People Helping People

Welcome to Episode 2 of the People Helping People Podcast.I had the pleasure of speaking with Lindsay Stevenson, who delightfully discussed her passion for permaculture farming... and her motivations on why she wants to leave her profession as a medical doctor to start her own farm.  I am really excited to present this conversation: I learned a lot about the environmental threat to our oceans, as well as some inspiring possibilities through permaculture farming.  I invite you to listen along, enjoy!Read Full Transcript[00:00:00] Adam: welcome to the people helping people podcast where we are exploring social change culture, cool projects, making a difference, and basically people helping people make awesome stuff happen. This is your host, Adam Morris, and today we are speaking with Lindsay Stevenson, a medical doctor for British Glanbia who is passionate about permaculture farming.[00:00:28] I had never even heard of permaculture farming before I met Lindsey or even understood the environmental threat to our oceans. So perhaps we could dive right in. And Lindsay, you could tell us how this all began.[00:00:38] Lindsay: It's been a really long time and I struggled with the idea of ocean acidification and the predictions related to that.[00:00:46] So they're, they're very depressing if you'd ever look at them. There's all these things hitting the oceans from all sides. The worst case scenario and the way we were heading there is some change in the carbon crisis a little bit, but where we were heading about a year ago. Was a prediction that in 50 years there would be no fish in the ocean except for jellyfish and algae because the levels of acidification are so bad, and that was just one of four big threats hitting the ocean.[00:01:14] There's, there's still problems with like the dead zones from the nitrogen runoff from all the fertilizers and that kind of thing. Cause what happens is you get these algal blooms all at once. They consume all the oxygen in an area and you get this water that has no oxygen in it whatsoever. So everything dies all at once.[00:01:33] And I say the consistency of the water actually changes. They said it's a weird thing when you just run your hand through this water, this ocean water. It doesn't. It does. Yeah. You can feel that it's difference. Crazy. So there's these dead zones and the dead zones have been like the Gulf of Mexico has been pretty bad for dead zones because the Mississippi runs in there, and so they had all these areas that they knew, but then there's these dead zones happening other places in the ocean,[00:01:58] Adam: and it comes from farming.[00:02:00] Lindsay: It comes from the fertilizers that are used in farming and then like the overfishing and the plastics in the ocean. That's all hitting. So the oceans, like the predictions for the oceans are really dire. They're really bad. I didn't know that. Yeah, they call it the evil twin of global warming, but in my opinion, it's actually the more concerning because life is, life has existed on the globe without anything living on land.[00:02:26] But we've never seen life exist without the ocean because I used to actually wake me up at night. You know, this sort of anxiety that say, grabs you in the middle of the night and you wake without even knowing why. I'm a family doc now, as you know. And so the residency that I went through, it was pretty traumatic in a way, like they really put you into situations way before you're ready for them, and it's people's lives on the line.[00:02:49] And it was really tough. So coming out of that, I've had a period of healing where like I went to being like, okay, I can't do this job to working one day a week. And then it went to like two days a week. And then I got to the point that I was working, I feel comfortable there for five years and, but then I just realized my life was stagnant.[00:03:06] Like nothing was happening.

Welcome to Episode 2 of the People Helping People Podcast.I had the pleasure of speaking with Lindsay Stevenson, who delightfully discussed her passion for permaculture farming... and her motivations on why she wants to leave her profession as a medical doctor to start her own farm.  I am really excited to present this conversation: I learned a lot about the environmental threat to our oceans, as well as some inspiring possibilities through permaculture farming.  I invite you to listen along, enjoy!Read Full Transcript[00:00:00] Adam: welcome to the people helping people podcast where we are exploring social change culture, cool projects, making a difference, and basically people helping people make awesome stuff happen. This is your host, Adam Morris, and today we are speaking with Lindsay Stevenson, a medical doctor for British Glanbia who is passionate about permaculture farming.[00:00:28] I had never even heard of permaculture farming before I met Lindsey or even understood the environmental threat to our oceans. So perhaps we could dive right in. And Lindsay, you could tell us how this all began.[00:00:38] Lindsay: It's been a really long time and I struggled with the idea of ocean acidification and the predictions related to that.[00:00:46] So they're, they're very depressing if you'd ever look at them. There's all these things hitting the oceans from all sides. The worst case scenario and the way we were heading there is some change in the carbon crisis a little bit, but where we were heading about a year ago. Was a prediction that in 50 years there would be no fish in the ocean except for jellyfish and algae because the levels of acidification are so bad, and that was just one of four big threats hitting the ocean.[00:01:14] There's, there's still problems with like the dead zones from the nitrogen runoff from all the fertilizers and that kind of thing. Cause what happens is you get these algal blooms all at once. They consume all the oxygen in an area and you get this water that has no oxygen in it whatsoever. So everything dies all at once.[00:01:33] And I say the consistency of the water actually changes. They said it's a weird thing when you just run your hand through this water, this ocean water. It doesn't. It does. Yeah. You can feel that it's difference. Crazy. So there's these dead zones and the dead zones have been like the Gulf of Mexico has been pretty bad for dead zones because the Mississippi runs in there, and so they had all these areas that they knew, but then there's these dead zones happening other places in the ocean,[00:01:58] Adam: and it comes from farming.[00:02:00] Lindsay: It comes from the fertilizers that are used in farming and then like the overfishing and the plastics in the ocean. That's all hitting. So the oceans, like the predictions for the oceans are really dire. They're really bad. I didn't know that. Yeah, they call it the evil twin of global warming, but in my opinion, it's actually the more concerning because life is, life has existed on the globe without anything living on land.[00:02:26] But we've never seen life exist without the ocean because I used to actually wake me up at night. You know, this sort of anxiety that say, grabs you in the middle of the night and you wake without even knowing why. I'm a family doc now, as you know. And so the residency that I went through, it was pretty traumatic in a way, like they really put you into situations way before you're ready for them, and it's people's lives on the line.[00:02:49] And it was really tough. So coming out of that, I've had a period of healing where like I went to being like, okay, I can't do this job to working one day a week. And then it went to like two days a week. And then I got to the point that I was working, I feel comfortable there for five years and, but then I just realized my life was stagnant.[00:03:06] Like nothing was happening.

Welcome to the first episode of the People Helping People Podcast, where we're going to talk to people involved in social change, developing cultural ties, and cool projects that are making a difference.For this first episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mikela Thomas, the diversity liaison at Cheshire Elementary School, about culture and diversity. The Olentangy school district in Ohio has a diversity liaison for each school – and she has used her position to put together an impressive annual cultural festival.She shared her story – how and why she developed the program in her school, how she moved around growing up and experienced diversity in her own life and shared stories how diversity has affected students in her school – and how they’ve been able to break down barriers.From my experience, diversity and travel go hand in hand. The more we learn about culture by interacting with people and opening up and sharing our stories, the more accepting and tolerant we become. It’s the first step to combatting xenophobia and developing stronger ties around the world, which in turn leads to more peaceful relationships and people working together in collaboration.Read Full TranscriptAdam: And today we are going to talk about diversity and culture. Kayla has and the cultural liaison in Cheshire elementary school and three years ago she started a cultural festival to celebrate culture and diversity in the school. So we're going to talk about how she came up with this a little bit about what she's found in diversity and how she's helped spread awareness, help children understand that their diversity is okay and overcome cultural barriers.[00:00:41] You started this three years ago.[00:00:42] Mikela: Yes.[00:00:43] Adam: What was the inspiration for that?[00:00:45] Mikela: So, um, our district actually is just trying to build that inclusive climate, that culture of community. So we actually have diversity liaison supposition that was created and in every single building. So I believe we have 2324 schools in our district and every single building, elementary, all the way up to high school has a diversity liaison in that position.[00:01:09] And at that school. And so basically I took on that role. I was like, you know, being the only African American teacher at the school, actually there's only two minority teachers in the whole building. Oh, wow. You know, I just wanted to make sure to bring that awareness of diversity here. As soon as I found out that that was like a position that was coming up and I was like, Oh, I'm on it.[00:01:30] And there was no[00:01:31] Adam: position.[00:01:32] Mikela: So, so as a diversity liaison, we are responsible for providing professional development to the staff about identity inclusion, awareness, you know, different things. We also have a student diversity group, and so my diversity group was called the wild cards because our school theme is wondering, imagining learning, discovering which stands.[00:01:51] That's our wild. And the card stands for children, advocates, respecting differences. And so I teach the kids that if you're a wild car, like in the game, you know, have that car that has all the colors on it and it's a wild card. It just changes the whole game, changes everything. So I wanted them to feel like empowering them to be an advocate and making changes in our world if they see injustices and things like that.[00:02:13] So our club meets twice a month. So far this year we've done so much. We had a student come in and he has type one diabetes and he did a whole presentation on what that is, and he's still a normal kid like everyone else, but there's some extra steps he has to go through to prepare for the day and, but it just empowered him because now people aren't like, well, where are you going?[00:02:32] Why do you have to keep going to the nurse? You know, like can actually teach them about what's going on. We had Joanie, Callum.

Welcome to the first episode of the People Helping People Podcast, where we're going to talk to people involved in social change, developing cultural ties, and cool projects that are making a difference.For this first episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Mikela Thomas, the diversity liaison at Cheshire Elementary School, about culture and diversity. The Olentangy school district in Ohio has a diversity liaison for each school – and she has used her position to put together an impressive annual cultural festival.She shared her story – how and why she developed the program in her school, how she moved around growing up and experienced diversity in her own life and shared stories how diversity has affected students in her school – and how they’ve been able to break down barriers.From my experience, diversity and travel go hand in hand. The more we learn about culture by interacting with people and opening up and sharing our stories, the more accepting and tolerant we become. It’s the first step to combatting xenophobia and developing stronger ties around the world, which in turn leads to more peaceful relationships and people working together in collaboration.Read Full TranscriptAdam: And today we are going to talk about diversity and culture. Kayla has and the cultural liaison in Cheshire elementary school and three years ago she started a cultural festival to celebrate culture and diversity in the school. So we're going to talk about how she came up with this a little bit about what she's found in diversity and how she's helped spread awareness, help children understand that their diversity is okay and overcome cultural barriers.[00:00:41] You started this three years ago.[00:00:42] Mikela: Yes.[00:00:43] Adam: What was the inspiration for that?[00:00:45] Mikela: So, um, our district actually is just trying to build that inclusive climate, that culture of community. So we actually have diversity liaison supposition that was created and in every single building. So I believe we have 2324 schools in our district and every single building, elementary, all the way up to high school has a diversity liaison in that position.[00:01:09] And at that school. And so basically I took on that role. I was like, you know, being the only African American teacher at the school, actually there's only two minority teachers in the whole building. Oh, wow. You know, I just wanted to make sure to bring that awareness of diversity here. As soon as I found out that that was like a position that was coming up and I was like, Oh, I'm on it.[00:01:30] And there was no[00:01:31] Adam: position.[00:01:32] Mikela: So, so as a diversity liaison, we are responsible for providing professional development to the staff about identity inclusion, awareness, you know, different things. We also have a student diversity group, and so my diversity group was called the wild cards because our school theme is wondering, imagining learning, discovering which stands.[00:01:51] That's our wild. And the card stands for children, advocates, respecting differences. And so I teach the kids that if you're a wild car, like in the game, you know, have that car that has all the colors on it and it's a wild card. It just changes the whole game, changes everything. So I wanted them to feel like empowering them to be an advocate and making changes in our world if they see injustices and things like that.[00:02:13] So our club meets twice a month. So far this year we've done so much. We had a student come in and he has type one diabetes and he did a whole presentation on what that is, and he's still a normal kid like everyone else, but there's some extra steps he has to go through to prepare for the day and, but it just empowered him because now people aren't like, well, where are you going?[00:02:32] Why do you have to keep going to the nurse? You know, like can actually teach them about what's going on. We had Joanie, Callum.