Butterfly Effect

What makes a life worth living? In this episode of The Butterfly Effect, I speak with Joël Naoki Christoph, a French economist, policy researcher and founder of 10Billion.org whose work spans AI governance, international cooperation, and nuclear risk reduction. His experiences inform our conversation about what we choose to do with our finite time. Together, we explore what it means to dream of a...

From the outside, diplomacy can look like suits, receptions, and carefully chosen words. Latvian diplomat Artūrs Zaķis takes us behind the scenes: the patience it demands, the relationships built one conversation at a time, and the sacrifices diplomats and their families make. In this episode of The Butterfly Effect, we follow Artūrs’s journey from a child who loved encyclopedias to postings in Wa...

From the European Parliament to entrepreneurship, from Europe to Asia and back again, Armen Andonian’s journey reflects a conviction he returns to throughout his life: when one path ends, it is possible to learn, adapt, build something new… and start over. For Armen, Brexit marked the end of a chapter he had spent years building at the European Parliament. What followed was uncertainty, reinventio...

With Martine, we ask what it actually means to change and whether lasting transformation is possible. We also explore what Martine calls "The Great Disconnect": a world in which we may be more technologically connected than ever, yet increasingly disconnected from ourselves, our bodies, nature, silence, and one another. To give you a sense of just how nourishing this conversation is, her...

What does it mean to move from surviving to helping others heal? In this episode of The Butterfly Effect, I speak with  Margaret “Peggy” Wright , a licensed clinical social worker and therapist based in Rochester, New York, whose work is rooted in trauma, survivorship, and the caring relationship between therapist and client. Peggy speaks with honesty about being a Survivor of childhood trauma, th...

Hello and welcome to The Butterfly Effect, a show about becoming. In this episode, we meet Sister Bethany Fitzgerald SJ, who, for more than 65 years, has been serving people throughout Upstate New York, helping them transform from caterpillars into butterflies. She has been involved in campus ministries and environmentalism, bridging science and spirituality. You will hear from her about building...

In this episode, we meet Esosa Ohonba, the founder of Layman, a justice-tech company that helps individuals and lawyers navigate civil legal processes. A graduate of the NYU School of Law, Esosa launched Layman to expand access to justice for self-represented persons and underserved communities. His work bridges law and technology to help close the civil justice gap. Here is Esosa’s story. The B-E...

In this episode, we meet Prof. Tania Israel , an energizing voice of academia with ready-made and science-backed solutions on how to make our society better in complicated times. Learn with me from Tania on the power of dialogue and how to keep engaging with the people and the world even when we disagree or feel overwhelmed . She is a University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor of Counselin...

In this episode, we meet Maida Maya Salkanović , a journalist, anti-misinformation upstander, and a human rights activist. Maya connects Europe and North America with her passion for making an impact wherever she is and with whomever she interacts. Her profession is to share stories, and she does not shun herself from telling also those difficult ones as she herself witnessed the genocide of Bosni...

You can support Katrice by helping make her nursing degree possible and supporting her care for Gabriel: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-katrices-nursingeducation-to-care-for-gabriel In this episode, we meet Katrice Williams , a dreamer who turns her aspirations into achievements, from overcoming childhood challenges of abuse to becoming a Stanford alumna and an attorney deeply rooted in her pa...

In this episode, we meet Adam Nelczyk, a researcher, biologist, and a champion of life. In 2022, Adam, filled with hopes and dreams right before finishing his PhD and starting a career in industry, received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic autoimmune neurodegenerative condition currently without a cure. However, Adam has not stopped and has instead embraced this diagnosis as a new...

In this episode, I have the great pleasure of talking with Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo , an environmental storyteller and community weaver based in Upstate New York. Tzintzun, through their art, films, activism, and community-building efforts, works to protect rivers and seeks to rebuild a sense of belonging between people and nature. Tzintzun is a co-founder of the Talking Wings Collective and a pursue...

In our first episode, I have the great pleasure of talking with a real-life hero, Keiday Ali: a survivor of the Darfur genocide, a person who was imprisoned seven times, a witness to the worst that humans can do to one another, and a tireless pursuer of education and self-growth. Currently, he is a Toronto-based entrepreneur and local changemaker. Despite everything that Ali went through, he has n...