I learned from Frances Moore Lappé about a cool agricultural effort in Chicago. A group is turning an old meat packing plant into a vertical farm — plus. The building is being converted by volunteers into a home for raising vegetables, tilapia, mushrooms and for a host of other enterprises: a beer brewery, a kombucha […]
Cheese, Dogs, and Pills to End Malaria
God bless you, Bart Knols. To bring attention to an important cause, you’re willing to address a global audience in your boxers. Why did he do it? To spread the word on some innovative ways to fight malaria. While many parts of the world have pretty much eliminated the danger of malaria, primarily through draining breeding grounds, […]
Anne Frank: How to Begin
In Writing to Change the World, Mary Pipher tells of visiting the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C., to see a special exhibit on Anne Frank. The exhibit included the cover of and pages from her diary as well as film clips of a neighbor who brought food and a rare clip […]
10 Leadership Tips from North Korea
North Korea recently celebrated the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung. I was privileged to see some of the monuments to his greatness when I was there in 1999 for an international nonprofit. We had gone to coordinate a shipment of breeding goats that were hand picked in France and flown in by plane. We […]
Congratulations, Bill!
I was excited to read in this morning’s paper that one of my heroes will be awarded the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Bill Foege is not well known like others named: Bob Dylan, Madeleine Albright, John Glenn, Toni Morrison. But he has arguably helped save more lives than any living person. I […]
World’s Coolest Main Street
How is innovation part of reclaiming an urban core? It may not look like it now, but in not too many years, Little Rock will be home to the world’s coolest Main Street. It’s going to take some creativity. I took these photos, looking north and south from Capitol, the very heart of […]
Food Trucks on Main Street
Besides my marketing and strategy work with nonprofits, I volunteer with a few groups. Longest running of these is the effort to revitalize downtown Little Rock. First as a board member of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership; and more narrowly, on the mayor’s task force to revitalize Main Street; and more narrowly still, the […]
sOccket
Because a professor was indifferent to his students’ first project idea, many people around the world will have light at night. This week at the Clinton School of Public Service we got to hear Jessica Matthews, co-founder and CEO of Uncharted Play, an organization that mixes fun with solving the world’s problems. She and her colleagues developed a […]
Hairdressers Cut Skin Cancer?
Winston Churchill said, “The maneuver which brings an ally into the field is as serviceable as that which wins a great battle.” Gaining the support of President Roosevelt and the United States, of course, turned the outcome of World War II. Now the British are looking at a new ally for a different battle: the […]
Cash Mobs
Today, March 24, is National Cash Mob Day. Begun last year, cash mobs organize flash mob participants to meet and spend $20 at a local store, supporting homegrown businesses. Cash mobs have spread to dozens of cities around the country and are popping up overseas. While a boost of $800 in the lucky cash register […]