Delighted to have given my Ted-styled talk “A Supersonic Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship” to the St. Stephen’s School of Rome study body (minus seniors). Headmaster Eric Mayer presented me with a gift of olive oil.

“Notice to citizens at risk of hemolytic crisis favism. In this commercial operation are exposed fresh beans in bulk.” [Google Translate] Favism: A condition characterized by hemolytic anemia (breakup of red blood cells) after eating fava beans (Vicia fava) or being exposed to the pollen of the fava plant. This dangerous reaction occurs exclusively in people with a deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), an X-linked genetic trait. However, not all G6PD-deficient families appear at … more →

[First, draft profile by the students I am advising at St. Stephen’s School. Great work from five budding journalists. Thanks to Kelly Worcester for kicking me in the butt a bit to make this happen.] Putting a Face on Poverty A blog dedicated to interviews with the impoverished men and women that we have passed in the street everyday until now.  On Saturday the 28th March we met with Vasco, a Bulgarian man who moved … more →

Great photo, great story. American Girl in Italy It is almost a cliché to say that when Jinx walked across a different world when she traversed the Piazza della Republica in Florence on that August day exactly sixty years ago. But that world was truly different — in a sense, unfathomably different — to someone born in the 1980s. Even today, after all advances in modern communications, online bookings and airtravel, travelling alone can be … more →