Forget Funyuns and Diet Coke—these bright red vending machines vend kindness and hope. What if you could change someone's life across the world by buying a goat, a beehive, or a backpack — from a vending machine? In this episode of The Ripple Effect, Jenna Kim Jones explores the Light the World Giving Machines—vending machines that do all of that and more. Karl Cheney explains how these small-but-mighty machines now appear in 126 cities across 21 countries, and volunteers Steve and Fran Lowder, share the remarkable stories behind them.

These aren’t vending machines—they’re ripple machines.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when life truly falls apart—trees down, homes flooded, whole neighborhoods wiped out? In this episode of The Ripple Effect, Jenna Kim Jones meets the people who run toward the chaos: Team Rubicon. VP of Operations Jeff Byard pulls back the curtain on how this veteran-led volunteer force mobilizes after hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, and floods. Then Operations Associate Jen Nieder shares what really happens when the “Greyshirts” roll in—mucking out homes, clearing debris, rebuilding roofs, and somehow finding laughter in the mud. It turns out that even in disaster zones, kindness shows up wearing a headlamp—and the ripples are enormous.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One hotel room. One forgotten bar of soap. One world-changing idea. In the first inaugural episode of The Ripple Effect, comedian Jenna Kim Jones sits down with Clean the World founder Shawn Seipler to unpack the incredible true story of how recycled hotel soap grew from a garage experiment into a global life-saving mission.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.