How to Eliminate the Global Problem of Online Child Abuse

The spread of child sexual abuse material on the internet has grown at an exponential pace in the last fifteen years, since the advent of social media.  This is truly a global problem, affecting every country on earth.

The tools of technology can be harnessed to combat the spread of images and videos depicting child abuse and one non-profit is leading the way.

Thorn is a technology driver non-profit founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore that develops tools to combat online child abuse and child sex trafficking. On the line with me to discuss some of these tools and strategies is Julie Cordua, the CEO of Thorn.

In this conversation, Julie Cordua describes the scope of the problem, which she refers She also describes how emerging technologies developed by Thorn are being used to detect when this material is being uploaded and is aiding law enforcement around the world.

We kick off discussing a recent announcement that Thorn was one of the winners of the Audacious Project, housed at TED, and will share in $280 million prize to eliminate Child Sexual Abuse Material from the Internet. We discuss how Thorn will work toward that goal and we have a broader conversation about how global efforts to combat the spread of child sexual abuse online have evolved since the early days of the internet and social media.

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This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

How Big Data and Text Messaging Can Prevent Suicide Around the World

Credit: Crisis Text Line, via Instagram

According to the World Health Organization 800,000 people die due to suicide every year. My guest today, Bob Filbin is helping to pioneer a way to sharply reduce that number.

Bob Filbin is the Chief Data Scientist of Crisis Text Line. This is a text based mental health crisis intervention platform, operational in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Individuals in crisis are able to text trained mental health workers anonymously, who can then help them through their emergency.

Hundreds of millions of texts have been exchanged since the launch of crisis text line, which is providing researchers with key insights into how to prevent self harm.

Mental health is a crucial public health issue that is, indeed, a global heath issue. Crisis Text Line’s approach is also scalable — and Bob Filbin does discuss crisis text line’s global plans.

Get the Global Dispatches Podcast

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

A Revolution in Access to Medicine is Underway in Five African Countries

credit: Dave Clark via Flickr CC license

Among the many barriers to quality healthcare in the developing world is the high cost of medicine. This is due, in part, to frequent disruptions in the supply chain. Customers who visit a pharmacy to purchase medicine can’t be guaranteed that the medicine will be something they can afford– or even if the medicine will be there at all.

My podcast guest today, Gregory Rockson, is a social entrepreneur who is pioneering a way to make medicine in several African countries more affordable and access to that medicine more reliable. He is the c0-founder of  a social enterprise called mPharma, which uses data analytics and supply chain management to help small and independent pharmacies control their costs.  This is crucial because unlike here in the United States where big pharmacy chains are ubiquitous, in the places mPharma operates small and independent pharmacies are serve the vast majority of people.

mPharma essentially manages the drug supply of participating pharmacies, and assumes the financial risk if drugs are over or under stocked — sharply driving down the costs.

This is an absolutely fascinating business model and it’s already revolutionizing access to medicine in five African countries and is poised for further expansion.

If you have twenty minutes and want to learn why drug prices in many countries are so high and what can be done to drive down those costs, have a listen.

Get the Global Dispatches Podcast

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

How to Prevent a Demographic “Youth Bulge” From Causing Widespread Unemployment

South Africa is experiencing what demographers call a “youth bulge” which occurs when young people make up a disproportionately large percentage of the population.

One key challenge facing societies experiencing a youth bulge large is what happens when young people become of working age, and there are too few jobs.

In South Africa and in many countries with similar demographics, unemployment rates among young people is orders of magnitudes greater than the overall unemployment rate. As my guest today Nicola Galombik explains, when large numbers of young people are unemployed the knock-on effects for society in general can be extremely negative.

Nicola Galombik has embarked on a strategy to reduce youth unemployment in her native South Africa. She is the co-founder of the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a social enterprise that is not only helping to find young people jobs at scale, but is changing mindsets around employing young people.

Youth unemployment is a key driver of instability in many countries around the world, and as you will see from this conversation the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator has found a formula to take on what is essentially a demographic challenge.

Get the Global Dispatches Podcast

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

This episode is part of a content partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.

How a Social Entrepreneur is Fighting Counterfeit Medicines in the Developing World

Not long ago, the social entrepreneur Bright Simons tried and failed to create a platform to pair organic farmers in Ghana with consumers of organic products. But in that failure he made an important discovery that is now revolutionizing the fight against fake and counterfeit goods in the developing world — including potentially deadly counterfeit medicines.

Bright Simons is the co-founder and lead of mPedigree, a social enterprise that combats the problem of counterfeit and fake goods — everything from medicines, to seeds, to auto-parts and more.

As Bright Simons explains, mPedigree takes a systems-wide approach to fighting counterfeits. Its core innovation is a unique product identification marker, called the GoldKeys Platform. Think of it as a scratch off label that reveals a code which people can use a phone to instantly validate the authenticity of a product.

Through this validation system, mPedigree has not only helped stop counterfeiting across many industries, but as Bright Simons explains it’s changing the behavior of individual consumers, industries and even government.

This conversation with Bright Simons will change how you think about counterfeit goods and the systems required to stop this problem and restore consumer confidence and trust.

Get the Global Dispatches Podcast

​iTunes  |  Spotify  |  Stitcher  | Google Play Music​  | Radio Public

This episode is presented in partnership with the Skoll Foundation to showcase the work of the 2019 recipients of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. The Skoll Awards distinguish transformative leaders whose organizations disrupt the status quo, drive sustainable large-scale change, and are poised to create even greater impact on the world. Recipients receive $1.5 million in core support investments to scale up their work.