In this episode, I sit down with Morgan DeNicola, Executive Director of the DeNicola Family Foundation, to explore how curiosity, humor, and empathy can create bridges across even the most polarized divides.

We talk about her journey from special education into international diplomacy, what it really means to listen, and how she stays grounded while working on everything from orphanages to conservation projects to cross-cultural negotiation.

🔑 In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How Morgan transitioned from teaching to global diplomacy
• The overlooked link between classrooms and cross-cultural negotiation
• Why true diplomacy begins with setting your own ego aside
• How to build bridges with people you disagree with — without shrinking yourself
• What it means to truly listen (and why most of us don’t)
• The “swinging pendulum” of mental health in mission-driven work
• Why conservation work can bring unlikely allies together

🛠️ Resources & Mentions:

The deNicola Family Foundation

Elmwood Park Zoo

The Humpty Dumpty Institute

Morgan on LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok

Want to be a guest on Stories for the future: Beyond the Bubble? Send Veslemoy Klavenes-Berge a message on PodMatch.

You can always find more information about the podcast and my work on storiesforthefuture.com

Welcome back to Stories for the Future.

Where we explore the ideas and individuals shaping a more thoughtful, connected world.

Today's episode, I think, touches on so many of the core topics of this podcast.

It's about empathy, diplomacy, and impact.

And it's about bridge building.

I'm sure that you have heard me mentioning that word many times before.

My guest is Morgan DeNicola, executive director of the Denicola Family Foundation.

Her journey from elementary education to international diplomacy is so fascinating and inspiring, and I think she has some really valuable insights to share about what it takes to build bridges across political, cultural, and personal divides, not with force, but with curiosity, humor, and respect.

We also talk about burnout in the philanthropic world, what animals can teach us about connection, and why listening is often more valuable than speaking.

Morgan is a true bridge builder, and I know that you are going to enjoy this.

Morgan, first things first.

Where in the world are you joining us from?

I am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the United States.

Right.

And so then to follow up on that, on the topic that we will talk about a lot today, diplomacy and bridge building.

How are things these days, if you see what I mean?

Yes, things are rough, but at least there are conversations around curiosity to.

To try to mend.

You can tell from all sides.

I. I don't like to say both sides because there are some people who are like, in the middle, to the left, to the right.

It seems like, for the most part, a lot of people want to mend a lot of.

A lot of these preconceived notions and the.

The extreme thoughts kind of going on on all sides.

So it's.

At least people are willing to start having these conversations with one another.

That's promising.

So we will get back to it.

First, I would like to talk about this fascinating background that you have because you started in elementary education and then led to international diplomacy.

So I'm very, very curious.

Why did you leave the classroom, and how did that transition happen?

I went into the classroom, actually, for special education.

I'm dyslexic, so there was always this conversation before people knew what dyslexia was, and a lot of that.

As to whether or not I had a learning disability, I was slower to read.

I was slower to kind of grasp these topics, but I was intelligent.

Um, and I noticed that there.

There were a lot of children out there that have incredible intelligence, but just have difficulty expressing it and kind of keeping up with a lot of what other students were doing.

So I wanted to be the teacher that could identify these kids that just needed a Little extra help or that extra kind of guidance to help them really come to their full, full potential.

And in the process of doing that, I realized because of the way classrooms were structured and relations with parents, that I was not really the best person to be in a classroom because I felt like sometimes blame kind of got put on teachers when there might have been a little bit more help that other individuals could be doing.

So I felt like the stress of classrooms just wasn't quite right for me.

And while I was continuing to figure out what I wanted to do, I was lucky enough to get into the world of business with my family and kind of see all the different businesses they were doing.

And I realized I wasn't thrilled about business either.

So I felt like I was in this really weird limbo of I want to help people, I want to help animals, I want to help kids, I want to really contribute to this world.

But I had no idea how I was going to do it.

And I firmly believe the universe puts you where it needs you.

And I was invited, through friends of my father's, actually, to go on a trip to Africa that actually brought members of congressional staff to have these interesting discussions about these orphanages and villagers and the government.

And I got to be kind of a fly on the wall during these conversations.

And it completely changed my life from interacting with these kids who had a lot of needs but still had so much joy and so much life, to the how delicate diplomacy can be in these conversations and this integration of different cultures.

It's kind of a beautiful tap dance and your ability to communicate and listen with one another.

And I came back to the States and I just felt so moved that I knew I couldn't be in business anymore.

That wasn't where I was supposed to be.

I wanted to be in that world world trying to figure out how to solve a lot of these problems.

And from there, I was lucky enough to have a lot of support to self educate and explore, and fell into philanthropy and diplomacy.

Right.

So how did you figure out that you had maybe a talent for diplomacy or for bridge building?

I was in front of a lot of different people, and I realized that I could connect with anyone from any walk of life.

I could relate to them.

I made them feel seen and heard.

And I would grow with them by learning from their experiences.

And so many people were coming up to me saying, I feel comfortable talking to you.

I feel comfortable being around you.

And I realized I kind of had this approachability, but a very human side.

I love to make jokes.

I do not find myself to be superior to anybody in any way.

And I just kept having more and more people wanting to work with me and even our family foundation that I noticed that I did just have a talent for it.

And when you continue to get invited back to.

To places and continue to get invited to different experiences, I guess that's kind of your cue that you're in the right place at the right time.

Definitely.

But everybody's been so, so kind and really kind of guide me along the way and encourage me.

And every time somebody's like, have you ever thought of getting into politics?

I'm like, no, I went to school to be a teacher.

And they're like, ah, it kind of helps.

Yes, yes, exactly.

And that was actually my next question that I thought about was, could you see, are there similarities between classrooms and diplomacy?

Like, isn't it a lot about managing strong emotion, negotiating conflicts, building, building consensus among different views?

Can you see ways that they're similar?

Absolutely.

There are so, so many similarities to keeping a room full of people that are incredibly different.

Calm, listening, engaged, and kind of, in a way, even as adults, I think we need to be reminded of how to make things relatable when we're trying to express.

Express certain viewpoints.

So it kind of being that reminder of is there a way for you to express this or show where your roots are in this idea that makes it easier for somebody else to see and understand and to continue that, that growth and education even as we get older.

And kind of telling people that just by listening to somebody and being in a room and being empathetic doesn't mean you have to agree.

I think that there's.

You have to remind people that being civil, being diplomatic, being able to listen and relate to people doesn't mean you have to necessarily agree with them.

It's this respect and this willingness to learn from one another.

So it's very similar to being in a classroom, I guess, just, you know, you're working with adults rather than children.

But it's.

And I'm not saying these, you know, incredible human beings are in any way like children, but I think we all need to be reminded of certain things because we get very wrapped up in our passions.

And I need to get sometimes somebody there that's not judging and not trying to push their ideals on anything, but just to kind of remind us to really be engaged and to do that.

You need to actively listen and participate in other people's worlds.

Yes, definitely.

And so, so important these days because of all the division and polarization so could you share a little bit about your role as executive director in the Nicola, the Nikola Family foundation, and the kind of work that you do through that foundation?

Yeah.

So we have our four main passions pillars.

They're kind of the four things we like to focus on and build our programs out from.

And one is global health.

So we've done mobile medical van with that orphanage, actually bringing basic medical care to all the villages those kids come from to create that positive relationship between the orphanage and where those kids come from.

Where was this again?

Is this in Lesotho?

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

Right.

So it's a wonderful program that we've done.

We've done so many other programs with the American Thoracic Society, a lot of local hospitals here.

We believe that health makes us have the ability to be productive members of society.

Health is kind of everything from our physical health to what we eat to our mental health.

It's all very important.

So from there, we go to conservation.

We've planted trees, dug fresh water wells in different parts of the world, because a healthy world makes us healthy people, and again, helps us contribute to society.

And then we have humanitarian recognition.

We have an award that we give out to American football players that contribute to their communities, that are really active in giving back.

But it's also front staff coaches to kind of recognize and encourage that continuation of giving back to wherever it is they come from.

But we also started one for kids.

So we are going to different schools and finding young children that already have this passion for giving back to their community and acknowledging it and giving them a little bit of money to continue their philanthropic hopes.

We think that recognizing and amplifying doing good helps to continue people and encourage people to continue to do good.

And then finally, it's diplomacy, especially cultural diplomacy.

We think spreading these rich cultures that we all have helps us grow, helps us understand one another, and really gives us this allowance of learning our likes and our dislikes.

If we don't expose ourselves to all these things, there's going to be misconceptions.

We won't really know what we like, what we dislike.

And it allows you to kind of, again, get back to the roots of why people are the way they are there.

There definitely are cultural reasons that we all feel the way we do and are the way we are.

So with that cultural diplomacy, we're able to kind of make the world a little bit more accessible to everybody.

And my job is to come up with a lot of these programs on a global platform.

And then I work very closely with my Co worker Natalie who does a lot of the grassroots local programs, but we do them together and those are kind of our, our pillars and it's me and Natalie and then we have our board that approve any very large programs that we are trying to get done.

So that is our day to day operations.

Right.

So interesting.

And so many, so many areas.

It's quite a wide range.

Yeah.

We couldn't figure out what we wanted to do.

And since we're a multi generation generational foundation and our family is so diverse, it even getting down to those four pillars where it was a struggle.

Yes, I can see that.

But going into them because I can see this maybe connected to many of the pillars, but going back to the bridge building because like this podcast as well, I come from the, I think I shared with you the world of oil and gas and I worked a lot on trying to build the bridges between that world and the more like the future focused sustainability world and bubble and get people to actually talk and listen.

Not the least, but it's hard.

It's often hard.

I find it often that we kind of just hit this wall in a way.

We get into this argument wars.

And so my question is, when you, when you're in a room with people from very different maybe political or cultural backgrounds or industry backgrounds, what's your first move?

How do you begin to build that bridge?

Do you have any kind of hot tips?

I, I do when I first am in a room especially well, one, I do my due diligence.

I do all of my, my digging kind of social medias all beforehand, like, yeah, yeah, just get a feel for what this individual likes.

And, and that's kind of beyond just their stances, but like who they are as people I think is very important.

And, and then I kind of come in as a clean slate.

I love to say this.

I put all of my preconceived notions, all of my views in the backseat and I come at it completely clear.

And I think this is very important because it allows you to be approachable and really allows you to listen.

And so I come in there asking general questions, really coming from a place of respect and not.

I know when you say that a lot of people are like, well, do you shrink yourself down?

No, I don't shrink myself down.

I don't make myself small in a sense, but I make myself really approachable and curious.

And the second you come at any individual from a curious point, they open up to you.

And especially if you're very, very respectful of whatever it is that they say you'll start to kind of unfold who this person is and where they come from.

This allows you to build those relationships, to really start to work with one another, because the more they open up to you and can see you're not somebody who's going to judge.

You're not somebody that's going to push your viewpoints and your ways of living on them, they really, really make it.

So then they start to kind of get curious about you as well.

And you can kind of start very slowly to have these respectful conversations that might be very difficult to have if you don't know a person.

And.

But I think that whenever I come at it from very respectful, very appropriate points, people relax around me.

And then I like to, once I see them relax, have a little bit of a sense of humor with them.

They do like that because I don't think anybody, even in the political world, in business and philanthropy, I don't think anybody likes to be serious all the time.

It's a lot of pressure.

So I also like to approach things when appropriately throw in a joke here and there, and it makes people really relax around me.

So that's kind of how I initiate these conversations.

And then I go off of the other person.

If the other person is still apprehensive or stand off of office, I give them their space.

I think that's a big thing that we have a problem with, is we either want to, like, crack a person open and really understand them, and we get too kind of pushy that we don't allow people to naturally feel comfortable around us.

And that takes a lot of.

Of patience.

And I think we.

We need to remember that patience and that you.

We don't really know where a person came from or like I was saying about their cultures.

So you really need to be calm, approachable, patient, and really be able to read the other person.

And the only way you can do that is to really listen and pay attention.

Because I think that's another mistake we, we make is we don't do active listening.

We.

We listen for our opportunity to speak rather than listening to really hear what a person is trying to say, say to us.

And that's such a great thing to have the ability to do.

I know we love to talk and, you know, make our stance known, but I think there's so much power in really having yourself be a person that listens and gets it.

That's really your.

Your power play, I like to say.

It's so true and still so difficult.

I was just trying to Imagine, let's say I'm talking to somebody who I strongly disagree with.

It could be some cultural thing, gender, something which is a kind of a strong opinion I have, and maybe it's also personal.

Could be.

And then listening to them, I can see myself just as you said that I have this constant spinning thoughts in my head while they are talking.

How am I going to reply to this and how I'm I going to defend my views?

So do you see what I mean?

It's, it's hard.

It's hard.

How do you, how do you actually practice that?

Well, one, I think again, it's kind of knowing your audience.

Is this an individual that would be receptive for you to say your thoughts back?

If this is an individual that is not there to have their thoughts changed, why would you use your energy to try to defend your thoughts?

That's not a person that's already interested in hearing what your thoughts and your perspectives are.

So it's kind of like that.

That would be a, a waste in a sense of your passion, a waste of your energy.

And that person isn't going to change, especially if you go at them.

I, I find that people that really change you have this opportunity to be this example.

I'll, I'll.

It is pride month here in, in the States, so I'll, I'll go from this perspective.

I work with a, a group called the Papal foundation, that their awesome group of people, but they work with the Pope.

Right.

I am a married to a married woman.

I do not hide the fact that I, you know, I'm, I'm gay.

I have no shame in it.

And that was a very difficult point, you know, where you're like, I want to work with this group because this group does great work.

Yes, they do help a lot of people.

And I get that some of these individuals, not all, some of these individuals do not like the way I lived my life.

But there were so many other ones that didn't care and respected me and really just had no problem with it.

And I just came at, to these events, very open to them and, and just very loving and not trying to say, hey, like, why don't you do this with the gay community?

And kind of coming at it very abrasive, but more like, okay, you know what?

That is your belief structure and I respect that.

That is your belief structure.

And I'm not here to try to change that at all.

I'm here to try to do something really good with you.

That has nothing to do with the way that I Live my life and having it be so personal.

But having that control of myself made me, again, more approachable to a lot of the individuals in that room.

They felt very comfortable being around me, realized, I'm not going to sit here and push my thoughts and perspectives on them.

And in response, none of them did it to me right.

Nobody said anything to me in a way that, like, I would feel offended or even if they did.

You have to remember what your mission is.

And I think that's the most important thing, especially being, like, if you want to effectively have change in philanthropy or in diplomacy, remember what your mission is.

And my mission wasn't to try to get them to be cool with gay marriage.

My mission was to find out if I could help them build schools, if I could help them get food to vulnerable areas and.

And again, clean water and things that go so beyond me.

It goes for the world.

It's a collective want of some betterment.

And I think that that gets to be when you can focus on what your mission is and, you know, your audience and, you know you're not there for that specifically.

I can conserve my energy.

I can still be myself.

I'm not hiding anything.

I didn't hide anything, but I kept my calm and my cool and my focus on what my mission was.

And that actually built these beautiful relationships that I still have with a lot of members of that group.

And I would.

I am still willing to work with them.

We still do work with them.

My father sits on the board, which I also see that as being very confusing because my dad fully supports me being married to my wife.

I think life is a lot more complicated than we like.

To oversimplify it, we don't really give people an opportunity to really go through the depths of how they might feel about a specific topic.

It's a really good example.

And it got me thinking about this.

Thing that I struggle a little bit.

With, and that is when you have.

It could be, for example, it could be a country, actually, but it could also be a company or a board or a foundation or something which does.

In all in all, they do a lot of things that you think is great and you want to work them.

Exactly what you said.

But for many people, then it would be that, okay, they have one member who is like, have this very opinions or bad behavior or anything, or looking at a country again, then they do something which is really bad, and then you go to boycott, like, or cancel.

And sometimes when it.

When it comes to bridge building, I think that is really not helping us but it's, it's also very, it's very, it's a very, how can I put it?

Like accepted or maybe even prefer, preferred way of acting like they do something bad.

Okay.

We boycott them despite the other things they do which are good.

Yeah, it's, it's people, I think, need to be reminded that we all grow, we all evolve.

We've all said or done things that we can look back at and be like, oh my.

I really, really wish I didn't say that.

I really wish I didn't do that.

I'm not that same person.

We need to remind each other, I like to say, the elasticity of growth.

We have to give everybody a little grace and space and a little bit of an opportunity to grow, realize mistakes.

I think we need to focus on what it is we are doing as people and not so much what other people are doing.

And I like to, I'm, I love philosophy, I love sociology.

And to me a lot of people like to pull out their soapbox of, of morality, right?

This, this is my moral compass.

And it is better than all other moral compasses.

Everybody should be this way.

And I think we forget that morals, it's kind of like a math equation, right?

Morals depend on the time in history where you're located on the planet and your personal experience.

That's where your morals come from.

Everything else, you could even live in the same household as somebody and have different morals because you had different experiences.

So I think we need to remind people that our moral compasses also are an ever changing thing.

I know there are certain things that are staples that we will forever have, but a lot of other things will change.

Things you say now, five or ten years from now might be considered incredibly inappropriate.

Yeah, we, we've seen this, we've done this.

Many examples of that.

Yeah, many.

And I think we need to remind ourselves that we're at a particular place in time.

Things are going to change.

Your experiences are going to change.

Every human being that you interact with, you have this ability to change with.

And that's kind of beautiful.

And we need to allow ourselves to do that, but also allow other people to do that and realize we are a fallible species.

We very much are.

And we need to give everybody an opportunity to, to grow and to realize this on their own.

Because you pointing it out doesn't necessarily help anything.

I think we all need to turn a little bit more inward and see what we're doing and have more self control of the way we respond.

Don't react to Situations.

And I think that's really where it comes in.

That self control, that knowledge of change and, and just a willingness to have a little bit.

We, we always say that we're very empathetic.

But like really, are you?

Yeah.

Do you truly have empathy and compassion?

Because if you do, that has to be also for the people that you do not agree with.

You have to have empathy and compassion, especially if you're yelling at somebody for not having empathy and compassion.

I, I think we need to do a lot more of that reflection on, on what it is we're doing.

And in terms of the whole boycotting and canceling, I don't think people realize that that can affect a lot more people, not just that one person.

And in terms of like donating or doing business or working with individuals, it's again, sometimes people make, make those mistakes and a lot, a lot more people are, are involved in that.

And is there a single person on this planet you're going to agree with 100% of the time?

Not one.

No, not one.

Your best friends, your family, your partners, your.

There's going to always be a time where you disagree with these people and sometimes quite passionately disagree with these other people.

But it's a lot easier to find things that you agree with and you won't lose your temper and you won't feel so, so much emotional fatigue if you start to create those bridges and find ways to build those bridges and contribute.

It's, it's so, it's so much more soul filling to contribute to people's lives than to try to take from them because you feel like they're not living it right.

Yes, yes, so true.

Yeah.

I would like to touch on another aspect of your work that might seem separate, but I suspect it's connected still and that is your board roll with the Elmwood Zoo.

Because conservation and the conservation work, that's, that fits into kind of the broader range with the family foundation.

But still also conservation and wildlife can sometimes create common ground between people coming from very different worlds and different perspectives.

Again, like the bridge.

Have you seen that?

Yes.

Oh yes.

I absolutely love the Elmwood Park Zoo mostly because they are an education.

A lot of people think zoos, prisons for animals.

No, they are very much based on educating everybody that comes in there on how to decrease their carbon footprint, how to recycle, how to use water different ways and how to protect these, these species of, of animals.

We do a lot of breed to release programs for animals that are becoming endangered because our animals have so much enrichment that our animals tend to breed very, very quickly.

And that's a sign of happiness.

If animals are breeding, they're happy.

So we've had so much success for our breed to release programs, and just being able to bring that joy and that education to children and adults alike is just so beautiful because like you said, we can all agree that we only have one, one world.

And a lot of us like animals more than people.

Yes.

Yeah.

So we can make those connections of the different animals we like and.

And programs to try to protect them and try to educate.

And zoo people, especially Elmwood zoo people, are their own type of people.

They are just so sweet, so joyous, so happy to be there.

And I absolutely feel like they're another family for me.

And their passion for trying to save these animals is something that cannot be paralleled, to be honest.

Yeah.

And I was thinking about, like, topics.

For instance, climate change or sustainability can often be very polarized.

But agreeing on that we want to take care of this species or this particular animal is maybe a lot easier to agree on often.

And educating also because some of these habitats are getting smaller and not, you know, for multitude of different reasons, having that education of if you were to engage with some of these species because they are moving closer to.

To our worlds and our neighborhoods and things like that.

So I think, again, it's also like a survival thing that's not political.

It's a.

If you're in this part of the world that you might encounter one of these animals and to be educated about it and have that connection and that respect for it helps you respect yourself, helps you respect your world around you.

And like you said, it's.

It's not political.

It's something that's so real and that needs to be addressed beyond how you feel about zoos.

So it's definitely something that allows you to cross borders, to cross political views.

Everybody, for the most part, can agree when an animal or a species is in critical danger.

Exactly.

So I started asking you about how it was going and you said, it's rough.

So I saw that you shared about this idea of how mental health is affected by philanthropy and causes.

A swinging pendulum, you call it.

So I think this is very relevant to many of my listeners who are trying to do meaningful work without burning out, as many do.

So can you share a little bit about this pendulum concept?

What does this swinging look like?

So a lot of us go into philanthropy and charity because we love helping people.

We love or animals or whatever it is specific.

We love to help helpings in our DNA.

So we kind of get super happy that we're helping people.

That's the pendulum swinging one way, feel really fulfilled and then you kind of have it start to swing the other way when you see that it's a never ending task.

Yes.

No matter what it is, if it's.

You love to, to feed people, there are always going to be people that need to be fed, educated.

It doesn't really matter what your niche is in, in terms of giving back to your communities.

There gets to a point that you start to burn out.

Everybody does it.

It happens because you, you feel like with every program you do or every problem you solve, there is another one right there.

So it can potentially lead to some severe depression, some feelings of hopelessness and sometimes imposter syndrome and all of these different feelings that can put you in a very dark place and then make it so you no longer feel the joy and the pleasure that you had gotten from helping people.

So my conversations on that is to learn our own self awareness of when that pendulum swings, know that it can swing back with proper self care and really kind of getting back to your roots and disconnecting when you need to and reminding yourselves that this world is, it's a marathon, right?

It's long, it's putting one foot in front of the other and reminding yourself of your little victories.

Because I think again, when we finish one program, go to the next program, go to the next program, we forget those little smiles that we put on people's faces, those little victories that really are the ones that matter.

Because I think that we, we always say we want to change the world, right?

Like change the world.

I want to change the world.

The world doesn't change as a whole.

You change the world for one person.

And I think that's what we forget when we get to that burnout state is you got to get back to just wanting to change the way one person views the world and not change the world as a whole.

Because that's kind of an impossibility, impossible thing to do.

But I think that in doing that you need to know, you need to know how you feel.

You need to have that self awareness and that honesty with yourself.

And when you feel yourself slipping, you need to know the things that work for you.

For me, my dogs, I am a zoo at home.

I have dogs and cats and all kinds of things.

And sometimes my friends will be like, you just disappeared for two weeks, right?

And I'd be like, yeah, I needed to, I needed to.

And I'm just with My animals and kind of laughing with them and crying when you need to cry.

But I also love baking and cooking because it gives my brain a rest.

I think that's another thing we need to do is sometimes turn off the news, turn off our phones, get off social media, reconnect with people or nature if you're into hikes, and kind of get back to those little things that start to recharge our battery to allow that pendulum to kind of get back up there so we can go back to doing what we love to do.

And that's contributing to the world.

But again, it's that trial and error of knowing yourself, being honest with yourself.

And when you get to a certain point, don't have any shame in asking for help.

I know that it's still a very taboo thing to say, like, I'm in a bad place.

I.

Everything's doom and gloom and not, not.

I'm not okay, really okay to not be okay.

But you need to ask for help and you need to know when you need to ask for help, and that's perfectly okay.

I have my moments where I will get on my cell phone and I will text my therapist and be like, yeah, not okay and need a hand.

And I have specific groups of friends that help me through different points.

But it took a long time to build your network and to know yourself and, and know those things that help.

So I really encourage people in the world that deal with a lot of difficult situations that seem endless to really get your game plan in place and know that you might have those downswings.

You more than likely will.

Sun always comes out.

Things get better.

Just know what you need to do to notice those things again.

I had another guest who said something I thought was quite insightful and that was when you have this feeling or starting to kind of hit the wall in a way that he was advised to.

Yeah, now we have to implement the self care and he said, I want to be cared for.

So mutual care is also something.

So I guess knowing your network and who you can ask for help is also really important.

It's.

It's not always enough to just take care of yourself.

You need somebody to lean on as well.

You don't have to do it alone.

Human interaction is, is so necessary even when we don't like people.

Yeah, I always like to say that, like I, I'm in the job of being around people and there are times I'm.

I don't like people.

It.

It happens and that's, that's okay.

But having those People that you do enjoy being around in those more touchy instances, you, you need that and that's really, really a good thing because that, that connectivity to one another reminds us of what it is we are fighting for.

So it, it's definitely knowing your network and who's the best to call.

Depending on where you're at and the situation, don't hesitate to do it.

I know we feel good sometimes to be alone, but if you're alone for too long, it's not healthy, it's not a good thing to do.

So yeah, it's knowing thyself and knowing your group of your people.

Yes, true.

So to zoom out a little bit, we mentioned that the four focus areas of the foundation is world health, humanitarian recognition, conservation and cultural diplomacy.

So it's a big range as you said.

But is there a thread for you and kind of a big why behind it from your side?

Like you said that you would like to help people and animals, but kind of the big why have you thought about that?

What connects it all.

Is all connected because these are all things that we need.

I, I think we need recognition.

All of us as human beings need recognition.

It's.

I, I know some of us hate to say it, but we do.

Yes.

It helps encourage us to continue to give, to continue to be active members of society.

So that's a need.

Conservation, we need our environment.

It again, that is a need.

Health, our health is a need.

And diplomacy, if we are not able to think, diplomacy is in every aspect of our life.

If we are in business.

You need to be diplomatic.

You need to be able to work with your co workers.

Are you in a relationship?

You need to be diplomatic in a relationship.

You need to be diplomatic with your family.

It goes so beyond.

Everybody immediately goes to politics and forgets.

Being diplomatic in your day to day life is so important in everything that you do.

And it gives us again that, that allowance to, to have our ability to interact with people who are different than us.

So I feel like all of these pillars are necessities for us as people to thrive and be global citizens.

And that's why they're, they're all, they are connected because I think they all make us the best versions of ourselves to contribute to the progress of the world around us.

You mentioned there.

Sorry, you mentioned their global citizens.

I think that is so important and I think it's a difficult one because we shouldn't fly too much.

We should be careful with all the travel because it's hurting, hurting the environment.

But how do you see that because the world, in some ways you can see that many countries are kind of like isolating and it kind of seems we're working against that at this point in time.

So how to prevent that from happening, that we kind of just keep to ourselves.

I think it's the reminder of the benefits.

You even see it in a lot of.

I know there's the argument about having students from around the world and in the United States.

And I think we need to kind of go back and look at the history of wherever we're from and all of the influences, every positive progression as societies that we've had have somehow come from our ability to cross borders and listen to one another and interact with one another.

It's really fine to have pride.

I, I honestly, I love living in the United States.

I have pride in the United States.

I know many people in America that are wonderful people.

But I also absolutely love going to different places in the world because you grow, you learn, you bring that back, you incorporate it into your day to day and you make then a better version of yourself.

We've done this.

We need to go back to learning history again.

And every large success that we've had, it hasn't been because we've had closed borders and just focused on ourselves.

It's always been that absorbing.

It's kind of like Darwin and learning from one another and learning the best techniques of survival.

And if you only have a sample group that is so tiny, your survival isn't going to be that great.

If your sample are huge and you are just learning and absorbing from everybody else's lessons around you and their experiences around you, your survival and success is going to just explode.

This isn't a complex thought.

This, this is like critical thinking.

And it's been proven in business, it's been proven in philanthropy, it's been proven throughout the course, like I said of every country's history.

So I think that again, it's going back.

It's really being real with ourselves and thinking about even if we want to get selfish about it, even our own personal success.

Don't you want to be the best version of yourself and the most successful version of yourself?

Well then why not take a lesson from every single person you engage with you.

You may never come across an issue where you need to use that example.

I, I did a podcast the other day and I said it's kind of like picture your life.

You're a mechanic and every person you meet hands you a tool and you have this giant garage.

You can decide not to Take those tools from every single person you meet, or you can decide to take those tools.

Now, you could say, I'm never going to use this, or you could just put it in your garage.

And then any situation that comes along, you'll have a tool to solve, potentially that situation.

So why wouldn't you take those tools?

Why wouldn't you learn?

Why wouldn't you absorb it?

I get the idea of I might not need it, but you might.

Yes.

I would love to meet the person who is able to 100% predict everything that I.

Give me your number.

Call me.

As, as far as my experience and everybody that I've been blessed to kind of learn from, you really don't know what you're going to come up against.

You really don't know situations.

So why not learn from one another and grow and have that benefit?

And for you to be a teacher, I, I think that's.

Isn't that such an honor for you to be able to change somebody's perspective or teach them about something they might not have thought about?

It's.

It's an opportunity for, for you as well, to really get your ideas and your thoughts and your experiences out there.

So that's why I don't.

I believe in that, being a global citizen.

I believe in that just being a sponge for anything and everything, because it really does help you be the best.

You.

So true.

Yeah.

Oh, I couldn't agree more.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

That was really inspirational, I have to say.

Yeah.

So that brings me actually to my final question.

What gives you optimism for the future right now?

And where are you seeing hope?

Oh, optimism.

I still have optimism in every person that I meet, especially the younger generation has so much fire in them.

And I think that that's a beautiful thing that we forget is to have that hope and that fire and know that there, there can be more.

I. I have two.

I have actually a bunch of nieces and nephews, but my brother has two kids.

I'm an honorary aunt to so many.

And every time I'm.

I'm with them, and they range in age up to almost teenagers.

They always inspire me because they're curious, they're compassionate, and they, they want to learn, they want to contribute.

And I, I think that that's something that's beautiful that we need to hang on to.

And like I said, anytime I've been lucky enough to lend somebody a hand and they smiled and felt seen and felt heard and felt cared about, that gives me hope, that fills me with love and, And I Think that if we all just did that a little bit more, we would be filled with more love and more hope.

So if I like to say, if you can't find anything beautiful, be something beautiful.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you for that, and I agree.

And for me, with this podcast, it's so valuable to be reminded of all the people doing great work in the world.

There's so many.

And if somebody needs a cure for, I don't know, apathy or feeling down about the world, just start a podcast.

Meet so many great people.

I love that.

Yeah, there.

There are.

There's so many great, great people.

And.

And thank you for doing what you do because you give them a platform to have a voice to inspire people who.

Who are searching for that.

So thank you.

Yeah, that.

That's my aim.

So, yeah, hopefully I do that.

So.

Perfect.

I'll include links for where can people find your work and what you do and if they want to connect with you, so I can include them in the show notes as well.

But where.

Yeah, my family foundation, danacolafamilyfoundation.org I will give you the link to that.

And I'm on all social media, all of them.

I'm on Facebook, Instagram.

I now got convinced to be on TikTok.

But just so you know, it's not always professional.

It's my personal life, too, so expect a lot of pictures of my dogs and me cooking and doing normal human things.

That's great.

Yes.

Perfect.

I'll include everything.

So thank you so much for this conversation, and you've given us a lot to think about, I think, and especially around the.

The.

The topic of diplomacy and bridge building, I actually.

You made me want to go into diplomacy.

Really interesting topic.

Come on, we need more.

We need more people who are willing to be empathetic and listen.

So come on.

Maybe I will.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Yes, thank.

You.

That's it for today's episode.

And what a great lesson in diplomacy, empathy, and human connection from Morgan.

If there's one thing to take away, I think it's bridge.

Building doesn't require agreement.

It requires curiosity and the willingness to listen without needing to win.

You can learn more about Morgan's work through the Denicola Family foundation and the Elmwood Park Zoo, both doing powerful work to improve lives and preserve our world.

All the links to that and to all of Morgan's social media channels are in the show notes.

If this conversation resonated with you, please consider sharing it with someone who might benefit from listening to it too.

And as always, thank you for listening and for being part of this mission.

Thank you to connect more dots in a divided world.

You can find more about the podcast and my work at stories for the future.com and on my substack vclavness.subs.com until next time, keep building those bridges.