Podcast Archives - Tony Loyd

An Umbrella Made from Ocean-Bound Plastic, with Deirdre Horan, Dri

May 18, 2022 Podcast, SDG12 - Responsible Consumption and Production, Women

Deirdre Horan, Founder and CEO of Dri Dri produces durable, fashionable, and environmentally sustainable umbrellas from ocean-bound plastic. As a fifteen year-old, Deirdre Horan left her comfortable home in Acton, Massachusetts to join a youth group traveling to Gulfport, Mississippi. This was two years after Hurricane Katrina, and the community continued to struggle. “What really struck me was the level of devastation that was still there two years later,” Deirdre explains. “It takes much longer than the initial relief to pick lives back up. People will always need assistance if they’ve been impacted. I saw at a young age that something can always be done for somebody.” Deirdre continued to…

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Grants, Challenges, and Incubators (Oh My!) with Shubham Issar of SoaPen

March 11, 2022 BIPOC Voices, Podcast, SDG06 - Clean Water and Sanitation, Women

Shubham Issar of SoaPen Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand go from the UNICEF Wearables for Good Challenge to Shark Tank and beyond. Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand grew up in New Delhi but met at Parsons School of Design in New York. They loved working together on hands-on design projects that made a difference. In 2015, they entered the UNICEF Wearables for Good Challenge. While investigating the challenge, they ran into a statistic that shocked them. Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of five die annually from infectious diseases that handwashing can prevent. Shubham and Amanat were determined to do something about that. They returned to India to…

Download file | Play in new window | Recorded on March 11, 2022

Dan Miller Goes Against the Grain

July 6, 2021 Podcast, SDG15 - Life on Land

Dan Miller of Steward makes a difference by going the opposite way from the status quo.

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Kick-Off Season Four

June 28, 2021 Podcast

I’ve been thinking about you. You want to live a life of significance You feel compelled to serve a cause greater than yourself. You see a need in the world that you can’t unsee. There’s a cause that burns in your heart. To make a difference, you have to overcome the status quo. The status quo whispers in your ear, “That’s just the way things are.” The status quo is that you get up every day and act as if nothing is wrong in the world. It’s easy to be lulled into complacency by the status quo. There’s a high price for doing nothing. Unless you take action, the world…

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A Traveler’s Guide To World Peace, with Aziz Abu Sarah, MEJDI Tours

March 1, 2021 BIPOC Voices, Podcast, SDG16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Aziz Abu Sarah, MEJDI Tours MEJDI Tours sees tourism as an opportunity to transform lives through dual narratives and by strengthening local communities. Aziz Abu Sarah is a peace-builder, social entrepreneur, cultural educator, and author of Crossing Boundaries: A Traveler’s Guide To World Peace. But Aziz wasn’t always a peacemaker. “Growing up in Jerusalem as a Palestinian, I was no stranger to injustice,” Aziz explains. “The event that shaped me the most, however, happened when I was nine. Just after dawn, Israeli soldiers stormed into our home. I remember the shouts, the terror, the interrogations. And then they took my 18-year-old brother, Tayseer, away. He was arrested for allegedly throwing…

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Tap into the Strengths of Neurodiversity, with Isabella He

February 28, 2021 BIPOC Voices, Podcast, SDG10 - Reduced Inequalities, Women

Isabella He, SN Inclusion and AUesome High school students work on behalf of those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the United States, 1 in 54 children has autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Unemployment rates for individuals with ASD are approximately 85%. More than half a million individuals with ASD will enter the workforce in the next decade. The need for specialized vocational training is growing by the minute. A CDC study found that 50 percent of children with severe ASD only have access to school-based treatment services. And 17 percent of children with ASD do not have access to occupational, speech, or language therapy whatsoever. At-home therapy is difficult for…

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A Sense of Justice for Women and Girls, with Judith Martinez, InHerShoes

February 27, 2021 BIPOC Voices, Podcast, SDG05 - Gender Equality, Women

What would you do if you were 1% more courageous? Judith Martinez is a leader at the intersection of social justice and the future of human capital. She is the CEO of InHerShoes, the modern woman’s community for courage. When Judith was in the fifth grade, she witnessed a scene that changed her life direction. “I’m a first-generation Filipino-American,” Judith explains. “I grew up with Filipino as my first language. My grandparents raised me. “I remember we were at the LAX airport. My grandmother was trying to explain in her broken English to a man that she needed help. And he just cast her aside. It was like she was…

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Eliminate Plastic from Your Oral Care, with Kathy Ku, Juni Essentials

February 25, 2021 BIPOC Voices, Podcast, SDG09 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Women

Helping bamboo farmers and women in impoverished regions become self-reliant while eliminating plastic waste. If Kathy Ku’s name is familiar to you, you might have heard about her previous social venture in Uganda, Spouts of Water. I interviewed Kathy in December 2016. Kathy and her co-founder John Kye left Spouts of Water, but it continues to thrive. Around the same time that Kathy and John were in Uganda working on clean water, Dr. Noah Park was volunteering in low-income countries. “One of our Korean co-founders visited our production site in Uganda seven years ago or so, but we had never met each other,” Kathy explains. “He traveled to the less…

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Screen Printing with a Social Mission, with Sara Weihmann, New Avenues INK

February 23, 2021 Podcast, SDG08 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, Women

Sara Weihmann, New Avenues INK Offering paid job training for youth. Sara Hart Weihmann is the Director of Social Enterprise at New Avenues for Youth in Portland. She oversees a portfolio of workforce development social enterprises that offer goods and services to the local community. This provides paid work experiences and job training for youth experiencing housing instability. These enterprises include a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop and a screen-printing business, New Avenues INK. “I have always had a strong sense of environmental justice since I was a young kid,” Sara explains. “My parents would tell you that I was constantly giving them feedback about lights being left on in…

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Changing Lives through a Second Chance, with Karen Lee, Pioneer Human Services

February 23, 2021 BIPOC Voices, Podcast, SDG10 - Reduced Inequalities, Women

Karen Lee, Pioneer Human Services People who were involved in the criminal justice system are more than their labels. Karen Lee is the Chief Executive Officer of Pioneer Human Services. She was born during the 1960s civil rights era. “During my lifetime, I’ve seen quite a bit of discrimination. I’ve always wanted to do something about that in a way that was true to me.” Karen graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. She served our country until the 1990s. After her military service ended, she attended the University of Washington School of Law, where she received her JD degree. “I wanted to be a civil rights…