
Ep 127: Andrei Cherny, CEO & Co-Founder of Aspiration
This episode was previously for members only. In an effort to make content free, this episode is now available for everyone. Today's guest is Andrei Cherny, CEO & Co-Founder of Aspiration. Before Aspiration, Cherny worked for Vice President Al Gore as a speechwriter and John Kerry for President campaign as a speech writer and special advisor on policy. Cherny served public office as the Assistant Attorney General in Arizona in the late 2000s. Since then, Cherny has worked on public policy, communication and strategy in the private sector as president of ACE strategies and as managing director at Burson-Marsteller. Additionally, he is the author of two books and spent time as a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. We cover a lot in this episode, including Aspiration and how it came to be. We dive into how Aspiration works and what Cherny hopes to achieve through it. Cherny and I discuss the effectiveness of incentives in capitalist societies. Cherny also touches on how public policy and government helped him start Aspiration. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Inevitable · Jason Jacobs, Andrei Cherny
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Show Notes
In today’s episode, we cover:
- What is Aspiration?
- Cherny's background & experiences that led him to the idea of Aspiration
- Cherny's time working for Al Gore
- How banks operate?
- Aspiration's model of success
- Challenges Aspiration is faced with
- Cherny's perspective on fossil fuels & how it applies to banking
- Discussion on "do no harm"
- Collectivism versus individualism
- Divestment versus advocating within the existing systems
- How to create change within banking
- The power of consumers
Links to topics discussed in this episode:
- Banks & The Fossil Fuel Industry: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/global-banks-climate-crisis-finance-fossil-fuels
- Banks & investments: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2020/03/18/jpmorgan-chase-tops-dirty-list-of-35-fossil-fuel-funding-banks/#6ef48c215dfe
- Carbon Offsets & their controversy: https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/carbon-offsets-are-not-our-get-out-jail-free-card
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant