Next Economy Now: For the Benefit of All Life

The sub-minimum wage for tipped workers hasn’t gone up in 30 years. This is a direct result of the undue influence of corporations over our democracy. Saru Jayaraman joins us on the show today to discuss how she is pushing back against these injustices. Saru is an academic at UC Berkeley and the President at One Fair Wage, a national organization working to raise wages for service workers nationwi...

Conventional funerary practices are environmentally problematic. Each year, 2.7 million people die in the US, and most are buried in a conventional cemetery or cremated. Cremation burns fossil fuels and emits carbon dioxide and particulates into the atmosphere, while burial consumes valuable urban land, pollutes the soil, and contributes to climate change through the resource-intensive manufacture...

Arianna Taboada is the Founder of The Expecting Entrepreneur, a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs design parental leave plans that fit their business models and personal needs. Arianna speaks and writes about parental leave and respectful maternity care as an issue of social justice, human rights, and economic equity. She is also the author of a book by the same name, The Expecting Entrepre...

Today we have two wonderful guests on the show to talk about the Multicultural Refugee Coalition (MRC) in Austin, Texas. Meg Erskine and Matt Simon join us to explain the current work being done by the organization, the different components of their jobs, and how the projects function. Listeners can expect to get a great insight into the progress being made by MRC, as well as some inspiring exampl...

For too long, the personal property model, instituted by white settlers, has dominated the agricultural space. This has resulted in an unjust, inequitable system within which less than 2% of farmland is owned by people of color. The Agrarian Trust is on a mission to change this through “transitioning farmland from a commoditized market place into a community-centered commons.” For the show notes,...

For the next few weeks of the New Year, we will be reposting some of our most popular episodes of all time from the Next Economy Now podcast. This is from our January 2019 interview with Dr. Robin DiAngelo. Dr. Robin DiAngelo is the author of White Fragility:  Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, a #1 New York Times bestseller. Robin received her PhD in Multicultural Educat...

For the first few weeks of 2022, we will be reposting some of our most popular episodes of all time from the Next Economy Now podcast. This is from our October 2016 interview with Rick Ridgeway. Rick Ridgeway is Patagonia’s Vice President of Environmental Initiatives and Special Media Projects. He oversees the company’s environmental grant-making, internal and external environmental education, and...

For the next few weeks of the New Year, we will be reposting some of our most popular episodes of all time from the Next Economy Now podcast. This is from our June 2019 interview with Layla Saad. Layla Saad is a New York Times bestselling author, globally respected speaker, and podcast host on the topics of race, identity, leadership, personal transformation and social change. For the show notes,...

As we dip into the winter months, we will be reposting some of our most popular episodes of all time from the Next Economy Now podcast. This is from our February 2019 interview with Varshini Prakash. Varshini was born and raised outside Boston, MA. She got involved in the climate movement as an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She joined the UMass Fossil Fuel Divestment ca...

As we dip into the holiday season, we will be reposting some of our most popular episodes of all time from the Next Economy Now podcast. This is from our March 2019 interview with Aaron Tanaka. Aaron Tanakas is Cofounder and Director of the Boston-based Center for Economic Democracy. Aaron is also a community organizer, grant-maker, impact investor, and a founding organizer of the Boston Ujima Pro...

As we dip into the holiday season, we will be reposting some of our most popular episodes of all time from the Next Economy Now podcast. This is from our October 2019 interview with Autumn Brown. Autumn is a mother, organizer, theologian, artist, and facilitator. She is a Worker-Owner with AORTA, the Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance , and cohosts the podcast How to Survive the End...

Today’s guest is Chris Crass, one of the leading voices in North America calling for and supporting white people to work for racial justice. He is a social justice educator who writes and speaks widely on the themes of coming together for racial justice, why anti-racism is vital for white people, lessons from past justice movements, and how a vision of collective liberation can move us into effect...

In this episode, Spencer Honeyman--an executive coach, group facilitator, and consultant--discusses the collective healing journey and Spencer’s role as a facilitator at an organizational and executive level. Spencer brings to our attention the subtle, somatic ways in which we interact with each other and our environment and highlights the importance of slowing down and finding ways to connect wit...

This is a rebroadcast of our June 2020 interview with Lyla June , an Indigenous environmental scientist, doctoral student, educator, community organizer and musician of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages from Taos, NM. For the show notes, visit: https://www.lifteconomy.com/blog/lyla-june Subscribe to Next Economy Now on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pandora , Google Podca...

By now, everyone has heard of the terms net-zero and carbon-neutral, but today’s guest takes this concept one step further by advocating for climate positivity. David Jaber is the founder of Climate Positive Consulting, a company that helps other companies advance their climate strategy, undertake carbon footprint analyses, and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. He is also involved with a numb...

How do we fundamentally transform the relations of power, production, and consumption in the construction industry? Today we speak to Dom Hosack and Blain Snipstal from Earth-Bound Building about how they are attempting to do this by reimagining new possibilities for provisioning human shelter and farm infrastructure through natural building practices. In this episode, we hear how Blaine and Dom g...

Future vision can be a powerful force for action when it is clearly conveyed and there is a genuine desire to bring it into reality. Today, Ryan Honeyman speaks with writer adrienne maree brown about the compelling and highly-detailed future visions that exist in works of science fiction, speculative fiction, and visionary fiction and how organizations can help articulate those visions into practi...

In this episode, Kevin Bayuk speaks with Heather Fleming, Co-founder and Executive Director of Change Labs, an organization supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in the Navajo Nation. Heather’s career in design and innovation began in Silicon Valley in transition from public sector innovation with Catapult Design, a product and service design firm with expertise in human-centered design for m...

Return guest, Edgar Villanueva is a globally-recognized activist, award-winning author, and an expert on issues of race and philanthropy, as well as the Principle and Founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) and Liberated Capital. His bestselling book, Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance , which was first published in 2018 and had its second edition p...

Ben Cohen, as the co-founder of one of the country’s most beloved brands, is far from what you might expect. His company, Ben & Jerry’s, is a household name, yet they have managed to maintain a connection to the community and a deep ethos of care. Ben is an activist and has been involved in issues related to ending qualified immunity, getting money out of politics, taxing billionaires, dismant...

Garrett is the Founder of the Barnraisers Project, which trains white people who don't think of themselves as activists on how to welcome their communities and networks into the world of justice and liberation. Additionally, Garrett also authors the White Pages newsletter, which reflects on white people’s relationship with racism and each other.  For the show notes, visit: www.lifteconomy.com...

The connection we have to those who came before us is often overlooked in the contemporary world. Our guest today, Tamira Cousett, has dedicated herself to re-establishing her relationship with her ancestors, as well as helping others to come into communion with their own roots. Tamira is a mother, ancestral medium, ritual facilitator, and student of ancestral and earth-honoring systems. For the f...

In today’s episode, we are joined by Cheryl Whilby from Soul Fire Farm,  who is here to share some of the inspirational work that they are doing around creating regenerative food systems. For the full show notes, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast --- LIFT Economy Newsletter Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resource...

Since the industrial revolution, and throughout the modern era, our connection to the ecosystems in which we live has dwindled, resulting in a lack of awareness and understanding about the relationships that determine our health and future. Tao Orion, author, and holistic ecologist has dedicated her time and energy to bringing this back to the forefront, and today on the podcast we have an amazing...

Despite progressive policies around public school integration, culture has not caught up, and reality does not reflect what institutions have mandated. In her latest book, Learning in Public, passionate storyteller, writer, and journalist, Courtney Martin, shares how her sending her daughter to Emerson Elementary, a poorly-rated public school down the road from her home offered her a powerful plac...