Welcome Change

How are communities reimagining their economic futures? Join us on Nov. 1 to meet Ashoka Fellow Molly Hemstreet who co-leads The Industrial Commons, a network of worker owned textile cooperatives in North Carolina – in conversation with Brandon Dennison, an Ashoka Fellow and founder of Coalfield Development in West Virginia. They’ll be talking about centering heritage industries (textiles), seeding future industries (clean energy), advancing worker ownership, and a new economic playbook for communities everywhere – for closing wealth gaps and distributing ownership.

*Recorded live on Nov. 1, 2023

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

Whether due to conflict, climate change or economic opportunity, more and more people find themselves on the move across and within borders. Ukraine is a case in point, with more than 8 million of its citizens forced to leave their homes since the war broke out in 2022. Nearly one million of them landed in Poland, doubling the size of the country’s Ukrainian diaspora.

For Ashoka Fellow Myroslava Keryk, who had moved from Ukraine to Poland more than 20 years prior, it was clear that the approach of seeing migrants merely as recipients of aid would fall short and end up stoking tensions in the long run. She founded Dom Ukrainski (Ukrainian House Foundation) to ensure newcomers could quickly become active contributors to the common good in their new home and their homeland, playing a key role in welcoming newly arrived refugees.

Tune in to hear a conversation between Myra and Ashoka’s Kenny Clewett on reframing our narratives about migration and recognizing people on the move as powerful changemakers.

*Episode recorded live on October 25, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

In March 2023, UN Secretary General António Guterres was unequivocal when he spoke at the release of the UN’s 6th IPCC report: “our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything, everywhere, all at once.” But who is going to deliver this action? The answer must be: Everyone. We need a groundswell of changemakers: to shift the systems and structures they’re part of, in their work, schools, neighborhoods and countries.

For a practical look at how two Ashoka Fellows are activating climate agency in millions of young people, listen in on this Welcome Change. We’ll speak with Kuldeep Dantewadia (India), founder of Reap Benefit, and Koen Timmers (Belgium/Global), founder of Take Action Global – the world’s largest climate education initiative.

*Episode recorded live on October 11, 2023

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

In journalism and many other fields, "local" is understood as somehow less than global, limited. But what if the reverse is true: What if the most sought-after expertise is closest to the story? In her new book Byline, Fellow Cristi Hegranes, founder of Global Press, looks at the future of news and opportunities to meld local and global for greater accuracy and trust. We’ll also hear from Cristi how some reporting practices from Covid times may be here to stay – and why that’s a good thing.


*Episode recorded live on September 20, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

The world just experienced one of the most significant global celebration of women’s sports – the 2023 World Cup. Cited as the most internationally inclusive women’s sporting event, breaking viewership and attendance records, it showed us how sport can be a platform for progress. Yet it also revealed how much more is needed to put women on an equal footing to men and address systemic problems in plain view to players and hundreds of millions of fans.

For a look at what’s next in the world of sports and changemaking, we heard from Ashoka Fellow and former football/soccer player Kelly Davies, live from the U.K., in conversation with Ashoka’s Ana Saenz de Miera in Madrid.

*Episode previously recorded live on Sept. 13, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

Rev. Heber Brown III, an Ashoka Fellow in Baltimore, is activating one of the most resilient of Black institutions in the U.S. – the Black Church – to become a food producer network. His Black Church Food Security Network is now 170 congregations strong, all working to grow and distribute nutritious food to congregants and communities.

Listen in to hear from Heber, in conversation with Rev. Jennifer Bailey, also an Ashoka Fellow, and founder of Faith Matters Network. 

*Previously recorded live on June 21, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

Some key industries can play an outsized role in ending human trafficking, says social entrepreneur Mariana Ruenes, who has been working to end modern slavery since age 17. Now, her Mexico City-based network equips businesses in such industries as travel and tourism with strategies to identify, report, and ultimately prevent human trafficking and exploitation in Latin America.

Listen in on this episode to learn more about modern slavery and how Mariana's organization is partnering with the private sector to fight against this issue.

*Episode previously recorded on May 10, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

From Syria, to Yemen, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Mali, and the United States – conflict has migrated to online spaces. Recognizing this important shift, peace-builder and Ashoka Fellow Helena Puig Larrauri, co-founded Build Up to transform conflict in the digital age. Working with NGOs, UN agencies, community leaders and multilateral organizations, Build Up develops innovative tech solutions to conflict.

Over the years, tackling the exponential growth of viral polarizing content spread on social media has become a pressing challenge for peacebuilders and a key question emerged: What if we made social media platforms pay for the harms they produce, like polarization? Imagine a tax on polarization, akin to a carbon tax.

Listen in to this episode as we explore novel ideas on how to measure and reduce the polarization footprint of social media platforms.

*Episode recorded live on May 3, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

With the increasing frequency of storms, wildfires, tornadoes, and other natural disasters, Fellow Saket Soni, a labor organizer instrumental in the response to Hurricane Katrina, sees a new group of workers emerging: the resilience workforce. Essential to recovery efforts, these workers, many of them migrants, are less visible, more vulnerable and temporary, requiring new labor protections to support their critical role.

Listen in to hear from Saket about his work and what's ahead. 

*Episode originally recorded on April 26, 2023

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus

Sabotaging her job. Refusing to work. Demanding she accounts for every cent. Destroying her credit. These are just a few examples of economic abuse. It’s a form of domestic violence that affects most women in abusive relationships, the consequences of which often continue even after they exit their relationship. Ashoka Fellow Meseret Haileyesus founded the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment, to build a social, financial, and regulatory safety net against economic abuse. 

Listen in to learn more about how she works with survivors, the financial sector, policymakers and more to enact ground-breaking changes in Canada's financial ecosystem. 

This conversation is part of an insight series on what's next for gender equity, supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

*Episode recorded live on April 19, 2023.

Welcome Change is Ashoka's news and insight series - short conversations with the world's leading changemakers on what works, what's next, and the role we can play. 

Browse the series: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/welcomechange 
Follow here: https://twitter.com/ashokaus