Awakin.org

Our Forest Call guest this week will be: David and Hi-Jin Hodge. They've designed with the likes of Steve Jobs, authored an anthology called Impermanence, and created art installations that have been celebrated internationally at places like the Nobel Museum. But those are side things....

Tapan Parikh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the use of computing to support sustainable economic development across the world. When asked what kind of information interests him the most, he...

Somik Raha, is a dear friend and servant leader of the ecosystem, a PhD in Decision and Risk Analysis from Stanford University, and is now Strategy Consultant at SmartOrg. While talking about this call, this is how he introduced himself and the questions he lives...

Anupam Pathak, Founder and CEO of Liftlabs, is an inventor and entrepreneur at heart and passionate about creating new technologies for social benefit. He founded Lift Labs with the intent to apply his broad scientific knowledge and engineering skills to improve our quality of life. In his own...

In 1998, while getting his master’s degree in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Janardhan (Jay) came to the realization that a life of fulfillment trumps a life of achievement. His search led him to understanding and researching meditation techniques, which had an immediate...

Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace (formerly CharityFocus).  In 2001, at the age of 25, Nipun quit his job to become a "full time volunteer." Since then, his work has reached millions, he has received many prestigious awards, and has tirelessly addressed hundreds...

Violaine Hacker is a Phd in Law and Public Policies at the Sorbonne, and the founder of the Common Good Forum in Europe. The Common Good Forum represents an initiative to bring together experts and practitioners in various fields to reconsider economics and other areas of human enterprise with...

Kentaro Toyama is a technologist deeply committed to human development and the cultivation of virtue.  An optimist-turned-realist who believes that technologies "increase possibility," he has come to conclude, over the course of a career in technology for development, that...

David Bollier is an author, activist, blogger and consultant who explores "the commons" as a new paradigm of economics, politics and culture.  "The commons is not an ideology so much as a lens and language for understanding the things that we share -- something that, in our...

Philippe Simonin had a dream to share dreams. Driven by a faith in creating a collaborative community where people support and help each other actualize their dreams, he founded Dreemit.org, a personal social online project aiming at creating hope and community.  Originally from a little...

Elle Luna is an iconic designer, artist, painter, and writer.   If you’ve used ever the Uber app … If you’ve ever swiped an email on your iPhone… If you’ve ever deferred an email for some date in the future… If you’ve ever self-published on...

When Scott Elias lost 80% of his hearing in kindergarten, his emotional and intuitive connection to the world went into overdrive like a sixth sense. When his hearing was surgically restored two years later, the medical miracle ignited his passion for music and science which he channeled into his...

“Wisdom is not about intellectual debate, but magical moments of presence so deeply connected and so pure with people.”  -- Bernd Kolb (Atman Project) Business leader Alfred Tolle has spent his personal and professional lives at the geographic as well as spiritual...

A father who left before she was born.  Relocating with her mother and uncles as refugees from Vietnam to Canada as a young child.  Growing up in an overcrowded household.  Gangs.  A scholarship to the prestigious engineering program at the University of Waterloo. ...

Mary Rothschild was making bread with a group of preschool aged children at Ariadne's Thread, the children's center she founded and directed, when "she realized there had been a period of total silence as the children paid attention to kneading their piece of dough into an animal...

As the son of missionaries, David Bullon Patton is familiar with exploring, seeking new experiences and meeting new people. Above all, his childhood taught him the importance of service. For the past 2 years David has served as the Director of Innovation at the Costa Rican Ministry of Science,...

“The bad news is that everything is broken. The good news is that we can fix it. And the ugly news is that it’s gonna get really messy.” – Mark Stevenson   Mark Stevenson has described himself as a “reluctant futurist” and “pragmatic...

Jane Murray, a former commercial lawyer qualified in the UK, Ireland and New York, and now a start-up entrepreneur in the United Kingdom, has shifted both in her life and in her career from inhabiting the head-space to the heart-space. As she's sought connection and belonging in a...

An accidental tech exec, Srinija Srinivasan joined Yahoo! in 1995 as one of the first five employees, where she served as Vice President, Editor-in-Chief for 15 years before stepping down in 2010. With a background in artificial intelligence, her work at Yahoo! centered on the human experience,...

Rachael Flatt is an American former competitive figure skater who is devoting her energy to researching mental health.  Currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina, she is studying technology-based tools for eating disorders and athlete mental...

Kevin F. Adler is a social entrepreneur dedicated to a world where everyone is seen as invaluable and interconnected. Adler is the Founder and CEO of Miracle Messages, a nonprofit that is working to end homelessness by rebuilding social support systems. Miracle Messages has been featured...

William Dyson is a technology visionary based in Oakland, California. He is the founder of the Douglass Decentralized Operating System (DDOS or “Douglas Decentralized OS”), named in honor of Frederick Douglass — an African American icon who stood for the equality of all peoples...

Kern Beare is the founder of Pop the Bubble, a personal initiative born in the wake of the 2016 election to help heal our national divide. “Tucked inside my cozy Silicon Valley ‘bubble,’ I'd missed the signs of a radical shift in the American electorate,” Kern said....

Milo (Nathan) Runkle is an author, activist, investor and non-profit leader.  He is the founder of Mercy for Animals (MFA), the world’s largest farm animal protection and vegan advocacy organization. MFA, which Runkle founded when he was age 15, focuses on protecting animals...

On the outside, Narendra Kini (Naren) is a successful Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur, executive, and technologist. On the inside, he is an artist, poet, and heartful seeker of spirituality, peace, inner beauty, and truth. Naren has co-founded or managed thriving companies and startups...

Pavithra Sundareshan was 22 years old when, together with her husband and business partner, she started Vindhya, a business process outsourcing organization in Bangalore, India, which may be the first and only for-profit enterprise in which the majority of employees are people with disabilities...

Rob Lippincott is birthright member of the Religious Society of Friends, striving to bring Quaker values to the world of business and the process of learning. He is a lifelong learner and entrepreneur in digital, spiritual and actual worlds. He has devoted his career to leading learning...

Please join us for a conversation with some of the most innovative voices in American higher education. How might we use this crisis and disruption in university life as an opportunity to re-imagine and transform our systems of higher education and knowledge diffusion? How might we better prepare...

How do we design for deeper inclusion? Typical pleas for inclusion are either a call for sympathy, or a call for efficiency, or a call for boosting market oriented goals. But we want to hold space for deeper questions that are pertinent, not just in context of temporarily-abled bodies and...

Joan Blades is an “accidental activist” at the forefront of movements that have shaped American culture and politics. A deep believer in the value of grassroots engagement, Blades through her various endeavors has experientially acted upon an insight about the power of ordinary people...

“The goal of the social good sector must be to end need, not just meet need. This means, for example, that international organizations … must have a transition plan that is centered around devolving power, money and voice to local organizations.” – Patrick Meier When...

When the photographer/artist husband of renowned immigration lawyer Sheela Murthy suggested more than 25 years ago that she should freely give away detailed information about navigating the immigration laws and system on the then-nascent World Wide Web, Murthy was skeptical. Legal...