Your gifts connect you to a world of giving

Americans are generous with their pocketbooks, but trying to make a difference and actually making a difference are two different things. Where Am I Giving? by New York Times bestselling author Kelsey Timmerman takes you on a journey to meet people who will inspire you to live a purpose-filled, generous life and make the greatest impact you can through your career, time, consumer dollars, and donations.

Starting in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana, and then traveling all over the world (Myanmar, Kenya, India, Nepal, and more), Kelsey explores not only different ways of giving―as a worker, consumer, volunteer, giver, local and global citizen―but also the benefits and effectiveness of these methods. He spends time with monks, students, a refugee, a Marine, a former Hollywood executive, Peace Corps Volunteers, and seasoned aid workers to explore how they give, as well as with the people on the receiving end of their giving. Along the way he struggles to be a more informed giver as he becomes a “voluntourist,” starts his own local non-profit, and searches for a balance between rationality and passion in how he gives.

This book will help you:

• Reveal the amazing opportunities you have to make an impact using your own gifts―and it doesn’t have to be money
• Understand the sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and neuroscience of giving
• See how giving can make you more connected and happier
• Examine types of giving, including microlending, volunteering, donating, ethical consumption, mission trips, voluntourism, child sponsorship, etc.
• Dive into a nuanced view of effectiveness of international aid and its intersection with development, politics, and culture

Where Am I Giving? is a fast-paced narrative combining compelling stories collected over 15 years of travel to 90+ countries, mixed with practical advice on how to make giving a part of our everyday lives.

A deeply human-centered perspective on the origins of America’s food

Where Am I Eating? bridges the gap between global food producers and the American consumer, providing an insightful look at how our eating habits affect farmers and fishermen around the world. Follow the author on his global quest to meet the workers that nurture, harvest, and hunt our food, as he works alongside them―loading lobster diving boats in Nicaragua, harvesting bananas in Costa Rica, lugging cocoa beans in Ivory Coast with a modern-day slave, picking coffee beans in Colombia and hauling tomatoes in Indiana. This new edition includes a study guide, a deeper explanation of the “glocal” concept, and advice for students looking to become engaged as both local and global citizens. Arguing neither for nor against globalization, this book simply explores the lives of those who feed us.

Imports account for eighty-six percent of America’s seafood, fifty percent of its fresh fruit, and eighteen percent of its fresh vegetables. Where Am I Eating? examines the effects of this reliance on those who supply the global food economy.

• Learn more about the global producers that feed our nation, and learn from their worldviews intensely connected to people and planet
• Discover how food preferences and trends affect the lives of farmers and fishermen
• Catch a boots-on-the-ground glimpse of the daily lives of food producers on four continents
• Meet a modern-day slave and explore the blurred line between exploitation and opportunity
• Observe how the poorest producers fare in the global food economy

This book takes a human-centered approach to food, investigating the lives of the people at the other end of the global food economy, observing the hope and opportunity―or lack thereof―that results from our reliance on imports. Where Am I Eating? is a touching, insightful, informative look at the origins of our food.

Globalization makes it difficult to know where the things you buy come from. Journalist and travel writer Kelsey Timmerman wanted to know where his clothes came from and who made them, so he traveled from Honduras to Bangladesh to Cambodia to China and back. Along the way, he met the people who made his favorite clothes and learned as much about them as he did about globalization itself. Enlightening and controversial at once, this book puts a human face on globalization.