Couple Inspires First Plastic Diaper Ban

Posted on September 6, 2019January 14, 2026 by Madelyn Dwyer

As Kim and Jason Graham-Nye were anticipating the arrival of their first child, they discovered that conventional disposable diapers/nappies are the third largest contributors to landfills in the world and that one single disposable diaper takes 500 years to biodegrade. These were the revelations that completely redirected their careers purpose.

After their son was born, they became aware of a small company in Tasmania that was making flushable and compostable diaper inserts. In 2005, they used this technology to found their own company, gDiapers.

gDiapers aims to redefine disposable diapers by creating a reusable alternative with inserts that are flushable, biodegradable, compostable and most importantly won’t end up in our landfills or oceans. The diapers are also the first of their kind to be Cradle to Cradle Certified, meaning they are regenerative, giving back to the earth what they take. After just one compost cycle, the inserts are transformed into nutrient-rich soil.

“Nappies are a seriously dirty business and not just because they’re filled with poop but because they’re made of plastic,” said Kim.

Plastic is dependent on nonrenewable resources and takes a long time to biodegrade, especially in landfills. When plastic begins breaking down, it can turn into microplastic which is categorized as small pieces of plastic less than five millimeters long. These small pieces of plastic pose health threats to marine and land animals. Studies have explored how microplastic is impacting human health. A recent study by the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology indicated that humans may consume between 39,000 to 52,000 particles annually from food sources.

“Every single piece of plastic ever produced on the entire planet is still here in one way, shape, or form and will be for hundreds of years,” explains Kim. The world has cumulatively produced over 7.8 billion tonnes of plastic–more than one tonne for every person alive today.

As people are becoming more aware of the consequences of single-use plastics, changes are being made on small and large scales. The responsibility should equally fall on both consumers and producers.

Just this year, Vanuatu, a small Pacific Island nation northeast of Australia, announced that it will be the first country in the world to ban the sale and use of disposable diapers. The ban goes into effect in December of 2020.

At the 2019 TEDx Sydney, Kim shared how gDiapers are an innovative solution to our global reliance on single-use plastics. “We need solutions that challenge our existing mindset around extraction and waste. We need to go far beyond recycling. We need to be inspired by nature and reimagine how we make, use and contribute to the world we live in.”

You can watch Kim’s full TEDx Talk below.

Account Issues

Posted on July 19, 2019January 27, 2026 by Real Leaders

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Account Issues Redirect Page

Posted on July 19, 2019January 27, 2026 by Real Leaders

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All Episodes

Posted on April 23, 2019January 27, 2026 by Real Leaders Inc.

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All Episodes and Recaps

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Doug Bystry is the Founder, President, and CEO of Clearinghouse CDFI who shares with you the challenges disadvantaged communities face with receiving loans, the most difficult decision he’s ever had to make, and the importance of following your conviction.

Kevin Chin is the CEO and Founder of Arowana who shares what impact means to him, how culture eats numbers for breakfast and the importance of not letting your hubris get in the way of long-term growth.

Tristan Louis is the President and CEO Casebook who shares his involvement in the creation of the internet, RSS feeds and what made him shift his focus to impact social workers and victims of welfare programs.

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Scott Koloms is the CEO of Facilities Management Services who shares with you how to bake in social responsibility into your business, the growth that comes from employee retention, and the importance of refocusing your vision when fear sets in. Receive $18 OFF a year 1-year Real Leaders magazine subscription here.

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John Denniston who alongside Tony Salas joins you today to share how their for-profit model is transforming the lives of smallholder farmers, regenerating the land, and closing the yield-gap. How will climate change affect their crops? What leadership is needed today to feed us in the future? Find out on this episode of the Real Leaders podcast.

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Trevor Hardy is the CEO of BlueWave Solar who shares with you the specific moment that led to his career change, the excitement for new solar energy storage integration, and the leadership needed for the next energy revolution. BlueWave Solar ranked #15 on the 2020 Real Leaders Impact Awards, a ranking of the 100 Top Impact Companies. You can see the full list here: https://old.real-leaders.com/impact-awards.

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David Young is the CEO of Participate Learning who shares with you the lessons learned from deciding to hand over the reins, the importance of becoming bilingual, and how his family values manifest in their company’s culture and customers. Learn more about Participate Learning by reading our free special edition here: https://old.real-leaders.com/impact-awards.

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Jonathan F.P Rose is the President of Jonathan Rose Companies who shares people are purpose-driven beings, how ancient civilizations can help far-sighted thinking, and the leadership needed in urban development. You can find more about Jonathan Rose Companies at old.real-leaders.com/impact-awards.

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Bryon Merade is the Founder and CEO of Caldera Medical whose organization set a goal to improve the lives of 1 million women in marginal communities by 2025. In this episode, he talks about impact, alignment, and the importance of articulating a specific vision. Caldera Medical placed on the 2020 Real Leaders Impact Awards 100 Top Impact Companies list. You can read more about their company and the 99 others here: https://old.real-leaders.com/impact-awards

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We go live with best-selling author and leadership expert Stedman Graham who thinks the only thing getting in your way of greatness is understanding your own identity. You can get his book at https://www.stedmangraham.com/

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Jay Wilkinson, the Founder and CEO of Firespring, discovered after being fired by board members of his own company that it’s those who hold true to their values and roll with the punches that will inherit long-term success. Wilkinson shares in this episode that your purpose can act as a rutter for decision making, examples of capitalism not being used appropriately, and that leadership is, “instilling a vision to let people fulfill it.” Wilkinson’s company Firespring placed in the Real Leaders Impact Awards, a ranking of the 100 top impact companies. Listeners can receive 25% OFF their next Real Leaders magazine by entering in code: podcast25 at https://old.real-leaders.com/subscribe.

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Mark Wilson is the Founder and CEO of Chime Solutions who shares with you his humble upbringings, the importance of creating a healthy attitude for employees, and strategies to create both an impact and profit. Claim your free special edition at https://old.real-leaders.com/impact-awards.

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How much longer does humanity have? Filmmakers, activists and producers Craig Leeson and Malcolm Wood share why they have dedicated their careers now to exploring the impact of climate change where it is most recognizable – glaciers. Learn more about their upcoming documentary at thelastglaciers.com.

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Jim Adams is the former Deputy Chief Technologist at NASA and today he shares the 3 questions all scientists ask each other, how space has expanded his purpose and what NASA can teach us all.

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Ba Minuzzi is the first Latina Founder and solo GP of a VC firm in Silicon Valley. In this episode, she shares with you the importance of having like-minded investors on board, the cancer of constant internal ideas, career advice, and the foreseeable future of emerging technologies. #RealLeadersPodcast #BaMinnuzi #LatinLeaders

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Emma Rose is the Founder and CEO of Final Straw, who started her career trying to educate consumers about single-use plastic entering oceans. After some digging, she arrived on the idea to harness the plastic straw movement to leverage business fundraising and awareness. Now, Final Straw has raised over $1.8 million. What responsibilities and lessons come with this funding? Find out, on this Episode 50 of the #RealLeadersPodcast.

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Matthew Weatherly-white is the Co-Founder and Client Advisor of Caprock an investment advisory firm that handles over $4.5 billion dollars in client assets with $1 billion deployed in sustainable and impact investments. On our longest episode of the Real Leaders podcast, Weatherly-white breaks down the vocabulary of conscious capitalism related terms, whether capitalism can be updated, and leave business owners with one question they should think about before 2020. Learn more about Matthew Weatherly-white by visiting: https://www.caprock.com/

Receive 25% OFF our Real Leaders Impact Awards edition with coupon code: podcast25 or tap: https://realleaders.memberful.com/checkout?plan=35195&coupon=podcast25.

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Alex Fleiss the CEO and co-founder of Rebellion Research an AI-powered Robo-advisory firm that has continually outperformed the S&P 500 since 2007. Will machine learning overtake human investors? How will AI impact the labor market? And what is Rebellions Research boldest prediction? Find out on this episode of the Real Leaders Podcast. For 25% off our latest magazine use promo code: podcast25 at https://old.real-leaders.com/subscribe

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Erik Rind is the CEO of ImagineBC, a data market access provider with a revolutionary concept to pay consumers for giving their information away without knowing the identity of the users on their decentralized network. Keep it real by signing up for our newsletter at https://old.real-leaders.com/free-subscription

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Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a Best-Selling Author, Consultant, Coach, Speaker, CEO, Philanthropist, and Neuroscientist who shares that our human instincts can lead to disastrous decision making. If you would like to be notified about upcoming releases please sign up to our Real Leaders podcast newsletter at https://old.real-leaders.com/free-subscription/.

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Likky Lavji is a well-known Business Mentor, Visionary, Speaker, Coach, Entrepreneur who helps people identify blind spots and live a life of congruence.

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Dr. William Li is a physician, scientist, and author of the book Eat to Beat disease who spent years trying to answer his thesis of “why don’t we get sick more?” In this episode he explains the correlation of healthy foods and a strong immune system. #xMed #SingularityUniversity

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Keely Wachs is the Vice President of Communications and Impact at Zume, a company that appears to be organizing a smarter sustainable food system. Can predictive food analysis reduce the unforeseen increases in food waste and improve misdistribution? Will climate change limit our harvest cycles? How are military officials preparing?

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1fG4…

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Heather Flannery is the Global Lead at Consensys Health who shares what vulnerable life challenges lead to overcoming a distaste for healthcare, how the convergence of blockchain and machine learning technologies can lead to a more transparent and secure future, and what leadership concerns must be addressed when designing incentives for a new system.

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Ardy Arianpour is the CEO and co-founder of SEQSTER whose company accidentally fell upon a software that cracked the code of interoperability allowing healthcare providers and patients to access all of their personal health records in one common place.

In this interview, Ardy shares the challenges of a siloed healthcare system, struggles of developing a startup, and the importance of leadership decision making.

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Ryan Hickman is the Founder of Ryan’s Recycling. Ryan began collecting bottles and cans for his neighborhood when he was 3.5 years old. 7 years later he has inspired a global community of citizens who are taking the extra step to make a difference. In this interview, Ryan shares his passion, journey, and advice to people of all ages who want to make a difference.

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Mitch Hedlund is the founder of the nonprofit organization Recycle Across America (RAA) and Recycle Across the World (RAW). In this episode of the Real Leaders Podcast she discusses the U.S. and global recycling crisis and the increasing epidemic of waste in oceans. Her solution involves implementing society-wide standardized labels on recycling bins to help solve confusion at the waste bin.

To join the standardized label movement, click the link below https://www.RecycleAcrossAmerica.org You can find her episode of the Real Leaders Podcast on

Anchor: https://anchor.fm/realleaders/episode…

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/22cQ…

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David Young is the CEO of Participate an organization that enables teachers and students of all areas to experience a fun education abroad. Many B-Corps are mission driven companies that tend to draw employees who share similar core values and interests, in Participates case they attract employees and students who crave new cultures. In this podcast David shares how Participates model has expanded to now over 450 locations.

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Chad Farrell is the Founder and CEO of Encore Renewable Energy who explains where the panels come from, how solar farms are financed and the leadership it takes to sustain a business. This episode was recorded during the Real Leaders Top 100 Impact Companies campaign that highlighted the top businesses who are making a difference

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Episode 36 features Robert Acton, the CEO of Cause Strategy Partners who discusses board seat placement, managing pushback, setting a vision, and inspiring a shared vision.

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Because who doesn’t want to see how dog toys are made? Play the video to the right to see Spencer move throughout West Paws manufacturing plant and learn how pet toys are brought to life.

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Who is the most important person in the building? We sit down with Scott Koloms the CEO of Facilities Management Services who thinks Janitors deserve to be in the discussion. This interview was recorded and published live to our facebook page @realleadersmagazine on January 22 during the Real Leaders 100 Top Impact Companies initiative. Let us know what you think or want to hear by leaving a review!

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John-Paul Maxfield is the Founder and CEO of Waste Farmers who believes long-term thinking fundamentally solves the needs of social and environmental problems. On this episode, we dive a little bit deeper about how short-term thinking has inhibited our success as a society. You learn more about his company at https://wastefarmers.com/

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We sit down with Aaron Fairchild, CEO of Green Canopy to learn how his mission-driven real estate group is creating a competitive advantage in the housing market. When there are two homes that cost the same but one is environmentally friendly which one would you choose? Visit Green Canopy at https://www.greencanopy.com/

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From music to cryptocurrency, see how one of the world’s most popular artists is harnessing his platform for good. Majority of the public know Akon as the artist who ruled the early 2000’s hip/hop and R&B scene bringing us hit albums Trouble, Konvicted, and Freedom, but little know of his efforts to rebuild and restore the land he came from – Africa. Listen to the never before heard story of how he is activating Africa. Full story at old.real-leaders.com/Akon

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Thomas Raffa, founder of Raffa-Marcum’s Nonprofit & Social Sector Group, shares his thoughts on shared value principles, what lead him to start a mission-oriented company with quality services and how his group is benefiting from a shared leadership approach. This is a great interview if you are curious about how a company can reduce your turnover and lead with a shared vision.

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Kristin Carroll is the CEO of Rescue The Behavior Change Agency who was working for a major marketing firm in NYC when she realized she wanted to align her business acumen with positive behavior change. Rescue does this through health communications, policy change to try and shift environments that shift behaviors, altering social norms to ensure healthier behaviors become normal behaviors.

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Micro-powered design or MpowerD empowers emerging economies by extending clean and affordable energy to create opportunities from problems. On this podcast listen to why MpowerD started, how they are able to reduce costs to reach poverty-stricken areas and the overarching leadership qualities that propel this company forward.

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Founder & CEO, Lisa Curtis discovered a magical nutrient called Moringa in Niger, West Africa when she was 22 years old serving in the Peace Core. “I had never eaten anything that had had such a profound impact on my body”. The plant has now impacted more than just the consumer. Soon after, Lisa went on to raise all sorts of capital to hire women and men in South America, SE Asia, and Africa to produce and export her sustenance adding additional societal value to the supply chain by providing 1 world access to 3rd world countries, “it was really hard for me to get people to take me seriously. I got a lot of, `nice project little girl.’” Now, KuliKuli has raised over $10M, is located 445 stores and ranked #38 on the Real Leaders 100 list provided in the link in our bio. You can access Lisa’s full interview on Facebook: RealLeadersMagazine

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Will is the founder and CEO of P.L.A.Y., a San Francisco-based company that specializes in lifestyle pet products such as pet beds, toys and outdoor gear. P.L.A.Y. is one of the only three companies in the pet industry that is certified B Corp and their mission-driven approach has helped them achieved fast growth in the past few years.

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Shannon Keith, CEO of Sudara, speaks about her passion for social entrepreneurship and the journey towards creating her ethical apparel brand. Sudara is a company that aims to help minimize sex-trafficking in India by providing options for women who would typically have to sell their bodies for survival. Working through organizations that offer training and job placement for such at-risk women, the company enables them to have a life of their own choosing. Pursuing business opportunities and fair trade, Shannon hopes that one day there will be no need for a distinction between business and ethics.

Podcast For Parents Guide

Posted on March 11, 2019January 27, 2026 by Real Leaders

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Click on the image above to listen to the Real Leaders Podcast on Facebook, iTunes or Spotify in just 3 clicks!

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Ignoring Educational Foundations Can Impede Future Business Growth

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Taye New

Business leaders all around the world agree that one of the major challenges to growth and competitiveness is the lack of enough people with the correct skills and competencies.

On the supply side, education service providers (and governments) often don’t appreciate they are part of a market system in which young people, labour force participants and businesses are customers.

Are businesses failing their customers? This may be true, given the magnitude of youth unemployment, large numbers of young people leaving school (from families that see education as a poor investment of time and money) and fears of redundancy among those already working. The choice for business is to wait for governments and educational institutions to fix the situation, or to proactively invest in solutions.

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Put simply, there are not enough people with an education to match the skills required for the future.

Companies need to plan and become involved in education to fulfill their future business needs.

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, China’s e-commerce giant said: “If we do not change the way we teach, 30 years from now, we’re going to be in trouble.”

He said we need to teach children soft skills like independent thinking, values and team work. He added: “The knowledge-based approached of 200 years ago will fail our kids,” who will never be able to compete with machines.” He also said children need to learn about sports, art and music.

Jack Ma’s ideas have been applauded, but in some regions the problem is a basic lack of any education. Annual spending per school-aged child in Sub-Saharan Africa is roughly one-third of the minimum needed.

As a result, most children don’t come anywhere close to finishing secondary school.

They are forced to drop out early, because there are no places in public schools and tuition for private school is far too high for most families.

Girls are more likely to leave school early despite parents knowing that all of their children need a quality education. Without the skills that a secondary education provides, the children who leave school early face a life of poverty.

Across Africa, political, religious, and civil-society leaders are doing what they can. Ghana has recently announced free upper-secondary education for all, setting the pace for the continent. This is to be welcomed of course, as long as the quality of education is sufficient to equip young people with what they need to be successful.

As African countries struggle to fund their ambitious commitments, new partners, including private companies and high-net-worth individuals, should step forward to help them.

One approach for the future involves partnerships between companies and educational service providers to structure programs with curricula, experiential learning and qualified teaching that ensures that participants emerge with minimum requirements to be employable in that company/industry. This can offer a good return on investment while allowing companies to integrate with the communities where they operate.

Examples range from clothing companies that “adopted” a high school in El Salvador to Hollywood companies supporting partnerships that facilitate the growth of animation in Macedonia.

Investing in the development of these partnerships generates a sustainable supply of qualified people, not just for an individual company, but for the overall business ecosystem.

In Peru, a ceramics company set up a program for certified installers that could be recommended to end-customers by the retailers of their products.

Another approach involves investment in educational services themselves as a for-profit business, or at least as a cost centre that generates business returns. This can include opportunities such as e-learning and certifications.

Caterpillar in Mongolia did not want to be in the education business but set up a school for operators of heavy equipment in Mongolia, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to sell its equipment. Could it then find a provider to deliver the training and certification?

To secure the future of an adequately trained, healthy workforce, companies need to invest in human capital, not just once they are employed, but to ensure that they are employable in the context of a rapid advance in technology and minimum requirements. Those who don’t, are risking the growth of their business and possibly the industry they operate in.

Education service providers that treat their students as customers are key to bridging the skills gap. Their success in placing and advancing graduates as employees and entrepreneurs should be the key measure of success.

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The SDGs Can Benefit Society And Profit Margins

Posted on February 16, 2018January 14, 2026 by Eduardo Tugendhat

Profit is the primary reason for being in business. It shouldn’t be considered a dirty word. Making money can be done while also making society better. In short, satisfying the pocket and the heart are not mutually exclusive.

To sustain a healthy bottom line, your organizational reputation is critical. It is based on trust and high quality relationships with stakeholders. If you can get that right, commercial success should take care of itself.

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It’s important to remember that the customer is your key stakeholder. They’re becoming far more aware about whether businesses are a force for good, or not. That’s why engaging with the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is increasingly important for companies.

Signing up to help achieve the SDGs is an ethical and perhaps pragmatic move. If adopting the goals influences whether customers are more likely to buy products, services or shares in a company, can you afford not to?

The SDGs can benefit society and your profit margins precisely because long-term commercial success is threatened by a world that doesn’t prioritize social development. Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest investor, Blackrock, recently outlined this reality in stark terms: “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.”

Established in 2015, the SDGs are a 15-year ambition to turn the tide on the major social, economic and environmental issues of the world. Governments have agreed to embrace the SDGs by introducing new regulation, incentives and strategies.

It would therefore seem prudent for businesses to position themselves as cheerleaders, putting sustainability at the core of business growth – not only to stay ahead of the competition but also be on the receiving end of reasonable regulation.

“As well as representing a clear moral imperative, the Sustainable Development Goals also present undeniable market opportunities for responsible businesses,” said Borge Brende, President, Member of the Managing Board, World Economic Forum.

A large amount of investment is required to achieve the SDGs. Governments and donors including foundations and individual philanthropists cannot foot the bill alone. One UN study has calculated $1.4 trillion of investment is needed per year until 2030 of which $600 billion will have to come from the private sector.

We believe that for business to be involved, the SDGs have to be clearly linked to fundamental business challenges and opportunities. The future growth and prosperity of many companies depends on finding solutions. For example: unsustainable supply chains, accessing difficult to reach populations and bridging the skills gap.

Solutions to these challenges can be structured in ways that make a profit for companies and investors, while also creating new opportunities for millions of entrepreneurs and social enterprises in revitalized ecosystems.

For many businesses, the SDGs articulate noble aspirations that are supported through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. By donating to mission-driven NGO’s and charities, companies prepare CSR reports on how they contribute to addressing the SDGs (while also receiving a tax deduction). Other companies encourage (and report on) employee engagement which is also seen as useful in both motivating staff and recruitment.

But is CSR effective? It’s a communication tool to tell everyone what the company is doing to help the community in which it sells its services or products. But does it fundamentally change much? Is it just an add-on, a nice-to-have? We believe a different approach is needed where contributing to society should be at the heart of your business operations, embedded in every part of the value chain.

Of course, saying and doing are very different things. How can you possibly make this all possible? This month’s Harvard Business Review outlines in detail the four steps to truly inclusive growth: Be Bold, Think Collaboration, Unlock Capital, Align and Govern. The Positive Impact Summit 2018 being in held in London this March will look at how this concept can be turned into reality.

The SDGs are a motivational rallying point for governments and civil society. But more than that, they represent a business opportunity for progressive corporate leaders who recognize that commercial and social impact and inextricably linked. How are you going to rise to the challenge?

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Sheril Kirshenbaum, Guest Speaker – Digital Biology

Posted on October 25, 2017January 17, 2026 by Real Leaders Inc.

Sheril Kirshenbaum is director of The Energy Poll at The University of Texas at Austin. She works to enhance public understanding of science and energy issues and improve communication between scientists, policymakers, and the public.

She is also executive director of ScienceDebate, a non-profit initiative encouraging candidates to address science research and innovation issues on the campaign trail. Sheril is the author of The Science of Kissing, which explores one of humanity’s fondest pastimes. She also co-authored Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future with Chris Mooney, chosen by Library Journal as one of the Best Sci-Tech Books of 2009 and named by President Obama’s science advisor John Holdren as a top recommended read. In addition, she blogs at Scientific American.

Sheril is a 2015 Presidential Leadership Scholar; an initiative launched by four presidential centers to foster growth in a diverse group of leaders. She has also been a Marshall Memorial Fellow, a legislative Knauss Science Fellow in the U.S. Senate, and a Next Generation Fellow through the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Sheril’s writing has appeared in publications such as Bloomberg and CNN frequently covering topics that bridge science and society from hydraulic fracturing to climate change. Her work has also been published in scientific journals including Science and Natureand she is featured in the anthology The Best American Science Writing 2010.

Sheril speaks regularly around the country to audiences at universities, federal agencies, and museums. She has appeared in documentaries and been a guest on such programs as CBS This Morning and The Today Show. She has also served on the program committee for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and been a TEDGlobal and TEDx speaker. Previously, Sheril was a research scientist with the Webber Energy Group at UT Austin’s Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy.

In addition, she was a research associate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment with The Pimm Group and has been a Fellow with the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History and a Howard Hughes Research Fellow. Sheril holds graduate degrees in marine biology and policy. She has hosted blogs at Wired and Discover. She also regularly contributes to a variety of science websites such as NPR and Think Progress. An archive of blog posts can be viewed atcultureofscience.com. Sheril was born in Suffern, New York and is also a musician. She lives in East Lansing, MI with her husband David Lowry and son.

Original Story: Singularity University

Shirin Ebadi: Talks Islamphobia, Self-care and Hope

Posted on October 25, 2017January 27, 2026 by Nobel Peace Summit

‘Almost a fourth of the people on Earth are Muslim. Are they like each other? Of course not’

Of all the places one might encounter Shirin Ebadi, Tallahassee should not be one. I was to meet her in the state capital of what is officially known as America’s sunshine state, but is more widely regarded as America’s weirdest state. Ebadi was in Florida for PeaceJam, which connects Nobel peace prize laureates with youth. But I found it hard to imagine the greatest Iranian human rights icon spending Persian New Year week at a teen camp on the Florida panhandle. “I go everywhere, I live on planes,” she tells me on the phone and indeed days later I’m scheduled to meet her closer to my home in New York City.

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On the phone I hold my breath every time we speak – her informal, easy Persian contrasts with mine, layered with too much cloying etiquette, the kind you prepare for some relative of your dreams. Persian is my first language – I use it to speak to my family and Iranian friends, but recently I feel anxious. I consider the prospect of translating Persian for those trapped in legalese at airports during the “Muslim ban”, and I don’t trust my tongue.

Ebadi dismisses my apologies and sticks to our logistics. I foolishly suggest a Persian restaurant in midtown Manhattan frequented by my circle of Iranian journalists and she, with a swift correction reminds me of her security concerns. Would I instead mind coming over to New Jersey where she is staying with family? Hoboken, have I heard of it? It’s she who tells me how close it is to Manhattan. I’ve lived in New York City for over 20 years, but rarely spent much time in New Jersey. And she asks about my texting abilities, and I numbly consider my phone which confuses me more often than not. I am months shy of 40, I try to explain to someone months shy of 70. “It’ll be easy,” she insists. It’s not the first time she tells me that in our conversations.

If Tallahassee was an unlikely place to meet, Hoboken is the only slightly less unlikely rival. It’s as all-American as its many drinking establishments: the “mile-square” small town on the Hudson River known for birthing baseball and Frank Sinatra.

Just as I’m worrying about how to find her, she speedwalks my way: a beaming older woman in red lipstick, neatly cut mahogany hair, a plush black jacket with silk and velvet embossing, over sensible black slacks.

What makes all the American elements more bizarre is that we are meeting on Sizdah Be-dar, the final day of Persian New Year. It’s the first thing I can think to say with my fussy formalities and she smiles it off, eyeing me up and down – I have a cane because of a relapse of Lyme Disease. She doesn’t look the least bit out of place, but she’s perhaps not convinced of me. “Okay, can you walk a few blocks? Let’s get to work!”

We end up in a Starbucks of all places, which Ebadi says works well for meetings – anonymous, casual, yet quiet enough for our purposes. But it’s wildly crowded on this Sunday morning and most of our conversation has to happen over Elton John and Buffalo Springfield as baristas bellow the debased Italian of the American coffee lexicon. At one point, I express to Ebadi my worry about our speaking loudly in Farsi – the overheated Islamophobia recently, I try to warn. But her shrug says it all. Ebadi is someone who has done considerable time in all sorts of dangers.

The first time Ebadi came deep into my consciousness was autumn 2003, just over half a year after the US went to war in Iraq, not even two years since president George W Bush declared Iran part of the “Axis of Evil”. Amid all this, Ebadi won the Nobel peace prize. I was in graduate school at Johns Hopkins and the last thing on mind was any sort of Iranian pride, but I’ll never forget that phone call from my father: “Best news! Shirin Ebadi won the Nobel!” We celebrated as if she were a cousin.

And she might be, my family would always try to insist, as Ebadi comes from Hamadan where my mother was from. A year after Ebadi’s birth there in 1947, her family moved to Tehran. They encouraged her to get her law degree and by 1970 she was one of the first female judges in Iran.

“All the freedoms my brother had, I had. There was no difference between us”

“The luck I had was that I was born into a very good family. We were three daughters and one brother. All the freedoms my brother had, I had. There was no difference between us. My father loved my mother very much. He was a real feminist – I learned feminist principles from my father really. They were Muslim and they practiced very modern Islam. And we went to Zoroastrian school. Why did we? Because it was a good school near us and my father said there is no reason to go far to go to another good school. He said all religions are one. And I learned from my family to respect all religions.”

Not even 30, she became the youngest and first female chief magistrate of 26th divisional court in Tehran in 1975. By the 1979 Revolution, she was married but she was about to lose her career as female judges were dismissed by the regime. She was demoted to the role of magistrate’s clerk in the court over which she once presided, so she requested an early retirement. During this period she wrote articles and worked on books, and tended to her two young daughters. Finally, in 1992, she was able to get a license for a private practice.

She soon became the defence lawyer for the most important human rights cases in Iran, including Zahra Kazemi, Parvaneh and Dariush Foroohar, Ezat Ebrahim Nejad, and Zahra Bani Yaghoob. She also defended leaders of the Baha’i faith, the most persecuted religious minority in Iran. And she did this all without making a living from it.

“Not only did I not make money, 20 lawyers who worked with us did not make money. We had 6,000 political cases we defended without charge. We decided to take no money. I did consulting in my office, my husband had a job as an engineer, our office was our own so no rent – so with political prisoners I took no pay.” Ebadi falls into a wistful smile when recalling the mother of Kazemi insisting on paying her in limes from Shiraz.

Trouble came soon enough: in 1999 she was charged with “disturbing public opinion”, for which she spent 25 days in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, where she had visited her clients many times. More convictions quickly followed and she was threatened with more imprisonment and a bar on practicing law for five years but due to international pressure her sentence was reduced to a fine.

When the Nobel came in 2003, Ebadi was shocked. “I had no idea I was a candidate. When I found out, I was very surprised. The [prize] money helped me so I could get a good apartment, get some computers in there, and our work really progressed.” She set up an office for what would become a major human rights organisation, the Center for Defenders of Human Rights (CDHR) which supported the families of political prisoners.

Shirin Ebadi in her office in Tehran in 2005. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty Images

Trouble came again in 2009. While Ebadi was in Spain for a three-day conference, the Islamic Republic of Iran held its now notorious tenth presidential elections which ended in protests, giving birth to Iran’s opposition Green movement. In spite of protests with hundreds of thousands of Iranians in Tehran – and many communities around the world – it ended in house arrest for the movement favourite Mir Hossein Mousavi and all sorts of renewed crackdowns on the Iranian people. The government filed a case against Ebadi in the revolutionary court and confiscated her properties, including the office of the CDHR.

Only when Ebadi talks about this can you hear pain in her voice. There is a soft strain in her voice when she details how this led to her current exile in London. “The reason I did not return is not because I am afraid of jail,” she says. “Outside of Iran I knew I’d be more useful. I could speak, I could hear the voices of people.” Do you miss Iran? “Naturally.” Will you go back one day? “Definitely.”

This is where Ebadi achieves saint-like status for some – to look back on Iran with love would be a feat for many, given what she details in her most recent book Until We Are Free: My Fight For Human Rights in Iran. The book, with startling candour, reveals the story of how the government eventually succeeded in hurting her where it hurt the most: her family. After years of the authorities targeting her daughters and sister, all while harassing Ebadi herself, they resorted to one of their more sinister schemes.

Green movement protests in Iran in 2009. Photograph: AP

Just a couple months after the election, her husband of 35 years disappeared only to finally call her with this story: he had cheated on her and was in Evin. It went deeper than that: he had been set up in a sting operation involving video cameras, a mistress, and alcohol. The presence of alcohol plus the fact that in Islamic law sex outside of marriage is forbidden, gave authorities free reign to take him to prison where he was lashed, convicted of adultery and sentenced to death. He narrowly escaped execution by making a deal with authorities – publicly denouncing Ebadi in return for freedom: “Shirin Ebadi did not deserve to receive the Nobel Prize. She was awarded the prize so that she could help topple the Islamic Republic. She is a supporter of the west, particularly America. Her work is not in the service of Iranians, but serves the interests of foreign imperialists who seek to weaken Iran.” Ebadi stayed abroad in London and their marriage dissolved, though amicably – her entire family understood that they had been framed.

“The reason I told the story so openly was that I wanted to show what the government in Iran is capable of..”

I’m tempted to dance around the details – even as a journalist, it’s daunting to ask an Iranian elder such intimate specifics – but Ebadi insists on telling her story. “The reason I told the story so openly was that I wanted to show what the government in Iran is capable of. They have done what they did to my husband to many others. But more so, the talk of this in Iran is taboo, and I wanted to break the taboo. A government who can whip me on streets if strands of hair are revealed, and hires a sex worker for politics in the name of Islam?” The hint of distress in her throat immediately burns into triumph. “So, yes, I have my priorities when it comes to taboo.”

Ebadi has detailed all her paths and the many obstacles in several books and counting, the most famous being Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country, co-authored with journalist Azadeh Moaveni.

“I admire her ferocious integrity and her enduring grip on what matters most to Iranian women,” says Moaveni. “She doesn’t always say the most fashionable things, or shift her beliefs to suit the funding currents in Washington, because she is so above that, always has been. The price of that has been a smaller share of the limelight than she really deserves. She doesn’t cut deals with justice and it is because of that I find her so precious.”

It’s no wonder then that by the end of our several hours together, I find myself asking her for advice. How, I wonder, can an activist survive this world? “Back in Tehran, always before bed, I would always read literature,” she says. “Unfortunately abroad I don’t have the same access to [translated] books, so I watch films. And comic films only. Before sleeping I have to for a half hour loudly laugh and this helps me so much. It frees my mind.”

I mentally bookmark this under essential self-care, but, as the Starbucks soundtrack goes from the Bruce Springsteen of my youth to the Lauryn Hill of my early adult years, I find myself inconsolably touching down to anxieties about Islamophobia in America. “There is a system here, but in Iran there is no system,” she says, while acknowledging some situations are analogous. “The state and the citizen are very different. The government can be bad but the people are not like that. And this is why there are tensions in society. Because the culture of the people is higher than the culture of the government.” And this could be the entire Middle East and now America with its own fledgling dictatorship.

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“Almost a fourth of the people on this Earth are Muslim,” she continues. “And there are so many countries of the world where the majority are Muslim. Are they like each other? Of course not. But some of the countries only show the dark Islam. In this America, we have some great professors of Islamic studies, but no one knows them. But Bin Laden everyone knows!”

And what of all the debates around feminism and Islam in this country? “Women must be free,” Ebadi says, without pause. “For example, why don’t we bother with men’s beards but we do with the woman’s hijab? Because their beards, that’s Islam too. The hijab should be a choice.”

I wander further into advice and ask her what we should tell young people, thinking about the students I teach who are extremely depressed. “It’s very important to make young people interested in issues of social justice and politics. Tell them, this is your destiny, this is your life, don’t be let it go by. It’s not enough just to vote – after that you must see if those you voted for went through with your decisions. If they did not, then you must protest! I give an example: democracy is like a flower. You must give it water and sun daily. You can’t pour enough water for a month at once. Democracy needs daily maintenance.” It’s anecdote she’s told many times, one I won’t soon forget.

At the end of our time together, I come to feel like she is my family. She is helping me download Telegram so she can send me films about recent prisoners in Iran (“you must go to the app store!” she snaps, as I fumble with my phone), all while she shows me pictures of her five-year-old grandson.

We leave the American anthems of the Starbucks behind and walk toward the waterfront, talking work and love. “I love what I do,” she tells me. “The more I progressed, my interest in my work only grew. I must do it all. I hope while I’m still alive I can do all this.”

We talk also of duty, my mind again with my students and hers at PeaceJam – how we must make the world better for the youth, how perhaps we are beyond rescue but at least we can hope for the future. She pauses at the hint of my resignation. “No, the world has to be good for them but also good for us!” I get her most spirited smile. “Why not? It’s our right too. I never give up my rights!”

Original Story: The Guardian

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Sheril Kirshenbaum, Guest Speaker – Digital Biology

Posted on October 25, 2017January 14, 2026 by Singularity University

Original Story: Singularity University