Bold Moves Only Podcast

For today's episode we have Caroline Abu Sa'da, the Director General of SOS MEDITERRANEE Suisse a humanitarian organization that provides aid to people in distress at sea. Since 2014 they have saved thousands of people who have tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea. If you want to support them, you can go to https://en.sosmediterranee.org/ and you can follow Caroline on twitter (@AbuSadaCaroline) and SOS MEDITERRANEE (SOSMedIntl) where you can stay updated on all the work they're doing. 

I met Maevia while studying at the Graduate Institute, Geneva and during her time there, despite being in an academic setting that normally does things in a certain way, she decided to find ways to be creative, specifically making films, to express information she learned and felt was important to share. In this episode we discuss her journey as well two films she made including "The Drop: when a drop of water mirrors the fall of social justice," and "Elles Les Invisibles" a film about 'undocumented' women domestic workers in Geneva. 

For today’s episode we have Jared Koenig, a pitcher for the Oakland A’s who has had quite the journey to get to where he’s at today. While we talk a lot about baseball, I believe Jared’s story is very relatable and anyone can take away useful lessons that can be applied in their daily life. 

It has been a while since I put out an episode and that is because I have had a lot on my plate since last September. But I am back and I wanted to reflect on some of the most important things I have learned from working on Bold Moves Only over the past 2+ years. Expect more episodes and projects to come out soon! 

For today’s episode we have Michael Simmons author of The Pain: A Black Man’s Poetic Reflections On Emotional Pain & Mental Distress. Michael, who has struggled in the past with mental health issues and worked hard to overcome them, wanted to speak out, write a book and inspire other's to be more open and better understand how to deal with them. You can purchase his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Pain-Poetic-Reflections-Emotional-Distress-ebook/dp/B08YP6R5TS

Ethan Frisch is an entrepreneur and activist around food systems and social justice. He has had a very interesting journey which has led him to co-founding Burlap & Barrel, a spice company that is a Public Benefit Corporation, building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent and traceable. 

Matt Haney is a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, representing District 6. He has been the member and President of the San Francisco Board of Education as well as co-founder of #cut50, an Oakland-based national nonprofit designed to end mass incarceration. 

Operation Libero is an organization based in Switzerland that has created a political movement by creatively re-framing public discourse by skillfully turning the spaces, tools and rhetoric used by conservative populists on the heads to reach broad audiences through emotional, simple and accessible imagery, messages and concepts.

Since 2008 Leticia has been with La Cocina, an organization in San Francisco, California that cultivates low income food entrepreneurs, focusing primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities. They provide affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities. La Cocina has opened over 30 brick & mortar restaurants, found national distribution for packaged products, and created hundreds of jobs in their communities.

Cynthia Chandler has dedicated her life to achieving gender and racial justice while challenging violence in all its forms, including imprisonment. Cynthia is an always-bold founder, coach, and life-learner with over 25 years’ experience as a social entrepreneur, activist, academic and attorney. In collaboration with HIV-positive activists in prison, she founded the first organization advocating for HIV-positive women in prison. She co-founded Critical Resistance and Justice Now, early prison industrial complex abolitionist organizations influencing the Black Lives Matter network. She has coached the launch of dozens more social ventures. As an attorney, her practice is equally innovative: when law does not allow the relief she seeks for her clients, she changes it. She helped create the compassionate release legal process through loopholes in the law, representing the first terminally ill people granted release from prison in California. Her cases became the case studies used to codify the process in California, and later nationally. She uncovered California’s coercive sterilization of women in prison through 2012, and led efforts to pass successful legislation to stop it. Cynthia maintains a legislative practice, contributing to key legislation aimed at shrinking imprisonment. In all her work, she serves as an ally and coach, supporting disenfranchised people in realizing their own solutions for freedom. Cynthia has received numerous awards for her innovative work, including: California Women Lawyers’ prestigious Fay Stender Award, 2015; Women's Health Activist Network’s Top 30 Activist for Women's Health, 2005; Ford Foundation Leadership for a Changing World Award, 2001; and California Law Business’ Attorney to Whom California Can Be Most Grateful, 1997. Cynthia received her JD from Harvard Law School and a MPhil in Criminology from University of Cambridge. She is the mother of two artists and scholars.

Jason spoke with Siddharth Kara, an author, researcher, and activist on modern slavery, child labor, and related human rights issues. Among other things, Siddharth discusses his past few years researching the conditions of those mining Cobalt in the Congo. Siddharth has called it the "the most extreme and sharp example of modern slavery."

Cobalt is needed for lithium recharcheable batteries so I needed it record this podcast and you needed it to listen to it. It touches us every day but do we really know much about where it comes from?  

For today's episode Jason spoke with Rushan Abbas, an Uyghur American activist and advocate from East Turkestan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China. She is the founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs, a non-profit that advocates and promotes human rights and democratic freedoms for Uyghurs, and mobilizes the international community to act to stop the human rights atrocity in East Turkistan.

For today’s episode Jason spoke with Dr. Leslie Field, the Founder and Chief Technical Officer of the Arctic Ice Project who have set out to preserve and restore the arctic ice. Learn about the dire situation we are facing with the Arctic Ice continuing to melt and how they have set out to address it. 

The Bold Moves Only team has decided to spend the rest of 2020 to organize and prepare so that we can make 2021 the most impactful year possible. So here is a reflection from Jason about the past year. 

Outerknown is a brand that was co-founded by John and Kelly Slater where the goal was to bring the most sustainable clothing to the market. Now they look to be the leading innovators in sustainable fashion. 

Fionn Ferreira, a 19 year old scientist/engineer from Cork, Ireland discovered a method for extracting microplastics from water. He just began studying Chemistry at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands while working on ways to implement his discovery on a larger scale. 

Craig Hodges played 10 years in the NBA, winning 2 NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was ultimately blackballed from the league for speaking out on the racial injustices in our country and threatening the status quo.

You may know Tom Steyer from his 2020 presidential campaign but beyond that he has spent years giving back to his community and his country. He has contributed mightily to the fight against climate change and he continues to make a significant impact in many other ways.

Robert, as seen in the film "Dark Waters,"  is an attorney who exposed a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution. In his 20 year battle, he took on DuPont, a major chemicals company who had knowingly been contaminating their community for years. 

For today's episode we have Shannon Service, an award journalist who has been researching human trafficking in the fishing industry for years. She first broke the story of trafficked fishermen in 2012 on NPR’s morning edition. She is also the director of the film "Ghost Fleet," a movie following a small group of activists who risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find justice and freedom for the enslaved fisherman who feed the world's insatiable appetite for seafood. 

Jackie Fielder is a 25 year old activist who is now running for California State Senate D-11.  As an activist, she has been successful in moving policy. Some examples include her leadership on the No on H campaign in 2018 and fighting to open up a pathway to a public bank in San Francisco. She talks about her activism as well as her platform for her Senate candidacy. 

Will Renken is with The Farm Link Project, a grassroots organization who innovated a new supply chain to tackle the problems of surplus produce for farmers and a soaring demand for food at food banks. They aim to prevent food waste and alleviate food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. 100% of donations to FarmLink are used to purchase produce and pay the wages of farmers and truckers. They prevent food from being wasted and put food onto tables of those who need it most.

Jennifer Friedenbach is one of the best people to speak to regarding homelessness. Currently the Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco, she has been working and advocating for the homeless for 30 plus years. The Coalition on Homelessness organizes homeless people and front line service providers to create  permanent solutions to homelessness, while working to protect the human rights of those forced to remain on the streets. 

The Freedom Story is an organization based in the northern region of Thailand known as Chang Rai. The Freedom  Story provides scholarships, mentorships and other resources to children who are at risk of being trafficked. By putting a focus on human rights outreach, The Freedom Story also prioritizes giving students the tools and resources they need to help protect themselves from exploitation and  abuse. Jason, Co-Founder of Bold Moves Only, was fortunate to spend  time interning with The Freedom Story and had a first-hand perspective of the tremendous impact this organization has been able to make. The Freedom Story has provided scholarships for over 220 students, while their resource centers and other outreach activities reach over 1,000  students annually.

Michael Skolnik has been hard at work trying to figure out a way to create a health care system that works for every single American. He is currently the CEO of Teachers Health Trust who are responsible for 40,000 teachers health care. It's perfect that we found a way to combine having someone who not only can help explain the intricacies of the health care industry and its problems, but also someone who has taken bold action to make positive change within the health care industry. 

Today’s feature is Ryan Parks, one of the co-founders of Improper Etiquette. Improper Etiquette is a brand out of Los Angeles who's mission is to help people and the planet. They do so many different things to create positive change.  They facilitating clothing, canned good, and hygiene product drives,  personally handing these goods out to the homeless residents of Skid  Row. They organize beach cleanups. They also partner with 4rwrd PROGRESS, a nonprofit youth organization, by  running a weekly academic tutoring program and serving as coaches for  their basketball academy, I play I lead. They also have really dope apparel and use All Made for their shirts. Please go check them out!!!

I went to speak with LP Giobbi and Lauren Spalding, the co-founders of Femme House. Femme House is an educational platform created to address the lack of representation and equity for women in the music industry but more specifically the electronic music. They hold workshops and empower women by giving them the skills necessary to navigate them through the male dominated industry.

We thought the best idea for our first episode was to really explain who we are and what we do. Jason and Alexander go into all the details, getting ready for our future episodes featuring those who have taken bold action to make positive change for their community, the world at large, or even themselves.