Blue Sky copertina

Blue Sky

Blue Sky

Di: Bill Burke
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Hosted by Bill Burke, founder of The Optimism Institute, this weekly podcast will feature inspiring leaders, authors, researchers, and big thinkers who are taking on some of our world's toughest challenges with an infectious sense of optimism. Blue Sky takes its name from the meditation reminder that there's always blue sky above, sometimes you just have to get your head above the clouds to see it.2025 Igiene e vita sana Psicologia Psicologia e salute mentale Scienze sociali
Episodi
  • "Why Not Me?" — Lee Woodruff on Turning Tragedy Into Purpose, a Special Encore Presentation

    "Why Not Me?" — Lee Woodruff on Turning Tragedy Into Purpose, a Special Encore Presentation
    Aug 12 2026
    Lee Woodruff's life reads like fiction — a college meet-not-quite-cute with her future husband Bob, a front-row seat to the Tiananmen Square crackdown that redirected Bob's entire career, his meteoric rise to co-anchor of ABC's World News Tonight, and then, just weeks into that dream job, a roadside bomb in Iraq that nearly killed him. In this conversation, Lee shares how she got the call while at Disney World with their four kids, the surreal days that followed, and the 36-day coma that ended with Bob speaking Mandarin and French before he could speak English again. She opens up about "ambiguous loss" — the complicated grief of loving someone who survived but changed — and the "four F's" (family, friends, funny, faith) that got her through. Lee also talks candidly about the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which has now raised more than $80 million for veterans and military families, and about her own definition of optimism: not the absence of hard days, but the belief that tomorrow can be better. Chapters: 00:31 The Woodruff Story: Love and Triumph 02:08 A Life of Accomplishments 04:42 The Impact of Tiananmen Square 08:31 The Shocking News 12:14 The Four F's: Coping Mechanisms 13:16 The Birth of the Bob Woodruff Foundation 16:03 Finding Strength in Adversity 19:14 Bob's Remarkable Recovery 22:05 Navigating Complicated Grief 25:57 The Pursuit of Happiness 29:02 The Foundation's Humble Beginnings 30:31 Innovative Solutions for Veterans 32:06 Mobilizing Awareness Through Personal Experience 33:05 Navigating Caregiving and Grief 35:30 The Journey of Optimism 37:11 The Impact on Family: Growing Through Adversity 40:49 Looking Ahead: New Ventures and Aspirations
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    44 min
  • "Carnegie with a Yak": John Wood's Journey from Corporate Executive to Global Educator, a Special Encore Presentation

    "Carnegie with a Yak": John Wood's Journey from Corporate Executive to Global Educator, a Special Encore Presentation
    Aug 5 2026
    More than twenty-five years ago, John Wood was a rising Microsoft executive with a demanding job and a packed passport. A trek through Nepal changed everything. After encountering a rural school with empty library shelves, Wood made a promise to a headmaster that would eventually lead him to leave his corporate career behind and found Room to Read — an organization that has since built tens of thousands of libraries and reached over 26 million children across 20 countries. In this conversation, John shares: The moment in the Himalayas that sparked his decision to leave Microsoft How he applied business discipline — benchmarking Room to Read's growth against Starbucks' post-IPO expansion — to scale a nonprofit faster than a Fortune 500 company Why local ownership and community buy-in (not "helicopter philanthropy") became core to Room to Read's model The origin of Room to Read's local-language publishing program, which has produced over 1,700 original children's titles Why he launched a second organization, U-Go, to fund university scholarships for young women in low-income countries The economics behind U-Go's $800-per-year scholarship model and its "zero leakage" funding structure His advice for anyone considering a major career or life pivot toward purpose-driven work Chapters: 00:00 A Pivotal Moment in Nepal 04:35 The Path to Scaling Impact 10:00 Productizing Philanthropy and Engagement 16:00 Local Empowerment and Cultural Solutions 22:00 Sustaining Motivation Through Challenges 26:40 Introducing U-Go: A New Vision 32:00 Creating Long-Term Educational Stability 40:10 Effective Altruism and Fundraising 44:10 Advice and Closing Thoughts
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    51 min
  • Human-Centered Capitalism: Alan Murray on Why Business Has Fundamentally Changed

    Human-Centered Capitalism: Alan Murray on Why Business Has Fundamentally Changed
    Jul 29 2026
    Alan Murray has spent four decades studying American business — as editor-in-chief and CEO of Fortune, Washington bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal, president of Pew Research Center, and now founding president of the WSJ Leadership Institute. In this episode, he makes the case that despite the headlines, business has undergone a genuine, structural shift toward human-centered leadership — and he explains the "physics" behind why. Alan walks Bill through the data point that changed how he thinks about corporate value: a study found that more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies' value came from physical assets in the mid-1970s, but today more than 85% of value comes from intangibles — talent, brand loyalty, employee engagement. That shift, he argues, is what's really driving the "human-centered" turn in business, not politics or PR. The conversation also covers: Why the language around ESG and DEI has changed even if the underlying substance hasn't The Johnson & Johnson Credo, the Tylenol crisis, and what it means for corporate integrity today Why Is Mona Lisa Smiling? The Reimagination of the Corporation, a documentary film for which Alan served as an executive producer. The state of journalism — why newsroom jobs have likely been cut by 50% or more over the last 20-25 years, and why paywalls at places like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were the right call His cautious optimism about AI: massive upside for medical research and productivity, paired with real fears about the "pollution of the information ecosystem" His new venture, the WSJ Leadership Institute, helping executives navigate a moment where, as he puts it, every technology conversation eventually becomes a conversation about people Chapters: 00:00:00 Early Journalism and Origins 00:04:49 The Nature of Optimistic Leadership 00:11:31 Human-Centered Business Evolution 00:19:07 Reimagining the Corporation 00:23:43 The State of Modern Journalism 00:32:26 AI, Leadership, and Future Outlook
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    42 min
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