Care More Be Better: A Podcast For Sustainable Social Impact and Regeneration

David Gottfried, co-founder of the US Green Building Council, founder of the World Green Building Council, and author of Regen360, explains why “less bad” is not enough and shares the operating logic behind regeneration: does this choice increase life or degrade it? He joins host Corinna Bellizzi to explore soul worth versus net worth, the humility inside endurance, and what it takes to move from human to humane.

Dr. Shawntal Z. Brown, higher education scholar, incoming Program Manager for Freedom to Learn at PEN America, and President of the Texas Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, explores what it means to love an institution that cannot love you back, from tenure and academic freedom to the gap between symbolic gestures and structural change. She joins host Corinna Bellizzi to discuss ethics of care, power, and what universities must become to earn the commitment of the people inside them.

Can markets and ecology genuinely coexist, or does profit logic always eat its host? Drawing on more than 25 years in the natural products industry, Dr. Corinna Bellizzi weighs the skeptic's and believer's cases for eco-capitalism, from the unraveling of Ben & Jerry's independence to algae-grown omega-3s, and argues that values endure only when they are built into a company's foundation.

William “Coach Bill” Hogarty, twelve-time bodybuilding champion and founder of the Kids Diabetes Foundation and the Coach Bill 1% Club, joins Care More Be Better to make the case that insulin resistance in children is preventable and that education, not shame, is how families turn it around. He and host Corinna Bellizzi talk honestly about metabolic markers, moderation over abstinence, leading by example at home, and what it takes to get 1% better every day.

Monica Sanders, Georgetown Law professor, National Geographic Explorer, and founder of the Undivide Project, shares how Hurricane Katrina shaped her fight for climate resilience that includes everyone, and why digital access belongs at the center of disaster preparedness. Drawing on her new book Climate and Code, she joins host Corinna Bellizzi to explore community-led technology, the true cost of hyperscale data centers, responsible AI use, and simple actions anyone can take to strengthen their community.

Can artificial intelligence be used responsibly, and can it actually amplify care, or is it just another tool that erodes empathy? In this solo episode, host Corinna Bellizzi draws on care ethics scholarship from Carol Gilligan, Nel Noddings, and Virginia Held, plus her own doctoral research experience, to offer a framework for using AI with intention, transparency, and integrity.

Many social change organizations struggle to bridge the gap between the values displayed on their office walls and the actual practices in their daily operations. Achieving true values alignment requires navigating deep humanity, conflict, and the inevitable shame that arises during transitional periods. In this episode, host Corinna Bellizzi sits down with Genevieve Smith, an organizational effectiveness consultant and founder of GB Advisory. Genevieve shares her unique approach as a "professional bummer" who facilitates difficult but necessary conversations around power sharing, organizational grief, and leadership transitions. She explains how drawing inspiration from preschool classrooms and using tools like the community garden metaphor can help teams get unstuck, build trust, and move from panic to practical solutions.

In honor of her 50th birthday, Corinna Bellizzi shares an interview she conducted on the Nutrition Without Compromise podcast featuring Chef Babette Davis. In it, they discuss Chef Babette's journey of transformation from addiction and poor health to a fit-for-life vegan who lives her best life as a restaurant owner and influencer with a significant, dedicated following. This episode was originally released as episode 70 of Nutrition Without Compromise on November 23, 2023.

The federal government plans to kill 450,000 barred owls over 30 years to protect the northern spotted owl — while simultaneously narrowing the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act to allow old-growth forest logging that will destroy the spotted owl's habitat. Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for Humane Economy, joins Corinna Bellizzi to expose the timber industry logic behind both moves. Together, they explain what's happening to wild horses and wolves on America's public lands, and share what 35 years of animal protection work has taught Wayne about how a slippery slope can lead to environmental devastation. We must act to protect America's open spaces and wild habitats.

Seventy percent of global carbon emissions over the past thirty years came from one hundred companies — yet BP spent millions convincing individuals to calculate their personal carbon footprint, redirecting blame onto consumers rather than the corporations responsible. Cambridge Professor Christopher Marquis, author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profit and Socializes Cost, returns to Care More Be Better to explain how corporations systematically shift their true costs onto the public, why the solutions must be systemic rather than individual, and where genuine examples of responsible business are quietly showing the way.

More than 1.3 million children in the United States are unsheltered — and for many of them, a pair of new athletic shoes is not a given but a barrier, to school attendance, to team participation, to the simple feeling of belonging. Amy Fass, Executive Director of Shoes That Fit, joins Care More Be Better to share what happens when a child who has never owned new shoes opens a brand new box for the first time, and how her organization has delivered more than one million pairs of sneakers to kids in need across all 50 states.

Stem cell scientist Christian Drapeau was among the first researchers to propose that stem cells function as the body's innate repair system — a paradigm shift that now shapes regenerative medicine and longevity science. The founder of Stemregen and author of Cracking the Stem Cell Code joins Care More Be Better to explain how plant extracts discovered through decades of global research can support the daily release of the body's own stem cells, and why understanding your repair system may be the most important thing you can do for long-term health.

Zach and Jason Francis have spent their careers proving that doing more with less is not a constraint — it's a philosophy — from a nine-month sailing trip from San Diego to Australia to building tiny homes on HGTV's Tiny Luxury to Willo, an AI platform that takes a business idea from concept to live website in under ten minutes. The brothers join Care More Be Better to share what sailing 21 days at sea taught them about complexity, why ideas die in spreadsheets, and how AI agents can finally give everyday people the infrastructure to bring their biggest ideas to life without a team, a big budget, or months of setup.

To close Season 1 of Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life, Angela Glover Blackwell turns to Los Angeles for a meditation on art, resistance, and joy as fuel for the long fight, featuring choreographer Ana Maria Alvarez, economist Manuel Pastor, and the reminder that hope isn't a feeling, it's a discipline. This bonus episode follows Corinna Bellizzi's recent interview with Angela on Care More Be Better, and arrives just as Season 2, set in Georgia, becomes available to stream.

Nature has no concept of waste — every output is someone else's input — and Tom Szaky has spent 25 years building the company that proves it. The founder and CEO of TerraCycle, the global leader in recycling the unrecyclable — from cigarette butts to diapers to chip bags — joins Care More Be Better to share why we will not recycle our way out of the waste crisis, how Loop is finally scaling in France after failing everywhere else, and what used diapers have to do with predicting children's brain development.

Angela Glover Blackwell has spent more than 50 years working at the intersection of racial equity, housing, transportation, and civic life — and she has arrived at a definition of democracy that most politicians have never considered: a mutually accountable system of co-governance in service of human flourishing. The founder of PolicyLink and host of Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life joins Care More Be Better to share what she learned growing up in segregated St. Louis, why the curb cut effect proves that investing in those left behind benefits everyone, and why hope — as Mariame Kaba taught her — is not a feeling but a discipline.

George Washington Carver believed nature was God's unlimited broadcasting station — and that idea of the Earth as a living relative rather than a resource is at the heart of everything Leah Penniman does. The co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, author of Farming While Black and the new anthology Black Earth Wisdom, joins Care More Be Better to explore ecological humility, food apartheid, the returning of 258 acres to the Mohican Nation, and what happens when a city kid named Dijor takes his shoes off in the mud and feels his grandmother's spirit rise through his feet.

At twenty years old, Inna Segal was told by her chiropractor that there was nothing he could do to help her — and that moment sent her home to discover that her chronic back pain, psoriasis, and digestive issues were rooted in ancestral trauma her body had been holding for decades. The author of The Secret Language of Your Body, a book that has sold over a million copies in 27 languages, joins Care More Be Better to explore the body as teacher, the science of emotional storage in physical form, and the same quality of listening that heals our bodies — and may be what heals the planet, too.

What if your commute cost one cent a mile, came with CarPlay, and turned every stoplight into something you looked forward to? Tim Seward, founder and chief design officer of ONYX Motors, joins Care More Be Better to share how he went from converting gas mopeds in his garage to building the RCR 80V — an electric motorbike that tops 75 mph, runs 130 miles per charge, and is designed to last long enough to have multiple owners, like a well-loved Volkswagen Bug.

Chris Kilham — the Medicine Hunter, author of fifteen books, and a man the New York Times once called "part David Attenborough, part Indiana Jones" — returns to Care More Be Better for a third time to go deep into the vine: 65 shamans, a twelve-year run of ceremonies across the Amazon, and the question of where authentic plant medicine ends and cultural appropriation begins. From shared visions and ego death to the practical realities of finding a trustworthy ayahuasca ceremony, this conversation is equal parts adventure story and field guide.

This Juneteenth, hear the opening chapter of Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life, in which civil rights icon Angela Glover Blackwell makes the case that Los Angeles, with all its contradictions, might hold the blueprint for a thriving multiracial democracy. Featuring LA Mayor Karen Bass, economist Manuel Pastor, and organizer Tiffany Benitez, this special feature arrives ahead of an exclusive Care More Be Better interview with Angela coming in July.

A girl in Kenya with shoes too small to fit properly sparked an idea that every major shoe company rejected — and that Kenton Lee built anyway. The Shoe That Grows, now worn by 500,000+ children across 100 countries, joins Care More Be Better alongside Because International CEO Andrew Kroes for a conversation about building something genuinely useful and the question at the heart of it all: what is your because?

In this re-share of an early Care More Be Better episode, Corinna Bellizzi speaks with social change strategist Genevieve Smith about values alignment, difficult conversations, and why "nothing is neutral" in our personal lives, workplaces, and communities. Explore practical approaches to navigating political polarization, social justice discussions, organizational values, and constructive dialogue with compassion, accountability, and curiosity.

What if the most important regenerative work we can do begins not with policy or systems, but with ourselves? Gerard Powell — founder of Rythmia Life Advancement Center, the world's first medically licensed ayahuasca retreat — joins Care More Be Better to share what nearly 24,000 guests have taught him about the soul fracture driving addiction, burnout, and quiet desperation, and why healing it from the inside out may be the most radical act of planetary change available to us right now.

Simone Weil wrote that attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity — and it is the quiet thesis at the center of Andrew J. Gregor's debut novel Roscoe, which follows a philosopher and former professional through a single day on the streets of San Francisco. Andrew joins Care More Be Better for a conversation that is part literary discussion, part economic reckoning, and part deeply personal — anchored in host Corinna Bellizzi's encounter with a childhood friend she discovered living on the streets of Santa Cruz.

From the Akan principle of Sankofa — going back to fetch what was left behind — to the legislation she helped write defining socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in California, Minkah Taharkah brings a rare and expansive lens to the work of land justice, food sovereignty, and community healing. A multidisciplinary human who moves between environmental science, BIPOC farmer advocacy, sustainable fashion, photography, and youth education, Minkah joins Care More Be Better to share why tending the earth and tending ourselves are never separate endeavors.

What does it cost us when we lose the ability to talk to each other across our differences? Corey Nathan, host of Talkin' Politics and Religion Without Killin' Each Other and member of the Democracy Group, joins Care More Be Better to explore why civility alone cannot heal what is broken, how to find common ground one degree at a time, and what the Hebrew concept of Tikkun Olam, healing what is broken in the world, has to do with the civic renewal movement growing quietly around us.

In this special episode of Care More Be Better, host Corinna Bellizzi turns the tables — appearing as a guest on the Forever Young Radio Show with her longtime colleague Kelly Cappasola to share the science behind her pivot from fish oil to algae omega-3s, the five regenerative brands at the center of her PhD research, and the personal philosophy that has driven 25 years of work at the intersection of health, sustainability, and purpose. From the Framingham Heart Study to farmed fish's omega-6 problem to what she calls the "regenerative renegades" of the natural products industry, this conversation is both a practical health guide and a window into what it really means to build a brand that lives its values.

Validation is not the same as learning — and most nonprofit reporting is built around the former, not the latter. Stephen Minix, VP of Community at UpMetrics and former basketball coach in Watts, joins Care More Be Better to name the extractive dynamics quietly holding back philanthropic impact, and to make the case that data should serve communities rather than flow upward to justify a funder's investment decisions.

Most companies don't set out to greenwash — they're just trying to put their best foot forward, and that's exactly where they go wrong. Helen Neal, founder of certified B Corp HN Communications and creator of the IMPACT framework, joins Care More Be Better to unpack the gap between corporate sustainability ambition and public trust — and how radical honesty, strategic storytelling, and a new AI governance tool called Zena are helping companies finally get it right.

Peaceful protest is four times more effective than violent movements at toppling authoritarian regimes — and every right we take for granted, from wheelchair ramps to same-sex marriage, was won by someone who refused to stay quiet. Annie Leonard, creator of The Story of Stuff and former Executive Director of Greenpeace US, and activist André Carothers join Care More Be Better to make the case that the right to protest is not a radical idea — it is the foundational democratic idea, and it is under attack right now. From the Section 504 disability rights sit-ins to glacier funerals in Iceland to SLAPP suits targeting Greenpeace, this conversation covers the history, the mechanics, and the urgent stakes of protecting peaceful dissent.

This is a book review offered in audio format only for a new book out by Patagonia Press: Protest: Respect It, Defend It, Use It, by Annie Leonard and André Carothers. It is the book this moment demands — a sweeping, deeply human walk through the history of peaceful dissent that reminds us every right we take for granted was won by someone who refused to stay quiet.

What if a loaf of bread could be an act of peace? PACHA co-founder Adam Hiner joins Care More Be Better to share how his Palestinian heritage, a series of values-driven food ventures, and a partnership with Arab and Jewish women farmers in Galilee are shaping a regenerative food company that's now expanding into 250 Target stores — and proving that clean food, healthy soil, and human connection are inseparable.

Documentary filmmaker George Siegal spent years covering climate disasters as a TV journalist before turning his camera on the systemic failures that leave American homes dangerously vulnerable to hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes. In this episode of Care More Be Better, he pulls back the curtain on predatory insurance practices, lobbying-weakened building codes, and the hidden costs most homeowners never see coming — until it's too late.

What does it take to move environmental progress from polarization to pragmatic action — especially in oil and gas country? In this episode of Care More Be Better, EarthX CEO Peter Simek reveals how one of the world's most influential environmental convenings is building bridges across political, business, and advocacy divides, from bipartisan energy caucuses to market-driven climate solutions, with EarthX 2026 on the horizon April 20–22 in Dallas.

Wildfires are intensifying in a hotter, drier world—demanding faster, smarter, and more resource-efficient solutions. Sunny Sethi of HEN Technologies shares how AI, IoT, and advanced fluid dynamics are transforming fire suppression into a precision-driven system that can dramatically improve response times, conserve water, and better protect ecosystems.

Plastic pollution is one of the most visible—and misunderstood—environmental crises of our time, impacting our oceans, air, soil, and even our bodies. Eric Magers shares how education, legislation, and community action can transform our relationship with plastic and empower the next generation to lead systemic change.

Environmental litigator Vineet Dubey joins Corinna Bellizzi to expose how toxic chemicals like PFAS, heavy metals, and synthetic additives continue to show up in everyday products—and how legal action is forcing corporations to change. Together they explore how lawsuits, consumer awareness, and smarter purchasing choices can help hold manufacturers accountable and reduce our daily toxic exposure.

Osprey Orielle Lake, founder of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, explores how climate justice, Indigenous leadership, and the global Rights of Nature movement are reshaping the fight for a livable future. This conversation challenges the dominant narratives that created today’s environmental crises and invites us to rethink our relationship with the Earth — and with each other — as we work to remake a world in crisis.

In his second appearance on the show, The Medicine Hunter himself – Chris Kilham – sheds light on the stories of trade, culture, and production behind every cup of coffee we enjoy today.

In this episode, Nina Simons, co-founder of Bioneers, explores the concept of relational leadership and why empathy, collaboration, and vulnerability are essential for navigating today’s intertwined social and ecological crises. The conversation examines how shifting from extractive leadership models toward relationship-centered systems thinking can help create a more just and regenerative future for people and the planet.

JD Bauman challenges us to move beyond symbolic compassion and toward evidence-informed generosity that can literally save lives. This conversation explores radical empathy, effective altruism, and how each of us — regardless of income — can live an impact-driven life that truly changes the world.

In this episode, Corinna Bellizzi speaks with science journalist and author Hillary Rosner about her book Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World (Patagonia Press). Together they explore wildlife corridors, land back movements, public lands protection, and the ethical responsibility we share in restoring ecological connectivity.

In this Care More Be Better re-release from another podcast Corinna once hosted, Nutrition Without Compromise, Corinna sits down with Michael Greger, New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Die and How Not to Age, to explore what the science really says about aging, protein intake, and plant-based longevity. Together they unpack the difference between lifespan and healthspan, challenge common nutrition myths, and examine how evidence-based dietary choices may help us age with strength rather than decline.

Sex trafficking often hides in plain sight, thriving where silence and misunderstanding persist. In this episode, Corinna Bellizzi speaks with Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Melody C. Miller about California’s Forgotten Children, exploring survivor-centered stories, the systems that enable exploitation, and the practical steps communities can take to recognize, report, and prevent harm.

Corinna Bellizzi sits down with climate strategist and author Jenny Morgan to explore why cancel culture and perfectionism are stalling climate progress — and how we can move beyond them. Drawing from her book Cancel Culture in Climate, Jenny shares how hopeful, inclusive conversations, transparent corporate responsibility, and pragmatic action can re-energize the climate movement and empower the next generation to engage without fear.

In this solocast episode, Corinna Bellizzi shares the unedited audio of Matt Braunger reading a powerful letter written by his cousin — a Minneapolis resident describing how federal immigration enforcement has transformed ordinary life in his community. This episode invites listeners to bear witness, reflect on how democracy erodes in daily moments, and consider how staying informed, connected, and engaged can help protect ordinary life before it disappears.

Water is our largest household use, yet nearly 60% is wasted, and in this eye-opening conversation Dr. Kelly Kopp joins Corinna Bellizzi to unpack the findings of her irrigation waste report and why fixing outdoor water use is essential to our future. From smart irrigation technology and routine system evaluations to the vital role plants play in drought-resilient communities, this episode reveals practical pathways to steward one of our most overlooked resources.

Your house may be the most comfortable place in the entire world for you, but it could still be hiding several health hazards that must be promptly addressed. Corinna Bellizzi discusses what it takes to create healthful living spaces with Paul Kealey, founder and president of EkoBuilt. As head of North America’s most advanced sustainable homebuilding company, he exposes why modern building codes are actually failing our health, from poor indoor air quality to serious mold growth.

Environmental justice and social justice are inseparable, and in this episode, environmental activist Leah Thomas joins Corinna Bellizzi to explain how intersectional environmentalism addresses climate injustice impacting marginalized communities. Leah shares why grassroots action, supporting local organizations, and centering diverse voices are essential to building a more equitable, inclusive, and effective climate movement for people and planet.