The Boss Ladies Podcast
By Manasi Gajjalapurna and Sualeha Irshad
The Boss Ladies PodcastApr 23, 2024
Ep. 61: Breaking Down Traditional Corporate Philanthropy Models & Building the First Sustainability-Centered Rewards Marketplace with Eunice Jung at Future
In the latest episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Eunice Jung, Head of Partnerships at Future. Future is a payment platform that pays you to go green—giving you 5% cash back or more and rewards on everyday green purchases through partnerships with brands that simplify a green lifestyle. At Future, Eunice developed a pipeline for Future’s ecosystem partners, from D2C brands to B2B relationships, & built the first sustainability-centered rewards marketplace from 0 to 100+ strong Future partners and 50,000+ low carbon, sustainable businesses across America in less than a year.
We kick off the episode by discussing Eunice’s experience growing up across 3 different cities—in Oakland, California; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Seoul, South Korea—and how it shaped her perspective coming into Stanford, where she studied Anthropology and International Relations, eventually getting her Master’s in Sustainability Science and Practice. Eunice dives deep into the research behind her Honors Thesis, looking at the structures of desire shaping the decision-making process of girls when choosing to enter industries, such as the garment industry. Eunice then shares her insights on the norm of philanthropic efforts by the global north pouring money into various regions, particularly within the global south, bringing up the central question: how do we go about eliminating the traditional corporate model of evaluating girls education as a cost-benefit analysis of seeming the best while maintaining most corporate benefit?
Eunice then discusses her transition from more research-oriented work at Stanford to working at a fintech startup, where she had the opportunity to design her own role. Eunice discusses both her role at Future in working with a wide range of partners and what evaluating effective climate-friendly investments looks like on the part of other companies. Eunice also shares her philosophies regarding B2B and B2C relationships, how financial movements serve as powerful action in shaping corporate change, and how Future shapes their strategic initiatives for growth to remind consumers that they have fiscal power through their spending habits and everyday financial decisions.
Learn More:
https://gothammag.com/eunice-jung-futurecard-sustainable-shopping-rewards
Ep. 60: Quantifying Nonhuman Charisma, Slow Journalism, and Nat Geo's Out of Eden Project with Andrea Vale
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Andrea Vale, a scientific expedition videographer and photographer and current staff writer at Freethink. Andrea has served as an ocean exploration filmmaker for organizations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oxford Anthroposea Expedition and has worked in remote, off-the-grid locations across the world. Previously, Andrea served on National Geographic’s Science and Exploration Team and as a Human Story Specialist on National Geographic’s Out of Eden Project—a 24,000-mile journalistic endeavor to create a global record of human life at the start of a new millennium as told by villagers, nomads, traders, farmers, soldiers, and artists who rarely make the news.
We kick off the episode by diving into Andrea’s experience at Oxford’s Biodiversity Program and her work in quantifying non-human charisma in landscapes, as well as her thoughts on how corporeal charisma applies to ecological conservation. Andrea also dives into her experience taking part in the Madrasa Discourses Project, through which she engaged in dialogue with Indian and Pakistani Islamic scholars to discuss the intersection of traditional Islamic thought and contemporary scientific and philosophical worldviews.
Andrea also elaborates on her work at the Out of Eden Project, and the role that slow journalism played in being able to dissect unknown stories, especially when working on-ground in a remote region of Punjab, India. Andrea also discusses her work managing the Out of Eden Walk Translation Community, and the impact that the linguistic nuance of culturally-dependent stories had on her understanding of translation and on the stories she was sharing. We wrap up this episode by discussing how Andrea approaches her current work as a cinematic storyteller when capturing aspects of nature and biodiversity—what is the line between cinema and reality, and how do storytellers balance it when seeking to highlight universal truths?
Andrea’s Portfolio: https://www.andreavale.com/
Out of Eden Project (still ongoing!): https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/
Ep. 59: Harnessing Non-Pharmaceutical Solutions & VR to Transform Chronic Pain Treatments with Dr. Beth Darnall, Director of Stanford Pain Relief Innovations Lab
In our latest episode, we sit down with Dr. Beth Darnall, Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine under the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine. We open the episode with how Dr. Darnall’s path through graduate school led to her focus on revolutionizing treatments for chronic pain.
Dr. Darnall breaks down how pain is a consequence of a diseased state of the nervous system itself and how pain should be viewed as a biopsychosocial condition instead of a purely biomedical problem. She expands on how the current landscape of pain treatment utilizes opioids as a frontline treatment and how her work has focused on harnessing non-pharmaceutical treatments to optimize pain management.
Dr. Darnall dives into her innovation through Empowered Relief, a 1-session intervention that rapidly equips individuals with pain relief skills for chronic pain, acute pain, and surgical recovery, and how this solution expands access to pain care by providing an alternative to traditional pain medications and 16 hours of cognitive behavioral therapy.
She elaborates on her role as the Director of Stanford’s Pain Relief Innovations Lab where she leads NIH and PCORI-funded clinical trials through studies such as EMPOWER and PROGRESS which look at voluntary opioid reduction and pain relief for chronic pain. We close the episode by touching on Dr. Darnall’s role as Chief Science Advisor at AppliedVR and how virtual reality therapeutics enable patients to access an immersive, home-based pain treatment device. Learn More: https://profiles.stanford.edu/beth-darnall
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04994-5https://www.appliedvr.io/
Ep. 58: Competitive Lifesaving, Vertically Integrated Menstrual Markets, & Redesigning the Tampon For The First Time in 90 Years with Co-Founder of Sequel, Amanda Calabrese
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Amanda Calabrese, Co-Founder and CMO at Sequel, which recently received FDA clearance for it’s re-engineered performance-oriented tampon. Sequel’s FDA clearance marks the first time the tampon has been majorly redesigned since it’s invention nearly a century ago.
We kick off the episode by diving into Amanda’s journey through surfing, teaching surfing, and competing in the United States National Lifesaving Team in championships across the world. By starting up her own surf business, Amanda discusses how building a surfing business provided her with transferable skills that spun her towards the world of business and product design, which she pursued through her studies at Stanford.
Throughout the episode, Amanda discusses the journey of building out Sequel through dorm room prototypes, eventually leading her and her co-founder to stumble upon the idea of Sequel’s spiral grooves that wrap diagonally around the tampon—rather than the linear channels of most other tampons on the market—allowing them to absorb more fluid. Amanda dives deeper into the history of tampon innovation, the difference between white label and private label manufacturing, and the vertical integration of tampon mass manufacturers across supply chain and distribution systems that place small companies looking to innovate at a disadvantage.
Towards the end of the episode, Amanda also touches on Sequel’s patenting process, as Sequel has garnered 11 patents in the US and another 7 pending international patents. Through it’s novel manufacturing method, Amanda explains how Sequel can differentiate itself from traditional production and distribution networks and invest more into R&D. We wrap up the episode by discussing the urgency for “need based” innovation in the space of menstrual products rather than white label products which provide the illusion of choice with little differentiation.
Sequel’s Website: https://www.trysequel.com/
Dr. Jen Gunter’s Review of Sequel (post-FDA clearance): https://vajenda.substack.com/p/new-tampon-cleared-by-the-fda
Politico Article on Juliet Thomas & Plan A Health (mobile clinics providing free healthcare services to communities in the Mississippi Delta): https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/18/mississippi-delta-plan-a-mobile-health-clinic-00007251
Ep. 57: Re-Inventing Cultivated Meats at a $1B Startup & Technical Self-Mentorship with Rachel Valenzuela, Director of Discovery at UPSIDE Foods
In our latest episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Rachel Valenzuela—Head of Discovery at Upside Foods, the first company globally to receive FDA approval for cultivated meats from real animal cells—to chat about her journey through chemistry, chemical biology, and genome engineering through the Philippines and the U.S to her current role as a breakthrough scientist studying which cell types can revolutionize our lab-grown meat pipeline.
We begin the episode by diving into Rachel’s PhD research in siRNA efficacy and specificity, which led her to Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI). Rachel discusses her work at the IGI at the nexus of academia and industry, as she worked on projects involving large corporations, such as Pfizer, to both develop scientific tools and think about their applications in a real-world drug discovery pipeline.
In the second half of the episode, we break down the start of Rachel’s journey at UPSIDE Foods over 5 years ago as a Cell Line Engineer alongside less than 10 employees. Rachel breaks down the structure of the early research teams, the decision-making to tackle a wide range of species—including avian, mammalian, and crustacean—to study the cell biology of, and how she has seen UPSIDE Foods evolve drastically as the company develops a higher focus on speeding up the discovery to commercialization pipeline. We close out by discussing how self-mentorship has enabled Rachel to identify and close the gaps she experiences as she pivots across decisions, roles, and projects.
UPSIDE Foods’ Recent USDA Approval For Cultivated Chicken: https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/fda-approves-1st-cell-cultivated-meat-upside-foods/story?id=100278334
Ep. 56: Stepping Inside a Dead Star, Black Hole Exploration, and Experiencing Our Observable Universe, with Kimberly Arcand, Visualization Scientist at NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory
In this week's episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Kimberly Arcand, a visualization scientist and Emerging Tech Lead for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which has its headquarters at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We open this episode with Kim's initial start in public health and molecular biology while she was an undergraduate student and her pivot to working for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 1998. Kim expands on the evolution of her role as both the fields of data visualization and astronomy have further advanced over the last two decades.
Specifically, she shares how she led a team in creating the first-ever 3D print of an exploded star which was put into a VR application, and showcased the power of 3-dimensional interactivity with data by enabling people to walk around a dead star for the first time on Earth.
We transition into how her work has focused on changing the way that we observe our universe and she shares how we can design hardware and tools to better understand and synthesize scientific discovery in a field where so much about our observable universe continues to be unknown.
Kim transitions into black hole exploration across governmental organizations and the private sector and innovation in the methods we use to continue exploring black holes. We close the episode by discussing Kim's ability as a science data "storyteller" through publishing numerous non-fiction books such as "Coloring the Universe: An Insider's Guide to Making Spectacular Images of Space" and “Stars in Your Hand: A Guide to 3D Printing the Cosmos."
Learn More:
https://www.kimarcand.com/
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/12/a-virtual-reality-experience-of-being-inside-an-exploded-star/
Ep. 55: Evolution of the EU’s Digital Policies, Transatlantic AI Governance, and Brussels to the Bay with Giulia Geneletti
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Giulia Geneletti, currently studying European Affairs—specifically, Digital Technologies, New Technologies, and Public Policies—at Sciences Po, and previously worked as a Tech Policy Trainee at the European Union Office in San Francisco connecting Brussels to the Bay.
In this episode, we dive deep into how Giulia initially entered the world of European Tech Policy, her initial policy design projects during undergrad, such as with the CNIL (French Data Protection Authority) on personal data protection rights, and many of her observations on how the EU Hub in SF serves as a central location to collaborate with those working in policy, industry, academia, and civil society, especially with a focus on digital technology.
Throughout the episode, we also discuss the breadth of policy practices that the EU has prioritized in the past several years in their approach to data privacy & technological regulation. Giulia walks us through the evolution of the EU’s digital policies—from the GDPR to AI Act (passing through DSA and DMA)—across social media and platform regulation to AI governance. Giulia builds on the ways in which the DSA and DMA will hopefully redefine the EU’s digital marketplace over the long-term in alignment with rapidly evolving technological developments bringing opportunities and challenges, while also considering how these policies might act as a blueprint in the regulation of platforms cases globally.
Ep. 54: Creating Trailers for Netflix, Producing Impactful Entertainment, and The Art of Cinematic Storytelling with Emilie Sabath
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Emilie Sabath, a creative director and cinematic storyteller who has built impactful and award-winning entertainment and brand campaigns for clients such as Netflix, Amazon, Intel, Lays, Redbull, and National Geographic.
We open this episode by discussing how Emilie’s background as a Film Education Outreach Coordinator of the True/False Documentary Film Festival shaped her perspective on integrating film as an important aspect in revolutionizing the way that students learn. Emilie also speaks on how her graduate MFA in Film and Multimedia Performance at CalArts impacted the trajectory of her career as a creative director and cinematic storyteller.
We transition into the two major tracks Emilie built parallelly in her career— commercial work and artistic film practice, in which she describes her artistic film practice as one that “tells women’s tales" and discusses how she created films that intersect the dark poetry of the natural world with the dangerous complexities of white womanhood.
Emilie also shares her experience as an Entertainment Coordinator at Trailer Park and Creative Director of Brand, Entertainment, Audio & Video and expands on the production process of major collaborations with companies such as Lays and National Geographic. Before closing the episode, Emilie elaborates on her role at Netflix as the Creative Strategist of Series and the Product Creative Studio and her process for creating Netflix trailers for major shows such as Never Have I Ever, Emily in Paris, and Seinfeld.
Learn More:
https://www.emiliesabath.com/
Ep. 53: Launching The Earth Prize, UNWRA Partnership, and Pioneering Climate Literacy in Education with Angela McCarthy, CEO of The Earth Foundation
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Angela McCarthy, CEO of The Earth Foundation, which strives to foster a self-perpetuating ecosystem that accelerates positive change toward environmental sustainability. The Earth Foundation is home to The Earth Prize, an environmental sustainability competition open to teenage students everywhere where the winning solution is awarded with a $200,000 prize to further their initiative.
We open the episode with Angela deconstructing the process of launching The Earth Prize and the monumental decisions she made as CEO while scaling the organization's impact. She expands upon outreach to schools with wide geographic diversity in order to establish the competition as accessible to all students, including those attending high-income private schools and those attending public schools in low-resourced regions. Angela also shares how The Earth Foundation worked with the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) to encourage and support 34 teams of Palestinian refugees attending UNRWA schools.
We transition into how The Earth Prize's ambassador system operates and how the adjudicating panel of experts is chosen to cover a wide range of fields and types of expertise to properly evaluate the submissions. We also discuss the expansion of The Earth Foundation moving forward through future initiatives such as The Earth Prize Awards, which is specific for PhD-level students, with a scientific committee assessing research proposals in environmental sustainability. We close the episode by touching on the role of The Earth Prize in pioneering the next generation of climate literacy and education, especially in regions with severe limitations in educational infrastructure.
Learn More: https://www.theearthprize.org/about-us
Ep. 52: Advancing Federal Policy in Climate, Clean Energy Demonstration Projects, & Manufacturing with Tanya Das, Senior Associate Director of Energy Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center
In this episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Tanya Das, who currently serves as the Senior Associate Director of Energy Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center and advanced federal policy in climate, clean energy, and manufacturing. Prior to this work, Tanya served as the Chief Of Staff in the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
We kick off this episode by discussing Tanya’s background in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where she also worked at the Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships to evaluate interventions to improve retention rates and degree attainment in STEM students from underrepresented backgrounds at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tanya also touches on her role post-grad where she worked to improve workforce development in the photonics industry for workers in the Central California region and how that inspired her decision to pivot in policy, where she served as a Congressional Fellow for Senator Chris Coons and supported his Economic Policy Team to advance measures around advanced manufacturing, technology commercialization, innovation, and workforce development.
In the second half of the episode, Tanya breaks down her experience working in federal policy at the HOR and at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Office of Science. Tanya speaks about the projects she worked on during her time at the DOE, the funding model of the DOE, and the role of energy-demonstration projects and how they’ve had fluctuating importance across federal programs in the past few decades. However, they can be a critical tool to accelerate the pace of deployment of key low-carbon technologies like clean hydrogen, advanced nuclear energy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) from industrial facilities and power plants while also providing key information needed by the private sector to commercialize technology. Finally, we end the episode by discussing Tanya’s transition to the Bipartisan Policy Center, where she touches on the role of the think tank in developing legislation that appeals across party lines.
Ep. 51: Catalyzing the Political Power of Young People in Honor of National Voter Registration Day with IGNITE
Today on The Boss Ladies Podcast, we're honoring National Voter Registration Day 2023 in collaboration with IGNITE! In this special episode, IGNITE's Legislative Advocacy Manager, Saha Salahi, interviews our co-hosts, Manasi and Sualeha, on their current relationship with political leadership and their initial interest in civic engagement. Manasi and Sualeha share reflections on their experiences with IGNITE over the past year and on the meaning of the phrase "politics is personal". Saha dives into how they each cultivated a focus on issue areas they're passionate about, and Manasi and Sualeha discuss the role of legislation in accessing reproductive healthcare and its impact on education systems at the local level. We close the episode by breaking down ways young people can advocate for change, given that there is no blueprint or a specific path to political leadership, and advice for young leaders who want to unlock their political potential.
IGNITE the Vote: https://ignitenational.org/ignite-the-vote
Advocate for Change: https://ignitenational.org/advocate
Make Informed Votes: https://www.ballotready.org/
Find us on IGNITE's Blog: https://ignitenational.org/blog/catalyzing-the-political-power-of-young-people-with-the-boss-ladies-podcast
Ep. 50: Revolutionizing Reproductive Care through Futureproof Fertility Clinics with the Co-Founders of Ovom Care: Lynae Brayboy, Felicia von Reden, and Christina Hickman
Welcome to the 50th episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast!
In this week's episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with the co-founders of Ovom Care; Lynae Brayboy, Ovom’s Chief Medical Officer & IVF Researcher; Felicia Von Reden, Chief Executive Officer & Patient Care Expert; and Christina Hickman, Clinical Embryologist & IVF Consultant. Ovom Care is working to revolutionize reproductive care, starting in Europe, by bringing together world-class fertility specialists with the power of AI and cutting-edge research.
We open the episode by touching on each of the co-founders’ unique experiences in the space of reproductive care. Felicia touches on her background in conceptualizing, building, and scaling AI startups enabled her to combine modern in-person care with advanced AI-based technology. Christina dives deeper into her work designing and building over 13 IVF labs in the UK and globally, as well as her work serving as the Chief Scientific Officer for AI-based healthcare companies like Apricity and companies designing the future of IVF, like Fairtility and TMRW Life Sciences. Lynae Brayboy closes the first section of the episode by describing her work as the Chief Medical Officer at Clue—one of the most used period and fertility tracking apps with over 15 million users globally—and her role in developing Girl Talk, a smartphone application to teach sexual health education to adolescent girls.
In the second half of the episode, we dive deeper into the science and decision-making processes at Ovom Care, revolutionizing the way that we think about fertility care by using AI to optimize every step of the pipeline and close the divide between patients, providers, and clinics. The founders of Ovom describe the role of the “add on” model of the services offered by Ovom, which prioritizes transparent and success-based pricing due to the optimization software that Ovom has integrated that increases chances of patient success across the fertility pipeline—from identifying personalized medicines, dosages, and lab interventions to utilizing computer vision for egg selection—to ensure higher success rates and reduced treatment cycles. In addition, the founders of Ovom speak about the power of allowing patients to truly visualize their biology through data and Ovom’s Fertility Companion App, which allows patients to see dosage adjustments, trigger shot instructions, and even their own eggs with individual identification numbers. We wrap up the episode by discussing Ovom’s lab facility in London & its physical expansion to Lisbon, and how the design of the lab pushes the status quo of fertility spaces through it’s seamless integration of technology.
Ovom Care’s Website: https://www.ovomcare.com/
YouTube Video Interview: https://youtu.be/qbOjVAE4MlY?si=Xk6FoRO4tBt9nX59
Ep. 49: Scientific Storytelling, Improv For Nobel Prize Winners, and Redefining Empathetic Leadership with Dr. Christine O’Connell, Executive Director of Riley’s Way Foundation
In the newest episode of The Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Dr. Christine O’Connell, the Executive Director of Riley's Way Foundation, former marine and environmental science professor, and a leading expert in science communication, training thousands of scientists, professionals, and even Nobel Prize winners to communicate with clarity and empathy.
We kick off this episode by discussing Dr. O’Connell’s background in studying the natural sciences and eventually pursuing environmental policy at Green Corps, New York’s City Park Foundation, and the Parks 2001 campaign at Partnerships for Parks. Despite her impact in policy working in the backend of local and even early presidential campaigns, she speaks about her decision to venture back into academia after witnessing the friction between policymakers and their misunderstanding of the scientific world.
Dr. O’Connell then dives deeper into her work as a member of the founding team of Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science where she worked with a wide range of students, world-renowned scientists, journalists, actors, and other expert communicators to develop and teach curriculum around empathetic communication.
Dr. O’Connell also touches upon her decision to leave the world of academia behind to lead Riley’s Way Foundation, which invests in and supports the next generation of kind leaders and changemakers. She speaks to the values of Riley’s Way and its origin story, sharing how the values of Riley’s Way have led to the organic development and expansion of their national programs.
Learn More: https://www.rileysway.org/
Ep. 48: Expanding Access to Sustainable Period Care with Erin Burk, VP of Business Development at August
In this week's episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Erin Burk, VP of Business Development at August, a start-up focused on providing sustainable period care. We open the episode by touching on Erin's transition from independent consulting and Big Tech to her experience in redefining periods at a cultural level through her role at August.
We break down August’s commitment to sustainability, impact, and inclusive community in its execution and company operations and discuss how the Inner Cycle community is at the core of its product development. Erin expands on August’s initial direct-to-consumer model and the personalization that its build-a-box offers along with August’s recent expansion into retail through its partnership with Target.
We transition into August’s impact-driven initiatives such as the August Advocates Program which works to expand access to period care in schools across North America and the #AugustTaxBack policy which reimburses the cost difference for customers who live in states that still uphold the tampon tax. We close the episode by touching on continuing the conversation on period stigma and the role venture capital firms and positively aligned investors play in expanding mission-driven companies.
Use code bossladies20 for 20% off your first order at www.itsaugust.co!! Simply apply the promo code at checkout!
Ep. 47: Blueprints For Effective Communication, Self-Mentorship, and Shifting Funding Norms For Female Entrepreneurs with Hitha Palepu, CEO of Roshan Pharmaceuticals & Author of We’re Speaking
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Hitha Palepu, author of How To Pack & We're Speaking: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris. as well as the newsletter #5SmartReads curating the best of news, healthcare, and female-centric success stories reaching over 100,000 accounts.
We kick off this episode by discussing Hitha’s original creative outlet, Hitha On The Go, a lifestyle blog focused on travel that amassed thousands of readers and led to the publishing of her first book. Hitha dives into how this platform served as a contrast to corporate life and how the publishing of her first book led her to take on writing We’re Speaking, which dives deep into various Kamala-isms that Hitha has collected from witnessing Kamala’s journey in politics. Hitha shares how the lessons in this book showcase a blueprint she developed earlier on in her career to become an effective communicator, embrace her ambition & authenticity, and to own her story.
Throughout the episode, we also touch on Hitha’s current role as the CEO of Roshan Pharmaceuticals and the company’s focus on expanding the verticals of aspirin delivery, particularly injectable aspirin, for hospital use. Hitha discusses how by improving aspirin delivery—and consequently decreasing the time it takes to hit the bloodstream—Roshan is providing essential early treatment to the acute leading causes of death. Finally, we close out this episode by discussing Hitha’s fortunate accident in entering the world of startup investing and advising & her thoughts on how current funding models don’t properly serve many entrepreneurs, including female entrepreneurs and mothers.
Follow Hitha on Instagram:
Subscribe to Hitha’s Newsletter #5SmartReads:
Ep. 46: Deploying Products For Fair and Free Elections at Facebook, Proactive vs Reactive Democracies, & the Geopolitical Impact of 2024 with Katie Harbath, CEO of Anchor Change
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Katie Harbath, a global leader at the intersection of elections, democracy, civic and tech. She is the CEO of Anchor Change, the Senior Advisor at the International Republican Institute, and Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Integrity Institute, & the Atlantic Council. Previously, Katie spent ten years as a Public Policy Director at Facebook, where she led a global team responsible for managing elections and deployed civic engagement and election integrity products during major elections for every country around the globe including the US, UK, EU, India, Brazil, Canada, Philippines, and Mexico.
We kick off this episode by diving deeper into Katie’s work at Facebook and her thoughts on the necessity for features fighting misinformation and hate speech, country-specific monitoring, and the big question of regulation: when are people exercising their right to organize and protest against their government, as opposed to preparing for a violent insurrection?
In this episode, we also discuss how technology norms differ across democratic and authoritarian countries, redefining what free and fair elections entail and their compounding effect on rapid political changes globally, and proactive vs reactive democracies. Finally, we close out this episode by discussing how in 2024, the future of the internet remains “on the line,” as we can expect to witness a huge geopolitical moment for the world where many major countries are having elections, including India, Indonesia, Mexico, potentially the UK, and 80 others.
Katie’s NYT Guest Essay “I Worked at Facebook. It’s Not Ready for This Year’s Election Wave.”:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/opinion/facebook-2022-election.html
Ep. 45: Driving Product Development in Food and Beverage Through Flavor Chemistry, Sensory, and Consumer Science at Starbucks with Carol Karahadian
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Carol Karahadian, a Sensory and Consumer Science Consultant and previous Director of Product & Process Technology, and Sensory at Starbucks. We open the episode by discussing Carol’s decision to study food science and flavor chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and break down flavor chemistry and sensory science as a field.
We tap into Carol’s experience as the VP of Global Sensory at Firmenich, a Swiss-owned company that specializes in creating flavors and fragrances, and how she developed the skill of analytically assessing taste and smell as senses to develop successful consumer products. We also touch on her use of preference mapping and PCA, or principal component analysis, in order to develop data-driven consumer profiles.
We transition into Carol’s role at Starbucks as a Director of Product & Process Technology, and Sensory and how she applied her experience in sensory science to product development for a lighter roast coffee. We close out the episode by discussing the process of the development of food and beverage products from concept to consumption and techniques for capturing emotion-based insight from consumers.
Learn More About Carol:
https://karahadian.consulting/
Ep. 44: Gamifying Taboo Topics through Radical Board Game Design with Experiential Designer Nashra Balagamwala
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Nashra Balagamwala an experiential designer originally from Pakistan and a graduate of Harvard University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Previously, she worked at Hasbro before transitioning into designing various board games for social impact.
Among her board games that aim to "edutain" players, includes "Monster Hunt", a game created to educate and protect children from sexual abuse, and "Arranged!" a game that allows players to intimately experience the challenges of arranged marriage faced by South-Asian women. In this episode, Nashra shares her journey through her career in game design and the process of designing games that tackle taboo topics with nuance.
She expands on how games as a medium can open up difficult conversations and communicate serious messages while also having the capacity to evoke light-hearted enjoyment. Before we close out the episode, we touch on Nashra's involvement with the Aurat March in Pakistan, the inspiration for her female-centric posters, and honoring Asma Jahangir as a trailblazer for women's rights.
To learn more about Nashra's Board Games:
Ep. 43: Using Decision Science to Influence Global Healthcare Policy Around Hepatitis B & Designing Cost-Effective Interventions Alongside the WHO with Dr. Mehlika Toy
In our latest episode, Manasi and Sualeha interview Dr. Mehlika Toy, an epidemiologist and instructor at Stanford University. In this episode, we start off by discussing the public health burden of Hepatitis B, a viral liver infection, affecting nearly 1 in 30 individuals, or 296 million people worldwide. Mehlika dives deep into her journey from initially pursuing epidemiology to entering the space of decision science and mathematical modeling for public health which was still an emerging field.
While Mehlika’s journey started with her tackling Hepatitis B interventions for migrant groups in the Netherlands given the high prevalence of the disease amongst individuals of Asian descent, her PhD at Harvard led her to pursue a public health fellowship in China, where her research led policymakers in China to produce low-cost drugs for a national hepatitis treatment program. Mehlika further pursued this research at her role at Stanford University’s Asian Liver Center, and was eventually appointed by the WHO to develop a mathematical model that would help calculate country-specific interventions for eliminating the public health burden of hepatitis B by the year 2030.
Finally, we close out the episode by discussing Mehlika’s general process towards developing cost-effective models for chronic disease and the metrics that she uses, as well as her recent work in epidemiologic and economic modeling following a grant from NEEMA, a center at the CDC tackling chronic disease.
Learn more about Dr. Mehlika Toy and her research:
Calculating Value of Hepatitis B Treatment Using Country-Specific Information (Developed with Stanford Asian Liver Center & WHO):
Ep. 42: The Future of Work, Collaborative Intelligence, and Doomsday Experiment with Rebecca Hinds, Head of The Work Innovation Lab by Asana
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Rebecca Hinds, Head of The Work Innovation Lab at Asana and recent Stanford Ph.D. graduate in management science and engineering. We begin this episode by discussing Rebecca's Ph.D. research and how we can define "the future of work" across various industries and time horizons.
Rebecca shares her extensive work in understanding how to optimize for collaborative intelligence in the context of cross-functional teams and in remote and hybrid work environments. We touch on obsessive productivity and how companies can often mistake busyness for productivity and how outcomes-oriented indicators are more accurate measures of productivity within an organization.
Rebecca expands on her role at the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and how Asana's "Doomsday Experiment" enables employees to redesign their meetings through an intense calendar cleanse. Finally, we close out the episode by discussing how companies can future-proof themselves with the inevitable disruption of automation in the workplace through continuous investment in in-house talent. The Work Innovation Lab by Asana:
Ep. 41: The Power of Local Politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, & the Tampon Tax with Jocelyn Yow, California's Youngest WOC Mayor
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Jocelyn Yow, the Legislative Advocacy Director at IGNITE and Councilmember in the City of Eastvale, California.
Through her current work at IGNITE, Jocelyn develops strong coalitions with various companies and nonprofit organizations across the country to advocate for bills and initiatives on women’s rights and voting rights, such as When We All Vote, PERIOD., Levi's, Anthropologie, and Glossier. Simultaneously, she represents over 70,000 residents in Eastvale to advocate for and sign legislation that addresses the same challenges she faced growing up.
We begin this episode by discussing Jocelyn’s experiences entering the sphere of politics as an immigrant, and how she views modern political engagement as a necessity because policies are never permanent. Jocelyn expands on her current work at IGNITE in authoring and advocating for over 10 bills addressing menstrual inequity in the past year, such as the allocation of $1.25 million in Georgia public schools to address period poverty.
She shares her experiences in tailoring not only her advocacy efforts when interacting with various stakeholders, but even the language included within the bills themselves. In catering to the opinions of lawmakers to pass legislation, Jocelyn addresses how even shifting the narrative of a certain issue can occur through linguistic compromises.
Finally, we close out the episode by discussing Jocelyn’s previous experiences in federal policy and working as an immigration specialist at the House of Representatives, where she shares how even foreign and larger-scale domestic policy directly influences individual communities.
Ep. 40: IGNITE Norma K. Stone Young Women Run Texas 2023 - From Representation to Influence: Exploring the Power of Media for Social Changes
Sualeha tunes in live from Austin, TX at the IGNITE Norma K. Stone Young Women Run Texas 2023 conference. Tune in to hear her moderate From Representation to Influence: Exploring the Power of Media for Social Changes with Emily Flores, Founder of Cripple Media, the first-ever media company where young disabled creatives can shift the lens disabled people are viewed.
Description: Explore the role of media in creating awareness, influencing action, and shifting culture. Founder of Cripple Media Emily Flores will sit down with Sualeha Irshad Co-Founder of The Boss Ladies podcast to discuss the importance of representation in media, and how each of us already has the power to influence whether as consumers or creators of content.
Recording Date: February 24th, 2023
Session Location: AT&T Center, 1900 University Ave, Austin, TX 78705
IGNITE Norma K. Stone Young Women Run Texas 2023:
https://ignitenational.org/young-women-run-texas-2023-agenda
Emily's Work as Founder of Cripple Media:
https://cripplemedia.com/
Ep. 39: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Innovating In A VUCA World, and Agile Governance With Rebecca King
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Rebecca King, The Lead of the World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR). With a background in consulting, specifically with a focus on education, Rebecca currently works at the WEF to contextualize the interrelationship between emerging technology and governance models in both a local and global context.
We begin the episode by breaking down the promises and misconceptions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, superexponential growth, and the power of emerging industries, such as the growing global bioeconomy that is projected to grow to over $30 trillion in the U.S. alone over the next two decades. Rebecca shares her insight on our current VUCA context—a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—expanding on how jumps in private and public data accessibility and individual interpretation have influenced VUCA innovation as well as scientific polarization.
Rebecca also expands on how government often finds itself on the back foot of innovation, but experimentation and iteration in government through the form of policy entrepreneurship and gov-tech allows for both tech and innovation to become more aligned. We close out the episode by discussing the framework of agile governance, and its relevance to how countries, organizations, and governments are able to navigate the unknowns of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR)
https://initiatives.weforum.org/c4ir/home
Rebecca's Work:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/4ir-tech-policy-making-challenges-future-governance/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/data-can-help-tackle-global-challenges-2022-predictions/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/should-government-leave-innovation-to-the-private-sector/
Ep. 38: Pitfalls of Finnish Exceptionalism, Anti-Science Beliefs, and Auditory Neuroscience with University of Helsinki Post-Doc Caitlin Dawson
In this episode, we sit down with Caitlin Dawson, a postdoctoral researcher, and instructor for the University of Helsinki's Changing Education International Master's Program. Originally from Ohio, she completed both her Master's Degree and Ph.D. in music psychology internationally before shifting to the faculty of educational sciences at the University of Helsinki.
As the first international program in their faculty with a highly diverse student population, Caitlin explains how a focus on global education and indigenous pedagogies can be ignored in favor of Finnish exceptionalism. We touch on how universal design is defined as eliminating the need to ask for accommodations and how anti-science beliefs are often strongly tied to self-identity. Caitlin also expands on science capital, or how people hold resources in connection to knowledge and science, as power in a modern-day information society.
In the second half, we transition into Caitlin's research in auditory neuroscience. She explains how a person's pitch processing can vary based on their native language, whether earworms are intrusive thoughts, and a fun fact on how music helps us get in sync with each other before closing out the episode!
Caitlin's Work:
Caitlin's Ph.D. dissertation, Effects of linguistics and musical expertise on early auditory processing: Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence:
http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-3844-6
University of Helsinki's Changing Education Master's Program: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/degree-programmes/changing-education-masters-programme
FINSCI (Fostering Finnish Science Capital) Consortium where Caitlin works:
https://www.finsci.fi/en
Research Papers Caitlin References in the Episode:
Babies' Auditory Development: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078946
Synchrony: https://kateeinarson.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Cirelli-Einarson-Trainor-Dev-Sci-2014.pdf
Earworms: https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-020-01750-7 Huron, D. (2008). Sweet anticipation: Music and the psychology of expectation. MIT press.
Ep. 37: How global communities thrive when girls realize their full potential — an episode with Malala Fund Assembly
In this week's episode, we collaborated with Assembly, a digital newsletter and publication from Malala Fund. Co-founded by activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, Malala Fund works to create a world where all girls can learn and lead.
We invited three Assembly readers from across the world to spotlight their perspectives on the economic benefits of girls’ education, alongside the types of investments they wish to see to allow young women from their communities to thrive. Anisha Roy Bhatia (India) highlights the need for safety of young women in academic spaces and barriers to female participation in the formal working sector. Victoria Segura Béjar Jimena (Peru) explains how the development of local educational programming centered on emerging science and sustainability is a necessary investment toward achieving gender equality. And Zainab Rubaith (Sri Lanka) speaks out about reforming religious norms and stereotypes about girls’ education in her country. Through voicing their experiences and sharing their own personal initiatives to combat inequality in their communities, they ultimately prove why increased investment in young women globally is absolutely vital for a sustainable future.
To learn more about today's episode, read the official article on Assembly's digital publication here:
https://assembly.malala.org/stories/how-global-communities-thrive-when-girls-realize-their-full-potential-an-episode-with-the-boss-ladies-podcast
Ep. 36: SXSW 2022 Live Podcast Stage — Gen Z on the Power of Authentic Voices
Manasi and Sualeha tune in live from Austin, TX at the SXSW 2022 Live Podcast Stage! Tune in to hear their first in-person episode, Gen Z on the Power of Authentic Voices.
Description: With a rise in novel perspectives and values in policy, tech, and impact, society is beginning to take on a new definition of innovation. By using these perspectives, we constantly develop frameworks to serve diverse groups and bring out authentic voices. But how can we leverage our ever-evolving culture to continue driving innovation forwards? Attend this live episode with the co-hosts of The Boss Ladies Podcast to understand how we can integrate the values of DEI and human-centric impact to spur the next generation of equitable change and dynamic innovation.
Recording Date: March 16th, 2022
https://schedule.sxsw.com/2022/events/PP1141108
Ep. 35: The Social Cost of Carbon, De-Risking Global Investments With the UNCDF, and Effective Altruism with Angela Zhong
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Angela Zhong, a student studying Economics and Environmental Policy at Harvard and a recent Partnerships, Policy, and Communications Intern at the UN Capital Development Fund.
We start by discussing Angela's thoughts on the social cost of carbon, which is the economic damage of each ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Despite the social cost of carbon being estimated by the federal government to be $5 per ton when recent research shows it is likely around $185, Angela shares how these changing valuations affect the priority placed on carbon emissions in various regions of the world.
Angela also breaks down her work at the UNCDF, sharing their role in de-risking investments by integrating the cause priorities of private donors and local communities. We close the episode by discussing her thoughts on recent shifts in the Effective Altruism movement and how she has harnessed different principles to power her own long-term impact.
Ep. 34: Engineering Orbital Missions, Designing the First Spacesuit For Women, and Crowdfunding with Sabrina Thompson, CEO of GIRL IN SPACE CLUB
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Sabrina Thompson, Aerospace Engineer at NASA and CEO & Founder of GIRL IN SPACE CLUB where she’s brought together a group of women who span fashion design, product development, and space travel to develop a prototype for a women’s space travel suit.
We discuss how Sabrina’s fascination with complex systems found in spacecraft led her to pursue her twelve-year-long career at NASA and her passion for art and fashion growing up. As human spaceflight has progressed to be more inclusive of women (the current corps of NASA astronauts is 40% female & private spaceflights have 24% female crewmembers) Sabrina breaks down understanding the problem of and necessity for a women’s space travel suit.
She also expands on the interdisciplinary and real-world application-based nature of GIRL IN SPACE CLUB’s education programs aiming to encourage young women to envision themselves as astronauts, scientists, and space travelers of the future. We close the episode by discussing problem-first product development and how innovation in fashion has the potential to create advancements in safety suits designed for extreme conditions.
Check out GIRL IN SPACE CLUB Here:
https://girlinspaceclub.com/
Kickstarter for Women's Space Travel Suit:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/girlinspaceclub/bring-to-life-the-first-womens-space-travel-suit?ref=project_build
#makespaceforwomen
Ep. 33: The Female Web3 Ecosystem, Circular Fashion, & Journalism for Luxury Brands with Maria Popova, Co-Founder of Shiny, Everyday Goddesses, & WRDRB
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Maria Popova, CEO & Founder of Shiny, a metaverse ecosystem that helps other businesses and individuals navigate web3 and Everyday Goddesses, a 2,222 generative collection aimed at growing female influence in the NFT space.
We also discuss Maria’s early career background in journalism, media, and high-end fashion as the former head of production at Savior Flair, and her experience successfully leading partnerships with luxury brands.
While women only make up ~15% of crypto users and 16% of NFT sales, Maria illuminates solutions for widening the increasing female participation in the Web 3 space along with high-impact uses for blockchain through credentialing in the legal space. We close the episode by discussing her newly launched Dubai based-start up, WRDRB, which supports sustainable consumerism in the fashion industry.
Check out Everyday Goddesses here:
https://www.everydaygoddesses.io/about-everyday-goddesses
Check out WRDRB here: https://wrdrb.ae/
Ep. 32: Democratizing Prosthetics for Amputees in Vietnam with Ella Trinh, Co-Founder of Vulcan Augmetics
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Ella Trinh, Co-founder & COO of Vulcan Augmetics, a startup that develops affordable, high-functioning prosthetics to reach unserved amputees in Vietnam. We discuss transferable skills Ella adopted from her first venture in fashion e-commerce and the attitudes that led her to successfully adapt to the healthtech and robotics industries when founding Vulcan. Ella also breaks down the market gap for low-cost prosthetics in developing nations and why there continues to be an annual 3-4% increase of amputees in Vietnam. We end the episode by discussing the future of prosthetics and how it ties to human evolution!
Vulcan Augmetics: https://en.wearevulcan.com/
Ep. 31: What Reproductive Longevity Will Unlock For Human Aging with Dr. Jennifer Garrison, Co-Founder & Director of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality
Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Dr. Jennifer Garrison, Assistant Professor at UCSF and the Buck Institute of Research on Aging, as well as the Director of the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity & Equality, to discuss how reproductive longevity will actually help our species live longer. We break down this emerging field and its impact on aging, gender equality, productivity, and the global economy. We also discuss the microenvironment of the ovaries, key hormonal feedback loops between the brain and reproductive organs, IVF and egg freezing as bandaid solutions for reproductive longevity, and how Dr. Garrison's moonshot visions at the Buck Institute will enable both better professional outcomes and a higher quality of life for women.
Dr. Garrison's Lab at the Buck Institute: http://garrisonlab.com/
Global Consortium For Reproductive Longevity & Equality: https://gcrle.org/
Ep. 30: The Future of Fusion Energy With Helion Energy Nuclear Materials Scientist Claire Saunders
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Claire Saunders, a nuclear materials scientist at Helion Energy and Materials Science Ph.D. graduate from CalTech. We cover the significance of harnessing fusion energy for a clean energy future and how Helion is working to progress this mission in the fusion energy space. In this episode, we also discuss materials science applications in fusion energy, Ph.D research in comparison to work in industry, and Claire’s thought process behind pursuing various opportunities in her own journey.
Learn More:
Ep. 29: Investing in Incarcerated Communities through STEM Education with Alex Schieber
In this episode, Sualeha sits down solo with Alex Schieber, UCSD Ph.D. Candidate for Biological Studies and West Coast Leader at Nucleate, an organization that aims to catalyze the formation of life science ventures by helping scientists translate their work into real-world applications.
In this conversation, we discuss how Alex's own educational journey led her to develop interdisciplinary educational programs at intersections with art in order to make science more interactive, engaging, and accessible to the general public. We also delve into her experience working with a local jail to develop a STEM education program for incarcerated populations ready for re-entry into society. We wrap up the episode by touching on Alex's experience with the San Diego biotech ecosystem and on where the future of bioeducation is headed!
Ep. 28: Unlocking The Underutilized Political Power of Young Women with Sara Guillermo, CEO of IGNITE
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Sara Guillermo, CEO of IGNITE, the nation’s largest young women’s political leadership organization that works to address the lack of women in elected office by building a pipeline of next-generation leaders who are poised to flex their political power. In our conversation, we break down the root causes of why women are underrepresented in elected positions, and how IGNITE is working to both eliminate these barriers and support the same communities that they work with. In this episode, we discuss how valuable lived experience is for decision-making in policy development and strategies to increase political engagement for first-timers in the realm of politics.
Ep. 27: “Periods should end a sentence, not a girl’s education” with Oscar-Award Winning Producer Melissa Berton
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Melissa Berton, executive director of The Pad Project and 2019 Oscar Award Winner for Best Documentary Short as the producer of ”Period. End of Sentence”. In our conversation, we discuss how Melissa’s experience as a high school English teacher and collaboration with her students to establish The Pad Project, a global non-profit tackling menstrual equity, influenced the film’s focus on how menstruation can limit women's education and prosperity in India. In this episode, we discuss how solving menstrual equity can not only eliminate cultural stigmas and increase access to necessary period products but how it can also empower women to thrive economically and gain autonomy in their societies!
"Period. End of Sentence" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrm2pD0qofM&t=1107s
Ep. 26: Designing the Future of Everything with Nonfiction Industrial Designer Phnam Bagley
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Phnam Bagley, an industrial designer, futurist, and co-founder at Nonfiction, an industrial design firm that turns science fiction into reality for a better future. Previously, her work has spanned creating cutting-edge hardware and experiences in Wearables, Healthcare and Wellness, Education, Robotics, Transportation, and Aerospace. In this conversation, we discuss design's relationship with human behavior, the value of material properties in the process of industrial design, and regenerative design for sustainability. We close the episode by touching on emotionally evocative product storytelling and philosophies that enable living a non-linear life filled with rich experiences.
Check out Nonfiction's Future Future YouTube Series here to learn more:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAp-cTcii43RXSX3K7ZSehB3rduFkzEZ
Nonfiction's Website:
Ep. 25: Developing A Female-First Social And Learning Platform With Julian Guthrie, CEO of Alphy
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Julian Guthrie, NYT Best-Selling Author of Alpha Girls and CEO of Alphy, a new tech platform to advance women. In our conversation, Julian shares how her career as a journalist and author enabled her to share empathetic and diverse storytelling, and showed her the need to redesign social media platforms to better serve and support women. In this episode, we break down the intention behind Alphy’s empowering features alongside the innovative language classification model and core values that drive Alphy’s overarching mission.
Learn More:
Ep. 24: Growth Oriented Decision Making at NASA and Forward-Thinking Mindset With Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, a seasoned aerospace engineer whose 25-year career at NASA has spanned a variety of projects from systems engineering for the Orion Crew modules to leading public-private partnerships for NASA’s lunar commercialization efforts. In our conversation, Dr. Camille highlights how her desire for constant growth drove how she chose to navigate her career and the valuable role that relationships played throughout her journey. In this episode, we discuss an academic perspective on educational leadership, how STEM drives development and innovation in rising economies, and the importance of nurturing human potential.
Ep. 23: Building a Data Driven Analytics Platform for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion with Jessica Menon, CEO of Equillo
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Jessica Menon, CEO of Equilo, a groundbreaking platform that harnesses big data and analytics to provide decision-makers with highly effective gender equality and social inclusion analysis tools. Jessica breaks down the power of understanding people's personal incentives when it comes to changing their knowledge and beliefs, along with the importance of conducting gender equality and social inclusion analysis in the earliest stages of policymaking. We close the episode with insights on how data and informed decision-making can challenge simplified narratives around gender inequity and on establishing action-oriented values as a company.
Learn More:
Ep. 22: Exploring The Value Of Intentional Design in Educational Change with Becky Lee, Director at IDEO
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Becky Lee, a Director at IDEO and part of the Design for Learning team, where she designs joyful and inclusive projects focused on equitable access to enhance the education space. She has worked with schools, NGOs, and companies alike to craft programs and opportunities to improve access to quality education, and has taught globally in communities spanning from Brazil to Thailand. In this episode, we discuss how Becky is able to design each project she works on intentionally while understanding the needs, beliefs, and values that limit access to education and how she's able to adapt projects that fit the organization and successfully serve its end users.
Learn More:
Ep. 21: Challenging Societal Norms through Songwriting with Avanti Nagral
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha chat with Avanti Nagral, a singer-songwriter, and the first dual degree student at Harvard University and Berklee College of Music. Avanti’s coming-of-age empowerment pop draws inspiration from her background in Indian Classical, Broadway, and Gospel music and intersects with her passion for social impact which has amassed her a community of over 500k+. In this episode, we discuss Avanti's creative process in writing songs that change the narrative of societal norms, her perspective on the intersection of culture and music, and how her content takes a community-first approach while creating dialogue and opportunities for her audience.
Ep. 20: Building The Future of Education with Social Entrepreneur and Futurist Raya Bidshahri
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Raya Bidshahri, founder and CEO of School of Humanity, an innovative online high school that trains learners how to solve real-world problems through its skill-based curriculum. Previously, she has been a founding member of numerous organizations such as Awecademy, SciFestDubai, and Intelligent Optimism and has been featured on the BBC’s list of Top 100 Most Influential and Inspiring Women for being a global thought leader in education. In this episode, we discuss Raya’s journey as an EdTech entrepreneur from her college years in Boston, to her eventual return to Dubai, and on designing a human development-centric education model to prepare the rising generation for the rapidly evolving future.
Ep. 19: Developing Gender Inclusive Technologies, Bias in AI Language Models, and Digital Inclusion with Genevieve Smith
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Genevieve Smith, Associate Director of the Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. With a background in International Development, Genevieve shares her experience in addressing women's needs throughout the entire design and engineering processes of technologies and approaches to effectively make progress to close the digital divide. In this episode, we also discussed factors that contribute to bias in AI systems, how business leaders can take actionable steps to mitigate gender inequity, and a breakdown of gender lens investing.
Ep. 18: Innovative Communities And The Power Of Incubators With Valerie Fox
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Valerie Fox, the past co-founder and Executive Director of the DMZ at Ryerson University, ranked the #1 university business incubator in North America and #3 in the World. Currently, she is the Chief Innovation Consultant of The Pivotal Point, working with large organizations, corporations, and universities to bring communities of diverse skills and ambitions together to collaborate, create and transition to a world of transparency and shared resources. In this episode, we discussed Valerie’s start at IBM, her views on the power of incubators, and her experiences as the Creative Director for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Ep. 17: Creative Problem Solving For Healthcare Equity With Pooja Chandrashekar
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Pooja Chandreshaker, an MD/MBA student at Harvard's Medical and Business Schools, who is recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 in the healthcare sector for using data analytics to improve the quality of care. Pooja is working in the intersection of engineering and medicine to understand the complex social needs and intersectional health issues that marginalized groups face to develop competent solutions in these fields. Pooja is also the Founder and CEO of ProjectCSGIRLS, an international nonprofit dedicated to teaching middle school girls how to use technology for social good, which has reached over 15,000 girls in 12 countries and has exposed young girls to the necessary skills and resources in order to foster creative problem-solving. Give this episode a listen to hear more about Pooja's process for breaking down problems, her biggest learnings in working with marginalized groups, and her views on healthcare equity.
Ep. 16: Conveying Stories through Music Production, Trends, and Culture with Sara Shankar
In this episode of the Boss Ladies Podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Sara Shankar, a music producer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and all-around industry creative studying at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music and Stern School of Business. Throughout the conversation, Sara talks about her personal values as a songwriter and a producer, her creative process for writing song lyrics and working with large record labels, and her desire to infuse her work with culture and meaning.
Ep. 15: Designing Need Based Products And Creating Space For Women Of Color With Sowmya Pelluru
In this episode of the Boss Ladies podcast, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Sowmya Pelluru. Sowmya is the CEO of manakii, a socially conscious, sustainable women’s underwear company serving the need for underwear as a product in women's shelters. In this episode, Sowmya covers the process of designing need-based products that are both functional and comfortable for consumers. In explaining how women's underwear is a necessity and a right rather than a luxury, she shows how brands can embody and integrate inclusivity. Give this episode a listen to hear more of Sowmya's transparency and challenges in her journey as a female founder of color, and how passing on knowledge and experiences to others can create more space for marginalized individuals in entrepreneurship.
Ep. 14: Cultivating Innovative Environments & Designing For Accessibility With Anna Baird
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha chat with Anna Baird, Head of Culture & Innovation in the Customer Success team at Google, and kick-off by breaking down the foundations of Google's innovative culture. We touch on how accessibility and inclusion can be integrated into every level of a workplace from the hiring process to designing and deploying tools like Google's Search Engine. Throughout the conversation, we discuss what it looks like to celebrate failure and transition into a post-pandemic society that offers more room to display the imperfections that make us human.
Ep. 13: Fostering Courage And Empowering Intersectional Communities With Judith Martinez
In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha are back with Judith Martinez, the CEO of InHerShoes, a nonprofit creating a community of women and girls to foster courage. In this episode with Judith, we sat down to talk about her wide range of life experiences and takeaways from working with global leaders such as former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, social impact organizations such as Ashoka, media agencies for good such as GOOD Worldwide, to brands and celebrities such as Rare Beauty and Selena Gomez.
Ep. 12: Shaping The Future Of Female Entrepreneurship And Scaling Ideas With Ravina Anand
Welcome back to the Boss Ladies Podcast! In this episode, we are back with Ravina Anand, the co-founder of FLIK, a startup focused on providing a platform for connection, mentorship, and support for driven women at all stages of their careers and companies. In this episode with Ravina, we sat down to talk about her journey in female entrepreneurship, founding a company, and her views on effective mentorship.