Every story has an arc, chapters, a beginning, middle, and end. I wanted to write something about the middle bit of something I’m working on right now, and why I think it’s important to slow down when making stories about important work.

On a cold Thursday night in Brighton, along with maybe 50 other people, I stared at a huge screen. We were waiting for the screen to turn green - a vote that mattered. The room was quiet, just the sound of bodies shifting. Then the colours began to change.

Rewind to 2019. Back in the community I grew up in, notebook and recorder in hand, I heard a line I couldn’t unhear…

The most effective learning happens when we connect on a human level. But how do you capture something as complex and personal as leadership in a way that feels truly real?

When I first wrote about the Class Divide podcast back in 2022, it was a deeply personal reflection. The project was about the place I grew up in, my own school experience, and the importance of telling stories from within working-class communities.

When brap released their report Too Hot to Handle, on racism in the NHS, they didn’t just want people to download it, they wanted people to feel it. To see the reality behind the data. To be moved enough to act.

That’s where this short film came in.

We supported The Kings Fund with initial research design and systems setup for journal capture, developing questions and prompts, and ensuring that the nurses and midwives had a clear path to express their thoughts and emotions using simple tools.

We believe that storytelling is a powerful way to communicate the impact and value of social change initiatives. That’s why we were thrilled to work with The King’s Fund and The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) on their Healthy Communities Together programme, which supports genuine partnership-working in local areas between the voluntary and community sector, the NHS and local authorities to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities.

The Class Divide podcast was always going to be a very personal project for me. It was about the place I grew up in, in part about my own school experience, and it was the first time, after many years of making radio and podcasts, that I really put my voice onto something.

I realise I’ve been a bit lax with sharing some of the work I’ve been involved in over the past few years. It’s partly been down to busyness, and partly down to that age old desire to not blow my own trumpet.

But, I had a bit of a realisation the other day. How the heck do I find other cool projects and people to do those projects with if no-one knows what the hell I do. So over the next few weeks I’m going to be sharing some of the key projects that have been a big part of my working life over the last few years.

I’m hoping it will help people understand how to bring me into exciting new projects.

One of the most rewarding pieces of work I’ve been involved in over the past year is the Who Cares? project. It was done with my Self-Other hat on, along with fellow co-founders Simon Newitt and Emily Macaulay.

During the initial 8-week lockdown between April and June this year, we supported members of The Bevy team to take part in a research project. They wanted to capture the experience as they dealt with the emotional and practical challenges of lockdown and then looked towards reopening.