Episode S3 | E9

Ending Absolute Poverty: Small Things with Big Impacts

Air Date: Jul 15, 2018

About this episode

In 2016, for the first time in history, the portion of humanity living in extreme poverty was reduced to less than 10%. Now the world, through the UN, has set a goal of abolishing absolute poverty by 2030. Can it be done? Our panel of thought leaders discuss the ways in which they are each working on disruptive technologies which may have the potential to significantly ameliorate some of the world’s great challenges, including water scarcity, energy poverty, sanitation, the need for improved yet sustainable agricultural yields, and workforce readiness.

About the guests

Dr. Charles Yarish

Globally renowned seaweed expert & Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut

Professor Yarish received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University and then joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut in 1976 where he is in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and The Department of Marine Sciences. At UCONN, he developed an internationally known laboratory for seaweed R&D and intimately involved in the development...

Dr. Cody Friesen

Co-founder and CEO, Zero Mass Water

Dr. Cody Friesen is an Entrepreneur, Materials Scientist and Physical Electrochemist. He is the Founder of Fluidic Energy, an advanced battery company and the Founder and CEO of Zero Mass Water, a water technology company. Friesen is the Fulton Engineering Professor of Innovation at Arizona State University and is a Senior Sustainability Scientist...

Ali Jaffer

Global COO, Generation

Ali Jaffer is the Chief Operating Officer of Generation: You Employed. In this role, he has overseen Generation’s expansion from a start-up of 100 graduates in two locations to a global leading non-profit in the education to employment space, with over 20,000 graduates across 9 countries, all within the past three years. Prior to his work with...

Dr. Sasha Kramer

Co-founder and Executive Director of Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL)

Dr. Sasha Kramer is an ecologist and human rights advocate who has been living and working in Haiti since 2004. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology from Stanford University in 2006 and co-founded SOIL that same year while also completing a postdoctoral research position with the Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects at Stanford. While Sasha...