Getting Warmer

As the northern hemisphere heads into “there’s no such thing as global warming” summer, some inspirational stories to keep you going.

Bring Light founder Melissa Dyrdahl on how she found the light.  Click here to read the piece on her alma mater’s web site.

Rocco Rossi’s wake-up call changed his life forever.  Click here to read the Financial Post story.

An excerpt from WE ARE THE NEW RADICALS, published in the new men’s magazine, SHARP.  Click here to read it at sharp.

Plus, catch Julia on the HuffingtonPost. Stories coming soon: LaLoo’s Ice Cream and green careers.  Click here to connect to the story on the Huffington Post

Seen/heard any New Radical stories?

Have you read about or heard of New Radical Activists, Entrepreneurs, or Innovators? Perhaps someone you know? Or maybe you’re in the process of reinventing yourself? We’d love to hear from you. story@wearethenewradicals.com

Great ink about the New Radicals…

More New Radical buzz. Here are two of our newest favourites (lots of radio, too; great clips coming soon):

 Click here to read Carol Goar’s article in the Toronto Star

 Melissa Dyrdahl from Bring Light writes about finding a New Radical career on the Divine Caroline website. Click here to read her post.

 

 Emerging New Radicals will soon be able to find information about the range of career options, including articles like this (click here).

An Accidental New Radical

Scott Johnson had no grand plan for switching careers. He was sitting in an airport lounge, on a day like any other, when his eyes fell on the smallest news item. “It was something really tiny, I mean, two paragraphs, that talked about MS and myelin repair.” But that brief article was enough to launch him on a life-changing journey.

While it began as a personal quest — diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his twenties, he was interested in finding out more about this particular research — it soon became a mission. What really got him hooked was when he started talking to people in medical research and realized that the current system wasn’t working (if your eyebrows shoot up at this, read on).

 

Click here to read the rest of the article on The Huffington Post 

Mid-life crisis a modern affliction for millions

Canwest News Service

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Byline: Shannon Proudfoot

Source: Canwest News Service 

Not only is the mid-life crisis a bona-fide affliction but 40-somethings from Canada to Uzbekistan grapple with it ever day, a groundbreaking new study has found. 

Researchers examined the life satisfaction of two million people in 72 countries through several decades of survey results and found that happiness universally dips when people hit mid-life.

Click here to read the rest of the article at the National Post.

Free one-day workshop for non-profits interested in games for change. New Radical Suzanne Seggerman hosts.

Games for Change to offer a free one-day workshop for non-profits interested in social issue video games on June 2nd in NYC

Games for Change, the international nexus and primary community of practice for the emerging field of digital games for social change will be hosting a free day-long workshop for non-profits new to the field of video games and “real world issues”.  Let The Games Begin: A 101 Workshop for Making Social Issue Games was awarded one of 17 grants out of more than 1000 applicants to the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition.  Non-profits are using games to raise awareness and engage youth audiences in the most pressing issues of the day from the environment to poverty, from global conflicts to civil rights.  And this soup-to-nuts tutorial gets them started.

Set at the front of the 5th Annual Games for Change Festival, this workshop will feature top leaders of the field covering a broad range of topics key to this new genre of games, from game design to distribution, fundraising to press strategies.  Now in its fifth year, the Games for Change Festival has been called “the Sundance of Videogames” for “socially-responsible game designers”.  Hundreds of non-profit leaders, academics, innovative game designers and activists of all stripes convene to share ideas, explore funding avenues, and show the latest games.  From the UN’s Food Force about global poverty to the Global Kids’ AYITI about life in Haiti, these new games are a great new way for non-profits to both inform – and engage – our citizens about the issues of the day.  During the festival which follows the workshop, the closing keynote features the Honorable Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who will speak about her interactive civics education project developed in partnership with noted game scholar Dr. James Paul Gee.

For the workshop, seating is primarily for non-profit and public institutions and requires a short application: http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/101.php

An evening of sparking conversation

The Globe and Mail

An evening of sparking conversation
By DEIRDRE KELLY

At a growing number of salons, the city’s cultural set are mixing drinks with thoughtful discussion
I went to a marvelous party. The artist Francois Xavier Saint-Pierre, a new acquaintance, extolled
the virtues of classicism in our contemporary times. He spoke of tradition. He spoke of dynamic
tension.

“The past in art continues to inform our sensibilities even as we attempt to suppress or supplant it.”
We sipped champagne, and then I asked him again, “Why do you paint?” And he pretended to faint.
“For the love of beauty,” he said. “And this.” And he motioned to all the extraordinary people in the
room, some in suits, some in silk. Oh, I went to a marvelous party.

The occasion was a salon – conversation, not coiffeur – that took place at the Corkin Gallery. It was
designed by gallery owner Jane Corkin as an intellectual dinner party attended by 50 hand-picked
guests from Toronto’s art, fashion and business communities. The idea, Ms. Corkin says, “was to
give people an opportunity to gather and speak about art in new and interesting ways.”
It’s an idea that is catching on in Toronto, where there are now at least six regular salons: Salon
Voltaire, which meets at the Gladstone Hotel: New Radicals Salon at the Hotel Intercontinental;
Influency 2: A Toronto Poetry Salon at the University of Toronto; the Kama reading series at the
Royal Ontario Museum; the Grano speakers series organized by Rudyard Griffiths and Patrick
Luciana at Grano restaurant; and Café Scientifique at the Ontario Science Centre.
Soon to be added to the list is a new salon series, tied to a Sotheby’s charity auction, that the Power
Plant Contemporary Art Gallery will be organizing for the fall. The plan is to host several preview
salons – intimate dinners that will offer Power Plant patrons close viewings as each auction lot
arrives in Toronto, along with informative discussions about the artists and their works.
“The salon idea is based on 18th-century French salons, where groups would gather in homes for
entertainment and to better themselves through art and philosophy,” the Power Plant’s Gregory
Burke says.

“Salon dinners will feature artists or curators speaking about the art. It’s about disseminating ideas,
sparking conversation.”

As a salon theme, it provides an occasion to weave a vibrant culture of ideas into the city’s fabric.
Mr. Griffiths has a similar explanation for his popular Grano series (the next event, featuring author
Gore Vidal, is June 5). He says it’s about “bringing together a mix of opinion leaders and
trendsetters in Toronto business, arts, media, and academic communities… to engage with thinkers
who have international influence and impact.”

Jonathan Ezer, who created the Salon Voltaire series last fall after attending similar events as a PhD
student in London says, “Toronto is a multicultural city. So there is a real opportunity to talk about
global events in a way that matters to a lot of residents.

“Toronto is also a highly educated city,” he continues. “I think a lot of people miss the intellectual
buzz that they felt at university. Salons can fill that need.”

His most recent event, on Thursday, featured artist Judy Singer giving a talk entitled, “How to Look
at Paintings”, followed by Stephen Morris, a physicist, presenting a lecture called “Why the
Universe is Not Boring.”There is often, Mr. Ezer says, “ a lot of flirting.” Salons, it seems, are
stimulating in more ways than one.

It is why speechwriter and executive coach Julia Moulden founded her New Radicals Salon. “I
started it in 2004 as an instant social life while going through a very unpleasant divorce,” she says.
“I discovered that lots of people feel lonely and isolated, including married people, and were also
eager to meet others they wouldn’t normally cross paths with. With the salon, I noticed that people
really liked having a place to go where they could just show up, have a drink and relax without
having to put on a show for anybody.”

In fact, start showing off what you know (or don’t) at a salon, and you can be banished – as young
fools used to be banished from the famed salons of Parisian hostesses who ruled the intellectual
landscape of Europe – a pariah on the outskirts of a good conversation.

“It ends up being about having a wonderful crescendo of people,” Ms. Corkin says.
And a marvelous party.

TALKING POINTS
Discussion topics for a successful salon, courtesy of Julia Moulden
1. Are things getting better or worse?
2. Life takes on the meaning you give it.
3. Can we be joyful, despite considering all the facts?
4. Let’s make up a new list of the wonders of the world.
5. Failure is a good thing. Talk about your best one.
6. Do you believe in, and practice, kindness?

RADICAL MIND

MORE Magazine
Premier Issue
Spring 2007

RADICAL MIND
By Kim Pittaway

Ever wished you could do something more, well, meaningful with your life? Julia
Moulden did. A few years ago, the speechwriter/copywriter was ready to make a change.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t like what I was doing,” she says now. “But it just didn’t feel like
enough.” As she listened to friends and colleagues speak about the same desire, she
realized there might be a way to earn a living helping others turn their dream into a
reality, and became a midlife coach.

Still, Moulden had the lingering feeling that there was more to do — and say — about
those she saw around her who were yearning for more meaningful work, and more to
learn from those who had figured out how to satisfy that yearning. Articles about midlife
career shifts and good works — from Bill and Melinda Gates’ mega-philanthropy to the
ordinary people building eco-friendly businesses — started catching her eye. Maybe
there’s a book in this, she thought. And come next spring, there will be: Moulden’s WE
ARE THE NEW RADICALS profiles midlifers who are reinventing their work-lives to
create a better world.

“Many boomers have done well in their careers, and now they want to do good,” says
Moulden. Take heart: Doing good doesn’t necessarily mean selling your worldly goods
and volunteering full-time (though it can!). “It’s a continuum, from small changes that
affect the way we live our daily lives to bigger changes that transform our careers and
communities.”

What’s next for the 50-year-old? She wants to become the “Google for new radicals”: a
connection hub where the like-minded can interact and inspire.

Competitive philanthropy: ‘ Good is getting really sexy’

The Globe and Mail
Competitive philanthropy: ‘ Good is getting really sexy’
By TRALEE PEARCE

Ben Goldhirsh, 26-year-old heir to his father Bernie Goldhirsh’s magazine publishing fortune,
wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows by starting up his own vanity glossy about skateboarding or
indie culture. So why did he launch a magazine about doing good?
Goldhirsh makes the analogy to Wired magazine, which documented technology’s shift from nerdy
to “sexy as all hell.”

“Just the way the transformation of technology in the cultural landscape affects how much money,
interest and human capital goes into it, the same thing with good,” he says from his West
Hollywood office. “Good is getting really sexy.”

No kidding. His timing is red hot, right on the heels of a spate of almost competitive acts of
philanthropy by the likes of Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, with big donations
being earmarked for African aid, global warming, global health and AIDS. Celebrity charity à la
Angelina Jolie and Bono has never been hotter. Being good is the new citizenship, particularly in
the corporate world: A group of Toronto CEOs led a 600-person brigade last week in building a
new playground in the needy Lawrence Heights neighbourhood, for instance.

Backed by Goldhirsh’s millions, Good magazine is itself a philanthropic agent: The full $20
subscription fee goes to one of a group of causes the subscriber can choose from, including
stalwarts such as Unicef and newer initiatives such as Creative Commons, which collects and
distributes free on-line licences of arts content for file sharing and remixing. In just two weeks, he
has secured about 6,500 subscriptions.

Goldhirsh says that for too long, good has been mired in a soft, sacrifice-based mentality, where
“do-gooder” is a pejorative. “That’s a problem for us. We see people doing good as the most
impressive, sexy, interesting people around,” he says, adding that those who meld idealism with
pragmatism will get the most glowing coverage in his mag.

“How are we going to be as tough as the bad guys? Let’s give good some teeth.” Part of that means
unapologetically aggressive branding, cool-kid graphic design, and hipster New York and L.A.
launch parties.

“We’re just trying to frame valuable content with an aesthetic that makes it engaging and exciting
and entertaining. I don’t care about what fashion to wear or how to get six-pack abs. We think
there’s a giant audience out there with this sensibility that really wants content that matters but
wants it framed in a way that caters to their life.

“It has to. This isn’t a chore.”

The contents include a photo essay from both sides of the Mexico/U.S. border, an “experiment in
extreme urban environmentalism,” and a profile of Majora Carter, the executive director of a
grassroots group called Sustainable South Bronx.

For the serious, there’s a column by poverty activist Jeffrey Sachs and for fun, there’s a page of
non-donkey-or-elephant animal-shaped American campaign stickers. Like the trend itself, the
magazine’s appeal is cross-generational, aimed at everyone from twentysomethings weaned on Jon
Stewart to baby boomers who want to recalibrate their priorities.

Toronto executive coach Julia Moulden says an increasing part of her business is helping successful
midlifers figure out how to serve the world better. She is writing a book about the group she has
dubbed the New Radicals.

“At first, I was sheepish about the trend, which might be seen as a sixties redux. People are cynical,
saying that people who came of age in that era, they never did anything more than invent Prada and
non-fat decaf lattes.

“But I feel there’s an unfinished revolution welling up inside of us. Our ideals had been covered
over by our busy lives — careers and raising families. Now that we’ve got more time and are at
midlife, many of us believe our greatest contribution is ahead of us and we want to make the second
half of our lives about doing good in our communities and the world.”

Anil Patel is the executive director of the Toronto-based Framework Foundation, which since 2001
has matched young volunteers with charities at chic cocktail parties in Toronto and Calgary. He
characterizes our emerging fascination with philanthropy in the form of a challenge: “How big can
you make your civic footprint?” At Framework’s “Timeraiser” art auction events, 1,100 volunteers
have donated 25,000 hours for 120 charities in exchange for $110,000 worth of Canadian art. “It’s
about both disposable time and income — you don’t have to be Bill Gates to have a big civic
footprint.”

Thanks to the Internet, it’s also easier than ever. You can contribute to a friend’s Terry Fox run in
another city, log on to a local activist group website in your neighbourhood to find out about an
upcoming meeting, or learn more about global charities tackling the environment or the developing
world.

Patel says the recent Toronto AIDS conference is a great example of the efficiency of modern
philanthropy. “You just had to look at the kiosks sitting beside each other — faith-based
organizations, gay and lesbian groups, youth groups. These are untraditional pairings.”
Goldhirsh is particularly interested in what he sees as a new business model for doing good that
bucks the non-profit, granola, tree-hugging stereotypes — the idea of “doing well by doing good.”
He also loves to repeat a quote by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar about corporate giants “giving
back.” “He asks, ‘What were they doing the whole time — taking?’ I think there’s a way to do both.
The market starts to account a value for good — especially at a time when maybe there’s a lack of
confidence in the pen of government setting things in a certain direction. You’ve got to hope the
market can do it.”

Philanthropy is now a commodity, of sorts. Just as you would shop for the right house, you shop for
the right outlet for all that good you have ready to bust out.

Moulden says the first step is figuring out the nature of your commitment — do you want to work
full-time as an activist in an existing organization, start up a new enterprise, or influence your
workplace from within?

Next is figuring out what skills you have to offer, what moves you and how you’re going to manage
the change.

In this climate, charities have to be savvy about attracting the right people too.
William Pace has been matching up charities and potential board members as chief development
officer of a Canadian charity called Boardmatch Fundamentals, which introduces people with
much-needed skills such as law, marketing or accounting, with 800 non-profit groups who need
them — much like an on-line dating service.

“It’s an expanding and growing program — there’s almost a social shift that’s happened,” he says.
“There’s an increase in younger people, in their 30s, who want to be on boards.”

Soon, it will be deeply uncool to not be engaged beyond writing a cheque. And it also isn’t taboo to
admit that there’s more in it for you than a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Pace says one reason for the uptick is the changing corporate environment. Just as Angelina Jolie
may have been told by her managers that throwing herself into African and Asian development
issues might boost her public persona, so too are management types being told that being on boards
may put them in better stead back in the workplace.

Pace is excited about harnessing that ambition, and hopes to expand Boardwatch across Canada.
“The charity sector accounts for 100 billion dollars a year [in revenue],” he says. “If through good
governance we could improve that by 1 per cent, we could add a billion dollars.”

Goldhirsh says that although he’s having a lot of fun, he knows the stakes are high. “There’s both
an ominous and an exciting feeling. One is a potential so fantastic that moves us towards whatever
perfection our species is supposed to attain eventually. The other is a potential we don’t like to
speak of.”