The INNOVAT3 Podcast

TRIGGER WARNING: VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED This episode contains discussions of severe generational trauma, sexual abuse, addiction, incarceration, and human trafficking. Please watch in a safe environment and prioritise your well-being. In this profound and powerful episode of the Innovat3 Podcast, we sit down with the truly indestructible hero, Elizabeth Quiroz. Elizabeth is an author, advoca...

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Kathy Chao Rothberg, CEO of a major social innovation organization, to celebrate a staggering milestone and discuss the most critical crisis facing the nonprofit sector today. Kathy's organization is celebrating its 45th anniversary and a lifetime impact of lifting over 500,000 people in Northern California (including Long Beach and LA County) through...

In the highly anticipated Part 2 of our conversation, we dive deeper with Corwin as he discusses the surprising reality of life after the NFL and his current role as a social entrepreneur leveraging one of the biggest stages in sports for massive impact. Corwin opens up about his brief 14-month professional football career and the immediate challenges that followed, sharing the shocking statistics...

Host: Ted Hahs | Guest: Corwin Anthony In this deeply inspiring Part 1 episode, host Ted Hahs sits down with visionary leader Corwin Anthony to explore a powerful paradigm shift that's redefining the very essence of innovation. This isn't just about technology or business strategy; it's a vital conversation on how we can actively empower the next generation to tackle the world's most pressing chal...

Is Silicon Valley's innovation creating a society of unprecedented wealth alongside massive social problems? Ted Hahs sits down with 16-year-old Malakye, a native of the Bay Area, to discuss this stark Innovation Paradox and the future of human flourishing. Ted and Malakye dive deep into the contradiction of California, which boasts a $4 Trillion economy(fourth largest globally) but also suffe...

In this moving episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Kent McCormick — Neighbourhood Director with YWAM San Francisco (Tenderloin) and founder of Melon SF, a recovery-discipleship ministry. From a wild teenage “hellraiser” to a leader serving one of America’s most challenging neighbourhoods, Kent shares how a single encounter with God at 16 set him on a path to the Tenderloi...

In this powerful episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Joe DeRousi, who shares his journey of responsibility, redemption and reentry after incarceration. Joe opens up about the choices that led to his time in prison, the moment that changed everything, and the process of taking full responsibility for his past. Through honesty, accountability, and faith, he found purpose be...

In this inspiring episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Henry Kaestner — co-founder of Sovereign’s Capital, Faith Driven Entrepreneur and Faith Driven Investor. From his journey as a serial entrepreneur to becoming a venture capitalist and mentor for leaders worldwide, Henry shares how faith and business can work together to create something far greater than profit: compani...

In this powerful episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Terah Lawyer, President of CROP Organization (Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs), a nonprofit founded by formerly incarcerated leaders that is transforming how we think about reentry. Every year, 35,000 people come home from prison in California, and over 54% return, at a cost of more than $133,800 per per...

In this urgent episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Mitzi, Education & Empowerment Coordinator at Love Never Fails, an organization on the frontlines of fighting human trafficking in the Bay Area and beyond. Human trafficking isn’t just happening overseas or in movies, it’s happening here, in California, in our neighborhoods and in our communities. With 100,000–300,000...

In this raw and powerful episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Danny, a tech entrepreneur whose journey from crime and incarceration to building solutions for reentry is nothing short of transformative. Danny opens up about the moment that changed everything, a confrontation that spiraled out of control, leading to tragedy and five years behind bars. He reflects on the weig...

What happens when surviving prison becomes the easy part and re-entry is the real challenge? In this powerful episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Danny, a man whose story spans incarceration, survival and the lifelong journey of rebuilding after prison. From growing up in an unstable home to navigating a justice system that offered more punishment than rehabilitation, Dan...

In this moving episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs continues his conversation with Evan, a pastor whose life’s work has been rooted in the streets of San Francisco, not from a pulpit, but from buses converted into homes, Bible studies and community hubs run by the homeless themselves. From embracing a life among the unhoused to creating the Grace Healing Home, Evan shares powerful stori...

What if the fight against human trafficking started with one woman saying “yes” to the hardest mission of her life? In this inspiring episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Diana Mao, the co-founder and president of Nomi Network, a global organization that fights human trafficking by creating economic opportunities for survivors and vulnerable women. Diana shares how witness...

Can a former hippie and Harvard grad turn addiction and disillusionment into a life of radical faith and street-level impact? In this unforgettable episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Evan Prosser, the founder of The Homeless Church, a Bay Area congregation led by and for people experiencing homelessness. Long before leading spiritual movements, Evan was living in commune...

What happens when gang leaders become pastors and dropout teens become rocket scientists? In this unforgettable episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Dr. Linda Lara, a former gang leader whose transformation led her to become a pastor, community builder and co-founder of Firehouse, a gang intervention and youth development organization in San Jose. With decades of experienc...

What happens when one of San Francisco’s most effective homelessness interventions is cut despite having the data to prove it works? In this episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs speaks with Adrian Tirtanadi, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Open Door Legal, who helped cut homelessness in Bayview-Hunters Point by 50% through universal access to legal aid. But instead of expanding the...

Can the Bay Area’s faith community become a catalyst for healing, unity and real transformation? In this inspiring episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Gary Gaddini, longtime pastor, faith-based leader and Executive Director of Transforming the Bay with Christ (TBC) — a coalition of churches and nonprofits working to rebuild the Bay through unity, proximity and purpose. Fr...

What if your greatest moment of loss became the doorway to your life’s deepest purpose? In this moving episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with David Bolch, a former attorney whose picture-perfect life collapsed under the weight of hidden addiction and devastating grief. After the tragic death of his four-and-a-half-year-old son, killed by a drunk driver, David’s private battl...

In this powerful episode of The INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Rahsaan Thomas, a writer, filmmaker and justice reform advocate whose journey began with a life sentence and found new meaning behind bars. From level 4 prison yards to New York Times bylines, Rahsaan shares how faith, film and a basketball team inside San Quentin turned his incarceration into leadership and legacy. He...

What if the prison that nearly destroyed you became the place you returned to help others heal? In this powerful episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Brian Gonsoulin, a man who served 26 years of an 83-to-life sentence and is now voluntarily going back into prison, not as an inmate but as a mentor and healer. Together, they unpack a story of addiction, incarceration, sexua...

What if the lowest moment of your life became the start of your life’s mission? In this episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, host Ted Hahs sits down with Tom Wolf, a voice from San Francisco who’s rebuilding the very systems that once left him behind. After six cycles through jail and homelessness, Tom made a choice - real recovery over survival. Today, he’s using his story to challenge the status quo...

Cassandra James is a woman of first, first Black woman to represent Vallejo’s District 1, a grassroots leader who outwalked and outworked a political machine, and a mother raising the next generation while caring for the last. In this episode, host Ted Hahs sits down with Cassandra to talk about how Vallejo went from bankruptcy to becoming one of the most diverse and resilient cities in California...

What happens when someone sees something in you, before you see it in yourself? In this powerful episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, Ted Hahs sits down with Kareem Hickman , a South Side Chicago native, pastor, and community builder whose journey from near-incarceration to neighborhood transformation is anything but ordinary. Kareem shares how a bus from a local church pulled up to his block and chan...

What happens when a pastor stops preaching from the pulpit and starts showing up in city halls, prisons, and on the frontlines of crisis? In this episode of the INNOVAT3 Podcast, Pastor Kareem Hickman sits down with host Ted Hahs to share fueled works hardest-hit communities. From street-level prayer walks to facing down systems of addiction, trafficking, and poverty, Kareem brings leadership that...