The leading podcast on asylum, migration and displacement. Asylum Speakers will take you on a journey across the world, without you having to go anywhere. We're here to amplify voices, educate, inspire and debunk some of the common myths and misconceptions around migration today. Join us as we transcend borders, nationalities, religions and languages to hear from the people with which we share this world. Celebrating our differences and recognising what unites us. Listen out for yourself in ...
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Talking to leaders, influencers, authors and everyone in between. Probably, the most eclectic mix of guests on any podcast. We discuss how kindness influences the way they lead and live. I challenge why it’s important to them and the stories that have made it to the forefront of their beliefs and shaped their personal cultures.
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Across the world governments, businesses and individuals are dealing with extraordinary circumstances that are forcing all of us to challenge the status quo as we step into a new normal. But as traditional models are being upturned and everyday routines are being dismantled, small shoots of hope are emerging. In this podcast we talk to members of our global community and explore their inspirational stories of progress.
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52. REUNITED AFTER TEN YEARS: The story of Mez and his little brother Josi: Part Two
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The final part of the story!!! Welcome back to the Asylum Speakers Podcast! I can’t believe it’s been so long since the last episode, and so much has happened since then… and that’s what this episode is here to fill you in on today!!! If you haven’t yet listened to the last episode that we put out, (about my foster brother Mez trying everything to …
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51. REUNITED AFTER TEN YEARS: The story of Mez and his little brother Josi: Part One
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This is an episode and a story that I’ve been wanting to share for nearly two years... and I am so happy to finally be able to do so! This episode is about my Eritrean foster brother Mez and his younger brother Josi. A few years after Mez left Eritrea to avoid compulsory military service, so too did his little brother Josi. Josi is two years younge…
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50. Imad's Syrian Kitchen with Imad Al Arnab
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In today’s episode I speak to the wonderful Imad Al Arnab of Imad’s Syrian Kitchen. Imad has such an amazing story. He was a successful restaurateur in his home city of Damascus, Syria where he owned multiple restaurants, several juice bars and coffee shops. After they were all bombed and it became apparent he had to leave, he made the dangerous jo…
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49. Being an LGBTQ+ Refugee: Everything you need to know with Hiba Noor
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In today’s episode we’re exploring what it’s like to be displaced and part of the LGBTQ+ community. This episode is dedicated to everyone who sits at this intersection, and faces not only the challenges of being an asylum seeker or a refugee, but also the discrimination that comes with their sexuality or gender identity. We will hear from three peo…
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48. The true story behind recent short film MATAR, with co-writer, actor and cinematographer Ayman Alhussein
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In this episode we hear the incredible story of Ayman Alhussein. Ayman is an actor, cinematographer and co-writer of amazing new short film, Matar, directed by Hassan Akkad, starring Ahmed Malek and available to watch online, for free on Waterbear. The film Matar tells the story of an undocumented delivery driver in London and highlights the challe…
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47. Food, heritage, identity, cultural mobility and going viral with Indonesian, Kenyan, Pakistani and Yemeni Filmmaker Nadir Nahdi
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This week’s guest is one of my favourite storytellers ever. Filmmaker Nadir Nahdi speaks so beautifully about his upbringing spanning many cultures, the ways that food has woven those pieces together and why the stories he tells and the films he makes are so disruptively important in our society today. I was introduced to Nadir’s work through his m…
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46. THE JOURNEY Episode 6: Going Full Circle
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Welcome to the FINAL episode of The Journey! Today’s episode is designed to speak to that rhetoric that refugees or asylum seekers might be a burden... that they take from us, economically, culturally, or whatever that fear might be. I’m honoured to be able to share multiple examples of how much we have to gain from welcoming refugees and asylum se…
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Welcome back to Episode FIVE of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe. Today’s episode is about what life looks like for people once they make it to their final destination. What is life like in their host country? What’s new and difficult? What does integration…
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In his memoir about leaving Syria to life in the UK, my friend Hassan (also a previous podcast guest), shared the terrifying experience he had when attempting to reach Greece by boat. His rubber dinghy was approached by three masked men on a bigger boat, who stole their petrol tank and violently pushed them away from the shore. What Hassan experien…
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Welcome to Episode THREE of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe. So far this season we’ve explored the reasons why people are leaving their countries, and taken a look at what life looks like in the first countries they arrive to. As a result of how difficult …
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42. THE JOURNEY Episode 2: The First 'Safe' Country
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Welcome back to Episode TWO of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe. People often ask me ‘Why don’t refugees stay in the first safe country they land in? It’s a comment I see a lot on social media and one I feel there is a lot of judgment and misinformation aro…
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I’m so happy to be bringing you episode 1 of The Journey - a 6-part podcast series following migration routes from Africa, The Middle East and Ukraine, to northern Europe. In this episode we’re starting from the beginning and exploring why people first embark on their journey. Why do people leave their countries and everything they ever knew behind…
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40. Ukraine: Everything you need to know and what you can do to help
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th February, I think it’s safe to say we’ve all been thinking about the Ukrainian people. This week I’ve been in neighboring Poland, (which, at the time of recording this is now estimated to be home to 4 million Ukrainian refugees). I’ve been honoured to speak to some incredible people both leaving Ukraine and …
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AFTER suffering bullying throughout his school years, Joe Plumb set up a charity to help others going through similar at the tender age of 13. A decade on and Joe has dedicated his life to raising awareness of mental health issues and during lockdown helped those in need through his social media pages. I was always different. I was diagnosed with a…
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Dr. Neil Hawkes D.Phil (Oxford), MEd, BA, FRSA is well known as an inspirational speaker, educator, broadcaster, author and social commentator. He is a popular TEDx presenter. Neil’s thinking is having a profound influence on education and more widely in society. Neil first gained international recognition when he was a Headteacher in Oxfordshire, …
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Motivational speaker and podcaster Jaz O'Hara is the founder of The Worldwide Tribe, an organisation and online community supporting refugees and asylum seekers globally. The Worldwide Tribe was born from a life-changing Facebook post Jaz wrote about her first trip to the Calais Jungle in July 2015. Jaz’s authentic account went viral, raising £250,…
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Claude Silver is VaynerMedia’s first ever Global Chief Heart Officer, tasked with fusing empathy with agency to unlock employee potential and foster a culture of belonging across the 1,600+ person organization. Between her deep education in psychology and spirituality, and the two decades she has spent as an advertising strategist, Claude has been …
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Transformation delivered through Cultural Performance Experienced customer facing leader with a track record of delivery. Strong transformational and operational leadership gained at FTSE 100 and NASDAQ organisations, business outcomes, with a passion for the development of management teams and colleague engagement. Developing and leading multi-sit…
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39. Period Poverty: Everything you need to know
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Period Poverty. You might no know what this term means yet, but this episode will tell you everything you need to know. In it we hear from six incredible women from five organisations working to tackle period poverty from the ground up. If you would like to find out more about their wonderful work, check them out here: Ella Lambert - founder of The…
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Claire Yorke is an author, academic researcher, and advisor. Her expertise is in the role of empathy and emotions in international affairs, politics, leadership, and society. She is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark, leading a new project funded by the European Commission o…
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Sam Smith remains the only female Chief Executive of a City broking firm. She established her firm, finnCap, in 2007 having orchestrated the buy-out of a small broking subsidiary of a private client stockbroking firm - today finnCap is ranked No1 Nominated Adviser and Broker to AIM companies. Sam qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG and is a…
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38. From defending on the football pitch, to defending the rights of Afghanistan's women and girls, with Khalida Popal
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This International Women's Day, It's only right that I bring you the story of one of the most incredible women that I know... Khalida Popal. Khalida grew up playing football with her brothers in Afghanistan, and even though she faced serious discrimination from her community as a result, she went on to form the Afghan women’s football league with h…
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Our first ever double-guest episode! John Lodge is an NHS manager and CEO of the multi-award winning timebank and skill exchange Hexitime, which he co-founded with Hesham Abdalla in 2018. He has a focus and passion for improving healthcare services and supporting people to do so. Hesham is a consultant paediatrician and director of medical educatio…
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Ben Bengougam is Senior Vice President, Human Resources, EMEA, Hilton. Based in the UK, he is responsible for leading the Human Resources function across the region, which includes nearly 60,000 team members in 69 countries & territories. He joined the company in 2010 with a European remit, and following this had his responsibilities widened to inc…
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Ian Feaver is Managing Director of Arteel Ltd and is spreading the power of appreciation around the UK. ARTEEL have over 40 years experience at creating great work place cultures throughout Belgium and other parts of Europe. Now, more than ever before, employees need to feel connected to the vision, mission and values of their company. Due to the s…
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37. What's happening in Sudan? Everything you need to know and what you can do about it, with Waging Peace
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Today’s podcast episode is about a country very close to my heart - Sudan. Like most people in the UK, I grew up without any knowledge of what was happening in Sudan. In my history lessons at school I learnt about the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing that happened during the second world war, but I learnt nothing about the current genocide in Sud…
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Episode part 2 of 2. Ed Kirwan is the CEO, founder and filmmaker at Empathy Week - a global educational programme using the power of film to develop the skills of empathy and leadership in every student. Since 2020, Empathy Week has engaged 100,000 students across 40 countries with a mission to build the #EmpathyGeneration. Previously a teacher and…
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36. My journey from Syria to Filmmaker to NHS Hospital Cleaner and Activist, with Hassan Akkad
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I’m so excited to introduce you to our guest for this episode... Syrian filmmaker, activist and most recently, author, Hassan Akkad! Hassan is the very first person I ever heard speak about their experience leaving Syria first hand, and it’s safe to say that it had a huge impact on me. Not only has Hassan shared his incredible story through talks a…
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Episode part 1 of 2. Ed Kirwan is the CEO, founder and filmmaker at Empathy Week - a global educational programme using the power of film to develop the skills of empathy and leadership in every student. Since 2020, Empathy Week has engaged 100,000 students across 40 countries with a mission to build the #EmpathyGeneration. Previously a teacher and…
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Nilema is the most recent member of the Kantar’s Executive Team and Group General Counsel. Before joining Kantar, Nilema was COO of Farillio, a legal tech platform for SMEs, CEO of Alacrity (a platform business for enterprise), and General Counsel of Ascential plc (250 FTSE). Last year she was named as Cranfield University’s 100 Women to Watch 2020…
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Damian is the head of culture at Mars, Incorporated, where The Mars Five Principles are a real decision making tool and engagement and recognition matter. Mars is a 12 time Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award winner. Damian has worked in diverse environments from a cardboard box factory, telemarketing offices and a family business to South Pacific a…
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Dr. Radha is a practising NHS GP, broadcaster & campaigner for wellbeing. Radha educates in a creative and fun way, encouraging people to stay healthy. She has a passion for connecting with & hearing people’s stories, and understanding how we can all learn from each other. Radha is the medical expert for BBC Radio 1’s daytime show, Life Hacks and t…
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Kristin Neff is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a pioneer in the field of self-compassion research, conducting the first empirical studies on self-compassion nearly twenty years ago. She is author of the bestselling book Self-Compassion. Along with her colleague Chris Germer, s…
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35. SPECIAL EPISODE: The Freedom to Imagine, in collaboration with Amnesty International UK
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This is an extra special bonus episode in which I ask some of my amazing previous podcast guests - 'What does Freedom mean to you?' As we come to the end of Season 5, it felt good to touch base with a few old friends of the show, as well as to explore a theme I have been discussing with the team at Amnesty UK - human rights. We all know we have rig…
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Gabrielle (Gay) Haskins is co-editor, with Mike Thomas and Lalit Johri of Kindness in Leadership (Routledge, 2018). This is one of the first books to underline the importance of kindness in organisations and the positive role it can play in organisational and leadership effectiveness. Gay now concentrates particularly on this topic, which has come …
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34. A Lebanese cookery class with Ahmad from Migrateful
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I’ve got a bit of a different episode from normal in store for you today as I’m going to take you with me on a really fun experience I had recently.... a Lebanese cookery class. Let me explain... My guest this week is Ahmad Sinnu. We met through one of my all time favourite organisations Migrateful. Migrateful run cookery classes led by refugees, a…
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Professor Robin Banerjee Talks Kindness part 2
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Part 2 of 2 part episode. Professor Robin Banerjee is Head of the School of Psychology and a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Sussex. He leads the CRESS (Children’s Relationships, Emotions, and Social Skills) research lab, and he works closely with practitioners and policymakers in the areas of education and mental health.…
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Professor Robin Banerjee Talks Kindness part 1
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Part 1 of 2 part episode Professor Robin Banerjee is Head of the School of Psychology and a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Sussex. He leads the CRESS (Children’s Relationships, Emotions, and Social Skills) research lab, and he works closely with practitioners and policymakers in the areas of education and mental health. …
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33. Facing life in prison for stopping a deportation flight, with Melanie Strickland from the Stansted 15
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For anyone who doesn’t remember the incredible story of the Stansted 15 - they are a group of human rights activists who organised a non-violent action to stop a deportation flight leaving from Stansted on the night of the 28 March 2017. The plane they stopped from leaving the UK was chartered by the UK Home Office to deport 60 people to Ghana, Nig…
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Jonny Benjamin MBE is an award-winning mental health campaigner, film producer, public speaker, writer and vlogger. At the age of 20 he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a combination of schizophrenia and bipolar, and later began making films on YouTube about the condition that have been watched by millions of people. Jonny now speaks pu…
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Dame Julia Unwin is an experienced non-executive, speaker, consultant and mentor. She was the Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation from 2007 until the end of 2016. She has written and spoken extensively on issues relating to philanthropy, governance, the voluntary sector and its relationship with government. Her publications include ‘W…
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Miranda McKearney OBE is a social justice entrepreneur who has spent 35 years turning kitchen table ideas into nationwide campaigns, culminating in founding The Reading Agency in 2002. The charity’s Summer Reading Challenge now involves 800,000 children every year. Having “retired” to go trekking, she became fascinated by the building body of resea…
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32. What's happening in Afghanistan? Everything you need to know, and what you can do to help, with Rustam Wahab
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This episode of The Worldwide Tribe podcast is dedicated to the people of Afghanistan. It was recorded in response to the devastating events we have seen unfold there over the last few weeks as the Taliban has taken over the country. My guest this week is Rustam Wahab - a 19 year old British Afghan who has single-handedly become the go to source on…
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Avinder is co-founding Partner of Serenity Law LLP and Minute Mediation, she is a commercial and workplace Mediator, and also a member of the Civil Mediation Council (CMC), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in International Arbitration (MCIArb), IMI and Mediators Beyond Borders (MBBI). She has a strong belief that everyone should have the opportun…
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Chester Elton has spent two decades helping some of the world’s most successful businesses engage their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. He has been called the “apostle of appreciation” by Canada’s Globe and Mail, “creative and refreshing‚” by the New York Times, and a “must read for modern managers” by CNN. Elton is co-author …
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31. Being a father to eight kids from five different countries: Becoming a foster parent, with my dad, Mike O'Hara
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By Jaz O'Hara
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David Jamilly is the founder and CEO of Kindness UK. David has been involved with social projects since his teenage years. He founded Pod Childrens Charity in 1977, which has provided live entertainment for over a million hospitalized children in the UK. He also founded the Good Deeds Organisation 2005, and Kindness Day in 2010. David is also invol…
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Danny Bent was voted one of the 100 happiest people in the UK, and one of the 50 most inspirational people in London. He is an award winning author and journalist, Guinness World Record holder, and celebrated adventurer and community leader. Motivating people to realise their true potential is Danny’s passion and trade. Living dreams, facing fears,…
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Retired after 40 plus years at Southwest Airlines and former Managing Director Culture, Cheryl has always embraced an enthusiasm for recognizing Employees’ noteworthy efforts. Growing up at Southwest, now celebrating 50 successful years where love, care, respect, concern, and a servant’s heart have shaped it’s legendary culture, has inspired her to…
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30. 'Leaving everything to volunteer in Greece changed my life forever,' with Holly Penalver, Founder of Indigo Volunteers
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I LOVED recording this episode! My guest this week is the most requested guest on this podcast ever - Holly Penalvar, founder of Indigo Volunteers. Holly is an absolute ray of sunshine and known in this sector, not just for her amazing work coordinating thousands of volunteers, but for always doing so with a smile on her face so I think you guys pr…
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