Add Passion and Stir

Australia’s Reverend Tim Costello is the former Chief Executive of World Vision Australia and a lawyer, minister, and social advocate. “A free society is an extraordinary moral achievement… It takes morality,” he says.

“When we start to see morality - which is we, not I - corroding and empathy evaporating, we are in trouble for a free society.” However, he remains hopeful of humanity’s goodness. “Hope is saying there will ...

Navyn Salem, founder and CEO of the malnutrition social enterprise Edesia, discusses our shared humanity in caring for children all over the world. Edesia produces fortified, peanut-based products like Plumpy'Nut for humanitarian agencies like UNICEF, World Food Programme, and other NGOs working in emergency and conflict zones.

“We feed children everywhere because that's what humanity is, and we do not want to lose our hum...

Retired Senator Debbie Stabenow discusses the importance of strong leadership, raising our voices about what we believe is wrong, and her continued advocacy for issues like hunger and mental health.

“I may have retired, but I have not retired my voice. At this time, where so much is at stake, nobody should be retiring their voice,” she says. “We should be electing people that show some leadership,” she continues. “Hunger i...

Chicago chef and restaurateur Curtis Duffy recounts some of the revelations in his new book, Fireproof: Memoir of a Chef on this episode of Add Passion & Stir. Duffy writes about surviving the tragic loss of his parents at a very young age. “If it's helping somebody else get through what they need to get through… and if it helps them, in some way, or if they're able to relate to it somehow, then that's a win for me. Th...

Partnership for a Healthier America President and CEO Noreen Springstead discusses how to make America healthy again through high quality food and empowered communities. “Is the food system broken, or is it designed in the way that it's supposed to be operating today, which is around profit?,” she posits. “There is data that suggests if the food supply is healthier, it's available, it's affordable, it's accessible, we can ...

Bestselling author and No Kid Hungry supporter John Grisham gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look into how Share Our Strength founders and siblings Billy and Debbie Shore built their successful childhood hunger nonprofit from humble beginnings and a great idea. “In my memory, we knew that we had a really big and powerful idea… we just didn't know the path," explains Debbie.

“We also weirdly had a sense that this was goi...

Well before the school year ends for American children , advocates like former USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Stacy Dean and Hawaii-based consumer advocate and substance abuse counselor Zahava “Zee” Zaidoff are planning how to feed kids over the summer. “The experience of hunger, in and of itself, is a terrible thing. But hunger amongst children is so much more devastating... They do...

India’s children are hungry. Gauri Devidayal, Co-Founder and Director of The Food Matters Group, and Pankaj Jethwani, physician and Executive VP at W Health Ventures, are working to solve that problem. Devidayal is using her platform to draw attention and funding to the cause while Jethwani is helps run holistic nutrition programs.

“I think India's one of the greatest nations when it comes to hospitality. It's just somethin...

Two staunch child advocates, Bruce Lesley of First Focus on Children and Phoebe Boyer of Children’s Aid, talk about the detrimental impact of poverty on children and the crucial role of social safety nets and nonprofit organizations in mitigating this harm.

“Every aspect of the life of a child is negatively impacted by poverty. It impacts their health, their education, their early childhood, their nutrition, their housing s...

Three social changemakers -

• Jeff Bradach of The Bridgespan Group,
• Daniel Stid of Lyceum Labs, and
• former US Treasury advisor Clara Miller-

discuss the impact of the current political climate on the nonprofit sector.

“It was a huge shock to the system to have international aid just cut like that and it created a whole ripple of fear. I felt it; I think we all did,” says Miller. “We’re in this very strange place wher...

Why would anyone cut 7,000 employees to save 0.06% of the budget from one of the most important agencies in the federal government?   That’s the question Congressman Tom Swasey asked at town hall with former Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley. Over the past few days, O'Malley has warned that the 89-year streak of Social Security sending monthly benefits could come to an end.

That is why we are reprising ...

On the very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we revisit or conversation with chef, food writer, food critic, and author Ruth Reichl. Ruth discusses the transformative power of food and culture. “One of the great things to me about food is that you have the ability to touch these moments of grace throughout the day simply by biting into a perfect peach and going, ‘oh my God, I'm glad I'm alive,’" she marvels.

Her new...

In this very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we reprise an episode from May 2024 with two powerful leaders of the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger. The Mayors Alliance is a bipartisan alliance of almost 400 mayors from across the country.

In this time of turmoil, local leadership is all the more important to protecting and helping those in need. Mayors Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Matti...

In a new conversation, Jimmy Chen, founder/CEO of Propel and Ofek Lavian, founder/CEO of Forage, return to discuss current trends in using technology to ensure more people can access government food benefits.

“As of January 27, 2025, at least, our plan is to continue to invest in the things that we have confidence that are not going to change over the 20-, 30-, 40-year time horizon, while we stay nimble and adapt to what m...

In an episode originally aired in 2018, restaurateur, entrepreneur and author Rose Previte and former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera talk about leadership, public service, and how diversity is our greatest strength. “As long as we’re true to our principles of equality, and people can develop their talents through education and contribute something, then that’s what we need to do,” says Caldera.

Previte’s three DC-area...

Alex Amouyel, President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation explains the foundation’s unique approach to creating impact. The foundation’s mission is to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity through innovative philanthropy.

“Our foundation owns the food company and the licensing business, so a hundred percent of the profits and royalties from the sale of Newman's Own products go to the foundation in...

Caree Cotwright, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture, explains the concept of nutrition security on a new episode of Add Passion & Stir.

“Nutrition security is everyone in our country having consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food, but also food that is optimal for their health and wellbeing,” she says. “If ...

Partnership for a Healthier America President and CEO Noreen Springstead discusses how to make America healthy again through high quality food and empowered communities. “Is the food system broken, or is it designed in the way that it's supposed to be operating today, which is around profit?,” she posits.

“There is data that suggests if the food supply is healthier, it's available, it's affordable, it's accessible, we can ...

Poverty researcher Kathryn Edin talks about the insights from her new Book, The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America. “I'm realizing that you can't really understand anything about a place without knowing its history,” she says.

A new public data set revealed the crushing poverty in rural areas without the supportive infrastructure of urban places. “Rural is not monolithic. Rural is really multid...