Ever look around you and think “this is just backwards. What if instead it worked this way….?”
In this podcast, we explore what it takes for everyday people to reimagine the world around them—and what stands in their way.
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This is a podcast co-hosted by
and Miriam Plavin-Masterman. A show about everyday people reimagining the way things work—and tackling the obstacles they face. We explore adventures in democratizing innovation—how the chance to try one’s hand at something new affects people and even organizations, what “powers” they discover and what challenges they face along the way. We dig into access: what determines who gets the chance to try and disrupt the way things work? We examine obstacles in specific industries and communities, and go deep with people working to break through them. We look closely at the role of tech—how it can equip or disempower people to build experiments of their own—and society: what leads us to accept a role as consumers of the way things work, and what it means to discover our powers to ask in practice, “What if instead?”Produced by with
Episodes’ Sponsor: ITSP Magazine
Meet the team!
Host Alejandro Juárez Crawford is co-founder and CEO of RebelBase, the SaaS platform that guides and connects people as they build solutions of their own. He works to democratize access to innovation and equip people around the world to replace the fossil economy. He serves as Professor of Entrepreneurship at Bard College’s #1 MBA in Sustainability, and Global Faculty Chair for OSUN’s Certificate in Sustainability and Social Enterprise. He holds an MBA from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, a BA from Cornell University, and recently earned Ashoka’s certificate in Leading Multi-Stakeholder Collaborations.
Host Miriam Plavin-Masterman is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Worcester State University, where she teaches Management courses, focusing on organizational culture and innovation. She holds an MA and PhD in Sociology from Brown University, an MBA from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, and a BSc from Cornell University. In addition to her work on climate change and innovation, she studies how social entrepreneurs repurpose abandoned industrial spaces into public green spaces to make cities more livable. A New York native, she lives just outside of Boston with her family.
Producer Srijan Banik works to provide access to real-world experience in what it takes to create impact and meet urgent needs. This ranges from instilling social entrepreneurship pathways for students to structuring social innovation frameworks in higher education. It also crucially involves stimulating dialogue, engagement, and critical thinking. In all his work, Srijan aims to demonstrate how the most powerful tools available can be used in an integrated way. These tools have too often failed to fulfill their potential to democratize access. That's why a computer science and engineering graduate like him focuses on global collaboration and social entrepreneurship. Srijan previously served as a Millennium Fellow at the Millennium Campus Network and UNAI, and then became a Global Fellow at the Open Society University Network. He founded the Social Impact Lab at his alma mater, BRAC University, and now leads it as its Coordinator.
Producer Mercedes Riegé (she/her) is a New York-based artist who started out in theatre and is slowly inserting herself in the digital world of entertainment: films and podcasts. Born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, she moved to the US and attended AMDA’s Conservatory of Musical Theatre. She participated in various musicals, readings of new works, and cabaret shows all across New York. During the 2022-2023 season, Mercedes worked at Manhattan Theatre Club as the Special Events Trainee. She is now at the New School finishing her BFA and learning all about film production. Throughout her time there, she’s written and directed many of her short films, as well as taken part on many of her classmates’ works both as a crew member and as an actress. Mercedes is also a producer of the Ruff Cuts series, where members of the community screen their unfinished films and get feedback from the audience.
