Out of the Box Stories: Recent Episodes
Allison Paradise
Out of the Box Stories is the podcast that gets at the heart and soul of the Green Labs Movement. We'll explore the stories that motivate and inspire people to break the mold every day. Hosted by My Green Lab founder Allison Paradise.
More information about My Green Lab can be found at www.mygreenlab.org.
Kathy Ramirez-Aguilar, PhD, green labs pioneer and the 2023 recipient of My Green Lab's Out of the Box Award Medal, shares her journey from starting a green labs program at CU Boulder in 2009 to her groundbreaking work in lab sustainability today. Kathy also speaks to where the green labs movement is going and to what we need to do as a community to support the future of green labs.
One of those things is to join the Million Advocates for Sustainable Science. If you've not signed the letter, now's your chance!
https://www.sustainablescienceadvocates.org
How do we improve the financial sustainability of non-profits so that they can continue to do their essential work? Bernie Youngblood - entrepreneur, marketing executive, and former My Green Lab board member - shares his vision for non-profits, for-profits, and artists to come together in service of the greater good.
Gus Kendrick, Project Coordinator at SMS Collaborative, talks ACT audits, his penchant for chatting about sustainability in bars, and the overlap between his love of music and sustainability. Our conversation was rooted in ACT and quickly found its way to the philosophy of sustainability and behavior change as we discussed how to engage people in sustainability in the most unlikely places.
Ritika Singh, former Program Manager and Community Engagement Manager at My Green Lab, shares her insights on how to create meaningful, lasting communities. She describes how her latest venture, an artist community in Santa Ana, has become a central gathering place for creative expression and how that has positively impacted the people in the community. Ritika's love of and curiosity about people is infectious - be forewarned you might just want to start a community of your own after listening to this!
To do something different - to be 'out of the box' - requires courage and confidence. In this episode, Lieutenant Bill Porter of the United States Navy shares his journey and his insight into knowing that there's nothing he can't do. His story touches on environmental science, the Navy, and the inner work he has done to better understand and be present with himself.
My Green Lab CEO James Connelly honors the spirit of this podcast during this interview. He leads us on a path from green labs to visualizing ideas, from sustainability to confidence, that is both unexpected and inspiring. His stories will resonate with anyone who has been told they can't or they shouldn't and will uplift those who might be letting one person's opinion limit their potential.
Annie Bevan is the founder and CEO of SMS Collaborative (SMSC) and the CEO of mindful MATERIALS (mM). She helped create the ACT program in 2017 and was responsible for conducting the initial audits on all of the original ACT-labeled products. Her team at SMSC now fills the role of auditing lab products for ACT as Annie continues to push boundaries on sustainability and inspire people to consider different perspectives.
Annie shares early stories about the ACT program, her wisdom on empathy in business, and how her love of new perspectives brings deep connection and understanding.
Steve Miller is the Founder and Executive Director of The Lab Project, a non-profit dedicating to serving small, women- and BIPOC-led labs through pro bono sustainability consulting services. Instead of retiring (as most people would have), Steve left his successful career at Eversource utility company during the pandemic to start a non-profit to address in the inequity he saw in labs' access to sustainability solutions in the Boston/Cambridge area.
Steve is the reason there are utility incentives for ULT freezers in the US. He's also the reason people will be talking about the importance of equity in sustainability in years to come. Steve is fearless in his ability to keep outgrowing himself. He shares his wisdom, his passion, and his heart.
Barbra Wells, CEO of Priorclave NA, shares her wisdom on getting older through beautiful stories that illustrate the power we have within us. By following her intuition, Barbra has lived a seemingly fantastical life. Her vitality, joy, tenacity, and curiosity are inspiring at any age. Please note, this episode is marked as explicit due to a discussion about the objectification of women.
How do you know when an idea is worth pursuing? How do you find the courage within yourself to push forward even when there isn't a lot of external support? Allison Hunter, Technical Operations Manager, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences at Imperial College London shares what it's like to 'know in your bones' which path to pursue as she tells the story of her 10+ year journey to create an energy standard for freezers in the UK. Along the way she explains how she connects with her intuition and gives practical exercises for anyone to reconnect with themselves.
Ettigounder (Samy) Ponnusamy shares his extraordinary story of courage and perseverance. Samy is best known for his transformative green chemistry work through MilliporeSigma, yet how he came to be in a position to influence the sustainability initiatives of one of the largest life sciences companies in the world is the focus of our conversation. Samy inspires throughout the narrative as he details his path from a childhood in India to a post-doc in the United States to a position at MilliporeSigma that was clearly meant for him.
Star Scott, Green Labs Program Coordinator at the University of Georgia, shares her wisdom with us on this episode. From a need to include equity in our green labs conversations to the healing power of music, Star leads us on a journey of universal truth and understanding to inspire us all.
When is an artist a scientist, and a scientist an artist? Chris Murphy - sculptor, poet, microscopist, and founding member of the My Green Lab community - discusses radical career changes, the philosophy of creativity, and how stone carving is a metaphor for life.
Welcome to Out of the Box Stories! This first episode begins our journey in exploring the ways our community is breaking the mold.