To solve today’s most intractable problems – from climate change to inequality to combating terrorism and corruption – as well as business challenges, we need the most creative ideas we can find, figure out how to do them, and then find ways to implement them. So, when I met my guest today, I knew I needed to introduce you to her. Listen to my interview with Courtney Bickert, social innovator and comedienne, with her thoroughly different take on social innovation.
Jules Pieri and her company The Grommet have learned so much from launching their own business and over 30,000 products on their e-commerce site that sells hand-picked products made by small “makers” — including the hazards of selling on Amazon — that she decided to write a book about it. In her extensive interview with Green Connections Radio host Joan Michelson, about her book, “How We Make Stuff Now,” Pieri explains key lessons learned (including how to manage Amazon, if you do go to it.
What if corporations took their responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint and as corporate citizens seriously and integrated it into their corporate strategies? That’s exactly what Suzanne Fallender, Director of Sustainability at Intel told Green Connections Radio host Joan Michelson they are doing. From reducing energy and water use, eliminating the use of conflict minerals, to finding ways to recycle or reuse almost every by-product or waste material, she said Intel is leading industry. Listen to how they do it – profitably!
There’s a lot of buzz about electric vehicles (EVs), but adoption is still slow. Why? Bonnie Datta of Siemens told Joan Michelson of Green Connections Radio that much of the blame goes to regulators and utilities. Listen to this fascinating interview for why and great career advice too.
With a new Secretary of Defense coming in, and an Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, it’s important to remember the national security implications of climate change. Listen to Joan Michelson’s fascinating (and a bit frightening) interview with former Deputy Secretary of Defense, and former Senior Vice President and General Counsel and Military Advisor at CNA, a top national security think tank, Sherri Goodman on how climate relates to national security.
“The conversation at the time was the same as the one today,” renowned journalist Soledad O’Brien told a gathering of about 250 girls ages 13-22 and a few women about the difference between the campaign to give women the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. “Who is an American, who can vote?” These are the same questions being debated today, O’Brien explained.
As record heats spread across the U.S. (and the globe), air conditioning systems and the power systems they depend upon are getting a workout. These HVAC systems – heating, cooling and ventilation – “account for approximately 50 percent of energy consumption in the average home” and about 39% of energy use in commercial buildings in the U.S., and they last for 10-15 years, By the time you read this, there’s another new technology, and there’s a pressing demand for more eco-conscious systems. So, how do you juggle these competing demands and keep your talented team engaged? Listen…
Listen closely the next time you get directions on your smartphone or order Alexa to do something. Did you notice that the voices of personal digital assistants like GPS systems, Siri and Alexa are female? Why is that? Especially when the sophisticated problem-solving technologies like IBM Watson and Microsoft’s Einstein are named after men. That’s what a recent UN study found. But does that mean AI is biased against women?
We did it! In case you missed it, the event Joan Michelson and Green Connections Media produced and moderated last week at the Newseum celebrating 100 years of women voting – the centennial of the 19th Amendment – was a big hit!
“To me, creativity is the ability to connect, in often unexpected ways, observations or experiences or skills from completely different realms,” Ingrid Daubechies on Green Connections Radio The next time you send a photo to someone from your smartphone, and it asks you for which size to send, you’ll think about that decision differently after… Continue reading “Genius” Scientist Shares Her Secrets for New Ideas – Ingrid Daubechies, Duke University
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