Good Change: Conversations About Making a World of Difference

This short and sweet episode shares how you can get a free “Good Change” hat; that change is a skill that is not hard to acquire nor hard to put into action; presents a story of local goodness; gives a glimpse of a future episode; and why listening to the good change podcast is good for you and your community!

If anyone is qualified to speak as an advocate for the elimination of gun violence and the reduction of weapons of wars on our community streets, it is Dr. Kyleanne Hunter, PhD. As a hunter, former Marine, and now Air Force Academy professor, Kyleanne speaks about and encourages gun control from all sides of this issue. She was the first woman pilot of the Super Cobra attack helicopter, served multiple deployments in war zones, and was awarded seven Airstrike-Medals as this warship captain. She is all too familiar with the military version of the AR15, having experienced firefights in various battle zones. She is keenly aware of the politics and economics of gun manufacturers, having finished her active-duty time as the Marine Corps’ Legislative Liaison Office of the House of Representatives. Her perspectives are powerful and based in fully qualifying experiences that very few of us have. In this episode, learn about the preamble to the U.S. Constitution as the guiding section of the Bill of Rights; how the Second Amendment was designed to protect the citizenry and not individual; the absolute need to live from the code that our rights can’t exceed our responsibilities; the consequences on our children from environments rife with PTSD producing influences; that the NRA has morphed from its original intent into a marketing arm of weapons manufacturers; how most gun owners want to drastically reduce gun violence; and what you can do on a local and individual level to effect change on our streets.

In 1975, William “Bill” McGinnis wrote the New York Times Bestseller, “Whitewater Rafting,” which has become the bible of boating wild rivers. After that, Bill created Whitewater Voyages, one of the most successful rafting companies on earth. It was founded on a guiding style that focused on connection to oneself, others, and the world around us. Then Bill retired from outfitting and became an acclaimed thriller novelist. Today, among other things, the proteges and alumni of Whitewater Voyages lead large multinational corporations, are highly regarded elected officials, direct critical global non-profit organizations, and run entire school districts. This Good Change episode chronicles a life well lived and illustrates the ability of one person to manifest a community of changemakers. This is Bill’s legacy. In this episode, learn about the importance of connectedness and staying in the moment; why opening your eyes to beauty produces magic; how leadership is best when it is welcoming, compassionate, and fosters relationships founded in caring about yourself, others, and the world around you; that positive brings out the positive; how adventure thriller novels can reflect and create a world of positive possibility; and why each individual’s gift to the universe is needed to bring about good change.

Melissa Deally is a highly regard integrative health practitioner who has deeply explored the positive and harmful elements of western modern medicine. Her research and practice have allowed her to find information and formulate approaches to better individual and, by extension, better community health. In this episode she shares the pitfalls of a health industry driven by profit, the consequences of pharmaceuticals that are not sold primarily for healing but for corporate financial return, and that now is the time to take charge of our own healing through holistic approaches, including improving nutrition, reducing stress, being judicious with western medicine, and incorporating wellbeing approaches that have been successfully used for centuries. With this episode, learn how each one of us has a choice and the power to take ownership of our own health; we have a health care system that does not care about our food, a food system that doesn’t care about our health, and big pharma that prioritizes shareholder profits over human health; that marketing should not have a place in medicine; that freshly graduated mainstream doctors have taken only one class in nutrition; and how modern technology allows each one of us to take diagnostic tests at home for integrative practitioners to study and then offer their “prescription” for patients; that your gut has nine times more influence on your brain than your brain has on your gut; and that, when all is said and done sleep, relaxation, stress reduction, exercise, and healthy food are cornerstones to healthy individuals and communities.

Immediately after becoming aware of an immediate-need effort to help with the Covid crisis in India, we put this episode together. Sudara, a social enterprise clothing company focused on ending sex trafficking and the impoverishment of women in India, has just started a fundraiser to help single mothers in rural India deal with the ravages of Covid, be it by providing food or funds for vaccinations. Check out this short and powerful podcast featuring Shannon Keith, the founder and CEO of Sudara, an organization that has been saving lives and building dreams for women in India since 2005. Today, with your donation of $14 you can feed a family of four for a week in India. With that in mind, think of what $100 can do! Additionally, by buying Sudara’s pajamas and loungewear that is made by women who are escaping the sex trade in India, you are supporting a company that for years has been taking women out of prostitution and despair and giving them work as garment manufacturers, and otherwise. Today, hundreds of women and their children are empowered to live meaningful and safe lives as the result of Sudara’s efforts. Now, Sudara has created this Covid-19 fundraiser to save more lives. Please listen or watch and give what you can at www.Sudara.org In this episode, learn of the staggering devastation in India and the particular risk from Covid among impoverished single mothers; find out what you can do right now to make a world of difference in someone’s life; how Sudara is perfectly suited as the organization to immediately put your donation to work; why buying pajamas or loungewear from Sudara helps transform communities by removing women from the sex trade in India; and how you can do more by sharing this podcast and rallying friends, families, co-workers, and others to donate and support Sudara’s mission and business.

More people have walked on the moon than run the Amazon—the world’s largest river—from the source to the sea. And Darcy Gaechter is the only woman to have done so in a kayak. The journey required Darcy and her two expedition-mates to paddle for five months over 4,000 river miles across the wildest portions of South America. This voyage included starting at an elevation of 15,000 feet where the river was a trickle and ending at sea level on the Atlantic coast where the waterway’s mouth is over 30 miles wide, paddling through sections known for foreigners being killed by drug cartel members, dealing with some of the most difficult whitewater on earth, and paddling for days on end into the searing sun that disintegrated their fingernails. Now a best-selling author of the acclaimed book Amazon Woman, Darcy shares stories of courage and kindness as she leaves us with inspiration to pursue and realize our own dreams. In this episode, Darcy invites us to find the common humanity in those we encounter, even those we may not always agree with; to not turn down the volume on your passions, no matter what; to seek out and find energy from those people who support your dreams; to work hard at what you love in order to realize the benefits that this pursuit will bring; to use your voice in order to inspire others to live passionately and purposefully, and to recognize the importance of connection to the wilderness and those we share the planet with as an ultimate life reward.

Through her remarkable ascent to the top of the international finance industry, Mizinga Melu became the first Zambian and woman to become a CEO of major African bank. From her childhood life at a small family ranch, to devastating rejections of her first career choice, to bumping into and working through racism and sexism, Mizinga embodies the definition of persistence and resilience. With her experience and achievements, Mizinga then formed When Females Lead, an organization that empowers African women to realize their dreams. In this episode, discover how one person can lead change in a community, company, or country; how faith plays a key role in growth; what it is like to be the only woman in a boardroom; the positive impact in communities when females lead; that success is not about you; why it is critical to do justice to one’s ability to transform lives; and that each one of us can follow our hearts, rise up again and again, and be someone who helps prepare the next generation of leaders to make the world a better place.

Join Michelle Mitchell, co-founder of Humm Kombucha--the healthy, life-affirming beverage that has gone from home kitchen to top international drink in just over a decade--as she dives into what fosters greater good. It’s far from just the drink that we talk about. Michelle shares the recipe for how she and her business partner created a workplace of satisfied people who take their uplifted energy back home and out into their communities. She offers many easy-to-implement steps for each of us to take to transcend the distracting and harmful noises of the day in order to build more connected and giving environments. On this episode, discover that saying yes or no from the gut is key to building a robust and holistically healthy business and life; why hitting or throwing rapid-fire tennis balls might be the best choice for creating partnerships; how a few simple practices that take only a couple of minutes each day can positively change the trajectory of your life; the importance of spending good time with people as a foundation to realizing more soulful freedom; and why heart-driven businesses are a key to manifesting kinder cultures. About the Guest: Michelle Mitchell’s passion for kombucha started over a decade ago in her kitchen where she tweaked kombucha recipes in order to make the drink tasty and even healthier than other existing options. This ultimately led to her co-founding Humm Kombucha. Today, Michelle is the primary keeper and driver of Humm’s amazing culture and brand ethos within their staff-centric organization. She also oversees the brewing methods to ensure that the taste profile of Humm’s kombucha is both excellent and consistent. Just a few short years after Michelle’s initial kitchen creation, Humm is now available in 50 states as well as Sweden and Guam, with further expansion ahead. It is one of the top selling non-soda beverages in the country, available in locations ranging from Target to the Seattle Seahawks stadium (it is the official drink of the Seahawks). The few square feet of kitchen area turned into five thousand square feet of production space and then to over 40,000 square feet in operation, with the number of employees (“Humm-sters”) is now close to 100. Michelle believes her mission is to bring love and light to the world. She is instrumental in creating an air of positive energy and forging a culture of joy and freedom at Humm. She is fluent in Spanish and studied Arabic extensively while spending time in the Middle East. Michelle has competed in three Ironman triathlons and spent three years traveling around the world before settling in Bend, Oregon. She is a graduate of Central College where she studied Music and Spanish and Biology. https://hummkombucha.com/ https://www.instagram.com/hummkombucha/ https://www.facebook.com/hummkombucha

For over sixty days, covering more than 800 miles on skis while pulling a 350-pound sled, forty-something Norwegian Astrid Furholt carried the loving advice of one man and the hopes and dreams of an entire nation as she fought the elements to reach the South Pole. This story is a testimonial to the strength of mind, soul, character, and prayer, one that will deeply touch your heart. As the first woman to reach the South Pole while following most of the arduous route taken by fellow countryman Roald Amundsen 100 years earlier, Astrid stirs in all of us the need to dream and to act on these dreams to fully live life, and to make the world a much, much better place. As she has. With Astrid’s conversation, you will find out how one person can quietly but completely and positively transform the life of another; what perseverance means when it comes to success; that it this the doing of the thing that matters most; what is physically possible when the mind is the motor; to pray big in order to do big; and that a country lifting one person up can be reciprocated when that person returns the favor by inspiring a country full of supporters to live their own dreams.

New York Times best-selling author, Stanford lecturer, and behavioral designer Nir Eyal shares actionable ways to create a far more productive and value-oriented life. In his book, “Indistractable,” Nir offers the four pillars to realizing a more satisfying and beneficial life. We discuss this platform and the myriad of possibilities that arise when you are more energized and focused. If you are longing to create more purposeful and rewarding moments, days, weeks and years, for you and those around you, this podcast and Nir’s books can show you how. Join us to find out how to uncover or discover your values that will propel you upward and forward; honor those values by creating forethoughts and habits that serve you in the pursuit of a more meaningful life; understand that it is not addiction to technology or food or whatever that is making life more challenging, but rather choices that you are making about these things; that not giving people the benefit of the doubt may be America’s biggest challenge; and that you have no shortage of willpower unless you believe that you do.

The co-founder of the award-winning Hell’s Backbone Grill and Farm, a staunch equal rights and environmental activist, and practicing Buddhist. Blake Spalding has tirelessly worked in a conservative, largely Mormon community to create a restaurant of love and health on the edge of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. On this episode, learn about Blake and co-founder Jen Castle building cross-cultural bridges in a town with vast philosophical and political differences; what the Buddha might say to Republican and Democratic leaders over a gourmet meal; that a warm hearth and fierce determination are not mutually exclusive; how environmental protection gains were undone but quickly restored in the effort to save Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument; coming to one another with the intention of building something beautiful as a key to a common ground; and love being the ultimate renewable energy source.

“Those who tell the stories of a culture govern human behavior,” is a paraphrased quote of media expert George Gerbner. It is also the driving force behind the Good Change podcast. This show was created to inject real stories of good into the inaccurate narrative we are being fed by those who seek to profit on their misrepresentations of us. This introduction episode includes stories about how one person or one organization or a fledgling movement can create ripples that positively transform lives. We welcome you to the podcast, where we illustrate good change through our remarkable guests who may help you relax, find peace of mind, laugh, and discover things you can incorporate into your life to create greater good on common ground. With this episode, discover adventure, sadness, and serendipity in Siberia and Aspen; why we launched the Good Change podcast; what future shows aim to share with you; how one person and one act can forever positively impact another’s life; and find peace of mind, take deep breaths, laugh, and take to heart ideas for you to help create greater good.

The founder of the transformative personal development program “Healing is Possible” and internationally recognized holistic wellness expert, Rebeccah Silence shares with us philosophies, principles, practices to create your life as you positively imagine it. From examining your capacity to change, grow and live large to recognizing the weaknesses and self-beliefs that are keeping you held back from your own greatness, which can bring about individual and community change, Rebbecah shares her experiences and coaching strategies for you to heal and then offer more to the world. She challenges us in a loving but no BS way to bring it, to bring our limitations and fears to the light, in order to heal.

The co-founder and director of Redmond Proficiency Academy (RPA), Dr. Jon Bullock is a renowned education visionary and teaching practices innovator who has long espoused the benefits of personalized and compassionate learning environments. His state-of-the-art administration of RPA (one of the largest brick and mortar public charter schools in America), team-first leadership style, and selfless empowering of staff and students alike sets him apart as one of the brightest and most accomplished educators of the 21st century.

During this podcast, Jib shares how he conceived and created Project RAFT, an organization built on the idea of citizen diplomacy whitewater rafting expeditions between the USSR and the US. This world-changing program took us away from nuclear annihilation by fostering meaningful and lasting relationships across country and culture lines.