Criterion Institute Podcast: Finance & Social Change

#72: From Add-on to Operating System: Rethinking the Role of Services in Local Value Creation

Joy Anderson is joined by Eric Kacou and Charity Kabango, co‑founders of Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP), to explore what it truly takes to build thriving businesses and markets across Africa. Together, they challenge familiar impact investing narratives and offer a radically different way of thinking...

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#71: Time to Pause: How We Learn to Let Go, Listen and Pivot

Joy reflects on the power of letting go—of beliefs, assumptions, and fixed identities that may no longer serve us, then turns to a live example of that clarity in practice.

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#70: Financing Patience: Movements, Markets and the Long Game

Joy explores the surprising parallels between funding social movements and financing market formation companies. Along with guests Katharina Samara-Wickrama and Medina Haeri,

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#69: The Stories We Choose: Finding Meaning in the Broken Glass of 2025

Joy reflects on the past year and the importance of storytelling in shaping our future. She discusses the common practice of making New Year's resolutions and how they often fall short, advocating instead for a broader perspective that encompasses multiple narratives.

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#68: Clarity is Relational: Leadership in Complex Systems

Joy rants about clarity then shifts into a conversation with systems change leader Rachel Sinha, where the two explore communication as a relational and systemic practice.

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#67: Financing the Reduction of GBV: From Insights to Infrastructure

Joy Anderson discusses the intersection of finance and gender-based violence, emphasizing the need for transformative systems change. She reflects on the insights gained from Donella Meadows' work on leverage points in systems change and the importance of building infrastructure to support gender-based violence solutions.

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#66: Designing Finance for Context: A Conversation with Joanna Levitt Cea

Joy sits down with Joanna Levitt Cea, Founder and Principal of Valiente Capital Design and lead of the Gender Funders CoLab report Moving Beyond Grant Capital: Meeting the Moment with Innovative Finance.

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#65: Investing as if Hope Mattered: The Church, Finance, and the Imagination to Act

Joy reflects on the deep connections between faith, finance, and imagination.

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#64: Joy as an Act: Birthday reflections on what is in a name

Joy reflects on the meaning behind her name and what it represents in her life and work.

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