At the end of (nearly) every changemaker interview, I ask the same question: “If you could travel back in time and give your teenage self a piece of advice, what would that be? Is that the same advice you’d give me now?” The answers have been both inspiring and instructive. Below are some of the responses from my most recent interview subjects. (You can read responses from earlier posts in Advice from Changemakers - Part 1. Katharine  Mieszkowski - Investigative Journalist I would tell you (and my younger self) that a career trajectory is very rarely a straight line. Even very successf ..read more

Do you ever wonder about where your clothes came from? Were the women who stitched them paid a living wage? What was the environmental impact of the manufacturing and shipping process? Will your clothes fill up landfills or pollute the ocean? If you are a fashion lover who cares about the environment and believes workers should be paid fairly, you need to know about Remake. Founded by Ayesha Barenblat, Remake is a movement to hold fashion brands and policymakers accountable when it comes to both sustainability and human rights.  Ayesha Barenblat is an educator, activist, and social en ..read more

Everybody in the San Francisco Bay Area knows about Lowell High School. Founded in 1856 and the alma mater of Broadway star Carol Channing, scientist Dian Fossey, and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Lowell is among California’s highest-ranked public high schools. Up until 2020, eighth graders seeking admission to this academic magnet school needed near-perfect grades and high scores on either the California-administered standardized test or the Lowell entrance exam. When I was admitted to Lowell as an eighth grader, I was ecstatic. It felt like a major achievement. In the end, howeve ..read more

I can personally attest to the difference individual teachers can make when they are seeking to inspire students instead of treating them as empty vessels into which they can pour academic standards. I’m grateful that even when I attended large, under-funded public schools, I still had individual teachers (shout out to Sr. Sierra, Sra. Ortiz, and Mr. Glasser, to name a few) who used their creativity to spark curiosity, inspiration, and learning. They more than made up for those who were teaching by rote. Changemaker Aleta Margolis, founder and executive director of the Center for Inspired Tea ..read more

Katharine Mieszkowski is a Yale-educated investigative journalist whose work has earned her a myriad of awards. Most recently, she was part of the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal podcast team that received accolades for American Rehab, a serialized investigation that exposed how thousands of desperate people were exploited for their labor when they sought out treatment for addiction. That podcast has won top prizes from the Edward R. Murrow and Investigative Reporters and Editors awards in addition to the 2021 Gerald Loeb Award for audio, which recognizes the most distinguished ..read more

I tend to blog about social issues that are regional, national, or even international in scope. But last spring, I wrote an OpEd for our school newspaper broaching a very uncomfortable topic for our tiny boarding school community: Classism. It has sparked numerous conversations since then and my hope is that these discussions will help make our school a little more welcoming and inclusive. The (slightly edited) text is below, for any who may be curious. OpEd: The Elephant in the Room When Jose C. was a freshman, a classmate from his history class made a comment about how Jose didn’t deserve ..read more

(Photo: Jennifer Bennett and Zazie co-owners Mario Rojas, Megan Cornelius, and Francisco Romero) Jennifer Bennett is on a mission to prove that restaurants can offer good jobs with benefits and even long-term careers for staff. One of her insights -- that people will live up to whatever expectations we have of them, so we might as well expect the best -- is applicable to so many settings. My family has been going to Zazie for as long as I can remember. (Check out the photo of toddler me enjoying a piece of toast with jam at Zazie). When I was old enough to understand just how diffe ..read more

Author Eric Garcia (Photo Credit: Kristin Herbruck) One of the people I love most in the world is autistic. They have shaped who I am in profound ways and made my life far richer, more interesting, and even more fun. I’ve never felt that they needed to be  “cured,” even when it has been challenging to figure out how to support them best. Neurotribes author Steve Silberman helped shift how we think about autism by sharing a well-researched historical perspective. Today’s interviewee, Eric Garcia, wrote a book that takes this conversation even further by combining his person ..read more

According to William Drummond, author of the book Prison Truth, there were 250 prison publications in the 1950s. Today there are only 10.  The oldest and best known of these is the San Quentin News, which is distributed to all 36 California prisons. I wrote about the newspaper in News Decoder last year and highlighted the publication’s impact on its staffers. As I mentioned in the article, working on the newspaper teaches critical skills, provides a creative outlet, and plays an important role in rehabilitation. So far, the rate of recidivism among San Quentin News staffers is ZERO ..read more

Johnathan Chiu of the San Quentin News I've spent my summer so far working as an editorial intern for the Prison Journalism Project (PJP), where I’ve been helping to edit and publish stories by incarcerated writers. When I was first invited to join the team, I assumed that I would be transcribing submissions -- these are typically written by hand and transcribed by interns and volunteers. I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to actually use my editorial skills.  This was probably because the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of PJP, Yukari Kane, knows that I’ve been ..read more