Julie Austin had it all–big job, big salary, big house–and then she left it all behind to work as a social worker. Kelsey and Jay talk to Julie about her journey, happiness, and purpose.
In the conversation we mention:
The Social Worker Code of Ethics
Joshua Berman has volunteered with the Peace Corps, fought wild fires, gone on a 1+ year-long honeymoon, and written guidebooks. He’s a dad, a teacher, columnist for the Denver Post, and he’s good people.
Joshua writes a monthly column in The Denver Post and is the author of six books. His travel articles have appeared in The New York Times, Yoga Journal, Delta SKY, Sunset, and National Geographic Traveler, among other publications.
Joshua has appeared multiple times on the Travel Channel, including as a tour guide for the host of “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern” in Nicaragua.
His…
On the 6th anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory disaster that killed 1,134 Bangladeshi garment works and injured thousands more, Kelsey shares his experiences in Bangladesh. This episode also features Christopher Cox of the Human Thread Campaign who, along with Kelsey, was a featured speaker at DePaul University’s Fair Trade fashion show.
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Ben Conard’s class assignment became a business – Five North Chocolate. Ben shares his journey from farmer’s market to national shelves and how and why Five North became the first to print the LGBTQ-owned label on its packaging.
We discussed Fair Trade, ethical consumption, Ben offers advice for social entrepreneurs, and the importance of being who you are everywhere and in all aspects of life.
Please subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or on Stitcher.
Notes:
Forbe’s article on Five North: This Chocolate Brand Is The First To Feature A New LGBT Seal
Ben’s Tedx Talk
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Jay and I have been meeting for beers for years and wrestling with life’s toughest questions like: is a $400 pair of jeans unethical?
There’s no guest this episode, just Jay and I sharing a beer. The conversation shifts into a discussion of Effective Altruism (EA).
There are several EA sites you should check out:
Peter Singer’s The Life You Can Save (Take the giving pledge and use the tool to determine how much of your income you should give)
Please subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or on Stitcher….
After a year of my friend Jay Moorman bugging me about doing this…I started a podcast. The Good People podcast explores what it means to be good by talking to everyday heroes, philanthropists, altruists, and do-gooders.
I’ve spent the last 18 years traveling to 50+ countries to research my books and meeting amazing people who do so much good in the world. Meeting them changed me. And it’s my hope that I can introduce listeners to these people and others who’ve had such an influence on me. They’ve helped me see how I can best make an impact in the world in very tangible ways. It’s my hope that together we learn how to be better local and…
I sent my friend, Rozy, in Nairobi $200. She was able to enroll in college.
$200 = college
I sent my friend Collins in Kenya $15. He sent me a note that he’d be able to eat for the month and focus on his studies.
$15 = a month of food
I’ve spent the last two years working on a book project (Where Am I Giving?) researching how to responsibly give our time, talent, and money to make the largest impact. Our donations can save and improve lives, so we should make them wisely. Sometimes when we donate to effective causes in places like Kenya our gift can make 100 times the impact as it can in the United…
I hate cards. It’s okay getting them, but I don’t like buying them. It seems so impersonal and as a writer, I feel like it’s just lazy.
The comedian Jim Gaffigan has a bit where he shops for a card: “I guess that is something I’d say. I guess I’ll sign here.” And then he hands the card to his loved one: “See what that other person wrote about how I feel about you.”
See, seems kind of dumb.
Maybe I’m too focused on the giving of the card and not what the most important part is: the shopping for the card. In those moments of shoebox greetings and Hallmark hell, you stop and think about someone you care about….
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“Don’t F@ck with chocolate. I don’t want to know.”
That was a friend’s reaction when I told him I was researching the book that would become WHERE AM I EATING?, a book in which I traveled around the world to meet farmers who produce chocolate, bananas, coffee, lobster, and apple juice.
The cocoa farmers I met in West Africa lived in poverty. A worker on a cocoa farm was enslaved. Child labor. Environmental degradation. Economic impacts of a changing climate. There were plenty of issues to be aware of.
So…did this awareness ruin chocolate for me?
Nope. Quite the opposite. Now that I know more about chocolate, how it’s produced, where it comes from, and brands that concern themselves with the well-being…
In high school I drove a black Firebird. It was a ‘93 Trans-Am, the first year for the curvaceous f-body, with a 275-horse-powered LT1 engine. The same engine the Corvette had. It wasmy dream car then and now. The license plate read: BATMBLE.
Batmobile. I’d be lying if it ended with the license plate. I had Batman floor mats. I had the soundtrack to the first Batman movie, the one with Michael Keaton, in the CD player. I loved blaring it on fall nights, leaves swirling where the Batmobile had been.
“You want to get nuts,” Bruce Wayne said to the Joker’s henchmen in the movie. “Come on let’s get nuts.”
I occasionally got nuts in the Batmobile….
