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Philly Who? — Society & Culture
Philly Who?

Telling the stories of the doers, thinkers, and performers of Philadelphia. From up-and-coming game-changers to well-known legends, you’ll dive into their past, present, future, and how it all contributes to The City of Brotherly Love. Hosted by Kevin Chemidlin.

Latest Episodes:

Nicole Marquis: Introducing Philly to Plant-Based Comfort Food at HipCityVeg Apr 18, 2019

Show notes

Nicole Marquis is the creator of the plant-based fast casual restaurant chain HipCityVeg, currently with locations in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Nicole also created and runs the popular plant-based full service restaurants Charlie was a sinner. and Bar Bombón.

In this episode, you'll hear how Nicole was inspired to create a vegan restaurant chain when she read The China Study and understood the effects that eating meat had on human health.

Even her father was skeptical at first. But, after a diabetes diagnosis, Nicole guided him towards a plant-based lifestyle. After a few months, he lost 25 pounds, his blood pressure improved, and his diabetes went into remission.

Philly, though, was ready for Nicole's offering of plant-based comfort food. When the first HipCityVeg opened in 2012, it completely sold out of food by noon.

Since then, Nicole has been spreading her love of plant-based food throughout Philadelphia, and beyond.

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Liz Brown: From High School Dropout to Award-Winning Tech CEO Apr 09, 2019

Show notes

Liz Brown is the Managing Director at Backstage Philadelphia, an arm of Backstage Capital, a venture capital investment firm that invests in underrepresented founders.

Liz, who’s originally from Buffalo, New York, had no plans to ever live in Philadelphia. But once she got here, her love for the tech scene pushed her to cofound WebJunto, a software development company. WebJunto won the 2017 Tech in Motion Award for Best Tech Workplace for Diversity, and in 2018 Liz won the Rad Girl Award for Best Technologist.

In this episode, you'll hear her wide-ranging journey from high school dropout, to military veteran, to urban planner, to Tech CEO.

Support Philly Who?

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Conrad Benner: Changing the Way Philly Sees Public Space Apr 02, 2019

Show notes

Conrad Benner is the creator of Streets Dept, an online platform that highlights street art. It includes a photoblog, a podcast, and an Instagram account with over 140,000 followers.

In this episode, you’ll hear how documenting street art wasn’t always the plan for Conrad. But, once a life-changing bike accident forced him to commute by foot, he began noticing the overflow of public art around him. And so, he began learning: about the street art scene, about the rules, about the people, about the ethics, about who the artists are.

As his platform grew in size and influence, Conrad began using it to fight for change in Philadelphia. For instance, back in 2014 when SEPTA made the subways run overnight on weekends - that was in large part thanks to him.

Today, he continues to drive progress in the city, with a focus on protecting our public spaces from corporate intrusion.

Support Philly Who?

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Emily Foote Williams: Leading an Education Startup Through Tragedy Mar 15, 2019

Show notes

In 2011, Emily Foote Williams co-founded an online education platform to help prepare students for the professional world. That company, Practice, was recently acquired by Instructure.

In this episode, you’ll hear how she’s earned a Bachelors, Masters, and a Law Degree. After years of traditional education, a Drexel Law professor’s teaching style completely changed the way she looked at education.

She was so passionate about spreading this style of learning that she gave up her law career to help bring it to countless students via technology.

While the company has positively impacted over 200 thousand students, Emily’s journey hasn’t been without its challenges. In 2015, the company lost its CEO to the Amtrak Derailment.

She’s also lead Practice through fundraising and acquisition while having and raising children. In doing so, she’s become a role model for those who want to grow both a young company and a young family at the same time.

Support Philly Who?

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Kiera Smalls: Creating City Fit Girls and Leading the Philly Tech Scene to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mar 05, 2019

Show notes

Kiera Smalls is the Executive Director of Philly Startup Leaders, a nonprofit that connects Philly entrepreneurs to the resources they need to find success. Before joining PSL, she co-founded City Fit Girls, a running and fitness community for women.

In this episode, she’ll share how City Fit Girls was born after Kiera lost 100 pounds. She and her best friend started hosting workouts with their friends, and then their friends’ friends, and pretty soon CFG had grown into a fully-fledged fitness community.

She then went on to run marketing for Indego, Philly’s bike share program. While there, she introduced practices around diversity, equity, and inclusion that brought bikeshare to many different neighborhoods in Philly, and set standards that today are used by rideshares all over the country.

Today, she heads Philly Startup Leaders, where she currently works to help founders and technologists get connected to make their billion dollar business idea come to life.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

Become a Monthly Patron,

Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat,

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Richard Vague: Businessman, Art Enthusiast, and Philanthropist Who Believes Philly Will Cure Cancer Feb 19, 2019

Show notes

Richard Vague is currently one of the managing partners of Gabriel Investments and the president of the Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival. He is also the author of The Next Economic Disaster, a book with a new approach for predicting and preventing financial crises.

Previously, he was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Energy Plus, an electricity and natural gas supply company that was sold to NRG Energy in 2011. Vague was also co-founder and CEO of two credit card companies – First USA, which grew to be the largest Visa issuer in the industry and which was sold to Bank One in 1997, and Juniper Financial, the fastest growing credit card issuer of the past decade, which was sold to Barclays PLC in 2004.

Vague currently serves on the Penn Medicine Board, the boards of the Franklin Institute, the Museum of the American Revolution, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, the Arts and Business Council of Greater Philadelphia and Friends of Rittenhouse Square. He serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. Vague is also editor of the blog and email newsletter service Delanceyplace.com and of the website Debt-economics.org.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

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Rebecca Rhynhart: Navigating the Great Recession as Treasurer and Eradicating Corruption as City Controller Feb 07, 2019

Show notes

In January 2018, Rebecca Rynhart was sworn in as the first woman City Controller in Philadelphia history. Before that, she served as Mayor Kenney’s Chief Administration Officer, and during the Nutter administration, she served as Treasurer and then Budget Director.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Rebecca initially worked in Finance on Wall Street. After years of seeing governments being taken advantage of by the private sector, she quit - and took a huge pay cut - to enter public service. That decision to leave Bear Sterns in the spring of 2008 turned out to be pretty lucky, as the entire firm collapsed 3 weeks later.

She would become Treasurer of Philadelphia at the height of the Great Recession. And, as you’ll hear, she had to make some tough calls to get the city through it.

Eventually, she craved the ability to affect more change for Philadelphia. So, she ran for office, and took on an incumbent. Despite heavy odds, she won, and is one year into her term as City Controller.

After listening to this episode, check out this week's episode of the Streets Dept Podcast with Conrad Benner - they also featured Controller Rynhart this week and talked more about what the Controller's office has done since she's been elected.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

Become a Monthly Patron,

Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat,

Become a Sponsor

Ben Thomas: Prodigy Music Producer who's worked with Post Malone, Brian McKnight, and Lil Dicky Jan 31, 2019

Show notes

Ben Thomas is and one of most sought after audio engineers in Philadelphia. At only 23 years old, he’s worked with artists such as Brian McKnight, Post Malone, and Lil Dicky. He’s received two Soul Train Award nominations and an NAACP Award Nomination, and he's also the cofounder of nicethingsMUSIC.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Ben originally planned to work in finance on Wall Street. But, as his hobby of recording music evolved into something bigger, he began to put himself out there as a music producer. Pretty soon, opportunity came knocking. To date, he's worked with Ty Dolla $ign, Post Malone, Lil Dicky, Brian McKnight, among many others.

He’ll talk about what it’s like to work with some of the world’s most popular artists, and how he manages to stay consistent. And, we’ll talk about the Philly music scene and why it’s such a great place for up and coming creators to make a name for themselves.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

Become a Monthly Patron,

Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat,

Become a Sponsor

Rob Lawless: The Quest to Make 10,000 Friends Jan 24, 2019

Show notes

Rob Lawless is a Philly-based influencer who loves getting to know new people. He loves it so much, that for the past 3 years, Rob’s full-time mission has been to meet as many people as he possibly can. His goal is to spend 1 hour with 10,000 different people via his project Rob’s 10k Friends.

In this episode, he’ll share how, after graduating Penn State and bouncing around a couple of 9-to-5s, he didn’t feel like he was on a meaningful path. So, as searched for a purpose, he realized how much he loved connecting with people. He decided to try to meet as many people as he could, and set a goal for 10,000.

1 became 10, 10 became 100, and as of now he’s met over 2,300 people from coast to coast.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

Become a Monthly Patron,

Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat,

Become a Sponsor

Lauren Nolan-Sellers: From HGTV Dreamer to Best of Houzz in 3 Years Jan 17, 2019

Show notes

Lauren Nolan-Sellers is an interior designer. In 2012, Lauren left her career as a teacher to start Trust the Vision Decor, an interior design and home staging company that has been named Best of Houzz four years running.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Lauren and Wendy discovered their talent for home design when they bought a house together and remodeled it. They had a housewarming party to show their friends, and the response was overwhelming.

While Lauren took the kind words to heart, she didn’t seriously consider starting her own business. That is, until pregnancy complications threatened her and her child’s life.

After gaining the perspective that comes with a life-threatening experience, Lauren and Wendy decided to bet on themselves. What follows is the story of how they quickly went from being HGTV dreamers to being among the top rated interior designers in the country.

Support Philly Who?

Donate via Paypal,

Venmo: @podphillywho,

Become a Monthly Patron,

Purchase a T-Shirt or Hat,

Become a Sponsor

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