Julie Roland’s background is impressive and remarkably varied. She’s a retired naval aviator, a magician, a law school graduate, a political staffer, and founder of the community-building non-profit Just Tryna Make Friends. In this Blue Sky episode, Julie spreads her infectious optimism about how the arts can be used to connect people at a time when so many forces are pulling us apart.

Older Americans are struggling with social isolation more than ever. This can lead to challenges with mental and physical health as people age, and one nonprofit is having great success trying to do something about it. Life Story Club uses scheduled Zoom and phone calls form members to share stories about their past, present, and plans for their future. In this Blue Sky conversation, interim director and geriatric specialist Dr. Jennifer Wong describes how this life-changing organization operates.

Lynda Ulrich and her daughter Liesl Ulrich Verderber are the mother-daughter team behind The Goodness Exchange, a global positive-news platform founded in 2014 to help people cut through today’s negative nose with research-backed, solutions-focused storytelling. On thisBlue Sky episode, they describe how they came to their optimistic outlooks at different stages of their lives and have managed to work together to create a remarkable platform for hopeful and uplifting stories.

Before Stan Andrisse was sentenced to ten years in prison for a Class A drug felony, the prosecutor had asked for a life sentence, suggesting that the defendant was irredeemable. In the years since, Stan, now “Dr. Andrisse” has proved this attorney and many others wrong. While in prison, he discovered an interest in science and endocrinology and today is a tenured professor at the Howard University College of Medicine. To create similar opportunities and career paths for others who are or have been incarcerated, he founded the non-profit From Prison Cells to PhD.

Kevin Lowe has come a long way since he was seventeen years old and lost his eyesight during a medical procedure gone wrong. In this Blue Sky conversation, Kevin describes how he’s rallied from this devastating event to live a life full of resilience, purpose, and optimism. This episode concludes with a surprise musical feature, courtesy of Kevin himself.

Amy King watched the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and seeing people sheltered in a leaking football stadium inspired her to work with her husband on shelter solutions. The result was Pallet, a company that makes safe, secure, and easily assembled temporary shelters. In this episode she shares her inspiring story and details about her remarkable company.

Mimi Nicklin left a successful career as a marketing executive to take on the task of educating the world on the value and power of empathy. In this episode, Mimi describes the alarming “empathy deficit,” its root causes, and practical strategies like self-empathy and “ALUR” (Authenticity, Listening, Understanding, Recognition) that she espouses to reconnect our workplaces and world.

Paul Leonardi is an expert in technology management and has developed a deep understanding for why today’s digital tools-even those that are helpful–can contribute to our growing sense of exhaustion. Pulling from research he’s written about in his book Digital Exhaustion, he explains why this happens and as importantly, what we can do about it.

Guy Kawasaki has had an amazing life and career. After growing up in Hawaii, he went to California for college and later went on to what was then known as Apple Computer where he was a self-described “brand evangelist” during some of their highest growth and most entrepreneurial years. He describes Steve Jobs as being optimistic almost to the point of being delusional, and working for him has inspired Guy to be interested in mold-breaking people ever since, hence the name of his popular podcast, Remarkable People. He has also written 17 books on a variety of subjects, his latest being Wiser Guy, which was released earlier this year.

We all know that huge sums of money are invested in creating new, more effective weapons of war. Brian Abrams sees an opportunity to invest instead in what he calls “peace tech,” emerging businesses using technologies and creative methods designed to prevent war from happening in the first place. He’s created a new firm, B Ventures, and in this Blue Sky episode he describes with infectious optimism his exciting vision for the future.

Blue Sky host Bill Burke first met Scott Nash nearly 30 years ago, when both were working in the cable television business. In the years since, Scott has gone on to a successful career in publishing, both as an illustrator and an author, and with his wife Nancy co-founded Illustration Institute on a small island in Maine.In this episode, Scott describes his outgoing, experimental, and optimistic nature and how these traits have led to his remarkable success in publishing, art direction, and non-profit entrepreneurship.

Phil Green has had a successful career in music and sports. For what he describes as his “third act,” Phil is now overseeing Follow the Music, a nonprofit in his hometown of Oakland, California. Follow the Music provides artist development, booking and management services to young artists—to shine a light on their talents and bring visibility to the programs that helped develop them.

Stacy Palmer leads The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the leading journal in the world of nonprofits. In this Blue Sky conversation, she talks about the evolution of nonprofits into sophisticated organizations that do remarkable work around the world. She describes the role of donors large and small, and how they’re helping address challenges created by cuts in government funding. Stacy also shares her belief that nothing gets done in this space without a healthy dose of optimism.

Shirzad Chamine experienced a traumatic childhood, raised in Iran by a father who was full of a frightening rage. Following high school, Shirzad decided to move to the United States and make his future there. Along the way, he heard an inner whisper telling him to make a positive influence on a worldwide scale. After a variety of education experience, he developed innovative theories that resulted in the New York Times bestselling book, Positive Intelligence. In this Blue Sky episode, you’ll learn more about Shirzad Chamine’s remarkable life and inspiring work.

Losing her mom to cancer reminded Bree that life is fleeting. Working as a consultant, she also saw how many people are miserable in their jobs. Connecting these dots, she decided to help people find more joy and meaning in their work and rather than count the days to the weekend, turn things around and actually look forward to getting to work, perhaps even embrace a “TGIM” mentality. In her book, Today Was Fun: A Book About Work (Seriously) she gives numerous examples of way we can find more joy from our work and our colleagues and encourages employers that creating a fun-filled workplace can improve an organization’s performance and bottom line.

Erin Cain didn’t grow up around horses but eventually was exposed to them and the remarkable abilities they have to facilitate healing for a wide range of individuals. A series of life events caused her to move from her native northeast to the Colorado Rockies and today, she’s the co-founder, owner, and operator ofGrace Reins Equine Therapy. In this episode she describes the personal hardships she’s overcome and the work she now does rescuing and “gentling” wild mustangs, then working with these animals to provide therapy to the diverse group of individuals who come to Grace Reins for healing.

Meghan Riordan Jarvis was a practicing psychotherapist when she found herself devastated by the loss of her two parents.She suddenly saw she was no different from those she helped, but she still needed outside support to recover. In this BlueSky episode, she describes how this realization led her to become an expert about grief and an advocated for all of us to learn about this important and challenging part of life.

Tricia Rose Burt had done everything right, according to the way she was raised. She went to a“good school,” had a “good job” and all seemed to be going great on the surface. But inside, she was miserable and decided to make a change. She left her career in public relations, took classes at art school, and began to explore her own creativity in a way that, as she describes it,“filled her cup.”She’s never been happier, and in this Blue Sky conversation, she’ll explain how listeners might want choose to tap into their “inner artist” as well.

As a personal trainer and wellness coach, Stacey Garcia was doing everything right. She ate well, exercised, and took great care of herself. That’s why her cancer diagnosis came as an extra shock, and in this episode, she explains how she dealt with this news and found strength and resilience as she battled her disease. Now in recovery Stacey helps guide others through similar challenges both in her daily work as well as her podcast Never Miss a Monday.