Episodes
Monday Sep 16, 2019
Dr Sarah Kessans - biochemist, rower, NASA astronaut applicant
Monday Sep 16, 2019
Monday Sep 16, 2019
Dr Sarah Kessans is a US-born New Zealand scientist and biochemist, a multi-national champion in rowing and was in the top 50 applicants—out of over 18,000—in the NASA astronaut programme.
She’s earned degrees in plant and molecular biologies, worked on a plant-based HIV vaccine, and is now working at the cutting edge of synthetic biology solutions to combat climate change, facilitate space colonisation, and advance innovations in medicine and agriculture. In short, she’s figuring out what we’ll eat on Mars.
She uses her work whilst educating and inspiring future leaders to courageously tackle scientific and societal challenges with purpose, integrity, and empathy.
In 2006, Sarah spent 16 hours clinging to a capsised rowboat during her first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Two years later she returned with a crew to complete her mission, setting a world record in the process.
In 2019, the U.S. Embassy supported the 10th anniversary of TEDx Christchurch, where Sarah spoke to a full Christchurch Town Hall audience.
While at TEDx Christchurch, Sarah caught up with James Fleury from the U.S. Embassy Youth Council. Have a listen...
Tuesday May 14, 2019
Disney Imagineering with Mk
Tuesday May 14, 2019
Tuesday May 14, 2019
Mk Haley has been with The Walt Disney Company since 1994 serving primarily with Walt Disney Imagineering in both technical and creative roles with the Virtual Reality teams, R&D, Special FX, Show Quality Services and now the Disney Research. These teams allowed support of projects with a 10 year lead time, to critical in-park issues that needed immediate solutions. Mk has also served Disney Corporate initiatives related to New Technology programs and collaboration tools, as well as Disney Digital Media initiatives with our Television Groups. She has been an educator for 20 years teaching at both the high school and University level, including the Imagineering – UCLA partnership in Themed Entertainment Design, and recently served as both the Associate Executive Producer and Faculty at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. With more than 25 years of service to ACM SIGGRAPH, Mk more recently served as the SIGGRAPH 2013 Conference Chair.
Mk was in New Zealand for a nationwide series of talks with support from the U.S. Embassy and Te Papa’s innovation hub Mahuki. The series was called “The Innovation of the Experience Economy” - a series of four talks and workshops exploring the future of “the experience” within the culture and heritage sector and beyond.
Mike from the U.S. Embassy had a few minutes to chat with Mk Haley while in a cab in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington...
Friday May 03, 2019
Friday May 03, 2019
Butterscotch, the vocal percussionist virtuosa, uses her powerful voice to defy gender and music social constructs. She began her career in the underground male-dominated beatbox battle scene, where she was crowned the world's first female beatbox champion. Butterscotch blends Hip-Hop, Jazz, Soul and Reggae and her shows are emotionally and physically invigorating with her trifecta fusion of singing, beatboxing, and playing either piano or guitar simultaneously, or creating endless layers on her loop station. With a voice reminiscent of Billie Holiday and rap verses comparable to Lauryn Hill, Butterscotch courageously sings about her love life, depression, and daily struggles of being a biracial queer woman of color. Her philanthropic mission is to empower and elevate people through music and compassion. Butterscotch has opened up for Erykah Badu, Earth, Wind & Fire, Thievery Corporation, Sergio Mendes, Wyclef Jean and other musical legends.
Butterscotch was in New Zealand for the Creative Leadership conference (CLNZ) that the U.S. Embassy supported. CLNZ was a two-day conference connecting visionary humans into a creative community to solve contemporary challenges. Butterscotch also had an opportunity to meet with the wider community while in Wellington, including giving this performance (video) to other 600 enthusiastic children at a local school. Public Affairs Officer, Dolores Prin, had a chance to sit down with Butterscotch Clinton in a state-of-the-art CoCa Massey University studio to find out what makes her tick…or beatbox…
Friday May 03, 2019
Friday May 03, 2019
Aaron Rasmussen is an American entrepreneur, inventor, and game designer. He is a co-founder of MasterClass - an American online education platform where students can access tutorials and lectures pre-recorded by experts in various fields. Masterclass.com has interviews from stars such as Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Stephen Curry, Gordan Ramsey, Natalie Portland, and Malcolm Gladwell.
Aaron was in New Zealand for the Creative Leadership conference (CLNZ) that the U.S. Embassy supported. CLNZ was a two-day conference connecting visionary humans into a creative community to solve contemporary challenges.
Aaron recently co-founded - https://outlier.org - an online education course company
Mike from the US Embassy had a chance to sit down with Aaron while down at a startup co-working space in Wellington (BizDojo) to talk about MasterClass, interviewing techniques and...pies!