The Useful & Kind Podcast

Episode 8: Compassion and Forgiveness

Welcome to our podcast series which aims to explore how being Useful and kind to yourself, to others and to the world can make things better. Today our theme focuses on ‘Compassion and Forgiveness’. Paul Gilbert is the poster boy for Compassion. His iconic book The Compassionate Mind is a definitive and wide-ranging exploration of the theme. Paul is a British clinical psychologist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_psychologist] and founder of compassion focused therapy [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_focused_therapy] compassionate mind training (CMT) and author of over 18 books and hundreds of papers. Before retirement, Paul was head of the Mental Health Research Unit, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and he is a Professor at the University of Derby [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Derby].  He is a fellow of the British Psychological Society [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Psychological_Society] and was president of the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Association_for_Cognitive_and_Behavioural_Psychotherapy&action=edit&redlink=1]. He has served on government committees. Paul is passionate about not just researching but helping folk in compassionate ways to understand who they have been, who they are and who they can be. Marina Cantacuzino is an award-winning journalist who in 2003, in response to the invasion of Iraq, embarked on a personal project collecting stories of people who had lived through trauma and injustice and sought forgiveness rather than revenge. As a result, Marina founded The Forgiveness Project and started speaking widely about forgiveness and restorative storytelling. Her outstanding book: The Forgiveness Project: Stories for a vengeful age is a must-read for all of us involved in the knotty and complex issues involved in change and making the world a better more forgiving place.

Episode 7: Equality

Welcome to our podcast series which aims to explore how being Useful and kind to yourself, to others and to the world can make things better. Today our theme focuses on ‘equality’.    Katherine is a Glasgow based, Australian writer, researcher, and passionate advocate for economic system change. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. Her brilliant book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown-Up Economy [https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-economics-of-arrival] (co-authored with Jeremy Williams) is a powerful and persuasive and searingly logical debunking of the notion of economic growth. Ben Phillips is the author of How to Fight Inequality which is in effect a seminal and powerful book on ways in which we can collectively fight inequality. Ben is Co-founder of the Fight Inequality Alliance. He advises the UN, governments and civil society organisations. He was Launch Director of the Fight Inequality Alliance, and Campaigns and Policy Director for Oxfam and ActionAid International. Presented by Duncan Fraser  Produced by Hannah Johnson  The audio-only edition can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other Podcast platforms

Episode 6: Creativity

Welcome to our podcast series which aims to explore how being Useful and kind to yourself, to others and to the world can make things better. Today our theme focuses on ‘creativity’. The much admired and missed Sir Ken Robinson (the most viewed Ted talker of all time) defined Creativity as ‘making something new and of value from the imagination’. These are tough times for us to be creative and yet never more needed whether from artists, scientists or economists. We are thrilled to be joined to explore these issues today by two fantastic guests. Elspeth Murray is a Poet and theatre-maker based in Scotland. She describes herself as a ‘versatile versemonger and weaver of text styles’. I first came across her brilliant work in a fantastic publication of works she made with participants at a Mental health conference and she has accompanied me in spirit ever since as I have read some of those works at every leadership retreat I have ever led. Graham Fitkin is one of the funkiest composers of his generation. He has written for everyone from school kids in Southport to dancers in New York City Ballet. He is passionate about the role of the composer in the contemporary world. We are thrilled that all our podcasts begin and end with his piece Sciosophy from a very early album called Flak and we are also thrilled that he joins us today from his native Cornwall. Presented by Duncan Fraser Produced by Hannah Johnson ---- The video version can be viewed on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/xSykV_saUJ4

Episode 5: Vocation, Calling and Campaigning

Welcome to our podcast series which aims to explore how being useful and kind to yourself, to others and to the world can make things better.  Today our theme focuses on ‘what on earth are you doing with your life?’ in other words are you living it on purpose and making the most of it for the good of the world? In particular, we will explore Vocation, Calling and Campaigning.   We are thrilled to be joined today by two fantastic guests to help us with this.   Kate Lee is the poster girl for Useful and Kind having spent 30 years in the Third Sector and is now Chief exec of the Alzheimer’s Society (having started there at the start of the pandemic)  Bernard Ross is THE go-to global guru for all things on decision science, fundraising and leadership in the ethical sector.   Presented by Duncan Fraser  Produced by Hannah Johnson -----  You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/E4JxbNJQ8TU

Episode 4: Young Leaders

Welcome to our podcast series, which aims to explore how being useful and kind to yourself to others and to the world can make things better. Today our theme lies at the very heart of what we're trying to do, namely, develop young leaders, and how being useful, unkind can really help us, others and the world to be more balanced and to cope with the huge issues that we all face. As many of you know, our organisation is based on the words of advice, Barack Obama gives to his daughters and to interns and young leaders, namely, to be useful and kind. So we're thrilled and honoured to be joined today by both the Chief Executive of the Obama Foundation and by one of its first British Fellows. David Simas is the Chief Executive of the Obama Foundation and knew early on why being a change maker was important, as we shall hear in due course. For him, this was initially in the law. But after a significant career move into politics, he ended up at the heart of one of the most inspirational administrations in American History, he was Deputy Assistant to President Obama. #ObamaFoundation #TheCaresFamily #UsefulandKind