The Boss Ladies Podcast (2024)

27/11/2023

In June 2023, the USDA approved the first ever cell-cultivated chicken meat for commercial sale, developed . 🧫🐔

In our latest episode, we had on Rachel Valenzuela— Director of Discovery at Upside Foods, to chat about her journey through chemistry, chemical biology, and genome engineering through the Philippines and the U.S to her current role as a breakthrough scientist studying which cell types can revolutionize our lab-grown meat pipeline.

We begin the episode by diving into Rachel’s PhD research in siRNA efficacy and specificity, which led her to Berkeley’s Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI). Rachel discusses her work at the IGI at the nexus of academia and industry, as she worked on projects involving large corporations, such as Pfizer, to both develop scientific tools and think about their applications in a real-world drug discovery pipeline.

In the second half of the episode, we break down the start of Rachel’s journey at UPSIDE Foods over 5 years ago as a Cell Line Engineer alongside less than 10 employees.

Rachel breaks down the structure of the early research teams, the decision-making to tackle a wide range of species—including avian, mammalian, and crustacean—to study the cell biology of, and how she has seen UPSIDE Foods evolve drastically as the company develops a higher focus on speeding up the discovery to commercialization pipeline.

We close out by discussing how self-mentorship has enabled Rachel to identify and close the gaps she experiences as she pivots across decisions, roles, and projects.

Check out the episode at the Spotify link in our bio! :)

14/11/2023

Did you know advancements in VR and digital 3-D printing have made it possible, for the first time on Earth, to walk inside a dead star? 🌟🌌

In our latest episode, we spoke with , a visualization scientist and Emerging Tech Lead for Observatory, which has its headquarters at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

We open this episode with Kim's initial start in public health and molecular biology while she was an undergraduate student and her pivot to working for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 1998.

Kim expands on the evolution of her role as both the fields of data visualization and astronomy have further advanced over the last two decades.

Specifically, she shares how she led a team in creating the first-ever 3D print of an exploded star which was put into a VR application, and showcased the power of 3-dimensional interactivity with data by enabling people to walk around a dead star for the first time on Earth.

We transition into how her work has focused on changing the way that we observe our universe and she shares how we can design hardware and tools to better understand and synthesize scientific discovery in a field where so much about our observable universe continues to be unknown.

Kim transitions into black hole exploration across governmental organizations and the private sector and innovation in the methods we use to continue exploring black holes.

We close the episode by discussing Kim's ability as a science data "storyteller" through publishing numerous non-fiction books such as "Coloring the Universe: An Insider's Guide to Making Spectacular Images of Space" and “Stars in Your Hand: A Guide to 3D Printing the Cosmos."

Check out this cosmic episode at the Spotify link in our bio! :) 💫

31/10/2023

In this week’s episode, we sat down with Giulia Geneletti.

Check out the latest episode at the link in our bio :)

25/10/2023

Ever wondered how makes blockbuster trailers for award winning shows like and ? 🎬

In our latest episode, we sit down with Emilie Sabath who shares a behind a scenes glimpse into her career as creative director and cinematic storyteller and her experience working for clients such as
and with major brands such as and !

Check out our episode at the description below! :)

06/10/2023

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Angela McCarthy, CEO of The Earth Foundation, which strives to foster a self-perpetuating ecosystem that accelerates positive change toward environmental sustainability.

The Earth Foundation is home to The Earth Prize, an environmental sustainability competition open to teenage students everywhere where the winning solution is awarded with a $200,000 prize to further their initiative.

We open the episode with Angela deconstructing the process of launching The Earth Prize and the monumental decisions she made as CEO while scaling the impact of the organization.

She expands upon outreach to schools with wide geographic diversity in order to establish the competition as accessible to all students, including those attending high-income private schools and those attending public schools in low-resourced regions.

Angela also shares how The Earth Foundation worked with the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) to encourage and support 34 teams of Palestinian refugees attending UNRWA schools.

We transition into how The Earth Prize’s ambassador system operates and how the adjudicating panel of experts is chosen to cover a wide range of fields and types of expertise to properly evaluate the submissions.

We also discuss the expansion of The Earth Foundation moving forward through future initiatives such as The Earth Prize Awards, which is specific for PhD-level students, with a scientific committee assessing research proposals in environmental sustainability.

We close the episode by touching on the role of The Earth Prize in pioneering the next generation of climate literacy and education, especially in regions with severe limitations in educational infrastructure.

Check out the episode at the Spotify link in our bio! :) 🌍🌏

30/09/2023

This week, we sat down with Tanya Das, who currently serves as the Senior Associate Director of Energy Innovation at the Policy Center and advanced federal policy in climate, clean energy, and manufacturing. Prior to this work, Tanya served as the Chief Of Staff in the Office of Science at the Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

We kick off this episode by discussing Tanya’s background in Electrical and Computer Engineering, where she also worked at the Center for Science and Engineering Partnerships to evaluate interventions to improve retention rates and degree attainment in STEM students from underrepresented backgrounds at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tanya also touches on her role post-grad where she worked to improve workforce development in the photonics industry for workers in the Central California region and how that inspired her decision to pivot in policy, where she served as a Congressional Fellow for Senator Chris C***s and supported his Economic Policy Team to advance measures around advanced manufacturing, technology commercialization, innovation, and workforce development.

In the second half of the episode, Tanya breaks down her experience working in federal policy at the HOR and at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Office of Science. Tanya speaks about the projects she worked on during her time at the DOE, the funding model of the DOE, and the role of energy-demonstration projects and how they’ve had fluctuating importance across federal programs in the past few decades. However, they can be a critical tool to accelerate the pace of deployment of key low-carbon technologies like clean hydrogen, advanced nuclear energy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) from industrial facilities and power plants while also providing key information needed by the private sector to commercialize technology. Finally, we end the episode by discussing Tanya’s transition to the Bipartisan Policy Center, where she touches on the role of the think tank in developing legislation that appeals across party lines.

Check out our latest episode on Spotify! :)

20/09/2023

Happy National Voter Registration Day! In honor of today, we brought back one of our longtime collaborators, ! 🤍🗳️

We mixed things up this time around and had the honor of being interviewed by , IGNITE’s advocacy manager on our current relationship with political leadership and initial interest in civic engagement!

We dive into the role of legislation in accessing reproductive healthcare and its impact on education systems at the local level. Before closing out the episode, we break down ways young people can advocate for political change and advice for young leaders who want to unlock their political potential!

Check out this episode on IGNITE’s Blog, our YouTube channel, and as always, Spotify! :)

19/09/2023

We’re so excited to announce the release of our 50th episode! 🎉🥳 Here’s to many more :))

To mark this major milestone, we hosted a special roundtable with the co-founders of Ovom Care; Lynae Brayboy, MD, Ovom’s Chief Medical Officer & IVF Researcher; Felicia von Reden, Chief Executive Officer & Patient Care Expert; and Dr Cristina Hickman, Clinical Embryologist & IVF Consultant.

Ovom Care is working to revolutionize reproductive care, starting in Europe, by bringing together world-class fertility specialists with the power of AI and cutting-edge research.

Check out the Video Interview on YouTube and the episode on Spotify! :)

11/09/2023

In our newest episode, we sat down with Christine O'Connell, PhD, the Executive Director of , former marine and environmental science professor, and a leading expert in science communication, training thousands of scientists, professionals, and even Nobel Prize winners to communicate with clarity and empathy.

We kick off this episode by discussing Dr. O’Connell’s background in studying the natural sciences and eventually pursuing environmental policy at Green Corps, New York’s City Park Foundation, and the Parks 2001 campaign at Partnerships for Parks. Despite her impact in policy working in the backend of local and even early presidential campaigns, she speaks about her decision to venture back into academia after witnessing the friction between policymakers and their misunderstanding of the scientific world.

Dr. O’Connell then dives deeper into her work as a member of the founding team of Stony Brook University’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science where she worked with a wide range of students, world-renowned scientists, journalists, actors, and other expert communicators to develop and teach curriculum around empathetic communication.

Dr. O’Connell also touches upon her decision to leave the world of academia behind to lead Riley’s Way Foundation, which invests in and supports the next generation of kind leaders and changemakers. She speaks to the values of Riley’s Way and its origin story, sharing how the values of Riley’s Way have led to the organic development and expansion of their national programs.

Check out the Spotify link in our bio to tune to the episode! :)

14/08/2023

In our latest episode we sat down with , a global leader at the intersection of elections, democracy, civic and tech. She is the CEO of , the Senior Advisor of Technology and Democracy at the International Republican Institute, and Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Integrity Institute, & the Atlantic Council.

Previously, Katie spent ten years as a Public Policy Director at Facebook, where she led a global team responsible for managing elections and deployed civic engagement and election integrity products during major elections for every country around the globe including the US, UK, EU, India, Brazil, Canada, Philippines, and Mexico.

We kick off this episode by diving deeper into Katie’s work at Facebook and her thoughts on the necessity for features fighting misinformation and hate speech, country-specific monitoring, and the big question of regulation: when are people exercising their right to organize and protest against their government, as opposed to preparing for a violent insurrection?

In this episode, we also discuss how technology norms differ across democratic and authoritarian countries, redefining what free and fair elections entail and their compounding effect on rapid political changes globally, and proactive vs reactive democracies.

Finally, we close out this episode by discussing how in 2024, the future of the internet remains “on the line,” as we can expect to witness a huge geopolitical moment for the world where many major countries are having elections, including India, Indonesia, Mexico, potentially the UK, and 80 others.

Check out the link in our bio for our latest episode!

06/08/2023

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Carol Karahadian, a Sensory and Consumer Science Consultant and previous Director of Product & Process Technology, and Sensory at .

We open the episode by discussing Carol’s decision to study food science and flavor chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and break down flavor chemistry and sensory science as a field.

We tap into Carol’s experience as the VP of Global Sensory at Firmenich, a Swiss-owned company that specializes in creating flavors and fragrances, and how she developed the skill of analytically assessing taste and smell as senses to develop successful consumer products.

We also touch on her use of preference mapping and PCA, or principal component analysis, in order to develop data-driven consumer profiles.

We transition into Carol’s role at Starbucks as a Director of Product & Process Technology, and Sensory and how she applied her experience in sensory science to product development for a lighter roast coffee.

We close out the episode by discussing the process of the development of food and beverage products from concept to consumption and techniques for capturing emotion-based insight from consumers.

Tap the link in our bio to check out our latest episode!!

30/07/2023

👾🧩🃏🎲🕹️♟️

For this week's episode, we sat down with , an experiential designer originally from Pakistan and a graduate of Harvard University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Previously, she worked at before transitioning into designing various board games for social impact.

Among her board games that aim to "edutain" players, includes "Monster Hunt", a game created to educate and protect children from sexual abuse, and "Arranged!" a game that allows players to intimately experience the challenges of arranged marriage faced by South-Asian women.

In this episode, Nashra shares her journey through her career in game design and the process of designing games that tackle taboo topics with nuance.

She expands on how games as a medium can open up difficult conversations and communicate serious messages while also having the capacity to evoke light-hearted enjoyment.

Before we close out the episode, we touch on Nashra's involvement with the Aurat March in Pakistan, the inspiration for her female-centric posters, and honoring Asma Jahangir as a trailblazer for women's rights.

Check out the episode at the Spotify link in our bio! :)

👾🧩🃏🎲🕹️♟️

12/07/2023

FRESH OFF THE PRESS!! 📰 🚨

We’re so excited to announce the publication of our article with the ! 🎉

In honor of WEF’s recent release of its annual Global Gender Gap Report, we break down how human capital development for women can be achieved by advancing progress on metrics such as female workforce participation in the formal economy.

We outline case studies from countries that have recently invested in closing gender gaps across educational attainment and workforce parity such as Saudi Arabia and Liberia.

Thank you so much to the team for collaborating with us to tackle this topic! We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to publish on a topic so vital to advancing human progress.

Tap the linktree in our bio to read the latest addition to our blog post series! :)

08/07/2023

WE’RE BACK!! Our summer podcasting season is in full swing and this week we kicked it off with Rebecca Hinds, Head of the Work Innovation Lab by and a Ph.D grad from . We begin this episode by discussing Rebecca's Ph.D. research and how we can define "the future of work" across various industries and time horizons.

Rebecca shares her extensive work in understanding how to optimize for collaborative intelligence in the context of cross-functional teams and in remote and hybrid work environments. We touch on obsessive productivity and how companies can often mistake busyness for productivity and how outcomes-oriented indicators are more accurate measures of productivity within an organization.

Rebecca expands on her role at the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and how Asana's "Doomsday Experiment" enables employees to redesign their meetings through an intense calendar cleanse.

Finally, we close out the episode by discussing how companies can future-proof themselves with the inevitable disruption of automation in the workplace through continuous investment in in-house talent.

Check out the link in our bio for the full episode! (Highkey missed hearing this line y’all 🥹)

14/06/2023

Throwback to ’s Norma K. Stone Young Women Run Texas Conference Keynote with !
During their day at the Texas Capitol in Austin, young women advocated for bills such as SB 124, HB 1006, and SB 379 with local lawmakers in order to push for more inclusive state-wide legislation.

We’re happy to announce that on May 24th, 2023, Texas SB 379, the bill to exempt period products and diapers from state sales tax, passed the House! It’s now expected to head to Governor Abbott’s desk to be signed into official law this month!

A major milestone for the Texas Menstrual Equity Movement that has been years in the making from both activisits on the ground and Texas state representatives such as Donna Howard.

Thank you so much to IGNITE National for the opportunity to be able to engage in this historic moment.

Scroll through below to see moments from our session! :)

Photography Credits: 📸

01/06/2023

SXSW 2023 RECAP 🎬 🎉

Scroll through to see our favorite moments from our adventures at SXSW 2023! So glad we made it back to experience another year of classic SXSW magic ✨

Thanks so much to , -media, , & -fiction!

1. taking advantage of our airbnb porch lighting for selfies✨
2. meeting up with
3. met director at the premiere of , examining the science, politics, and mysteries behind menstruation! 🩸
4. listening to the talks on the future of reproductive health at the co-lab!
5. impact lab!
6. signing letters to at the Texas State Capital to pass SB379, banning state sales tax on period products (was just passed)! 🏛️
7. Discussing biotech & pandemic innovation with Office of Science and Technology Policy!
8. Reunion w/ Phnam -fiction!
9. exploring slack-themed tunnels & swings activation house!
10. with our fav houston native ❤️

18/04/2023

💌 you’ve got mail ! 📬🥳check out our copies of .assembly’s special 2023 print edition! this year’s version featured articles from girls in Afghanistan, Ghana, India, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea, & Venezuela, and honestly, we could read another 30 pages of the stories these authors had to share! discover the online version of this year’s annual release on the .assembly website :)

11/03/2023

This week, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with , the Legislative Advocacy Director at IGNITE and Councilmember in the City of Eastvale, California. Through her current work at IGNITE, Jocelyn develops strong coalitions with various companies and nonprofit organizations across the country to advocate for bills and initiatives on women’s rights and voting rights, such as When We All Vote, PERIOD., Levi's, Anthropologie, and Glossier. Simultaneously, she represents over 70,000 residents in Eastvale to advocate for and sign legislation that addresses the same challenges she faced growing up. We begin this episode by discussing Jocelyn’s experiences entering the sphere of politics as an immigrant, and how she views modern political engagement as a necessity because policies are never permanent. Jocelyn expands on her current work at IGNITE in authoring and advocating for over 10 bills addressing menstrual inequity in the past year, such as the allocation of $1.25 million in Georgia public schools to address period poverty. She shares her experiences in tailoring not only her advocacy efforts when interacting with various stakeholders, but even the language included within the bills themselves. In catering to the opinions of lawmakers to pass legislation, Jocelyn addresses how even shifting the narrative of a certain issue often occurs through linguistic compromises. Finally, we close out the episode by discussing Jocelyn’s previous experiences in federal policy and working as an immigration specialist at the House of Representatives, where she shares how even foreign and larger-scale domestic policy directly influences individual communities themselves more than one might expect.

11/03/2023

This week, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with , the Legislative Advocacy Director at IGNITE and Councilmember in the City of Eastvale, California. Through her current work at IGNITE, Jocelyn develops strong coalitions with various companies and nonprofit organizations across the country to advocate for bills and initiatives on women’s rights and voting rights, such as When We All Vote, PERIOD., Levi's, Anthropologie, and Glossier. Simultaneously, she represents over 70,000 residents in Eastvale to advocate for and sign legislation that addresses the same challenges she faced growing up. We begin this episode by discussing Jocelyn’s experiences entering the sphere of politics as an immigrant, and how she views modern political engagement as a necessity because policies are never permanent. Jocelyn expands on her current work at IGNITE in authoring and advocating for over 10 bills addressing menstrual inequity in the past year, such as the allocation of $1.25 million in Georgia public schools to address period poverty. She shares her experiences in tailoring not only her advocacy efforts when interacting with various stakeholders, but even the language included within the bills themselves. In catering to the opinions of lawmakers to pass legislation, Jocelyn addresses how even shifting the narrative of a certain issue often occurs through linguistic compromises. Finally, we close out the episode by discussing Jocelyn’s previous experiences in federal policy and working as an immigration specialist at the House of Representatives, where she shares how even foreign and larger-scale domestic policy directly influences individual communities themselves more than one might expect.

26/02/2023

In this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Rebecca King, The Lead of the World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR). With a background in consulting, specifically with a focus on education, Rebecca currently works at the WEF to contextualize the interrelationship between emerging technology and governance models in both a local and global context. We begin the episode by breaking down the promises and misconceptions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, superexponential growth, and the power of emerging industries, such as the growing global bioeconomy that is projected to grow to over $30 trillion in the U.S. alone over the next two decades. Rebecca shares her insight on our current VUCA context—a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—expanding on how jumps in private and public data accessibility and individual interpretation have influenced VUCA innovation as well as scientific polarization. Rebecca also expands on how government often finds itself on the back foot of innovation, but experimentation and iteration in government through the form of policy entrepreneurship and gov-tech allows for both tech and innovation to become more aligned. We close out the episode by discussing the framework of agile governance, and its relevance to how countries, organizations, and governments are able to navigate the unknowns of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Check out the episode at the link in our bio :)

26/02/2023

n this episode, Manasi and Sualeha sit down with Rebecca King, The Lead of the World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR). With a background in consulting, specifically with a focus on education, Rebecca currently works at the WEF to contextualize the interrelationship between emerging technology and governance models in both a local and global context. We begin the episode by breaking down the promises and misconceptions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, superexponential growth, and the power of emerging industries, such as the growing global bioeconomy that is projected to grow to over $30 trillion in the U.S. alone over the next two decades. Rebecca shares her insight on our current VUCA context—a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—expanding on how jumps in private and public data accessibility and individual interpretation have influenced VUCA innovation as well as scientific polarization. Rebecca also expands on how government often finds itself on the back foot of innovation, but experimentation and iteration in government through the form of policy entrepreneurship and gov-tech allows for both tech and innovation to become more aligned. We close out the episode by discussing the framework of agile governance, and its relevance to how countries, organizations, and governments are able to navigate the unknowns of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Check out the episode at the link in our bio :)

The Boss Ladies Podcast

27/11/2023

14/11/2023

31/10/2023

25/10/2023

06/10/2023

30/09/2023

20/09/2023

19/09/2023

11/09/2023

14/08/2023

06/08/2023

30/07/2023

12/07/2023

08/07/2023

14/06/2023

01/06/2023

18/04/2023

11/03/2023

11/03/2023

26/02/2023

26/02/2023

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