What would it take for banks to move away from capital extraction and toward climate resilience, racial justice, and community wealth? Francis Janes, Senior Director of Industry Relations and Partnerships at Beneficial State Foundation, joins host Erin Axelrod to explore how banking can become a lever for social and environmental justice. Drawing on his work with banks and trade associations, Francis shares how mission-driven standards, corporate social responsibility, and stakeholder approaches can shift how capital is deployed in local economies.
Raising Collaborative Children in a Fragmented Economy (w/ Dr. Lucía Alcalá)
Many parents feel pressure to manage children through packed schedules, constant supervision, and endless activities. In this episode of Next Economy Now, Erin Axelrod speaks with Dr. Lucía Alcalá, a professor of psychology at California State University Fullerton who studies the relationship between cultural values and children’s cognitive and social development. Drawing on her own background and cross-cultural research, Dr. Alcalá offers a grounded perspective on how children learn through participation, not isolation.
Dr. Alcalá shares insights from Indigenous communities in Mexico, where children are woven into daily family and community life. She describes how children develop autonomy, collaboration, and purpose by contributing to real work from a young age. The discussion contrasts this with Western, middle-class norms that often rely on transactional chores, overscheduling, and screens, limiting opportunities for agency, emotional regulation, and intrinsic motivation.
As the conversation unfolds, they unpack how parenting becomes an economic issue. Erin and Dr. Alcalá explore how reciprocity, unstructured time, and shared responsibility can reduce pressure on families while building skills children need in a changing economy. Tune in to hear how rethinking childhood can help reimagine the next economy.
What You’ll Learn:
Explore how Indigenous communities in Mexico integrate children into family and community work from an early age. [0:03:54]
Learn how developmental skills and intrinsic motivation grow through participation, not overscheduling or transactional relationships. [0:10:08]
Discover how reciprocity and gift-economy relationships foster belonging and contribution across families and communities. [0:19:15]
Reimagine childhood participation to foster shared responsibility, community care, and social resilience. [0:22:42]
Explore how screens and overscheduling reduce participation, while unstructured time builds regulation, intrinsic motivation, and adaptability. [0:32:41]
Recognize the shared goal across cultures: helping children live safe, happy, and fulfilling lives [0:43:50]
Memorable Quotations:
“We have siloed children into child-focused activities that are managed and created by adults for children’s consumption.” — Lucía Alcalá [0:04:45]
“When children are integrated early on into the fabric of the family and the complex social fabric of the community. They start to have opportunities to observe others working together.” — Lucía Alcalá [0:10:57]
“That sense of belonging to a group [in indigenous communities] is very different than this contractual relationship that we often see in middle-class families.” — Lucía Alcalá [0:17:37]
“All parents that I have talked to in my multiple studies, regardless of background, share the same overarching goal. They want their children to be happy and to lead safe, fulfilling lives.” — Lucía Alcalá [0:44:33]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Dr. Lucía Alcalá – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dra-lucia-alcala/
Dr. Lucía Alcalá – Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dAyNLTYAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Papers: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yYFAl1ZuMur64iNx839_ApWGS36NJ3Ww?usp=sharing
Erin Axelrod – LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinaxelrod/
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Earth, War, and the Path Toward Regeneration (w/ Zainab Salbi)
When it comes to the protection of Mother Earth, no positive contribution is too small, and we are all responsible for doing our part. In this episode of Next Economy Now, Zainab Salbi joins us to discuss the impact women have in major global crises and how her organization, Daughters for Earth, is pioneering this action. With a background rooted in conflict and war and being raised by a strong mother, Zainab was inspired from an early age to make a career out of women’s rights.
Zainab explains what the mission of Daughters for Earth is, why environmental activists have a responsibility to speak out against war, why women are already empowered in their protection of the Earth, what support they need, and more. We delve into the beautiful African fable that inspired Daughters for Earth’s Hummingbird Effect before Zainab tells us about the momentum in her work and what their focus is on in the near future. She even challenges the mainstream principles of business and, finally, how we can become hummingbirds.
This episode will inspire you to question what it means to protect the natural world and how you can show up to make an impact, no matter how big or small. Tune in to hear how you can join the Hummingbird Effect and support women fighting climate change.
Key Points From This Episode:
How encountering injustice in her childhood in Iraq inspired Zainab to make a career out of women’s rights. [0:01:46]
Zainab shares how Daughters for Earth was created and the essence of the organization. [0:06:22]
Our guest discusses the war in Gaza and why environmental activists have to condemn war. [0:12:36]
What women really need to protect Mother Earth (and why it doesn’t include empowerment). [0:17:08]
Zainab tells us about the Hummingbird Effect and the beautiful African story it comes from. [0:18:36]
How people have responded to this work, how it’s evolved over the years, and Zainab’s mission to prove the effectiveness of women’s work. [0:22:42]
Zainab challenges the principles of the mainstream business economy and shares what’s important to her with regards to outcome. [0:25:54]
What kind of support Zainab and Daughters for Earth needs right now and how listeners can help. [0:29:36]
Quotes:
“No crisis can be solved without the inclusion of women, and [climate change and loss of biodiversity] is the mother of all crises.” — @ZainabSalbi [0:08:30]
“If we are pro-Earth, then we cannot be pro-any war. Any war whatsoever!” — @ZainabSalbi [0:15:21]
“When it comes to the protection of Earth or nature, – women do not need to be empowered. I actually really reject that notion. When it comes to the protection of Mother Earth, women are in their full power.” — @ZainabSalbi [0:17:19]
“Never underestimate the power of the individual and never underestimate what we each can do in our community.” — @ZainabSalbi [0:21:25]
“The cause, the Earth, nature, does not require us to self-sacrifice. So, we need to act out of fullness of ourselves and out of integrity of ourselves.” — @ZainabSalbi [0:31:23]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Zainab Salbi — https://zainabsalbi.com/
Zainab Salbi on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/zainab-salbi-67a20411/
Zainab Salbi on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/zainabsalbi/
Zainab Salbi on X — https://x.com/ZainabSalbi
Daughters for Earth — https://daughtersforearth.org/
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Show Notes + Other Links
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