Black Swan Podcast

A conversation with Hilary Cottam (Radical Help), Sam Plum (Chief Exec of Barrow Borough Council), Lee Roberts (Deputy Leader of Barrow Borough Council), Sarah Jackson (Chief Superintendent of South Cumbria Police), Andy Knox (Director of Population Health in Morecambe Bay), hosted by the wonderful Dave Higham, Chief Executive of The Well Communities in Lancashire and Cumbria, UK. Taking some learning from Barrow-in-Furness, (said to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases per head of population in England) about new coalitions that are building up to create a society that truly works for everyone.

In Morecambe Bay, which straddles North Lancashire and South Cumbria, we are passionate about developing trauma-informed practice. Our ‘Little Book of ACEs’ has been adopted by the WHO and is now available in other languages, and we are in the process of writing the next instalment, ‘The Not So Little Book of ACEs’. Here, we discuss in the round why trauma has such an impact on our lives, what we can do to prevent it, how we can help those who are going through it and how we can heal the wounds that we carry as a result of trauma we have suffered. As we gain more understanding, we can become more compassionate and create together a society that is more woke to the reality of what is, perhaps, our biggest public health crisis.

The first in a new series of podcasts looking at ‘Integrated Care Communities’ and ‘Primary Care Networks’ in Morecambe Bay. What we are learning, what is changing, what we’re achieving and how it’s working! Some great stories and lessons for us about how we can learn to be with our communities and work across our organisations and sectors far more effectively.

Gabriella Gilkes, head off ecology, human health and wellbeing and engagement for The Eden Project North, shares with us the amazing adventure of creating a new Eden Project for Morecambe Bay, how it will reconnect us with our ecology and how Eden hopes to work in partnership with the people of the Bay to help us all fal in love with ecology!

AS one of the UK’s leading foragers, Miles takes us on a beautiful journey about what it means for us to reconnect, not only with the land, but with nature and to rediscover our story and place within it. It is a really wonderful exploration of what it really means to love ecology and create an ecology of love!

Prof Alastair McIntosh, picks up the theme of love and ecology - what it means for human beings to connect to land and what happens when we become disconnected. Drawing on his incredible work, both as an academic and as an activist, prepare to be challenged and encouraged!

Dr Roger Mitchell explores a manifesto for a politics of love! This is SO good! What would the priorities of a politics of love be? What is the power of this kind of politics? What is the difference between horizontal and vertical politics and how might we engage with them? Listen in and enjoy!

Political activist and organiser, Zahra Delilah, takes us on a tour of love and its prepositions. She challenges us to really do the inner work, so that we can do the work that is needed to transform our politics and society with love. Seriously good!

So....how do we build an economy of wellbeing? The current model we have isn't broken, it does exactly what it was designed to do....so how do we reimagine economy so that it creates both social justice and environmental sustainability? Here, drawing on her work with Scotland, New Zealand and Iceland, Prof Katherine Trebeck unpacks this for us - listen and be filled with hope!

After such rich input from Imogen Tyler and Matthew Brown, we drew a panel together to talk in more depth about the implications of austerity and how we build an economy of love and kindness.

We recently hosted some conversations in Morecambe Bay exploring how we cab build society, economics and politics based on love and kindness. None of this is possible if we do not first learn to really love people - and that includes both ourselves and our enemies. Here, Jaz Ampaw-Farr draws on her own powerful story to challenge us to become positive disruptors.

Prof Imogen Tyler, head of Sociology at Lancaster University, takes her experience from the Poverty Truth Commission to powerfully demonstrate the effects of austerity economics in the UK. Unless we understand the painful reality of poverty in our communities and why it exists, we cannot together truly challenge the powers and rebuild a more kind and loving economic system.

Leader of Preston City Council, Matthew Brown, unpacks for us how 'The Preston Model' developed as an alternative to austerity, with incredible success, as anchor institutions pulled together to build a kinder economy. This model, continues to gain much international recognition, and is being adopted by cities across the world, who want to tackle inequality and take climate change seriously.

Hilary Cottam, author of the stellar book, 'Radical Help' and well known TED speaker, talks about how broken our welfare state is, but how beautifully possible it is to put love and relationship at the heart of it, as we rebuild society together.

As part of our 'Love' series, Prof Bev Skeggs, perhaps the UKs leading sociologist, who has recently moved to Lancaster University, from LSE, takes us on an incredible tour of her work to help us really examine our values and what we value. For her, every economic choice is a moral choice....this is powerful and provocative - prepare to have your notions of what society is, how it is built and how it is held together seriously challenged.

Continuing on the theme of Love People, Sue Mitchell unpacks for us the 4 types of love and then examines love in line with Maslow's hierarchy of need. It's a really beautiful and provoking talk and well worth listening to!

In this episode, Dr Andy Knox, Director of Population Health in Morecambe Bay, talks about the approach that ‘Bay Health and Care Partners’ (BHCP) have developed around population health. The double pentagon model draws on learning from across the UK and the world, leading think tanks, like the Kingsfund and local communities. BHCP is an Integrated Care Partnership which includes the GP Provider Alliance, The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Foundation Trust, Lancashire Care Foundation Trust, Morecambe Bay CCG, Cumbria County Council and Lancashire County Council.

In this interview with Spoken Word Poet, Matt Sowerby, Matt performs some of his incredible work, and we discuss some of the issues explored in his beautiful creations, like education, climate change and politics for Generation Z.

In this episode, I talk to some of the incredible community commissioners of the 'Poverty Truth Commission', here in Morecambe Bay. This episodes focuses on how relationship and 'being with' is the dynamic which opens up possibilities for a future which is altogether more loving and kind. Enjoy! You can find out more about this initiative through YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHl7zCD59s7vrjQVFdeeTWQ/featured

An interview with the inspiring Deborah Brownson MBE about her own journey as a mum and how she, with others, is changing how we think about autism. Packed full of practical help, myth busting and expert insight, Deborah talks about her incredible work and how we might build a society that takes the issues of equality and diversity seriously, through love and kindness.

A heartwarming interview with peace activist and quaker, Chris Hart, in Lancaster, as he shares his own journey of transformation and lays down some challenges about how we can live differently to care for the 'other' and for the environment in which we live. Some really profound insights from a wonderful thinker.

An interview with Ms Shadaba Ahmed, an eminent ENT surgeon and Hilary Hopwood, a retired school business manager about how women are meeting across differences of culture and religion and finding incredible love, kindness, friendship and belonging together in the historic city of Lancaster. Funny and profound insights on how love works in practice.

A beautiful conversation with members of The Well Communities in Barrow-in-Furness - raw and moving stories of recovery from addiction through the 12 step programme, with lots of tough love and incredible kindness. This episode examines addiction from all kinds of angles, the depths of despair, loss, suicide, failure, shame, pain and incarceration. When you hit rock bottom - hope is found in community. The well community don't do things to people, they are together with people on a profound journey of transformation.

An interview, with the amazing Dave Higham, Founder and CEO of The Well - a recovery community, in Morecambe Bay, working with hundreds of recovering addicts. Hear Dave's own incredible story and be inspired to reimagine what recovery from addiction can be like.

An interview with the amazing Siobhan Collingwood, Headteacher at Morecambe Bay Community Primary School. Together, we discuss what it is like to build a school on the values of love and kindness, and explore the issues of nurture, attachment, attunement and unconditional positive regard. Siobhan is a champion of the children and community she serves, a regular contributor to the Times Educational Supplement, and member of the Lancashire Safeguarding Board. Her passionate advocacy has seen her giving evidence in the House of Commons and House of Lords, and has led to frequent appearances in the media.