Here to Help

Admiral William H. McRaven's life lessons extend far beyond his military experience. From the significance of making your bed to the importance of addressing the smallest of problems with great care, Admiral McRaven shares stories and insights that are as applicable in the boardroom as they are in military operations. His celebrated book "Make Your Bed" serves as a backdrop for our conversation, where daily discipline meets transformative leadership.Admiral McRaven unveils the parallels between SEAL training and corporate success. The story of a harrowing parachuting accident underscores the value of collective resilience, and the power of a supportive network in personal recovery and professional triumph. From selection processes to employee preparation, the Admiral draws a line connecting rigorous military standards to the potential for excellence in the corporate world.Admiral McRaven's storied career, which spans commanding special operations forces to the helm of the University of Texas, offers a unique vantage point on leadership. Whether discussing integrity's role at the "long green table" or implementing the Rooney Rule to foster diversity in academia, his anecdotes embody the universal truths of leadership. And as the conversation moves to the role of education and healthcare, to the safeguarding of democracy through voter participation, Admiral McRaven’s wisdom is a invaluable for the leaders of today and tomorrow.

This week Chris is joined by US Secretary for Education Dr. Miguel Cardona. Dr. Cardona tells how his own bicultural roots and his family's journey from Puerto Rico have powered his drive for educational equity and excellence. We discuss the imperative to reimagine our schools as incubators for critical skills. We address the current teacher shortages head-on, dissecting the ABCs of teaching—Agency, Better working conditions, and Competitive salary—as Dr. Cardona describes the systemic issues at the core of this crisis. We look at the impact of the American Rescue Plan on teacher salaries, part of the transformative steps being taken to nurture a teaching environment that's as diverse and dynamic as the students it serves. This episode is a heartfelt tribute to the educators shaping our tomorrow.

Get set for an enlightening conversation with the incredibly talented Ellen McGirt, editor-in-chief of Design Observer. From selling Avon products at a tender age of eleven to pioneering the race and inclusive leadership beat at Fortune, Ellen's journey is nothing short of inspiring. We draw from her well of wisdom as she shares her relentless efforts to amplify diverse voices in the design industry and her latest venture, the Equity Observer. We decode her extraordinary journey that beautifully blends perseverance, resilience, and a deep-rooted desire to drive change.Transitioning from the art world to journalism is no easy feat, but Ellen McGirt has navigated her way with aplomb. Ellen's cross-country expedition to understand the multifaceted diversity of America has served as a cornerstone in her writing, and we dive into this transformative experience. As a closing note, we engage in a thought-provoking discussion with Ellen on the impact of AI on journalism. From potential repercussions to the futuristic vision of technology-dominated workspaces, this conversation is an eye-opener.

Ever wondered how a ground-breaking show like Reservation Dogs came to be? Join us as Chris sits down with the extraordinary Oklahoma-based filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, the creator of this revolutionary FX series. Sterlin offers us a glimpse into his personal experiences growing up in Oklahoma that helped shape the narrative of the show, while sharing tales of assembling an all-native team both in front of and behind the camera.Discover how this show has been instrumental in pushing boundaries in Indigenous representation, collecting accolades including Peabody, Television Academy Honors and Independent Spirit Awards along the way. Reservation Dogs is a lot more than its accolades; it's a celebration of native life and communities. Sterlin unpacks the profound decision to weave Native history within the narrative, instead of simply explaining it away. We delve into the cultural significance of episodes like 'Deer Lady' in the third season, and the pride Sterlin feels in sharing this narrative with audiences who may not be aware of it. We take you behind the scenes of the casting process that discovered the incredible talents that make the main cast.Finally, we journey through Sterlin's personal and professional life, highlighting the moments that shaped his storytelling vision. He shares how his first job, his artist father's influence, and his time in college studying film and video studies all played a part in his pursuit of filmmaking. Through Reservation Dogs, Sterlin Harjo continues to use storytelling as a powerful tool to celebrate native communities, stir conversations and transform perceptions.

What does it mean to create a world that's truly accessible to all? Let's find out together - our guest today is Sinéad Burke, an extraordinary voice in the disability activism space, who is also a writer, academic, and podcaster. Sinéad brings to light the nuanced nature of accessibility, sharing her own lived experiences of exclusion, and how they have shaped her work to raise baseline standards in disability, inclusion, and accessibility. This heartening conversation will open up new perspectives on how accessibility can prompt agency, equity, dignity, and pride. Ever wondered how barriers are inadvertently created for disabled people in workplaces? Our deep-dive with Sinéad explores job descriptions, caregiving roles, and organizational expectations, and their impact on access. Hear from Sinéad as she offers actionable advice on fostering a more inclusive work environment. She also shares her love for design and fashion, and the motivation behind founding her organization, Tilting the Lens. The conversation emphasizes the power of collective change and the importance of purposeful investment in the disabled community. So tune in, and walk away with a broader understanding of accessibility and the significance of representation.

This week’s guest is Dr. Ella F. Washington, an organizational psychologist, DEI&B expert, and author of the book "The Necessary Journey: Making Real Progress on Equity and Inclusion".Ella is the Founder and CEO of Ellavate Solutions, a Professor of Practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and the Co-host of Gallup's Center of Black Voices Cultural Competence Podcast. Dr. Washington continues to deepen her research pipeline and thought leadership as a Gallup Senior Scientist studying race, strengths and other DEI workplace topics. In the wake of the recent SCOTUS decision, Dr. Ella explains why companies can and should recommit to DEI&B.

In this week’s episode, Chris sits down with Elizabeth Hinton. Elizabeth is an American historian and associate professor of History and African American Studies at Yale University, as well as a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Her research focuses on the persistence of poverty and racial inequality in the twentieth-century United States. Hinton’s book “From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America” traces the rise of mass incarceration to an ironic source: the social welfare programs of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society at the height of the civil rights era. There are 80 million people in the US, or 1 in 3 Americans, that have an arrest or conviction record. Mass incarceration prevents these millions of people from fully participating in society when released. Hinton and Hyams will discuss how we got to this point in America, how the lack of job opportunities contribute to the cycle of police violence and social unrest and what policy recommendations are needed to break this cycle.

In this week's episode, Chris is joined by the remarkable Hannah Fry. Hannah is a Professor in the Mathematics of Cities at University College London.  She is a mathematician, a best-selling author, an award winning science presenter and the host of numerous popular podcasts and television shows. In her day job she uses mathematical models to study patterns in human behavior, and has worked with governments, police forces and health analysts.Her TED talks have amassed millions of views and she has fronted television documentaries for the BBC, Bloomberg and PBS.  She has also hosted podcasts for Google’s Deepmind and the BBC.Hannah cares deeply about what data and math reveal to us about being human. A conversation not to be missed.

In this week’s episode, Chris talks with Missy Cummings, professor and the director of George Mason University's Autonomy and Robotics Center.Missy spent eleven years (1988–1999) as a naval officer and military pilot and was one of the United States Navy's first female fighter pilots, flying an F/A-18 Hornet. In October 2021, the Biden administration named Cummings as a new senior advisor for safety at the National National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Her appointment to the NHTSA was met with criticism from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk and personal harassment and death threats from Tesla advocates in response to her previous statements critical of Tesla. Missy’s  research interests include artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction and the socio-ethical impact of technology. Cummings has written on the brittleness of machine learning and future applications for drones. In addition, she has spoken critically of the safety of Tesla's Full Self-Driving Capability surrounding its reliance on computer vision.

In this episode, Chris is joined by writer and comedian Monica Heisey where they cover Monica’s journey as a writer, the power of humor, gender, feminism, and the challenges of living in modern society. Monica was born in Toronto and moved to London in 2010 to study Early Modern Literature. Monica began her writing career in media, contributing to the Guardian, The New Yorker, The New York Times and Playboy. From 2015 to 2017 she was Editor-at-Large at Broadly, VICE magazine's women's website. Her first book, ‘I Can't Believe It's Not Better', a collection of essays, short stories, awas published in 2015, and Lena Dunham said of it that it’s the “only humor book she ever wants to own.” 2015 was also the year of her first television job, sketch comedy series Baroness von Sketch Show. Since then she has worked on television projects including Netflix’s Schitt's Creek, Workin’ Moms and BBC’s The Cleaner, and Everything I Know About Love. Monica’s writing offers a unique blend of humor and social commentary and her debut novel, Really Good, Actually, was published around the world in January 2023, and is currently in development for television. She is working on a second novel.

Dr Ibram X. Kendi is the award winning author of 14 National Book Awards for adults and children, including nine New York Times bestsellers—five of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor. Dr. Kendi is the author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest author to win that award. He also authored the international bestseller, How to Be an Antiracist, which was described in the New York Times as “the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.” In 2020, Time magazine named Dr. Kendi one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the "Genius Grant. "

This week's guest is, the inimitable, Ms. Panti Bliss. Panti is considered to be Ireland’s foremost drag queen, “gender discombobulist” and “accidental activist.” Panti was the forerunner in Ireland's ‘Yes’ campaign for marriage equality and in February 2015 she took to the stage of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre to deliver a ten minute speech that was described as ""the most eloquent Irish speech"" in almost 200 years. It garnered support from RuPaul, Graham Norton, Stephen Fry, and Madonna. She is the recipient of a host of awards including the Award for contribution to Irish society - at the People of the Year Awards in 2014. In 2015 Panti’s alter-ego Rory O'Neill was awarded an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin for his contribution to LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality. In 2016, following a reported 160% increase in HIV positive tests in Ireland between 2005 and 2015, as an advocate for others and small business owner, she turned the basement of her self named Panti Bar into a HIV testing center in a bid to help protect a new generation of young gay men. Panti was most recently on the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars, where Panti, aka Rory, performed out of drag, making Irish TV history with Ireland's first same sex dance couple appearing on screens across the country. Join us where we’ll discuss Panti’s activism, advocacy, and contributions to the LGBTQ+ community in Ireland and beyond.

In this best of episode of Here to Help, Chris speaks to Katie Schmidt, Quality Assurance Engineer at Indeed. Katie will speak about her career in the gaming industry, how it led to a job in QA and the important role language plays in game design. Katie will also speak about Pride month and the importance of iPride in her journey. If you have ever wondered what we can learn about our own reality through game design or what exactly is the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis then this episode is one worth listening to.

In this week's best of episode of Here to Help, Chris' guest is disability rights and inclusion activist Imani Barbarin. Imani uses her voice and social media platforms to create conversations engaging the disability community. Born with cerebral palsy, Imani often writes and uses her platform to speak from the perspective of a disabled black woman. They discuss the importance of having difficult but necessary conversations, what Covid-19 revealed about ableism and her unwavering belief in what's possible.

This week’s guest is Johnson Cheng, a Chinese American writer/director from the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles. A member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), his films have screened in competition at international festivals such as Tribeca, AFI FEST, and Toronto.  Johnson is a recipient of the HBO APA Visionaries Award, the Princess Grace Award (Cary Grant Film Award), and fellowships such as Film Independent’s Project Involve (Writer/Director Fellow). Johnson is also one of the directors chosen for the very first class of Indeed’s Rising Voices and “Only the Moon Stands Still’ is an incredibly moving film about the complexities of intergenerational families and work. It’s a slice-of-life tale of three generations of Chinese women confronting the realities of having to shut down their family’s ballroom dance studio and bid farewell to a life that has defined them for so long. This episode discusses tradition, community, work and the power of story to create opportunity for people.

This week’s guest is Dr Safiya Noble. Dr. Noble is an internet studies scholar and Professor of Gender Studies and African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she serves as the Faculty Director of the Center on Race & Digital Justice. In her book ‘Algorithms of Oppression’ Safiya explores the ways in which search engines perpetuate systemic racism and discrimination. Noble argues that these search engines are not neutral, but rather are designed and operated by people with their own biases and values, which are often shaped by broader social and cultural forces. Noble examines the ways in which search algorithms can reinforce and amplify existing biases and stereotypes, particularly against marginalized groups such as women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. This episode discusses how these biases can have real-world consequences, such as limiting opportunities for employment or housing.

In this best of episode, Chris Hyams talks to social psychologist Dr. Devon Price, about his life, work and latest book "Laziness Does Not Exist" that examines the “laziness lie”—which falsely tells us we are not working or learning hard enough.  Price's research has appeared in Slate, Business Insider, Financial Times, HuffPost, Psychology Today, and on NPR and PBS. Like many Americans, Dr. Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, he was forced to examine the darker side of all this productivity.  Using in-depth research, Price explains that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history yet most of us often still feel we are not doing enough. If you are looking for advice to overcome society’s pressure to do more and understand the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie" this episode is not to be missed.

This week's guest is Julia Hatton, the CEO of Rising Sun. Rising Sun is a non-profit organization that works to create green jobs and provide sustainable energy solutions in underserved communities in California. Under her leadership, Rising Sun has trained over 3,500 individuals in energy efficiency, solar installation, and other green job skills. In this episode, we'll be discussing the urgent need for sustainable energy solutions in marginalized communities, and the challenges and opportunities of building a more equitable green economy. We'll also explore Julia's personal journey and what drives her commitment to social and environmental justice.

This week’s guest is the remarkable social scientist and author, Reuben Jonathan Miller. His book, "Halfway Home," is a powerful and insightful examination of the American criminal justice system. Drawing on his own experiences as a researcher and advocate for criminal justice reform, Miller brings a unique perspective to the conversation about the complexities of incarceration and re-entry. His writing is engaging, thought-provoking, and, above all, deeply human, reminding us that those who have been incarcerated are more than just statistics or labels; they are individuals with their own stories, struggles, and aspirations.

April is Second Chance Month, so for this weeks' best of episode and  we revisit a conversation with the incredible Vincent Bragg. After being sentenced to several years in prison, Vincent Bragg quickly learned that some of the most outside-of-the-box thinking happens inside the box. During his incarceration he watched as his fellow convicts were able to make something from nothing—books, music, entire meals—all created between four barren concrete walls. Still inspired by the sheer amount of talent he saw in prison, he founded ConCreates, a creative agency that crowdsources ideas from incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated men and women. Chris and Vincent talk about his mission - to challenge the stigma of how society views people with a criminal history, as well as how people with a criminal history view themselves.  An episode not to be missed.