How Things Connect

Join us for an intimate and inspiring conversation with international entrepreneur and award-winning connector Yasmine El Baggari on both journeying through travel and journeying inward, and how this can bring about greater empathy and compassion. In this episode we discuss how pain and isolation can be a door to access our multidimensional selves. She shares insights from her travels about connecting through shared values and celebrating our differences. Through her personal stories we see how vision can be applied to anything and helps bring people together to take action and create meaningful change and joy. Never limit yourself because of the limited imagination of others.

About Yasmine:

Yasmine El Baggari, a native of Morocco and San Francisco-based is passionate about connecting people and bridging cultures to encourage a more peaceful caring world.

She launched Voyaj, a platform that connects people from around the globe for one-on-one meaningful exchanges to foster global understanding. For the past four years, Yasmine’s reach has included work with the World Bank, research at Harvard University, and the US State Department as an "Engage America" Ambassador. She has spoken at international conferences, including the World Economic Forum, the Middle East Studies Association, and Obama's Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Forbes, BBC, and the Huffington Post.

Yasmine has also received awards from the African Studies Association, Hampshire College’s $60K Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Glamour Women of the Year Award, and two Ingenuity Awards. Recently, she was invited to the White House as one of the 100 Most Influential Travel Bloggers, and on Forbes' list as one of the most inspiring and promising entrepreneurs in 2016.

Yasmine has traveled to all 49 U.S. states and over 45 countries by 24 and was welcomed in over 150 homes globally. She is simply on a mission to bring back openness, curiosity, and empathy into our world.

Learn more about Voyaj at https://www.voyaj.com/

Follow Yasmine on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/yelbaggari/

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Join our Patreon community for bonuses and the opportunity to connect more directly! Look forward to meeting you there :) with gratitude and love.

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Biochemist and molecular biologist Alex Ott shares his philosopher-chemist and gastronomic genius as he takes us through his extraordinary journey from being a global nomad as a child, to surviving a plane crash which changed his life forever - leading him from being a star in the hospitality and night-life scene onto a path of healing and regeneration. By interweaving the wisdom of nature, Alex talks about the importance of health as a daily practice, the necessity for more education in nutrition in the medical field, and shares beautiful stories of personal healing and transformation.

About Alex:

Biochemist, author & explorer Alex Ott contributed his knowledge of flavor chemistry to launch the most revolutionary functional beverage menus for the famed BUDDHA BAR + Hotel in Paris where the late Raymond Visan used Alex’s talent to expand to a global phenomenon. For the next few years, Alex continued traveling the world to consult and invent for health science and biotech companies in the fields of biochemistry and olfactory neuroscience in food & beverage programs, revolutionizing a whole new field in plant science based product developments.

After surviving a harrowing plane crash in Thailand in 1998, that killed 101 passengers, Alex gained a renewed sense of life, which ignited his passions including astrobiology, nature preservation, and mood based fragrance development. Ever since, he has developed more than 300 functional, homeopathic and sensorial beverage menus for world class restaurants, award shows such as THE OSCARS, and global charities including charity: water and The Happy Hearts Fund.

Acclaimed for his unique wisdom he received major profiles in over 100 different global publications, including the New York Times, TIME, the WALL STREET JOURNAL, and features such as EVOLUTION OF DRINK presented by THE ROYAL INSTITUTION in London for his pioneering contributions to the field of medicinal plant chemistry and neurobiology for nutritional approaches on scent and flavor applications in mental health and mood stimulation.

Since then, Alex continued to consult for many scientists, worked with Nobel laureates, global flavor houses, as well as developed nutritional status assessments for commercial Space Food Systems in order to establish a sensorial nutrition panel for developing custom made + mood enhancing flavor spheres for astronauts on the International Space Station and future missions such as Artemis and Orion.  His profound passion for helping others resulted in innovative global product developments including the first hangover prevention supplement, as well as the first of its kind chlorophyll beverage, for which he won the ‘Beverage Innovation Of The Year’ Award.  Alex currently resides in New York City. His lab is available for visits and private consults.   

Learn more about Alex’s mind-blowing immersions of health science and higher consciousness: http://gr8connect.thegr8experience.com/experience/alex-ott/ 

Follow Alex on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexottscience/ 

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Support this podcast:  Join our Patreon community for bonuses and the opportunity to connect more directly! Look forward to meeting you there :) with gratitude and love. https://www.patreon.com/StephanieWang

In this episode accomplished social anthropologist and Human Design expert Dirk Nellens delves beyond the cursory layers of Human Design in individual identity, to explore the deeper gift it offers us for the enhancement of human and planetary consciousness. 

Human Design is one of the newest forms of divination. In 1987, it was revealed to Ra Uru Hu, who channeled it as a download over 8 days. It is powerful information for these times and is having a powerful impact upon the world. 

Human Design is a modality that simultaneously brings together the scientific world of genetics, biology and quantum physics with the multicultural aspects of Hinduism, I-Ching, and astrology of the Vedic, Kabbalistic and Chinese traditions. 

Dirk also discusses the commonalities between shamanism and Human Design. Ultimately, we look at Human Design as a way to recognize the inherent intelligence of how consciousness expresses through form, enabling us to trust life in a profound way.

About Dirk:

Dirk Nellens is a social anthropologist and a certified Human Design analyst who trained under the founder of Human Design Ra Uru Hu. Human Design is a lens that reveals the energetic hardwiring of life and how it operates on earth. It’s a map that offers signposts on our journey of consciousness in form, and offers each individual an original blueprint that assists us to live in a life-affirmative way.

Visit https://dirknellens.com/for more about Dirk, Human Design and to book sessions.

Follow him on https://www.facebook.com/dirk.nellens

You can also learn more about the principles of Human Design by watching his video interview with Gaia: https://www.gaia.com/video/principles-human-design-dirk-nellens

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Support this podcast:

Join our Patreon community for bonuses and the opportunity to connect more directly! Look forward to meeting you there :) with gratitude and love.

https://www.patreon.com/StephanieWang

In this episode amazing energy worker Manuela gives helpful context to this challenging time of ascension by understanding and harmonizing polarities through creativity and heart-centeredness. She shares how coming into alignment with your body is a way to access your gift, and that art and creativity are some of the most powerful tools to break through resistance and connect to the divine.

More than the “how”, she underscores how the choices we make and our embodiment of them in action determines whether we live in fear-based energy, or free ourselves to retell our story, and birth a reality we envision, with more love, expansion, healing and abundance. Through our individual awakening to our gift, we are able to build community that serves the highest good for all. Our medicine is our gift activated through the heart.

About Manuela:

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Manuela has dedicated her life to exploring the connectivity between humans through ritual and healing. Born with incredible sensitivities, she believes humans are naturally born empaths and is committed to guiding those she works with towards a deeper understanding of themselves and the world. Her immersions in different cultures, in 44 countries over the last decade, has informed her approach to renewing connection to spirit and opening the higher self.

Manuela is a “midwife of the creative process” who has spent the last fifteen years immersed in dedicated study in different healing modalities ranging from shamanistic studies, intuitive touch, psychic ability, crystal healing, aromatherapy, mediumship, dance and movement therapy, Reiki and Craniosacral therapy. Her mentorships and apprenticeships have included time in Colombia, Mexico, Bali, South Africa, Australia, Costa Rica, Italy, Argentina, and throughout the United States.

Learn more about Manuela and book a custom made session with her: https://www.manuelawelton.com/

Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manuelawelton/

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Support this podcast:

Join our Patreon community for bonuses and the opportunity to connect more directly! Look forward to meeting you there :) with gratitude and love.

https://www.patreon.com/StephanieWang

In this continuing episode:

• We discuss how soil regeneration is critical to survival of the human species, as an existential and not a political issue.
  
• Brando talks about extending biochar into other agricultural industries in developed countries to create zero waste circular economies, closing nutrient loops and reducing negative impact on the environment.
  
• He retells the story of green technology to highlight it as an opportunity for immense financial rewards as well as for creating positive social and environmental change.
  
• The process of turning agricultural waste into biochar actually sequesters carbon, generating carbon credits which can be used to reduce the cost of farming. Brando shares how he developed an innovative model of blended finance for the International Finance Corporation, working with impact investors using philanthropy to de-risk investment.
  
• Finally, Brando shares more personal stories that inspire us in his call to action.  Small changes can effect huge impact. In this Anthropocene era, as climate change and zoonotic diseases threaten our survival, it is more important than ever to incorporate systems thinking and to realize how we need to design in ways that respect all forms of life, lest we ourselves go extinct if we do not counter the industrial extractive approach to agriculture, and to life.
  
  *Part 1 of this interview is in episode 3

About Brando:

Brando Crespi is a global change-maker and climate activist with a deep background in sustainability, branding, and innovation. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chair of Pro-Natura International, which created arguably the world’s largest carbon sink, by planting over 2 million trees in the Juruena region of the Brazilian Amazon. Since the pandemic, Brando has moved to New Mexico's high desert and joined Santa Fe Farms as Head of Sustainability to deploy hemp, biochar and regenerative agroecology on a number of Native American reservations.

Pro-Natura organized 13 large expeditions to collect half a million samples of all life forms, and designed and executed reforestation projects in 63 countries. Over the last 35 years Brando has designed, funded and implemented numerous agro-ecological projects in the Americas, Africa and Asia, especially on the use of Biochar, advancing an ancient indigenous Terra Preta de Indio soil, or ‘dark earth’,  making it possible to grow plants in any environment! By implementing innovative carbon sequestration strategies they were able to provide long-term food and water security, as well as sustainable employment for the local communities. If fully implemented, technology can offset up to between 20-30% of all greenhouse emissions.

Brando was raised in Rome and educated in Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and at Georgetown University, where he studied anthropology and economics. After a few years of Italian journalism and Amazonian anthropological fieldwork exploring shamanism he moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where he had enormous commercial success launching Rodeo Drive - opening the first Fendi, Pratesi, and Versace stores, and the Hard Rock Café, and also representing licensing needs for luxury brands such as E. Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ungaro, and many others.

Learn more and support Pro-Natura’s mission at http://www.pronatura.org/

Watch how today’s atmospheric greenhouse gases can be decreased to the level of the 1950s with Brando Crespi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LK9re5DT8

I am very honored to have Brando Crespi as my guest in this two-part episode. Join this global change-maker and climate activist as he shares his incredible journey from having a near death experience that opened him up to shamanism and non-dual consciousness, to his successful career in luxury fashion and branding, introducing U.S. consumers to brands like Fendi and Versace, and to becoming a leader and pioneer of sustainability before the term ‘sustainability’ existed in the zeitgeist.

He recounts his research deep into the Amazon and other tropical forest canopies, discovering an extraordinary array of biodiversity where life forms his team collected are still being analyzed today. He also shares the importance of deep listening and engagement with local communities as the most effective approach to successfully implementing green technology.

Brando details how he and the team at Pro-Natura International discovered a way to make green charcoal from agricultural waste and invasive species, originally geo-engineered by the ancient indigenous Amerindians called Terra Preta de Indio. The resulting biochar not only increases fertility and farm yields from 50% to 300%, it reduces the hazardous health risks of burning regular charcoal that disproportionately affect women and children, addresses deforestation and also make is possible for extreme agriculture in places like the Sahara desert.

*Part 2 of this interview is in Episode 4

About Brando:

Brando Crespi is a global change-maker and climate activist with a deep background in sustainability, branding, and innovation. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chair of Pro-Natura International, which created arguably the world’s largest carbon sink, by planting over 2 million trees in the Juruena region of the Brazilian Amazon. Since the pandemic, Brando has moved to New Mexico's high desert and joined Santa Fe Farms as Head of Sustainability to deploy hemp, biochar and regenerative agroecology on a number of Native American reservations.

Pro-Natura organized 13 large expeditions to collect half a million samples of all life forms, and designed and executed reforestation projects in 63 countries. Over the last 35 years Brando has designed, funded and implemented numerous agro-ecological projects in the Americas, Africa and Asia, especially on the use of Biochar, advancing an ancient indigenous Terra Preta de Indio soil, or ‘dark earth’, making it possible to grow plants in any environment! By implementing innovative carbon sequestration strategies they were able to provide long-term food and water security, as well as sustainable employment for the local communities. 

Brando was raised in Rome and educated in Italy, Switzerland, the UK, and at Georgetown University, where he studied anthropology and economics. After a few years of Italian journalism and Amazonian anthropological fieldwork exploring shamanism he moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where he had enormous commercial success launching Rodeo Drive - opening the first Fendi, Pratesi, and Versace stores, and the Hard Rock Café, and also representing licensing needs for luxury brands such as E. Zegna, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ungaro, and many others.

Learn more and support Pro-Natura’s mission at http://www.pronatura.org/

Watch how today’s atmospheric greenhouse gases can be decreased to the level of the 1950s with Brando Crespi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4LK9re5DT8

Gifted channel and facilitator María Soledad shares her personal journey from a being successful actor to awakening to her gift, as she explains the complementary aspects between the modalities she practices: using evolutive tarot to connect to the unconscious and performing ritually symbolic acts that are part of psychomagic to help you “die” to parts of the ego and break old patterns that no longer serve your highest good, creating new neuropathways along the way. It is not about disassociation but integration, and the embracing all aspects of ourselves and everything that we have experienced. The foundation of freedom is our essence, which also includes the integration of our trauma.

She talks about how we are moving from an old power paradigm of a materially-focused world to one that is more energetic and beyond 3D. The time of the pandemic broke the illusion of control, and was a chance to discover stillness and to connect to the sacred within us. It also showed how interconnected we are and the importance of curiosity and the questioning of old beliefs, moving from judgement to discernment, and not relating solely to outward ego identity. We now have an opportunity to collaborate based on a greater understanding of unity consciousness to embody our ecstatic nature, and come together as a human community in a much more expansive and regenerative way.

About María:

María is a channel and healer that combines her knowledge and wisdom in Kabbalah astrology, evolutive tarot, and psychomagic (healing path using psychology, theater, and shamanism) to help you break through limiting beliefs and guide you to manifest your greatest potential.

Trained in psychomagic and Metageneology by Alejandro Jodorowsky and his son Cristobal Jodorowsky, María examines your family’s psychological heritage to integrate limiting patterns of behavior inherited through your ancestry, and the ones you unconsciously created as a child. This methodology is used to recognize conditioning buried deep in the unconscious mind and to break familial patterns, consciously move out of automatic pilot and remove the blockages that are holding you back from creating and experiencing your truest and deepest desires.

Learn more and book a session with María http://www.maria-soledad.com/

Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marciana24/

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Support this podcast:

Join our Patreon community for bonuses and the opportunity to connect more directly! Look forward to meeting you there :) with gratitude and love.

https://www.patreon.com/StephanieWang

In this episode, extraordinary author, activist and humanitarian Manal Omar talks about her inspirational journey from being a Palestinian immigrant in the United States to becoming a peacebuilder in the world. She shares how her desire to give back evolved into exploring how not to repeat the past, and the need to do things differently, ultimately leading to a decisive shift on her path from managing and resolving conflict to preventing it.

Hear her deep insight into the feminine, as we discuss how the integrated heart space is where the key to peace lies. Peacebuilding starts from within. When we listen to others from the heart instead of from fear we begin to break down resistance to trust that allows us to build healthy community. This is especially important for humanity as we build resilience and create positive change in this era. Her ongoing Let Love In Campaign is committed to the transformative potential of love, joy and pleasure towards the realization of individual and collective growth.

About Manal:

Manal Omar is an author, activist and the founder and CEO of Across Red Lines – an organization dedicated to creating safe spaces for women of faith to embody leadership and activate their life force. She has a certification in Global Mental Health - Trauma and Recovery from Harvard Medical School and is currently a student at Sex Coach University in California.  She has studied with many spiritual leaders over the last several years to combine the medical and neuroscience aspects of trauma with spiritual practice. Her experience as a humanitarian worker and peacebuilder for over 20 years has connected her with women's rights groups across the globe.

She has worked with US government agencies, the World Bank, United Nations, Oxfam, and Women for Women International. She has served as an advisor for global figures, a trainer for peacebuilding facilitators worldwide, and has mentored young leaders through Generation Change and YouTube Changemakers.

Through her work, she has brought together the private sector, innovators, social media personalities, multilateral institutions, and civil society. She is a Truman National Security Fellow and an inaugural Foreign Policy Interrupted fellow dedicated to including women in foreign policy and peacebuilding. She was named among the Top 500 World's Most Influential Arabs by Arabia Business Power in 2011 and 2012, and among the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by Georgetown University and The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in 2009.

In 2007, Islamic Magazine named her one of the ten young visionaries shaping Islam in America. She holds a master's degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree in international relations from George Mason University. Her alma mater recently recognized her as one of its Alumni Exemplars for their 50th anniversary.

Learn more about Manal, her retreats and events at https://www.acrossredlines.com/

Follow her on https://www.instagram.com/manal1omar/

Join the Let Love In movement! https://www.acrossredlines.com/let-love-in/campaign

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Support this podcast:

Join our Patreon community for bonuses and the opportunity to connect more directly. Look forward to meeting you there!

https://www.patreon.com/StephanieWang