I Am Interchange

In the fight to save humanity—to literally reweave and rework the underpinnings of our social and structural fabric—how far is too far? Many speak of hope, of community coming together and manifesting viable, regenerative solution after solution, emboldening innovators to rise up from the ashes of failed systems, to actualize the brilliant phoenix of tomorrow after the long dark night of the last several decades’ descent into mindless consumerism and industrialized madness. But what if it’s all just more of the same—pipe dreams and pansies—baby steps limping humanity and all else ever so slowly to a sad, avoidable end. With one shot, a moonshot no less, in the balance, what if it’s not enough? What if it’s one step forward and two steps back, still, and until there are no more steps to be had?

Our host, Tate Chamberlin continues passage down the Nile with esteemed guests—social activists and fellow HATCHers Stephen Brooks, Melissa Jun Rowley, and Elias Cattan—we discuss what it means to change the world.

Deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and scattered sparsely across the Colombian and Peruvian borders, reside the Indigenous people of the Kichwa Nation. With more than 400 organized communities comprised of ayllus — groups of families — the Kichwa clans currently retain the rights to over 1,115,000 hard-won hectares in and around the rainforest. And they’re mere minor landowners.

After working and communing with Kichwa activist Leo Cerda for several days in his home village, host Tate Chamberlin and Cerda ventured back out of the verdant depths to meet with esteemed Amazon Watch founder and fellow activist Atossa Soltani at her hotel in the urban center of Quito to discuss the past, present, and future of the Amazon—the thrumming, thumping heart of the planet.

What does it mean to heal? Emotionally and mentally, as we begin to peel back the protective layers of denial, isolation, internalization, projection—like so many filters obscuring what is, what has happened, what lies beneath—we are left with something alien—raw, fragile, and often unconscionably unfamiliar. The process is painful. And physically? When a burn brings blisters, a bone breaks, cells become cancerous, from where does the healing come? What happens inside that cast? Under that bandage? How do we harness the body’s ability to heal? Direct it where we want it to go? Supercharge it?

Here, I sit down with acclaimed stem cell researcher and scientist Christian Drapaeu and Philip Robinson, a licensed clinical social worker pioneering collaborative mental health care systems for all, to explore the potentialities and potholes inherent to healing, in all its forms and facets.

Many would be surprised to realize that women only secured the right to vote in this country a little over a century ago, and that, perhaps tellingly, they began attending institutions of higher learning in remarkable numbers at about the same time. The female presence in business is further still in its infancy. Though women have outnumbered men in colleges and universities across the U.S. since the mid-90s, they remain an underrepresented minority in the workplace, particularly in positions and industries synonymous with success. But why? Is the problem merely timing? Is it men? Are the patriarchal systems and structures that have defined this nation simply intent on retaining that power, and intelligent in their methods of ensuring it? Or is it more complicated than that? 

Here, on this journey through Egypt — guided by the wisdom and waters of the Nile — host Tate Chamberlin brings fellow HATCHers Meredith Marder, Catherine Carlton, and Kimberly Bryant together to share the perspectives and passions that have shaped their respective work as women in business, and their intentions for the generations of trailblazers that will follow in their footsteps.

What gives rise to joy? To hope? What of meaning? And reconciliation? Many might espouse some presumed inherent worthiness of work—a legacy of things getting done—in defining a life well lived. Others might speak of the importance of family, of intimate connection, of love as all you need. In this, context is important. Not only the context of the here and now, but that of the before—what preceded the now that has shaped both present and future perspectives. Entrepreneur, waste reduction advocate, and environmentalist Pashon Murray’s perspective is defined by her personal experiences growing up in Texas; by the roots of her race, which calls back, ironically, to the cradle of humanity through which she now floats, one from which her people were ripped, as if from a mother’s bosom, so many generations ago; by her family’s history in Mississippi, in Louisiana, in the slaveholding South. Fast friend Sara Andrews, regenerative agriculture aficionado and founder of Bumbleroot Foods, is likewise shaped both by a rural Montana farm steeped in tragedy and grounded appreciation for the earth, and an unfortunate legacy of slave ownership in that selfsame Louisiana county. And they are both firmly entrenched in the feminine, in the sensitive undercurrent and vital emotional presence that offers power, and pain. Here, while aboard a boat on their last day on the Nile, host Tate Chamberlin and fellow HATCHers Pashon Murray and Sara Andrews share of their experiences in the realm of regeneration, both without and within, whilst sipping from the deep dark dregs of generational trauma. And healing.

Few people are untouched by the humble power of music. When we’re in the depths of grief or the quietude of mid-winter blues, little soothes—provides the same solitary comfort and seen-ness—as concisely as Nina Simone’s throaty crooning or Yo-Yo Ma’s haunting cello suites. We employ music to help us focus, to energize movement, to coax us to sleep. A good soundtrack, one that augments rather than detracts, is implicit in a successful film, offering an artistic interpretation of both the director’s vision and the screenwriter’s story. Playlists define parties — whether intimate dinner gatherings or all-night raves — with intentionality and grace, coaxing community through a nuanced alchemy of harmony, dissonance, rhythm, and frissons of indefinable energy. Music is everywhere, in the mundane trappings of daily life, the wild grace of nature, the amalgamation of creativity and emotion in art.

Here, host Tate Chamberlin and esteemed public speaker, musician, and social activist Jurgis Didziulis talk about their recent work at the United Nations COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the windy roads intrinsic to seeking self and cultivating community, and the harmony in, and within, it all.

Copy by Evil Red Pen

Photo by Yarrow Kraner

On the cusp of a new moon, a group of HATCHers — seekers,
adventurers, and innovators — took a trip down the Nile in search of paths both into the heart of some age-worn darkness and outward beyond the confines of their modern vernacular. They found a way forward by looking back, way back, to a time that holds more technological, spiritual, and social curiosities than answers. In this place, floating down the spine of the earth through Egypt, the mother’s belly, they embraced the divine feminine and all that she whispered of joy, of power, of emotion, of hope. Here, host Tate Chamberlin and guests Annie-Laure Fernandez and Abdelmoety Elbhrewy revisit that trip down the Nile, through the cradle
of humanity, and into an introspective realm of head and heart, one that marries the stars above to the dirt below, the male to the female, the East to the West, the indelible past to the ineffable future that is destined to repeat it.

It often feels impossible. As the masses become increasingly aware of corruption and active manipulation throughout financial, political, and infrastructural systems, answers remain few and far between. How do you challenge the financial giants — institutions woven into the very fabric of our society — when they have all the tools to ensure their future success, in a game that is anything but fair?

But what if you could decipher the rules? Arm yourself with the very same arsenal? Learn the language of power and wield it to exert change. Lio Mondano envisions an empowered future defined by just that: A world in which “We the People” finally have a seat at the table, and we won’t be placated with crumbs. Here, he and host Tate Chamberlin explore these realms of possibility in what might very well be our answer to this brave new world.

Oxford defines decentralization as “the transfer of control of an activity or organization to several local offices or authorities rather than one single one.” Essentially, decentralization dethrones the few to empower the many, in arenas ranging from technology to politics to social reform. With diverse individuals and entities collaborating to determine the best approach and interventions to address the range of needs, problems, and structural inevitables, the systems created reflect the distinct physical, social, cultural, and political spheres in which they exist.

In this episode, Tate Chamberlin hosts U.S. Navy veteran and regenerative agriculture advocate Latham Turner, HATCH board member and co-founder of the Care Collective, MyVillage, and Off-Grid Electric Erica Mackey, and technologist and marketer for Unlock Protocol Christopher Carfi in a discussion regarding decentralization and its local and global impact on systems change.

Copy by Evil Red Pen

Artwork by Midjourney

What do we mean when we talk about systems change? And what systems do we seek to change? Systems change seeks to identify the underlying cause of social, economic, environmental, political, and cultural problems by uncovering the root factors — beliefs, structures, policies, and perspectives — that keep them in place. And in power. Much like integrated medicine, it’s a holistic approach that addresses the disease, rather than the symptoms. Once dysfunctional systems are identified and dismantled, activists and community collaborators build diverse, resilient social, political, and environmental systems to take their place. In this episode, Tate Chamberlin hosts John Kania, executive director of Collective Change Lab; David Purkey, Latin American regional director at the Stockholm Environmental Institute; and San Rahi, executive vice president for Global Brand Innovation/Sid Lee as they discuss the complexity of transformative systems change, an urgent global agenda, and how love may, in fact, be all we need.

In this episode, our host, Tate Chamberlin hosts Tony Cho, CEO and founder of Future of Cities, which aims to positively impact 1 billion people through innovations in the built environment; Stan Stalnaker, social globalization expert and founder and chief strategy officer of Hub Culture, a collaborative exchange platform; and acclaimed economist, speaker, author, moderator, and Replenish Earth CEO, Dr. Tia Kansara. Here, they imagine the future of the planet — of its inhabitants, global economies, diverse cities, and environments — through a regenerative lens. And that future is bright with hope.

Copy by Evil Red Pen
Artwork by Midjourney AI

In this episode, our host Tate Chamberlin hosts climate activist and SDG advocate Marc Buckley at the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. One of the first climate speakers trained by Al Gore, Buckley seeks to “empower billions of global citizens to live an adaptive lifestyle of health and sustainability,” actively working toward systems reform driven by accountability, optimism, and hope. Here, he discusses the regenerative model primed to replace our dystopian reality with a utopian vision well within our grasp.

In this episode, our host Tate Chamberlin is with Karoline Zizka, Florian Fournier, and Fernando del Sol of FreeFlow, a global movement to empower the people with sustainable access to complementary education, internet, and currencies (banking) for less than a dollar per month through an open-source, peer-to-peer, decentralized Internet infrastructure: ThreeFold’s Web 4 stateless and lightweight Zero-OS. 

If you haven’t listened to our last episode: The Internet of Internets, We'd recommend starting there. This chapter is essentially what the world could look like on top of decentralized internet infrastructure.

We’re in Egypt.  Join us, won’t you?

Copy by Evil Red Pen
Cover Art by MidJourney AI

In this episode, Tate Chamberlin hosts Kristof de Spiegeleer and Sabrina Sadik of ThreeFold, a growing global partnership intent on building “an open-source, peer-to-peer Internet infrastructure that removes all forms of centralization from the global IT systems.” Coined the “People’s Internet,” ThreeFold’s Web 4 stateless and lightweight Zero-OS has the capacity to revolutionize the Internet as we know it, reverting the tool to its original intention and iteration, taking power and revenue back from the chosen few and redistributing it to the many, and ensuring that your data – your “digital twin” – remains within your care and, ultimately, your control.

Cover artwork by MidJourney AI

In this podcast, Our Host Tate Chamberlin is joined by Marcus Eriksen, scientist, and co-founder of The 5 Gyres Institute, “a leader in the global movement against plastic pollution.” Eriksen and his wife, 5 Gyres co-founder Anna Cummins, have manned the Institute’s helm since 2009, leading 19 expeditions throughout the world’s waters with scientists, stakeholders, and innovators researching the detrimental reach and impact of plastics and inspiring change. Here, Eriksen discusses the true nature of the plastics beast and the work of dismantling the systems and misconceptions that have allowed its reign.

In this episode, our host Tate Chamberlin is joined by Olympian, facilitator, and community organizer Pamphinette Buisa with HATCH NextGen activists and students Olivia Bulis and Ruby Jenni in reflections on diversity, decolonization, systems change, and why empowering youth may be the first step toward a brighter future for all.

In this podcast, our host Tate Chamberlin is joined by Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, Cindy Chin, and Elyse Klaidman in a discussion examining the good, the bad, and the ugly of our current education systems and innovative approaches to STEAM explorations, both in and out of school. Dr. Oluseyi is a renowned astrophysicist, STEM educator, author, and inventor. Royal Society of Arts Fellow Cindy Chin is a NASA datanaut and the co-founder of CLIPr, a revolutionary development that “uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to create searchable recorded meeting recaps and actionable insights to drive desired outcomes in a fraction of the time.” And, artist and educator Elyse Klaidman is the CEO and co-founder of X in a Box, an online platform that partners with innovative companies to develop “world-class lessons that connect the classroom to the real world.”

In this podcast, our host Tate Chamberlin discusses the wealth gap and its impact on BIPOC communities and national economic prosperity with esteemed HATCH Montana Lab guests Otho E. Kerr III, Andre M. Perry, and Renay Loper. Otho Kerr, Director of Strategic Partnerships and Community Impact Investing at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, works to solve crucial environmental, social, and financial problems by advising investments in innovation and equity, moving money to makers. Senior fellow at Brookings Metro, Andre Perry is the author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities and the landmark 2018 Brookings Institution report, “The Devaluation of Assets in Black Neighborhoods.” He is a nationally renowned analyst of race, education, and inequality. Impact Strategist Renay Loper is the Vice President of Program Innovation at Pyxera Global, an organization working to develop collaborative partnerships that put people at the center of public, private, and social interests to solve complex global challenges.