The Extra Mile - The Official Charity Miles Podcast

Katherine Adamenko is the Manager of Well-being at Ropes & Gray LLP, one of the best law firms in the world.

I used to work for a couple of law firms just like Ropes & Gray, and I can't recall anyone being concerned with wellness back then.

But times surely have changed.

When we were getting ready to launch our new Employee Empowerment program for companies to sponsor their employees, I cold-emailed a bunch of law firms to see who would be interested.

Katherine was the first to get back to me, and was very helpful as an early adopter, and in providing feedback for us to make the program better.

Since then, we've had many amazing companies reach out to join our Employee Empower program, including Salesforce, Allbirds, Workday, Gilead, Truist and more. In just a few short months, this program has already helped raise over $2 million in corporate commitments for great charities.

Katherine's help was crucial in helping us get the platform off the ground.

Which is why I wanted to talk with Katherine to share her perspective on why well-being matters in the workplace-- now more than ever-- and how you can implement some easy wellness principles into your own workplace too.

Huge thanks to Katherine for sharing so much with us. And a big thanks to Ropes & Gray for all of their support!

#EveryMileMatters!

My first interview with Bob received more positive feedback than any other interview I recorded.

For those who missed it, I highly recommend going back a couple episodes to listen to our first interview. It's just two episodes back.

In the first interview we talked about how to have uncomfortable conversations.

In this conversation we talk a bit more about why to have uncomfortable conversations.

We dive deeper into the purpose of uncomfortable conversations, the challenge of slippery slopes and how to why we need to build conflict resilience.

Again some more background on Bob...

Bob Bordone is a senior fellow at Harvard Law School, a former Harvard Law School Professor, and Founder and former Director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. When I was in Law School (16 years ago!), Bob was my advisor. With all that is going on in the world today, I thought it would be great to dust off my old negotiation and conflict management textbooks, and give Bob a call.

Meb Keflezighi is an Olympic Silver Medalist and the winner of the Boston and NYC Marathons. He's a legend in the sport, and probably one of the most loved athletes in recent years.

I asked for Meb's insight on how he handles unforeseen challenges, and for his perspective on the Black Lives Matter movement.

Huge thanks to Meb for all he does to inspire.

#EveryMileMatters

Bob Bordone is a senior fellow at Harvard Law School, a former Harvard Law School Professor, and Founder and former Director of the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. When I was in Law School (16 years ago!), Bob was my advisor. With all that is going on in the world today, I thought it would be great to dust off my old negotiation and conflict management textbooks, and give Bob a call. I'm glad I did. Because now more than ever, we all need to develop our conflict resilience skills-- the ability to listen deeply, assert authentically, promote creativity, and foster mutual gain.

For more on Bob click here.

If you're listening to this before June 19th, click here to learn more about a panel that Bob is hosting on Approaches to Processing, Anger, Anxiety and Grief.

#EveryMileMatters!

Jason Russell is the Co-Founder of Black Men Run, and a stroke survivor. He's a voice we need to hear from. And he has a simple, but powerful message: Listen.

Thank you, Jason.

#EveryMileMatters!

-Gene

Dan Pallotta is one of my heroes.

His book, Uncharitable, dared to challenge the conventions that constrained the way we thought about charity.

His 2013 iconic TED talk has been viewed nearly 5 million times.

My first interview with him a couple of years ago is one of my favorite interviews ever.

And now he's further distilled his insights into The Everyday Philanthropist, a simple, easy-to-understand guide to help us all understand that there's a better way to do giving.

In this interview, you'll get a small taste of what Dan is about.

It's too good to sum up here.

You'll have to listen.

And then go buy the book.

Seriously, go buy this book. We're not getting a cut or anything. But we need everyone to read this.

Here's the link to find it on Amazon.

Big thanks to Dan for helping us all dream bigger.

#EveryMileMatters

Dave McGillivary is the race director of the Boston Marathon.

As many of you know, the Boston Marathon was one of the first major events that was "postponed" because of the coronavirus.

When they originally postponed it, they were hoping that they'd be able to run it in September.

However, as it became apparent that this would not be possible, either, they last week made the hard decision to "go virtual", at least for this year.

It's not yet clear when we'll be able to have races and live events like the Boston Marathon again.

Dave shares more about how they came to these difficult decisions, and what it will mean to run the Boston Marathon "virtually".

He also shares his own story and journey to the Boston Marathon, his run across the U.S. for the Jimmy Fund, and so much more.

Thanks Dave!

Kevin Carrol is a Katalyst, a spark.

I first met Kevin at a conference several years ago and I've been a huge fan ever since.

When I met him, he was the "Creative Katalyst" at Nike. Phil Knight called him the Mayor of Nike.

But his journey to Nike was never preordained. He took a lot of twists and turns, like the feather in Forest Gump.

Kevin was raised by his grandparents in Philadelphia after his parents, addicted to drugs, abandoned him at age six.

Everything in his environment told him that he should never amount to anything.

But out of necessity, he found a way to build community and seek wisdom from others-- drug dealers, veterans, positive deviants, teachers and more.

Growing up, Kevin played basketball and football. But after suffering a few concussions on the football field, he started playing soccer, which helped pave his path to college.

From there, Kevin found his way to the Air Force where he became a translator while also studying to become a sports trainer.

After leaving the Air Force, he thought he found his dream job as a high school trainer in Philly. This led him to become the head trainer at St. Joseph's University, and then the Philadelphia 76ers, which is where he was discovered by Nike.

Kevin has an incredible life story, and an even more incredible energy.

Just this past March, Kevin began releasing little snippets and lessons of his life story in my new favorite podcast, Kataglyphs. Here are links to that on iTunes and Spotify.

You should definitely check out that podcast-- just after you listen to this one.

For more on Kevin, check out his website here-- where, by the way, he has the greatest testimonial of all time from Paolo Coelho: "When I met Kevin, I saw a man who manages to preserve the wisdom of his inner child. This human 'Katalyst' is able to bring out of reality its magic and out of people its joy."

When you listen to this interview, you'll see what he means.

Huge thanks to Kevin for sharing so much with us. I sincerely hope we can do this again soon.

#EveryMileMatters

Kristen Ulmer is one of the world's top extreme athletes-- ever.

As a big mountain extreme skier, she was #1 in her sport for 12 years in a row, and regularly named the top female extreme athlete by all the magazines and authorities that rate that kind of thing.

As she made her living by literally defying death on a daily basis, Kristen learned a lot about fear.

She learned how to harness her fear to propel her to new heights. And she learned how fear could cripple her if she ignored or tried to "conquer" it.

For regular listeners of our podcast, you might recognize Kristen's voice from our intro music: "Fear is an asset, an ally here to help you be magnificent."

That was from the first interview I recorded with Kristen, more than two years ago at the Spartan World Championships in Lake Tahoe.

Since then, I've re-listened to that original interview several times. It's one of my favorite that I've ever recorded. Each time I listen, I learn something new.

With COVID-19, we're all living through a very scary time right now.

Which is why I reached out to Kristen to ask that she re-share some of her wisdom with all of us.

This is the podcast we all need right now.

Huge thanks to Kristen.

#EveryMileMatters

In honor of Mother's Day, I'm tremendously honored to share this podcast with Stacey Stewart, CEO of March of Dimes, one of our newest charity partners.

When we started working with March of Dimes, I was very surprised to learn that the United States is one of the most dangerous countries to be pregnant and give birth.

Which is why Stacey and March of Dimes are leading the charge in fighting for the health of all moms and babies.

In this slightly rainy (and hilly) interview, Stacy and I talk about the March of Dimes' history, how they solved the problem of the polio virus, and how they're now fighting for maternal health, both scientifically and systemically.

It's also worth noting that March of Dimes pioneered the idea of walking for charity.

That's why they're called the March of Dimes... In other words, they're the original Charity Miles!

Thanks to Stacey and her team for the opportunity to support their mission.

Congrats to Stacey for earning her 101 Mile Club T-Shirt during this interview!

And of course, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

Please do some Charity Miles for March of Dimes today!

#EveryMileMatters #EveryMomMatters

-Gene