What stories shape what we believe is possible in finance? In this episode, Joy Anderson sits down with Joanna Levitt Cea, Founder and Principal of Valiente Capital Design and co-lead of the Beloved Economies Collaborative for Narrative Infrastructure, to explore the role of narratives in creating economic and systems change. Together, they unpack the difference between stories, communications strategies, and narratives themselves, examining how underlying cultural assumptions influence the ways we understand ownership, investment, opportunity, and power. The conversation explores why narrative change is not simply about finding the right message, but about collective action, organizing, and reshaping the stories that define what people believe is possible.

The episode then turns to one of the most common and often unquestioned words in innovative finance: local. Joy examines five distinct narratives embedded within the concept. Rather than treating local as a geographic descriptor, she argues that each narrative carries a different theory of change and implies different practices around governance, ownership, expertise, and value creation. Together, these reflections invite listeners to ask not whether finance is local, but what narrative of local is being invoked and whether the structures of finance actually make that narrative real.

00:00 Introduction to the power of narratives in finance

01:20 Narratives shape what people believe is possible

02:18 The importance of stories in social and environmental finance

03:26 Ownership economy and its narrative shifts

04:54 The role of narratives in building intergenerational wealth

07:59 The collaborative approach to narrative change

10:20 Stories as drivers of policy and norm shifts

12:17 Narrative as a team sport and collective action

34:04 The multiple narratives of local in finance

36:29 Different stories of local and their implications

42:52 The narrative of economic self-determination

44:46 Local knowledge as a narrative of expertise

46:34 The shift from communities being investment-ready to capital being context-ready

47:41 Conclusion: The importance of deep narrative change and systems transformation

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Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn

Joy Anderson's LinkedIn

Joanna Levitt Cea's LinkedIn

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This article examines how investment leaders are redesigning financial practices to address power dynamics embedded within investment structures. By highlighting innovations in governance, investor participation, accountability, and decision-making, it complements this episode's discussion of narratives by showing how underlying assumptions about authority, expertise, and ownership become embedded in financial systems and how those assumptions can be intentionally challenged and changed.

This resource examines how financial structures can be intentionally designed around local knowledge, governance, ownership, and accountability. It directly connects to the episode's exploration of local as democratic legitimacy, contextual intelligence, and economic self-determination.

This framework provides an example of how financial systems can be redesigned to address power dynamics rather than simply expanding access. It reinforces the episode's discussion of moving beyond surface-level solutions and examining the underlying structures that shape outcomes.

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Joy Anderson and Joanna Levitt Cea explore how fund design can become a tool for shifting power, why context should come before replication, and how finance can be redesigned around community knowledge and lived experience.

A complementary conversation about relationships, trust, and the underlying assumptions that shape how financial systems operate.

An exploration of financial infrastructure, system design, and why the structures that connect capital matter as much as the capital itself.

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What happens when finance starts with trust instead of control? In this conversation, Joy Anderson and Adeshina Adewumi explore how Trade Lenda has built financial infrastructure around the realities of informal markets across Nigeria. Rather than treating informality as a problem to be fixed, Trade Lenda recognizes existing systems of trust, accountability, and economic participation and designs financial products that work within them. The discussion traces the full supply chain, from farmers and aggregators to manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, and examines why supporting the entire value chain creates stronger, more resilient markets.

The conversation also explores how power operates in financial systems. Adeshina explains how Trade Lenda rethinks creditworthiness, works with community accountability structures, develops Sharia-compliant financing options, and provides capacity-building alongside capital. Together, Joy and Ade examine how trust can become infrastructure: creating financial systems that move capital faster, expand economic opportunity, and preserve the community relationships that make markets function in the first place. The result is a compelling example of how finance can support dignity, shared prosperity, and transformative systems change.

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Episode Highlights

00:28 - The importance of trust in finance and community systems.

01:28 - Understanding informal markets as systems to be supported.

04:10 - Trade Lenda's approach to financing entire supply chains.

05:06 - Why agriculture, retail, and essential services matter for economic growth.

07:43 - Rethinking collateral and credit access for underserved entrepreneurs.

11:01 - How speed and capital turnover drive successful trade finance.

14:22 - Diversifying within value chains to manage risk and strengthen markets.

17:42 - Why knowledge and business support can be as important as capital.

28:02 - Using community accountability and trust as financial infrastructure.

35:13 - Capital moves at the speed of trust.

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Relevant Links

Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn

Joy Anderson’s LinkedIn

Adeshina Adewumi’s LinkedIn

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Dive Deeper

Advanced practices in local capital design: Trade Lenda

This case study directly examines Trade Lenda's approach to designing financial systems around informal markets, community accountability, alternative underwriting, and localized financial infrastructure. It is essentially the written companion to many of the ideas discussed in the episode.

Framework for financing the prevention of gender-based violence

This framework provides one of Criterion's core approaches to understanding how financial structures influence social outcomes and how systems can be intentionally redesigned. Mentioned in related Criterion resource descriptions.‍

If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:

#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in Finance

This episode explores trust as a foundational practice for leadership, collaboration, and systems change, making it the closest thematic companion to the Trade Lenda discussion.

#78: Intermediation is Not Overhead

A reframing of financial infrastructure and intermediation that connects directly to this episode's discussion of building systems that allow capital to move more effectively through markets.

#62: Pipelines of Trust: Rethinking Local Capital Mobilization in Africa

A natural follow-on episode focused on trust, local capital, African investment ecosystems, and adapting financial models to local contexts.

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Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

In this episode, Joy Anderson responds to some listener questions, naming six paradoxes she encounters when working to shift financial systems toward gender justice and social change. Joy frames paradox as a discipline: holding two seemingly incompatible truths at once such as movement and field-building, urgency and patience, collaboration and competition and resisting the urge to resolve them prematurely.

Across themes ranging from pluralism in knowledge to the risks of public experimentation, Joy explores how finance simultaneously enables and constrains transformation. She emphasizes that these tensions are signals rather than problems, helping us see where systems are unstable and change is possible. The episode closes with practical reflections on working within paradox.

Episode Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to Paradox in Systems Change

05:01 - The Movement vs. Professional Field Paradox

10:44 - Long-Term Change vs. Immediate Harm Paradox

14:32 - Collaboration vs. Competition Paradox

18:16 - Public Learning vs. Risk Aversion Paradox

22:08 - Pluralism vs. Standardization Paradox

27:21 - Living with Paradox: Practices and Reflections

34:11 - Conclusion: Embracing Complexity in Change

Relevant Links

Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn

Joy Anderson’s LinkedIn

Dive Deeper

Framework for Financing the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence

Links to the episode’s focus on how financial systems shape—and can transform—the conditions underlying harm.

Fòs Feminista: Building Feminist Financial Infrastructure

Illustrates how movements build institutional structures—mirroring the movement vs. field paradox described in the episode.

Gender Lens Investing

A foundational resource on integrating gender and power into financial decision-making, relevant to the episode’s reflections on pluralism and standardized “proof.”

If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:

#80: What Are You Willing to See? Disruption, Fault Lines, and the Moments That Matter

Explores disruption as a moment that reveals underlying systems—closely aligned with the idea of paradox as a site of transformation.

#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in Finance

Builds on relational dynamics and collaboration—core tensions discussed in this episode.

#78: Intermediation is Not Overhead

Extends the conversation on field-building infrastructure and how systems change actually happens.

#77: Strength Is the Strategy: A Conversation on Movement‑Led Finance

Directly connects to the movement vs. field paradox by exploring how movements build financial tools and institutions.

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

In this episode of the Criterion Institute Podcast, Joy reflects on a recent conversation with her brother, philosopher Joel Anderson, about how AI is changing the way we work. While AI can function like a team of highly capable research assistants by supporting analysis, drafting, and synthesis, Joy explores the unintended consequences of turning to machines instead of people. What appears efficient on the surface can quietly lead to a withdrawal from collaboration, reducing opportunities for shared thinking, disagreement, and collective insight.

Drawing on Criterion’s core values of grace, hospitality, and the power of invitation, Joy reframes how AI should be used in systems change work. These practices of inviting others into the work, sharing ownership of ideas, and creating space for multiple perspectives are essential to shifting power. The question is not whether AI is helpful, but whether it is being used to deepen collaboration or to avoid it. Joy challenges listeners to reflect on who they are inviting into their work, and whether AI is expanding or replacing those invitations.

Episode Highlights

00:28 — A conversation on AI and collaboration

02:30 — The metaphor of AI as research assistants

04:49 — Grace, hospitality, and invitation as operating principles

07:08 — When efficiency becomes isolation

09:35 — The risk of replacing people with tools

11:59 — Rethinking participation and co‑creation

14:06 — Questions to guide AI use in practice

Relevant Links

• Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn
• Joy Anderson’s LinkedIn

Dive Deeper

Framework for Financing the Prevention of Gender-Based Violence

Highlights how systems—including finance—shape participation, power, and decision-making

Innovative Finance Navigation Guide

Supports broader participation in financial systems and conversations

Advanced practices in gender lens investing: FrontEnd Ventures

Demonstrates how analysis changes when multiple perspectives are included

If you enjoyed this episode, consider listening to:

#79: From Invitation to Trust: Rethinking Relationships in Finance

#76: Bring Your Expertise: Why AI Needs More Voices

#30: You Are Welcome: Hospitality, Strangers, and Family Myths

#74: No Permission Required: Volunteerism as a Power Shift

#78: Intermediation is Not Overhead

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

In this episode, Joy Anderson reframes one of the most common narratives in moments of crisis: instead of asking how to stabilize and return to normal, she asks what disruption makes visible. Building on earlier conversations about systems opportunities, she distinguishes between disruptive events and the deeper structural patterns they expose, and highlights how moments of volatility can make long-standing dynamics of power, risk, and inequity harder to ignore.

The episode opens with a conversation with Rachel Sinha, a systems change practitioner and field builder, as the two explore the tensions inherent in building a field, from questions of legitimacy and power to who gets resourced and recognized. From there, Joy connects these themes to Criterion’s work on gender-based violence, feminist finance, and local capital, showing how disruption can reveal hidden costs and overlooked actors within financial systems. The episode ultimately challenges listeners to treat disruption as evidence and invites them to see systems more clearly and act with greater readiness.

Episode Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to Systems Change and Disruption

02:49 - Building a Field of Systems Change Practice

06:05 - Power Dynamics in Systems Change

09:05 - Understanding Systems Opportunities

11:47 - Disruption as Revelation

15:09 - Examples of Systems Opportunities

18:00 - Responding to Disruption

20:51 - The Role of Communities in Systems Change

23:58 - Conclusion and Call to Action

Relevant Links

Criterion Institute Website and LinkedIn

Joy's LinkedIn

Rachel Sinha’s Linkedin

Dive Deeper

Framework for financing the prevention of gender-based violence

A systems-level framework that explains how financial structures, incentives, and norms influence the persistence of gender-based violence and how finance can be used to prevent it.

Fòs Feminista: Building Feminist Financial Infrastructure

A case study showing how a feminist intermediary designs and uses financial and non-financial assets to reshape capital flows and build long-term movement-led financial infrastructure.

Fostering a Feminist Financial Imagination: A Radical Conversation about Finance, Feminist Futures,…

A publication that explores how reimagining financial systems can unlock new strategies and possibilities for advancing gender equality and social justice.

Pacific Possibilities: Designing Better Financial Vehicles for the Pacific

A report that outlines how to design investment vehicles grounded in local economic and social realities, rather than forcing existing financial models onto communities.

Other episodes you might also like:

#75: When the Moment Arrives: Acting on Systems Opportunities

#78: Intermediation Is Not Overhead

#58: Check List or Trust List: Power, Performance, and the Politics of Procedure

#16: We Made This System Up, We Can Change It.

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

In this episode, Joy Anderson reflects on invitation as a foundational practice for leadership, collaboration, and systems change. Moving beyond calendar invites, she reframes invitation as a form of power that determines whether participation is passive or meaningful. When people are explicitly invited into roles that matter, where their presence is needed and their contribution is clear, progress is made. In complex systems where hierarchy is unclear, invitation becomes the mechanism that supports coordination and shared purpose.

Joy then reframes the notion of “handholding,” a common phrase in investing that often implies lack of capability. What is really being described, says Joy, is about trust, proximity, and power. Advice in investing is rarely neutral, especially when tied to capital, and what is presented as support can become control without permission and alignment. Drawing from work with the Mastercard Foundation African Growth Fund, she outlines four conditions that make for better and more balanced investment relationships: permission, boundaries, protection of vulnerability, and moments to recalibrate. Together, these help us to rethink how relationships are built and how influence operates within financial systems.

Episode Highlights

00:00 Introduction to the episode and themes

01:49 Invitation as a form of power

04:14 Invitation in complex collaborations and consortiums

06:18 From presence to contribution: what invitation makes possible

08:40 Practices of invitation in leadership and systems change

10:03 Rant: unpacking the phrase “handholding”

12:30 Trust, vulnerability, and investment relationships

14:57 Permission, advice, and power in investing

17:03 Capacity, timing, and misalignment in support

19:02 Conditions for “handholding” as trust infrastructure

21:17 Reflection questions on relationships and influence

22:26 Ways to engage with Criterion Institute

Relevant Links

• Criterion Institute Website and LinkedIn
• Joy's LinkedIn

Dive Deeper

Disrupting Fields: Addressing Power Dynamics in the Fields of Climate Finance and Gender Lens Investing

This report examines how power operates in emerging financial fields and how actors navigate existing systems while trying to change them. It highlights the tension between advancing new ideas and working within entrenched power structures, making it highly relevant to this episode’s focus on invitation, influence, and participation.

Addressing Power Dynamics in Investment Processes

A deep dive into how investment processes reflect and respond to power dynamics, including how trust, transparency, and engagement shape relationships between investors and companies. The report emphasizes the role of intentional design in building more equitable investment relationships.

Process Metrics that Analyze Power Dynamics in Investing

This report introduces tools for identifying and measuring how power shows up in investment processes—moving beyond representation to examine whose knowledge is valued and how decisions are made. It directly connects to the episode’s discussion of influence, control, and whose perspective shapes outcomes.

Advanced Practice in Gender Lens Investing

A framework for identifying and shifting power, privilege, and bias within financial systems by focusing on how investments are made. It highlights how changing processes—not just outcomes—can transform relationships and redistribute power in finance.

Other episodes you might also like:

#74: No Permission Required: Volunteerism as a Power Shift

#68: Clarity is Relational: Leadership in Complex Systems

#52: Reimagining Resourcing for Social Transformation – Part Two

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

In this episode, Joy Anderson reflects on a renewed wave of conversations around innovative finance following recent funding disruptions across the feminist movement, particularly in the context of discussions surrounding the Women Deliver conference in Australia. Drawing from Criterion Institute’s long-standing work at the intersection of finance and social change, she introduces a set of reframes designed to move organizations beyond the narrow question of “how do we get more funding?” toward a deeper understanding of how capital actually moves within economic systems.

The episode outlines seven key reframes. Through these reframes, Joy highlights the importance of financial infrastructure—intermediaries, instruments, and systems that structure relationships and shape power. Ultimately, the episode argues that sustainable and equitable movement-building depends not on accessing more money, but on intentionally designing the relationships and systems through which finance operates.

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Episode Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to Innovative Finance and Feminist Movements

05:14 - Understanding Economic Relationships in Movements

10:14 - The Role of Financial Intermediaries

15:08 - Reframing Funding and Economic Relationships

20:10 - Building Trust and Stability in Financial Systems

Relevant Links

Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn

Joy’s LinkedIn

Dive Deeper

Criterion TOOLKIT

Pacific Possibilities: Designing Better Financial Vehicles for the Pacific

Fostering a Feminist Financial Imagination

Other episodes you might also like:

#75: When the Moment Arrives: Acting on Systems Opportunities

#58: Check List or Trust List: Power, Performance, and the Politics of Procedure

#63: From Scarcity to Power: Reimagining Finance for Feminist Movements

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Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

‍https://impactalpha.com/podcasts

#77: Strength Is the Strategy: A Conversation on Movement‑Led Finance

What happens when feminist movements stop asking permission—and start acting as asset owners?

In this episode, Joy Anderson is joined by Giselle Carino and Meradith Leebrick of Fòs Feminista to explore how movement‑led organizations are building financial tools, institutions, and enterprises that sustain reproductive justice over the long term.

In this conversation, they reflect on why organizational strength (governance, reserves, and financial discipline) is not separate from movement work but essential to it; how Fòs Feminista was deliberately designed by and for organizations in the Global South; and what it looks like to act as a financial intermediary without training wheels. They trace Fòs Feminista’s long history with innovative finance, dig into the creation and scaling of INNOVA Health Supplies as a feminist social enterprise, and challenge conventional assumptions about risk, collateral, and repayment, arguing instead for designing capital that matches the realities, time horizons, and power dynamics of real change.

Episode Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to Fòs Feminista and Its Mission

02:50 The Concept of 'Fòs' and Its Origins

05:40 Building a Strong Ecosystem for Reproductive Justice

08:01 Organizational Stability and Movement Leadership

14:18 Innovative Finance Strategies in Reproductive Health

17:33 Collaborative Solutions for Sexual and Reproductive Health

22:15 Acting as Asset Owners in the Movement

30:11 Scaling Impact and Future Directions

Relevant Links

• Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn
• Joy’s LinkedIn
• Giselle Carino, CEO, Fòs Feminista
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/giselle-carino-937285102
• Meradith Leebrick, Lead, Social Innovation & Financing, Fòs Feminista
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/meradith

Mentioned in this Episode

• Fòs Feminista
• INNOVA Health Supplies
• Feminist Impact Fund (Fòs Feminista)

Dive Deeper

• Introducing Standards of Practice for Gender Lens Investing
• Process Metrics that Analyze Power Dynamics in Investing
• Disrupting Fields: Addressing Power Dynamics in the Fields of Climate Finance and Gender Lens Investing
• Fostering a Feminist Financial Imagination

Other episodes you might also like:

#74: No Permission Required: Volunteerism as a Power Shift

#72: From Add-on to Operating System: Rethinking the Role of Services in Local Value Creation

#73: Search Funds Reframed: Expanding Access to Business Ownership

#20: Shifting Power in Investment Practice: The Costs of Doing Business

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network

https://impactalpha.com/podcasts

In this conversation, Joy Anderson and Mara Bolis discuss the intersection of gender lens investing and AI, highlighting the importance of diverse perspectives in shaping the future of technology. Mara shares her journey from working at Oxfam to exploring AI at the Kennedy School, and her reflections on addressing gender inequality in emerging technologies. They explore the challenges of navigating spaces traditionally dominated by experts and why it’s time to bring new types of knowledge into AI discussions. The conversation underscores the value of interdisciplinary approaches and the power of collective learning to empower underrepresented voices in the tech space.

Episode Highlights

00:00 - Introduction to AI and Power Dynamics

03:11 - Imposter Syndrome and Interdisciplinary Leadership

06:06 - The Importance of Domain Expertise in AI

09:08 - Challenging Traditional Notions of Expertise

11:55 - The Role of Gender in Economic Systems

15:12 - Agency and Participation in AI Development

17:59 - Practical Tips for Engaging in AI

20:49 - Building Community and Learning Together

Relevant Links

• Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn
• Joy’s LinkedIn
• Mara's LinkedIn

Dive Deeper

• Disrupting Fields
• Fostering a Feminist Financial Imagination
• Introducing Standards of Practice for Gender Lens Investing

If enjoyed this episode, consider listening to “Knowledge and Power,” which offers language for recognizing and challenging whose expertise carries weight in decision‑making spaces, and “Disrupting Fields,” which looks at how authority, legitimacy, and participation take shape as new fields emerge.

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network https://impactalpha.com/podcasts

In this episode, we share how Criterion approaches systems change—by paying close attention to where leverage actually lives, how power moves through relationships, and why timing matters as much as ideas. You’ll hear how we think about staying close to the people and systems that can shift outcomes, even when it looks like we’re waiting. This perspective reframes strategy as readiness: noticing signals, building trust, and being prepared to step forward when the moment to act genuinely arrives.

Episode Highlights

00:00 Introduction to Systems Change and Strategy

03:01 Understanding Systems Opportunities

05:49 The Role of Timing in Systems Change

09:13 Defining System Tensions and Opportunities

12:06 Strategic Posture and Approach

14:58 The Importance of Relationships in Systems Change

17:55 Conclusion and Call to Action

Relevant Links

1. Criterion Institute website and LinkedIn
2. Joy’s LinkedIn
3. Criterion’s Strategic Plan
4. Donella Meadow’s Leverage Points

If this episode resonates, you may also want to listen to “Clarity Is Relational,” which explores how sense‑making and strategy emerge through relationships, and “Navigating Paradoxes,” which looks at how leverage and emergence show up in real market systems.

Part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network https://impactalpha.com/podcasts