In this episode, Melanie Rua of Bloomberg Intelligence sits down with Randall Strickland, a sustainable investment advisor to philanthropic organizations, and Jesse Gerstin, faculty at the Bard MBA in Sustainability and community finance practitioner at the nonprofit Inclusive. They untangle the differences between ESG, sustainable investing, and impact investing, and make the case that despite the political backlash, the work continues under different names. The conversation covers public and private markets, the long-term opportunity in clean energy, and the financial fluency today's sustainability leaders need to drive real change across every sector.

In this episode, Bard MBA faculty member and Lead the Change host Renay Loper sits down with colleague and fellow Bard MBA instructor Ayana Fernandes Pilgrim, founder and CEO of the Talent Cornerstone, for a candid conversation about the seismic shifts reshaping the future of work. Drawing on decades of experience leading global talent initiatives, Ayana examines the dangerous intersection of declining DEI commitments and the rapid rise of AI in hiring. She introduces the concept of "divine dualism" to describe AI's simultaneous promise and peril, makes the case for why soft skills are actually the essential skills of the new economy, and offers practical guidance for employees and job seekers on how to shift from an employee consciousness to an ownership mindset and lead themselves well in an era of relentless change.

In this episode, Bard MBA director Eban Goodstein interviews Alejandro Juárez Crawford and Miriam Plavin-Masterman, co-authors of One Size Fits None, about how VC-driven scale and corporate cost-cutting have created unresponsive systems that squeeze consumers and workers alike. They share stories of grassroots innovators using platforms like Rebel Base to solve local problems—from disability employment in the Philippines to vegan leather made from jackfruit peels in Bangladesh—and discuss alternative funding models that keep capital and decision-making in communities. Their message: structured opportunities to experiment can awaken entrepreneurial capabilities everywhere, because "there's no Hollywood hero riding in to save us.