What Could Possibly Go Right?

Saru Jayaraman, President of One Fair Wage and Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, shares insight into the current perfect opportunity for wage change in the food service industry, including:

• How the pandemic has laid bare the troubles with tips-based pay structures, such as the ineligibility of many service workers to qualify for unemployment benefits due to sub-minimum wages...

In today’s episode, Bill McKibben, author, environmentalist, and Co-Founder of 350.org shares his perspectives on “What Could Possibly Go Right?” including:

• Learning from the pain and trauma of the current crises in a destabilized planet.
• Reconnecting with the physical reality of the world outside of our online lives.
• Knowing speed matters in our response to climate change, as well as understanding that actions will be disruptive but necessary...

Young Women Empowered’s Victoria Santos approached our big question with a focus on social justice and racial equity. Her passionate insights included:

• The pandemic and recent protests provide the opportunity to reveal who we are to each other and who we can be to each other.
• That COVID-19 is having a disproportionate burden on people of color, indigenous people and the disenfranchised...

Food Revolution Network Co-Founder Ocean Robbins shares his vision and recent observations of our world, including:

• The complexity and ingenuity within us and all lifeforms, supporting resilience and the ability to meet challenges in creative ways none of us could have imagined.
• Calling in as much joy, love and beauty as possible into our world, within a greater context of awe, respect and reverence...

Dr. Susanne Moser brings her work’s emphasis on climate change adaptation to the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” Her insights include:

• That hope requires uncertainty. “If you're completely convinced that we're doomed, or if you're completely convinced all is going to be fine, you don't need hope... Only if the future isn't written can we possibly wish for hope...

In today’s episode, Severn Cullis-Suzuki gives her perspective that spans from addressing the UN at age 12 through to her life-long activism for environment and Indigenous rights. Her insights include:

• The serendipity that led to speaking at the UN’s Earth Summit in 1992 and the impact of this message that went viral.
• The disconnect between what we value as individuals and what our society upholds...

Activist Tim DeChristopher presents his views on our big question with themes of identity, environmentalism and spirituality.

• How the pandemic has disrupted the flimsy “identity-making” of capitalist culture, as people feel called toward more authenticity and human connection. 
• How social media may hinder creativity and empowerment, including in responses to social crises...

Heather Cox Richardson addresses the question of What Could Possibly Go Right? with a political focus. Her insights include:

• That the current condition is waking people up from autopilot and creating the realization they need to pursue change personally to create the society in which they want to live.
• A reminder that the beauty of a democratic system is getting to choose which direction to go...

For today’s “What Could Possibly Go Right?” Carolyn Raffensperger brings her perspective as an environmental lawyer and Executive Director of the Science and Environmental Health. She shares these ideas:

• The impact of applying the "precautionary principle" towards preventing suffering; this idea of taking positive action in the face of scientific uncertainty and the likelihood of harm...

President & Founder of Hip Hop Caucus, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., brings his perspectives on racial justice, youth empowerment, climate change, and faith to the big question of “What could possibly go right?” His insights include:

• How young people are communing with their spirituality and are using it to focus their fight for justice...