Changemakers Without Borders

Dr. Ritu Saluja-Sharma has been at the Johns Hopkins Medicine-Sibley Memorial Hospital in Maryland for 15 years, dealing with every life-threatening condition you can think of. She has since been investigating how we can prevent these very conditions. We delve into epigenetics, what affects our health and longevity the most, and how we can live better, healthier lives as active people who make a difference in the world, but don't always have time for ourselves. 

In this episode, we get into what made Rambhai the out-of-the-ordinary teacher, how he lives with his family & extended family in one house, what he saw in his childhood and if overuse of technology is worse or better than drug addictions.

In India, many families have drug addictions; young fathers and males die of drug overdoses or alchohol related cancers and diseases. After retiring, Rambhai Patel began an anti-addictions educational program, and rode buses all over India to teach hundreds of thousands of underprivileged children about the dangers of drug use and addictions so that their families have a chance to stay strong and healthy. Both his sons join to translate Rambhai’s Indian Gujrati, his native tongue; Dhaval Patel is a software engineer at Bloomberg and started a data science Youtube channel with 400K subscribers to teach youth tech after being diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease, and Bhavin Patel was a student who was told he won’t succeed in life, but now has a multi-media marketing company he built that employs some of India’s best university graduates and has contracts with US companies. 

Writing a review on Changemakers helps more people hear about initiatives like these that people are creating to make our society a better place. Contact me on Twitter @TheMayCooper. This is also on community radio, CFUZ Peach City Radio in British Columbia and CKWR 98.5 in Waterloo, Ontario with a reach of more than 1.5 million people.

In India, many families have drug addictions; young fathers and males die of drug overdoses or alchohol related cancers and diseases. After retiring, Rambhai Patel began an anti-addictions educational program, and rode buses all over India to teach hundreds of thousands of underprivileged children about the dangers of drug use and addictions so that their families have a chance to stay strong and healthy. Both his sons join to translate Rambhai’s Indian Gujrati, his native tongue; Dhaval Patel is a software engineer at Bloomberg and started a data science Youtube channel with 400K subscribers to teach youth tech after being diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune disease, and Bhavin Patel was a student who was told he won’t succeed in life, but now has a multi-media marketing company he built that employs some of India’s best university graduates and has contracts with US companies.

As seen on BBC, The Times of Israel, and other outlets, co-founder Gabi Arnovitz with Uriel Shuraki started a social tech startup that teaches seniors in a practical and powerful way how to use everything from google suite apps to Apple products and android phones, so that seniors (and now also people with disabilities) will have a chance to participate in the online world in a better, more effective way. The startup garnered much attention fast, with 600 hundred seniors joining the first week. Today they're helping thousands of seniors manage their apps with more confidence and they’re growing, and planning to reach millions. 

Contact Gabi here: gabiarnovitz@gmail.com and see his website: smartphonelessons.net. Writing a review on Changemakers helps more people hear about initiatives like these that people are creating to make our society a better place. Contact me on Twitter @TheMayCooper. This is also on community radio, CFUZ Peach City Radio in British Columbia and CKWR 98.5 in Waterloo, Ontario.

In which Rabbi Moshe Goldman discusses the history of Chabad's founding father, a man who was given a posthumous award in 1994 for his "outstanding and lasting contributions toward improvements in world education, morality, and acts of charity". Among filling more than 200 volumes of teachings, in 1978, the Rebbe's birthday was designated by President Jimmy Carter as the national Education Day in the US. In this episode, Rabbi Goldman talks about the contributions the Rebbe made to charity, to our education, and to our culture--spiritually and morally. You can check out Rabbi Goldman's podcast called The Parsha Podcast here https://apple.co/3hgDr8Z

Leave a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. Tweet @themaycooper or insta @maycooperproductions to get on the show! http://www.changemakerswithoutborders.com/

In Part 2, Dr. Meir Schneider tells us riveting stories about people with debilitating diseases who came to his school and were able to change their life around by working on their mobility and flexibility with determination and a will to become different, healthier people. Dr. Schneider himself was born with a serious disability and yet is often healthier and with more physical abilities than some of his colleagues born with none; since creating the School for Self Healing, he's able to help hundreds of people reverse a spectrum of debilitating conditions, and gain not only their eyesight, mobility and health back--but their independence and dignity.

Leave a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. Tweet @themaycooper or insta @maycooperproductions to get on the show! http://www.changemakerswithoutborders.com/

From being born blind with macular degeneration to having an unrestricted drivers license, Dr. Meir Schneider worked for 13 hours a day as a teen to get his eyesight back even when no one believed he would be able to, and since has developed a method that helps people from around the world to recover their eyesight, avoid invasive eye surgeries, and become independent people. Schneider is a healthcare visionary, pioneer therapist, international health educator, author and founder of the San Francisco non-profit ‘School for Self-Healing’. Dr. Schneider continues to develop his unique therapeutic healthcare system providing solutions for a variety of physical and visual disorders which are often considered beyond medical help. 

Leave a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. Tweet @themaycooper or insta @maycooperproductions to get on the show! http://www.changemakerswithoutborders.com/

In Part 2 with Uketropolis founder James Hill and his wife Anne Janelle, we explore the power of allowing children to compose, throwing a song into many different genres and exploring the unknown in music. Uketropolis supports music teachers all over the world to teach ukulele in the best, most effective way possible—and to inspire and support generations of children to become great musicians. Leave a review on Apple podcasts or Podchaser. Tweet @themaycooper or insta @maycooperproductions to get on the show! http://www.changemakerswithoutborders.com/

James Hill, "possibly the best ukulele player in the world" (Waikato Times) is the person behind Uketropolis, the megaworld of ukulele for music teachers around the world, the only rigorous teacher-training that allows musicians and teachers alike to become more effective and inspiring ukulele teachers for all ages. James describes the journey of building Uketropolis and what is has become today, since his young days playing ukulele in Langley, BC, and his wife, Anne Janelle–"a cellist of true beauty"(Ottawa Citizen) shares her experiences, like working with organizations that allow children to get involved in orchestras, and what exactly is the importance of music in life. Leave a review on Apple podcasts or podchaser, and you can write an email to changemakerswithoutborders@gmail.com @themaycooper and http://www.changemakerswithoutborders.com/ 

In Part 2, we get to hear a more personal side to the Spanish Flu from a unique collection that was given to Professor Kandace Bogaert in one of her lectures by an audience member. As an award-winning researcher, she talks about what we can learn from it, as well as allows us a glimpse inside the lives of the heroes in those barrack hospital wards--both those who lie in their beds hoping to recover, and those who give them treatment, and write to the patient's families in the dead of the night, to keep the hope alive.

Teamwork is not something to be taken for granted with children, but they can have an abundance of good vibes, especially when working together towards a positive, interesting goal such as an animation project.  The founders of Sheepdog Animation, a studio home-grown in Waterloo, Ontario spill light on what kind of person you need to be to work as an aspiring animator,  and how we can all feel better when we just pick up a pen and draw. Follow Changemakers on instagram @maycooperproductions, and leave a review if you enjoyed it! Also, you can reach me at changemakerswithoutboders@gmail.com

What was it like to live in the year of 1918, in the tail ends of World War I, while a pandemic was beginning to spread all over North America, England, and other European countries? How bad was the flu, and was anyone prepared for it? Professor Kandace Bogaert with her doctorate from McMasters and conducting post-doc research at Wilfred Laurier brings her expertise on the 1918 flu in this fascinating new episode. Follow Changemakers on instagram @maycooperproductions, and leave a review if you enjoyed it! Also, you can reach me at changemakerswithoutboders@gmail.com 

What was in the old piece of film Paul Kriz and Alice Sinkner find in the old projector they bought from Nova Scotia? The co-founders of the award-winning studio called Sheepdog Animation join Changemakers to talk about classical vs. digital animation, teamwork between children and youth in animation, and having to close their art and film museum and transition to online teaching. 

From being a marine electrician at the Canadian Navy to becoming an energy healer, Ashley LeBlanc certainly has a unique story to tell--how she was afflicted with a rare illness, her journey in finding out what it is, and how it caused her to choose a different path in her life--one that not only helped her recover, but also allowed her to help clients in ways she never thought possible. You can find Ashley at www.discoverhealing.com. You can also check out the interview on video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzrAN59nqT4&t=3s 

Who was your role model? Is it important for men to have platonic friendships? Spend "brotherly" time with each other, and share their struggles? What kind of issues are men facing? How can women support men more? Those, and more, are questions asked of Nick Solaczec, the Executive Officer of the Samurai Brotherhood, a positive, empowered space for men, to have men’s backs.

Executive Officer Nick Solaczec joins Changemakers to talk about the Samurai Brotherhood, a community for conscious men that started out by its founder Phil Teeertha Mistlberger 24 years ago with an aim to support and guide men in the modern era. The Samurai Brotherhood has over 400 members across North America, and some even in Australia. Groups of men meet up in a safe space to share in their grief, struggles and challenges, without the use of alcohol, drugs, or video games, to help each other become the best version of people they can be.

Formerly titled "Ep 13 - A Bitter Taste of the Cold War - Alexander Solzhenitsyn". A social critic in a regime that actively persecuted dissenters, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (also in picture) grappled with Death on occasions almost too numerous to count, a man who, like many others, was reduced to mere scum by the Communist Regime of the USSR, but who kept a spirit of a fighter, and a writer while imprisoned. Later, he received a Nobel Prize for several volumes chronicling the 200 or more interviews he had with his fellow prisoners as well as his own experiences, what he called "The Gulag Archipelago", the most profound text on why communism should never be put to action. 

In the final episode of the Fight for Women’s Rights in Canada I ask Tarah Brookfield, a professor from Wilfred Laurier University from the Faculty of History and Youth and Children Studies, about gender quotas and diversity in workplaces, professorship applications, Indigenous women’s rights in Canada, as well as the Grand River First Nations’ system. I also ask her about how transgenderism may be affecting women’s rights, and what may be the best type of relationship for children's prosperity and stability.

Onwards! The fight for women's rights continues, with its interesting turns in the Canadian political arena of the 1900s. In this 4-part series, Professor Tarah Brookfield from Wilfred Laurier University unravels her research and vast knowledge of the subject in Part 3 with Changemakers. The history of the suffragist movement in Canada for women is a subject not to be forgotten or overlooked. We got this far for getting the vote, equality, and freedom. Men and women should not let their guard down, and keep fighting for our life-freedoms. 

Professor Tarah Brookfield joins us from the University of Wilfred Laurier in Waterloo, Ontario, representing both the faculty of Youth and Children as well as the faculty of History, and shares her knowledge on the history of the women's rights movement in Canada. Women did not only fight the government to get the vote. There were also disagreements between the women themselves on if they should even get the vote in the first place. That, and much more interesting politics is in this Women's Rights series with Professor Brookfield. 

In this new 4-part series, Professor Tarah Brookfield from Wilfred Laurier University joins Changemakers to talk about the history of the suffragist movement in Canada, and the leading men and women who made a difference in this field. This episode focuses on the first women who made the break act of casting their ballots, among interesting stories behind the issue of women's rights and how it affected every aspect of a woman's life in 19th century Canada.

Did you ever feel nervous on stage? How about off-stage, when you're in an interview, a debate with a friend, or an argument with your sibling? Bernie Roehl answers questions about improv, and teaching it for the past 30 years. So he knows a thing or two about getting people to let out their "inner actor", and release their self-criticisms. It turns out that improv doesn't only help us with our confidence, it can help familial relationships, romantic ones, and even when we're at work toiling through a tough day. Bernie co-founded Theatre on the Edge in Waterloo, Ontario, to teach people how to feel strong, and to believe in themselves and their capabilities.

Bernie Roehl talks about the possibilities VR holds in store for us, and what he's developing in the field while teaching at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Roehl has designed one of the first curriculums on virtual reality for community college programs in Canada, and authored several books, among them, “Playing God: Creating Virtual Worlds”. His VR packages are used by VR enthusiasts until today. In Part 2, we talk about Theatre on the Edge, one of the first improv theatre institutions in South-Western Ontario, which Roehl co-founded in 1981, and what improv can do to improv our lives and strengthen our spirit.

What if you saw so much that the image of battle was burned underneath your eyelids? That with every minute in the night your mind is filled with the picture of ruin, of people strewn on the ground,  with their skin black, heads swollen like puss-balloons from atomic smoke? What would you do if someone said it wasn't real, that it was all a hoax, that the atomic bomb never existed? Those same people say that the holocaust never occurred, either. We will dig into the stories of survivors, and changemakers, who's skin was ripped and lives completely changed by two opposing forces: the Japanese, and the American.

We get into conversation with James Cunningham, co-founder of P.A.C.E (Penticton and Area Cooperative Enterprise), which provides workplace training and employment opportunities to those struggling with addictions and mental challenges, who are also often homeless or disabled. P.A.C.E trains them to be responsible adults who can not only start to piece their life back together, but make a difference in the community around them.

Why did Samuel Clemens published an endorsement for the society of supernatural research? Was Samuel a good father, and family man? Why did his wife wear only black for an entire year? Writers are usually recluses. But he was one of the best orators America had ever come to know, and one of the first to write anti-slavery literature.

Florence's parents were appalled when they heard that she wanted to be a nurse, considering her status, and the number of suitors that were just waiting to ask for her hand. What about revolutionizing nursing? Or inventing pie charts?

Rosalind Franklin risked her livelihood and health to discover the double-helix, and her research didn't stop there. In Part 2, we will get a glimpse of the rare female scientist in World War II era who became a changemaker in three different fields of science, and perhaps, a bit, about the little we know of the lonely scientist's love life.

What happens behind closed doors in prestigious university labs comes out slowly, in trails of information and bits of knowledge, or sometimes none at all, to the point where the wrong people will get awarded, and the right people may even die young, like what happened to one Rosalind Franklin. This is her story, of a young woman with ambition and talent, and her journey to discover the double helix, the structure of the DNA, and the deceit and intrigue that lurked in the background that wasn't discovered until much later. Some don't even know it until today.