Positively Gotham Gal

Gina Duncan started her career in film programming, with a lifelong focus on diverse programming that led her to become the president of BAM, the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This episode will highlight Gina’s career working within and running cultural institutions such as Sundance and BAM, focusing on rethinking the role of cultural institutions to be more diverse in their programming.

Lauren Yoshiko is a freelance writer and editor, who writes the Broccoli Report, a bi-weekly newsletter for creative cannabis entrepreneurs. Lauren has been blogging through the unprecedented wave of growth and change in the Cannabis industry, as recreational use is slowly getting legalized throughout the country. This podcast episode will highlight her experience navigating and documenting the strange world of weed.

Ep 180: Space Is The New Frontier - Rema Matevosyan, Near Space Labs Rema Matevosyan is a scientist turned entrepreneur, who co-founded Near Space Labs, a start-up that provides timely, wide-scaler, commercially available imagery with the largest zero-emission balloon fleet in the stratosphere. For Rema and her cofounders, space is the exciting new frontier. This podcast episode will highlight her unique entrepreneurial journey, and her experience building and scaling her company as a foreign female founder.

Natasha Halesworth is the founder of the Consistency Project, a new women-led sustainable fashion and lifestyle studio, focusing on secondhand and reworked vintage. Through The Consistency Project, Natasha is reimagining the relationship between fashion and sustainability. She is also changing the retail experience, imagining shopping appointments with elevated service for her clients. This podcast episode will highlight her unique entrepreneurial journey toward the world of sustainable fashion.

Robin Steinberg is an American lawyer and social justice advocate, with over 30 years of experience as a public defender. Robin also is the founder and CEO of the bailout project, the first-of-its-kind nonprofit revolving bail fund. Robin is a friend of the podcast, having been one of the early guests on the Pod three years ago. For this second episode with Robin, we will focus on how the Bailout project has evolved over the past three years, after a change in presidency, a pandemic, and a moment of national reckoning for systemic racism. This podcast episode will represent the perspective of a woman who has dedicated her career to fighting for criminal justice and against systemic racism.

Amy Chin is the founder of Calm Better Day, a cannabis and CBD consultancy company that educates and guides her clients toward their custom CBD regimens. Amy's career has spanned across different industries, from the retail world with experience in buying and merchandising, to hospitality. As always, the dots connect, and in 2019, Amy decided to turn towards entrepreneurship and founded Calm Better Days. Through her coaching work at CBD but also, the events she throws, Amy is seeking to educate the consumer. This podcast episode will highlight her unique entrepreneurial journey, and lessons learned while navigating the emerging world of the cannabis industry.

Joy Howard is the founder of Early Majority, a new women-led, membership-based outdoor brand, and community. Joy's career has spanned across different industries, from being a full-time musician in the indie-rock band Seely to marketing, working for iconic brands such as Coca-Cola, Converse, Patagonia, and Sonos. As always, the dots always connect, and during the pandemic, Joy turned towards entrepreneurship and launched Early Majority, an environmentally conscious membership-based outdoor brand with a crypto and NFT angle. This podcast episode will highlight her unique entrepreneurial journey from music towards marketing and community, and her experience as a female founder.

Kelly Perez and Courtney Mathis are the brains behind Cannabis Doing Good, a cannabis consultancy that inspires a standard for social responsibility in the cannabis sector. As the Cannabis industry is going through an unprecedented wave of growth, new challenges--ranging from sustainability to social responsibility, are emerging. Through CDG, and their nonprofit, the Cannabis Impact Fund, Courtney and Kelly are creating opportunities for cannabis businesses to engage with nonprofits and their community. This podcast episode will highlight the co-founder's entrepreneurial journey, and lessons learned while navigating the emerging world of the cannabis industry.

Samara Daly is a nonprofit expect who launched Let's Talk about Menopause. After making a career working in city government, nonprofits, and community development, she created Let's Talk about Menopause in 2021, hoping to break the taboo of that highly stigmatized period of a woman’s life. This episode will highlight Samara’s entrepreneurial journey and the challenges of launching a feminist non-profit during a pandemic.

Pelin Thorogood is the tech executive turned impact entrepreneur behind Radicle, a health tech company revolutionizing clinical trials for natural medicine. After a successful career in tech, she co-founded Wholistic Research and Education Foundation: a public non-profit dedicated to cannabis & CBD research, education, and advocacy, before co-founding Radicle Science. This podcast episode will highlight Pelin's unique entrepreneurial journey, and lessons learned while navigating the world of tech and natural medicine.

Amanda Feilding is a scientist, veteran drug policy reformer, lobbyist, and the founder of the Beckley Foundation, which initiates research into the effects of psychoactive substances on the brain and uses the results to advocate for drug policy reform. We talked about her journey advocating for drug policy reform, and she shared her musing about the ever-evolving landscape of psychoactive substances.

Fanny Gerson is a chef, consultant, speaker, and cookbook author known for a unique approach to food that deeply respects her Mexican-Jewish heritage while also innovating by offering her very own personal and modern twist. She is also the owner of Fan Fan Doughnut, a Mexican-inspired American doughnut shop, and La Newyorkins, a Mexican ice cream shop. We talked about her entrepreneurial journey, and the challenges she faced in the food industry at large as a Latina woman.

Cristina Mittermeier is a photographer, marine biologist, activist, and author who pioneered the concept and field of conservation photography. She is the founder of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) which provides a platform for photographers working on environmental issues. More recently, she co-founded SeaLegacy, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the ocean, and Only one, a platform to share these stories. We talked about her entrepreneurial journey harnessing the power of storytelling for activism, showcasing and promoting ocean conservation and protection.

Shelley Kleyn Armistead is the CEO and a partner at Gjelina, a food group in LA famous for revitalizing the Venice food scene. Starting at Soho House in the very beginning, Shelley joined Gjelina early on and helped expand the brand and the vision, now helming their expansion eastwards. She is known for her unique approach to food, hospitality, and sustainability. We talked about her entrepreneurial journey, challenges, and lessons learned along the way.

Pamela Danzinger is the speaker, author, and market researcher expert behind Unity Marketing. She specializes in studying the world's most influential consumers, the HENRYs (which stands for High Earning Not Rich Yet). We talked about women and consumerism, and the rise of the HENRY phenomenon.

Rachel Uffnel is the woman and brain behind New York's Rachel Uffner Gallery. Since opening shop in 2008 in the Lower East Side, she has grown and expanded her gallery, discovering some major female-identifying artists in the process! We talked about the challenges of running a mid-size artist-focused art gallery, and the evolution of the art market in the pandemic and post-pandemic era.

Catherine Balsam Schwaber is the CEO of Kindra, a new direct-to-consumer company that focuses on accompanying women through menopause and breaking the taboo. Her career has spanned across the corporate media sector before diving into entrepreneurship with Kindra. We talked about the challenges of launching a feminist direct-to-consumer brand in the pandemic age, creating a new CPG category, and lessons learned along the way.

Majora Carter is a real estate developer, urban revitalization expert, award-winning broadcaster, and author. Her career has spanned across the public and the private sector creating and successfully implementing numerous economic developments, technology & green infrastructure projects. We talked about her new book, her career, and lessons learned along the way.

Anne-Marie Slaughter is an American international lawyer, foreign policy analyst, writer, political scientist, public commentator, and the head of the think tank New America. Her career has spanned across the different areas of policy work, from three decades in academia to public service to running a major think tank. We talked about her newest book, her career, and lessons learned along the way.

Eleanor Kuntz and Kerin Law are the co-founders of LeafWorks, a botanical identification company that does DNA sequencing for cannabis. As the Cannabis industry is going through an unprecedented wave of growth, and recreational use of the plant is slowly getting legalized throughout the country, new challenges emerge, ranging from safety and fraud prevention to modern breeding techniques. LeafWorks is positioning itself as a DNA testing company FROM the cannabis community hoping to build a better botanical word. We talked about their unique entrepreneurial journey, and lessons learned navigating the world of the cannabis industry.