Episode 104: “The In Between Space” with Ai-jen Poo & Schuyler Brown

Cultural futurist Schuyler Brown and movement visionary Ai-jen Poo model through a personal revelatory conversation, how mass media industries use audience listening to build engagement strategies for mass audiences.

Guests: Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Co-Director of Caring Across Generations, 2014 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow; Schuyler Brown, Strategy Director and Founding Partner of Sightful

Cultural futurist Schuyler Brown teams with visionary leader and author Ai-jen Poo to examine how popular brands use motivational research and audience listening to sense, understand and build engagement strategies that tap into the irrational desires and fears of mass audiences. Through this conversation, Brown and Poo model what it’s like to sit in “the in between space” nestled between identifying a problem and creating the solution. Building on Poo’s work of forefronting the stories of caregivers and the least visible communities in our society, this intimate conversation reveals the critical need for listening as part of crafting an effective culture change strategy.

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AI-JEN POO
Ai-jen Poo is the Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) and the Co-Director of Caring Across Generations. She is an award-winning activist, thought leader, and social innovator, and a leading voice in domestic workers’ rights and family care advocacy.

As co-founder of the Domestic Workers United (DWU), a city-wide, multiracial organization of domestic workers, she helped lead the way to the passage of the nation’s first Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010, historic legislation that extends basic labor protections to over 200,000 domestic workers in New York state. In 2011, she co-created the national Caring Across Generations campaign to ensure access to affordable care for the nation’s aging population and access to quality jobs for the caregiving workforce.

Ms. Poo’s numerous accolades include recognition as a 2014 MacArthur Foundation “genius” fellow, a 2013 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012, as well as Newsweek’s 150 Fearless Women list that same year. In 2015 she was recognized as one of Fortune.com’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and the NonProfit Times Power & Influence Top 50 lists in 2015 and 2016.

Her work has been featured in many publications, including Marie Claire, The New York Times, Washington Post, TIME, Glamour, and CNN.com. She is author of the book The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. @aijenpoo @domesticworkers

SCHUYLER BROWN
Schuyler Brown identifies as a futurist, strategist, conscious communication advocate and innovation guide. Brown is the founder and strategy director of sightful.io.

Schuyler is a communications advisor and trends analyst who has worked with leading global brands including Facebook, Microsoft, Sony Pictures, and Levi’s. She started her career as a branding consultant at Landor Associates, then moved into advertising at Euro RSCG (now Havas WW), where she was a managing director of trends and strategic insights. During that time, Schuyler built the agency’s buzz marketing practice, collaborated on the book, Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand (Wiley, 2003), and was a contributor to Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz, and Word of Mouth Revolution (Taylor & Frances, 2005).

In 2006, she started Skyelab Consulting in order to pursue projects aligned with her vision to be active in the emergence of a new age of conscious commerce. She teaches in the Design for Social Innovation masters program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in NYC, is a founding member of the NYC chapter of Conscious Capitalism, and writes for The Huffington Post.

Schuyler has been called a “brand therapist” and brings a supremely human touch to her collaborations with clients. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in English and Art History. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, NY. @schuylerbrown