Hello, and welcome, dear listeners, to another episode of the Julio Verissimo Live Show. On this episode we will explore how creating a vision and taking risks can help us achieve sustainability goals and a more environmentally conscious future.

I’m your host, Julio Verissimo, and I couldn’t be more excited to guide you through this enlightening discussion alongside a distinguished guest, John Graham, an influential figure in the realm of social change.

John is the Executive Director of the Giraffe Heroes Project, a global nonprofit that moves people to “stick their necks out” to help solve pressing public problems, from an environment in crisis to crimes against women. It does this by telling the stories of heroes already in action, stories that inspire others to take action and become agents of change themselves. The Project has also created a curriculum helping young people build lives as courageous and compassion in citizens.

But for John, the Giraffe Heroes Project is a second career. A U.S. Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, John served in Libya during the 1969 revolution and in one of the most difficult and dangerous areas in Vietnam during the war there. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor for Senator John Glenn. During a posting at the United Nations, however, his life began to turn. He became deeply involved in U.S. human rights initiatives, including the fight against apartheid in South Africa. That experience led him to leave the Foreign Service and build a remarkable career inspiring and empowering individuals to make a positive impact on the world

For the last forty years, John himself has played a pivotal role in driving tangible social, political and environmental change, acting not only through the Giraffe Heroes Project but also through his books, blogs, speeches and personal involvement in peace-building initiatives all over the world from Cambodia to the Middle East.

Through all his work, John is a firm believer that good intentions, smart planning and dogged persistence, while essential, are almost never enough to solve huge problems like building a sustainable future. Success also demands creating a powerful vision for change and then taking the risks to make it real. John, a visionary with a lifetime of risk-taking, is both a model and inspiration for doing that.