Walk Talk Listen Podcast

Lakecia Benjamin was born and raised in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in New York City. In grade school, she studied recorder. She attended Eleanor Roosevelt Junior High School in New York City. She has been writing songs and lyrics since the age of 13. She began playing the saxophone in elementary school. Later while attending Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts she became interested in jazz. After high school she attended The New School in New York City. Her beginnings in music were Latin dance music. She played salsa and merengue. Saxophonist Gary Bartz was an early mentor who introduced her to training technical exercise techniques such as Hyacinthe Klosé’s 25 Daily Etudes. He introduced her to the music of jazz saxophonists Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Jackie McLean. While at the New School University, she studied under Billy Harper, Reggie Workman, Buster Williams, Joe Chambers, Gary Bartz .
 
Voted by 2020 Downbeat Critics Poll Rising star Alto Saxophonist and Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association ,Charismatic and dynamic saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin fuses traditional conceptions of Jazz, HipHop, and Soul. Benjamin’s electric presence and fiery sax work has shared stages with several legendary artists, including Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, The Roots, and Macy Gray. As the bandleader of Lakecia Benjamin and Soul Squad, she melds the vintage sounds of James Brown, Maceo Parker, Sly and the Family Stone, and the Meters with soaring, dance-floor worthy rhythms. Benjamin’s grooves take the classic vibe to a whole new level with sultry alto saxophone creating something special on every cut – be it a smoldering late-night ambiance, or a forceful jazz intensity, or even the tight funk multi-horn harmony sections.
 
Currently Lakecia Benjamin’s latest album “Pursuance” is an intergenerational masterpiece that takes one on a journey through the lineage of the music with the works of John and Alice Coltrane. Benjamin pays homage to those who have come before by featuring innovative bandleaders of her generation, such as, Reggie Workman (Coproducer and playing ), Ron carter , Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridegwater, Meshell Ndegecello, Regina carter, Bertha Hope, Last poets, Greg Osby, Steve Wilson, John Benitez, Marc Cary, Marcus Gilmore, Keyon Harrold, Marcus Strickland, Brandee Younger, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Jazzmeia Horn.
 
You can follow Lakecia via facebook, twitter and instagram.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

Shawn K. Baker serves as the Chief Nutritionist for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In this position, he chairs the Agency’s Nutrition Leadership Council, oversees the vision and strategy of the Agency’s Center for Nutrition in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, and coordinates related efforts across USAID. He also guides USAID’s investments and engagement with partners to address malnutrition in developing countries. Prior to joining USAID, Shawn was the first director of nutrition at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has over 30 years’ experience in global public health nutrition, including 25 years living in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
 
Shawn worked for Helen Keller International for 19 years, including 16 years as Vice President and Regional Director for Africa. He also served as country director for Helen Keller International in Niger and Bangladesh. I know Shawn from Bangladesh where we closely worked on the Nutritional Surveillance Project in the mentioned country.
 
Shawn spent nine years with Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine working with the Niger Health Information System, Center for International Health and Development, Famine Early Warning System in Southern Africa and Niger, and Madagascar food and nutrition surveillance system. Mr. Baker started his career in international development as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Shawn has a master’s of public health from Tulane University, with concentrations in international health and nutritional epidemiology. He earned his bachelor’s of science degree in biology from the University of Miami.
Shawn has a LinkedIn Profile, the same for the USAID project called Feed the Future. and the twitter related handles of his organization USAID are: @FeedtheFuture, @USAID, @USAIDGH, @Agrilinks, @NutritionforDev. The facebook account of Feed the Future can found via this link.
 
Apologies for the quality of this week's episode as we had some challenges with the microphone and background noises, hopefully you will still enjoy this week's episode.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

Jessica Fanzo, PhD is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University in the USA. She also serves as the Director of Hopkins’ Global Food Policy and Ethics Program, and as Director of Food & Nutrition Security at the JHU Alliance for a Healthier World.  From 2017 to 2019, Jessica served as the Co-Chair of the Global Nutrition Report and the UN High Level Panel of Experts on Food Systems and Nutrition. Before coming to Hopkins, she has also held positions at Columbia University, the Earth Institute, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Food Programme, Bioversity International, and the Millennium Development Goal Centre at the World Agroforestry Center in Kenya. She was the first laureate of the Carasso Foundation’s Sustainable Diets Prize in 2012 for her research on sustainable food and diets for long-term human health.
 
Jessica has worked as an advisor for various organizations and governments including DFAT, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), PATH, the Scaling Up Nutrition movement (SUN), the UN Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN), USAID, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
 
With twenty years of research and program experience working in the field in sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia, and the United States, her area of expertise focuses on the impact of transitioning food systems on healthy, environmentally sustainable and equitable diets, and more broadly on the livelihoods of people living in resource-constrained places.
 
Jessica has a PhD in Nutrition from the University of Arizona and completed a Stephen I. Morse postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Columbia University. Jess and the Berman Institute are also on social media. Twitter: Berman institute and Jess Fanzo .Facebook: Berman institute . Her latest book: Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet, can be bought here.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

Morgan Berman is an internationally recognized and award-winning entrepreneur, and the Founder and CEO of MilkCrate. She is a community leader with a passion for impact serving on multiple nonprofits boards including Philly Startup Leaders, The Energy Coordinating Agency and the President of her Civic Association. She is also a gold medalist in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. She has been recognized by The United Nations Foundation, US Department of State, The United Way, and many others. Morgan has been featured extensively on national news outlets like the WHYY, the Philadelphia Business Journal, Boston Metro, Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC10, Forbes, Philadelphia Magazine's Be Well Blog, and others. Morgan is very passionate about helping underrepresented groups in tech like women and minorities and shares her experience as a woman entrepreneur and lessons learned from competing in both business and martial arts.
 
In the podcast she talks about an app she is launching for her own neighborhood, so residents can report litter and then anyone with the app can claim a ‘bounty’ for cleaning up that mess. They are going to be testing things in pilots for a few months and if you want to get involved, please check this website: https://www.getglitterapp.com/
 
You can find Milkcrate on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Morgan can be found on LinkedIn and twitter.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

A native of Philadelphia, Sylvester Mobley has earned the attention and recognition of his peers after launching and building Coded by Kids - a youth tech education non-profit that grew from serving one child in a Philly rec center to serving hundreds of students in the region. Sylvester focuses his work on preparing underrepresented people for leadership roles in the tech and innovation space.
 
Under Sylvester’s leadership, CBK has significantly increased the scope of its impact and launched citywide initiatives, like 1Philadelphia, to ensure all underrepresented Philadelphia residents have access to opportunities in tech and innovation. Within six years, the organization has grown from serving fewer than 15 students in one recreation center to teaching hundreds of students each week in locations across the region. Sylvester’s other major initiatives include launching the early-stage venture capital firm, startup incubator, and startup accelerator, Plain Sight Capital (PSC). Sylvester is also an Entrepreneur in Residence with Osage Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm.
 
Some of Sylvester’s awards and honors include: the 2018 Philadelphia Award, the University City Science Center Nucleus Cultivator Award, the Please Touch Museum Portia and Otto Sperr Legacy Award and the Philadelphia 76ers Game Changer Award. He is also a veteran of the war in Iraq, serving in three branches of the United States military (Marines, Air Force, and Army) over 12 years.
 
You can find Sylvester on twitter and instagram. His company Coded for Kids is on facebook, twitter and instagram.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

Sandhya Rani Jha (she/they), an ordained pastor with a masters in public policy, is an equity and anti-oppression consultant with years of experience in the field. Sandhya continues to work part-time at the Oakland Peace Center, a collective of 40 organizations working to create equity, access and dignity as the means of creating peace in Oakland and the Bay Area, which they founded in 2012.
 
She serves as an anti-racism/anti-oppression trainer with Reconciliation Ministries for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and also provides anti-oppression, cultural humility and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consulting and coaching. For many years they have been an instructor with the Emerging Leaders Program at the Leadership Institute at Allen Temple.
 
A passionate reader and writer, Sandhya is the author of Room at the Table, the history of people of color in the Disciples of Christ, and  Pre-Post-Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines on the subject of race and spirituality in America. Pre-Post-Racial America was listed as one of the top five books on race and religion in 2015 by Publishers Weekly. Sandhya’s book Transforming Communities: How People Like You are Healing Their Neighborhoods focuses on concrete ways that regular people are creating change community-by-community in an era where positive change can feel impossible. Sandhya’s 2020 book, Liberating Love, is a 365-day devotional of love notes from God, connecting us to the people who inhabit the 66 books of the Bible and connecting us to God and each other at a time it is so easy to feel isolated.
 
You can find Sandhya on twitter, instagram, youtube and facebook.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK LISTEN team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

Yasmine Mustafa is a social entrepreneur and the CEO & Co-Founder of ROAR for Good. Based in Philadelphia, ROAR is a woman-led and mission-driven technology company dedicated to cultivating safer workplaces. Their staff safety platform, The AlwaysOn™, is specifically designed for the hotel industry to summon help with one touch of a button. Fueled by a passion to leverage technology for good, she leads the ROAR team in their mission to create safer workplaces and empowered communities.
 
In the past, Yasmine launched a Philly non-profit providing affordable opportunities for women to learn software development. She serves on the board of Coded by Kids which provides free tech education underserved youth. She’s also on the of Leadership Philadelphia, PACT, and the Philadelphia Awards. Her role as a leader and advocate has been recognized by the BBC, CNBC’s Upstart 100, Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Business Journal, Technical.ly Philly, and the City of Philadelphia, among others. She is a 2x TEDx speaker with a roster of speaking credits that also include SXSW and CES. Prior to launching ROAR for Good, Yasmine founded and sold her first company to a prominent content marketing firm in Silicon Valley. 
 
You can find Yasmine on twitter. Her company is also on twitter, instagram and facebook.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.

Michael Vatikiotis has been a writer, broadcaster and journalist in Asia for more than 35 years. With family origins in the Middle East, he has lived in Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand as well as Hong Kong. He has written three books on Asian politics: “Indonesian Politics Under Suharto” and “Political Change in Southeast Asia.” Most recently (2017): “Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia”.  His published fiction includes two novels set in Indonesia, “The Spice Garden” (2006) and “The Painter of Lost Souls” (2012).  His latest book is “Lives Between the Lines: A Journey in Search of the Lost Levant” will be published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in August 2021.
 
Vatikiotis currently lives in Singapore working for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Geneva-based private foundation that facilitates dialogue to resolve armed conflicts, and is a regular broadcaster and contributor to the opinion page of several newspapers. Vatikiotis is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, earned his doctorate, which was on Thailand, from Oxford University, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland. He is a member of the Asia Society’s International Council and speaks the Thai and Indonesian languages fluently. Follow him on twitter, and instagram.
 
Don't forget to check our Spotify Playlist #WalkTalkListen consisting of songs chosen by our podcast guests.
Please let me/us know via our email incubationlab@cwsglobal.org what you think about this particular episode and the previous ones. We would love to hear from you.
 
Please like/follow our Walk Talk Listen podcast and follow @mauricebloem on twitter and instagram.  Or check us out on our website 100mile.org (and find out more about our app (android and iPhone) that enables you to walk and do good at the same time!
 
I just finished participating in the Ration Challenge which means I ate the same rations as a Syrian refugee living in a camp in Jordan, based on food packs distributed by the Ration Challenge's local partner organization. By raising money, we'll help bring emergency food, hygiene kits and life-saving support to the people that need it most. It would be great if you can support me or the WALK TALK Listen team by donating by going to the Walk Talk Listen Ration Challenge page or please share the link with your network.