Voices of Positive Instigation
Conversations with catalysts, disruptors, and decision-makers shaping our future. These conversations are deep narratives that open a lens into the lives of people who overcame adversity and chose to become Positive Instigators.
Through pivotal moments and disruptive technologies, these leadership podcasts reflect the core of Positive Instigation: leading with courage, clarity, and conviction.
When It Mattered
How Pioneers Are Forged
in Critical Moments
Chitra invites leaders from around the world to share one personal story that changed the course of their lives and propelled them to make a positive impact in shaping the world. Through these stories, Chitra and her guests take you behind the scenes to get an inside perspective of some of the most compelling stories and eventful moments of our time.
“When It Mattered” reveals the crucible moments that shape leaders and how they respond when the stakes are highest.
It’s a living, breathing archive of Positive Instigators in action.
TECHTOPIA
A Deep Look at How Technology Is Shaping Our Future
Chitra interviews the creative entrepreneurs behind today’s technological revolution, delves into the societal impact of their omnipresent innovations, navigates the legal, cultural, political, and economic nuances surrounding these innovations, and examines technology’s profound impact on people, society, and the world.
“Techtopia” takes us into the mindset of tech leaders as they navigate unprecedented complexity.
It explores how Positive Instigators propel the future through their imagination and force of will.
How leaders are forged in critical moments
Ep. 72 — She went from a childhood filled with fears to becoming a fearless stunt performer and wilderness adventurer / Alice Ford, stunt actor and producer/host of “Alice’s Adventures.”
Alice Ford has had a long and evolving relationship with fear. An all-star gymnast, athlete, track and field runner, and diver, Ford’s life path came to a dead-end one day after she gave up her prestigious athletic scholarship from the University of Vermont and moved to the University of Arizona, to escape the cold. But instead, she wound up getting a whole lot of heat from some members of a drug cartel (tied to her then-boyfriend, who was dealing drugs) who ransacked her home one day but left her and her dog unharmed. It took that incident and several other wake-ups call to get her life on track and get back in touch with her athleticism and gymnastics roots to build a successful career in the world of stunt acting and get back in touch with her love of nature.
Today, Ford is one of the industry’s most up-and-coming female leads, working with directors such as Michael Bey in action-packed movies including “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” and Star Wars, suffering numerous injuries and concussions in the course of her work, which was one factor along with her love of nature, in building a parallel career track as a wildlife adventurer.
Ford is producing and starring in a television series, “Alice Ford’s: World Heritage Adventures.” And she also stars in her own YouTube channel called “Alice Ford Adventures,” where she hosts travel videos from her many hikes and climbs around the globe, bringing her full circle in her evolving relationship with both fear and nature.
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If you liked this episode, do check out these other episodes:
Ep. 69. A battered cop proves her mettle during the Jan. 6th riots / Officer Caroline Edwards, USCP
Ep. 63. Held hostage by drug lord reveals the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Santos Calderón
Techtopia with Chitra Ragavan is a podcast examining the power, peril and promise of technology. Chitra explores the latest technological wonders, interviews the creative entrepreneurs behind them, delves into the dark side of these omnipresent innovations and examines technology’s profound impact on people and society.
On March 7, 2022, The front page of the New York Times ran a graphic photograph that summed up the tragic cost of Russia’s war on innocent Ukrainian civilians. It was a photograph of a mother, her two children, and a church volunteer crumpled to the ground. They were the victims of a Russian mortar attack on civilians as they attempted to flee over the Irpin River to Kyiv. The photo, which was was taken by the Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario, sent shock-waves throughout the world.
Capturing that image also put Lynsey Addario in grave danger, something that she has confronted many times over during her more than two-decade career as one of the most accomplished war-photographers in the world.
Addario has had boots on the ground in Ukraine since the begining of the Russian invasion. And, as we near the one year anniversary of the war, she describes the toll of the conflict on Ukrainian civilians and reflects on the personal cost of covering conflict.
Ukraine is just one of the war zones that Addario has traveled in and out of, on assignment for The New York Times, National Geographic, and other publications for more than two decades.
In 2015, American Photo Magazine named Addario as one of the five most influential photographers of the past 25 years, saying she changed the way we saw the world’s conflicts.
I spoke with Addario when she made a brief stop in Washington DC on November 3rd to receive the prestigious Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation.
This is my third conversation with the fearless Addario. To hear her personal story of how she became a photojournalist, how she covers major conflicts, how she survived a violent kidnapping in Libya, and why she does the work she does, do check out my previous interview with Addario on my leadership podcast, When It Mattered, Episode 35. It’s an incredible story. And do listen to Addario’s previous appearance on Techtopia, Episode 18, as she reflects on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath of the chaotic pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
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When It Mattered:
🎙️70. A protector of U.S. nukes evaluates Putin’s nuclear threats / Maj Gen Robert Wheeler, USAF (ret)
🎙️ Ep. 60. Putin laid his cards on the table years before the Ukraine invasion / Gen. James Jones, USMC
🎙️ Ep. 66. Distinguished diplomat reclaims her narrative / Marie Yovanovitch, “Lessons from the Edge”
Techtopia:
🎙️ Ep. 26. Technology is rewiring Ukraine’s narrative / Alex Deane & Bryan Cunningham
Do check out these related articles in SWAAY
✍️ A “Genuine Badass”: How Marie Yovanovitch Reclaimed Her Narrative and Reputation
✍️ The Incredible, Indomitable Super-Survivors of Ukraine
✍️ Refugees in the Shadows: A Viral Insights Column on War, Displacement, and Super-Survivors
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