Positive Turbulence Podcast

This Changes Everything (We Live In)

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 06:00:00 -0700

What if the way we build homes is part of the problem — and the solution — to climate change, affordability, and outdated systems? In this episode, we talk with Chris Anderson, CEO of Vantem, about how his company is reimagining housing from the ground up. Using a modular, factory-built approach and an innovative panel system, Vantem is delivering energy-efficient, cost-effective homes at scale — without the usual trade-offs.

It’s a conversation about systems thinking, climate impact, and why rethinking “shelter” could shift everything we live in — literally and figuratively.

The Power of Purpose

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 14:52:19 -0700

What does it really mean for a business to be purpose-led? In this episode, we sit down with Danielle Duell, founder of People With Purpose, to explore how clarity of purpose can transform everything—from strategy and governance to employee engagement and long-term resilience.

Danielle shares powerful examples from brands like Kellogg’s, McDonald’s, and Tesla, and breaks down the difference between having a purpose statement and being a truly purpose-led organization. We dig into how purpose helps businesses navigate uncertainty, why it matters for decision-making, and what it looks like to design a business model that creates value for all stakeholders—not just shareholders.

Interconnected: Exploring the World Through Systemic Design

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 13:50:05 -0700

In this episode, we delve into the intricate world of systemic design with expert Mieke van der Bijl Brouwer. Systemic design merges systems thinking with design theory to address complex challenges not by dissecting them into smaller parts but by enhancing their interactions. Mieke explains how this approach can transform organizational behaviors and lead to significant societal shifts. From rethinking university systems for better student well-being to using visual tools for collaborative problem-solving, we explore how systemic design fosters deeper understanding and innovation. Join us as we uncover the potential of thinking in systems, revealing how interconnected perspectives can lead to meaningful change.

Exploring the Ecosystem of Self

Sun, 05 May 2024 17:30:48 -0700

Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of systems thinking with Michael Lindfield, a visionary with over five decades of international experience. From his early days as a high school dropout to his transformative roles at the Findhorn Community and Boeing, Michael's journey epitomizes a life dedicated to exploring the depths of human potential and societal transformation. Now the Board President at Meditation Mount in Ojai, California, he shares his profound insights into the interconnectedness of self and environment. Tune in to discover how you can engage with the world and yourself more deeply.

Unlocking Creativity

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 06:00:00 -0700

Have you ever found yourself in a rut? Do you feel like your creative spark has flickered out? Maybe you're not even sure you even have that spark. In this episode, we engage with two extraordinary minds, Jane Hilberry, Professor of Creativity and Innovation, and Felicia Rose Chavez, Creativity and Innovation Scholar, both at Colorado College. They're here to shed light on the untapped creativity within each of us, even those moments when we might not feel particularly creative.

With a Little Luck, You Can Find Your Inner Will

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 14:10:53 -0700

This story about a granite and gravel company (Luck Stone) pivoting into a values-based leadership and coaching not-for-profit business (Inner Will Leadership Institute) as well as a spin-off of a number of related businesses (Luck Companies) is a story about the power of vision. It’s about why connecting with your values matters and is an example of positive turbulence in action. To make things even better, we were able to talk to Dr. Tom Epperson, who started working at Luck Stone in college as a summer job and grew with the business through the transition to being the President of Inner Will (as well as the author of InnerWill: Developing Better People, Braver Leaders, and a Wiser World through the Practice of Values-Based Leadership) and Greg McCann a consultant, coach, presenter, author and professor and on the board of Inner Will. Don’t miss it.

Simulating Turbulence

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 06:00:00 -0700

From the Center for Medical Simulation in Boston to our periphery, we bring you a conversation with Jenny Rudolph, Executive Director at the Center for Medical Simulation in Boston, Massachusetts. Jenny is a master at team building and leadership and a natural and effective turbulator. Leadership discussions are often focused on individual strengths and skills. Jenny offers us a framework for how individuals combine to create effective teams.

Discover Your Venus Genius

Tue, 08 Mar 2022 06:00:00 -0800

The problem with innovation is that it's handled like a business with masculine energy. It is very fact-based, data-based KPIs performance, speed, or so says Fabienne Jacquet, author of Venus Genius: The Female Prescription. Fabienne offers a solution and a whole lot of positive turbulence by making an important link to the power of feminine traits and how these are key to the front-end of innovation. She's pointing at something that everyone sees, but no one is talking about.

Concert of Ideas: Activate the Genius Inside

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 06:00:00 -0700

Is your team stuck in a rut? Maybe you're all burnt out after flexing, managing and adjusting through the pandemic. Join John Cimino, founder of Creative Leaps International, as we explore one highly effective way he developed to quickly generate positive turbulence for teams and change cultures using a technique called Concert of Ideas. It's unusual. It's out there. And it works! John's got 30 years of experience doing this and he shares some amazing stories.

The Calculus of Trust

Sat, 14 Aug 2021 08:21:46 -0700

Darryl Stickel, the founder of Trust Unlimited, has cracked the code on building and maintaining trust. He’s the rare academic who not only has a big breakthrough in his field but also has developed a highly practical model. He’s applied this model in war zones, business settings, and families, all with great success. Darryl offers us the gift of learning how to build better and nurture trust. Our conversation with him dives into how vulnerability, uncertainty and context play into creating or inhibiting trust…and offers more than a few solid insights along the way.

Marketing the Gentle Way

Wed, 21 Jul 2021 06:00:00 -0700

Whether you are an entrepreneur or a professional looking to get ahead, you need to figure out how you are going to approach your marketing. There are endless hype-marketing-based services out there with some variation on connect-and-pitch. But what to do if that's not for you? Listen to this episode! Sarah Santacroce and her Gentle Marketing Revolution offer positive turbulence about marketing.

Positive Turbulence to Fight Climate Change

Sat, 22 May 2021 06:00:00 -0700

Climate change is a wicked problem. It will take a systems-thinking level solution to tackle it. Kelly Erhart, co-founder of Project Vesta has just the elegant solution we've been waiting for using green sand beaches and enhanced coastal weathering of olivine rock. Talk about turbulence! Kelly is a practical optimist and has a remarkably elegant solution. There's hope here and some big mental shifts to check into.

Turbulent Language for Positive Social Impact

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 06:00:00 -0700

Language and storytelling have to power to change the world. But finding your voice and the right words to make the impact you want can be challenging. Tramaine Chelan'gat's shares her journey to finding her words. In doing so she found her calling as a Social Impact Strategist. Tramaine is inspired and inspiring, and in telling us her story, in confidently giving us the words to frame who she is and what she does in the world, Tramaine opens the door for all of us to consider our own stories and to reintegrate all of our compartments into a single, beautiful whole. Stay tuned, you’ll be challenged, you’ll be motivated, and you may even find the space for a good laugh.

Solutions Journalism: PositiveTurbulence in Action

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:00:00 -0800

Most journalists we encounter today ask what went wrong yesterday and who's to blame, or so says David Beers of The Tyee. He, Summers McKay and Kristy Jansen of the Optimist Daily joined Karyn and Rob for a rich and robust exploration of solutions journalism. What is solutions journalism, you may ask? Solutions journalism investigates and reports on potential solutions to our biggest challenges. It’s investigative journalism focusing on how people respond to and solve problems. It is a potential answer to the emotional inflammation that many of us are experiencing today.

Positively Powerful Partnerships

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 06:00:00 -0800

Marsha Semmel is a powerhouse in the world of museums, libraries, national cultural policy and program development, philanthropy and the development and implementation of strategic public/private partnerships. Marsha is opening a door to a new way of thinking about museums and museum experiences. In doing so she’s signalling that the cultural changes we are seeing in the world are going to force us to change how we do a lot of things. Through effective partnerships to support, broaden, and evolve our approaches for how we learn, Marsha sees big opportunities for libraries and museums to play in the education space.

Small Town Genie-us

Sat, 12 Dec 2020 06:00:00 -0800

Chad Shipmaker's story is a fascinating exploration of the outsized impact remote working can have on innovation and creativity in small towns. This is a positive take on what happens when you apply big idea thinking and practical problem solving to solutions that work in these small-town contexts. And while there may not be the talent pool and big money you get in a Silicon Valley, Chad says connected, authentic community connection provides opportunities you just can't get in these larger places.

The Human Side of Leadership

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 16:38:16 -0800

Another crack in the system that is being exposed right now is that the Great Person Theory of leadership, which is really the command and control model in a nicer suit, is way too rigid. To be great leaders we need to cultivate our emotional intelligence and ability to flex and be collaborative. Elaine Broe offers us a fresh take sprinkled with humor and humility.

Positive Turbulence in Negatively Turbulent Spaces

Tue, 14 Apr 2020 08:31:34 -0700

Pete Engstrom is currently the co-founder and board President of At Home Chesapeake, an innovative not-for-profit program for seniors. They want to create a new social covenant on aging so that seniors can age in place. At Home Chesapeake is a member of the Village to Village Network, where Peter is an active board member. Prior to this gig, Pete served in the US air force in intelligence, innovation and international negotiation. He is also a founding leader of AMI. To describe him as a force of nature might be an understatement.

Turbulent Non-Profit, Positive Community

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 13:06:11 -0700

Here we headbang with Mike Moss, Strategy Catalyst for Non-Profits, creator of momentum for positive change, and havy metal enthusiast. There are few professionals who don’t belong to some not-for-profit association in one way or another. You might belong to a more formal one that is a governing body for you, like the Society for Professional Engineers. Or you might be a member and follow a group in your community like Creative Mornings. Whatever your affiliation, these organizations have a big influence on how we work, how we define success, and how our industry will evolve.

Turbulent Retirement, Positive Aging

Fri, 13 Mar 2020 16:18:03 -0700

Consider what you think you know about aging and retirement. Those words often conjure up ideas of failing health, loneliness, and dependency. But Elizabeth Isele, Founder and CEO at The Global Institute for Experienced Entrepreneurship is here to tell you to its time to shift your perspective. Not only are people who work longer healthier, on the whole, but the so-called Silver Tsunami is also the scaffolding for the change we need in how we work.

Creativity, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Turbulence

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 04:00:00 -0800

Daniel Seeff is the West Coast Director of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz and host of Excursions Radio on KJazz 88.1 in LA the only hip-hop and jazz radio show in the world...we think. He’s also a creative leader who has a finely tuned ear for connection. Daniel’s insights may be grounded in his experiences in music but they are not just for musicians. They are for anyone looking to innovate, lead a group, be creative or manage change. We explore the creative process with Daniel and how to, as he puts it, keep the tap flowing, while still pushing for excellence.

Innovating Food, Turbulating Your World

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 04:00:00 -0800

Natalie Shmulick calls herself a Food Business Incubation Specialist, Creative Strategist, and Innovation Anthropologist. She’s the CEO of The Hatchery Chicago, a Food Business Incubator. If you’re an entrepreneur, innovator or someone who works with a product of any kind, you want to hear what Natalie has to say. We cover a lot of ground including finding your why, the other exit, connecting with community, and finding balance. All in the highly demanding space of food innovation.

Positively Imagining the Future

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 04:00:00 -0800

We all know that the stories we tell ourselves have a habit of coming true. So what if someone could help you craft stories about possible, practical futures, that were positive? Stories that you could believe in? Wouldn’t that be kind of like having your own magic wand? That’s what Joe Tankersley does. He uses his gift of telling stories and uncanny ability to identify important trends to give us futures we can get excited about.

Artistic Coaching, Turbulent Art

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 04:00:00 -0800

The work of creating art may seem radically different to your notions of leadership and coaching, but Patti Streeper has found that delicate balance. This feminist artist who paints portraits of women of historical significance is also an executive coach. Through her ability to listen deeply to what both the women she paints and the leaders she coaches have to say, she is able to find deep meaning and generate positive turbulence for her viewers and clients.

Curiously Turbulent Architecture

Fri, 07 Feb 2020 01:00:00 -0800

Here we explore community and connectedness, and the intersection of art and design with Darryl Condon, Managing Partner at HCMA Architecture + Design in Vancouver BC. Without knowing it, HCMA is the perfect case study for positive turbulence in action. Their Artist in Residence Program, Curiosity Lab, and experiments like the Faraday Cafe and Alley Oop have garnered them international media attention. These initiatives are also a driving force to the firm's ongoing and outstanding creativity.

Positively Magical

Fri, 31 Jan 2020 01:00:00 -0800

Inviting a magician to your strategic planning session, leadership training or visioning workshop sounds crazy, right? Magicians are for kids. Not so! Let us introduce you to Magic on Purpose and Andrew Bennett, the founder, and Dan Trammattor, a member of the group. They use magic to shift perspectives. Their collective impact from mental health in high schools, to building empathy in the workplace, to big strategic shifts in organizations, is massive. Coming up, transformation stories, perspective shifts, and a little bit of magic.

Turbulating Food Waste

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 05:00:00 -0800

Food waste is not high on our collective radar when it comes to thinking about climate change and environmental action. Yet, did you know that in terms of global warming, food waste has an estimated impact that is six times greater than the aviation industry? Lilly De Gama, the Food Waste Doctor and Chesta Tiwari, a sustainability and food packaging expert, will blow your fridge door off. The two of them are a phenomenal storehouse of both facts and wisdom about food waste. They will help you understand why you should care about food waste and provide some great tips on how you can take action. Prepare for your kitchen to get some positive turbulence!

Positively Zingy With Ari Weinzweig

Fri, 17 Jan 2020 05:00:00 -0800

What can an anarchist with a “useless” degree in History teach you about business? Turns out a helluva lot. Meet Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, a thriving enterprise based in Ann Arbour Michigan. This 65-million-dollar-a-year business started out life in 1984 as a small deli in a college town with an, at the time unstated, vision of creating something cool and unique that was a great experience for every person who walked through the door. Tune in as you will most certainly be inspired to reflect on your mission and vision and you may even want to bring a little anarchy to your work.

Season 1 Learnings

Wed, 06 Nov 2019 13:31:02 -0800

In this episode, Rob and Karyn riff on each of the past season's episodes and their takeaways. This will be the last episode for Season 1. The first episode for Season 2 will be released in Mid-January 2020. In the meantime, check out positiveturbulence.com for great reading, watching and listening suggestions AND our new publication, PUB.

Turbulating Design Thinking With Dan Buchner

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 06:00:00 -0700

In this episode, we talk to Dan Buchner Product Designer, Innovator, Creative Leader, and now innovator and designer of social ventures. Dan is a creative force and thought-leader in the world of product, service, and organizational design with a fantastic history of solving wicked problems.

Banking on Positive Turbulence

Fri, 18 Oct 2019 06:00:00 -0700

In this episode, we connect with Dave Krepcho, CEO of the Second Harvest Food Bank in Orlando Florida. We’ll learn how Dave is going far beyond what you’d normally expect from a food bank and making in-roads in the fight against hunger.

Feeding the Community with Positivity

Fri, 11 Oct 2019 15:51:13 -0700

In this episode, we explore the periphery with Donna Del Ray, Founder, and CEO of Relish Culinary Adventures. Donna is an explorer by nature. And driven by that passion to explore, be creative and curious, she stepped out of her great job as a chemist working for a tech company in 2008 and took her passion for food, wine and great experiences and stepped into Relish Culinary Adventures (relishculinary.com) to create fun and entertaining culinary events in and around Healdsburg, California, in the Sonoma County wine country.

Generating Positive Turbulence in a War Zone

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 06:00:00 -0700

In this episode, we will hear from John Cramer. Like so many of the turbulators we speak to, John is both an artist and innovator. Our discussion with John focused on his trip to Erbil in Iraq with American Voices, a nonprofit based out of St. Louis MO. to generate positive turbulence with young people there through teaching violin and communicating through music.

The New Thought Leadership With Vickie Sullivan

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 06:00:00 -0700

In this episode, we spend some time with Vickie Sullivan, an expert turbulator and marketing strategist for thought leaders. She shares her tips and tricks to get your ideas out there in this chaotic environment. She’s smart, funny, and wise. Tune in to this savvy guide to the world of thought leadership and influence.

A Master Class in Positive Turbulence With David Culton

Fri, 20 Sep 2019 10:27:09 -0700

In this episode, we’re exploring how you keep turbulence positive. David Culton is an Innovation Consultant, Photographer, Artist and Magician. He is a master at the balancing act between being disruptive and generating positive turbulence. Here you get a behind the scenes view on what it takes to help organizations develop innovative ideas by generating positive turbulence.

Standing in Love With Teaching

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 06:00:00 -0700

In this episode, you’ll get to meet William Anderson, high-school history teacher, turbulator, and an optimistic/pessimistic/realist. William is a curious and brilliant person and he’s found space to fearlessly bring courage and love into his classroom. He’s also finding ways to take innovative approaches to how we use data to support students’ definition of success.

Making Meaning With Mary McBride

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 19:43:15 -0700

Meet the designer and leader of the Design Management and Arts and Cultural Management programs at the Pratt Institute, Mary McBride. She describes herself as Person, Poet, Professor.

Flooding Insurance with Positivity

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 18:24:00 -0700

Jim Albert, data whizz kid and innovator in multiple industries. Lately, he’s turned his attention Flood Insurance going up against the behemoth US national flood insurance and winning. His company, Neptune Flood Insurance was recently named on the CNBC Upstart 100 list.

Turbulating College With Confidence

Sat, 31 Aug 2019 11:32:51 -0700

In this episode, we’ll talk to Emilia Wiles, the founder and CEO of College Confident, an organization whose mission is to get students into college without putting them in debt. Tune in to find out how Emilia is disrupting the world of higher education.

Joyfully Making Tech Better for Us All with Rich Sheridan

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 11:12:02 -0700

In this episode, we talk to Rich Sheridan author of Joy Inc: a case study of Menlo Innovation and Chief Joy Officer: the values of a joyful leader and how to build a culture of joy. We’ll hear about his company’s mission to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology