romance Writing and Editing

08:14 Writing a Contemporary Romantic Suspense Novel

14:24 The Personality of a YA Writer

16:22 Staying Current in the YA Market

20:12 Scripted Radio Dramas

28:29 Exploring Audio Production and Building an Audience

33:48 Incorporating Reader Feedback into a Series

35:02 Exploring Creative Pivots and Entrepreneurial Initiatives

Links:

Tara's Books on Amazon

Dream Breachers

https://pinna.fm/blog/a-sit-down-with-tara-altebrando-by-amy-thetford

CONTACT INFO:

https://www.facebook.com/TaraAltebrandoBooks/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-altebrando-0831b3201/

Will Bachman talks to Tai Wong, a Harvard and Radcliffe class of 1992 alumni. Tai has been a trader for thirty years but believes that his best trade was asking his high school girlfriend to marry him. They married after she finished business school and they now have four children. Tai shares that his family has been together for 27 years and have had the opportunity to travel to many places together, but one of his favorite locations is Norway.

A Career in Finance as a Trader

Tai initially became interested in finance after a summer internship at JP Morgan where he worked on the foreign exchange trading desk. Tai is a sell side trader, meaning he works for a bank and prices and facilitates client business, as well as making bets with the institution's money. He has eight years of experience in currency trading, and five years experience in helping to build a successful large scale client trading platform for currencies at UBS. He has also been trading precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, as well as base metals like copper, aluminum, and nickel, for the last 15 years. Being a trader has had a significant impact on his personality, teaching him to be direct, loud, and decisive.

He considers his 'real' job to be being a father, husband and son, but he loves his day job too.

Spoofing and Manipulating the Market

Tai discusses how the past 10 years have seen a shift away from human trades in markets such as gold, silver, crude, and natural gas. He explains that 80% of trades are now done by machines, which take the human element out of trading and make it more anonymous. He also mentions spoofing, a crime where traders will show false offers or bids to try to manipulate the market. He explains that traders have tried to fool the machines by using techniques such as spoofing, though this has been made illegal since 2000. The shift to machines has resulted in fewer one and two lot trades, as well as fewer requests for quotes as machines can be programmed to execute trades over time.

Tai describes his daily routine which involves waking up to check Bloomberg on his phone to see what has moved since he last checked, and then scanning the headlines.

Using the Bloomberg Tool for Trading Insight

Bloomberg is a remarkable tool which tracks an immense amount of data and is used by 250,000 people per month, making them around $8 billion. When in the office, the Bloomberg tool is used to log in overnight and use pricing tools for options, sheets that show risk, futures and liquidity. It can be confusing for those who have not used it before, and is similar to what air traffic controllers have to do. The conversation then shifted to an example of a moderate potential trade. Bloomberg allows traders to monitor the market and look for opportunities to buy and sell, and can use a variety of tools to determine the best time to enter and exit the market. For example, a trader might monitor the market and look for a particular stock to rise or fall after an announcement, and use technical analysis to determine the best time to enter the trade. The trader can then use limit orders and stop loss orders to protect their capital and maximize their profits.

Life as a Trader and The Big Short

Tai reflects on his experience as a trader, discussing the rapid decisions that are often made and the importance of developing a thick skin. He talks about traders' skepticism of authority and dislike of arbitrary rules and notes how their experience impacts their personality. Tai remembers the many crises he has witnessed and the feeling of watching the markets move in response, and he reflects on his experience at Lehman Brothers when it went bankrupt in 2008.

He noted that the movie The Big Short did a good job of recounting the episode and was almost 100% accurate except for the empty trading floor scene. He further explained that many people continued to go to work each day after the bank went bankrupt and that the paychecks kept coming.

The Complexities of Trading in the Metals Market

Tai discussed the complexities of trading in the metals market, and the need to understand the nuances of each metal type. He broke metals trading into two parts: precious metals and palladium. He explained that palladium is expensive, and prices rose when Russia invaded Ukraine due to concerns about supply. He noted that the U.S. government did not put it on a restricted list, meaning supply was not interrupted. He concluded that it is important to understand the jargon and nuances of each metal market in order to be a successful trader.

Influential Professors and Classes

Tai remembers certain classes and professors that he found inspiring include Martin Feldstein and American Economic Policy, John Shearman, Professor of Fine Arts with whom he took a course on Michelangelo, Ezra Vogel who taught Industrial East Asia Foreign Cultures 26, and Richard Pipes who taught about the Russian Revolution.

Timestamps

04:30 Exploring Norway in the Summertime

05:53 30-Year Wall Street Trading Career

11:17 Exploring the World of Metals Trading

18:57 Exploring the Impact of Automated Trading on Financial Markets

24:20 Bloomberg Trading Tools and Risk Management

25:05 Hedging Gold Futures: A Discussion of Trade Mechanics

31:29 Counterparty Reputations in Financial Trading

34:23 Exploring the World of Commodity Trading:

36:31 Colorful Traders and Jargon on the Trading Floor

39:36 Experiences on Wall Street and Regrets of Not Taking Certain College Courses

CONTACT INFO:

linkedin.com/in/tai-wong-cfa-9547641

[email protected]

Show Notes

Will Bachman and Nicholas Eisenberger discuss his career path since graduating from Harvard. Nicholas explains that he was always interested in the environment, but there was no real outlet for his interest in school or business at the time. After graduating, he took a year off and a friend of his from Princeton called him from Budapest, Hungary and told him that action around environmental issues were happening there, so he made his way to Hungary where he and his friend started the Environmental Management Law Association in Eastern Europe. The company was a hybrid between a nonprofit and consulting organization. Within a couple of months Nicholas and Peter Kellner were advising the Environmental Minister of Hungary.

They wanted to help the locals catch up to the West in terms of environmental management. They won a contract from the EPA, in conjunction with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in California, to train regional mayors outside of Budapest on environmental management. Nicholas traveled to California from Hungary to meet with the International Director of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund where they talked about how to implement the EPA contract. At the end of the meeting, Nicholas was offered an environmental legal job with the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, which he knew he should have been elated about since he was accepted into Law school and had planned a career as an environmental lawyer, but he felt deflated.

Inspired to Create Solutions to Environmental Problems

However, he had an epiphany and realized he did not want to be a lawyer and sue people, but rather that he wanted to use the tools of business to create solutions that addressed environmental problems. This became his journey. He was inspired by the post cold war zeitgeist of harnessing the tools of business to solve problems, and he wanted to combine business and environment in a way that was impactful, profitable, and good for people.

Nicholas went back to Cambridge for law school where he learned a lot and could apply it in several ways. He found the professors who had an environmental intersections, including environmental management, environmental economics, and spent his time studying the intersection between environment and business, and in an exchange program, he took an entrepreneurship class at The Business School in Berkeley. At that time in California the Internet was exploding. So, he started an internet company called MyPoints.com, an email marketing company that encouraged people to accept spam. It went public and Nicholas had to make the decision to become an advisor instead of taking a full time position and went back to law and for two years worked in environmental law at a large San Francisco law firm where his goal was to bring together cleantech businesses and investors. He convinced the law firm to sponsor a CleanTech pitch event for companies starting to come up with business concepts to solve environmental problems. After a few positions where he was bringing together business and environmental solutions, he

Businesses Focused on Environmental Solutions

After a few years and positions where he was bringing together business and environmental solutions, he was asked to partner at a small consulting company called Green Water, which focused on helping business institute greener practices and products. They helped to develop a strategy for GE's Ecomagination campaign, the success of which inspired other corporate leaders, who wanted to compete in this space. Ultimately, the company was sold and this led to a new chapter where Nicholas began doing more work in sustainability, including starting the non profit DACCoalition.Org, CircularCarbon.Org, and PureEnergyPartners.Com.

Global Thermostat, a company founded by his father and a partner from Columbia, was created to be a game-changing company that could help with the effects of greenhouse gas. Nicholas was an early investor and advisor. It was realized that simply limiting what we put into the atmosphere is not enough, and that we need to extract billions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere on top of stopping the emission of it. This needs to be done in the next 70-70 plus years, which means tens of billions of tonnes a year need to be extracted.

Reducing CO2 Emissions on Global Level

Will and Nicholas discussed ways to reduce CO2 emissions on a global level. Biological methods such as planting trees and mangroves, restoring natural ecosystems, and stopping deforestation are important, but they are not sufficient to address the amount of emissions that have been produced in the last 150 years. Direct Air Capture, a technology developed by Global Thermostat can extract more carbon dioxide than trees can in a single year, per square meter. This technology works like a sponge, using an ultra high surface area material to attract and bind CO2 molecules. Industrial fans are used to suck the air through the material, and then low temperature heat is used to drive the molecules off the contactor and collect them so they can be sequestered or used in products. This technology is helpful in removing billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year.

Inspirational Professors and Courses

Professors and courses that had an impact on Nicholas include Stephen Jay Gould, and the History of Earth and Life, and the scientific magic of our existence; Michael Sandel's course on justice, and Bob Stevens at the Kennedy School who taught about the discipline of economics.

Timestamps:

06:08 Environmental Entrepreneurship

08:22 Building a Community of Diverse Professionals in Hungary

09:44 Career Paths and Environmental Intersections

20:04 Reflections on the Founding and Sale of Green Order Consulting Firm

33:41 Carbon Capture Technologies

39:16 Discussion on Global Carbon Emissions and Strategies for Reduction

47:58 The Cost and Safety of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration

49:38 Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Carbon Capture and Storage

Links:

circularcarbon.org/market-report/

pure-energy-partners.com

https://daccoalition.org/

CONTACT INFO:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/neisenberger/

Globalthermostat.com

Will Bachman is hosting a conversation with Jamylle Carter, a member of the Harvard and Radcliffe class of 1992. Jamylle graduated from Harvard with a degree in mathematics and went on to complete a PhD in math from UCLA. After UCLA, she also held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications in the University of Minnesota.

Math Think Tanks and Researching Algorithms

Will and Jamylle had a conversation about math think tanks, in which Jamylle described her experience. She had spent four years in a math think tank at a university, and then another four years at a Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. Jamylle fell in love with the Bay Area and decided to stay, working as an adjunct professor, running a Math Circle and working at a science museum in San Francisco. She has been a math professor at Diablo Valley College since 2009. Jamylle explained that a math think tank is a place funded by the National Science Foundation and other private funders for mathematicians to leave their university appointments and focus on their research with other people in the field. Jamylle's research was applied math, and it was for image processing. Jamylle was researching a new algorithm to solve a mathematical problem. The problem was related to blurring or noise in an image, and the goal was to approximate the original picture as closely as possible. She was looking at optimization methods, which are mathematical techniques that can find the best answer to a problem.

Teaching Math in the Math Circle Program

Jamylle then went on to explain a math circle she organized for middle school kids. The math circle was inspired by a program from Eastern Europe that was designed to expose kids to higher level math. The math circle would also give kids a chance to struggle with a problem and get excited about learning. Jamylle learned more about the program while at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute.

In 2007-2008, the MSRI sponsored a Berkeley Math Circle for the children of professors and wealthy families. Seeing the need for a Math Circle for a different demographic, Jamylle proposed an Oakland Math Circle for black middle school students in order to challenge the idea that black people can't like math. With the help of the Exploratorium, the Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture, and the Museum of African American Technology, she was able to get grants totaling $8,000 to run the Oakland Math Circle. The Math Circle ran hands-on activities to engage students, teaching them that it was okay to be both black and like math.

She taught all the modules, did the recruitment and covered topics such as rocket science, probability and music and math. She also mentioned that in minoritized spaces, students tend to work alone, which can be due to racism, fear of being too nerdy, or fear that they won't be seen as capable due to their race. Carter's motivation for starting the Math Circle program was to provide a space where Black kids could come together and enjoy doing math without such pressures.

Deborah Hughes Hallett was a Harvard graduate student who eventually became faculty in the Harvard Math Department. She never earned her doctorate, and unfortunately the math department still never treated her like real faculty. She was also at the forefront of the calculus reform movement and wrote textbooks to help teach the subject. Deb was an important figure in the Math Department, providing guidance and support to students in need and advocating for reform in the subject.

Designing a New Math Curriculum

Jamylle and Will discussed math education and its importance. Will then asked about how to build a high school math curriculum from the ground up. Jamylle believes that everyone should have a solid background in arithmetic, such as fractions, decimals, and percentages. She also suggests introducing courses on probability, statistics, computer science, and using spreadsheets. Additionally, she wants to focus on dimensional analysis and number sense in order to help students become more comfortable with math. Finally, she believes it's equally important to teach math in a way that avoids creating math phobias and traumas, and to make sure teachers are supported and not overworked.

Jamylle talks about the courses and professors that have had an impact on her life. Carter starts by talking about her undergraduate advisor Deborah Hughes Hallett, who she credits with helping her to graduate. A class that stood out was music 51, a year long music theory course.

Timestamps

08:24 Investigating Mathematical Methods for Image Optimization

11:15 Analysis of Total Variation Method for Image Processing

15:50 Optimization Problems and Finite Time Solutions

18:13 Image Enhancement Technology

20:00 Math Circles and Problem Solving

31:46 Intersecting Racial Identity and Mathematical Affinity

40:13 Comparing Experiences at Harvard and a Historically Black College

48:19 Supportive Mentorship in the Math Department

52:58 Music Theory and Performance

1:00:59 Exploring Equity in Mathematics Education

Links:

https://mathematicallygiftedandblack.com/honorees/jamylle-carter/

CONTACT INFO:

https://twitter.com/CarterJamylle

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamylle-carter-3184259/

Show Notes:

Will Bachman and Tim Whitmire talk about Whitmire's journey since graduating from Harvard. Whitmire started as a freelance journalist, then got a job at the Associated Press and covered Harvard Men's Basketball. He moved to the Providence Bureau of the Associated Press and eventually to New York City. He was transferred to Lexington, Kentucky to work as a sports writer and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina after that. He worked at the Charlotte Observer and then returned to the Associated Press to work as the head of the Charlotte Bureau until 2006.

Forming the Non-profit F3 Nation

Tim Whitmire was working for the AAP when he decided to look for work in Charlotte, NC. He ended up getting hired in a marketing and business development role at a sell side and investment bank. He then co-founded a firm called Black Arch Partners, where he worked for a few years. After leaving the second bank, he found his way into his current work as an executive strategy consultant. Will then asked him about his nonprofit, F3 Nation. The Mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for men for the invigoration of male community leadership.

Finding Groups to Form Friendships

Will and Tim discussed the difficulties men face in forming friendships. Will suggests that people meet through parents of their kids' friends, their work colleagues, golf clubs, or religious institutions. Tim Whitmire suggests F3, a free workout group focused on fellowship and fitness. Tim explains the format of F3 workouts. F3 stands for Fitness, Fellowship, Faith.

The group usually meets at a local coffee shop where they can hang out and chat. F3 also encourages events such as distance running relays, mud runs, and, in Tim's words, "other completely stupid and utterly pointless activities" that foster friendship and bonding. F3's expansion process, called the Leap, involved creating a logo to sell gear from, with 10% of the proceeds going back to F3 for growth.

Tim, a former member of the executive board of F3, explains that the group had to find innovative ways to get members out to cities in the Carolinas, and eventually beyond. In 2014, Tim took a trip to Richmond, Virginia, New Orleans, and Nashville, and others went to different cities. He would run workouts early in the morning and teach a class in the evening about the core principles of F3. This was called Gross School. He explains that the concept of shared leadership was developed and that each workout has a different attendee to lead it. The idea is to rotate the leadership of the organization to ensure that everyone is able to take on a leadership role. He also explains that F3 is now crossing international borders, with a Grow Rock event set to take place in England this fall.

Team Alignment and Goal Setting Skills

Tim Whitmire is an expert in team alignment and goal setting. He discusses the lessons of F3 and how they helped develop these skills. The main lesson is that not everyone has the same skill set or will lead in the same way, so it is important to leave space for people to express themselves and to lead. He also described the workouts themselves, which can be quite varied. His experiences with the group inspired him to co-author a book called Free to Lead about the F3 experience.

Harvard classes and professors Tim found inspiring include: Verlyn Klinkenborg's creative writing classes, and George Dominguez' teachings on the Cuban Revolution.

Timestamps

02:40 From Investment Banking to Executive Strategy Consulting and F3 Nation

12:49 The Story of F3: How a Small Workout Group Grew to Become a Global Phenomenon

13:09 Empowering Leadership and Building Community Through Fitness

17:36 Exploring the Benefits of Men's Fellowship

18:49 Exploring the Need for Male Bonding

23:09 Building Male Friendships in F3 Workouts

28:35 Exploring the Growth of F3: A Conversation with Tim Whitmire

32:37 F3: Exploring Shared Leadership and Expansion Beyond the Carolinas

35:00 F3 and the Benefits of Shared Leadership

41:18 The Benefits of Group Fitness and Fellowship Across Class Lines

Links:

Cxnadvisory.com

https://www.f3metro.com/

Freed to Lead

CONTACT INFO:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-whitmire-7955145/

Twitter: @trwhitmire_OBT

Will Bachman and Caribou Honig, a member of Harvard and Radcliffe's class of 1992, had a conversation about Caribou's journey since graduating. Caribou graduated from the University of Virginia with a JD MBA and got his first and only real job at Capital One. During his tenure, he met his soon to be wife and had a couple of kids. In 2006, Caribou left Capital One and took a year off to spend time with his family. He then co-founded a boutique venture capital firm and launched a couple of industry tech conferences.

Hosting a Successful Conference

Caribou was not expecting to be in the conference business, yet he found himself creating an industry tech conference. He began to focus on the subsector insure tech around 2015 and was looking for a good industry conference to attend. He couldn't find one to his liking so he decided to create his own and has since been running the conference successfully.

He explains how he created the world's largest Insurer Tech conference. With a partner, he launched the Insurer Tech Connect conference, which became a large success. Subsequently, they launched Transform, a conference focused on the impact of technology on the workplace. This year, they are launching other conferences such as Prop Tech, Logistics Tech, Food, and Ag Tech. Caribou shared that the process of creation was exciting and interesting for him. They lined up the venue and dates for the conference, which was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Tactics for a Successful Conference

Caribou talks about how they organized and promoted a successful Insurtech conference in Las Vegas. They booked the Las Vegas Convention Center, set a goal of 600-1000 attendees, and ended up with 1500. They created a one-page PDF to explain the event and sent it to potential attendees and key speakers. They also asked venture capitalists to promote the event and offer discounts to their portfolio companies. In the end, the conference was a success, and it was gratifying to see 1000 people having conversations and networking.

He was a VC at a conference that wanted to make it easier for people to meet and double opt-in to meetings. To do this, they created an app where people could see who else was attending, what they were interested in, and describe what they were looking for. In addition, they had flags at tables with numbers so that when people double opted-in to meetings they knew exactly where to meet at what time. However, they had more people than they had tables and flags, so they had to make do with tape on the floor and numbered squares. In the end, the solution worked and people appreciated the simple social engineering.

Events for Venture Capitalists

Will asks what makes the event great for a VC, and how that could be different from what other stakeholders like an entrepreneur might value. Caribou explains that vendors can be a difficult stakeholder to work with because they often come to events with the intention of making a sale. This does not align with the investor mindset, so vendors can sometimes get frustrated when they are not able to get on stage. The conversation highlights the tension between creating an event that is tailored to the needs of the VC and the needs of other stakeholders.

The conversation discusses the post-COVID period, how people are now more eager to attend events, and that people are cutting back on attending certain events. Caribou suggests that certain categories of people, such as entrepreneurs gearing up to fundraise, can benefit from attending such events.

Prequalifying People for a Conference

Caribou and Will discuss how to prequalify people for a conference. Caribou explains that they would not prohibit people from buying tickets and attending, as it would be exceptional and bad behavior. However, they need to curate what's on stage, so if a company is uninteresting to them, they won't be onstage. They are open to the idea of companies paying for space in the Expo Hall. Pay-to-play on stage is something they avoid, as it cheapens the quality of the product. The events are all held in Vegas, as it is neutral territory, has great logistics, and it is difficult for people to just pop in and out. This ensures all attendees get the most out of the event.

Timestamps:

07:28 Planning a Successful Conference Event

11:46 Leveraging Word of Mouth and Earned Media for Event Promotion

14:11 Designing a Networking Event

15:57 VC Matchmaking at Honig Caribou Conference

19:58 Designing Events for VCs and Other Stakeholders

26:24 Social Engineering Design Insights: Bringing in Name Brand Artists to Increase Attendance

29:11 The Economics of Running a Conference

32:47 Impact of COVID-19 on B2B Trade Marketing and InsureTech Connect Conference

40:05 Prequalifying Attendees and Benefits of Hosting Events in Las Vegas

52:28 Investing in Innovative Companies and Harvard Courses

54:19 Overcoming Challenges in Physics Math Class

Links:

Website: sempervirensvc.com

CONTACT INFO:

linkedin.com/in/caribou

Twitter: @caribou101

Show Notes:

Sarah's passion is creative writing and teaching it in ways that inspire and delight others. Today she works as a writing professor at a community college and offers creative writing workshops in hospitals, libraries, alternative education programs and more. Yet Sarah considers her real work to be caring for her three children and their rural homestead through the various challenges and opportunities that come their way.

Sarah Silbert, a member of the Harvard and Radcliffe class of 1992, speaks about her journey since graduating from Harvard. She explained that she had been passionate about two areas while at Harvard - social service and community service, and creative writing. She went on to explain that Harvard ran its own homeless shelter, just two blocks from Adam's House, and that this had been the start of her journey and passion for social service. Since then, she has gone on to work around the country to help those needing shelter and support with a focus on teenage runaways. In the late 90's, she became a professor at a community college where she continues to teach about the importance of civic engagement, community service, and self-awareness where she is able to use her knowledge and experience to help students make a difference in the world.

Inspired by Stories of Runaways

Inspired by an anthology of creative writing collected by a reporter tracking teenage runaways, Sarah started teaching creative writing workshops in libraries, hospitals, treatment centers, and other places for troubled youth. The teens in these workshops often wrote about the idea of home, and always linked it with a yearning for belonging. Sarah's work with them over led her to reflect on her own desire for a home and to ask herself what "belonging" might mean to her." Eventually, she realized that she wanted to live in a countryside setting and decided to pursue that goal.

Building a Cabin in Vermont

She applied for a series of creative writing fellowships which allowed her to stay in cabins in various locations. During her stay in the MacDowell cabin, which was once occupied by James Baldwin, she was inspired to find her own land and build a cabin. She took a house building course in Maine and looked for land in Wyoming and Eastern Washington. She wanted to create a space for young people who didn't have access to artist colonies. She was living out her teenage dream of building a cabin in Vermont. She had been given the land at a rock bottom price, but it had no water, power or road. Then, the electrical company offered her a large sum of money to put a power line across her property, which gave her the power she needed.

Coping with Illness and Grief

Unfortunately, her boyfriend was diagnosed with leukemia, and they were in and out of hospitals for seven years. She was 25 or 26 at the time and had to give up her dreams of family and children to take care of him. Sarah felt a spiritual calling to be in this situation, spending many days in the hospital sleeping in a cot by his bed. Despite the hardship, it was an experience that she believes brought her closer to Jeff and taught her to appreciate life. To cope with the grief of Jeff passing, Sarah decided to jump into a new idea of life and family. She took a year off from college to work for Mother Teresa, which she believes helped her get through the tough time.

Building a Village

A few years later she was hired as a teacher at a community college, and started taking in tenants to help with the house and kids. Eventually, her tenants became her fairy godmothers, helping with the house and kids, and her neighbors and godparent also came in to help. Now, six years later, Sarah and her kids are living for their dreams.

Sarah Silbert has traveled the world and seen many different kinds of families. She has found a way to raise her three children without a spouse, but still loves having another adult around to help her with her children. To her, family means having both mom, dad and kids, but she also has a tribe of people who love and support her and her children. She is proud of her physical strength and her mental strength, which she is developing further in a leadership program. The program's motto is "how to be an island of calm in a storm", which she applies to her own life and the lives of those around her.

Harvard courses and professors who influenced Sarah include Susan Dodd, creative writing instructor, and Ed Cohen, founder of The Echoing Green Fellowship.

Timestamps:

12:20: The hardships of living off grid

17:41 Caring for a Loved One with Leukemia

22:42 The Meaning of Family and Personal Accomplishments

26:13: The dynamic tribe

32:30 Combining Physical Endurance with Mental Clarity and Stewarding Kids in Unforeseen Craziness

34:48 Taking a Year Off to Work with Mother Teresa

41:17 Exploring Adventure and Opportunity

Links:

https://echoinggreen.org/

"The River We Call Ourselves" in the Sun

"Fighting in the Zendo"in the Sun

"The Land" in Ploughshares

CONTACT INFO:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-silbert-97909111/

Show Notes:

Will Bachman and Ming Chen had a conversation about Ming's journey since graduating from Harvard in 1992. Ming is currently Chief Cultural Officer EF Education First, an education company with 50,000 employees. Will asked Ming to tell him a bit about what she does at EF Education First, and Ming explained that she is the company's Chief Culture Officer. Ming Chen is a long-time employee of EF Education First, a company that provides language programs, educational travel, cultural exchange programs, and academic degree programs.

She joined the company in 1998 after graduating from college with an East Asian Studies degree, and she has since worn many hats. She advises people starting out their career to not be discouraged if their degree does not directly prepare them for a specific job. She found his way in by moving to Hong Kong and joining EF, which is meaningful, global, and fun. She has an MBA, but didn't know what she would do with it when she graduated, so she fell into the job.

From Hong Kong to EF Education First

Ming Chen, now a Chief Culture Officer, has had a long and varied career path. After graduating college with a degree in a concentration she wasn't quite sure what to do with, she began eliminating possibilities of what he didn't want to do. After spending summers teaching and working at Christie's Auction, she decided to move to Hong Kong due to her family's history there. She describes it as a magical place with access to the beach and the mountains. She compares it to a college campus with pay, and praises the efficient public transportation and the easy tax forms. She also mentions the difficulty of the reintegration to mainland China, but still calls it the mecca of capitalism.

EF Education First is a company that provides educational services, including cultural exchanges. One of their cultural exchange programs is High School Year Abroad, which brings foreign students to public high schools in the U.S. to live with host families for a year. Another program is Cultural Care Au Pair, which helps match American families with au pair students. The programs are quite inspirational and transformative, as they help participants become fluent in English and American culture.

The Backstory of EF Education

EF Education first was founded in 1965 when its founder, Bertil Hult, who was dyslexic, took a group of Swedish students to Brighton for the summer to help them learn English. He believed that real-life, immersive learning was the best way for students to learn and this became the foundation for the Heritage Program. EF Education first then expanded to include German, Japanese and Mexican students and opened their first school in Hastings, England. Now, they have 600 schools and offices around the world and welcome students from 100 countries to learn English. As well as language schools, they also offer EF English Live, the world's largest online English school, with teachers teaching classes every hour.

On Writing Books and Running Marathons

Ming Chen has written with her identical twin sister Wah. Their book titled Escape: One Day We Had to Run was inspired by the story of the nanny who brought up Ming and Wah during their formative years. The nanny had to swim from mainland China to Hong Kong during the 1960s due to the famine. The nanny eventually made it to New York and was like a mother to Ming and Wah, though communication was difficult due to the language barrier. The duo also mention how the book was born out of a longer and more ambitious project.

The book was written to help children cope with difficult and traumatic experiences. The book was born out of a larger product project that Ming and her twin sister had been working on for many years, and Carmen Vela, an artist based in Spain, was chosen as the illustrator. The book was published by Lantana Publishing, which was a great success. Ming is also a marathon runner, and she attributes her motivation to running to the friends she made while attending a freshman week party at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ming mentions a professor at Harvard who inspired her: Roderick MacFarquhar, a leading scholar on the Cultural Revolution.

Timestamps

04:56 From Working in Television to Becoming Chief Culture Officer

08:31 Exploring EF Education First's Cultural Exchange Programs

13:41 Vetting Host Families for High School Exchange Programs

15:29 The Benefits of Educational Travel

16:46 Conversation Summary: EF Education First's Language Training Programs

19:38 On writing books

23:22 Exploring the Inspiration Behind Escape and Other Books

23:37 Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing Escape: One Day We Had to Run

26:59 Reflections on Marathoning and Brand Ambassadorship

31:22 East Asian Studies Major and Hong Kong Expat

Links:

Nobel House, James Clavell

Indelible City, Louisa Lim

Escape: One Day We Had to Run

https://demingaling.medium.com/

ef.com/wwen/

CONTACT INFO:

linkedin.com/in/therealmingchen

Show Notes:

The Restorative Power of Arts in Education

Michelle Holdt is the founder of Arts Ed Matters, a nonprofit organization that works to promote access to arts classes in public schools. She is the founder of Creative Compassion, a new organization that addresses the crisis in education. She is also the Arts and Restorative Learning Coordinator in Santa Clara County. Holdt has been working since 2010 to address the issue of access to arts classes, teaching teachers how to integrate the arts into their academic curriculum. Holdt has also developed workshops on the Art of Self Care, which includes mindfulness and restorative practices. Additionally, Holdt is certified in restorative practices, which she teaches as an alternative to discipline for restoring problems when there has been harm. In 2022, Holdt moved back to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she currently resides with her three children.

Access to the Arts through Education

Will Bachman and Michelle Holdt had a conversation about Michelle's journey since graduating from Harvard. Michelle created her own major in theatre, child psychology, and education while at Harvard. After graduation, she received a fellowship from the Stride Right Foundation through Phillips Brooks House to lead theatre workshops for deaf children, mentally ill adolescents, and other special needs children. Michelle then went on to teach drama for close to 20 years in Chicago, Albuquerque, and San Francisco. She realized the inequities in terms of who gets access to the arts and decided to take a leadership and advocacy role for arts education for all students in 2010.

Michelle Holdt is the founder of Arts Ed Matters, a nonprofit organization that works to promote access to arts classes in public schools. She is also the Arts and Restorative Learning Coordinator in Santa Clara County. Holdt has been working since 2010 to address the issue of access to arts classes, teaching teachers how to integrate the arts into their academic curriculum. Holdt has also developed workshops on the Art of Self Care, which includes mindfulness and restorative practices. Additionally, Holdt is certified in restorative practices, which she teaches as an alternative to discipline for restoring problems when there has been harm.

Building Community in the Classroom

Michelle discussed the importance of taking time to build a community in the classroom in order to ensure that students feel safe and engaged in the curriculum. She also brought up the mental health crisis that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. This crisis is being addressed by the US Surgeon General, Dr. V.T.E. Murthy, who is pulling together an advisory and leading speeches and meditations on self-love. Restorative practices are a proactive way to build a sense of community and safety in the classroom which can help combat the mental health crisis in our youth.She believes that people around the world are still in trauma from the pandemic, and that they need to do more social and emotional learning in order to heal.

Mindful and Compassionate Practice

Michelle Holdt utilizes mindfulness and self-compassion to help her approach her day. She practices meditation for five minutes each day, which she believes has made a huge difference in her life. She also employs a strategy of self-awareness to course correct not so helpful thoughts about herself and others. Holdt has also started a project called Compassionate Clips, where people can write to her and ask for a two to three minute audio clip on a particular topic they are struggling with. She then offers them reassuring and kind words to listen to as a mindfulness meditation. Finally, Holdt lives her life by Rumi's poem, The Guesthouse, which states that we should welcome and entertain all guests, even if there are sorrows and dark thoughts.

Timestamps

05:25- Interview with Michelle Holdt, Founder of Arts Ed Matters and Arts & Restorative Learning Coordinator

13:54- Visual Thinking Strategies and Tableau for Critical Thinking and Curriculum Connections

14:38- Embodied Cognition and the Benefits of Play-Based Learning

16:36- The Benefits of Integrating Arts Education in Schools

27:10- Building Classroom Community with Restorative Practices

27:16- Restorative Practices with a Creative Twist

36:06- Self-Love and Trauma in Education

36:54- Pecha Kucha Presentation: Cultivating Self-Awareness and Compassion Through Mindfulness

43:50- Creative Compassionate Strategies for Educators and Leaders

46:35- Retirement and Parenting

49:49- Reflection on Professor William Alfred: A Mentor and Friend

52:30- Exploring the Impact of Arts Education

Links:

Website: http://www.creativecompasssionate.com

Film: Arts is the Root (Why Arts in Schools Matter)

Book Radiance the Art of Self Love: https://a.co/d/huttfPZ

Pecha Kucha: PechaKucha Presentation: Cultivating a Creative Heart-Centered Practice

CONTACT INFO:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-holdt-51a56123/