104 A Heavenly Cause With Liam Elkind, Co-Founder of Invisible Hands Deliver -

As Covid crashed into our collective experience in March of 2020, Liam Elkind was just 20 years old. Home from Yale University, he watched in bewilderment as New York City, for the second time in his life, became Ground Zero for our nation’s calamity. A life-long New Yorker, Liam had been taught to run toward crisis.

Liam and two of his friends saw that there was a population of vulnerable people for whom it was not safe or possible to go out to get the food, medicine, and supplies they needed. And they saw other people like themselves, people who weren’t content to just sit on their sofas while the medical community fought this battle on their own.

So, in a matter of a few hours, they put together a website and a few flyers asking for healthy volunteers to bring food, medical supplies, and other necessities to the most vulnerable. As their call went viral over the next 72 hours, with people like Blake Lively and Bernie Sanders sharing their initiative, they faced a decision: Would they (could they?) scale this thing to really meet the needs out there?

Liam’s answer to that question and his approach to building Invisible Hands Deliver is inspiring, informative, and wise far beyond his years. I’ve been talking about this episode with my kids since I got off the phone with Liam and I’m so thrilled to be sharing it with you right now. Welcome to Liam and to you, my listeners.