Back in my twenties, I was trained as an actor at the improv theater, Second City, in Chicago. I wasn’t very good. I moved on to psychology but remained very much interested in the entertainment world. When I realized PCI Media was successfully using entertainment to stimulate informed behavior, like promoting condom use for family planning, and protecting one’s self during epidemics like Ebola, I became very interested in its work. My priority in life has always been on making the world a better place.
The universe operates as an indivisible whole but many see it as separate parts. All of my work, as an actor, psychotherapist, socially responsible financer, and author has guided people into knowing the direct experience of being part of this whole. My current book, Joyful Sensation of Oneness: What I Learned Giving Priority to the Experience of Love at First Sight with Lucy, is the true love story of how I arrived at this illumination through my relationship with my partner.
PCI Media’s priority is in line with my work: that every human being has the right to live a self-determined life on a healthy planet and for the common good. I like that PCI Media uses entertainment as a vehicle for people to take a closer look at important issues in a way that creates the spaces for discussion and growth. It provides an attention holding platform that facilitates learning. PCI Media employs a combination of different platforms, like online activities, social media, video, and audio, so it reaches many and motivates people to act. That’s not an easy thing to do and I love that PCI is successful at it.
One of my favorite PCI Media projects is the campaign to end child marriage in Bangladesh. In one of the PSAs, a man mentions to a vendor he is buying his fish for the celebration of his young daughter’s arranged wedding. To take a stand against the marriage, the vendor begins to loudly tap his knife on his table. Everyone in the crowded marketplace begins to tap on something loudly to join in the protest. When the man realizes, he tells the fish vendor he doesn’t think he will need the fish. In less than thirty it creates a very powerful effect. Watch the video here.
Currently I’m concerned that, as a result of COVID-19, a tremendous number of small businesses around the world will lose their jobs. PCI Media can use our talents in creating entertainment to guide people into starting their own businesses through the existing global network of microcredit programs. For instance, a woman in India can get a small loan, buy and raise chickens, and sell some eggs in the marketplace. With those funds she can put a little pond in her yard, grow tilapia, and sell them in the marketplace. PCI Media can team up with the great microcredit programs, like Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and ACCION throughout Central and South America, to bring more people into their lending programs.
Entertainment is the primary medium of education today that works. PCI Media knows how to use entertainment for education. With additional funding, PCI Media could do so much more fun for education in the world.
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