Welcome Change

Countless examples across the world show us that living in multicultural neighborhoods frequently results in people living side-by-side but in parallel communities. This deprives us of the opportunity to build shared lives, focus on the many things we have in common, and work together on the challenges we experience close to home. We can do all this while treasuring our own cultures and backgrounds.

Many people want to be ...

The U.S. spends $80B annually to incarcerate more of its people than any other nation in the world — with a hidden ecosystem of corporate and other actors benefiting financially from high incarceration rates.

Listen in to hear from Ashoka Fellow Bianca Tylek, founder of Worth Rises, about exposing these financial incentives and creating alternatives. Learn about her team’s unique strategy that has prompted swift local and ...

People in many parts of the world are living longer, and ideas about aging are evolving, too. Listen in to explore with Ximena Abogabir of Chile what conversations about longevity are missing, how advertisers and the media can be allies in shaping new norms around aging, and what lifelong contribution can look like – for all of us, whatever our age.

An Ashoka Fellow since 1995, Ximena is a serial entrepreneur, having most ...

With the Olympics kicking off, we'll explore how sports can create positive change (if responsibility is built into sporting ecosystems); how major sporting events can drive new norms and lasting change; and of course, what highlights we’re all looking for at this year’s Olympics!

We'll be joined by three Ashoka Fellows in the UK:

-Mel Young, founder of the Homeless World Cup (the inspiration for the new...

In many places, care structures and notions of family are evolving. In the U.S., for example, less than 20% of households now fit the mold of married couples with kids. Even so, the nuclear family is still the basis for such benefits as health care, health insurance, tax breaks, and citizenship.

On this episode of Welcome Change, we hear from Ashoka Fellow Diana Adams, who is expanding the legal and cultural understanding ...

There are more than 15 million stateless people across the world. Without a recognized nationality, they are left isolated and denied basic human rights. On this episode of Welcome Change, listen in to learned from Ashoka Fellow Christiana Bukalo what led her to found Statefree in Germany - the world's first community for and by stateless individuals. We’ll heard about the power of developing a common identity and sense of bel...

Access to justice is a fundamental right that remains out of reach for far too many people. In Nigeria, 1 in 8 people experience legal challenges, but hiring a lawyer is a luxury few can afford. At the same time, Nigerian courts, like so many around the world are clogged up with cases taking on average between 1 and 6 years to move through the justice system, with 70 percent of inmates in Nigerian prisons “awaiting trial”.

In artificial intelligence (AI), climate and many domains impacting our futures, change is happening so fast – requiring new skills, mindsets, and modes of learning. Join us to hear from two Ashoka Fellows – François Taddei and Stephen Friend – on the evolving work of Learning Planet Institute, codesigning with young people planetary Higher Ed and lifelong collaborative action for all.

Episode record live on Nov. 29, 2023

W...

Indonesia has abundant natural carbon capture areas critical for stabilizing our planet's climate -- such as tropical forests and roughly one-third of the world’s tropical peatlands. Join us to meet Gita Syahrani in Jakarta and explore how she’s weaving a collaborative governance network among the relatively few local jurisdictions (kabupaten) that oversee 80% of these important resources. Gita became an Ashoka Fellow earlier ...

How are communities reimagining their economic futures? Join us on Nov. 1 to meet Ashoka Fellow Molly Hemstreet who co-leads The Industrial Commons, a network of worker owned textile cooperatives in North Carolina – in conversation with Brandon Dennison, an Ashoka Fellow and founder of Coalfield Development in West Virginia. They’ll be talking about centering heritage industries (textiles), seeding future industries (clean energy),...

Whether due to conflict, climate change or economic opportunity, more and more people find themselves on the move across and within borders. Ukraine is a case in point, with more than 8 million of its citizens forced to leave their homes since the war broke out in 2022. Nearly one million of them landed in Poland, doubling the size of the country’s Ukrainian diaspora.

For Ashoka Fellow Myroslava Keryk, who had moved from U...

In March 2023, UN Secretary General António Guterres was unequivocal when he spoke at the release of the UN’s 6th IPCC report: “our world needs climate action on all fronts – everything, everywhere, all at once.” But who is going to deliver this action? The answer must be: Everyone. We need a groundswell of changemakers: to shift the systems and structures they’re part of, in their work, schools, neighborhoods and countries.

In journalism and many other fields, "local" is understood as somehow less than global, limited. But what if the reverse is true: What if the most sought-after expertise is closest to the story? In her new book Byline, Fellow Cristi Hegranes, founder of Global Press, looks at the future of news and opportunities to meld local and global for greater accuracy and trust. We’ll also hear from Cristi how some reporting practic...

The world just experienced one of the most significant global celebration of women’s sports – the 2023 World Cup. Cited as the most internationally inclusive women’s sporting event, breaking viewership and attendance records, it showed us how sport can be a platform for progress. Yet it also revealed how much more is needed to put women on an equal footing to men and address systemic problems in plain view to players and hundreds o...

Rev. Heber Brown III, an Ashoka Fellow in Baltimore, is activating one of the most resilient of Black institutions in the U.S. – the Black Church – to become a food producer network. His Black Church Food Security Network is now 170 congregations strong, all working to grow and distribute nutritious food to congregants and communities.

Listen in to hear from Heber, in conversation with Rev. Jennifer Bailey, also an Ashoka ...

Some key industries can play an outsized role in ending human trafficking, says social entrepreneur Mariana Ruenes, who has been working to end modern slavery since age 17. Now, her Mexico City-based network equips businesses in such industries as travel and tourism with strategies to identify, report, and ultimately prevent human trafficking and exploitation in Latin America.

Listen in on this episode to learn more about ...

From Syria, to Yemen, Burkina Faso, Myanmar, Mali, and the United States – conflict has migrated to online spaces. Recognizing this important shift, peace-builder and Ashoka Fellow Helena Puig Larrauri, co-founded Build Up to transform conflict in the digital age. Working with NGOs, UN agencies, community leaders and multilateral organizations, Build Up develops innovative tech solutions to conflict.

Over the years, tackli...

With the increasing frequency of storms, wildfires, tornadoes, and other natural disasters, Fellow Saket Soni, a labor organizer instrumental in the response to Hurricane Katrina, sees a new group of workers emerging: the resilience workforce. Essential to recovery efforts, these workers, many of them migrants, are less visible, more vulnerable and temporary, requiring new labor protections to support their critical role.

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Sabotaging her job. Refusing to work. Demanding she accounts for every cent. Destroying her credit. These are just a few examples of economic abuse. It’s a form of domestic violence that affects most women in abusive relationships, the consequences of which often continue even after they exit their relationship. Ashoka Fellow Meseret Haileyesus founded the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment, to build a social, financial, and r...