Changing the Conversation
23 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 9 ratingsA podcast by African Leadership & the Mocha Club.
We believe the greatest asset we have is our love. But how do we best love others? On our podcast, “Changing the Conversation”, we take time to explore a variety of topics to challenge our perspective in pursuit of better loving people and the world around us. We sit down with artists, writers, country leaders, CEOs and more to consider a different way of looking at a situation by taking the time to listen.
African Leadership Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to educating world-changing leaders all over the continent of Africa. Mocha Club, an impact partner of African Leadership, focuses on creating a community of givers who can leverage their assets to support these leaders as they build healthy, more sustainable communities in Africa.
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Episodes
Episode 022: What can be learned from the global church in Africa? with Randy Draughon
August 19, 2019 14:52 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBRandy Draughon is the senior pastor at Midtown Fellowship in Nashville. Emily and Fallon chat with him about the global church and what he has learned from African pastors on his various trips on the continent. We also hear incredible stories about local leaders in Uganda and what they experience in pursuit of sharing the Word. It’s a rich conversation. https://www.africanleadershipinc.org/ https://themochaclub.org/ https://www.instagram.com/mochaclub/ https://midtownfellowship....
Episode 021: How can a coffee shop impact a community around the world? with Katie Rose from The Well Coffeehouse
August 06, 2019 17:22 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBOn today’s episode, Fallon sits down to chat with Katie Rose who is on staff at the Well Coffeehouse here in Nashville. Similar to our last episode, Katie and Fallon talk about how a coffee shop can make an impact beyond its customers coming in for coffee. We also take a tangent to talk about seasons where God prunes us in gentleness and Katie encourages us by sharing her personal experience with where He has guided her - at the Well, in her radio jobs, and in her travels around the...
Episode 020: How can a coffee shop impact its community? with April and Bailey from Crest Coffee House
July 23, 2019 14:43 - 46 minutes - 43 MBOn today’s episode, Fallon spends time with April Kirby and Bailey Plante who run Crest Coffee House in Nashville! (You'll hear us refer to the shop as Crest Café but since the recording they have launched the rebrand to Crest Coffee House.) This coffee shop is not your average place. It’s Nashville’s first and only donation-based coffee shop! And this is just one of the many ways Crest Coffee House serves its surrounding community. We talk about the power of community and inclusivi...
Episode 019: What does it look like to leverage your skills and experiences for someone else? with Matt Wertz and Dave Barnes
July 08, 2019 18:55 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBWe’re killing two birds with one stone today as we hang out and chat with Matt Wertz and Dave Barnes - two of the biggest reasons people know about Mocha Club and African Leadership. Matt and Dave have used their platforms as musicians to share about Mocha Club and their experience with our friends across the continent. Today’s conversation is a real life example of how we encourage our community to leverage who they are and what they have to impact someone else. We celebrate the i...
Episode 018: What does true partnership look like in an organization? with Irene Tongoi
June 26, 2019 14:24 - 33 minutes - 31 MBTechnology is amazing! Today our podcast guest is chatting with us all the way from Nairobi, Kenya! Irene Tongoi is the founder of New Dawn Educational Centre, a project that African Leadership and Mocha Club have supported since the beginning. Irene shares the story of turning her desire to provide education for her community into building a two-story high school that now enrolls 160 students each year. This desire started when she took the time to notice her neighbors and learn ...
Episode 017: How does God’s faithfulness change our perspective? With Annie Downs
June 11, 2019 15:48 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBOn today’s episode, Emily and Fallon sit down with author, speaker, and podcaster, Annie F Downs. She’s been a LONG time friend of the organization and even was on staff with Mocha Club for a few years. We talk about God’s part in the work Annie does and how He got her there. We talk about her journey and the way the Lord moved details to do HIS work and also helping Annie define who she is and what she is called to do. We also focus on the aspect of time and how we can experience a...
Episode 016: How do you start a non-profit? with Barrett Ward
May 28, 2019 14:17 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MBThat’s right, friends! On today’s podcast episode, we sit down with the founder of Mocha Club, Barrett Ward. He shares the seemingly radical moments that changed the course of his life to be in a career caring for the greater world. At the time, coffee was just getting popular, community social platforms were building, and faxes were still in existence — and this helped create the Mocha Club. Barrett shares about how the organization birthed the business he currently works for call...
Episode 015: What’s it like to travel to Africa with the Mocha Club? with Kathryn Tuck and Allison Buchignani
May 15, 2019 14:55 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBOn this week’s episode, Fallon sits down to chat (and reunite) with Kathryn and Allison - two of the members of the Mocha Club Journey 2018 team who traveled to Kenya last summer! We bet that if you’ve never traveled to Africa, you have some questions about what it’s like. This conversation is a great way to learn more about how African Leadership and Mocha Club approaches international travel. Kathryn and Allison share why they decided to join the trip, how they spent their time in...
Episode 014: How can fear lead to beauty and change? with Jeremy Cowart
April 30, 2019 13:53 - 31 minutes - 28.9 MBEmily and I were so glad to grab some time with Jeremy Cowart on this week’s podcast. Jeremy is a well-known photographer, writer, and visionary and he was a big part of the beginning of Mocha Club supporting African Leadership. We are honored to be part of the start of his journey into philanthropic photography and loved hearing his story! We talk about how Jeremy has pushed past fear to create beauty, impact change, and grow personally. It’s an encouraging word for all of us who f...
Episode 013: How can you experience Scripture and this Easter season in a fresh way? with Kara Gause
April 16, 2019 14:57 - 40 minutes - 36.7 MBAs we prepare for Easter next week, Emily and Fallon sit down with a dear friend, Kara Gause, a writer and editor for She Reads Truth. Kara has a gift of teaching & knowledge of the Word. She shares how her early introduction to theatre and story-telling inspires her understanding & teaching of scripture. Kara and Emily share about their recent trip to Ethiopia where they spent time with women teaching them scripture through story-telling and how they experienced the power of story ...
Episode 012 : What’s the secret to capturing authenticity in your photos? with Char Beck
April 01, 2019 19:00 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBIf you’ve been part of the African Leadership and Mocha Club community for a bit, you know about our amazing friend & photographer Char Beck! Char has a gift not only in photography but also in connecting with people through capturing empathy, adventure, and positivity. You’ll never meet a person who doesn’t love Char. On this week’s episode we talk about his unique way of leveraging his personality as he approaches photography, how to capture authenticity in photos, and the impact ...
Episode 011 : How can you impact the water crisis in one easy step? with Mark Brown
March 19, 2019 13:47 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBWorld Water Day is March 22nd! And we are celebrating by hanging out with our friend Mark Brown, author of the best-selling kid’s book series, ZenPig. For the past five years, Mark Brown has been partnering with Mocha Club to donate a portion of his book sales to provide clean water to communities across Africa. You will LOVE Mark! He has never-ending energy and spunk! We talk about how he started ZenPig and his passion to teach kids about self-forgiveness, gratitude, love, and comp...
Episode 010 : What does changing the world look like when you are doing it with your best friend? with Tito & Geoffrey (and special guest, Caroline Peeples)
March 05, 2019 12:00 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBTito and Geoffrey are our Country Directors in Sudan and Uganda and they have a sweet & goofy friendship. They work closely together as Tito works in the Sudanese refugee camps in Uganda due to civil unrest. And since they met in 2005, they have become the best of friends. In this episode, we get to hear both Tito and Geoffrey share a bit about themselves — what life was like growing up, why they choose to work for African Leadership, and the hilarious story of how they met - inclu...
Episode 009: What does life look like in South Africa? with Allan Knowles
February 19, 2019 15:58 - 42 minutes - 38.7 MBA new host joins Emily Blackledge on today’s episode: Emily Hickey is the Director of International Program for African Leadership and Mocha Club. They sit down to chat with Allan Knowles, our Country Director for South Africa to discuss all the things — the effect of sports and politics on one another, witch doctors and ancestral superstitions, growing up in South Africa during the apartheid and the age of Mandela, and how faith has shaped Allan’s personal sense of hope that he now...
Episode 008: How can you add purpose to what you are already doing?
February 05, 2019 17:15 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBWhat do you get when you have 10 women, 10 birthdays, and 10 hearts that want to do some good for the world? The Fabulous Friends for Africa! On this week’s episode we chat with Terrie Hill, one of the original Fabulous Friends to hear the story on how a group of women used their birthday to support leaders and communities in Africa. And now more than a decade later, it continues to raise more than $700,000 for African Leadership and the Mocha Club. We also chat with Terrie’s daught...
Episode 007: How can two socks be the start of world impacting change? with Peter Ochiel
January 22, 2019 17:49 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBThe stories of our life leave an imprint on who we are and typically change the trajectory of how we spend our time. On today’s podcast, you will hear Fallon share more of her story and how growing up in a family who valued travel left an impression on how she would spend her life as an adult. You also get to hear from one of our Project Partners in Kenya, Peter Ochiel, as he shares a beautiful story about the power of community leveraging themselves for one person. And how two sock...
Episode 006 : Are there change-makers outside of America that desire to help us? with Pastor Mezack & Duane Murray
January 08, 2019 06:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBThere are many Americans who have a desire to change the world around them. They see people and places far from them that seem to be in need and so they want to help. But have you ever thought about other people looking at the United States and wanting to help us? On today’s episode, Fallon sits down in a conversation with a member of our Board of Directors, Duane Murray and Country Director, Mezack from Rwanda and hears how his discipleship training has not only affected his own co...
Episode 005: Can “no" be the positive answer? with Geoffrey Ocan
December 18, 2018 06:15 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBNo is not a fun answer…most of the time. In this week’s episode, we change the conversation to talk about how “no” can actual be a positive answer. Emily shares a conversation she had with African Leadership and Mocha Club’s Uganda country director, Geoffrey Ocan and her unique experience where he tells her no after she asks to see an education class the organization supports. You will learn quickly how this was nothing short of kindness for both Emily and the students. https://www...
Episode 004: What is a healthy life/work balance? with Tito Oturo
December 04, 2018 06:15 - 22 minutes - 20.2 MBAhh, work/life balance. It’s a topic our society has talked about to death but it’s because it’s so important. On this week’s episode, Fallon and Emily share their own experience about what has worked (and not worked!) to make that balance healthy in their own lives. And we also hear how African Leadership and Mocha Club’s South Sudan country director, Tito figures out how to do work and life while he serves South Sudanese refugees in Uganda. We have a sneak peek into a hilarious co...
Episode 003: Who is your neighbor? with Shannan Martin
November 20, 2018 06:01 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBThis week’s episode is super special as Fallon gets the pleasure of sitting down to chat with long-time Mocha Club member and author, Shannan Martin. Shannan just launched her newest book “The Ministry of Ordinary Places” and encourages readers to be present and intentional in ordinary ways to better love the people around you. She talks about how we can all live a life of meaning by first starting with the people who live next door. She’s certainly changing the conversation about h...
Episode 002: When is charity done well?
November 05, 2018 02:00 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBWe recorded on a Friday but we’re coming to you on a Tuesday (don’t be confused)! In this week’s episode, we talk about how there are lots of folks who have an innate desire to make the world a better place. But where do you even start? Emily and Fallon talk about the multiple ways of doing development work in Africa and why Mocha Club and African Leadership invests in local leaders in a particular way that seems the most dignifying and long lasting. https://www.themochaclub.org h...
Bonus Episode: African Leadership? Mocha Club? Wait, are they two different organizations? How do they work together?
October 29, 2018 17:28 - 4 minutes - 4.19 MBOn this bonus episode, we share a little more in detail who African Leadership and Mocha Club are as organizations committed to investing in Africa through education. https://www.themochaclub.org https://africanleadershipinc.org https://instagram.com/mochaclub https://instagram.com/africanleadership
Episode 001: Why are we here? with Emily Blackledge and Fallon Klug
October 16, 2018 16:53 - 16 minutes - 15 MBDid you know there are 350 new podcasts launching EVERY DAY?! Emily Blackledge and Fallon Klug kick off the “Changing the Conversation” podcast by answering the question each new listener asks “Why are you here?” We hope that our common dreams of making the world a better place, our listeners will see these conversations as important & inspiring. Brought to you by African Leadership and the Mocha Club. https://www.themochaclub.org https://www.africanleadershipinc.org https://www...