I am lost! Perspectives from changemakers: Recent Episodes
David Damjakob & Tara Damjakob
20-minute conversations on some of the critical topics of our time, challenges as well as opportunities and the contributions everyone can make, starting today. Featuring stories and thoughts from people that lead change, revealing their personal motivations and setting ambitions for the future. This podcast is being recorded for everyone who seeks a little inspiration in their personal or professional life as well as for those with a general interest in topics that move our world. Stay up to date with the latest releases on Instagram: @iamlostpodcast
Leave family, friends and a comfortable life in California behind and move to Myanmar to facilitate energy access to the local population?
Natasha's access into social entrepreneurship was a research fellowship that brought her into Myanmar - experiencing first hand the missing energy access that roughly 800mn people are exposed to across the globe, Natasha decided to stay in Myanmar and co-founded Mee Panyar. In our conversation, she shares her attitude towards meaningfulness and the value of comfort and we discuss three approaches to a more conscious and sustainable lifestyle that anyone can implement, starting tomorrow.
Building a volunteering platform because it was too stressful to do the coordination for your friends manually?
Malte became a social entrepreneur out of the habit of volunteering himself and helping others to find volunteering opportunities at the time when Germany faced a large rush of refugees. When his platform started to scale, he quit his job at McKinsey and launched GoVolunteer - his first social venture to which he added several more in the recent years. In our conversation, we discuss his attitude towards the risk of failure, how volunteering should be further integrated into the values of society and why one of his three wishes for the future is the advancement of space travel.
18 years old and already a seasoned social entrepreneur? Harsha was an 11-year old student in Malaysia when she started her personal social entrepreneurship journey - by now, she built and scaled the youth movement Ascendance, spoke at 3 TedX events and received the Diana award for being a pioneering young changemaker. In our conversation, we discuss the science of meaning, her vision for the future generation of changemakers and the power of observance and experimentation.
Should your change your workplace to how you imagine it?
Jennifer Blott, McKinsey Senior Team Lead in Tampa, dedicates extra time every week to launch and scale the McKinsey Green Teams, which are internal environmental sustainability efforts that have now spread across most of the several hundred global locations. In our conversation, she shares how internal sustainability projects can create change at scale, why being a social intrapreneur provides an attractive balance between striving for meaning as well as good salary and the three things we can start tomorrow to scale our contribution to a healthy planet.
Should you quit your job to pursue what feels like the right thing to do?
More than 6 years ago, Martin Kvernbekk decided to take a week off work to support arriving refugee boats in Lesbos - since then, he committed to helping people in need and built humanitarian organizations in Syria, Lebanon and Colombia. In our conversation, he shares how a Facebook post created the most extreme change in his life, what it feels like to really be needed and why intention is all you need to make a difference.
Do we have the strength and capabilities to solve the climate problem, an existential crisis that puts at risk civilization as we know it?
Andreas Eke is designer of the biodiverse reforestation concept The Generation Forest which has already contributed to the reforestation and protection of an area of more than 15,000ha. In our conversation, he shares his motivation for leaving Germany and moving to Central America, his optimism about our ability to continue the success story of humankind and why he advocates to put more trust into young women.
Note: The first two episodes have been recorded with suboptimal audio quality - please excuse this. We bought the first mic immediately afterwards!
Florence decided early on to invest her energy into socially meaningful progress and founded Association SynLab, a driver of change in the French education system, after previously working with UNESCO and Ashoka. In our conversation, Florence describes her path into social entrepreneurship, how she came to focus on the education sector and why she wants us to show more recognition to our teachers.
Note: The first two episodes have been recorded with suboptimal audio quality - please excuse this. We bought the first mic immediately afterwards!
Thanh Binh quit his job and secure salary to brainstorm ideas that address the world's pressing problems - after some months, he co-founded Moonshot Mission, which he wants to establish as Airbnb for charity giving. In our conversation, Thanh Binh shares his personal story from being a refugees' child to becoming a founder, the meaning of his work and why courage is among the top 3 things needed for a better tomorrow.
A few anecdotes on how I acknowledged that I was lost and why talking to aspirational people may be the best way to find inspiration
Do you sometimes feel a little lost, stuck between the comfortable life you are having and the recurring aspiration to find your 'true calling'? Then we are at least two of us!