Stories of Impact

When Coschool founder and CEO Henry May began his career as a teacher, he learned that his job was not just about enriching the mind, but the soul and spirit of a student as well. He saw that part of excellence in education was helping school communities thrive despite painful circumstances. Nicole Bruskewitz, Coschool’s Director of Education, was also a problem solver who’d questioned inequality and education access since childhood. When May and Bruskewitz were introduced to the pioneering work of Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, they thought that his unique educational model could be particularly transformative across their adopted home country of Colombia’s entire public educational system. They dreamed of reaching hundreds of schools and entire cities across Colombia — and beyond, educating, promoting character development, and helping heal collective trauma. Hear about the impact of their work in today’s episode. Read the transcript of this episodeSubscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcastsFind us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

In the societies in which most of us live, our capitalist economic systems run on transactions—on individual sales of goods and services. But are you aware that there are other infrastructures of support and help that meet our need for information, connection, even love? We live with gift economies that already enrich our lives. We start our story with professional disruptor, clinical psychologist and entrepreneur Dr. Glen Moriarty, founder of one of the most innovative, free global mental health systems on the planet—a community called Seven Cups, where over 570,000 trained volunteer listeners provide emotional support to users in 189 countries in 140 languages. Dr. Moriarty and his research partner, Dr. Sarah Schnitker, professor of psychology and neuroscience, principal investigator of the Science of Virtues Lab, and director of the Baylor Research and Growth in Human Thriving Science Center at Baylor University in Waco, Texas are turning assumptions upside down about the systems in which we connect, heal, and thrive in the modern digital age.  Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Today’s episode is full of beauty, hope, healing, community, and connection. In fact, it might be one of the most feel-good, good news stories we’ve ever gotten to tell. Meet Dr. Richard Lerner and Dr. Elizabeth Dowling, Director and Deputy Director of the Institute for Applied Research and Youth Development at Tufts University. Like many great teachers, they can tell you to look for people who care about kids like that in school — and one school in particular: Thanda, named after the Zulu word for love. Together, these researchers are highlighting the unique curriculum and culture of Thanda, one of the most thriving and successful schools they’ve ever encountered. Today we learn all about this remarkable school, located in rural South Africa, which is run by some of the perhaps most irrationally caring educators on the planet. Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Over the last five years, we’ve explored stories with countless scientists whose thoughtful research reveals the way they’re answering big questions and solving big problems. We’ve shared conversations about studies done in labs and out in the field. Well, today’s field is Brazil. The labs are crowded city streets and verdant jungles. And the big question? What happens when you stop fearing and fighting against diversity, and start exploring and embracing difference? The researchers we learn from today, anthropologists Kurt Shaw and Rita da Silva, have found their answers through play — in music, drumming, dance, martial arts, food, ritual, and shared experiences in Brazilian wise, but marginalized, communities. Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Today, we’re excited to bring you a hopeful and constructive perspective on modern technology — a story about gamified tech that’s positively transformative. Dr. Eugene Ohu is a native Nigerian who grew up in this complex nation observing painful divisions, stereotyping between the ethnic groups, and deep discrimination. He wondered, is it possible to have a united Nigeria? Dr. Ohu wanted to do something radical to help his country unite. He wanted to ensure that the next generation of Nigerian leaders would be compassionate, tolerant, and empathetic toward all citizens, no matter their ethnic identity. He especially wanted Nigerian school children to embrace love and unity. So what was his answer? Virtual reality. Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Last week we introduced you to Dr. Berry Billingsley, in a conversation about her work studying Big Questions in Religious and Science Education, and her efforts to support multidisciplinary classrooms. This week we're back with the second part of that episode, exploring another Big Questions in the Classroom initiative, in conversation with seven educators who are advancing Dr. Billingsley's work through a collaborative research project called Religion and Worldviews. Together, these research leaders are not only introducing innovative ideas into traditional curriculum, but they're educating the educators in how to teach them.  Why does the classroom need a refresh? Let’s discover together! Our guests include educators Dr. Michael Reiss, Dr. Trevor Cooling, Stephen Pett, Sarah Lane Cawte, Gillian Georgiou, Marianne Cutler, and Katie Gooch. Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Is science fundamentally in opposition to religion, or do they just have little to do with each other? Is the way you engage with science and religion in your life informed by your core beliefs, or are your core beliefs informed by them? Do you think it's scientists or religious experts, or both, or neither, that are best equipped to help humans explore the meaning of life?   People might find these questions to be provocative or controversial. But our guest in today's episode, science educator and researcher Dr. Berry Billingsley, was raised in a family culture of curiosity, so she's been asking these sorts of really big questions all her life.   Now a professor in Education at the University of Swansea and the former Director of the Learning about Science and Religion Centre at Canterbury Christ Church University, Dr. Billingsley, as devoted as she has been to young people's science education  throughout her career as a researcher, has built a body of work critiquing the way science is traditionally taught and breaking down the siloes between religious education and science education classes.   Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Did you know that you are part of one of the most significant revolutions in the last 85 years? If you’re one of the 180-million Americans in the labor force, and at some point since the 2020 pandemic, you joined the ranks of work-from-home, you are historically revolutionary. Today, we sit down with Dr. Nicholas Bloom, economist and professor of economics at Stanford University. He's studied work-from-home habits for over 20 years—so long before covid-19—and now, his data is showing how the revolutionary shift that happened during the pandemic, is reverberating through society and affecting everything from sports and real estate to crime, taxes, and politics. Read the transcript of this episode  Subscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts  Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube  Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org  Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

We’re back this episode for our second timely interview focusing on political polarization, wrapping up in conversation with Dr. Kurt Gray, professor of moral psychology and neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill, and the director of the Deepest Beliefs Lab in the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. Moral psychology is the descriptive understanding of our moral judgments, or concern with not just how people should make moral decisions, but how they actually do. Why does this matter?  In Dr. Gray’s words: "To understand our contentious and divided political moments where people are unwilling to discuss politics across the aisle or entertain even that the other side is a reasonable human being in the way that you feel about yourself and your own side. We do disagree already when it comes to politics. But where does this political disagreement come from? …Once you get that, then you can understand where this political animosity comes from. But it's really a question of moral disagreement. And for that you need to understand our moral psychology.” Read the transcript of this episode
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 Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

When we spoke recently with Dr. Sean Westwood, associate professor of government at Dartmouth College and the director of the Polarization Research Lab, we knew we wanted to share the conversation with you as quickly as possible, because it speaks so directly to the current moment. Dr. studies American politics and how partisan conflict manifests in the United States, its consequences and its origins.  Read the transcript of this episode
   Learn more about the researchSubscribe to Stories of Impact wherever you listen to podcasts
 Find us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and YouTube Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org    Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation