Center for Social Innovation

In this audio lecture, Michael Pollan and John Mackey take their year-long blog discussion live in front of an audience of Berkeley foodies. In response to Pollan's critiques of Whole Foods' practices, Mackey describes some of agriculture's less savory practices, lays out his vision for a more sustainable and humane food system, and unveils Whole Foods' new consumer-education initiatives.

One of the biggest challenges in nonprofit management is hiring and retaining talented executive leaders. In this conversation with Stanford Social Innovation Review managing editor Eric Nee, Thomas Tierney shares findings from the Bridgespan Group's study on the "leadership deficit." Tierney talks about how this crisis is affecting nonprofits, and what organizations can do to address the problem.

California, the ninth largest economy in the world, recently launched a new carbon cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, leads this program that could provide a model to support other regional or national efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Co-founder Andrew Ng, also the Director of the Artificial Intelligence Lab and an associate professor in computer science at Stanford, presented at the Leading Education By Advancing Digital (LEAD) Symposium held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in September 2012. 

What do you get when you combine a love of Bollywood music videos with widespread illiteracy? Brij Kothari sees an opportunity to make the world a better place. By subtitling popular entertainment, he helps millions learn to read in a fun way. He's also creating multiplatform stories that will be seen on TV, read on mobile phones, and printed in books. Talking to Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman in this audio interview, Kothari describes how he improves lives by incorporating education into everyday entertainment.