Stanford Social Innovation Review Podcast

Inequalities between socially marginalized and non-marginalized groups have led to poorer school and health outcomes for African Americans, Latino Americans, and other non-Asian ethnic minorities. In this university podcast, Stanford assistant professor Greg Walton examines one psychological factor contributing to these inequalities: concern about social belonging — a sense of having positive relationships with others. He reports the significant academic and health-related consequences of a brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen’s sense of social belonging in school. Walton spoke at The Science of Getting People to Do Good briefing held at Stanford.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_science_of_getting_people_to_do_good

Food, water, and energy: connection technologies can and must unite these three sectors for the sake of our planet’s future. Twenty-five percent of global land is now degraded, but these territories could become productive once again with the proper resources. Over the last 30 years alone we have increased our ability to produce food by 50% while using less land and less labor. What other developments are in our future, and how can these systems address our energy needs? In this audio lecture, Dr. Ann Bartuska of the U.S. Department of Agriculture shares her insight on the necessary steps to sustainably feed the nine billion people that will be living on our planet by 2050. Dr. Bartuska spoke as part of a panel called “Framing the Challenges: How Can Connection Technologies Support Sustainable Development?” at the USRio+2.0 Conference at Stanford University.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/food_water_and_energy

It’s called branchless banking: the ability to provide small, abundant access points and mobile solutions for the rural population living outside the range of most banking institutions. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman speaks with one of branchless banking’s greatest proponents and the co-founder of Eko India Financial Services, Abhishek Sinha. Beginning in 2007, Abhishek and his brother Abhinav began conceptualizing ways in which small, local businesses could provide the brick-and-mortar storefronts for rural banking customers, while basic cell phones would meet all of the technological needs. Having now partnered with India’s two largest banks, Eko India provides customers with the ability to set up their own bank in less than 15 minutes. Creating simple methods to convert physical into electronic currency has streamlined rural remittance transactions, and is just one of many reasons that Abhishek and Abhinav Sinha have been named The Tech Awards 2011 laureates of the Flextronics Economic Development Awards.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/mobile_and_branchless_banking

There is widespread consensus among educators, policymakers, and academics that youth volunteerism “makes citizens”—that people who engage in some form of youth service or activism are powerfully affected by the experience and go on to live more engaged lives. The reality, argues Doug McAdam, professor of sociology at Stanford University, is much more complicated. He believes the great majority of volunteer experiences have little impact. In this audio lecture, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s Nonprofit Management Institute, McAdam reviews the results of two follow-up studies of youth activists—those who applied to the 1964 Freedom Summer project and all accepted applicants to Teach for America in years three through eight of that program—and assesses the experiences and their long-term effects on volunteers.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/the_civic_impact_of_youth_volunteerism

All over the world, reproductive health is suffering because of medical facilities with insufficient or unreliable power. Some mothers are turned away from as many as four or five facilities in a row because capacity is limited by issues like poor lighting and lack of blood storage. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman talks with Laura Stachel and Hal Aronson, co-founders of WE CARE Solar, about their effort to combat this issue worldwide. WE CARE stands for Women’s Emergency Communication and Reliable Electricity. Starting with an initial prototype built of home solar panels and scrap wood, the two have advanced their distinctive “suitcase design” to a standalone, plug-and-play solar system that is already seeing use in medical facilities in Haiti and Africa. As The Tech Awards 2011 laureates of the Nokia Health Award, Stachel and Aronson discuss the iterative process that brought them to their current design and the challenges of creating a modular device that can see use in profoundly different contexts. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/solar_power_in_a_suitcase

Bricks, cement, PVC piping and gravel: the list of materials necessary to build a gravity-powered water treatment plant is impressively short. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman talks to Daniel Smith, Project Coordinator for AguaClara, about strategies, innovations, and their recent recognition as the Tech Awards 2011 laureate of the Intel Environment Award. Starting in 2006, AguaClara partnered with Agua Para el Pueblo in Honduras to leverage gravity rather than costly and unreliable electricity to provide for the water treatment needs in small villages. The result was a community-scale innovation that can provide portable water at less that .01 cent/liter. With successful communication between neighboring communities, AguaClara has spread across Honduras, and hopes to cross into neighboring countries like Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador in the near future.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/sustainable_water_treatment

What happens when you leverage the power of internet volunteerism in much the same way as Wikipedia, but with the intention of translating and subtitling videos? This was the question that Dean Jansen wanted to answer when he co-founded Universal Subtitles (now Amara), a collaborative platform that allows for accessible and user-friendly subtitling of videos. Universal Subtitles replaces previously laborious tasks such as time-syncing with much easier tools, drawing inspiration from popular game interfaces. With over 40,000 videos already subtitled and key partnerships with PBS, Al Jazeera, and Khan Academy in place, there is no doubt that the model has a growing user base. In this audio interview, Sheela Sethuraman asks Dean Jansen about the organization’s first 18 months, winning the Tech Museum’s 2011 Catherine Swanson Equality Award, and the challenges of scalability and quality assurance moving forward.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/leveraging_online_collaboration

How can partnerships help the nonprofit sector navigate legislative hurdles, new leadership, and antiquated business models? In this audio lecture, recorded at the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s 2011 Nonprofit Management Institute, Tides CEO Melissa Bradley shares the opportunities she sees for increasing scale and impact through partnerships. Her lecture examines the current landscape of the social sector, and explores what the terms scale and impact should really mean. Citing a number of case studies, including collaborations between for-profits, nonprofits, foundations, and even unions, Bradley provides insight into what makes partnerships successful and offers up best practices for organizations looking to work together.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/partnering_for_scale_and_impact

Focusing on unmet needs, healthcare entrepreneurs provide their in-the-trenches perspectives on advancing medical technologies. Working to extend and enhance lives. Especially in global markets that demand high-impact growth products, innovators are challenged by securing funding through traditional ventures or alternative sources and developing cost-effective products in a changing landscape.  From the 2011 Global Health Series organized by the Stanford Global Health Center in partnership with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Paul Yock, Professor of Medicine and Founding Co-Chair of Stanford’s Program in Biodesign, leads this interactive panel discussion.  Panelists include Uday Kumar of iRhythm, Darin Buxbaum of Hourglass Technologies, Mohit Kaushal of the West Wireless Health Institute, and Darren Hite of Aberdare Ventures, all of whom launched in their first years after Stanford. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/medical_device_innovation_panel_discussion

John Capek talks about ways we can improve not only the predictability but also the potential success for technologies in order to improve the overall delivery of healthcare over the next decade. He considers important industry trends, such as demographic and globalization, and presents key statistics on critical data points such as the demographic for healthcare spending, on Asia emerging as a market for the healthcare sector, and the role of diabetes treatment in healthcare systems. In talking about the evolution of the healthcare industry, he cites an example of the transition in modes of therapy in the field of Interventional Cardiology. In the first 25 years, the predominant mode of therapy in Interventional Cardiology was mechanical, whether that be with Balloon Angioplasty or atherectomy devices. Now, in the recent years, he continues, we are making the transition into molecular cardiology solutions using genetic modifiers, drug-eluting stents, protein deliverers and such genetic engineering approaches. This is having a significant impact on the market place. He argues that a strong driver for growth in the medical devices segment is the integration of four major categories of technologies: IT/Health Services, Pharma, Genetics, and devices. The Executive Vice President of Medical Devices puts into context the impact of healthcare reform on the delivery of technologies.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/gsb_2011_healthcare_summit_future_of_the_healthcare_sector

The assertion that philanthropists historically decided to support nonprofit efforts with little critique of results may be met with some agitation but Mark Kramer also criticizes corporate industrialism, saying the environmental consequences of profit-focused businesses have been largely ignored by the business sector, causing social justice and nonprofit organizations to push back against those excesses. Impact investing, a business model where profit can still be earned while accomplishing worthwhile social goals, is one solution. Mark Kramer also contends that companies inclined to rethink their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts should invest in the social sector and “shared value.” This could strengthen the overall competitive environment for business. As an example, he points to a medical device manufacturer which the FSG foundation convinced to assist with health care in India. The foundation notes that health care in India needed more government involvement and more training for health care providers, especially in rural areas, and that companies could design products that meet the needs of the low-income population. During this audio interview Kramer discusses the challenges of coordinating corporate social responsibility projects with corporations, and how the success of the cell phone industry in emerging (third world) markets has enabled low-income users to participate and provide feedback, thereby allowing CSR to thrive.https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/shared_value_future_of_green

Buzz Thompson is a leading expert in environmental law and policy. He and his colleagues have worked to advance environmental decisions to governmental agencies. In this panel, he identifies models for interdisciplinary collaboration across areas of areas of expertise that can help us solve complex societal issues. Thompson has contributed a large body of scholarship that has connected government, nonprofit, and business sectors while advancing environmental and social agendas. Barton (Buzz) Thompson Jr. is the director of the Woods Institute for the Environment and a Stanford professor.  https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/cross_sector_social_innovation

Teachers play a key role in influencing the future not only of students, but of the country and world as a whole. What contributes to teacher effectiveness? In this panel discussion, teachers and teacher educator experts discuss what they are doing to support and nurture the professionals who instruct our children. They consider what students need from teachers, the role of assessment in teaching, and the most effective investments to promote professional development. The panel was part of the Global Education Conference, held in partnership with Goldman Sachs and the Stanford School of Education.  https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/global_education_conference_how_to_cultivate_the_best_teachers

Medical innovation continues to flourish, however entrepreneurs are faced with many challenges, including tougher regulatory demands which make it more difficult to get products to market. This panel discussion includes representatives from various investment firms who give a clearer picture of the funding landscape, advising early stage innovators with creative ways to navigate these complexities. From the 2011 Global Health Series organized by the Stanford Global Health Center in partnership with the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stefanos Zenios, the Charles A. Holloway Professor and director of the Stanford GSB’s Program in Healthcare Innovation leads this panel which convenes Anne DeGheest of MedStars Venture Partners, Thomas McKinley of Cardinal Partners, Guido Neels of Essex Woodlands, Bryan Roberts of Venrock, and Beth Seidenberg of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/capital_for_early_stage_innovation_panel_discussion

Is the American K-12 school system in crisis? Yes, says this panel of educators, administrators, academics, business people, and politicians concerned about the matter. The experts talk about potential solutions, what’s working, and what isn’t. They also debate the merits of options like school choice, charter schools, and home schooling. The panel was part of the Global Education Conference, held in partnership with Goldman Sachs and the Stanford School of Education. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/addressing_the_k_12_crisis_panel_discussion_global_education_conference