Made For Us

Despite training as a classical pianist, Pete Letanka always knew he was a jazz musician. In this episode, he talks about that early tension and his struggles with what he describes as “musical dyslexia.” He reflects on what years of leading music workshops with schoolchildren have taught him, and his ongoing work uncovering the composers left out of the history books. This is the final episode in...

Berginald Rash's original ambition was to be a cardiologist, but then he discovered the clarinet. In this episode, he shares his path from pre-med to the concert stage, the inspiration behind his new album, Black Boy, and argues that classical music needs to get better at telling its own story. This is the third in a series of episodes we’re bringing you in collaboration with Classically Black, a...

For soprano Victoria Oruwari, music and color are inseparable. In this episode, Victoria shares what it's like to experience music through synesthesia, how she discovered singing after losing her sight at seven, and the reality of building a career as a musician with a disability - from performing at the Royal Opera House to the barriers still facing disabled artists. This is the second in a serie...

Rebecca Omordia knew she wanted to be a concert pianist from the age of seven. As a music student, she mastered the demanding repertoire of Western composers and at home, she listened to Igbo songs sung by her Nigerian father. So when she discovered piano music by African composers, she wondered, “ why shouldn't this be in the canon?” In this episode, Rebeca reflects on her journey bringing Africa...

This September on Made For Us, we’re bringing you a series of conversations with some of classical music’s innovators - performers and composers who are expanding the boundaries of the genre. We’ve teamed up with Classically Black, a festival in the UK that is redefining what classical music looks and sounds like today. Curated by Black Lives in Music, Classically Black takes place on October 10,...

Eric Collins co-founded Impact X Capital to back the founders traditional venture capital overlooks. Inspired by the "original investors" in his own life, Eric’s work is driven by his belief that while talent is distributed equally, opportunity is not. In this episode - our season finale - Eric discusses his move from technology executive to investor and why he sees the racial wealth gap as a prob...

Growing up, Valencia Koomson wasn't supposed to be the one playing with the electronic set - that was her brother's Christmas present. She played with it anyway, and now she runs a lab at Tufts University focused on designing precision biosensors. She's turned that expertise toward addressing a long-overlooked problem in medical technology: pulse oximeters that work less reliably for patients with...

*** Help shape the future of Made For Us! Take our quick listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- At age 17, Hugh Herr was an elite rock climber whose life was defined by the vertical world, until a mountain climbing accident fundamentally chang...

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: While working as a civil rights lawyer in the Obama administration, Regina “Gina” Kline kept seei...

This week, we’re bringing you a crossover episode from Beyond 6 Seconds podcast, which features conversations with neurodivergent people from around the world. Award-winning host Carolyn Kiel speaks with neurodivergent entrepreneurs, creators, and advocates about their lives, identities, and issues that are important to them. In this episode, Carolyn's guest is Tiffany Hammond, author of the New Y...

A flaw in one of medicine's most trusted devices - the pulse oximeter - was first documented in the 1990s, then largely forgotten. It took the COVID-19 pandemic to bring it back to the forefront. Michael Sjoding, a pulmonologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, was treating critically ill patients during the pandemic when he noticed something that didn't add up: p...

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: What happens when AI doesn’t understand you? For millions of people across Africa, speaking a lan...

*** Help shape the future of Made For Us! Take our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: Ethan Pierce couldn't read when he finished third grade, but years later went on to win a full scholarship to Harvard. Recognis...

*** Help shape the future of Made For Us! Take our quick listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: What does the world look like when women control more wealth than ever before? In part two of our conversation with Sylvia Kwan, C...

Ellevest CEO Sylvia Kwan has a striking statistic she uses to explain why the company was founded: in a survey of asset managers by BNY Mellon Investment Management, 86% said their default customer is a man. In this episode, the first of a two-part conversation, Sylvia Kwan shares why Ellevest is on a mission to close the gender investing gap and why it may be just as important as the gender pay g...

Made For Us is back for Season 3 - and we’re talking about ambition. Hear from founders building AI for underserved languages and designing inclusive medical devices, and investors closing wealth gaps. Listen to the trailer and subscribe to get notified of new episodes. --- Connect with Made for Us Show notes and transcripts: https://made-for-us.captivate.fm/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/com...

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: So your name’s been mistreated by autocorrect. What harm does that cause? And what would it take...

The I Am Not a Typo campaign managed to get tech companies' attention. So what happened next? We hear from one of the campaign organisers about the conversations with tech giants - and whether anything actually changed. This is Part 2 of “What’s in a name?”, a new mini-series about autocorrect and inclusive technology. -- New to the series? Start with Part 1 Listen to the trailer Enjoying the show...

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: For years, people added their "unusual" names to their phone's dictionary, treating it as a minor...

Across the world, millions of people's names are treated as errors by our devices. In the UK alone, 41% of baby names are flagged as "incorrect." In a new mini-series, we'll meet the people pushing tech companies to do better and explore what autocorrect reveals about how - and for whom - technology gets built. Subscribe now so you don't miss new episodes. --- Connect with Made for Us Show notes a...

If some of the conversations you've heard in this season of Made For Us have felt like a glimpse into the future, then you're not alone. Our final guest of season 2, Marcus Engel, feels like he's already living in the future, thanks to AI, apps like Be My Eyes and other assistive devices. Marcus is a speaker, author and compassion consultant. He's also an advisor to Haptic, whose founder, Kevin Yo...

What if navigating the world didn't rely on sight at all? In this episode, Kevin Yoo, the CEO and founder of Haptic, joins us to tell the story of one of the world’s first haptic navigation apps. Kevin shares how he was motivated by his friend’s experience of becoming blind, how haptic technology is shaping a more accessible future and the challenges that come with rethinking how we move through t...

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://bit.ly/madeforuspodcast. --- In this episode: When science journalist Layal Liverpool was finally diagnosed with eczema as a teenager, it came as...

This week, we’re rewinding back to one of our most popular episodes from Season 1, with Rayouf Alhumedhi, creator of the headscarf emoji. (The episode was also shortlisted for last year's International Women’s Podcast Awards in the ‘Moment of Insight from a Role Model’ category.)  Rayouf launched the Hijab Emoji Project at the age of 16 to push for digital representation for Muslim women arou...

*** Help shape the next season of Made For Us! Please share your feedback in our 4-minute listener survey for the chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card and get instant access to our curated reading list of every book ever recommended on the show: https://forms.gle/pNyrCooa23oYsaVk7 --- In this episode: What happens when women aren’t considered in car safety design? For decades, crash test dummies h...