Mission Forward with Carrie Fox

Tyler Meier is the director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center and the co-editor of Dear Vaccine: A Global Vaccine Poem, a project that invited anyone to share experiences of the pandemic and vaccination through poetry. 

What business poetry, you might ask? Because poetry, as Tyler says it, is marching away at the atomic level of our communication.

“Our lives are shaped by the language around us and the language that we choose to use. As beings based in language, poetry, I think, is the opportunity to teach us each day new ways of thinking about the language that we use to describe the things that matter greatly to us, the challenges that vex us enormously. We know that the future is one that we're going to share, regardless of what connects us or keeps us separate from each other. And we know that language is something that forms us and that gives us the sort of power to think in new ways about the challenges that we share.”

Dear Vaccine is an outgrowth of the Global Vaccine Project launched in March 2021 by the University of Arizona and Kent State University. In sum, it features selections from over 2,000 poetry submissions from all fifty states and more than 150 countries. And while the project features incredible global voices speaking to the pandemic, it serves the dual purpose of uniting us, filling in the holes that form through the haze of memory, a reminder that pandemic history is our history, and that if we can come through that, then we can come through anything together. 

Our great thanks to Tyler Meier for joining us on the show this week. Pick up your own copy of the book and learn more about the project at GlobalVaccinePoem.com.
  • (00:00) - Welcome to Mission Forward
  • (01:26) - Introducing Tyler Meier
  • (08:30) - Filling in Holes in History
  • (17:50) - The 6-Word Memoir and the Pandemic Time Capsule
  • (22:16) - The Question of Platforms
  • (24:46) - Learn More

What is Mission Forward with Carrie Fox?

Mission Forward: An award-winning podcast for communicators on a mission.

Hosted by social impact expert and B Corp leader Carrie Fox, each episode of Mission Forward explores the power of communications. With just the right mix of practical and thought-provoking content, we take on the issues that matter to you, and that support your work as a communicator for change.

Together, we talk through topics that you’re likely experiencing right now: from how to tackle tough conversations; to how to best challenge stereotypes; to how we can build bridges across the issues that divide us. If you’re working to become a more inclusive and thoughtful communicator, there’s nothing holding you back—except you.

About Season 8

Communication is essential to moving missions forward. Whether you’re trying to advance a strategic goal, drive change in an organization, or raise funds to increase your impact, how you communicate matters. And with the noise of today’s world, it matters even more that your message be delivered, heard, remembered, AND acted upon. Getting there requires more than words.

On this season of the Mission Forward podcast, host and social impact communications expert Carrie Fox will take you on a practical journey to learn from and be inspired by public communicators, impact leaders, and bold thinkers who are practicing “more than words” approaches to communications that prove the difference between good and great; good for now, and great for the long term. We’ll take on issues relevant to executive leaders, HR directors, communicators, and people managers. We’ll introduce you to key practices that some of the world’s most effective leaders use to communicate and share them in a way that you can apply in your own work, too.

* About the Host (https://www.missionforward.us/about-the-show)
* Listen to Past Episodes (https://www.missionforward.us/episodes)