Category Archives: International Podcasts

International movers & shakers

Ukrainian Podcast: Mayor Yuriy Bova

Mayor Yuriy Bova Yuriy Bova is Mayor of Trostyanets, a Ukrainian city just 20 miles from the Russian border that endured occupation for a month. Badly damaged in fighting with Russian forces almost two years ago, Trostyanets is one of six settlements being rebuilt in a pilot program to develop the skills and experience needed for a far broader reconstruction drive.

Trostyanets is now in partnership with the City of Chattanooga whose Mayor Tim Kelly formalized a cooperative agreement with the war-torn Ukrainian city. I met Mayor Bova at  a  recent reception celebrating the collaboration with many city leaders and organizations like Sister Cities. 

Hear Mayor Bova discuss through his translator:

  • The history and significance of Trostyanets and the remaining historical monuments
  • Trostyanets’ response to Russia’s large-scale invasion in 2022 and what the Russians did in the city 
  • The process of rebuilding: how it began and its current status
  • The city’s development strategy including sports and tourism industries and attracting new investors to the community

Takeaways:

  • What are current threats from Russia?
  • What are the most important problems requiring solutions now?
  • What will be the benefits of this partnership with Chattanooga and how does your visit benefit your people?

CLICK below for podcast interview

Avi Hoffman Podcast: The Global Yiddish Renaissance

Avi on stage Avi Hoffman is a globally renowned award-winning actor, director and producer, and Co-Founder & CEO of Yiddishkayt Initiative, Inc.  (YILoveJewish.org)
This is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting Antisemitism through the Arts : Yiddish Saves The World.

Avi was recently awarded Congressional recognition. He was invited to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis and was inducted into the Bronx Jewish Hall of Fame for his lifetime work advancing Jewish culture, Yiddish language and Holocaust awareness.

CLICK for Avi’s podcast interview

Journalist Lewis Simons Podcast – To Tell the Truth

LewPulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lewis M. Simons (Lew) has been a foreign correspondent and investigative journalist for half a century, reporting throughout Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union. He covered the Vietnam War, opened the world’s eyes to the terror in Tiananmen Square, was expelled from India for revealing Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s abuses and saved the life of a teen-aged Tibetan monk. Simons won the Pulitzer Prize for for exposing the billions that the Marcos family looted from the Philippines and led to the People Power Revolution and the fall of the government. Simons’ newest book, To Tell the Truth, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, chronicles those and many other extraordinary adventures.
Hear Lew discuss:
1. Why did you write To Tell the Truth?
2.What do you consider the most important story you ever covered?
3. Why did the Dalai Lama write the foreword to To Tell the Truth?
LewTakeaways for ongoing discussion:
1. Can Americans believe the news they read and view today?
2. What is the future of the free press in social media-obsessed America?

CLICK for PODCAST

Manu Smadja Podcast: International Student Support

ManuManu Smadja is CEO and Co-founder at MPOWER Financing. Manu is a former Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on Global Financial Inclusion and U.S. mass-market banking. He has worked with top financial institutions in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. Prior to McKinsey he worked in marketing strategy and operations at CapitalOne and Vistaprint. Manu holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD, as well as an M.S. in Systems & Information Engineering and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.

Hear Manu discuss:

  • What is the significance of international student enrollment in US universities?
  • How diverse is their enrollment in terms of gender, majors, and ethnicity?
  • What are the challenges international students experience in their journey on studying abroad?
  • The impact international students have on the economy, universities, and the workforce, especially as there is more diversity in the STEM fields on the horizon.

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Giselle Roeder Podcast: Surviving Tyranny

Giselle Born prior to WWII Giselle Roeder spent her early life in the relatively tranquil setting of a rural village in Pomerania, the most eastern part of Germany ceded to Poland in 1945. The bloody trauma of the fighting between the advancing Russians and the retreating German army in her neighborhood meant that thousands of people, including her family became displaced persons. l

Giselle lived in 3 Germanys: 1) 10 years under Nazi rule, 2) 10 years under Communist restrictions and 3) 10 years in the capitalistic West Germany. Giselle learnt early not to talk about anything she heard at home. After the Russian invasion witness to rapes, gruesome acts of murder; evicted and part of the ‘wall to nowhere’ next to the Russian war machinery on their way to Berlin & Victory. Starving, sleeping under the stars, against all odds she grew up and always found a way to save herself and her family. Escaping East Germany, and in a way, also West Germany , she married an unknown pen friend from Canada.

Be inspired, especially given current events in Ukraine, by her determination to stay alive and her courage to tell the stories that nobody wants to talk about.

CLICK for Podcast PART 1

 

GiselleSee Giselle’s website  for her books::
“Healing with Water” – Kneipp Hydrotherapy at Home
“Sauna” – The Hottest Way to Good Health
“Forget Me Not” – Bouquet of Stories
“Ein Mensch von Gestern” – German Poems
“Flight into the Unknown” – Part 2 of “The Nine Lives of Gila”.

 

 

Dr. Janét Aizenstros Podcast: Global Social Entrepreneur

JanetDr. Janét Aizenstros is a signatory with the United Nations Business Action Hub (UNBAH) for the United Nations Global Compact Network. She is an award-winning businesswoman with several leadership awards such as the Top 40 under 40, a recipient of the 2020 WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur Award: Top 100, the Stevie® Award winner for Female Entrepreneur of the Year Canada. She also received Employer Of The Year for Canadian Business which ranked her company 12th on Canadian Business ’s 2020 Growth List. Thus, she became the first Black Canadian woman in history to scale a 9-figure organization and sole female founder to be featured on the list.

Dr. Janét Aizenstros is also a member of the Young President’s Organization (YPO), a participant with Concordia Leadership Council and a Global Goodwill Ambassador for the Global Goodwill Ambassadors Foundation.

CLICK for interview of DR. JANET AIZENSTROS

Seun Babalola: Docuseries on Africa

docuseriesOluwaseun Babalola is a Sierra Leonean-Nigerian-American filmmaker who founded DO Global Productions, a video production company specializing in documentaries and docuseries. Her focus is to create and collaborate on projects across the globe, while providing positive representation for people of color. She is a co-founder of BIAYA consulting, a consulting firm that bridges resource and knowledge gaps for African entrepreneurs in emerging industries. BIAYA’s first project was a convention in Lagos, Nigeria  to help build a sustainable creative industry that can grow and export content.

Susan Popoola: The Challenge of Unconscious Bias

Susan Popoola is a Human Value Optimisation Specialist and published author of books that reflect on the opportunities, challenges, evolution and diversity of today’s world. Headquartered in the UK, Susan has a rich experience working in different people-related roles within organisations whilst simultaneously engaging in education and wider society. See more at www.MosaicFusions.com

CLICK to hear Susan’s podcast.

Claudiu Murgan: Water Entanglement

Water EntanglementThe author of Water Entanglement, Claudiu Murgan, was born in Romania and has called Canada his home since 1997. Claudiu’s experience in industries such as IT, renewable energy, real estate and finance, helped him create complex but real characters that carry forward his meaningful messages.

His latest fiction book, Water Entanglement, focuses on the precious resource of Water, the risks to water globally, and the potential catastrophic impact of ignoring those risks.

CLICK for Claudiu’s podcast