The Intelligent Community

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FRUGAL INNOVATION: FINLANDS SECRET DNA, A Conversation with Finland's First Ambassador for Innovation, Part 2 Aug 21, 2024

Show notes

In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Ambassador Jarmo Sareva, Finland's Ambassador for Cyber Affairs before being named the country's first Ambassador for Innovation.

Sareva was Finland's Ambassador for Cyber Affairs before being named the country's first Ambassador for Innovation. These two jobs were central to the success of Finland, which is known for its innovation in technology and the development of showcase cities, including ICF's 2018 Intelligent Community of the Year, Espoo. He also served in directorships at the UN's Office for Disarmament Affairs and the Institute for Disarmament Research. His advocacy for Finland as it current Consul General in New York and vision for the world's cities keeps the focus on humanity as the center of the human experience. He discusses what he calls "frugal innovation" methods to continue to improve social quality of life.

FRUGAL INNOVATION: FINLANDS SECRET DNA, A Conversation with Finland's First Ambassador for Innovation, Part 1 Aug 07, 2024

Show notes

Ambassador Jarmo Sareva is the Consul General of Finland in New York since September 1, 2022.

The Consulate General in New York promotes Finland's commercial & cultural interests in the United States, focusing on thirty-five eastern states. It is also responsible for consular services in New York as well as in other states in its jurisdiction.

Mr. Sareva brings a wealth of experience to his position from both multilateral and bilateral diplomacy, especially in the field of arms control. Prior to his appointment in New York, Mr. Sareva served in Helsinki as Finland's Ambassador for Cyber Affairs from 2021 to 2022 and Finland's first Ambassador for Innovation from 2018 to 2021. From 2006 to 2018, he served in various positions at the UN in New York and Geneva, including as Director of the Geneva Branch of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs and Director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR).

Mr. Sareva's previous diplomatic experience includes serving as Director for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation in Helsinki and as Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Finland to the UN in New York, as well as postings in Moscow, Washington, D.C., and Vienna.

Mr. Sareva is passionate about helping Finnish businesses expand to the U.S. market, promoting Finnish culture, and strengthening Finland's country brand in the United States. Mr. Sareva holds an M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University in Washington. He is married with two children and two grandchildren.

Why Astronauts Look for Their Home First (Part 2) – A Conversation with Best-Selling Author and Space Philosopher Frank White Jul 24, 2024

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In this second episode, best-selling author of the "Overview Effect" Frank White talks about the hope and plan he has to establish a group of people who will be the heart and soul of bringing the overview effect "down to Earth." How can experiencing a vision of unity and a tightly-knit community off the planet ("the overview effect") improve communities on it? Mr. White is at his fascinating best when discussing this with ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla.

Why Astronauts Look for Their Home First, Part 1 with Frank White Jul 10, 2024

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Many astronauts say that when they initially see the Earth from afar, they look first for their hometowns….Eventually, they realize that their true identity as a human….is 'with that whole thing.'"

One of the world's most esteemed authors and Space philosophers, best-selling author Frank White, wrote The Overview Effect nearly 40 years ago while gazing down at Earth. His hundreds of interviews and reporting since have changed the way people view our planet and their lives, and has influenced our outlook on the idea of "community." After hundreds of interviews with every human being who has left Earth for Space and working with the best minds the human community offers, he narrowed the process of understanding into three words.

In this remarkable Podcast with his friend, Lou Zacharilla, he shares them as they talk about the cognitive shift that an "overview effect" has had and what it might mean for the future of Intelligent Communities. Frank White is an educator, writer, and communications consultant. He has authored or coauthored numerous books on topics ranging from space exploration to artificial intelligence to Zen Buddhism. His best-known work is The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution. He is the co-founder, president, and board chair of The Human Space Program, Inc.

The Middle of Everywhere with Dr. Ben Winchester, Part 2 Jun 26, 2024

Show notes

Lou and Ben Winchester continue their discussion about the changes taking place in rural communities and the misperceptions afoot. You will enjoy the second part of this Podcast. While Lou claims, "The Middle of Nowhere is No More," Ben adds, "And we live in the middle of Everywhere!"

Ben has been working both in and for small towns across the Midwest for over 25 years. He lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota with his wife and two children. Ben is trained as a Rural Sociologist and works for the University of Minnesota Extension. His conducts applied research on economic, social, and demographic topics surrounding a theme of "rewriting the rural narrative". He recently received the international Rural Renewal Research Prize in 2021 for this work.

Winchester received his B.A. in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Minnesota, Morris (1995) and M.S. in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri, Columbia (2001). He was a founding employee at the Center for Small Towns, an outreach program at the University of Minnesota, Morris and specializes in community development, demographic analysis, data visualization, and moving communities away from anecdata.

The Middle of Everywhere with Ben Winchester, Part 1 Jun 12, 2024

Show notes

"The seeds of success for rural economies have been planted!" So says the controversial champion of the rural narrative, University of Minnesota educator and researcher Dr. Ben Winchester, a demographer at the University of Minnesota's. Extension Center for Community Vitality.

"If the small town is dying why is there a housing shortage in most parts of rural America!?"

Winchester explodes with enthusiasm and knocks down categorically old notions and stereotypes about rural places including the one about WHY people are moving to rural communities.

"A job is NOT among the top things people look for when choosing a rural lifestyle. Employment opportunities do not bring people in and seeking investment the way it has been done by economic development officials is not an effective way to create brain gain." Dr. Winchester suggests another way and it is as simple as any common-sense approach can be.

Professor Winchester is a dedicated community-centric advocate, a fresh and original thinker and a great interview.

Says long-time ICF jurist Bill Coleman, "Ben is one of my favorites!"

Health, Politics & Fake News in a Post-COVID World: A discussion with 2024 TIME Magazine Health 100 Recipient Dr. Katelyn Jetelina May 29, 2024

Show notes

Now that COVID is no longer a global pandemic, what is it? And what is the lesson communities learned over the past 3 years? In this rebroadcast of the interview with Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, who was just featured in TIMES100 Health, ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Dr. Jetelina, Director of Population Health Analytics, to learn these answers and more.

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina is one of America's most trusted epidemiologists. She publishes Your Local Epidemiologist, a widely read website and newsletter covering a range of public health issues that translates evolving science into readable language for the general public. In this episode of The Intelligent Community, she discusses information integrity and the politics of COVID in places as diverse as New York and Florida. This episode is the second part of ICF co-founder Lou Zacharilla's interview with Dr. Jetelina.

Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD is an epidemiologist, data scientist and internationally renowned scientific communicator. She is the Director of Population Health Analytics, a nonprofit, non-partisan health policy think tank. She is also a Senior Scientific Advisor to a number of government and non-profit agencies, including the White House, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Resolve to Save Lives and Make-A-Wish Foundation. On the side, Dr. Jetelina is the publisher of Your Local Epidemiologist – a public health newsletter that "translates" ever-evolving science to the general public, which has reached over 300 million views. Dr. Jetelina has received 3 national awards for her work, including National Academies of Science and a medal of honor from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Emergency Management and Medical Operations, Field Operations, and Response. Katelyn resides in San Diego, California with her husband and two toddlers.

On Broadband and Society Part 2 with Adrianne B. Furniss May 15, 2024

Show notes

Lou continues The INTELLIGENT Community Podcast with Adrianne Furniss and touches on the subject of HOW small communities develop brain gain and capacity over the long term. They also discuss how broadband can reinforce cultural restoration and its role in enabling democracy to persist in the Digital Age. Adrianne Benton Furniss is Executive Director and Board Member of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, a 40-year-old nonprofit focused on broadband policy, working to make sure everyone can use and benefit from high quality, affordable broadband. They strengthen local, state, and national leadership by providing the timely information, rigorous evidence, practical guidance, and advocacy needed to articulate and implement a broadband for all agenda. They inform and give policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and advocates information they need to advance a broadband for all agenda. They research and build knowledge by providing a body of research and best practices to guide our field's work. They partner and engage with communities to develop strategies for ubiquitous, high-speed, reliable, and affordable broadband to meet larger community goals. And they advocate and advance a broadband for all agenda at all levels of government through policymaker education, legal and regulatory filings, and coalition participation.

On Broadband and Society: A Conversation with Adrianne B. Furniss, Part 1 May 01, 2024

Show notes

Our goal is to bring open, affordable, high-performance broadband to all people in the U.S. to ensure a thriving democracy," says Adrianne Furniss. In a rare interview and her first podcast, the Executive Director of the Benton Institute discusses the current state of rural broadband in the United States and her view of how to build capacity within very small communities that have suffered brain drain and the loss of their economic vibrancy. The work being done by Benton and the research this famed institute relies on continue to launch what many call the "rural renaissance." https://www.benton.org/. Adrianne Benton Furniss is Executive Director and Board Member of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, a 40-year-old nonprofit focused on broadband policy, working to make sure everyone can use and benefit from high quality, affordable broadband. They strengthen local, state, and national leadership by providing the timely information, rigorous evidence, practical guidance, and advocacy needed to articulate and implement a broadband for all agenda. They inform and give policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and advocates information they need to advance a broadband for all agenda. They research and build knowledge by providing a body of research and best practices to guide our field's work. They partner and engage with communities to develop strategies for ubiquitous, high-speed, reliable, and affordable broadband to meet larger community goals. And they advocate and advance a broadband for all agenda at all levels of government through policymaker education, legal and regulatory filings, and coalition participation.

When Small Cities Make Big Leaps Part 2 Apr 17, 2024

Show notes

What makes Canadian cities such as Waterloo, Ottawa, and Toronto hubs of high-tech entrepreneurship and successful Intelligent Communities? Since moving to Canada, Professor Darius Ornston, author of When Small States Make Big Leaps, which chronicled how the Nordic countries developed the ability to enter new, tech-based markets, has similarly studied two Intelligent Communities of the Year in Canada and tells us how these Canadian communities represent a collaborative approach which has resulted in Canada having more designated Intelligent Communities than any other nation. Darius Ornston is an Associate Professor at the prestigious Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto where he specializes in innovation policy and the relationship between cooperation and economic change.

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