Project Inclusion: The Podcast

About Project Inclusion: The Podcast

A podcast focused on telling real-life stories to help people broaden their definitions of inclusion, and get a deeper understanding of what inclusion in action looks like – from products, brands, and trends, to lifestyles, organizations, and cultures around the world. Find out more at https://projectinclusion.us

Publisher

Fanny Krivoy & Mindy Eng

Category

arts · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Jun 2021

Latest episode

14 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

15 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Jun 2026

   true but useless

   A Conversation with Dr. Curtis Palmore | True But Useless What does it take to turn around a school — and why does it have almost nothing to do with curriculum? Dr. Curtis Palmore, CEO of United Charter High Schools — the largest charter high school network in New York City — grew up in the South Bronx. Today, he leads schools in the same neighborhoods where he was raised, and the through-line of his work is simple: kids in under-resourced communities deserve the same quality of education as anyone else. In this conversation, Curtis talks about the mindset shift he believes every school turnaround actually hinges on — what he calls the "true but useless" reframe. When educators get stuck listing everything that's hard about serving high-need students, they're not wrong. But they're also not moving. He talks about what it looks like to lead adults out of that stuckness, before you ever touch a curriculum. He also gets into the role of joy and belonging in high schools (and why it tends to disappear exactly when students need it most), how his network is navigating AI in a way that's intentional rather than reactive, and what New York City's shrinking student population means for schools trying to grow. Curtis has been doing this work for nearly three decades — from his first classroom in Washington Heights to a network serving students across multiple boroughs. This one is full of things worth sitting with.

2. 

   18 Mar 2026

   Beyond Walls

   A Conversation with Lacey Schütz | Beyond Walls What does it really take to lead an institution that lives up to its own values? In this episode, we sit down with Lacey Schütz — a cultural leader with over fifteen years of experience at institutions including the Museum of the City of New York and Shaker Museum — now based in Saudi Arabia, where she's been observing a cultural ecosystem being built from the ground up. Lacey speaks candidly about the hidden costs of scarcity culture in mission-driven organizations, why burnout is a systems failure rather than a personal one, and what humane leadership actually looks like in practice. She reflects on the tension between institutional values and institutional behavior, the quiet power of micro-interactions, and what museums need to let go of to become genuine parts of their communities. From a little girl in the Bronx declaring her love of art to drone shows drawing millions of Saudi families into public space, Lacey reminds us that access to culture changes lives — at every scale. This is a conversation about leadership, institutional change, and what it means to do meaningful work in an uncertain world.

3. 

   27 Feb 2026

   Moving Elephants

   How do you move elephants — without breaking the system or the people inside it? "AI didn't create accessibility risk — it poured gasoline on velocity. And velocity exposes broken systems." That line stopped us in my tracks. In our latest Project Inclusion conversation, we sat down with Cat Noone, CEO of Stark, to talk about what it really takes to move elephants — large organizations navigating accessibility, governance, and product velocity. We explored: Why companies don't ignore accessibility because they don't care The "latent innovation phase" most organizations get stuck in Why moral arguments alone don't drive change How accessibility becomes a growth driver — not a compliance afterthought What stood out most: Accessibility isn't a tooling problem. It's an infrastructure problem. It's a systems design problem. And when AI accelerates velocity, weak systems break first. If you lead product, design, engineering, or strategy — this one's worth your time. #Accessibility #SystemsThinking #AI #Leadership #InclusiveDesign #ProductStrategy

4. 

   17 Sept 2025

   Rock, paper, scissors!

   How can a game transform life-or-death conversations in healthcare settings? A conversation with Criswell Lappin In this compelling episode, design thinker Criswell Lappin reveals how play and games can break down barriers in healthcare, particularly for underserved communities. With over 20 years of experience spanning from Apple to healthcare innovation, Lappin demonstrates that the mechanics of play aren't just for children—they're powerful tools for building trust and sparking meaningful conversations. The St. Joseph's Health Project Lappin's most impactful work involved addressing a critical healthcare challenge in Paterson, New Jersey. Pregnant women weren't asking clinical questions during appointments, creating gaps in care. Through research, his team discovered that women felt more comfortable when they found shared experiences with their healthcare providers. The solution? A simple "Would You Rather?" card game that pairs clinical topics, encouraging both patients and nurses to share stories and find common ground. One powerful example: a 19-year-old patient with a history of sexual abuse initially refused a pelvic exam. After playing the game and bonding over pasta sauce preferences, she opened up and began asking about delivery options she hadn't known existed. The Philosophy Behind Play Lappin's approach stems from two core influences: his childhood collecting baseball cards (visual appeal backed by data) and growing up with a disabled younger brother (fostering empathy and caregiving instincts). He believes play gives people permission to approach problems differently by lowering stakes and reducing formality. Key Design Principles Lappin shared four essential pieces of advice he gives to students, teams, and his own children: Plan on multiple futures - especially in business contexts Focus on what you can control - worrying about uncontrollable variables leads nowhere Aim for 1% better - small weekly improvements compound into transformation Prioritize who you work with over what you do - relationships lead to interesting work Looking Forward The St. Joseph's project, now called "Prefieris" (Spanish for "Would You Rather"), continues to expand as the hospital collects data on its impact. Lappin emphasizes the importance of having internal champions like nurse Stephanie Matthews, noting that such allies are critical for moving innovative projects forward in traditional institutions. This episode illuminates how thoughtful design thinking, combined with the universal language of play, can create profound human connections that ultimately save lives and improve healthcare outcomes for vulnerable communities.

5. 

   12 May 2025

   ctrl+alt+learn

   What if everything we thought you knew about education was holding us back? It’s time to unlearn, reimagine, and step into the future of learning with CoLAB. Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring “who” from CoLAB, an organization whose vision is to co-design next-ready resilient communities where education, creativity and social responsibility converge to drive impact in a rapidly changing world. CoLAB is redefining education with a bold, student-centered philosophy that fuses design thinking, critical inquiry, creativity, and service. More than just a learning model, it’s an agile ecosystem designed to equip students with the skills and mindset needed to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Unlike traditional approaches, CoLAB champions co-creation, student agency, and the exploration of limitless possibilities—drawing inspiration from quantum physics, psychology, and the sciences to challenge conventional wisdom. What happens when we bring people together in an environment that intentionally designs for critical inquiry, imagination, and creativity, turning K-12 education on its head? What happens when you infuse design thinking into the DNA of a classroom? How can we provide a pathway to advancement—one where people of all ages, inside and outside classrooms, can develop the skills and capacities to lead and realize potential in the fourth industrial revolution What do outcomes look like when we can rewrite traditional ways of teaching, and train educators to bring these next generation classrooms to life?

6. 

   28 Aug 2024

   Brave Conversations

   Project Inclusion had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Noa Gafni on our most recent podcast episode, where we dove deep into the power of bravery and presence in the realm of business and global social innovation.  Reflecting on her international upbringing, Noa brings a unique lens to the discourse on changemaking, revealing how personal histories can inform and enhance global conversations on impact. ….. Project Inclusion had the pleasure of hosting Noa Gafni on our most recent podcast episode, where we dove deep into the power of bravery and presence in the realm of business and global social innovation.  Reflecting on her international upbringing, Noa brings a unique lens to the discourse on changemaking, revealing how personal histories can inform and enhance global conversations on impact.

7. 

   11 Dec 2023

   Good tastes better

   To open our second season, we sit with Robbie Cape, a serial entrepreneur committed to building successful businesses dedicated to repairing the world meaningfully. He co-founded and is CEO of Mt. Joy, a restaurant that focuses on bringing irresistible fried chicken sandwiches from farm-to-table using regenerative practices. When Robbie's not thinking about how to help more farmers farm regeneratively, he's working on building a more sustainable, transparent supply chain for good food. Today, we talk to Robbie about his journey from tech to the food industry and how he's making Mt. Joy's business model of an inclusive food-farmer-processing-distribution and-consumer ecosystem, one that can take how we eat, how we farm, and how we care for our planet into the next generation. How can food be the key to unlocking the next high-impact business model? How do you make good food that is healing for the planet, its people, and its animals? How hard is it really to do good and do good business? What does it take to create an ecosystem that shows how fried chicken can be used to change the status quo?

8. 

   31 Oct 2023

   Unleash the power of spinning

   In this episode, we sit with Gil Gershoni, a leader in the world of brand design, and talk about how his journey as a dyslexia designer has led him to unlock new futures, new realities, and new ways of thinking for brands. Gil is also the founder of Dyslexic Design Thinking, an initiative that explores how the dyslexic mindset can help improve the way we think, create and relate to one another. He is the host of the Dyslexic Design Thinking podcast featuring dyslexic creators, entrepreneurs and thought-leaders.

9. 

   17 Sept 2023

   Navigate the messiness of impact design

   In this episode, we talk to Robert Fabricant about making an impact at a local and global level through service design. Robert is Co-Founder and Partner of Dalberg Design, where he brings human-centered design and innovation services to clients looking for new, creative approaches to making breakthroughs in social impact and international development. We talk to him about how his years of experience in human-centered design has shaped his perspective on how we think about relationships when designing services for communities around the world and how inclusion in service design means not only bringing communities aboard to participate in creating solutions but also deeply examining how you can create space and opportunity for people and entire organizations to navigate existing power structures better. How can we structure conversations to engender growth from every perspective? What are effective ways to engage with the global community and learn from others' experiences? How can we foster collaboration and avoid reinventing the wheel in our initiatives? How do you navigate the power dynamics of social impact changemaking? What are better ways you can set your organization up to affect social change at a global scale?

10. 

    21 Feb 2023

    Social Innovation: From farmers to misinformation

    How would you connect with communities and people that are different from you, or your way of life? How would you design a program that can help farmers in developing countries begin to create a relationship with digital technology? How would you help a community of 10,000 Filipinos understand the impact of misinformation on their daily lives? How would you navigate the politics of the public sector to help improve the lives of your local citizens? In this episode, Fanny and Mindy hear from Joie Cruz about what it takes to drive social innovation in the Phillipines.

11. 

    24 Oct 2022

    Sparking Intergenerational Connections

    How do you define a life well lived?  How can we celebrate the incredible wit, wisdom, and experiences of older adults living full, meaningful lives and use them as inspiration for our own lives instead of overlooking older adults? What happens when a small family project grows into a social movement across the country? How can schools, use intergenerational conversations to teach history, empathy, resilience, and ageless wisdom? And what are ways companies, are cultivating intergenerational, connections in the workplace to build a more age-resilient and age-intelligent workforce? In this episode, we talk to Sky Bergman, an accomplished, award-winning photographer, Professor of Photography and Video at California Polytechnic State University, and the director of Lives Well Lived, a film featuring the stories of modern-day elders that show us how growing older can be a journey to be celebrated, and how schools and corporations are using the film as a starting point to rebuild intergenerational learning and connection across America.

12. 

    7 Aug 2022

    Living in the Super Age

    What happens when your inclusive efforts are siloed as opposed to woven into the fabric of your organization? What to do when there aren’t enough young workers to hire? Which brands are making strides in building a multi-generational workforce? In this episode, Fanny Krivoy and Mindy Eng talk to author and former corporate advisor for strategic policies and partnerships Bradley Shurman to uncover why rethinking our perspectives on aging makes both human-sense and business-sense, especially in what Bradley calls the Super Age.

13. 

    24 Mar 2022

    Measuring the invisible

    How do you measure something invisible, like inclusion? How do you pave the way for accountability and change, inside organizations, both big and small? Stela Lupushor from ReFrame.Work and Paolo Gaudiano from Aleria talk to us about the next level of workforce analytics that goes beyond diversity indicators, and how the latest research shows how looking at exclusion dynamics is one of the keys to unlocking new quantifiable ways to measure inclusion.

14. 

    13 Dec 2021

    My life, Recalled: AI and memory

    Sharon Zhang and Kristie Kaiser from Personal.AI sat down with us to talk about what it takes to build a truly inclusive AI memory aid, how they’re leveling the playing field when it comes to learning to use an AI product, and how they’ve been keeping their promise to protect and safeguard the personal memories of the very people they serve inside and out.

15. 

    18 Jun 2021

    Project Inclusion: Sneak Peek

    Hear from the makers and shakers in the world of how we can each build more inclusive business practices, brands, products, and communities. Fanny Krivoy and Mindy Eng are the co-hosts of the Project Inclusion Podcast, and they're bringing you into the room where these conversations are happening. Stay tuned for when the first episode drops Summer 2021. Find out more at https://projectinclusion.us

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 34 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

48

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

Contact Project Inclusion: The Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.