Nancy Gianni

This week’s remarkable guest is Nancy Gianni, Founder and Chief Belief Officer of GiGi’s Playhouse, author of GenerationG, and CNN Hero.

After her daughter GiGi was born with Down Syndrome, Nancy started GiGi’s Playhouse to change the way the world views Down syndrome and to send a global message of understanding and acceptance.

Backing up, let me provide some basic information about Down Syndrome. Typically people are born with 46 chromosomes. Babies with Down Syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21. This affects a baby’s physical and mental development.

In the United States, approximately 6,000 babies are born with Down Syndrome each year–or 1 out of every 700 babies or so.

Gigi’s Playhouse has sixty locations that provide educational, therapeutic, and career training for people with Down Syndrome and their families–all for free!

I’m Guy Kawasaki, and this is Remarkable People. And now here is the remarkable force of nature named Nancy Gianni.

Nancy and GiGi Gianni of GiGi's Playhouse

I hope you found Nancy’s dedication to helping people with Down Syndrome inspiring and remarkable.

If you’d like to help Gigi’s Playhouse, go to gigisplayhouse.org. I believe Nancy when she says that the experience of working with people who have Down Syndrome is beneficial to everyone.

My thanks Janet Viane for suggesting interviewing Nancy and for making it happen.

PS – Listen to the end of the podcast to hear reviews of Remarkable People. Maybe I will read yours.

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About the Author: Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. Formerly, he was an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple. He is also the author of The Art of Social Media, The Art of the Start, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur, Enchantment, and nine other books. Kawasaki has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

3 Comments

Dr. Sam Haddad July 20, 2020 at 1:33 am - Reply

I enjoyed this podcast very much. I think it is the very best and I learned a lot.
another one of your podcasts was with Dr. Jerome Kim was fantastic when I learned a huge amount of new information.
yesterday, we had Munir and his wife for dinner. Munir Itani has been with Apple for 39 years and he remembers you with affection. I told him about your very nice and informative podcasts.
Good Luck, Guy.
Jim Teece August 7, 2020 at 2:07 pm - Reply

Good podcasting here Guy. Thank you. I’m curious about the cartoon look on some of your podcast banners, such as this one. What app does that? I love the look but notice you aren’t doing it for all. Any reasons you can share? Thanks for decades of inspiration. You are appreciated.
Maria Neumann August 18, 2020 at 8:55 am - Reply

I wish I had Gigi and her mom at my side when my daughter MaKenna was born almost 13 years ago. My daughter was born with Down syndrome. Everything that Nancy describes about having a child with Down syndrome rings so true for me. Thank you Nancy for giving a voice to our extra-special daughters.

Nancy brings an energy that is felt in the Gigi’s Playhouse I visited in Layton, Utah. I felt so blessed to be able to visit the playhouse and see the vision that Nancy spoke about on this podcast. My kids so enjoyed their visit to Gigi’s Playhouse and my daughter knew she was being celebrated the moment we walked in the door. My three sons felt supported in their roles as well. Great job on the podcast and Nancy, thank you for your vision and inspiration. What a wonderful world you have helped create, one family at a time.