Social Issues

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Pamela Hartigan - The Power of Unreasonable People

Why are social entrepreneurs sometimes considered "unreasonable," and how are they different from business entrepreneurs? In this audio interview, author Pamela Hartigan discusses with Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman how these pesky pioneers are creating markets that are changing the world. She also talks about Volans Ventures, her new enterprise dedicated to integrating the worlds of social and environmental innovation with business-driven wealth creation.

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Jim Lehrer, Peter J. Robertson - A Conversation About Oil

With crude oil over $100 a barrel and continuing to rise, concerns about increased prices at the pump and at home—intensified by political unrest in other parts of the world—have put energy issues into heightened focus for the American public. In this audio interveiw, Jim Lehrer conducts "A Conversation About Oil" with Chevron's Peter J. Robertson.

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Devendra Raj Mehta - Bringing Mobility to the Disabled

In remote rural areas in India, 18 million people suffer isolation and poverty due to their inability to work. In this audio interview, Jennifer Roberts, associate editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, converses with D.R. Mehta, whose NGO gives mobility to 20,000 people a year through the fitting of a high-tech prosthetic limb known as the Jaipur Foot. Mehta discusses the genesis of his organization, which makes the prosthesis freely available to the poor.

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Wendy Kopp - Narrowing Educational Gaps Across America

In an effort to narrow the gap in educational opportunities, Teach For America currently places over 5,000 teachers in low-income and poorly performing schools across the country. Its growing corps of alumni is also taking their educational experiences into careers in law, public health, policy making, and leadership. In this audio interview, Wendy Kopp, founder and chief executive officer of Teach For America, tells host Sheela Sethuraman about the history, goals, and ideals of that program.

Podcast

Dr. Helen Lee - Improved Disease Tests for the Developing World

In developing countries, many tests for infectious diseases never reach the market because there is little financial incentive to pharmaceutical companies to get them there. In this audio interveiw, Alana Conner, senior editor at the Stanford Social Innovation Review, converses with Helen Lee, whose research department at the University of Cambridge has developed tests that allow for the rapid detection—and thus treatment—of diseases in rural settings around the world.

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