Navigating Our World

With devastating wild fires and floods filling our news feeds, the consequences of a changing climate have rarely felt more acute or urgent. In the midst of Climate Week, Brown Advisory’s Karina Funk sat down with Kate Gordon, who leads climate policy for the state of California and is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the intersection of business and climate. As investors, we are constan...

The data tell the story: Less than 1% of venture capital in the United States is invested in companies led by Black entrepreneurs. Add "female" as a data filter and it drops to 0.2%. Amid reckoning with legacies of racial injustice, we wanted to examine how a lack of representation in the startup ecosystem hinders access to capital for diverse founders. Brown Advisory’s Keith Stone sits down with...

Speaking with astrophysicist Jason Kalirai is a lesson in perspective. In this episode, Brown Advisory’s Ken Stuzin sits down with Dr. Kalirai to learn how he collaborates across national boundaries to explore the vastness of the universe and find answers to existential questions. As Dr. Kalirai points out, when you look at our planet from space, you see one world with no borders—just land, ocean,...

Caryl Stern , long-time CEO at UNICEF USA and now executive director at the Walton Family Foundation, has spent her career focused on elevating the well-being of children. While Caryl is deeply concerned about the inequities that the pandemic is exacerbating, she is also profoundly energized about the current innovation, partnerships and social justice movements that can deliver quality education...

The concurrent crises of the pandemic, economic fallout and racial inequities are creating a recipe for another crisis—in mental health. Brown Advisory’s Bertie Thomson sits down with Dr. Ray DePaulo of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Kristen Roby Dimlow of Microsoft and Dr. Richard Frank of Harvard Medical School to gain a deeper understanding of the stressors, as well as solutions, posed by this challen...

The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework for addressing global challenges related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Achieving them was never going to be straightforward—and that was before we faced a global pandemic, economic crisis, and the manifestation of centuries of racial violence and injustice. Investors have a particular r...

Technology rules the way we communicate, connect, consume and collaborate. For both companies and governments, this provides incredible economic and infrastructure opportunities, but also exposes massive risks to security and privacy.   Brown Advisory’s Lauren Cahalan sits down with one of the nation's leading thinkers on these issues to discuss the challenges posed by technology’s penetration of...

For Dr. Carla Hayden , libraries are freedom in action: Whether physical or online, libraries provide all people access to information, opportunity and education. As the Librarian of Congress, and the first woman and person of color to hold this position, Dr. Hayden leads the oldest federal cultural institution in the U.S.—yet it is anything but stale. Brown Advisory’s Jacob Hodes talks with Dr. H...

Gen Z is the future. Born between 1996 and 2012, this generation is the largest, most diverse cohort on the planet, with over $140 billion in purchasing power. And they may be more impacted by the global pandemic than any other generation. Brown Advisory’s Katherine Kroll speaks with Gen Z experts Ziad Ahmed, Joel Flory and Denise Villa to understand what Gen Zers care about and how their decision...

Our house sits next to a river. We see the water slowly rising year after year and threatening to flood the foundation. Then, a house fire erupts. What do we do? If we don’t act against both the fire and flood, our house will be gone.    Doug Baker , Chairman and CEO of Ecolab, believes climate change is a serious business risk that must be addressed even amidst a burning pandemic, as he describes...

The coronavirus pandemic raises many questions about the U.S.-China relationship – including how the two countries will address globalization, supply chains, technology and the environment going forward. Porter Schutt talks with two long-time students of China, Andy Rothman , investment strategist at Matthews Asia, and Linda Yueh , economist at the University of Oxford, to delve into the economic,...

According to Yascha Mounk , our guest on this week’s episode of Navigating our World , polarization poses an existential threat to democracy. In a conversation with Brown Advisory’s Jordan Wruble , Dr. Mounk examines the forces he feels are undermining our political systems, and discusses how the coronavirus pandemic might have the potential to bring us closer together.   Yascha Mounk is the autho...

What does it mean to lead with purpose? Tamara Lundgren , Chairman, President and CEO of Schnitzer Steel, and Josh Silverman , CEO of Etsy, have each leveraged the power of purpose to lead significant organizations. Brown Advisory’s Stephanie McCormick sits down with Tamara and Josh to explore the connection between purpose and financial performance, and how being purpose-driven helps them navigat...

In an intimate and candid conversation, CEO Mike Hankin sits down with esteemed Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Jon Meacham to draw historical parallels with the current crisis, and discuss lessons we can take from past leaders about navigating challenging times. --- The views expressed are those of the author and Brown Advisory as of the date referenced and are subject to change at an...

To kick off our Navigating Our World podcast, Brown Advisory CEO Mike Hankin shares his thoughts on why NOW is especially important during this crisis, and on the responsibility of business leaders to address the polarization around challenging issues -- including capitalism, climate change and more -- without taking sides. --- The views expressed are those of the author and Brown Advisory as of t...

Navigating Our World: The Podcast All episodes: https://www.brownadvisory.com/now --- The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of Brown Advisory. These views are not intended to be and should not be relied upon as investment advice and are not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. The in...