We Can Be podcast - The Heinz Endowments

Marques Redd, acclaimed artist and co-founder of multidisciplinary art collective Rainbow Serpent, is helping create the future of art by reviving ancient – and often erased – traditions.

By uplifting Black LGBTQ creativity and culture through the exploration of emerging technologies, innovative healing protocols, African cosmologies, and multimedia art, he is sparking important dialogue and reconsideration of the Western artistic ...

Colette Pichon Battle, Heinz Award for the Environment honoree and the vision and initiatives partner for the climate justice nonprofit Taproot Earth joins host Chris DeCardy. Colette  was inspired to shift her career from corporate law to environmental activism after her family’s experience in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina nearly two decades ago.

As the United States begins recovery from the historic devastation of Hurrican...

Sharon Pillar, Pennsylvania Solar Center founder and executive director, is continuing the solar energy advocacy started nearly a half-century ago by former President Jimmy Carter, who recently marked his 100th birthday.

“It’s a lot different now than it was when President Carter put those solar panels on the West Wing roof,” Sharon tells host and Endowments President Chris...

VoteRiders CEO and Executive Director Lauren Kunis is clear about what is at stake when it comes to those who are using false claims of voter fraud as the basis for enacting overly stringent voter ID laws. The laws affect 35 million voting-age citizens – a majority of whom are first-time voters, low-income residents, people of color and/or differently abled. 

“Those who are already underrepresented in our electorate are most harm...

Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, Allegheny Health Network’s first chief clinical diversity, equity and inclusion officer, wrote in a widely shared 2023 op-ed: “It is perilous to be Black and pregnant in America. We need to do better.”

The nationally respected expert in maternal and infant health equity is not afraid to speak out against health injustice or to amplify the startling differences between Black and white mothers and ba...

Jen Flanagan is founder and executive director of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, an employment-based social enterprise that empowers people through food service training and life skills mentoring. With an impressive 93% placement rate in professional kitchens for those who complete their training programs, she and her team are giving brighter futures to hundreds who find themselves struggling to overcome systemic barriers at the mar...

Leah Penniman, “Farming While Black” author, co-founder of Soul Fire Farm and Heinz Award for the Economy honoree has a deep commitment to sharing regenerative farming best practices and land stewardship with Black, Indigenous and people of color. Addressing racism and injustice in the food system is a central focus of her work.

“When I was a young farmer growing up in the mid-90s and attending agricultural conferences and training...

Dr. George Thurston, internationally respected scientist, professor and pioneer in the study and communication of the effects of air pollution’s impact on human health joins the “We Can Be” family.

”Science is a way to bridge a lot of our societal division and distrust,” he tells Chris DeCardy, Heinz Endowments president and “We Can Be” host. “People trust science, and we have a responsibility to speak out when we can help.”

In...

Kilolo Luckett, nationally renowned art curator & founding executive director of ALMA | LEWIS, believes in the transformative power of art for both artist & audience.

“When we genuinely connect with art, we can dream whole other worlds of possibility,” she tells Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, who takes the wheel as our podcast’s host on the first episode of this new season of “We Can Be.” “

With nearly 25 yea...

Ohio River Valley Institute Executive Director Joanne Kilgour joins host Philip Johnson, the Endowments’ senior program director for Environment & Health, in breaking down the hype around hydrogen hubs and carbon capture.   

Hydrogen hubs have as their centerpiece massive pipeline networks that funnel carbon captured from power plants and factories to injection points for underground sequestration. Some present the process as key...

Dr. Daniel Perkins, professor, founder and principal scientist of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State University, leads the largest-ever longitudinal study of post-911 transitioning veterans, “The Veteran Metrics Initiative.”

Danny joins host Megan Andros, the Endowments’ senior program officer for veterans, in diving into the startling findings of his team’s research. Beginning with an initial cohort of...

Raqueeb Bey, the founder and executive director of Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh, joins this episode’s host, Endowments Vice President of Sustainability Andrew McElwaine, to discuss food deserts, the healing effects of holistic gardening and the organization’s surprise boost from alt-rock stars Rage Against the Machine.

Raqueeb founded Black Urban Gardeners (BUGS), a collective of Black men and women who use edu...

Jeffrey Brown, PBS NewsHour chief correspondent for arts, culture and society,  joins “We Can Be” host Janet Sarbaugh, The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Creativity, as they tackle one of the creative realm’s big questions: Are the arts essential?

“Art matters because it shows us a bit of the world we might not otherwise see,” Jeffrey says. “It takes us places we might not go because it makes us think, because it makes us kn...

“I’ve had letters from young Black girls saying ‘I now know this is possible,’” Carlow University’s groundbreaking president Dr. Kathy Humphrey, tells “We Can Be” host Michelle Figlar, The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Learning.

As the first Black president in Carlow’s nearly 100-year history, Dr. Humphrey brings a life-long love of teaching and a wealth of experience, including positions at the University of Pittsburgh and...

The importance of gratitude, what makes a community great, & his hope for what the future holds for the social change realm are among subjects Grant Oliphant covers as his tenure as president of The Heinz Endowments – & as host of “We Can Be” – comes to an end.

While the “We Can Be” podcast will continue with new episodes and hosts in the coming months, this episode includes Grant’s  reflections on the 70-plus guests he hosted ov...

“The circle of concern has to be wide enough for all of us to fit inside,” Jenn Hoos Rothberg tells host Grant Oliphant on this episode of “We Can Be.”

Jenn is executive director of the Einhorn Collaborative, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to addressing America’s crisis of connection by increasing opportunities for empathy and civility.

Her work is especially needed in these times. This past summer, a U.S. News and World Repo...

Michael Mann, one of the world’s preeminent experts on climate change, said in a Boston Globe editorial published shortly after the devastating storm made landfall in Sept. '21: “Hurricane Ida was a shot across the Earth’s bow." 

Michael is distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and the Department of Geosciences and the Earth.

Energy industry researcher and “The State of My State” author Sean O’Leary zeroes in on the role of coal, natural gas and petrochemicals in the economies of Appalachia.

He does it with with a deep respect for the region where he grew up, and an understanding that with the beauty and grandeur of that region also comes unfulfilled promises of hydraulic fracturing-related prosperity.

Sean was born and raised in West Virginia, and is a...

Kristina Marusic is an investigative reporter covering environmental health & justice issues for Environmental Health News, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to driving science into public discussion and policy.

In early 2021, Environmental Health News published Kristina’s “Fractured: The body burden of living near fracking,” a four-part series that revealed the health impacts of shale hydraulic fracturing—or fra...