Solvable

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, contributing writer at The Atlantic and a co-host of Solvable and she believes that political polarization is solvable. Learn more about the topics that Anne discussed with Jacob: Coexistence is the Only Option , The Atlantic, Jan 20, 2021 Quebec’s landmark 1995 independence referendum , The McGill Tribune, Nov 3, 2020 The Northern Ireland Peac...

Juan Manuel Santos is credited with ending the long and violent civil war in Colombia. He believes that every conflict can have a solution. This episode originally published in 2019. Want to know more about making and maintaining peace in Colombia? Check out these links. Juan Manuel Santos , Nobel Prize, 2016 Colombia peace built by British veterans of IRA accord, The Sunday Times, 2016 Colombia S...

Dr. Anne Zink is the Chief Medical Officer for the state of Alaska and has helped to coordinate one of the nation's most successful vaccine distribution efforts to date. Dr. Zink believes that part of their success comes from the many people joining in to the enormous effort, in creative and meaningful ways. Want to learn more about how to volunteer to help with vaccine distribution? Contact your...

Dr. Wendy Wood is Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California. Here are some links to the studies referenced in this episode and a few stories: Reducing Elevator Energy Use: A comparison of posted feedback and reduced elevator convenience , Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis How to Keep our Buildings from Making us Fat, Fast Company Finding a Closer Gym...

Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice is the President and Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine. Even though systemic racism and a history of medical abuses against people of color are indisputable, she believes that the lack of trust in the COVID-19 vaccine can, should, and will be reversed. Dr. Montgomery Rice suggested these links, from trusted sources, for more information about the COVID-19 vaccine...

Rachel Stroer is the acting president of the Land Institute. She believes that many of the ecological and economic problems stemming from our current dependence on monoculture farming can be solved through investing in regenerative agriculture. Here are some ways to learn more! The Land Institute Project Drawdown Regenerative Annual Cropping , Project Drawdown The Carbon Farming Solution by Eric T...

With so many worthy causes out there, GiveWell helps donors evaluate charities based on their ability to save and improve the greatest number of lives per dollar donated. Buddy Shah is the managing director of GiveWell. Here are some resources for learning more about informed giving. GiveWell The Life You Can Save, by Peter Singer Doing Good Better , by William MacAskill Strangers Drowning, by Lar...

Award-winning technologist Lady Mariéme Jamme is the founder of iamtheCODE. Her organization seeks to educate women and girls about coding and to empower young women with digital skills that allow them to shape their own futures. I Am The Code The Gender Gap in Internet Access: Using a Women-Centred Method , 2020 Open letter to Bono and Bob Geldof, 2010 Marieme Jamme Women Who Code Girls Who Code...

Astronaut Scott Kelly is no stranger to the impacts of social isolation after spending 520 days in space. He talks with Jacob Weisberg about how to confront the depression and anxiety that we can all expect during this pandemic. Here are some additional resources that Scott Kelly recommends: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ https://connect2affect.org/ Endurance by Alfred Lansing Endurance: A...

Mike Dickey is co-founder and chairman of the JackTrip Foundation and the creator of Virtual Studio. The awkward and disjointed experience of making music over the internet is a solvable problem. Virtual Studio is a device that works with the open source software application JackTrip to enable musicians of all ages to collaborate across locations online. Virtual Studio JackTrip Open Source Softwar...

Dr. Lutfi Lokman co-founded Hospitals Beyond Boundaries to provide culturally competent and financially sustainable healthcare. His clinic follows a model pioneered by Muhammad Yunus (founder of the Grameen Bank) which leans on cross-subsidization to address the healthcare needs of economically diverse communities. Here are a few additional resources related to this episode: Hospitals Beyond Bound...

Flavia Kleiner is the co-founder of Operation Libero. The organization works to combat populism in Switzerland. Operation Libero has launched and won a variety of proactive campaigns to promote a more diverse and inclusive Switzerland. (This conversation was originally published in 2019) Here are a few additional resources related to this episode: Change the narrative: how a Swiss group is beating...

Emily Bazelon is a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. She believes that disinformation is solvable.  Want to learn more about this and get more involved? Here are some ways to do so: “The Problem of Free Speech in an Age of Disinformation, ” Emily Bazelon for the New York Times Magazine, Oct 15, 2020 The Cyber...

Ahmed Badr is an Iraqi-American writer, social entrepreneur, former refugee and the founder of Narratio. Narratio is a creative platform and set of initiatives that carve out spaces for displaced young people to transcend the tragedies that may have initially caused their displacement. Here are a few additional resources related to this episode: Narratio.org While the Earth Sleeps We Travel: Stori...

Saving coral reefs will take a lot of teamwork and collaboration across scientists, industries and individuals. One important tool is micro-fragmentation and re-skinning. Sarah Hamlyn is a scientist at the Mote Marine Labs’ Elizabeth Moore International Center for Coral Reefs Research and Restoration. She helps maintain 21 species of stony and branching coral and works to regrow damaged coral reef...

Eric Appel is a Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at Stanford University. His lab has designed an improved delivery system for fire retardant to keep fires from starting across hotspots and known ignition areas. Here are a few additional resources related to this episode: Wildfire prevention through prophylactic treatment of high-risk landscapes using viscoelastic retardant fluids ,...

Michael Mina is an epidemiologist and immunologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital.  Here are a few of the resources related to this episode: Additional articles on rapid tests Trump to Announce $750 million deal with Abbott , CNBC August 27, 2020 @michaelmina_lab Sample letter about rapid tests to send to your representatives www. RapidTests....

John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University, contributing writer at The Atlantic and hosts the podcast Lexicon Valley. He believes that “cancel culture” is solvable. Here are a few of the resources related to this episode: After Ann Coulter Backs Out Of Visit, UC Berkeley Braces For Free Speech Rallies The Fine Line Between A Bad Date And Sexual Assault: 2 Views On Aziz Ansari...

Margaret Sullivan is the media columnist for The Washington Post and formerly the public editor with the New York Times. Her new book is called Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy. She believes that the decline of local news is solvable. Here are a few resources related to this episode: Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy by...

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist. He teaches cyber security at the Harvard Kennedy School. Schneier believes that election security risks are solvable. Here are a few resources related to this episode: VerifiedVoting. Org The Brennan Center for Justice National Electorial Defense Coalition National Mail Voter Registration Form (multilingual) Voter Registration an...

Kirsten Clarke is the president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The committee was established in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to address the inequities confronting African Americans and other minorities. Clarke believes that reversing, or preventing, the disenfranchisement of millions of American voters is central to her wor...

Michael Waldman is the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. The non-partisan center works to strengthen America's democracy. Waldman is the author of The Fight to Vote. He believes that the United States can have an election that is safe, participatory and with a robust turnout in 2020. Here are a few of the resources related to this episode: Voting by Mail / Voting Ab...

Chiraag Bains is the Director of Legal Strategies at Demos, a think tank focused on strengthening democracy and fighting for racial justice. He previously served as Senior Counsel to the head of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He co-wrote the Ferguson Report. The Department of Justice sued Ferguson, Missouri, over unconstitutional policing and court practices. He belie...

Insha Rahman is the director of strategy and new initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice. She believes that mass incarceration is solvable.  At Vera, Rahman’s work is focused on prosecutorial reform, bail, and decarceration, with an emphasis on developing advocacy-related strategies and accountability. Prior to Vera, Rahman worked as a public defender at The Bronx Defenders. She currently ser...

Host Anne Applebaum speaks with Srdja Popovic about how strategic nonviolent action can bring about lasting and meaningful social change. Srdja Popovic is the executive director of the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS). He's a social change educator who draws on his experience as a leader of the student movement Otpor! Optor! is credited with helping to oust Serbian pres...