The Study of Purpose

23/02/2021

22/02/2021

BREAKING NEWS❗️

Data is the new plastic...?! From the moment you take a photo, post it or save it, that one picture goes into a massive data storage for MILLIONS of years. We talk a lot about the cloud, but in reality it is a collection of physical locations containing millions of hard drives collecting and storing all of our information! That energy adds up!

21/02/2021

Extraction is apart of every process EVEN if it involves sustainability. Take TESLA for example, where there are still negative impacts to create an electronic car. We can never be perfect, so might as well have fun with the process.This idea of reducing consumption, essentially limiting growth for some time, goes against the capitalist ideal, to do whatever it takes to expand but this “degrowth” is necessary if we want to move towards a more sustainable society.

20/02/2021

Finding purpose starts with no one else but YOURSELF! Dr. Collins encourages us to evaluate & explore the relationship with ourselves. When we exercise our ability to look inward we better understand who we are and thus where fit in within this beautiful world!

19/02/2021

EPISODE 15: (can you believe we have 15 episodes?!) 😱

linktr.ee/thestudyofpurpose

Click the link to listen to the one and only Dr. John Collins. John is is a nuclear physicist, an inventor, and an expert on commercializing disruptive innovations. He also just might be one of the most curious people on earth. Born and raised in an impoverished area of London, John had 33 hobbies between the ages of 11 and 19 ranging from computer programming and electronics design to stone polishing. Despite his technical talents, John opted to study psychology at university after hearing rave stories about the field from a s*x therapist friend of his. After he had his fun in undergrad, he achieved a PhD in nuclear physics and went on to invent the world’s first lab grown diamond at De Beers. Nowadays his life is focused on helping scientists commercialize their research in artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. And of course, he’s hyper-focused on his purpose: to help others achieve their purpose. We hope you enjoy listening to him as much as we did!

06/02/2021

Kibwe’s mother—a Black architect living and working in Washington, DC throughout the 80s and 90s—gave him a first-hand glance at how cultural structures of inequity affect one's capacity to realize his/her/their full professional potential. Her struggles and triumphs remain chief inspirations for the work he does with The Kelly Initiative (), aimed at mitigating the fashion industry's analogous patterns of employment discrimination. Via an industry-census and data-disclosure, it centers game-changing accountability in its action-plan proposed to the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) last June. That accountability is essential in making authentic and lasting change.

Kibwe Chase-Marshall

05/02/2021

Kibwe Chase-Marshall ()is one of the three founders of the Kelly Initiative (), an advocacy org dedicated to forging equitable inroads for Black fashion talent. Follow the link to learn about their 4-point plan to stimulate greater industry transparency, objectivity, information, and Black professional talent visibility.

https://thekellyinitiative.net/

04/02/2021

Volume ⬆️🔊 as Kibwe Chase-Marshall () describes the duality within his purpose; it operates on both a personal and communal level. Yes folks, purpose can be multi-faceted! Do you feel this same hybrid of motivations in your life? If not, are there areas of your life that stand to be incorporated into your "purpose”?

03/02/2021

Episode 14:

Kibwe Chase-Marshall is real — but to the average person, his identity may only exist in theory. As an Ivy-educated, gay, gender-presentation-non-conforming, Black professional working in the fashion industry, his profile is hardly par-for-the-course. Navigating assumptions about him hasn't been easy, but he's dedicated to claiming his space, on his own terms. Upon emigrating with his mother (an assumption defying Black female architect) from Trinidad to Washington, DC at 3 years old he was immersed in art, creativity, and design throughout his childhood. Bitten by the fashion bug in high school, Kibwe would accept his first design position (in Michael Kors' studio) at the age of 19. Since then, he’s forged a career in design and editorial, having developed product for collection and mass-level apparel brands and written as a contributor for Elle.com, Papermag, and Town & Country. Recently, he co-founded the Kelly Initiative (), a coalition of Black fashion professionals who are speaking up about the employment discrimination they face and positing an action plan to mitigate it. Kibwe is a champion in all aspects of his life; click the link below to listen and LEARN why!🧡

https://linktr.ee/thestudyofpurpose

22/01/2021

One of our devout listeners shared his notes he takes while listening! We love to see the ways you all engage with the content.

10/01/2021

GUT health has become a popularized topic and Charlotte shares her understanding as to why people need to be taking this more seriously for our well-being!

09/01/2021

Press play to hear Charlotte's intriguing outlook on human purpose 🌎✨

07/01/2021

You heard it here folks, GET BORED! Fascinating approach to reflection by Charlotte Cramer. Simply clear your mind, sit through the discomfort of boredom, and let the insights arise.

05/01/2021

Episode 13:

Charlotte Cramer has a hot take on purpose: devoting your entire life to your purpose isn’t usually practical. She believes that you can cultivate purpose in your life without doing anything radical. You don’t have to quit your day job and sell your car or move to the forest and take a vow of silence; rather, you can keep your day job and start low-risk purpose projects on the side!

She’s been practicing this since 2015: by day, Charlotte is a marketer for companies like Google and Vice, and by night she is an author and social entrepreneur. In 2015, she launched her first side project, Crack and Cider — a store where people could buy essential items for homeless people. The project was a success, which led her to launching it in London, San Francisco, and other cities across the globe.

She has distilled her learnings into her brand new book The Purpose Myth: Change the world, not your job. With her unique background in neuroscience, marketing, and side projects, Charlotte provides a digestible and compelling step-by-step guide on how to build purpose-driven side projects from the ground up.

Charlotte believes we all have a unifying, innate purpose to be in service to other humans to further the survival of our species. To her, purpose is actionable rather than an end destination. She believes we should all strive to find purpose or feel purpose every day. Charlotte implores us to journal, seek boredom, and nourish our bodies with good food to promote a healthy gut and mind, and to prevent our ego from driving us!

Go to http://thepurposemyth.com where you can find more about Charlotte’s book and access exclusive events and discussions!

And of course, check out our recent interview with her!
https://linktr.ee/thestudyofpurpose

28/12/2020

Listen in as Jee reinforces the power of narratives in our lives. People learn and connect through experiences and experiences are translated by stories. You check out even more of his work with his Narrative Initiative Organization. It provokes us to think, it may not be fixing the problem, but rather reforming the narrative.

27/12/2020

Philanthropy is evolving in terms of growing donations and implementing growth measures to ensure the organizations and foundations created to help people are optimizing their chances of doing so. It is one thing to start a philanthropy but how can we maintain them the best way possible? Startup culture has clearly had some impact.

26/12/2020

Jee reflects on the animation of his journey from not only having to serve as a translator between Korean and English for his family but the bridge between the two cultures. This process illuminated a lot about the world around him and ultimately is a huge reason he stepped into transforming inequality through philanthropy!

25/12/2020

Episode 12:
We are so pleased to introduce Jee Kim! Jee is a committed philanthropist inspired by his early exposure to social inequality. Born in Korea, Lee was extremely aware of the cultural and social environment during his transition to America and specifically during his undergrad at Columbia and then grad school at Oxford. Throughout his young adulthood, he understood that inequality is not a natural state nor should we expect it as a given. Lee dove into philanthropy and activism a bit after grad school to focus on understanding the barriers to creating durable and lasting change. He shares as humans, we are hardwired to be moved by stories. The power of narratives is real, people! Lee encourages us to question the dominance of narratives in our own lives, cultures, societies and economies and the benefit or detriment individuals receive because of them. Narratives such as marriage, education, and decriminalization are a few of the themes he touched on. We are so appreciative of the views Lee shared with us and hope you are too! You know the drill...click the link to listen & let us know what you think! 🙌🏻
https://linktr.ee/thestudyofpurpose

13/12/2020

Marcel shares his thought process behind his focus on alleviation of market-driven solutions. He can apply his skills to succeed all while making our 🌎 a better place!

12/12/2020

Do you feel like you can truly make a difference? Thank you for reminding us Marcel that in the end it's all about impact. ❤️

10/12/2020

Not sure what a B Corp is still? Tune in to listen to Marcel's excellent explanation!

08/12/2020

Episode 11:

What a wonderful start to the month with our next guest, Marcel Fukayama. At only 17, Marcel realized he could help provide affordable internet access to low income areas in Brazil through the creation of internet cafes. He mobilized major resources with his designing of the first scalable, digital program for children and partnered with Microsoft and Dell. The core of his purpose is to maintain positive impact through market driven solutions (such as Internet access) to solve social and economic problems and promote systemic change. A massive part of his life right now is devoted to supporting people’s B Corp businesses as a force for good. He implemented the first Latino American B Corp movement in Brazil and since has initiated over 600 in the region and more than 24,000 other businesses using his developments to succeed with social impact. Marcel oozes social entrepreneurship and the episode is FULL of enlightening information on how you can reshape your mindset to help others. Click the link and enjoy! 🤩️✨

https://lnkd.in/gWEk_Pp

22/11/2020

How can you change your criteria in job development or in other areas of your life? If this speaks to you, share your thoughts with us by sending us a message or commenting below!

21/11/2020

"Play is at the heart of everything". Be imaginative with your tools, to allow yourself more perspective! Rediscover your inner child and run with it, you'll be unstoppable. 🏃❤️

19/11/2020

A great way to invite serendipity into your life is through the HOOK strategy. Try implementing this relatability technique and create more meaningful connections with others ✨🤝

18/11/2020

Check out one of our listener's blog inspired by our most recent podcast on Serendipity with Christian! Thank you Eyal, your city is lucky to have you!

In a podcast I listened to yesterday, the interviewee discussed what they call the “Serendipity mindset”, an approach to the world that…

17/11/2020

Episode 10:

Born and raised in Germany, Christian Busch is a Professor and Director of Global Affairs at NYU, Social Entrepreneur, community builder, and most recent author of, “The Serendipity Mindset”. Christian suffered from an almost fatal car crash that drove him into this intense search for meaning. Inspired by children’s innate curiosity he presses the importance of integrating them in conversations as well as surrounding yourself with good people in everything that you do. With the question of “what makes me come alive” in mind, Christian utilized his loving upbringing and desire to bring people together to pursue and cultivate serendipity. He taught us that a serendipitous mindset is intuitive to humanity, yet must be manifested in order for someone to feel and create the meaning in spontaneous interactions with others. If we invite serendipity into our own lives more communities are built, more beliefs are evolved and powerful moments of change are transpired. We are massive fans of Christian's teachings and believe you will be to. Let's be serendipitously adventurous together!

Follow the link to listen! 😃
https://linktr.ee/thestudyofpurpose

08/11/2020

Today we’d like to introduce the latest member to join The Study of Purpose team, Faith Dunn!

Faith is a fourth year student at UCLA majoring in Communications and minoring in Entrepreneurship. During her time at UCLA, she was a D1 Varsity Swimming and Water Polo athlete.

To her, purpose is all about doing what you love and loving what you do, investing in others and taking steps back to reflect on where you are in your life and asking the hard question of is this where I really want to be? Life is all too fragile to not be asking these questions.

She joined the podcast to do exactly as she lives by which is investing in people! Listening to them, showing and exchanging kindness, understanding how they think and why they think a certain way. It is important to her that we look outward beyond ourselves and lean into our curiosity of human nature. We learn so much when we listen. She believes a life full of curiosity, playfulness and empathy is a life well-lived.

We’re really glad to have her on board and can’t wait to see what we can all discover about the meaning of it all… Purpose!

02/11/2020

Britt talks about the film she created, Jean de Oro , for a denim company in Columbia, inspired by her observation of the one-sided relationship between man and Earth. Since the release, she noticed more people feeling this, but struggling to articulate the emotions! You never know the lasting impact your actions can have on others, positive or negative!

01/11/2020

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

"When I said there is no price of food I mean that the economics in determining the cost we pay for food has been so skewed that there is no real dollar when it comes to commerce and food.

Taking the radishes as an example and knowing you can buy them for at a grocery store or farmers market for a dollar or two - when you take into account the resources that went into growing those radishes: soil, sun, watering from seed germination to harvest, the labor involved in that planting and watering and then the harvest time. After they are harvested: the water to clean each radish so no one sees any earth on them, bunching them, packing them and then add the carbon cost of traveling to the market, handling them for display and then the transaction of commerce… don’t you wonder how on earth everything is so cheap?

If we could give the radishes a fair price, what would it be?
Does our society even value natural resources like healthy soil (and the labor involved in building soils naturally), clean water and sun energy enough to put a fair price on them?
Subsidies for farmers are definitely running things behind the scenes and this kind of gov't involvement does not always have everyone’s best interest in mind."

31/10/2020

We loved listening to Britt talk about what art means to her. Makes us think where our safe place and we hope you ask yourself too!

30/10/2020

Episode 9

We are very excited to introduce Britt Browne! Britt is an LA based artist who specializes in farming and sustainable action. She grew up in the gardens, but it was in college where she discovered art as her truest form of self expression. From there she jumped around from an exchange program in Holland, Vermont, New York, to a chocolate farm in Costa Rica & Panama, all of where she found immense gratification in the physicality of farming and agriculture (feeling one with the Earth!).

She spent some years in high fashion and trend forecasting which opened her eyes to the environmental devastation caused by the industry. She questioned how society can divest from this state of chronic pollution and how as individuals we can rebalance this one sided relationship with our Earth! Britt is fearless in her expedition with nature and will never stop exploring! Using mother Earth as her tool she hopes to create a compost co-op in LA where art can be a communal activity...a space for people to create together! Click on the linktree below to listen to the full conversation on either Spotify or Apple Music!

“Art is refuge. You can be anyone you want. Art is a safe place “
“Success is engaging & showing up with an open heart...the feeling of a fulfillment and presence”

https://linktr.ee/thestudyofpurpose

15/10/2020

Sumitra Rajkumar is a practitioner of somatic therapy, which focuses on self-awareness of the body as a critical component of personal development.

The somatic arc of transformation describes the stages of this process, but Sumitra says it can really be boiled down to a radical acceptance of oneself.

“It’s really allowing for who you are in a deeply compassionate way. And then, when you do that, a lot of relationships transform.”

By embracing yourself with compassion, loving yourself for who you are, you free your soul to step back from the mind and body, and observe free of judgment. The truth makes us a better person, not what we want to tell ourselves.

Once you’re self-aware, the rest of the arc of transformation explores how to manifest purpose in our lives through new practices! Tune into this week’s podcast with Sumitra to learn more:

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https://tinyurl.com/y46h5kb9

11/10/2020

Episode 8 is live, and this time we sit down with Sumitra Rajkumar, a social justice activist and practitioner of somatic therapy!

Episode: https://thestudyofpurpose.substack.com/

Sumitra was born in Chennai, South India and raised in Dubai, before coming to the US for college. In the 90’s she moved to New York and, because of her experiences growing up, was drawn to social justice. She started working on the streets, with youth organizing and political education, then moved her way into leadership roles with groups such as Social Justice Leadership.

Sumitra told us that she has met incredible people throughout this journey. However, she noticed that conflict could still arise among individuals, despite working toward similar goals and having similarly good intentions. Here she describes that phenomena…

Truth is, this happens all the time with the people mean most in our lives - family, friends, co-workers. This is an important reminder to keep the larger perspective in mind and focus on uniting behind similarities, rather than dividing ourselves based on differences.

For more learnings on social justice and personal development, tune into the podcast!!

30/09/2020

Just because something can be done, doesn’t mean that it should be...

With the challenges we’re facing today, our collective values are more important than they’ve ever been. How can we chart a path forward that navigates climate change, advancing technology, and systematic inequality?

These are just a few of the issues and they can’t be solved with pure human intelligence, force, and ingenuity. There’s something else going on here...

It’s about relationships. Our relationship with nature, our relationship with the tools we’re building, and our relationship with each other. Will we be able to cultivate relationships founded in love and compassion or whether we give way to fear and greed?

Here, Char talks about the push / pull of developing homes in fire zones, and how holding back was scarcely considered despite putting lives at risk. He suggests this same balance applies to other things too, but the culture of our society has made it a hard concept for people to adopt.

For more listen to Episode 7 of the Study of Purpose! And next time you’re thinking about a challenge in society, don’t rush straight to the solution, start with our relationships.

Check out the episode here: https://thestudyofpurpose.substack.com/p/episode-7-wildfires-urgency-and-history

25/09/2020

Episode 7 is live! This week we sit down with Char Miller, an award-winning Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College and an expert in US forest management, water resources, and wildfires.

We talked a lot about purpose and learned how Char helps his students explore and find meaning in the world. We also talked about the massive wildfires that struck the west coast. Here he breaks it down for us…

At the end of the day, this is a natural disaster and it’s been caused by a 40 year dry cycle in the Southwestern United States. Char mentioned that this problem isn’t isolated - Northern India near the Himalayas and others are experiencing the same kind of drying pattern.

Our climate is changing and it doesn’t show signs of stopping anytime soon. Time for us to adapt!

https://spoti.fi/2FY7vXh
https://apple.co/2Ho7M68

13/09/2020

Episode 6 of The Study of Purpose is live!
This week we chat with Terry Kramer, the director of the Easton Technology Management Center at UCLA Anderson.

Terry rose up in the business world, served as a US Ambassador, and now is focusing on educating our next generation of leaders.
He has a particular focus on the future of technology and society - how technology can be used to advance on societal goals juxtaposed against a growing techlash.

Terry explained that he was only able to get to where he is today because of PLANNING. Always looking ahead to where he wanted to be and then identifying the steps to get there.
In this clip we can see that all this planning started young. At 9 years old Terry wanted a Pontiac Firebird, so he decided a plan to work odd jobs and save up until he could afford the car. He stuck to his plan and rode that car all the way to Harvard Business School!

Tune in on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to hear more about Terry’s journey and also get an inside look at his new business school class on technology x society!
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3imyoC5
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3hi3KIJ

‎Show The Study of Purpose, Ep Episode 6: On Planning Your Life and the Future of Technology with Terry Kramer - Sep 7, 2020

01/09/2020

Late last week, we lost the brilliant Chadwick Boseman.

After hearing about his passing, we stumbled upon this clip of Chadwick discussing the concept of purpose at the 2018 Howard University commencement ceremony.

So poignant and sincere.

Chadwick will be greatly missed.

We hope his words will serve as inspiration to you all.

Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the t...

24/08/2020

Check out a clip from our recent interview with João Paulo Pacifico, CEO of Gaia Group. His current purpose is to spread happiness, reduce inequality, and mitigate climate change.

Check out the full episode on:

Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gK5XjrV

Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/gpQNp68