Podcast

Ohio River Valley Institute Executive Director Joanne Kilgour joins host Philip Johnson, the Endowments’ senior program director for Environment & Health, in breaking down the hype around hydrogen hubs and carbon capture.

Hydrogen hubs have as their centerpiece massive pipeline networks that funnel carbon captured from power plants and factories to injection points for underground sequestration. Some present the process as key to our environmental future, but are the promises of jobs and a reduction in global warming real?

Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) was founded in 2020 with an aim of providing data-driven environmental research that advances a more prosperous, sustainable and equitable Appalachia. The organization has become a leading voice in researching and communicating what carbon capture and hydrogen hubs would really mean for our country's future.

“Our research shows that not only are hydrogen hubs likely to be costly, taking funding away from more sustainable, long-term solutions,” Joanne says, “but they are also unlikely to deliver on significant job creation or to be an effective climate solution.”

Joanne grew up in Maine, earned degrees at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, and has held positions with the Center for Coalfield Justice and the Sierra Club. An avid nature advocate, she holds a doctorate in environmental law, and the opportunity to “reveal surprising realities” about Appalachia’s energy future led her to ORVI.

She shares what she has seen about the unwavering sense of pride and place that Appalachians possess; what she has learned about the power of combining data and lived experience in revealing truths; and why she takes care to humanize policy research decisions by keeping the on-the-ground individuals she meets in Appalachian communities front of mind.

“I believe we can be compassionate problem solvers,” Joanne says. Learn how she is doing just that in this episode of “We Can Be.”

Dr. Daniel Perkins, professor, founder and principal scientist of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State University, leads the largest-ever longitudinal study of post-911 transitioning veterans, “The Veteran Metrics Initiative.”

Danny joins host Megan Andros, the Endowments’ senior program officer for veterans, in diving into the startling findings of his team’s research. Beginning with an initial cohort of 10,000 veterans, the study followed an eventual 6,700 veterans over a three-year period as they transitioned from active military duty to civilian life. 

Raqueeb Bey, the founder and executive director of Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh, joins this episode’s host, Endowments Vice President of Sustainability Andrew McElwaine, to discuss food deserts, the healing effects of holistic gardening and the organization’s surprise boost from alt-rock stars Rage Against the Machine.

 

Jeffrey Brown, PBS NewsHour chief correspondent for arts, culture and society,  joins “We Can Be” host Janet Sarbaugh, The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Creativity, as they tackle one of the creative realm’s big questions: Are the arts essential?

“I’ve had letters from young Black girls saying ‘I now know this is possible,’ ” Carlow University’s groundbreaking president Dr. Kathy Humphrey, tells “We Can Be” host Michelle Figlar, The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Learning. 

As his tenure as president of The Heinz Endowments - and as host of "We Can Be" - came to an end in late February 2022, Grant Oliphant devoted his last podcast to reflecting on the importance of gratitude, what makes a community great, and his hope for what the future holds for the social change realm.

“The circle of concern has to be wide enough for all of us to fit inside,” Jenn Hoos Rothberg, executive director of the Einhorn Collaborative, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to addressing America’s crisis of connection by increasing opportunities for empathy and civility. 

Michael Mann, the author of five best-selling books - including the recently published “The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet” - thinks that it is indeed still possible to avert the most devastating impacts of climate change, and believes indisputable science and a burgeoning youth environmental movement are key to our future. 

Energy industry researcher and “The State of My State” author Sean O’Leary zeroes in on the role of coal, natural gas and petrochemicals in the economies of Appalachia. He does it with with a deep respect for the region where he grew up, and an understanding that with the beauty and grandeur of that region also comes unfulfilled promises of hydraulic fracturing-related prosperity. 

Kristina Marusic is an investigative reporter covering environmental health and justice issues for Environmental Health News.  Her “Fractured: The body burden of living near fracking,” a four-part series that revealed the health impacts of shale hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—on families living near fracking sites, has become a key piece of evidence for lawmakers urging action on environmental health issues. 

Thomas Brennan is founder and executive director of The War Horse, a nonprofit newsroom that has gained international respect for reporting on the often-unspoken human impacts of military service.  He details his 

journey from active duty service in Afghanistan to being honored with a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his resolute reporting on sexual assault in the military.

Nell Edgington, author of “Reinventing Social Change: Embrace Abundance to Create a Healthier and More Equitable World,” has traveled coast to coast in her quest to guide social-change warriors in realizing their full power and capability. “We are infinitely more powerful – in creating social change, or really in doing anything – when we approach it from a place of joy,” she tells host Grant Oliphant. 

Dr. Barry Kerzin is foremost a kind, giving, smart and and inspirational beautiful human being. He is also a Buddhist monk, a personal physician to the Dalai Lama, and the founder of both the Human Values Institute in Japan and the United States-based Altruism in Medicine Institute, which teaches resilience to health care workers through training in compassion and mindfulness.

Coalfield Development CEO Brandon Dennison - honored with a 2019 Heinz Award - and his team are rebuilding the Appalachian economy one job at a time, with gumption, grit and grace as their guide. They are bridging the divide between those dedicated to a declining fossil fuel economy and those who believe in the family-sustaining jobs that a renewable energy economy provides.  

GivingTuesday co-founder Asha Curran is one of the few humans in the world today who can rightfully say that they have been instrumental in producing 20 billion social media impressions and raising nearly $2.5 billion dollars to help others in a single year.  This "radical generosity" is more than simply a possibility - it is a reality, and Asha shares why and how.

William H. Frey is the author of “Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America,” and an internationally renowned demographer and senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute. “Black and brown citizens, and an increasingly progressive young population will dominate spending power, population increases, and, eventually, the care of our older citizens,” William says of the latest census data. “It will take political leadership—on both national and regional levels—to help educate us as to why this is so important, and why this is good for us.”

Funded by The Heinz Endowments with its largest-ever single grant and guided by a committee of trusted community leaders, the Center for Shared Prosperity at Carnegie Mellon University is creating a template for a better way for leading research universities to use their expertise to confront the persistent challenges and inequality confronting the communities that surround them.  Host Grant Oliphant welcomes Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab leader Illah Nourbakhsh, and Raqueeb Bey, executive director of Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh and one of the trusted regional leaders helping guide the focus of the center.