The Extra Mile - The Official Charity Miles Podcast

Fanboy alert: Today's guest, Mr. Demaio, is the biggest celebrity in my household.

He's a teacher in Union Beach New Jersey, and one of the most popular educators on YouTube. Here's a link to his channel.

He makes hilarious YouTube videos on topics such as the planets, black holes, Alexander Hamilton, snakes, earthquakes, the Titanic, multiplication tables and more.

It's like if Khan Academy was funny, with weird puppets-- or as he noted, Mr. Rogers meets the Chapelle Show.

While his videos are funny, their impact is no joke.

Which is why he gets over 2 million views per month. And if you type in "Mr." into YouTube, he's one of the first things that comes up.

My wife and I first learned of Mr. Demaio when our four year-old son, Max, somehow stumbled upon him while scrolling through my wife's iPad.

He'd start talking about Mr. Demaio and his puppets, Andy and Steve.

More impressively, he'd start educating us about outer space. He was literally teaching us new things that he learned from Mr. Demaio's videos-- like the names of the dwarf planets, and how black holes work.

Like most four year-olds, Max isn't that interested in Zoom school. But he LOVES Mr. Demaio. He's been learning a lot. (His new real school teachers are very impressed!) And he's been developing a great sense of humor too.

Most importantly, what really comes through Mr. Demaio's videos is how much he truly cares for kids. He wants them to feel nurtured and cared for. He wants them to develop an interest in learning.

With so many families trying to keep their kids engaged in "blended" or "virtual" learning, I thought it would be great to share some of Mr. Demaio's insights.

Huge thanks to Mr. Demaio for taking the time to chat with us, and for all he's doing to educate, inspire and care for kids!

This is actually a re-release of the first podcast I ever recorded-- almost four years ago, just after Donald Trump's inauguration.

We now find ourselves a few days away from another Presidential election. In the midst of COVID. Very divided and on edge.

THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL PODCAST.

However, Kyrsten's is a voice we need to hear right now.

She is one of the most bi-partisan members of the Senate and Congress generally.

She has a tremendous record of working across the aisle and finding common ground with others that might otherwise seem diametrically opposed to her.

She does this by practicing "radical empathy", which is something I think would benefit all of us.

One of the things I love most about the Charity Miles community is how we have people from all across the political spectrum, every day putting in miles for the same causes.

This means we share common values.

If we are to heal as a nation, we need to focus on these shared values and practice a lot more radical empathy.

One more note... at the time I recorded this podcast, as you'll hear, Kyrsten was working on breaking a 4-hour marathon.

This February, just before COVID, I ran the Phoenix-Mesa Marathon with her. She dropped me at mile 20 and finished in 3:21. Smokin!

Edith Zuschmann is the CEO and Co-Founder of 261 Fearless, an organization she started with Kathrine Switzer, most famously known as the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon.

261 Fearless uses running as a vehicle to empower and unite women. They break down the barriers of geography and create a global community for women runners of all abilities to support, encourage, and inspire each other towards a positive sense of self and fearlessness.

A nationally ranked swimmer-turned-distance runner in her native Austria, Edith drives the passion to support women globally to find the joy and power in being active.

She is a nationally certified athletic and running coach focusing on young athletes and women and continues also as a lecturer of sports marketing at the University of Applied Sciences, Wiener Neustadt, Austria, where she also received her master's degree in business consultancy and leadership.

Rocco Lungariello is the host and producer of the podcast, What Is Culture, a candid, interview-style podcast that explores workplace culture within Tangoe, an IT Lifecycle Management company.

Just to highlight that: Tangoe is not a culture or HR company. Like I said, they're an IT Lifecycle Management company.

But their company culture is so important to them that they created their own podcast about it. And it's not an internal podcast either. It's open to the public.

Tangoe is one of our newest partners for our Employee Empowerment program. So when I learned that they had their own podcast exploring company culture, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what we can learn from them on the subject.

Especially at this moment when so many of us are working from home, trying to balance the demands of family and work in a time of great uncertainty.

As challenging as these times are, they've given us all an opportunity to define our company and community cultures. And they've shown us why creating a culture of empathy is important-- and has been important all along.

Big thanks to Rocco for taking the time to walk and share so much with us. And big thanks to Tangoe for their support!

#EveryMileMatters

Our good friend, Barefoot Jake Brown happened to be in Eugene, Oregon when the wildfires started miles away.

Through all of his experiences living a minimalist, nomadic lifestyle-- including running across the U.S. barefoot-- Jake has developed a set of skills and resourcefulness that is especially helpful in a crisis.

And since he's not the kind of person who can sit on the sidelines, he's doing everything he can to help people who are evacuating the fires, and might otherwise fall through the cracks.

Big thanks to Jake for taking an hour to share a view from the ground there, and for all of his selflessness and hard work in helping others.

For more info on Jake and how you can help, please visit baresoleproject.com.

6 days before her 24th birthday in 2014, Jess Stevens was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and immediately began intensive treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to save her life.

It was by far the scariest time in her life, but she made it to the other side, healthy and VERY grateful because of the doctors and nurses at DFCI.

That is why, every year since Jess' diagnosis, she gathers with her family, friends to walk in the Jimmy Fund Walk for DFCI.

Jess' team, "Neuk the Leuk," is based off a phrase she used quite often as motivation while in treatment.

They are raising funds specifically for the ground-breaking research that her main oncologist, Dr. Daniel DeAngelo, and his team are conducting to find cures for the many kinds of blood cancers that are currently without successful treatment plans.

Although Jess was lucky to have a treatment plan that worked, only 61% of patients diagnosed with leukemia survive 5 years past diagnosis. That number needs to get to 100%!

Jess and her team are also walking in honor of a two year-old girl, Gracie who was also diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia 6 days before her 2nd birthday.

This is a disease that no child should ever be diagnosed with. And Gracie is now undergoing treatment that no sweet, innocent, wide-eyed little girl should ever have to endure.

Please join us, Jess and everyone on Team Neuk the Leuk in support of DFCI's heroic work for Gracie and too many others like her.

#EveryMileMatters

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We want to thank the sponsor of this podcast, Needham Bank. Needham Bank is a premier sponsor of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk. The Bank's continuous support has helped Dana-Farber fulfill its mission of providing expert, compassionate care and undertaking world-class research. To learn more about how Needham Bank is helping to build communities in Greater Boston and MetroWest, visit www.NeedhamBank.com.

6 days before her 24th birthday in 2014, Jess Stevens was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and immediately began intensive treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to save her life. 

It was by far the scariest time in her life, but she made it to the other side, healthy and VERY grateful because of the doctors and nurses at DFCI.

That is why, every year since Jess' diagnosis, she gathers with her family, friends to walk in the Jimmy Fund Walk for DFCI.

Jess' team, “Neuk the Leuk,” is based off a phrase she used quite often as motivation while in treatment.

They are raising funds specifically for the ground-breaking research that her main oncologist, Dr. Daniel DeAngelo, and his team are conducting to find cures for the many kinds of blood cancers that are currently without successful treatment plans.

Although Jess was lucky to have a treatment plan that worked, only 61% of patients diagnosed with leukemia survive 5 years past diagnosis. That number needs to get to 100%!

Jess and her team are also walking in honor of a two year-old girl, Gracie who was also diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia 6 days before her 2nd birthday.

This is a disease that no child should ever be diagnosed with. And Gracie is now undergoing treatment that no sweet, innocent, wide-eyed little girl should ever have to endure.

Please join us, Jess and everyone on Team Neuk the Leuk in support of DFCI's heroic work for Gracie and too many others like her.

#EveryMileMatters

--

We want to thank the sponsor of this podcast, Needham Bank. Needham Bank is a premier sponsor of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk. The Bank’s continuous support has helped Dana-Farber fulfill its mission of providing expert, compassionate care and undertaking world-class research. To learn more about how Needham Bank is helping to build communities in Greater Boston and MetroWest, visit www.NeedhamBank.com.

If you like heavy breathing, you'll like this interview!

It's my first live, in-person, on-the-run interview of 2020.

And I couldn't have asked for a better person to run with than Michael Rodgers, the New York Road Runners VP of Youth and Community Engagement.

Michael directs a variety of programs that offer the running community opportunities to actively support NYRR's mission to help and inspire people through running.

These programs include:

1. The NYRR Team for Kids charity team that has more than 7,000 annual members who raise money for free running programs serving more than 267,000 kids in New York City and across the country.

2. NYRR Open Run, a free community run/walk program in 16 parks in New York City with more than 20,000 participants.

3. NYRR Run for the Future, a high-touch, high-impact summer program for girls in their senior year of high school to build self-esteem, confidence, and leadership skills, while training for a 5K race. Participants who complete the program receive a $2,000 college scholarship.

4. NYRR Community Champions and Youth Ambassadors programs.

In this run, Michael takes me for a tour of Central Park's North Woods.

It's funny... I've run in Central Park hundreds of times, but I always run the same route-- the main loop.

This was a great reminder for how fun it can be to change things up and get off the (literal) beaten path to explore new places... and ideas.

Big thanks to Michael for running with me-- and carrying most of the conversation when I was breathing too hard!

#EveryMileMatters!

Stacey D. Stewart is the CEO of the March of Dimes.

In my first podcast with Stacey back in May, I was surprised to learn that the U.S. is one of the most dangerous countries for women to be pregnant and give birth.

I was also surprised to hear how doctors' implicit biases, make this even more true for women of color, even when accounting for income, education and other socio-economic factors.

Our first conversation happened before the murder of George Floyd and all that has followed since.

Our national conversation around the BLM movement, implicit bias, systemic racism, white privilege and social justice is very polarized and heated.

Many (white) people understandably recoil at the accusation that they are biased or "privileged" when they certainly don't feel that way.

So, I wanted to reconnect with Stacey to see if she could help us better understand what implicit bias is, how it affects all of us, and what we can do about it.

Understanding how implicit and systemic bias affects even the most well-meaning doctors-- doctors who have dedicated their lives to serving pregnant women and bringing life into this world-- might make the topic a little less threatening to those of us who don't want to think of ourselves as biased.

It can help us come to terms with the fact that we are all biased-- not for the sake of making any of us feel bad, but for the sake of recognizing and overcoming our biases.

This is an important conversation.

Big thanks to Stacey for sharing so much with us.

#EveryMileMatters!

We're thrilled to welcome the Jimmy Fund to the Charity Miles family.

For those who don't know, the Jimmy Fund raises money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, a truly miraculous place.

Their signature event is the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk presented by Hyundai, which takes place each year on the course of the Boston Marathon®. Yes, you can actually walk all 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon course, from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, to raise money to fight cancer!

(They also have shorter distances like a half marathon, 10k, or 5k.)

For obvious reasons, they can't have the Jimmy Fund Walk in person this year.

But we are honored to help them bring this very special event to life in Charity Miles.

One of the things that makes the Walk special is how they dedicate each mile and half mile to a different hero-- a patient whose story exemplifies what makes Dana-Farber such a special place.

These are the heroes that we'll be showcasing in Charity Miles. One of those stories comes from today's guest, Julie Wilson.

Julie will be walking her fifth Jimmy Fund Walk this year near her home outside of Cleveland, Ohio.

She walked her first Jimmy Fund Walk in 2013 with her husband Travis. Julie's sister, who lived in Boston, invited them as a fun way to celebrate their first anniversary.

Needless to say, it was a very special way to celebrate their anniversary. But they could not foresee the curveball that life would soon throw them, which would make the Jimmy Fund an even more important part of their story.

Big thanks to Julie for sharing so much of her story with us. And big thanks to the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for the opportunity to help support their important work.

#EveryMileMatters