Ari Simon

I lead Tambourine, a philanthropy focused on global health, neurodegenerative disease, and emotional wellbeing, among other issues. For the past few years, I also led Pinterest’s social impact work, which focused on mental-health nonprofits globally- including How We Feel, an app that was recently awarded Apple’s Social Impact App of the Year. Despite yammering about an app, I come from more traditional corners of philanthropy, including as the Kresge Foundation’s VP of Programs and at McKinsey’s social sector practice. Years ago, I worked at NASA and the Innocence Project, and was once a mediocre biologist. I recently moved to Venice, CA, after years in Detroit and SF.

Most things. Labatut’s recent novels. Badgers. Late period Talk Talk. Iowa. Art and / of retreating glaciers. Post-industrial cities. Post-Soviet bric a brac. Unlicensed museums (really all museums). New ideas. So- most things.

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.” Calvino, Invisible Cities