Let's Give A Damn

My guest today is the incredible Blythe Hill. Whether or not you’ve heard of Blythe, you’ve probably heard of Dressember — a community of international advocates utilizing fashion + creativity to help end human trafficking. They’ve raise over $7.5m since 2013 and this is shaping up to their biggest year ever with a $2.5m goal. If you’ve ever participated in Dressember, you know that you participat...

Dan Simpson—the CEO of Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe and an all around badass, damn-giving human—is on the podcast today! For those of who don’t know what Taziki’s is, by the end of this episode, you’re going to wish you had one nearby. Taziki's has 92 locations and 2000+ employees. In this conversation, we talk about caring for our environment, fresh food, the importance of fostering community over...

Molly Burke is on the podcast this week! Molly is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cycle Connect—a company that connects clients in Uganda with the necessary tools to propel themselves forward out of extreme poverty. They do this through giving their clients the opportunity to continuously invest in their futures through Cycle Connect’s portfolio of products that are proven to increase income. She leads...

My guests today are Scott Erickson and Justin McRoberts. This is good news, y'all! You may remember Scott from a few weeks ago. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, push pause now, and go listen to that one first. As a reminder, Scott is an artist, speaker, and storyteller from Portland Oregon. My other guest is the incredible Justin McRoberts. Justin is a pastor and a storyteller, and a m...

Arrested for murder at the age of 18, Rahim Buford spent 26 years in a variety of prisons in the state of Tennessee. While he was incarcerated, he completed course work for Lipscomb University, Ohio University, and Vanderbilt Divinity School, he co-founded the Schools for Alternative Learning and Transformation, and he self-published his own book, Save Your Own Life. When he got out, he became a d...

September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. And this is a bonus episode of the Let's Give A Damn Podcast! We already had a fantastic conversation planned for release on this day with Bethany Haley Williamson (you should definitely go listen to it) but we didn't want to forget about the importance of WSPD19.  800,000 people die by suicide each year. That’s one person every 40 seconds. For each de...

Bethany is the Founder and CEO of Exile International — an organization providing holistic rehabilitation and art-focused trauma care to rescued child soldiers and children orphaned by war. She also has a PhD in counseling psychology and a license in clinical social work which means she has over 20 years of experience working with emotionally wounded children. She is the author of The Color of Gra...

Madison Mikhail Bush is the Founder and CEO of Point. She runs Point while splitting time between Columbus, Ohio and New York, New York. Point is a platform that helps people and organizations do good. In a recent interview, she said, “Charities who want to do good but spend so much time with data entry or managing volunteers, we want to get them out from their desks and help them fulfill their mi...

Shane Claiborne is on the podcast today! If you don’t know him, you’re in for a treat. A little over a week ago, We met at the State Capitol in downtown Nashville where he, his wife, and a group people were camped out to ask Governor Bill Lee to intervene in the execution of Stephen West by electric chair that was to take place last week. Sadly, Stephen's state sanctioned murder did take place las...

My guest today is Jean Paul Laurent. Jean Paul was born in Haiti and came to the United States in 2004 with a dream and a desire to change the world and to do something bigger than himself. He found out what that something was after he returned to Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake that decimated so many parts of Haiti and took the lives of hundreds of thousands of lives. As...

Before I introduce today's guest, here is the article I referenced in the intro of this conversation — If You're Angry, You're Part Of The Problem, Not The Solution by Ryan Holiday. Read it. And let me know what you think!  My guest today is Scott Erickson. Scott is an amazing artist, an incredible communicator, and a good friend. He is a touring painter, performance speaker, and creative curate w...

Before I introduce today’s guest, a little housekeeping. I’m taking the month of July off. It’s not you, it’s me. But seriously, we have been putting out an episode each week for almost 2 years now. I know we skip a week from time to time but it’s been pretty much been weekly released for almost two years. And don’t take me wrong, I love it! This podcast is one of the best things I’ve ever been pa...

As most of you know, June is Pride month. Why June? Well, here is a very concise primer for you. On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village, but the bar patrons weren’t having it and they fought back. This incident, known as the Stonewall Riots, marks the beginning of the gay rights movement in the United States. The activist Brenda Howard organized a ma...

My guest today is *fingers crossed* the future Mayor of Nashville, John Cooper.  John is a family man with a successful business career in banking, real estate, and retail. Additionally, John has served on numerous Metro Council committees, including the Independent Audit Committee, Public Works, Parks and Libraries, and Budget and Finance, which he chaired from 2016-2017. He serves on the Greenwa...

THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR My friends at Goodwell are doing incredible work. They create environmentally conscious products that empower people to make a sustainable choice in their daily oral care routines. If bamboo toothbrushes are your thing, they have those. They also have a metal toothbrush with toothbrush heads that are 100% biodegradable. They have toothpaste, they have floss, and they have an am...

This week on the podcast, meet Nicole Devereaux! Nicole is a Conversational Intelligence Coach® based in Minneapolis, MN. She helps leaders and teams have successful conversations so that they can make more of what's awesome.  I wanted to have Nicole on the podcast because during a dark period of her life a few months ago, she decided to do something really bold. During a time when most people wou...

We don’t need billionaires and government to save us. They can and should play their part, don’t take me wrong. But we can’t and shouldn’t wait around for them to change the world. That’s not their role AND it’s never going to happen. It’s our job to change the world. How? Real and lasting change will only happen when millions of people give a damn imperfectly and over a long period of time. I sha...

This week’s show is pretty remarkable. My guest is Steven Elliott. Steven was one of two men most likely responsible for the death of Pat Tillman—the NFL player that enlisted as an Army Ranger as a result of the 9/11 attacks in NYC. During this chat, we talk about the story of how he ended up as a Ranger and all that happened while he was deployed. We also chat a bit about veteran care, caring for...

This week on the show, I chat with Trae Crowder aka The Liberal Redneck. Trae Crowder hails from Celina, TN—population 1500. Warning right here at the onset, there is more cursing than usual in this interview. I like to curse but Trae loves to curse. If you don’t like to hear it, this might be a good one to skip. Or maybe just don’t listen to this in the car with your kids on the way to soccer pra...

I went up to the Rainn Wilson residence last week in LA but it was not to chat with Rainn this time. I stopped by to record a podcast conversation with his wife and much better half, Holiday Reinhorn. Erin Shacory, one of the LIDÈ Haiti board members, joined us for the chat and I had a blast. We spent the majority of our time together chatting about all things Haiti, LIDÈ, empowering young people,...

My guests today are Philippe Lazaro and Christie Huizenga Renaud. Philippe and Christi are part of the Plant With Purpose team. Plant With Purpose equips farming families around the world to increase farm yields, heal damaged ecosystems, improve nutrition, and increase household savings and opportunities. Their approach solves two major issues facing the world today: environmental degradation and...

Another throwback episode for you! My guest today is Noor Tagouri. Noor is a Libyan-American Muslim woman. She is a friend, an activist, a journalist, a storyteller, a podcaster, a speaker, and so much more. In every way, she is a force to be reckoned with.  Since I recorded our conversation a while back, she has been very busy! But I want to point out one project she has done that I’ve loved so m...

This past weekend, my family and I attended a vigil in Nashville to mourn the loss of the 50 men, women, and children who died in their place of worship in New Zealand. Muslims, Jews, and Christians gathered together to comfort our Muslim brothers and sisters and also to re-commit to pursuing a peace-filled world together. It was beautiful.  There was a local muslim leader that led parts of the vi...

Today's podcast guest is Thad Beaty. If you’re into the country music scene, you might know Thad as Sugarland’s guitarist (as well as a bunch of other bands and music projects in the past). You may also know his wife Annie who plays bass guitar for the incredible Maren Morris. But if you’ve never heard of Thad before, that’s about to change because Thad is incredible. He went from living an unheal...

My guest today is an incredible young man, Enis Cirak. Enis and I met a year ago and we have continued hanging out every month or so. He is thoughtful, smart, peaceful, passionate, and he most definitely gives a damn. Enis launched Gigamunch—a Nashville based company that prepares a new meal each week for you from a different country and they deliver it to you fully cooked and ready to go. My fami...