My day job is working at Filene Research Institute (a cooperative financial services think and do tank) as the Chief Knowledge Officer. Which means that I take all the research and innovation outputs we create and put them into a useable format for our constituents.

My most memorable caffeine was in 1997 when I was traveling back from Uzbekistan (where I’d been in the Peace Corps) with my wife and son. We headed back to the States via Thailand and there we discovered a new drink called Red Bull, which was then a local concoction that hadn’t made it to the U.S. It was terrible—a pure shot of caffeine that kicked in very quickly! While we were “enjoying” this caffeine we noticed that many of the trees were decorated with a sign that said “Monkey. Work. Coconut.” We quickly realized this was a way for local vendors to attract tourists: You could hire them to send a monkey up a tree and get you a coconut. It seemed like the funniest thing in the world—though maybe that was the caffeine. I’ve always thought “Monkey. Work. Coconut.” would make a great name for a band.

My current caffeine of choice is some sort of good coffee with a little cream, usually a couple cups about mid-morning. I like to support Just Coffee, a local coffee co-op that was started by a friend of mine.

My favorite place for coffee is the Mermaid Cafe on Winnebago. They have great coffee and be sure to try the Mighty ISIS sandwich (which is named after one of their employees).

The person I’d love to share a cup of coffee with is Bruce Springsteen.  He’s the best—a poet and still able to rock it (even though he’s an older guy now). I love his music and I’d love to talk with him. My parents just moved out of my childhood home and I got my Springsteen posters back from them.

World problem that could be solved with the right amount of caffeine: Wisconsin winters! When you’re sitting with a nice hot cup of coffee it’s a temporary respite from six months of misery!