PODCAST · business
Table Stakes
by Marcy Twete
In today's business landscape, responsibility and sustainability are no longer optional or "nice to have." Modern stakeholders don't just expect an environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, they demand it. Being a good corporate citizen today is "table stakes." Simultaneously, many of the corporate social responsibility departments companies launched in the last 30 years aren't thinking enough about innovation, growth, business-focused results and resilience. Table Stakes discusses the issues of sustainability with forward-thinking leaders to forecast the future of responsible business. Being ethical, human and sustainable is no longer optional – it's table stakes.
Episodes
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43. Don’t Be Evil: 5 Takeaways from Our Fall Book Club
We're sharing five takeaways from Claire Stapleton's "Don't Be Evil," a memoir of thirteen years inside Google and the 2018 Google Walkout, and the first pick for Veerless's new Read Responsibly book club. Marcy explains why the book club moved to Chatham House rules, then digs into why...
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42. Six Episodes, Five Books, One Book Club
Six episodes into the Read Responsibly series, Marcy takes a solo lap: five things that have stuck with her from the first six author conversations, including why every single guest has admitted their own book is a little bit wrong now, and why the language problem in this field turns out to be...
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41. Read Responsibly with Compliance Expert Lisa Beth Lentini Walker
Lisa Beth Lentini Walker is the first guest to return to Table Stakes for the Read Responsibly series, and she's here to talk about the book that reframed how I think about getting people to do the right thing: Raise Your Game, Not Your Voice, written with co-author Stef Tschida. Lisa Beth is the...
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40. Read Responsibly with Trista Harris, FutureGood. Are We 5 years from Utopia?
Philanthropic futurist Trista Harris believes we're five years from utopia — and she's serious. The founder of Future Good and author of the book by the same name joins Marcy to explain what it really means to be a futurist, how the 2008 financial crisis turned her into one, and why the systems...
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39. Read Responsibly with Christopher Marquis - The Profiteers
When a company pollutes a river, cuts wages, or buys its way out of accountability, who actually pays the bill? According to Christopher Marquis, the answer is almost always the rest of us. In this episode of the Read Responsibly Book Series, host Marcy Twete sits down with Chris — Sinyi…
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38. Read Responsibly with Christine Bader - The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist
What does it mean to be a corporate idealist when the company you believed in becomes the company behind one of the worst environmental disasters in American history? Christine Bader spent years doing innovative work on human rights inside BP — and then Deepwater Horizon happened. In this episode...
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37. Pride Month Read Responsibly Books and Authors Series with Ellie Roscher
What does it mean for a body to belong — in sports, in the workplace, in the world? In this Pride Month episode of Table Stakes, host Marcy Twete sits down with Minneapolis author, educator, and former two-sport college athlete Ellie Roscher to discuss Fair Game: Trans Athletes and the Future of...
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36. Read Responsibly Book Series Conversation 1: 21st Century Corporate Citizenship
What does it actually take to build a responsible company? Mot just a company with a sustainability department, but one where corporate citizenship is woven into strategy, operations, and culture? That's the question Dave Stangis and Katherine Valvoda Smith set out to answer nearly a decade ago,...
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Trailer: The Table Stakes Books and Authors Series
Host Marcy Twete, CEO of Veerless and author of the annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Book List, returns to announce a season unlike anything the podcast has done before. In the second half of 2026, Table Stakes is dedicating itself entirely to the authors behind some of the most...
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35. The Launch of ESGPS - A New Set of Frameworks to Optimize Sustainability Reporting
We're unveiling ESGPS, Veerless's new investor-ready sustainability reporting research. ESGPS combines years of research, qualitative interviews with investors, and analysis of thousands of existing reports to build more usable, narrative-driven disclosures that meet stakeholder expectations. In...
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34. Combatting Moral Distress and Burnout as a Sustainability Professional
Today, we're returning to a conversation on moral distress we started last year. Moral distress was first studied by American ethicist Andrew Jameton related to nursing teams and ethical decision making in the 1980s. Today, the Veerless team applying Jameton's concepts to the work of…
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33. Table Stakes Is Back: ESG in the Era of Trump 2.0
After a brief hiatus since our fall series on sustainability at the Olympics, Table Stakes is back—and not a moment too soon. In a time when ESG headlines are swirling with uncertainty, backlash, and bold political shifts, we're here to shine a light on the real momentum powering sustainability...
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32. The Rise of the EcoAthlete: Using A Sports Platform for Climate Advocacy
As the 2024 Summer Olympics continue in Paris, Table Stakes is continuing our series on sustainability and sports. Joining us today is the Founder of EcoAthletes, Lew Blaustein. This summer, EcoAthletes has 18 Olympians competing in Paris. Together, they've engaged in advocacy, communications,...
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31. Sustainability and the Olympics - Reality or Oxymoron?
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris began last week, and as we led up to the opening ceremonies, our team asked ourselves "What's the environmental impact of an event like this one?" One of Veerless' newest team members, Katie Yoder, joins us to talk about the carbon footprint of sports and the...
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30. Standalone DEI Reports - Pros and Cons, Yay or Nay
In honor of Pride Month, we're tackling a difficult "should we or shouldn't we" topic in the world of corporate reporting – whether or not to produce a standalone DEI Report. In today's podcast, we outline the pros and cons of a standalone report and a clear litmus test for whether or not your...
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29. Choosing Carbon Offsets - A Controversial Earth Day Episode
Happy Earth Day! Today we're tackling a subject that is often a little taboo in the sustainability space. And even in the last few weeks has caused major turmoil for our friends over at the Science-Based Targets Initiative. There's a word in the sustainability space that, when spoken, often feels...
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28. Impact Reporting for Small Companies - 5 Reasons Why
Veerless recently released our first ever Impact Report. Aligned to the five areas of focus in the B Impact Assessment, our first annual report details the steps we have taken to achieve excellence in each of these areas in 2023. It also lays out our goals for 2024 in terms of certification and...
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27. The Silent Sabotage of Workplace Wellbeing - Starting the Conversation on Moral Distress
The concept of moral distress was first studied by American ethicist Andrew Jameton related to nursing teams and ethical decision making in the 1980s. Today, the Veerless team is kicking off an ongoing conversations about moral distress in the workplace and its effect on wellbeing of team…
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26. It's March! Happy New Year? We Think....
Alright, it's March...and our "Happy New Year" episode should have been recorded weeks ago. But hey, action speaks louder than words? Right? Join our host, Marcy Twete, for a quick solocast about 2024 so far and takeaways from a few months of snowbird/nomad lifestyle. Welcome to 2024!
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25. The Intersection of AI and ESG in Today's Regulatory and Ratings Environment
The buzz on AI and specifically Generative AI has reached an all time high in today's technology zeitgeist. Sustainability and ESG leaders are experiencing the AI wave first hand as they see more investors, ratings agencies and even consumer and employee readers using AI to evaluate their reports...
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Environment Isn't Enough - When Fair Treatment and Fair Pay Lag in Otherwise Standout Sustainability Leaders
One of the more shocking trends in ESG and sustainability is when a stand-out leader in one area of ESG (environment, for example) lags behind significantly or experiences concerning controversy in another area. Today on Table Stakes, we're examining three examples of companies (Kaiser Permanente...
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23. Your Bereavement Leave Policy Probably Sucks - And How to Change It
In the corporate world, some policies, procedures and processes take years to change. But others may just require a small group of individuals who say "there's a better way to do this." Today, we're talking about one of those policies in particular - bereavement leave. Unfortunately, most…
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22. Our 2023 Return to Table Stakes: Update from Marcy and Veerless
It's been over a year since Table Stakes brought you the news of corporate responsibility, sustainability and ESG on this platform, and we are back! Today's episode is a quick message from your host, Marcy Twete, updating our listeners on what's been going on this past year. Learn about the...
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21. Raising Your Ethics Game with Lisa Beth Lentini Walker
The link between compliance and ESG is clear. We are all working to make our companies stronger, more ethical, more sustainable, and encouraging our colleagues to "do the right thing." The skills necessary for success in these roles is also the same - influence over authority, understanding over...
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20. The Power of Your Personal Carbon Footprint to Change Big Business
We know that companies and governments must be leaders in fighting the threat of climate change. But individuals have a clear role to play as well. Our guests today lead Aurora Sustainability, an innovative platform for individuals to calculate, understand, and address their carbon footprint....
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18. 2021 Trends Forecast in ESG, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility
For our 2021 trends forecast, we've broken down four overarching trends and definitions of those trends. And in each of those four areas, outlining a trend in action (happening right now), a trend in development (starting to happen), and a trend in decline (was a trend in recent years but...
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17. Your 2021 Impact Plan to Create the World You Want with Author Tammy Tibbetts
We all want to have a positive impact on our communities and the world we live in. But it's easy to get stuck on where to start and how to achieve our impact goals. In Impact: A Step-by-Step Plan to Create the World You Want to Live In, authors Tammy Tibbetts and Christen Brandt give readers a...
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16. Set a 2021 Sustainability Resolution
January 1, 2021 is right around the corner, and as you think about setting your 2021 resolutions, we're challenging you to make one big commitment related to a sustainability or social issue. In this episode, Marcy takes you through her 5-year journey of setting a sustainability...
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15. Embedding Sustainability in the DNA of a 200 Year Old Company at Monadnock Paper Mills
When we think of leaders in sustainability, it's unlikely we might think first of a 200-year old company. But a company's age doesn't always mean "old-school." Today, we're joined by the team from Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. Their work is a gold standard example of a company who has built...
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14. Investing in Talent Sustainability May Just Save Your Business - And Your People
A special crossover episode with our sister podcast, Office Baggage. As companies around the world cope with the ramifications of a global crisis, it's more important than ever to ensure our company's leaders and future leaders feel engaged and supported and have the tools necessary to…
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Help! My Sustainability Report Sucks - 4 Pieces of Advice to Make It Better
For many CSR and sustainability professionals, we are entering the dreaded "reporting season." For many of us, sustainability or CSR reports are one of the most important aspects of our roles. So why do we hate these processes so much? Why are they so frustrating and headache inducing? Today's...
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12. Are ESG Leaders Naturally "Wired for Disruption"?
In today's VUCA world (short for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), businesses around the world are asking what skills and traits are necessary for those leaders who will weather the storm well. What does it mean to be resilient during disruption? Today's guest Henna Inam answers those...
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11. Building a LEED Certified Home Doesn't Mean Spending Million
We've all probably heard about LEED Certified buildings, but mostly related to commercial buildings. Your home can also be LEED Certified. But most of us have some common misconceptions of so-called "green" homes - that they're wildly expensive, that the process takes years of planning, that...
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10. Integrated Reporting 101 - A Lesson in Intangible Value and Its Relationship to ESG
In 2008, only 358 companies globally were producing a sustainability report in accordance with GRI standards. Today, more than 30,000 companies use the GRI framework globally. As sustainability reporting has grown these last 10 years, another like-minded framework has risen simultaneously – the...
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9. Until Justice Just Is - The Work of the Racial Justice League from the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this year spurred a national movement toward racial justice different than any in recent years. Months later, many of us are asking ourselves: "What now?" How can we continue to invest in racial justice, help to spur the much needed change in our...
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8. The Anatomy of a B Corp - More Than Just a Patagonia Rubber Stamp
Google "B Corp" and you'll find: "Certified B Corporations are a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit." But what does that really entail? We're diving deep on B Corp certification with B Corp business owner Emily Lonigro of LimeRed. What is a B Corp? How does it work? And are…
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7. Sustainability in Jewelry - Making Your Purchasing Power Values-Based
For those invested in sustainability, we are often thinking about how our purchasing patterns are connected to our values. We know the importance of reduce, reuse, recycle. We've had all the difficult conversations about "fast fashion." But have we considered how some of the largest purchases of...
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6. Navigating the Issues of Employment and Change Management During COVID-19 (in Partnership with Office Baggage Podcast)
Today's episode is a special "crossover" between Table Stakes Podcast and Office Baggage Podcast. In the environment of COVID-19, the issues surrounding employment and change management are affecting everyone whether through layoffs, furloughs, working from home, or training and safety for...
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5. Sustainability-Based Decision Making in Travel with Wanderful's Beth Santos
Joined by Beth Santos, the CEO of women's travel platform, Wanderful, we are tackling the topic of responsible, sustainable travel. Safety for women, environmental sustainability, social impact, and many other key ESG topics in travel play directly into success for leaders in the travel industry....
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4. So You Want to Work in Corporate Responsibility
Jobs in corporate responsibility, social impact and ESG are notoriously difficult to find, and even more difficult to "get." If you're interested in a role in this field, today you'll learn from host Marcy Twete and guests Margaret Skrmetti (Morton Salt) and Elizabeth Okey (Wintrust) on their…
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3. Pressing the "Reset" Button on Corporate Trust with Barie Carmichael
When Barie Carmichael and her co-author the late James Rubin wrote "Reset" just two years ago, corporate trust was at an all time low. Consumers' access to information about the companies they buy from and work for was at an all time high, the expectations of stakeholders growing rapidly. That...
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2. Responsibility and Ethics During Uncertainty and Crisis
In May, I was delighted to host a Coffee & Connections Event with the Executives Club of Chicago on responsibility and ethics in COVID-19. Today's solocast is a replica of that presentation, highlighting two major trends in ethics and responsibility affecting business during COVID-19 and the dos...
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1. The Ethical Bankruptcy: Good Business or Wishful Thinking?
Some of the most interesting issues in business responsibility are those that rarely involve the corporate responsibility departments - where corporate leaders make high stakes decisions that affect all stakeholders. We're launching the podcast with one of the hardest decisions a leader will ever...
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The Who and Why of The Table Stakes Podcast
Table Stakes is debuting June 1, 2020! Here's a sneak peek into your host, Marcy Twete, and the "why" of Table Stakes. Share your thoughts and ideas with us at www.tablestakespodcast.com.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
In today's business landscape, responsibility and sustainability are no longer optional or "nice to have." Modern stakeholders don't just expect an environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, they demand it. Being a good corporate citizen today is "table stakes." Simultaneously, many of the corporate social responsibility departments companies launched in the last 30 years aren't thinking enough about innovation, growth, business-focused results and resilience. Table Stakes discusses the issues of sustainability with forward-thinking leaders to forecast the future of responsible business. Being ethical, human and sustainable is no longer optional – it's table stakes.
HOSTED BY
Marcy Twete
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Table Stakes have?
Table Stakes currently has 45 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Table Stakes about?
In today's business landscape, responsibility and sustainability are no longer optional or "nice to have." Modern stakeholders don't just expect an environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus, they demand it. Being a good corporate citizen today is "table stakes." Simultaneously, many of the...
How often does Table Stakes release new episodes?
Table Stakes has 45 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Table Stakes?
You can listen to Table Stakes on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Table Stakes?
Table Stakes is created and hosted by Marcy Twete.
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