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Today, we hear from Dr. Hafsat Abiola, native of Nigeria, President of the Women in Africa Initiative, Harvard-educated economist, expert in sustainable development, and civil rights and Democracy advocate. Dr. Abiolaâs father, M.K.O. Abiola, was imprisoned after decisively winning the presidency in an election determined to be fair and free by Nigerian and international observers. Meanwhile her mother, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, fought publicly for his release and for her husbandâs freedom, until she was murdered in retaliation. Dr. Abiola has carried on her parentsâ legacy in her pro-democracy activism and her work in the Women in Africa Initiative, âthe world's leading international platform for the economic development and the support of African women entrepreneurs.â
Read the transcript for this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube Comments, questions and suggestions [email protected]Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation
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In todayâs episode, we welcome Dr. David Addiss, an expert in public health and preventive medicine. Dr. Addiss has spent his career thinking not only about science, but about service. In his early career, he cared for the health of migrants in the San Joaquin Valley of California, then later worked for nearly two decades the Centers for Disease Control in the Division of Parasitic Diseases, where he focused on controlling and eliminating diseases found not in the United States, but in communities of neglected people largely in the tropics. Hear what inspired him to spend his career caring for the needs of underserved and neglected people.
More about this episode Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube Comments, questions and suggestions [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
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Todayâs episode features the collaborative exploration of Dr. Fred Sharpe, an expert in humpback whales and the Principal Investigator with the Alaska Whale Foundation, and Dr. Laurance Doyle, astrophysicist and Principal Investigator of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute. Drs. Sharpe and Doyle are investigating humpback whalesâ complex, long-distance communication with the aim of learning about how alien intelligences, if they exist, might attempt to transmit their messages through the cosmos.
Learn more about Dr. Fred Sharpe and the Alaska Whale Foundation, and Dr. Laurance Doyle and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute
Mentioned in this episode:
Songs of the Humpback Whale Subscribe toâ âStories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts. More about this episode Read the transcript of this episode Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube Comments, questions and suggestions [email protected] Supported by theâ Templeton World Charity Foundation -
Over our last couple of episodes, weâve told the inspiring story of decades of positive transformation the nation of Rwanda has sustained since the catastrophic 1994 genocide against the Tutsis. We learned that Rwandaâs peacemakers have for decades nurtured a culture of reconciliation and resilience, cultivating communities where citizens flourish.
Deep healing and renewal like that can come only after conflict ends â it canât happen in the midst of war. In order for children, families, and elders to have a real chance to recover from trauma in body and soul, violence has to cease. But the reality is today, hundreds of millions of people live in the midst of ongoing conflicts, and their mental and physical health are undermined by the indiscriminate brutality of wars that may not end anytime soon.
Our guest today, Dr. Mark Jordans, is a professor of global mental health at the University of Amsterdam and King's College London, and Director of Research and Development at War Child, which, for thirty years, has worked to care for children affected by wars. He is not waiting for peace, but instead, is committed to doing everything he can to help children caught in the middle of violence cope with the crises they face.
Read the transcript of this episode Learn more about War Childâs work Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
In our last episode, we met Rwandan leader Freddy Mutanguha, who shared his remarkable journey to finding meaning and forgiveness after dozens of his family members, including his parents and sisters, were murdered during the genocide against the Tutsis in 1994. Freddyâs powerful and timely testimony underscored the importance of truth, remembrance, and community organizing in helping genocide victims â and perpetrators â find healing and peace.
Today we hear again from Freddy Mutanguha, and from Dr. Elizabeth Dowling, about what sheâs learned from her research collaboration with Freddy and his team at the Aegis Trust, which works to prevent genocide and mass atrocities worldwide, and its projects supporting reconciliation across Rwanda, including the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Dr. Dowling shares how a nation with a recent history of polarization and violence has become a model for peace-making.
Read the transcript of this episode Learn more about the Kigali Genocide Memorial and the Aegis Trust Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
Todayâs episode offers a powerful example of courage, peace, and forgiveness. Our story looks back thirty years, to one of the most violent periods in modern history â the genocide against the Tutsi â and to the resilience and wisdom of the Rwandan spirit and heart.
On April 6, 1994, beautiful Rwanda, known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, became a hell on Earth. Between April and July 1994, hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were slaughtered in a horrifying frenzy of state-sponsored terror.
Freddy Mutanguha, an ethnic Tutsi, was just eighteen years old when the genocide began. Today, Freddy shares the story of his unimaginable losses, the miracle of his survival, and his lifeâs work nurturing peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation in his country and across the world.
Read the transcript of this episode Learn more about the Kigali Genocide Memorial and the Aegis Trust Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
In our last episode, we spent time with the extraordinary Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist, writer, speaker, and conservationist. Dr. Goodall previewed today's episode, featuring the three recipients of the Wildlife Intelligence Project, a $2.7 million joint initiative between National Geographic Society and Templeton World Charity Foundation designed to support "three early-career scientistsâŠwhose passion for and discoveries in wildlife field research have the potential to illuminate unknown wonders of our world.â We're proud to be in conversation with cognitive ecologist and bee researcher Dr. Felicity Muth, primatologist Dr. Tiago FalĂłtico, and behavioral ecologist and biologist Dr. Mauricio Cantor.
These three National Geographic Explorers all study animal cognition, but how they do it, and their objects of study â bees, capuchin monkeys, and dolphins â varies. What that shows, as youâll hear about today, is that intelligence can take many forms, and itâs only once we look past our anthropocentric definitions of intelligence that we can truly understand and appreciate the complexity and beauty of nature.
Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Read more about the Wildlife Intelligence Project Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
In todayâs episode, we hear from leader and luminary Dr. Jane Goodall, who has, for decades, made significant contributions to not only the scientific world, but to, arguably, the entire planet.
When 26-year-old, British-born Jane Goodall began field studies of primates in Tanzania in July 1960, she was the first researcher to observe chimpanzees in the wild, and she remains the worldâs foremost expert on chimpanzees. Her rigorous and creative approach quickly gained the attention of the National Geographic Society, which awarded her first grant, and has passionately championed her work in the decades since. Despite never getting a college degree, Dr. Goodall was accepted at Cambridge University, earned her PhD in ethology in 1966, and spent decades in the Gombe Stream National Park studying chimpanzee communities, eventually becoming the only human to ever be accepted into a chimpanzee society.
Today, at the age of 90, Dr. Goodall is a legendary conservationist, galvanizing educator, UN Messenger of Peace, and an inspiring writer and public speaker. Her curiosity, empathy, wisdom, protective heart, and unshakeable hope reflect the best of humanity, and even though todayâs conversation is short, youâll hear all of those exemplary characteristics embodied in her voice and story.
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Today we bring you a follow-up story about revolutionary education in Northern Ireland, this time exploring the impact of teaching young children to not just tolerate difference and diversity, but to seek it out, embrace it, and celebrate it.
Our episode explores the history and legacy of Lough View Integrated Primary and Nursery School, a school founded 30 years ago to intentionally create a space where diverse points of view and religious and social practices could come together, and whatâs remarkable is that this vision came to life fully five years before the Good Friday Accords birthed a fragile national peace.
Lough View was established in Belfast by a group of parents who didnât want to send their children to a segregated school that would perpetuate the bias and prejudice that had fed the decades of violence between Protestants and Catholics, but instead, created a totally different paradigm for their children, and their childrenâs education.
Today weâll hear from students and educators at Lough View, who tell us how this radical education has impacted classroom culture and individual lives, and how it might contribute to peace-building across the nation, and potentially, the world.
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âą Listen to our first episode on integrated education in Northern Ireland
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Today we're back for another exploration of the magnificence and mystery of the universe â talking with three researchers who share not only a passion, but a respect for the species in their decidedly non-human, wildly intelligent subjects of research. First we meet Dr. Paco Calvo, a renowned cognitive scientist and professor of philosophy of science at the University of Murcia in Spain. Dr. Calvo has been called a philosopher of biology, who believes that by studying plant cognition, humans might be able to learn a little bit more about ourselves. And we hear from neuroscientist Marcelo Magnasco, a biophysicist professor and head of laboratory at Rockefeller University, New York, who works closely with Dr. Diana Reiss, professor of psychology at Hunter College and the director of the animal behavior and conservation graduate programs. Together, this team explores octopus intelligence.
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In today's episode, we meet Dr. Frans de Waal, Emory University and Utrecht University primatologist Dr. Frans de Waal, a trailblazer in the science of animal cognition, and Dr. Michael Levin, distinguished professor of biology at Tufts University and associate faculty member at Harvard's Wyss Institute. Both researchersâ work roots them deeply in the curiosity about the wonder of the natural world of animals, organisms, and plants that make up the diverse intelligences of the universe. They've each spent decades asking questions about the minds of a variety of species and furthering the science of cognition.
Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
Any sentient, soulful being paying attention to the way humans are treating other humans has been feeling these hard times. But sometimes, amidst all this darkness, humor can offer a little bit of hope.
Today we're back with a friend of the podcast, Dr. Erica Cartmill. You might remember her from past episodes as a leader in the science of diverse intelligences, the multi-disciplinary, open science study of cognition, whether it's found in humans, animals, plants, machines, or anywhere else. This time, weâre talking with Dr. Cartmill about the violation of expectations as a feature of primate intelligence, or in more down-to-earth terms: Funny monkeys. Actually, monkeys isn't technically right â it's actually apes.
What Dr. Cartmill and her fellow researchers have discovered, in a study they call âThe Humor Project," is that humans and apes share a lot of traits, including what we think is funny.
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Artificial intelligence is proliferating and entering new industries every day. And while itâs been used in healthcare for 50 years, researchers continue to look for new ways to use it to improve care.
Today, weâre back in conversation with a team of researchers, including a philosopher, a neuroscientist, and a computer scientist. This trio might be familiar to long-time listeners from an episode a few years ago, when we explored the question of whether artificial intelligence could be programmed to be moral. Over the last five years, this research team has been studying how to use AI as an assistive tool in allocating kidneys to patients needing organ transfers. Itâs a project partly funded by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
Though the project is focused on integrating AI into evaluations of who gets a kidney transplant, the team is using that particular problem as the lens to explore more broadly the ethics of AI in decision-making. Theyâre asking whether itâs possible to imbue machines with a human value system, in what ways artificial intelligence can be employed to help humans make moral decisions, and how to ensure that when AI is involved in decision-making, the process retains humanity.
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In the dozens of episodes weâve shared with you over the last four years, youâve heard stories of experts examining the science behind everything from bees to whales, video games to dance, education systems to communication networks. Today, we're zooming out further, speaking with researchers who are exploring ways to improve how we do science and how we cultivate and educate better scientists.
When you think of a scientist, what image comes to mind? Do you imagine a genius laboring solo in a lab, displaying little emotion as they logically analyze data? Letâs challenge that stereotype â scientists are anything but dispassionate.
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This week we're bringing back one of our favorite ever episodes. Today, we hear a fascinating and inspiring conversation having to do with the flourishing of young South Africans.
Todayâs episode features Richardâs conversation with Nina Callaghan, former Associate Director and current South African Chair of Childrenâs Radio Foundation. In a post-apartheid country still suffering the social, psychic, and economic wounds of decades of institutionalized racial segregation, the very act of teaching these youth basic journalism 101, including ethics, consent, and truth-telling, is a powerful healing act. Callaghan discusses her work with the youth reporters and their two-year exploration of the concept of Ubuntuâa Nguni Bantu term often translated as âI am because we are.â Callaghan shares the programâs outcomes, both expected and unexpected.
Learn more about the Childrenâs Radio Foundation.
Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts More about this episode Read the transcript of this episode Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube Comments, questions and suggestions [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation -
War and conflict is raging across the globe. From Europe and the Middle East to Africa and the Americas, divisions between and within nations are leaving civilians dead and displaced.
Northern Ireland has seen its fair share of violence and bloodshed since its founding in 1921. Although the Good Friday peace agreement was signed more than 25 years ago, the peace process is still a work in progress. This week, however, we explore a ground-breaking research project led by Dr. Jocelyn Dautel, an American researcher and senior lecturer at Queenâs University Belfast, into how Northern Irelandâs past continues to impact the way young people consume and share âtruthsâ about their nationâs history. Researchers are hopeful that if Northern Ireland can to evolve beyond sectarian division, the country â and its youth â could serve as a global model of peace and reconciliation.
Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation Read more about the period known as The Troubles and the peace agreement that marked the end of the conflict On February 3, 2024, Northern Ireland formed its first government in two years. Learn about what caused the past two years of political instabilitySpecial thanks to Dr. Jocelyn Dautel and the entire Research Team:
Dr. Bethany Corbett, Lecturer, Ulster University
Prof. Kathleen Corriveau, Boston University
Prof. Emma Flynn, Provost, Warwick University
Eva Grew, Research Fellow, Queenâs University Belfast
Dr. Mariah Kornbluh, Assistant Professor, Oregon University
Caitlin McShane, Research Fellow, Queenâs University Belfast
Dr. Christin Scholz, University of Amsterdam
Prof. Jennifer Watling Neal, Michigan State University
Dr. Lara Wood, Lecturer, Abertay University
Dr. Jing Xu, University of Washington, Seattle
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Before we ended 2023 we met two researchers, Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas and Dr. Timothy Lomas, who shared their research on human flourishing, and each touched on the importance of human connection and relationship as an antidote to loneliness. In our first episode of this new year, we continue that conversation, this time by exploring the unique role of chaplains, and how their purpose is to keep the people they serve from going through painful times, alone.
To guide us on this journey, we are joined by Dr. Wendy Cadge, the Barbara Mandell professor of Humanistic Social Sciences at Brandeis University and founder of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, which supports, educates, and expands the vision of chaplains everywhere.
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Weâre celebrating the life of our friend Dr. William Powell, who passed away just before Thanksgiving. Dr. Powellâs American Chestnut Tree episode was one of our favorites of last year.
This episode is an inspiring story about how bringing together vision, community, and cutting-edge science can make the impossible possible. Itâs a story about American history, climate, globalization, and hope. Itâs the story of the American Chestnut Foundationâs efforts to do something never before done: To restore a tree that is functionally extinct â the American Chestnut tree. Youâll hear from Rex Mann, retired from the U.S. Forest Service and now a chestnut evangelist, and ACFâs lead collaborating scientist, Dr. William A. Powell, professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science in Forestry.
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Last time you heard from us, Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas shared her research on the complexity of the loneliness epidemic in America today, and what we all can do to feel less lonely. Something she said â âEveryone's happiness matters to my happinessâ â stuck with us, and became the springboard for this episode. Today, together with psychology researcher Dr. Timothy Lomas at Harvard Universityâs Human Flourishing Program, we dive deep into the question of the interdependent nature of happiness and flourishing. Not only that, Dr. Lomas also invites us to ask who â and what â deserves to flourish.
Weâre also celebrating the life of our friend Dr. William Powell, who passed away just before Thanksgiving. Dr. Powellâs American Chestnut Tree episode was one of our favorites of last year. You can listen today, or come back in two weeks, when we rerun that conversation as the last episode of our year of Stories of Impact.
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Itâs Thanksgiving week in the United States, and this Thursday, many of us will be with friends and family for the kick-off to six weeks of holiday cheer. But for so many people in America, the holidays can be a very lonely time. Loneliness and disconnection have consequences not only for individual health, but for the health of the nation.
Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas is the Science Director at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, which tracks cutting edge research studies that focus on how important our relationships, our tendency towards generosity and cooperation, and our sense of mattering or contribution to our communities are to our health and wellbeing over the course of our lives. She wants to understand the science of loneliness.
Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at [email protected] Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation - Vis mere
