YouTube Podcast
Aging with Grace and Purpose Interview Series at NYPL (New York Public Library):
Guest: Bircan Ünver on Activism and Purpose


Episode Title: Bircan 
Means One Life / One Soul


This podcast was initially conducted with Bircan Ünver by Host Yuko Yamamoto and her co-host, Debbie Troche, for the “Aging With Grace & Purpose” podcast series at the Studio-40, STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION LIBRARY (SNFL) in New York City in August 2024.

The transcription below for web posting is edited for the 25th Anniversary of the Light Millennium Global, which was initially formed in New York City on July 17, 2001. 

(From left to right) Yuko Mamamoto, Bircan Ünver and Debbie Troche (NYPL, August 8, 2024)

Interview by: Yuko Yamamoto, Host, Producer-founder / Debbie Troche, co-host and co-founder

youtube.com/@AgingwithGraceandPurpose

In this interview on the podcast Aging with Grace and Purpose, activist and author Bircan Ünver reflects on her journey as an Anatolian woman navigating the media landscape of New York City. The conversation highlights her commitment to lifelong learning, particularly her recent efforts to master artificial intelligence and digital technology to enhance her humanitarian work. Ünver discusses her background as a public television producer and founder of a non-profit, explaining how she uses the metaphor of editing to describe the process of shaping a meaningful life from diverse experiences. A central theme of the text is the transformation of personal grief—specifically the loss of her son—into a mission for social good, exemplified by her projects focused on global peace education and water sustainability for future generations. Ultimately, the source serves as an elegant testament to maintaining purpose and agency in the later stages of life through creativity and collective action.

Podcast Transcript

Yuko: What happens when a woman from Anatolia, Türkiye (Turkey), arrives in New York?
Hello, and welcome back to Aging with Grace and Purpose. I’m your host, Yuko.

Bircan: Good morning.

Yuko: Today’s guest, Bircan Ünver, is an activist, author, producer, and the founder and president of The Light Millennium.

Bircan: Today is not like yesterday.

Debbie: Indeed, it’s a peaceful start. Not like arriving an hour and a half later. (due to NYC subway issues)

Bircan: It is a peaceful starting.

Yuko: We all had our AI class yesterday at Senior Planet.

Bircan: Yes.

Debbie: [Yesterday] And she came in all rush-rush. You see, you’re very calm usually, but yesterday you were like, “Oh, that commute was horrible.”

Bircan: I mean, it was quite a day.

Debbie: I mean, mine was not as bad as yours. I was just sitting on the train, but I was able to slide right into my meditation class at 1:00.

Bircan: Maybe we should have joined you. I’ve actually been looking into, following, and trying to take certificate courses.

Yuko: Yes, we should have!

Bircan: I even started following things like blockchain, digital currency, and the Internet of Everything to really understand what they mean. For me, I have to understand the foundation first before I dive into anything or add it to my work. In 2019, before COVID-19 pandamic, I was trying to find a way to see whether I would be able to use it, benefit from it, learn it, or incorporate it into my organization’s work and programs. Then COVID-19 hit, as everyone knows. Last year, although I was a member (AARP), I couldn’t think about or search through the AARP websites.

Debbie: Okay.

Bircan: But what I did look into was Columbia University and MIT. I was so excited when I saw them. Especially Columbia, because it mentioned a nonprofit discount. I thought, “Oh, great!” and I called them. But it turned out to be too expensive. That led me to search on the web what is available out there, then in my search, Senior Planet, came up, where eventually I took it the first Introductory class!

Debbie: Okay.

Bircan: That was in June. I asked multiple questions because, you know, an introductory class is fine to get an overview, but it doesn’t provide the confidence of truly knowing what the technology is.

Yuko: So, after taking this class, do you feel more confident?

Bircan: Yes. I was researching and learning about these topics, including attending UN briefings since 2019 on blockchain, the Internet of Everything, and other trends just to understand them.

Yuko: Yes.

Bircan: But I wasn’t fully diving in, sitting down to deeply search, or putting my own questions out there yet. I just wanted to start the right way, with a basic ABC knowledge.

Debbie: You need a foundation.

Bircan: Exactly.

Debbie: And then you’re going to build on that foundation. You did it the right way.

Bircan: Yes. At one point, a friend asked a question to ChatGPT about me, then it was mentioned me as a man! When I formally started this course, even after the second class, I asked my very first question because I was already working on a project. I am always working on something.

Yuko: Right.

Bircan: When the response came out, I wasn’t happy with it because it gave too many breakdowns, pinpoints, and bullet points. I said, “No, not this way or that way. Can you revise it as an essay format? Can you make it conversational, using a common language?” Since then, I have already published a two-part interview using it (Gemini-LLM, August 2024).

Debbie: So for you, it was very hands-on because…

Bircan: I mean it, really, because now, just like everything else, it is a double-edged sword. Ordinary people can make the best out of it, but it can also be used for bad purposes by corporations. Some really have good intentions, and some really don’t. Sometimes doing good for people is just a mask, and the real intention isn’t there.
However, in terms of incorporating it into my organization’s work, I found myself bringing these questions in connection with the United Nations programs. Everyone there talks about peace. My question for years has been: why don’t we have compulsory peace education starting from kindergarten? If you don’t have peace education starting in kindergarten, you aren’t going to be able to teach people true human nature later on. It becomes much more difficult to change minds after the age of 40 or after a certain age when life has already become hardened.

Yuko: What inspired you to start a nonprofit organization? (Q. What motivated you to start this initiative?)

Bircan: It’s actually something similar to this format. Being a producer at QPTV (Queens Public TV), I took studio production and field production classes (1991/1992). I also hold a master’s degree in media (The New School University, 1999). Additionally, I have an art journalism background from Turkiye (Turkey), based on that a compilation of my Turkish articles and interviews was published in book in print (1995).
So, my initial beginning as a TV producer—especially when I was living here, even if I was traveling back to Turkey—was to produce art documentaries. When I did interviews with artists who were in their 70s and 80s from the first generation of the Turkish Republic, they were passing away. I said, “You know, this is a treasure, and we don’t even have a documentary on them.” That was my real driving force. I wanted to capture that.

Debbie: You wanted to represent them and profile them.

Bircan: Yes, profile them, because their lives ran parallel to all the pluses, minuses, challenges, and opportunities that the Republic of Turkey presented. During the first ten years of the Republic, Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, used government funds to send talented individuals from every field—art, music, painting, science, engineering, medicine, and research—abroad to study. They were asked to come back and contribute to the country.
But after Atatürk passed away, challenges started because others tried to undo his work.

Debbie: Oh, okay. Unravel it.

Bircan: Yes, they tried to dismantle it. For instance, the top-level artists in Turkey faced a real struggle for survival because that initial cultural admiration and the seeding of arts and culture into the fabric of the country was being undone. So, I interviewed these master Turkish painters and sculptors when they were 70, 75, and 80 years old.

Yuko: What years were you doing this?

Bircan: That was when I was studying fine arts, from 1984 to 1988. Those interviews were published, but there was so much more to share, and at the time, we only had one or two–at a later stage–state television channels in Turkey.

Debbie: So, is most of this material on video—the people you interviewed back then?

Bircan: No, it was for newspapers.

Debbie: Oh, newspapers.

Bircan: And magazines.

Debbie: Oh, magazines. Written form.

Bircan: Yes. That’s why I wanted to come here, learn English, and then produce documentary profiles of them. When I learned about QPTV.Org, we actually had to wait about seven months on a waiting list just to get into the production classes.

Yuko: What year did you come to the United States?

Bircan: Initially in 1989. My first year was spent in Los Angeles, and then I came to New York specifically for QPTV. One of my friends there told me, “My aunt–late Aliye Aydagül Ak–is a producer at QPTV, and she’s looking for an assistant producer.” That is how I got connected.

Debbie: Just to clarify, QPTV is Queens Public Television.

Bircan: Yes. I consider Queens Public Television my home, except for the last four years due to what I call the “COVID business.” I call the COVID pandemic a business now because the studios have been slow to be reopened (still not as of June 2026!). The editing suites are open, yes, but the main studios are not completely back yet.

Yuko: How long were you in Los Angeles?

Bircan: A year, and then I moved to New York. Once I was able to start utilizing the local studio and field production resources, I produced 23 to 25 completely original programs. It wasn’t just taking someone else’s footage and editing it.

Debbie: This is all original content.

Bircan: All original, from concept to manual editing. It was a huge learning curve.

Debbie: You say you love editing. You really love editing?

Bircan: Yes, I do love editing. You see, I am an Anatolian woman. I was born in Anatolia and grew up in Istanbul, but when I say “Anatolian woman,” I mean a woman who is capable and holds the desire, even during the most difficult times, to find a way to produce, cook, or make something from scratch.
When you think about it, even if you are going to make a simple salad or a simple meal, you have to gather multiple ingredients, bring them together, merge them, cook or fry them, add a sauce, and present it. Everything has a process. We don’t consciously think about it when we do it, but everything is a process—from the simplest task to the most complicated editing workflow. Writing a book is the same way. We live through experiences, and then we edit; we select what is valuable, what stays, and what has the strength to withstand time.

Yuko: So, editing for you represents a form of control?

Bircan: No, it’s about shaping it. Let’s say I have an idea. I decide, “Okay, I’m going to place this photo here, this text there, or introduce this specific music.” In my mind, it is already completely envisioned and executed. Once it’s set in my mind, I can sometimes edit the core footage in just two sessions. But even with those two sessions, I might spend an entire session just perfecting a one-minute opening.

Debbie: Yeah, a perfectionist mindset is like, “Let me see if I could tweak that a little bit finer, a little bit better. I know that can look better.”

Yuko: There’s no end to editing. You can almost never fully perfect it.

Bircan: Two or three times, I’ve noticed a tiny mistake after exporting—like an accidental black frame that caused a jump cut. Even though I had already submitted it, I had to retrieve it just to fix that one tiny mistake. That meant another two sessions to fix it, re-upload it, and process it all over again.
On the other hand, if there was a mistake I simply couldn’t fix, I had to learn to move on. Over the years, I’ve used multiple software platforms. I started with Avid at The New School when I was studying for my master degree. After I moved from Los Angeles to New York, then already had produced programs in both studio and field formats, I knew this was my path.
What inspired me most was the idea of taking these huge U-matic tapes, working on them, putting the final tape together, and seeing it scheduled on the air, cablecasting to 600,000 households across Queens. That is what led me to my media master’s program. At The New School, we learned on the very first Avid digital editing programs. QPTV still relied on old-fashioned manual tape-to-tape editing back then—they didn’t fully transition away from that until after 2000/2002—but I had luckily learned Avid a couple of years prior.
Eventually, QPTV transitioned completely to Adobe Premiere. Because of my background, it wasn’t difficult for me to adapt from Avid to Premiere. Over the last two years, I have edited a couple of programs using DaVinci Resolve. I also have Premiere Elements on my laptop. To some extent, I really like DaVinci Resolve’s fluid effects, but software features change depending on which version you have and whether you pay for it.
One thing I am not happy with regarding the free version of DaVinci Resolve is audio editing. When you shoot locally or even via Zoom, sometimes the audio isn’t clear and you need to do a little fine-tuning using effects or noise reduction. Those advanced audio tools in DaVinci Resolve require the paid version. I now own the mid-tier paid version, which allows me to properly edit the audio.
So now, I choose whichever program fits the project’s needs. If the audio is already crystal clear, I might go with DaVinci. If I am editing directly at QPTV, I use Premiere. I am comfortable with both. But the first session on a project is always about re-adjusting, because when you switch between systems, they function differently. You have to remember the different names, menus, and layouts each time, and give yourself a moment to get familiar with where everything is placed.

Question from Aging with Grace and Purpose: Are you happier now than in your 20s, 30s, or 40s?

Yuko: Because the theme of our podcast is about aging gracefully, we have some signature questions like the one above.

Bircan: I have thought about that question. I think I am happier. I actually recently wrote an article about this; it is posted in Turkish but was published in Belgium. I look at life as the glass being half full, but it’s not entirely full because time inevitably takes away your loved ones.
Until I turned 60—I am 65 now (2024), and I am proud to be 65—but until I turned 60, I am not joking, I felt like I had a thousand years to live. I always had so many projects lined up, and it felt like life was endless. But since 2018, I have lost four immediate family members. When you experience that level of loss, everything temporarily loses its meaning.
But then, it gave me a new mission. I mean, I have always lived with a sense of purpose, but my mission became crystal clear. Whether I am going to live for another three days, 30 days, three years, or 30 years—whatever God has written for me—I want to do something good. That is what makes life worth living. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter if you live for hundreds or thousands of years; what is the worth of that life if you aren’t truly living it? I have a very concise focus now: I want to do good things that can truly carry on.
How can I sustain it? How can I escalate it? How can I expand my work to touch the lives of young people in a positive way? I want to inspire my peers, my friends, and my colleagues so that we can accomplish meaningful things together, collectively and collaboratively.

Yuko: And do you have any advice for your 18-year-old self? (Also our podcast question.)

Bircan: I think about that frequently. If I had the mindset I have now back when I was 18, I might have forced myself—even though it isn’t in my inherent nature—to become a top businessperson for a philanthropic purpose. That way, I could have personally funded and channeled resources into the things I want to build.
For instance, I want to open a “Global Diversity Home & School,” but I can’t do it alone. The idea and the vision are there; I even structured it and made it a part of my organization’s UN application back in 2005. It has been out there for over 20 years, yet I don’t own a single piece of land for it, and you also have to get governments to agree on a project like that.
When you have financial and political power, you can lobby, run campaigns, and secure the necessary support. You can invest directly in the education systems of poor, vulnerable, and conflict-ridden areas to protect war orphans and the poorest children. If we don’t protect them, they become victims of organ trafficking, sex trafficking, and drugs.
If we don’t act, humanity at large suffers because no one is truly safe. I believe it was by President Franklin Roosevelt who noted that if[when] peace is broken in any part of the world, no part of the world is safe*. We see these stark divisions everywhere. In Istanbul and right here in New York, you see sections of Manhattan that are incredibly luxurious and expensive. There are 24-hour security guards, and you can’t even enter your apartment building without a security pass, much like entering the UN. Yet just two or five blocks away, people are fighting in the streets with guns.



Question from Aging with Grace and Purpose: Are you happier now than in your 20s, 30s, or 40s?

Bircan: This is a huge systemic risk because the safest individuals and the most unsafe individuals are actually in the same boat, even though society has artificially divided them into “secure” and “un-secure” zones. When you look at the larger global picture, it affects entire nations.
Look at the Middle East, where babies are born into conflict and children are orphaned. As of today, because I work extensively on global water issues, statistics show that the biggest killer of children under five in the world is the lack of clean water—not war, not diseases, not COVID, and not AIDS. Can you imagine? Just the simple lack of clean water.
Water directly dictates whether we have life and health, or whether contaminated water kills. Our organization has already presented four [virtual] water panels and a session at the  UN Water Conference. We were an officially accredited organization for the 2023 UN Water Conference, and our groundwater project received two awards last year (2023).
Now, I am also working on a project for high school students. This ties into your question about how I deal with challenges and deep personal loss. When you lose someone from your immediate family—the person you love most—it feels like half of your heart goes with that person, while the remaining half has to stay behind in this world. The one who left continues to live through you, while a part of you has already gone with them. Dealing with that reality makes me feel like I am living in two worlds simultaneously. It’s not about being dramatic or pessimistic; it’s about transforming that pain.

Question: What motivated you to start this initiative?
Bircan: In response to your question about what inspires me, we always have choices in life. We choose what we eat, what we don’t eat, what we drink, what we don’t wear, what classes we take, and how we carry ourselves. Everything we do involves a choice. Some things are within our capacity to change, and some are not. When you face an immense challenge like a catastrophic loss, you can either lose yourself in that grief, or you can transform that loss into an anchor to hold onto life while helping others.
If I may share, I brought a copy of my book to show you. I don’t usually like to bring it up abruptly, but I lost my younger son in 2019. I am speaking straight from my heart. This high school project run through my organization is designed to encourage the youth. For our upcoming 2025 cycle, we have dedicated all categories of our international J.U.C. Media, Research, Innovation, and Writing Awards to the theme of water (Water Action Decade). We have already successfully delivered two cycles, and we compiled the first and second-prize-winning student submissions into a book. The title of that book is Hope Never Fades.
When you go through a tragedy, it can either drown you, cause you physical sickness, and leave you in misery—where you are essentially half-dead anyway—or you can choose a different path. I chose to figure out how I could remain productive and transform my pain into something positive that helps others.
I chose to focus this water issue on high school students because, while we don’t need to spend an hour debating the chemical properties of water here, teenagers are often consumed by video games and daily distractions. They don’t think about water sustainability because they take it for granted. Until we suddenly turn on the tap and find no water, or until we lack clean air to breathe, we don’t realize how vital it is. They are the generation that will inherit this planet, and they need to be involved right now because we are rapidly running out of time.

Yuko: We have reached our signature closing question, and since you might have already thought about your answer, let’s bring it out. 
Our signature question on the last meal:

Debbie: My final question to all of our guests is: please imagine that you are Marie Antoinette. On the night before your execution by guillotine, angels appear and offer you a final meal consisting of any dish or food that you love. What would that dish be?

Bircan: I wouldn’t consider any food at all at that moment. If those were to be my last wishes on earth, I would ask for my favorite song by José Carreras to be played—it is titled “Brave New World.” I would like that song to play, and I would want a large bouquet of white roses (if possible, on the pot not cut) and a beautiful combination of white flowers. I don’t want a meal; I just want that song and the white flowers.

Debbie: Something completely different. That sounds very unique.

Bircan: I told my older son—I am lucky; though I lost my younger son, but I am blessed to have my eldest son and two beautiful grandchildren, and we all live near each other in New York.
 What I said to my son might sound strange or unconventional to some. I told him, “If I pass away here in New York, I want to be buried next to my younger son. If I pass away while visiting Turkey, I want to be buried in the village in Anatolia where I was born. And if I happen to pass away while traveling on a flight…”

Debbie / Yuko: No, we have to think positively! Just in case!

Bircan: No, it’s just practical! Or especially on a ship, because I love to take cruises. If that happens, I told him no one should look for my body. I love eating fish, and I haven’t eaten red meat in almost 20 years. Because I owe the most to the fish, returning to the sea makes sense. We take so much from nature.
Ultimately, I don’t feel like I owe anyone anything. Technically I might, but I feel I pay my debt to society in a different way through my advocacy. I am not a wealthy person, but if I were rich, I would have used that wealth to build those global home and school projects. I don’t know who will eventually pick up my vision and execute it, or if I will ever live to see it realized, but that remains one of my greatest dreams. If I had possessed this clear vision when I was 18, I would have made sure to secure the financial funding necessary to channel it directly into the Global Diversity Home and school projects to protect, save, and invest in vulnerable children worldwide.

Debbie: I think you are already actively setting the foundation for that. Through your television and film productions, you are reaching a great number of people, and you are utilizing the power of the internet to make your voice heard. You are doing fantastic things, and I know your message will be heard. And on that note, thank you very much.

Bircan: Thank you. This was a very pleasing conversation.

Yuko: Thank you so much for joining us.

Bircan: Thank you for having me.

https://vimeo.com/1204858320

P.S. 1. Correct quote: “When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries everywhere is in danger.” [1]
FDR essentially argued that the world had become so globally interconnected—both morally and technologically—that isolationism was an illusion. Because conflict creates economic and political upheaval, and aggression can spread like a contagion, a localized war inevitably threatens the security and stability of the entire world.

2. Notes on the Global Vision: The full name of my vision for the children of the world is: The Global Diversity Home and School Project.
   I initially wrote the conceptual framework as a direct reaction to the events of 9/11. I later developed it further and formally dedicated it to the Children of the World in 2004. Years later, I took the project to another level and presented it as an official side-event and workshop at the 2016 UN Civil Society Conference in Gyeongju, South Korea. The full text, documentation, and archival videos from both 2004 and 2016 are fully available on the web.
   
3. Bircan Means One Life / One Soul


Video – Highlights:

Websites: www.lightmillennium.org (Web archive since 1999 – 2018) | 

www.lmglobal.org (Active/current website since 2020.)

About: Aging with Grace and Purpose
Aging with Grace and Purpose was founded by two seniors from very different backgrounds: Debbie, a native New Yorker, and Yuko, who was born and raised in Japan and has lived in the New York metropolitan area for nearly four decades. We met through Senior Planet, an AARP program, in 2024.
Through conversations with authors, artists, activists, educators, and community leaders, our podcast explores the wisdom, resilience, and beauty of the human spirit throughout the aging journey. We believe that every person has a story worth sharing, and that the experiences of older adults can inspire, educate, and enrich people of all generations.

Debbie Troche 
(Co-Founder and Co-Host)
After retiring, I embraced a new chapter of life that allows me to focus on travel, caregiving, city and nature walks, yoga, and the many experiences that continue to inspire me. I especially enjoy photography, visiting museums, attending concerts and Broadway performances, and spending meaningful time with family and friends. Above all, I value kindness, human connection, and the beauty found in both memorable experiences and everyday moments.

Yuko Yamamoto
 (Founder, Producer, Host, and Editor)
Yuko Yamamoto was born and raised in Kurashiki, Japan. Her first interview experience took place on August 6, 1980, when she spoke with international visitors attending the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony. She later studied English in Manila, Philippines, and worked as an editorial staff member at Akita Shoten Publishing in Tokyo, contributing to animation and comic magazines with circulations exceeding one million copies per week.
After moving to New York, Yuko pursued a career in the corporate world while independently conducting interviews with entrepreneurs, actors, authors, and other inspiring individuals. Following her retirement, she returned to her lifelong passion for storytelling and meaningful conversation. Through Aging with Grace and Purpose, she seeks to preserve and share the stories of people whose contributions enrich society, often quietly and without recognition.

Special Thanks To: Host & Producer Yuko Yamamoto, for dedicating this podcast and above transcription for the 25th Anniversary of the LMGlobal.Org.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cGt2d2kb0s