Better Good with Scott M. Curran

Every foundation in America operates on a two-way bargain with the public that rarely gets named out loud: accept significant tax advantages, and deploy those resources in service of the public good. Most foundations show you one side of that equation—the grantmaking—and keep the other side, the endowment, largely invisible. Dr. Carmen Rojas thinks that needs to change. On this episode of BETTER G...

On this episode of BETTER GOOD, Scott M. Curran  (https://www.scottmcurran.com/) sits down with Kevin Maguire, author of The New Fatherhood (https://www.newfatherhood.com/book/), for a special Father's Day conversation about what it really means to lead a family today. For thousands of years, fatherhood came with a clear job description: protect, provide, preside. But today's dads are expected to...

About 4 billion people will tune in for this year’s World Cup, which is being held on American soil for the first time in over 30 years. But soccer is more than a globally unifying sport. It's a shared language, a lifetime of learning, and something kids, families, and entire communities can rally around almost instantly. You don't need much to start: a ball, a bit of space, a few people willing t...

Disasters happen. Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, pandemics. There's little we can do about them. But what happens after the headlines fade and after the cameras leave is something we do have control over. The hardest part of a disaster isn't always the disaster itself. It's the weeks, months, and years of recovery and rebuilding that make the biggest difference. And most of the help,...

There are at least 1.4 billion people on this planet with no connection to the financial system, and no way to turn a good idea into a livelihood. Not because they lack talent, drive, or ambition, but because the system simply wasn't built to include them. This massive divide between talent and opportunity is what today's guest is building a bridge across. On this episode of BETTER GOOD, Scott M....

Most people think power always looks the same—loud, demanding, aggressive, and increasingly in your face. But actually, not always. Penny Abeywardena has spent her life mastering another kind of power: soft power. Something we can all use to help change the world if we become more familiar with it, and better at using it in our lives and in our work. On this episode of BETTER GOOD, Scott M. Curran...

What if a bottle of salad dressing could change the world? In 1982, Paul Newman—movie star, race car driver, and American icon—bottled a homemade salad dressing with a friend, put his face on the label, and made one simple decision: every cent of profit would go to charity. Forever. Newman's Own has now generated more than 600 million dollars for charitable causes—and the "Newman's Own exception,"...

"Chief Impact Officer" wasn't a job twenty years ago. But a decade ago, it became one of the fastest-growing roles in business. Today, it's complicated because the idea that companies should “do good” has been dragged into the culture wars. So what does it look like when a company actually takes that responsibility seriously and builds purpose into its operations? On this episode of BETTER GOOD, S...

What does it look like when a politician actually does their job? Not the culture warring. Not cable news. Not pitting you against your neighbor to score political points. But the actual work of public service: showing up every day for all the people you serve, bridging divides instead of deepening them, and measuring success by outcomes, not optics. Almost sounds quaint, doesn't it? We're living...

Menstrual equity. There’s a good chance you’ve never really thought about what that means. But you should. Because it affects women, men, families, workplaces, and entire economies. If talking about menstruation feels uncomfortable, good. Growth usually starts there.  Let’s start with some simple facts: Half the world’s population is women. Every single one of us was born from a woman. And every o...

There are only two ways to run the world. Guns or lawyers. That's it. It's either the threat of force or the rule of law. Everything we call civil society, from the contracts that govern business to rights that protect our privacy and freedom itself, depend on that second path. And lawyers are the custodians of that path. Yet we too often forget this. We joke about lawyers, but they protect civil...

When the world’s on fire, who shows up? Nonprofits. Yet few people know exactly how deeply embedded they are in daily life. They make our communities the special places they are, from animal rescues to food banks, schools to places of worship. But how can they survive, much less thrive, especially when the world around us is so chaotic and adversarial? There is perhaps no better person to answer t...

Imagine you’re a healthy young adult with your entire life ahead of you. Then one day, doctors tell you you’re going to die. Not someday. Now. That happened to David Fajgenbaum (https://davidfajgenbaum.com/). But he survived. And now he’s pushing the frontiers of medical research to help save others. In the debut episode of BETTER GOOD, Scott M. Curran (https://www.scottmcurran.com/) is joined by...

Host Scott M. Curran takes listeners inside the playbook of the world’s top social impact leaders—so anyone can learn to do more good, better. As CEO of Beyond Advisers, a consultancy advising world-leading foundations, brands, and changemakers, Scott has spent more than two decades guiding transformative initiatives tackling humanity's hardest challenges. He previously served as General Counsel o...