Season 2025: Episode 2. Nonprofit worker Matt Kazdan explains how access to sustainable energy can help underprivileged populations

With a Master's degree in international affairs with a focus on international politics, Matt Kazdan could have headed to a think tank or Washington DC. But he chose instead to use his skills in policy-making and his understanding of international politics to work at ta0ngelic, a nonprofit that helps underserved populations with access to sustainable sources of energy. The effects of this work are far-reaching -- it changes people's lives by extending their hours of light and allowing them to pursue more opportunities.

Matthew Kazden is a dedicated advocate for social impact and sustainable development, serving as Tangelic’s International Development Specialist. With a  background in international affairs, Matthew has extensive experience across both government and private sectors. Matthew has also worked extensively on projects focused on sustainability, global health, and natural resource management, particularly in Latin America and Africa, including direct engagement with indigenous communities.  

Matthew holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs with a specialization in International Politics from the University of California, San Diego, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations & Communications from the University of California, Davis. 

For more information, see tangelic's website to learn more and/or a donation:

https://tangeliclife.org/

 See How We're Changing Lives: Watch Our Impact Story

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:02

Lynne, hello and welcome to the story human. I'm Lynne Thompson. My guest today is Matthew Kasdan. He's the International Development Specialist at tangelic, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to attack energy poverty and create meaningful impact in underserved communities. Matthew transformed his life into one of service, advocating for energy equity and sustainable development through his work at tangelic, Matthew designs and implements programs that address energy poverty while promoting gender equality, equity and climate resilience. Matthew's story is not only about professional achievements, but also about his deep commitment to empowering people and uplifting communities. And there's a lot to unpack here that I really look forward to talking to you about, about helping people connect, helping people with energy, and how that really has lots of fingers and other pies, like people don't always connect that, and I'd love to hear about it. So welcome, Matthew. It's nice to have you here. Yes, it's nice to be here. Thank you for having me. So you just graduated from you got a master's degree, that's correct, yes. And what is that in? So I recently got my master's degree in international affairs with a focus on international politics. So my background, or at least academic background, is more on the political side, which, as you said, is has its fingers in everything, and especially with energy, clean energy and policy just ever more prevalent. Now, I think that's a great background, and I noticed that one of the partners that tan jellic works with it is an NGO. I just think there's a lot of overlap now, and people can collaborate. People don't always make that connection. I have a friend who's in the climate space, and she has made a lot of those connections. For me, it's sort of fascinating what you can do when you improve people's access to sustainable energy and renewable energy. So did you envision that you would end up in this area? It's a different kind of area from what you might have first thought you would do. Yeah, I honestly I didn't think I'd end up here, because in my background, at least my academic background, I was like, I said, focus way more on the politics, policy side of things, and in undergrad, actually an internship where we work with international delegations on a variety of issues, really and different, just everything from my climate to women's involvement to every sector you can imagine. And that not only gave me a really good opportunity and experience working with international delegations, but also being able to, like, move all the pieces around, partner them with local organizations, and like, actually seeing that tangible effect on the ground in people's lives. So that kind of opened my eyes to a bit of both worlds, where I could use my background with Policy and International Affairs, as well as bringing the nonprofit side of things into the equation and actually making a difference, I could see like on the ground in people's day to day lives. So that's kind of how I got sucked into the the nonprofit realm. I do love that, because I think people can get stuck on the meetings and the policy making and the discussions and the standards and the you know, meanwhile, you're making a real impact, which I love, that you can see that what you do is literally making an impact. So tell me more about the work tangelic Does, because I was amazed. I really was impressed. You're all over the place, and you do such meaningful work in Ghana in particular, your your sort of flagship program, could you tell us about that and the and the impact of solar that you've introduced? Yeah, of course. So we are working right now with the heavy focus in Ghana on clean energy and renewable energy for rural communities. That's how we're starting out. We're going to expand to not only different parts of Ghana and the region, but hopefully throughout the global South, kind of down the road as we scale up. And our main project right now is sunrise spectrum, which, in short, works to provide different solar like community cells, solar panels, different forms of clean energy, such as like different utilities that focus on it, such as clean cook stoves, to these groups, because one thing that's at the center of tangelic is recognizing that these groups contribute bear, like so minimally, to the amount of global missions, But they're the ones feeling the brute force of it the most, whereas, like a lot of countries, kind of in the as you call the global north, are contributing so so so much. But while they may be feeling the effects a little, not nearly as much as their countries, kind of in the Global South, as you call it, but. Plus, it's important to note that the countries that are contributing also have the resources to better adapt to that. So with that in mind, that's why we're focusing in the Global South, and especially in Ghana, to start out, because they have a fairly robust kind of infrastructure, in a way, and they're already looking at, like, really cool solutions. Obviously, a lot of places haven't adapted yet, so we're focusing on providing these clean energy sources to these groups. And what I really like is it doesn't just decrease emissions, which obviously it does, but it's the cascading effect that it has, because with that comes economic empowerment, because all these solar cells and all these different things we're providing creates an economy. So there's jobs to repair them, manufacture them. Also with that comes the ability to start businesses have electricity and light after dark, clean electricity. So that improves not only the ability to start a business, but children's education, because they could actually study after dark now, and this whole cascading amongst others, one big thing is the woman's empowerment, because now, as I mentioned, woman could start businesses, get more involved, not spend so much time at home. So it's this cascading effect just from one simple thing of clean energy comes more than just a reduced emissions, which is something I think that's really important. I think that's so good for us to learn about, because, as I said, I just recently made those connections, and I was really surprised. I don't think people connect the disadvantages and the poverty that can be connected to climate change, like the continuing of climate change, and like you said, No remediation, because they don't have the, you know, the funds, the resources they don't. They're not huge companies around them, like in the global north, as you said. So we have to be aware of that. But what I was struck by when I was reading about this, and what you've been talking about, I just want to pull it out and make it more clear, we don't even think about how people live without electricity, and there's so many things that happen because of that. Like you were saying, you can't study at night, you can't, you know, read, you can't do your homework. You can't it's really hard because you don't have light, or you don't have sustainable energy for light, and you're changing people's lives in ways that are so much more than just giving them solar. You know, it's just amazing to me, and the idea that women can have businesses, it's just, it's very cool. I did, I did read something too about indoor pollution, like you're helping with that, because their solutions right now pollute their environment, inside where they live. Could you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so it's definitely a big problem, especially when I think it's most prevalent we're talking about cooking, because additional like gas powered stoves and stoves that release emissions like you're, you know, in an enclosed space, if you don't proper ventilation, or anything like, you know, kitchen, like restaurant kitchen or something, you're just sitting in all of those emissions. And especially with traditional food and Ghana, it's a very long and cook time, high heat process. So you could imagine just the sheer amount of emissions that come just per day based on your meals. So with the clean cook. So this allows, you know, all those emissions to be pulled so they could still keep up their traditional cuisine and flavors, but without the harmful emissions, which is kind of the best of both worlds. That's amazing. Yeah, I wouldn't even have thought of that, honestly, like the gas in such a small, enclosed space. So there's so many advantages to offering that come out of this one project. So what pulled you to this? I'm very interested in how you made this connection and got involved. Yeah, so I've always been interested in the environment, environmental side of things, especially within my background with Policy and International Affairs, the environment has always been something super important to me, especially my upbringing. I was raised like always in nature, always going out in hikes. So obviously, you know, the environment nature is very high for me. Um, so this allowed me to kind of combine the best of all the worlds. I gotta work with different NGOs, nonprofits, so on, so forth. So that brings in the international part for me, slash policy, I get to help people on the ground in their day to day lives. That brings in my like, newly explored interest for NGOs, and it's good for the environment, so that pulls in that. So it's really the trifecta of everything I enjoy doing exactly. I'm very impressed with the work that your organization does. I'm very impressed with what you do, and I just think there are just so many benefits to feeling like you're making an impact and truly helping people. It's so much more than a career or a job when you're actually seeing that, and that makes me feel really good about what you do. So what's the future? Like, what are your plant? You said you might expand, and I'm wondering what you see in the future? Yeah. So what we're working towards is, once we get it kind of in the groove, so to speak, and scale up with our current projects in Ghana, an important thing for us is collecting all the data through, like our we have, obviously, a lot of partners, including ones on the ground working with these communities that already have, you know, experience and a relationship with these communities. So once we get all this data about everything you can imagine regarding the project, really, we could see how we can improve. And once we know that, we could start scaling out to other countries in the region, well, communities, and then countries in region and down the road throughout the global south. So we're also looking at kind of a similar thing, but again, down the road in South America as well, with more, you know, rural communities that are not necessarily connected on the grid in these large cities, but one step at a time. But that would be great, yeah. So it's nice to know there's a lot on the horizon. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about this work and how we could get in touch and maybe help fund it? Yeah, with this temp work in general, I think it's super important to kind of get in touch and with all these different NGOs nonprofits, what have you, and see what they're doing. I know everyone's heard this a million times, but as it is, a nonprofit, financial assistance is very appreciated, which is how we're able to do this work we're doing. So you know, if you're interested, I it'd be amazing. Check out our website. We have podcasts on all the social media channels you can imagine. Check out all the work we're doing, and I guarantee you're gonna be impressed and very moved. I was, I really was. It's a beautiful website. So That's tangeliclife.org correct, okay? Or sorry, it's tangelic.org angelic, yeah.org, sorry about that. There's no life. Oh no, I think I made a mistake, and it was life. Let me see tangent life. So I would just reorganize some stuff. Yeah, I just, I made the same mistake. I was typing tangelic.com even tangeliclife.org Okay, good. I like to say it, because sometimes people don't read the show notes, so I'll put that in the show notes. Is there any way that people could talk directly to you, contact you about what you're doing, or if they have any questions? Yeah. So we, if you reach out to our kind of contact us page on the website, you could write your message in, and then it'll kind of get rerouted to the relevant person. That's, um, yeah. Anything else that you'd like to tell us that I just want to, I just want to first thank you for having me. It was a lot of fun. I've only been on a food podcast before, so this is a great, great experience. I find that it is, yeah, I want to thank everyone listening. And yeah, just go and support your you know, your NGO or nonprofit, for whatever particular field you're interested in. And yeah, I want to thank you again. And behalf of tangellic, we look forward to hearing from you guys that's so good. Thank you. I feel like we really help people understand this is vital work, and it's like I said a million times, but it's so important to say it's connected to so many other benefits in people's lives. Just this one initiative that we were talking about has so many wonderful, far reaching, you know, benefits. And I don't think, like I said, I don't think we I don't think people connect it right away, and it's so good to know about. And I thank you so much for taking the time, and I admire the work that you do. Thank you so much for being on of course, thank you again, and thanks for having me. Have a good one. Bye.