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Launching social entrepreneur podcast How Do You Solve A Problem Like..?
Launching social entrepreneur podcast How Do You Solve A Problem Like..?
Written by
Ruth Coustick-Deal
External Affairs Lead
“Everyone has the power to do something in their community.” – Alex Smith
We are launching a brand new podcast this week, How Do You Solve A Problem Like..? bringing you powerful stories from social entrepreneurs.
British society is divided, with too many people being left behind and unable to access the services, jobs or opportunities they need. We are facing many challenges and big questions in 2019:
How can the UK be struggling with both childhood obesity and hunger in our schools? What needs to change to stop knife crime? Are we facing a loneliness epidemic?
When faced with such massive issues, it’s important to remember that everywhere people are finding ways to make a positive change, and there is great work happening.
Over the course of the podcast’s first season our social entrepreneur in residence, radio producer Milly Chowles, travelled across the UK, meeting with these leaders of social change. These people have created different kinds of ‘business for good’ ventures, working on a local, or national scale, to create systematic change.
The podcast’s format is a mixture of interviews, documentary, and studio discussion joined by co-host Venture Manager Anna Markland, and other guest experts. Season 1 tackles these big issues: Loneliness, Youth Violence, Unhealthy Kids and Hygiene Poverty. Each episode meets with a couple of social entrepreneurs who are addressing the issue from different angles.
In the first episode ‘How Do You Solve a Problem Like..Loneliness?’ available today, we spoke to two pioneering social entrepreneurs: Alex Smith, who runs The Cares Family; and Alexandra Hoskyn, founder of the Chatty Cafes scheme.
Loneliness is one of the biggest public health challenges facing society. Loneliness has been shown to be as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and can bring on strokes, heart attacks and dementia. One in ten GP appointments is made by an older person with no other condition than that they're lonely.
So how do you get strangers talking to each other? How do you talk about tackling loneliness, when the word itself is taboo? Both run ventures are making a real difference to thousands of people’s lives across the country by tackling this issue in different ways.
Podcasts are a fantastic medium for telling in-depth stories, and we’re really excited by the moving conversations that have come out of this work. New episodes will be available fortnightly, with the next episode, ‘How do you solve a problem like… youth violence’ available to listen, download and share on 8April.
You can either stream it directly in your browser on UnLtd’s website, or if you already use a podcast app then you can find it there and subscribe. How Do You Solve A Problem like..? is available on Acast, Podbean, Pocketcasts, iTunes and Spotify.
You can also follow the podcast on Twitter at @aproblemlike.
Many people have also worked hard to get us ready for this launch. Created and hosted by radio producer Milly Chowles, it is co-hosted and advised by Anna Markland. It is edited by Samuel Shelton Robinson and managed by Ruth Coustick-Deal. Strategic advice from Rosalind Holley. Our art is by Festus Akinsulire. Webpage design by Denis Mola. Other colleagues across UnLtd contribute on areas of their expertise across the season.