Pop!Tech: Ideas that Transform
Last month's Pop!Tech conference, held in the New England town of Camden, took some of the world's most intractable issues and applied social theory and thinking to them. Interspersed between musical performances, films and demonstrations, all staged in a restored 19th-century opera house on the coast, were a range of contributions from some 500 thinkers from industry, business, technology, academ... posted on Dec 1, 1652 reads

Unleashing Creativity
Paul MacCready, a pioneering inventor of the first practical flying machine powered by a human being, talks in this insightful keynote address at a Smithsonian event, about inventive creativity and the importance of socially responsible inventing for our collective future. "Civilization is in the midst of unprecedented growth. This presents unprecedented opportunity and responsibility. Creativity ... posted on Dec 11, 2873 reads

The Neuroscience of Leadership
Managers who understand the recent breakthroughs in cognitive science can lead and influence mindful change: organizational transformation that takes into account the physiological nature of the brain, and the ways in which it predisposes people to resist some forms of leadership and accept others. Several conclusions about organizational change can be drawn that make the art and craft far more ef... posted on Jan 27, 3558 reads

The Power Paradox
Guided by centuries of advice like Machiavelli's and Robert Greene's, we tend to believe that attaining power requires force, deception, manipulation, and coercion. Indeed, we might even assume that positions of power demand this kind of conduct that to run smoothly, society needs leaders who are willing and able to use power this way. As seductive as these notions are, they are dead wrong. Instea... posted on Jan 29, 4990 reads

An Orphan at a Time -- in 62 Countries
Take a pin, stick it in a map of the world and chances are Simin Marefat has been there. Marefat, a San Francisco nurse, has volunteered to take her health care skills to 62 countries -- mostly in the developing world -- and she's only 33. When asked why she volunteers she says: "When I see someone without basic health and education, without a supportive family, I feel a connection ... You see the... posted on Mar 3, 2044 reads

One Woman Dedicated to Healing Haiti
"I've had more children dying in my arms than most people have ever experienced in their whole lives," Louise Ivers said. "I was thinking of the people I know in Ireland and the U.S., and most people don't know anyone whose child has died. Yet this is just everyday stuff. And we only see the half of it." Ivers has been steadily seeing more and more of the health care picture around Boucan Carre, H... posted on Apr 6, 1704 reads

Why Do Social Networks Exist?
"For me, social networks are like the eye. They are incredibly complex and beautiful, and looking at them begs the question of why they exist, and why they come to pass. Do we need a kind of just-so story to explain them? Do they just happen to be there, for no particular reason? Or do they serve some purpose -- some ontological and also pragmatic purpose?" Harvard professor Nicholas Christakis de... posted on Apr 8, 3388 reads

Be A Better Leader, Lead a Richer Life
Traditional thinking pits work and the rest of our lives against each other. But taking smart steps to integrate work, home, community, and self will make you a more productive leader and a more fulfilled person. "In my research and coaching work over the past two decades, I have met many people who feel unfulfilled, overwhelmed, or stagnant because they are forsaking performance in one or more as... posted on Apr 23, 3934 reads

Resonant Leadership
Leaders have responsibility, influence and, it turns out, their own brand of management maladies: power stress and the sacrifice syndrome. These afflictions and ways to avoid them are the focus of Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee's Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion. According to these writers, the key to navigating all this i... posted on Jun 30, 3704 reads

Building High-Quality Connections at Work
What is the key to transforming the workplace experience? According to this Stanford Social Innovation Review article, it is to build and nurture "high-quality connections." In a high-quality connection, people feel more open, competent, and alive, and one of the best ways to foster these connections is by encouraging respectful engagement between coworkers. When co-workers engage each other respe... posted on Jul 7, 3523 reads

Lessons from the World's Happiest Man
What is happiness, and how can we achieve it? Matthieu Ricard, declared by University of Wisconsin neuroscientists as the happiest man they have ever tested, says that happiness can't be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world -- a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks. Authentic happiness i... posted on Dec 29, 12740 reads

Alternative Medicine Is Mainstream
Heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer and obesity account for 75% of health-care costs, and yet these are largely preventable and even reversible by changing diet and lifestyle. The latest scientific studies show that our bodies have a remarkable capacity to quickly heal if we address the lifestyle factors that often cause these chronic diseases. Many people tend to think of brea... posted on Jan 22, 5283 reads

The Frankel's Extended Family
Chris and Georgia Frankel's house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now has 12 people calling it home. In addition to their three daughters, ages 3, 6 and 17, this large-hearted couple shares their space with five adults and two teens. The family started taking in people a long while ago. They are all there for various reasons, from difficult family situations to trouble with former roommates. Some are ... posted on Feb 22, 2930 reads

A Father & Son On the Road Home
"A few months ago, while driving home from work, I was thinking about my long tiring day at work and worrying about my other half, and would he be okay when I got home. My partner of 6 years, was sick and facing a long illness. That day several clients had paid for their jobs and one of them even paid extra, since he was very pleased with our graphics and photography work. On the way, I stopped a... posted on Apr 22, 6350 reads

Darius Goes West: An Incredible Journey
Teenager Darius Weems has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the #1 genetic killer of children with a 100% mortality rate. In the summer of 2005 Darius, 15 left home for the first time with eleven of his friends, and went on a cross-country road trip. Darius's friends captured his adventures on film -- the ocean, a hot air balloon ride, whitewater rafting, wasabi, homesickness, and freedom. Darius is 19... posted on Jun 22, 3518 reads

An 11-Year-Old's Gift of Service
Water now flows to Nyamagongo school in Tanzania. It flows because, in the SF Bay Area, an 11-year-old boy told an 11-year-old girl about a small village full of orphans in Africa. And then the girl gave up birthday gifts and helped change the lives of Ogutu and Wilis and 400 children she has never met. The world would seem smaller and she would carry in her heart the rare gift of knowledge that o... posted on Jun 15, 2607 reads

A Beloved Ritual By Ironworkers in Boston
Every day, children who come to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute write their names on paper and tape them to the windows of the walkway for ironworkers to see. And, every day, the ironworkers paint those names onto I-beams and hoist them into place as they add floors to the new building they're constructing. The building's steel skeleton is now a brightly colored, seven-story monument to scores o... posted on Jul 13, 4106 reads

50 Inspiring Travel Quotes
"I'm typing on the deck of a hostel in a little Uruguayan surf town called Punta del Diablo. Travelers are chatting around me; the usual conversation about where they came from and where they're going next. Down on the beach, surfers are catching the last waves of the day and men driving horse-drawn carts haul firewood into town. In many ways this is an idyllic scene, but to be honest, for a while... posted on Sep 27, 8136 reads

How Advertising and Altruism Can Change the World
Marketing veteran Cindy Gallop and software developer Wendell Davis are on a quest to make the world a better place, with a crowdsourcing project to motivate people to do big things by taking small bites. Their theory: Small, good intentions can bring about great leaps. Gallop and Davis are creating an engaging, easy-to-use portal that makes big ideas easier for individuals. They want to allow peo... posted on Nov 1, 3761 reads

Contagious Love Experiment
Josh Stieber was in middle school on 9/11. He vowed to enlist in the army after graduating high school, and by 2007, he was deployed to Baghdad. By April 2009, he had left the army, and engaged on a bike ride to spread some love: "I want to take a negative and invest it into a positive. So that's what I've set out to do and I hope that that love is contagious." Conor was a Marine patrol leader. ... posted on Nov 5, 5989 reads

The Power of the Mind Body Connection
Matthew Sanford was only thirteen when a car accident that killed his father and sister left him paralyzed for life. "I left my childhood behind and began a new life. The doctors led me to ignore my lower body, to focus only on what was left. I would become a powerful upper torso and willfully drag my paralyzed body through life. For twelve years, I did this (...) but something was missing. It was... posted on Nov 22, 4937 reads

Markets With A Social Mission
Around the world, social stock exchanges are launching to connect donors and investors with non-profits and businesses with a social mission, in the same way traditional markets present businesses and products to investors. "This is a cultural phenomenon," says Daniel Crisafulli, director of ecosystem investments and partnerships at the Skoll Foundation, a California-based philanthropic organizati... posted on Dec 25, 2833 reads

Slow Money: Bringing Money Down To Earth
Woody Tasch has thought a lot about money: what it does, how it moves, and how to connect people who have it with people who need it. He even helped found a field of investing with the rather surprising name "community development venture capital." But he found that even socially responsible investing couldn't do much to fix an economy that focused too much on extraction and consumption and too li... posted on Jan 13, 4304 reads

US Kids Skype With Afghan Kids
In 2005, teenager Kyleigh Kuhn met 50 students studying beneath a tent north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Distraught by the landmines and environmental hazards she saw nearby, Kuhn return home and began collecting pennies to raise funds for a safer environment and better school for the area's children. Since then, this small project has become the Roots of Peace Penny Campaign, and has removed landmines... posted on Mar 14, 1347 reads

The Encore Generation
The idea that many workers reaching their mid and late 60s think they are too young to retire and - particularly in the wake of the recession - may have no choice but to keep working, is not particularly new. But with growing evidence of a demographic wrench being thrown into the classic arc of the life course - essentially a bonus decade or three added to the average life span over the last cent... posted on Jun 5, 3663 reads

Africa's Gift to Silicon Valley
After Kenya's disputed election in 2007, violence erupted. A prominent Kenyan lawyer and blogger, Ory Okolloh, who was based in South Africa but had gone back to Kenya to vote and observe the election, received threats about her work and returned to South Africa. She posted online the idea of an Internet mapping tool to allow people anonymously to report violence and other misdeeds. Technology whi... posted on Mar 27, 1950 reads

Math Teacher 'Stands and Delivers'
Not many balding, middle-aged Bolivian immigrants have feature-length films produced about them. But then again, not many people have a heart attack, get a gallbladder removed, and spring back to school the next day to teach math. Jaime Escalante, subject of the 1988 film 'Stand and Deliver,' was a passionate teacher, father-figure, and "street-gang equal" who passed away at the age of 79 on Tuesd... posted on Mar 31, 3899 reads

Dude, Where's Our Car?
"Things the recession has taught me: keeping your thermostat at 63 degrees in the winter and at 85 in the summer is uncomfortable but not fatal. Lesson two? You are not using your library enough. Do you know you can take out as many books as you want? And that they have free storytimes and craft lessons for kids? And that you can check out DVDs? Thankfully, my community has well-funded, thriving l... posted on Apr 1, 4526 reads

A Nonprofit Gym
In many low-income neighborhoods, obesity and diabetes are huge problems. Fear of crime and traffic keep many residents from exercising outdoors and indoor gyms are often too few and too expensive. Healthworks, a nonprofit fitness center in Boston, Massachusetts is working to change that. With membership fees based on income and no more than $30 a month, low-income communities now have a safe spac... posted on Jun 20, 1862 reads

What Does the Rainforest Sound Like?
So many things. Katydids telling each other where to look for food, frogs bellowing for a mate and piranhas leaping out of the muddy brown Amazon. And this is how it sounds to a deaf person. Hear the World organization has partnered with Global Explorers to bring 50 mixed hearing students to the Amazon Rainforest to experience sound and empower the deaf. For a group of young adults, the expedition... posted on Jul 14, 2566 reads

An Experiment in Generosity
Sally Anderson had 500 dollars to give away. How and where to give it? As she writes, "My husband suggested Goodwill. He said, 'Why not give some money to a family? It should be easy.' So we stopped at Goodwill. I saw a young man buying T-shirts and said, 'I'm part of a generosity project. I'd like to give you $20.' He said, 'Wow, thanks, that's great! Are there more people like you out there?' I ... posted on Aug 9, 5429 reads

Outdoors and Out of Reach: Studying the Brain
Todd Braver emerges from a tent nestled against the canyon wall with a slight tan. For the first time in three days in the wilderness, Braver is not wearing his watch. It is the kind of change many vacationers notice in themselves as they unwind and lose track of time. But for Braver and his companions, these moments lead to an important question: What is happening to our brains? A psychology prof... posted on Sep 3, 4886 reads

But Will It Make You Happy?
She had so much. A two-bedroom apartment. Two cars. Enough wedding china to serve two dozen people. Yet Tammy Strobel wasn't happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, California, and making about 40K a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the "work-spend treadmill." So one day she stepped off. Inspired by books and blogs about living simply, Strobel and he... posted on Aug 31, 8402 reads

Power of Getting Back to Basics
A decade ago, Brockton High School was a case study in failure: only a quarter of the students passed statewide exams and one in three dropped out. Then, Susan Szachowicz and a handful of fellow teachers decided to take action. Through a restructuring committee, work with the teacher's union and bringing all the teachers slowly on board, they emphasized reading and writing lessons into every class... posted on Oct 10, 1726 reads

An Indicator of Genuine Progress?
When it comes to economic growth, bigger is better. Or so says the mainstream wisdom. But more and more people -- including, increasingly, governments -- are realizing that equating growth with quality of life is to follow a broken compass toward a host of social and ecological problems. The state of Maryland recently announced the launch of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), an alternative eco... posted on Nov 30, 3559 reads

Turning Values into Action
These days, many share the desire to do work that helps the world. Yet, despite good intentions, social enterprises and nonprofits are not immune to ethical challenges. This line of thinking- that because my cause is pure, I don't need to be concerned about values, conflicts, or ethics- is particularly relevant for social innovators. It can blind social innovators to their own value biases or fail... posted on Nov 10, 4091 reads

The Wisdom of Old Ted
"I placed Ted's ashes in the ocean and watched as they made a rainbow before dissolving into the sea." So begins the story of an unlikely friendship between Jimpa, a monk, and Ted, a hobo in his 80s who lives in freedom and dignity in a homeless camp. The friendship started when Ted saw Jimpa and said: "I'm hungry can you feed me?" It was to become a sweet refrain from a dear friend. Jimpa fed Ted... posted on Jan 21, 4423 reads

72 Hours to Transform Your City
A hundred designers, 10 urban challenges, very little money, and no sleep. That's the recipe for 72 Hour Urban Action, a three-day marathon for designers to improve their city. Founder Kerem Halbrecht first debuted the concept at the Bat-Yam Biennale of Landscape Urbanism in Israel in September, where 120 participants working in 10 teams got three days and three nights to solve problems in public ... posted on Apr 20, 3281 reads

Emotional Lives of Animals
It won't surprise pet owners, but now, scientific research also shows that many animals are intelligent, and even have some abilities that dwarf ours. Dogs are able to detect diseases such as cancer and diabetes and warn humans of impending heart attacks and strokes. Elephants, whales, hippopotamuses, giraffes, and alligators use low-frequency sounds to communicate over long distances. Many animal... posted on May 17, 34820 reads

To Serve With Love
"A tug at my dress. I look down. There is Meena. All of six. We have just met. "Akka (sister), you must eat in our house tonight," she says. A sweet spontaneous invitation, and an offer I can't refuse. Meena and the others emerge with enormous vessels (or perhaps they only seemed enormous because the bearers are so small). I am served with rice, vegetables, and curry -- and love. Such love. It's a... posted on May 19, 3853 reads

25 Reasons to Embrace Criticism
Criticism isn't always easy to receive -- and yet, it can be transformed into an opportunity for personal growth, emotional development, time efficiency, improved relationships, and self-confidence. This article shares 25 reasons to embrace criticism: "I realize criticism doesn't always come gently from someone legitimately trying to help. A lot of the feedback we receive is unsolicited and doesn'... posted on Jun 17, 36646 reads

Seeds for Self-Reliance
The practice of saving seeds has been a cornerstone of farming traditions and has allowed agriculture to become a way of life. But the introduction of high yielding seed varieties and pervasive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has eroded the diversity of indigenous seeds. The GREEN foundation in India recognized that women are crucial to seed conservation efforts there. By setting up com... posted on Aug 13, 30444 reads

6 Tips for Raising Non-Competitive Kids
Competition, according to author and lecturer Alfie Kohn, is defined as any situation where one person can succeed only when others fail. Kohn is convinced that we've all bought into dangerous myths about the value of competition in our personal lives, workplaces, society, and economic system. He laid out his arguments in his 1986 book No Contest: The Case Against Competition, and he's been spread... posted on Sep 23, 18428 reads

Mankind is No Island
"Mankind is No Island" is a cleverly crafted visual and musical narrative -- with a production budget of a whopping $57. Jason van Genderen shot this entire movie on a cell phone using emotive images found on street signage in Sydney and New York. Winner of the TropFest NY 2008 award, the world's largest short film festival, it is a three and half minute meditation on hope and hunger, on community... posted on Sep 5, 5016 reads

A Storyteller of the Streets
Most people have never walked down the street and looked for homeless people before -- most look the other way. But not Mark Horvath. A former Hollywood insider, Horvath has been a drug addict, con artist and, for a brief period, homeless. He says he's left that life behind, and these days, he's drawing on his past to inspire his Web site -- Invisiblepeople.tv. The site is a collection of YouTube-... posted on Sep 8, 5048 reads

She Planted Ideas -- and 35 Million Trees
"The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple step of digging a hole and planting a tree, we plant hope for ourselves and for future generations." Visionary, human rights advocate, environmental activist Wangari Maathai passed away on 25 September 2011 from cancer. She leaves behind a legacy of "firsts," including being the first African woman to receive the Nobel Pe... posted on Sep 29, 4037 reads

Technology is Not the Answer
"Technology is not the answer. That's the conclusion I came to after five years in India trying to find ways to apply electronic technologies to international development. I was the co-founder and assistant director of Microsoft Research India, a Bangalore computer-science lab, where one of our objectives was to research ways in which information and communication technologies could support the so... posted on Oct 15, 17048 reads

Secret Santas Take the Country by Surprise
The young father stood in line at the Kmart layaway counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children. He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter. "She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in India... posted on Dec 19, 16621 reads

A Dying Boy's Special Bond with a Rescue Dog
Every moment is extra precious for 4-yr-old Lucas Hembree. Suffering from Sanfilippo syndrome, he isn't expected to live past 15. As the disease started to take a toll on Lucas' joints, his father Chester looked into getting a service dog to keep Lucas steady when he walked. A combination of prayer and persistence led Chester to Juno. "I had the feeling in my gut that I had to go see this dog," sa... posted on Feb 8, 48456 reads

Waking Up to the Life We Have
"You know we really don't have any other choice but to be present to the life we have. We think we do, you know, we dream of everything from constructing pyramids, to conquering Mount Everest, to making millions -- to all kinds of things -- but the truth is that other than being fully present and caring and giving our best, we don't have a lot of control. So I found myself back in life, where I ha... posted on Feb 11, 9086 reads