Positive Turbulence Podcast

Turbulent Language for Positive Social Impact

Language and storytelling have to power to change the world. But finding your voice and the right words to make the impact you want can be challenging. Tramaine Chelan'gat's shares her journey to finding her words. In doing so she found her calling as a Social Impact Strategist. Tramaine is inspired and inspiring, and in telling us her story, in confidently giving us the words to frame who she is and what she does in the world, Tramaine opens the door for all of us to consider our own stories and to reintegrate all of our compartments into a single, beautiful whole. Stay tuned, you’ll be challenged, you’ll be motivated, and you may even find the space for a good laugh.

Solutions Journalism: PositiveTurbulence in Action

Most journalists we encounter today ask what went wrong yesterday and who's to blame, or so says David Beers of The Tyee. He, Summers McKay and Kristy Jansen of the Optimist Daily joined Karyn and Rob for a rich and robust exploration of solutions journalism. What is solutions journalism, you may ask? Solutions journalism investigates and reports on potential solutions to our biggest challenges. It’s investigative journalism focusing on how people respond to and solve problems. It is a potential answer to the emotional inflammation that many of us are experiencing today.

Positively Powerful Partnerships

Marsha Semmel is a powerhouse in the world of museums, libraries, national cultural policy and program development, philanthropy and the development and implementation of strategic public/private partnerships. Marsha is opening a door to a new way of thinking about museums and museum experiences. In doing so she’s signalling that the cultural changes we are seeing in the world are going to force us to change how we do a lot of things. Through effective partnerships to support, broaden, and evolve our approaches for how we learn, Marsha sees big opportunities for libraries and museums to play in the education space.

Small Town Genie-us

Chad Shipmaker's story is a fascinating exploration of the outsized impact remote working can have on innovation and creativity in small towns. This is a positive take on what happens when you apply big idea thinking and practical problem solving to solutions that work in these small-town contexts. And while there may not be the talent pool and big money you get in a Silicon Valley, Chad says connected, authentic community connection provides opportunities you just can't get in these larger places.

The Human Side of Leadership

Another crack in the system that is being exposed right now is that the Great Person Theory of leadership, which is really the command and control model in a nicer suit, is way too rigid. To be great leaders we need to cultivate our emotional intelligence and ability to flex and be collaborative. Elaine Broe offers us a fresh take sprinkled with humor and humility.

Positive Turbulence in Negatively Turbulent Spaces

Pete Engstrom is currently the co-founder and board President of At Home Chesapeake, an innovative not-for-profit program for seniors. They want to create a new social covenant on aging so that seniors can age in place. At Home Chesapeake is a member of the Village to Village Network, where Peter is an active board member. Prior to this gig, Pete served in the US air force in intelligence, innovation and international negotiation. He is also a founding leader of AMI. To describe him as a force of nature might be an understatement.

Turbulent Non-Profit, Positive Community

Here we headbang with Mike Moss, Strategy Catalyst for Non-Profits, creator of momentum for positive change, and havy metal enthusiast. There are few professionals who don’t belong to some not-for-profit association in one way or another. You might belong to a more formal one that is a governing body for you, like the Society for Professional Engineers. Or you might be a member and follow a group in your community like Creative Mornings. Whatever your affiliation, these organizations have a big influence on how we work, how we define success, and how our industry will evolve.

Turbulent Retirement, Positive Aging

Consider what you think you know about aging and retirement. Those words often conjure up ideas of failing health, loneliness, and dependency. But Elizabeth Isele, Founder and CEO at The Global Institute for Experienced Entrepreneurship is here to tell you to its time to shift your perspective. Not only are people who work longer healthier, on the whole, but the so-called Silver Tsunami is also the scaffolding for the change we need in how we work.

Creativity, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Turbulence

Daniel Seeff is the West Coast Director of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz and host of Excursions Radio on KJazz 88.1 in LA the only hip-hop and jazz radio show in the world...we think. He’s also a creative leader who has a finely tuned ear for connection. Daniel’s insights may be grounded in his experiences in music but they are not just for musicians. They are for anyone looking to innovate, lead a group, be creative or manage change. We explore the creative process with Daniel and how to, as he puts it, keep the tap flowing, while still pushing for excellence.

Innovating Food, Turbulating Your World

Natalie Shmulick calls herself a Food Business Incubation Specialist, Creative Strategist, and Innovation Anthropologist. She’s the CEO of The Hatchery Chicago, a Food Business Incubator. If you’re an entrepreneur, innovator or someone who works with a product of any kind, you want to hear what Natalie has to say. We cover a lot of ground including finding your why, the other exit, connecting with community, and finding balance. All in the highly demanding space of food innovation.