Break Fake Rules: Change Big Giving For Good

What happens when journalism stops pretending objectivity is the same thing as truth telling? In this episode, Glen Galaich and co-host Dr. Carmen Rojas take Break Fake Rules to Kansas City for another conversation from Common Thread, the national event series from the Marguerite Casey Foundation bringing people together around the issues shaping working-class life in America. They welcome Faiz Shakir, founder of More Perfect Union, the Emmy Award-winning nonprofit newsroom redefining what news can look like when it actually centers working-class people. Together, they explore how More Perfect Union’s reporting has become a powerful tool for policy change and corporate accountability.
The conversation takes on one of the media's biggest fake rules: the myth of objectivity. Faiz makes the case for an honest form of advocacy journalism, one that stays grounded in facts while refusing to hide its investment in the lives of working people. As Glen, Carmen, and Faiz talk through the stories that much mainstream media still fails to tell, a bigger idea comes into focus: journalism can do more than describe a rigged economy. It can help people understand the forces shaping their lives, see themselves as actors in that story, and build power to change it.
💡Faiz Shakir: We used to live in an America in which earning a paycheck was the way you got wealth, and was the way you helped take care of your family. Now your labor, your W2 paychecks, are really the source of pain and angst for you, because you can't get by with that.
Learn more about More Perfect Union and how they are building power through advocacy journalism.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Dr. Carmen Rojas & Glen Galaich

Guest: Faiz Shakir | More Perfect Union
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when philanthropy stops assuming young people are not ready to lead and starts trusting them when it matters most? In this episode, co-hosts Glen Galaich and Ralph Lewin, Executive Director of the Peter E. Haas Jr. Family Fund, bust open a fake rule that assumes young people do not know enough to help shape the future of our democracy. Together, they reflect on their own first experiences making grants, what philanthropy misses when it decides what is best for young people without them, and why involving youth in funding decisions can strengthen both grantmaking and democracy.
They are joined by Josh Lee, director of the Youth Power Fund, a California collaborative fund where young people do not just advise on funding decisions, they drive them. Josh makes the case for involving young people where it matters most: where resources are allocated.
💡Josh Lee: Contrary to what we might think, young people, in my opinion, are not the leaders of tomorrow. They're leading right now, today.
Learn more about Youth Power Fund and how they are working to ensure more young people, the Boldest Among Us, can shape funding decisions, build power, and drive change in their communities.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Ralph Lewin & Glen Galaich

Guest: Josh Lee | Youth Power Fund
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when one of the most dreaded days on the calendar gets reimagined as a celebration of collective care? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich and co-host Jamie Allison, executive director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, use Tax Day to open up a bigger conversation about public responsibility, private wealth, and what taxes make possible. Jamie makes a joyful case for loving Tax Day, not in spite of what it asks of us, but because taxes fund the schools, roads, clean water, and public systems that hold our lives together. Together, she and Glen ask what it would mean to stop treating taxes as something to avoid and start seeing them as an investment in one another, while also asking whether philanthropy is putting its own tax-advantaged dollars to work with that same sense of responsibility.
They are joined by Elizabeth Cushing, CEO of Playworks, a national nonprofit that helps nearly 1 million children each year build belonging, resolve conflict, and return to class ready to learn through structured play and recess. Elizabeth lays out the damaging impact of federal education funding cuts and tightening state budgets on kids across the country. She reframes the question of “how can philanthropy possibly backfill federal funding cuts” to “how can philanthropy act as a bridge in this moment to help nonprofits survive the next few hard years instead of forcing nonprofits to go it alone?”
💡Elizabeth Cushing: I'm hopeful that the midterms put some folks in Congress that prioritize children's well being, and I don't care which side of the aisle they're on, that is what our country is responsible for.
Learn more about Playworks and how they help kids build belonging, resolve conflict, and experience the power of play every day.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.
Co-Hosts: Jamie Allison & Glen Galaich

Guest: Elizabeth Cushing | Playworks
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when we stop designing philanthropy around preservation, control, and donor comfort, and start asking how to put more capital, trust, and collective action to work? In this episode, Glen Galaich speaks with Renee Kaplan, CEO of Forward Global, in a conversation recorded at the Forward Global Summit in Whistler. They challenge the fake rules that keep philanthropy cautious and exclusive, and explore what opens up when wealth holders, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, and other changemakers come together to solve problems side by side.
Renee shares how Forward Global has evolved into a global community and impact platform built to amplify what works, accelerate collective action, and move resources at the pace this moment demands. If you’re ready to replace judgment and rigid boundaries with trust, openness, and a shared belief that no single person can drive lasting change alone, this episode is for you.
💡Renee Kaplan: Are you ready to deploy, or are you only into preservation?
Learn more about Forward Global and how you can join their global community.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Guest: Renee Kaplan | Forward Global
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Visual Production Team: SeeBoundless
Production Team: Podfly
Graphic Design: Middle MGMT

What happens when we stop chasing individual freedom and start asking what it would mean to be free together? In this episode, Stupski Foundation CEO Glen Galaich sits down with Mia Birdsong, founder and executive director of Next River, where she is creating the cultural conditions necessary for a truly free world to emerge. Together, they break the fake rules of individualism, redefine what freedom actually is, and explore how we might pivot from a society organized around separation and scarcity to one rooted in care, connection, and collective well being.
💡Mia Birdsong: I understand the kind of fear and anxiety that has us wanting to grip tightly to what's familiar, because it feels safe, but it's not safe. It's never been safe.
💡Mia Birdsong: If we can find the courage to let go of trying to hold on to this thing, trying to fix this thing, and trust that together, if we are oriented toward our collective care and well being, we can build something better.
Learn more about Next River and their work to create the cultural conditions for a truly free world to emerge.
Order your copy of Glen’s book, CONTROL: Why Big Giving Falls Short.
Learn about the Stupski Foundation.

Guest: Mia Birdsong | How We Show Up
Executive Producer: Claire Callahan
Production Team: Podfly

Graphic Design: Middle MGMT