The Ripple Map

Amber Lombardi sees the whole human being, and teeth are just the door.

Amber was almost born in her dad's dental office, learned "street dentistry" beside her dad in Haiti, and later, as a young single mom, needed help she couldn't find. In 2020 she founded Mainely Teeth in Maine, where every patient is screened for what else is going on in their life before the dental exam, social workers are part of the team, and Findhelp is built in from day one. We talk about why access to care is a symptom, a veteran who hadn't cried in thirty years, a teenager who wouldn't smile, the gaps she still sees, and what she'd tell policymakers.

"So the whole message is that teeth are just part of what we do. You're not meant to go it alone."

Mainely Teeth: https://mainelyteeth.org/
Find help near you (US): https://www.findhelp.org
Episode 1 with Erine Gray (Findhelp): https://youtu.be/rSmxe24D8Gg
Whole-person care at Mainely Teeth (Findhelp): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urVHXmSx720
Filling the Gaps (2024), Findhelp Films documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7FM0Xo1sZo

Support Mainely Teeth's work: donate https://mainelyteeth.org/donations/ volunteer https://mainelyteeth.org/volunteers/
Poem: Saadi Shirazi, Gulistan (1258), trans. Edward Rehatsek (1888), lightly modernized.

About The Ripple Map
The Ripple Map is a conversation series with people tackling the world's hardest problems at the root — some from inside their own lives, some from the field, some building the fixes. Not hero stories: honest conversations about how they found the root, and what it asks of each of us. Hosted by Yassaman Nouri.

Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRippleMap
Website + newsletter: https://theripplemap.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theripplemap/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ripple-map/

Every ripple shapes the world we share. Even yours.
What's your ripple? Tell us on YouTube or Instagram.

Where do you go when you need help, and who connects you to it?

At 17, Erine Gray watched his mom lose her memory almost overnight, and later spent 24 years as her legal guardian navigating the system. He tried to fix it from inside government; when that wasn't fast enough, he started Findhelp, the platform millions of people now use to find food, housing, help with bills and more. We talk about the stigma of asking for help, a $99 company and the seven-page signup form that almost ended it, why Findhelp chose to be a for-profit, what trust really costs, what millions of searches reveal, and why every line in a database is a human being.

"If I knew how hard it was going to be, I never would have done it. But it's the best thing that ever happened." (Erine Gray)

Resources mentioned

Find help near you (free, just your ZIP code): https://www.findhelp.org

Learn more about Findhelp: https://company.findhelp.com

Findhelp and GaiaVerse (search-data insights): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz8pNKHILXE

About The Ripple Map

The Ripple Map is a conversation series with people tackling the world's hardest problems at the root. Not hero stories: honest conversations about how they found the root, and what it asks of each of us. New episodes every Wednesday. Hosted by Yassaman Nouri.

What's your ripple? Tell us on Instagram or LinkedIn, and follow the show so you don't miss the next conversation.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/rSmxe24D8Gg

Website and newsletter: https://theripplemap.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theripplemap/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-ripple-map/

Every ripple shapes the world we share. Even yours.

Our world is facing some really hard problems.

The Ripple Map is a conversation series with people tackling them at the root — two parents on opposite sides of a war, people who know poverty from the inside, and people going deep into people and systems.

Not hero stories: honest conversations, down to the root.

Hosted by Yassaman Nouri.

Every ripple shapes the world we share. Even yours.