The Turning Point Podcast

Most people assume corporations influence public policy. Far fewer understand how that influence actually works—or why companies with ambitious sustainability goals can end up opposing the very policies needed to achieve them.

In this episode of The Turning Point, we sit down with Deb McNamara, Executive Director of Climate Voice, to explore one of the least understood dynamics shaping climate progress today: the role of corporate influence, trade associations, and employee advocacy in public policy.

Together, we unpack how trade associations quietly shape legislation behind the scenes, why many companies find themselves misaligned with their own public commitments, and how a small number of powerful interests can stall progress on issues that benefit society as a whole.

But this isn't just a conversation about climate policy.

It's a conversation about how complex systems work—and where ordinary people still have real influence.

Deb shares how employees inside companies are organizing to align corporate lobbying with corporate values, why local and state policy remains one of today's most important leverage points, and how anyone can participate in strengthening the systems that shape our shared future.

If you've ever felt frustrated by the pace of climate progress—or wondered whether one person can really make a difference—this conversation offers a clearer understanding of what's happening behind the scenes and where meaningful change can begin.

Learn more about Climate Voice: https://climatevoice.org/

Connect with Deb McNamara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-mcnamara-711458263/

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For years, much of the conversation around climate has focused on technology, policy, or individual action. But beneath all of those lies another force that determines whether meaningful change happens at all: culture.

In this episode of The Turning Point, we sit down with Nicole Rom of Good Power, to explore how public opinion, trusted messengers, and strategic communication shape the future of the clean energy transition.

Nicole shares how Good Power is combating misinformation, supporting renewable energy projects across the country, and helping build the public support needed to accelerate decarbonization. Along the way, we unpack why facts alone rarely change minds, how social trust influences behavior, and why lasting policy requires lasting cultural change.

This conversation goes far beyond climate. It's about leadership, systems change, organizational strategy, and how ideas spread in an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

Whether you're building a business, leading a nonprofit, or working to create change in your community, this episode offers a thoughtful look at how lasting transformation really happens.

https://goodpower.org

https://stillpointinsight.com

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Chapters

00:00 Why the energy transition is really a culture problem

02:24 Meet Nicole Rom

02:40 Public opinion and the climate challenge

06:18 Climate arrives in our own backyards

07:08 Why climate still isn't a top voting issue

09:17 Why Good Power leads with affordability

11:19 The economics of renewable energy have changed

13:07 Fighting misinformation and building public trust

14:48 How social media transformed public opinion

20:14 Inside Good Power's creator network

21:17 Using behavioral science to measure impact

23:09 Energy security, affordability, and geopolitics

23:54 The three ingredients for changing minds

27:17 How local renewable energy projects get approved

32:58 Public policy, elections, and systems change

34:51 Why culture must come before durable policy

39:26 Communication vs. manipulation

41:08 Hope in the face of climate change

42:02 Nicole's journey into environmental leadership

44:24 Building healthy mission-driven organizations

46:46 How Good Power operates differently

49:34 The highest leverage opportunities today

50:08 What individuals can do right now

52:04 Greenhushing and what's next

52:54 Closing thoughts

In a recent episode, we welcomed Dr. Kinari Webb to The Turning Point to discuss how her organization, Health In Harmony, has partnered with rainforest communities around the world to protect some of the planet's most critical ecosystems.

What we discovered was that the real breakthrough wasn't simply conservation strategy—it was a radically different way of understanding where wisdom lives.

In this follow-up conversation, Kinari returns alongside co-author Dr. Pat Plude to explore the philosophy and practice behind their book Radical Listening. Together, they challenge one of the most deeply embedded assumptions of modern Western problem solving: that experts, institutions, and those furthest from a problem are best equipped to solve it.

Instead, they argue that the people closest to a challenge often possess the deepest understanding of both the problem and its solutions.

We explore:

Whether you lead a company, a nonprofit, a community initiative, or simply want to become a better listener, this conversation offers a powerful challenge to conventional approaches to leadership and problem solving.

📖 Learn more about Radical Listening and order the book: https://radicallistening.org/

🌎 Learn more about Health In Harmony and their work protecting rainforests through community partnership. https://www.healthinharmony.org/

📈 Learn more about Still Point Insight and our work helping mission-driven organizations build healthier cultures, stronger operations, and sustainable growth. https://stillpointinsight.com/

00:00 Introduction

03:37 What Is "Market World"?

08:46 The Tsunami Relief Story That Changed Everything

11:14 Interbeing and the Reality of Interconnection

14:43 Does Radical Listening Require Inner Work?

19:59 The Three Beliefs Behind Radical Listening

21:27 Where Radical Listening Works

23:43 Collective Wisdom in Action

29:45 How Radical Listening Actually Works

34:15 Why Listening Is Simple—but Not Easy

36:00 Presence, Rapport, and Full-Body Listening

40:22 Listening Beyond Individual Conversations

49:00 Radical Listening Inside Organizations

56:39 Leadership, Hierarchy, and Follow-Through

01:00:44 Can Radical Listening Happen Online?

01:05:55 Obstacles to Adopting Radical Listening

01:08:31 Politics, Community Listening, and Polarization

01:12:55 How Systems Change Actually Happens

01:16:51 Start. Practice. Repeat.

Most leaders think culture is about values.

It’s not.

Culture is shaped by behavior—and behavior is shaped by systems.

In this Mission-Driven episode of The Turning Point, we break down why organizational culture is so difficult to change, and why most culture initiatives fail before they start. What shows up as a “capacity problem” or “performance issue” is often something deeper: misalignment between mission, behavior, and the systems that reinforce both.

We explore the difference between mission and culture, why culture is always forming (whether you’re intentional or not), and how leaders can create real change by focusing on high-leverage behaviors instead of abstract ideals.

If you’re leading a growing, mission-driven organization and feeling the strain—this conversation will help you see what’s actually happening beneath the surface.

00:00 – Why capacity problems are usually culture problems

#MissionDriven #Leadership #OrganizationalCulture #Scaling #SystemsThinking #Management #ExecutiveLeadership

Learn more about our work: https://stillpointinsight.com

Subscribe to The Turning Point: https://stillpointinsight.com/the-turning-point

Many of the institutions shaping our world operate on a quiet assumption: that resources are scarce and progress requires competition.

But what if that assumption is false?

In this episode of The Turning Point, Justin Baker and Ian C. Williams speak with Dr. Kinari Webb, founder of Health In Harmony, about what happens when we approach complex challenges with a different mindset—one grounded in reciprocity, ecological awareness, and what she calls radical listening.

Kinari’s work began in the rainforests of Borneo, where she partnered with Indigenous communities to address the interconnected challenges of deforestation, poverty, and public health. Instead of imposing outside solutions, her team began by listening deeply to the knowledge of people living closest to the land.

What emerged challenges many of the assumptions underlying modern development and conservation efforts.

The results were striking: healthier forests, stronger communities, and a powerful demonstration that systems built around reciprocity with nature and trust in local knowledge can produce outcomes that benefit both people and ecosystems.

In this conversation, we explore how radical listening can transform leadership, systems design, and the way organizations approach complex problems.

00:00 Introduction

02:10 Kinari Webb’s path to rainforest conservation

07:45 Discovering the connection between human health and forest health

13:30 Why traditional conservation approaches often fail

18:20 The principle of radical listening

24:05 Indigenous knowledge and systems thinking

30:15 Challenging the narrative of scarcity

36:40 Designing solutions with communities instead of for them

42:10 Reciprocity with nature and thriving ecosystems

48:30 What regenerative systems can teach organizations

54:10 Leadership lessons from rainforest communities

58:30 Reimagining systems that allow life to thrive

01:03:15 Final reflections

#SystemsThinking

#RegenerativeLeadership

#MissionDrivenLeadership

#OrganizationalCulture

#EcologicalLeadership

#FutureOfWork

#RegenerativeEconomy

Learn more about Dr. Kinari Webb’s work at Health In Harmony

If your organization is navigating complex change and looking to build cultures that support long-term thriving, learn more about our work:

https://stillpointinsight.com

Mission matters. But when it comes to raising growth capital, it’s not enough.

In this episode of The Turning Point, Justin and Ian sit down with Patrick Donohue, manager partner and CEO at Hill Capital, to unpack what growth-stage investors actually look for in small and lower middle-market businesses.

They explore the painful middle stage many founders hit — the $1–3 million “no man’s land” — where companies have proven product-market fit but lack the systems, financial rigor, and leadership capacity to scale. Patrick shares how investors evaluate risk, why financial fluency is a founder’s competitive advantage, and how to avoid predatory capital that can quietly stall your mission.

If you’re building a mission-driven company and thinking about growth capital, this conversation will challenge how you think about funding, accountability, and long-term value creation.

00:00 – Why Mission Isn’t Enough

#MissionDrivenLeadership

🔎 Learn more about Patrick and Hill Capital: https://www.hillcapitalcorp.com/

Mission-driven leaders face a unique challenge: building a successful, sustainable organization while staying true to a deeper purpose.

This episode marks the launch of our new Mission-Driven series, created specifically to support the founders, executives, and leaders we serve through our work at Stillpoint Insight.

In this conversation, Ian and Justin break down one of the most essential—and misunderstood—leadership skills: prioritization.

They explore why prioritization is not just about productivity, but about aligning limited resources with your highest-impact mission. From strategy and leverage to focus, burnout, and the emotional complexity of leadership, they offer practical frameworks and hard-earned lessons from working directly with mission-driven founders across industries.

You’ll learn how to identify what truly moves the needle, how to say no without losing momentum, and how great leaders balance operational realities with long-term impact.

Whether you're scaling a company, navigating growth, or simply trying to create space to think clearly again, this episode will help you reconnect your daily actions with your deeper mission.

This is the work beneath the work.

—

Learn more about our work supporting mission-driven leaders:

00:00 Introduction to the Mission-Driven series

#MissionDriven

In this episode of The Turning Point, we sit down with Dori Jones, founder and CEO of Acqumen Medical, to explore how a personal NICU experience sparked a breakthrough in pediatric critical care.

The U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate of any wealthy nation—a reality most people never confront until they’re forced to. Dori explains why infants and children in critical care are so difficult to monitor, how doctors make life-or-death decisions with limited data, and how Acqumen Medical is changing that with non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring technology.

We unpack the science behind blood flow measurement, why cardiac output matters far earlier than traditional vital signs, and how Acqumen’s UltraTrack technology combines ultrasound and impedance in a completely new way. Dori also shares the realities of building a pediatric medical device company, navigating FDA pathways, fundraising, and why innovation in children’s healthcare is both overlooked—and essential.

🎧 Learn more about the technology at https://www.acqumenmedical.com/

#TheTurningPointPodcast #HealthcareInnovation #PediatricCare #MedicalDevices #FounderStory #NICU #InfantHealth #HealthTech #MissionDriven #StartupStories

Carbon removal isn’t new—but most solutions are expensive, centralized, and difficult to scale. So what if the most effective answer is also the least flashy?

In this episode of The Turning Point, Justin Baker and Ian C. Williams sit down with Andrew Jones, founder and CEO of Carba, to explore a radically practical approach to carbon removal—one that leverages biology, waste streams, and existing infrastructure instead of giant vacuum machines.

Andrew breaks down why decarbonization alone won’t solve climate change, how biochar can permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere, and why decentralized, “unsexy” climate infrastructure may be our best path forward. Along the way, we unpack carbon markets, landfill co-benefits, regenerative agriculture, and the hard realities of financing climate hardware.

🔗 Learn more about Carba’s carbon removal technology: carba.com

#CarbonRemoval #CarbonCapture #ClimateTech #Biochar #ClimateSolutions #CleanTech #Decarbonization #ClimateInfrastructure #Sustainability

What if healthcare worked for people instead of insurance companies?

In this episode of The Turning Point, we sit down with Sarah Brown, founder of Gatherwell, to explore a radically different approach to healthcare—one that removes insurance from the equation entirely.

Sarah shares why she left traditional healthcare, how the insurance-driven system fails both patients and providers, and what direct access care looks like in practice. We unpack patient agency, preventative care, entrepreneurship inside a broken system, and why “care without insurance” may actually lead to better outcomes and lower costs.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated, powerless, or confused navigating healthcare, this conversation offers a hopeful—and practical—alternative.

Learn more about GatherWell at gatherwellmn.com

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