Stanford Social Innovation Review Podcast

How do we transform our existing system into one that fosters sustainable economic growth? Entrepreneurship concentrating on scientific collaborations and innovations is the ticket, says Paul Kedrosky of the Kauffman Foundation in this university podcast. He argues that highly trained engineers, physicists and other professionals who have been sucked up by Wall Street need to return to their own domains and work more entrepreneurially. The way to more innovation and connectivity, he argues, is to let more ideas “collide” to create more impact. Kedrosky spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/entrepreneurship_in_service_to_economic_growth

Mobile and home-based technologies could help stretch limited funds and create sustainable healthcare for all. That’s the assertion of Eric Dishman, director of health innovation at Intel, in this university podcast. Estimating that there is a $500 billion opportunity for health IT in developing markets, particularly via non-governmental organizations, he argues that using technology strategically could help developing countries avoid the inefficient, high-cost, error-prone infrastructure of the United States. Dishman spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/mobile_technology_for_healthcare

Twenty years have passed since the 1992 Earth Summit, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development that made sustainable development a priority for the UN. In this university podcast, Michael Jones, Google’s chief technology advocate, discusses how connection technologies are now being used to support sustainable development. “Information is not a mirror to reflect the world but a hammer with which to shape it,” he says, urging his audience to think big. Jones spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/info_technology_and_sustainable_development

How can we strike a balance between environmental sustainability and economic realities? In this university podcast, aquatic filmmaker and oceanographic explorer Fabien Cousteau discusses the problem of the failing health of our planet as it relates to climate change, over-consumption of natural resources, and pollution. He offers glimpses of a public policy platform grounded by his strong belief that environmental discipline can be the basis for innovative solutions that strike a balance between regional and global environmental problems and the realities of market economies. Cousteau spoke at the USRio+2.0 Conference, hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/environmental_sustainability_economic_realities

How can we use technology to support sustainable development? In this university podcast, media expert Tim O’Reilly discusses notions of collective intelligence, man-machine symbiosis, and real-time feedback loops from sensors to provide a context for understanding the role of tools like FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, Crowdflower, Samasource in powering the future. He considers Google’s autonomous vehicle and unpacks the technology behind it to provide deeper insight into where technology is taking us. O’Reilly delivered his remarks at the USRio+2.0 Conference hosted at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/technology_and_environmental_sustainability

Twenty years after the first Rio Earth Summit, the world’s most vexing sustainability problems around health, environment, agriculture and economic growth haven’t changed. But technologies have –– and they could provide critical and innovative solutions. In this university podcast, Maura O’Neill, chief innovation officer at USAID, addresses international ministers from developing countries, technology experts, and NGO professionals convened by the U.S. State Department and the Stanford Graduate School of Business to discuss how connection technologies can support sustainable development, and what USAID is doing to support those initiatives. O’Neill delivered her remarks at the USRio+2.0 Conference hosted by Stanford.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/technology_and_international_development

After being awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, Carl Wieman was struck by the effectiveness of a number of physics simulations that he used to explain his concepts to students and faculty. Combining over half of his Nobel Prize winnings with other funding sources, he founded Physics Education Technology (PhET) at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2003. The site now has 115 active simulations in 65 different languages, totaling over 25 million downloads in 2011 alone. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman speaks with Katherine Perkins, Director of PhET since 2008. They discuss what differentiates PhET from other physics simulations, and the range of students that have benefited from the program. As The Tech Awards 2011 Laureate and recipient of the Microsoft Education Award, PhET has continued to grow and adapt their simulations for a growing audience in recent years.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/teaching_with_interactive_simulations

There is immense potential in providing better quality of care and health access in low-resource settings through technological and social innovations. Michele Barry, Director of Global Health Programs in Medicine at Stanford leads a distinguished group of global health professionals who have created innovative programs to benefit their respective countries’ health services. Their work in the clinical and community level have given much headway to the eradication of infectious disease, the reduction of maternal mortality and the overall strengthening of health systems. Access to health care is the focus of this panel discussion, from the 2011 Global Health Series organized by the Stanford Global Health Center in partnership with the Stanford Graduate School of Business. By fostering and promoting innovation, and applying these solutions more broadly, we can find ways of bridging the health access gap. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/health_innovation_challenges_in_india_and_africa_panel_discussion

Healthcare enterprises are increasingly pressed to do more with less. In this university podcast, Jay Deady, CEO of Awarepoint Corporation, talks about how his company provides workflow automation and tracking solutions to the acute care hospital marketplace. Discussing the role of Real-time Location System (RTLS) solutions, he shows how the technology addresses needs throughout the hospital enterprise, rather than forcing hospitals to manage a multitude of vendor solutions. Deady spoke at the 2011 GSB Healthcare Summit, sponsored by the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His presentation was part of a panel called “Using technology to redesign the delivery of health care” held at the 2011 GSB Healthcare Summit, sponsored by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/technology_in_healthcare_delivery_redesign_2

Colleges and universities need an easy and flexible student administrative system so that may more effectively manage and use student data to enhance the educational experience. TopSchool fits the bill by offering a student lifecycle system that supports the business of higher education through the entire process of admissions, enrollment, academics, job placement, and alumni status. In this Stanford University podcast, president Matthew Schnittman discusses the organization’s model for service delivery, and where it’s headed. His talk was part of the Global Education Conference, held in partnership with Goldman Sachs and the Stanford School of Education.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/enhancing_educational_data_systems

How do you create a business opportunity and create value in the educational arena in China? In this Stanford university podcast, Justin Cahill talks about how his enterprise built a company called RISE, which now boasts 30,000 children learning English in more than 100 learning centers in one of the fastest-growing markets in world. Cahill talks about RISE’s curriculum, learning model, and financial metrics, and more broadly about doing business in China and investing in education in growing markets through partnership with local entrepreneurs. His talk was part of the Global Education Conference, held in partnership with Goldman Sachs and the Stanford School of Education.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/investing_in_education_in_china

The driving motivation for Peje Emilsson, current chair of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, is difference: catering to different students with different learning styles in different ways. That is the goal of Kunskapsskolan, a group of several dozen new schools developed in Sweden with the intention of providing an increasingly personalized and hands-on classroom experience to its students. After great success with its first 10,000 students in Sweden, Kunskapsskolan has expanded to 3,000 students in the UK, and is in the process of opening a school in Manhattan. How will the program preserve its brand as it expands and scales for different countries? Will cultural differences help or harm Kunskapsskolan’s progress abroad? A panel of experienced education investors presents questions like these and more, in a conference segment called “Case Studies in Real World Innovation.”https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/gs_su_global_education_conference_kunskapsskolan_case_study

Old standard “get-out-the-vote” phone call scripts made by volunteers simply asked people to participate in the election and reminded callers that voting was important. In this university podcast, Harvard professor Todd Rogers shares how political parties and other organizations are finding that subtle changes in language—even from a verb to a noun—can make a substantial difference in how many people cast ballots. He details approaches that work best, and significant results from recent elections. Rogers spoke at The Science of Getting People to Do Good, Prosocial Briefing held at Stanford.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/promoting_civic_engagement_and_voting

In the United States, 60 million adults are obese and 9 million children and teens ages 6 to 19 are overweight. Being too heavy increases the risk of health conditions and diseases. In this university podcast, Harvard business professor Leslie John reports on studies providing financial and social incentives to get people to lose weight. Using lotteries and monetary deposits as collateral, researchers got people to lose an average of 14 pounds over several months. Leslie John spoke at The Science of Getting People to Do Good, a Prosocial Briefing held at Stanford.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/promoting_health_through_weight_loss

Most observers agree that human consumption is on a crash course with the environment. Although recycling programs have been implemented in many cities around the world, people do not participate as often as they could. In this university podcast, Canadian scholar Kate White shares research examining the effectiveness of messages that highlight the negative consequences of not recycling (loss frames) versus those that emphasize the positive consequences of recycling (gain frames) in influencing people’s behavior. The report finds that the effectiveness of one type of messaging over another depends on whether interventions activate concrete thinking, which focuses on behaviors (such as how one might go about recycling), or abstract thinking (such as why one might go about recycling). White spoke at The Science of Getting People to Do Good briefing held at Stanford University.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_science_of_getting_people_to_do_good_briefing