The physician and journalist who entrance the brand new Optimistic Information podcast speak psychological well being options and why hope is an important strand of wellbeing
Dr Radha Modgil and journalist Seyi Rhodes describe themselves as large Optimistic Information followers, having adopted the journal lengthy earlier than they had been invited to host its new podcast.
“It was a delight to say sure to [this project],” explains Modgil, a busy NHS GP, creator and broadcaster, over the telephone on her lunch break. “Discovering sensible methods to unravel issues is one thing you do everyday as a health care provider, so the problem-solving strategy to information actually resonates with me.”
The six-part sequence, Growing Psychological Wealth, explores a spread of options to bettering psychological wellbeing, specializing in communities in economically creating international locations together with Guatemala, Peru, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast.
For Rhodes, who many will recognise as a long-standing presenter for Channel 4’s Unreported World documentary sequence, the Optimistic Information podcast supplied the chance to affix the dots of a number of pursuits. “I’ve accomplished numerous work on psychological well being, and I’ve accomplished numerous work all around the globe,” he says. “So having the ability to put these two issues collectively was simply sensible.”
A options strategy to newsgathering additionally appeals to him. “[Traditional] information may be very problems-focused. However while you [investigate problems], you’ll additionally hear about people who find themselves in search of options. I suppose it’s the opposite aspect of the coin to numerous work that I’ve accomplished.”
Moreover, Rhodes provides: “The way in which that folks discover out concerning the world is altering. There’s loads of area now for solutions-focused journalism; folks devour it far more simply and readily. I believe it lends itself to a digital viewers significantly better.”
Podcast co-host Dr Radha Modgil adopted Optimistic Information lengthy earlier than starting the podcast
Every episode centres on one answer, taking in testimony from those that have skilled its advantages, with Modgil and Rhodes offering context and evaluation. The primary episode delves into the Heal by Hair initiative based by Marie-Alix de Putter, whose hairdresser helped her cope after her husband was murdered in Cameroon 12 years in the past whereas de Putter was 4 months pregnant. The scheme has to this point educated round 150 hairdressers in Cameroon, Togo and the Ivory Coast to counsel their shoppers and assist overcome the social taboo of discussing their psychological well being.
“It’s one among my favorite episodes,” Modgil says. “One factor that struck me most is how people [like de Putter] have reworked their very own trauma, and their very own challenges, into change, and into supporting different folks.”
It’s on this episode that Rhodes introduces the idea of ubuntu, a phrase meaning ‘humanity’ within the African Bantu languages and begins with the premise of ‘I believe as a result of we’re’. It stands in stark distinction to René Descartes’ ‘cogito ergo sum’ (‘I believe due to this fact I’m,’) the cornerstone of western philosophy, which grounds existence within the particular person self.
Tright here’s loads of area now for options–centered journalism; folks devour it far more simply and readily
“In African philosophy usually, there’s a way more communal strategy to all the pieces, however notably to psychological well being and folks’s idea of themselves,” Rhodes says. “And that appears to feed by way of loads of the initiatives that we noticed, notably in Africa, however even elsewhere, the place there’s such a large group strategy to serving to folks overcome issues like melancholy, anxiousness and extra critical issues.”
For Modgil, the approaches examined within the podcast – taken by communities which can be attempting to assist themselves in areas the place official psychological well being companies are scarce – supply a helpful blueprint. “Given the unsure occasions we reside in in the meanwhile, I believe it’s actually useful to have a database of concepts which can be serving to folks,” she says. The hairdressers undertaking, for instance, she says, “is one thing we are able to all type of relate to. And it’s low useful resource, and low price”.
However one of many key insights of the podcast, she argues, is the significance of options that match a selected group’s wants. “It’s not about exporting one mannequin from some place else. We have now to grasp what folks want, what the native want is, what the tradition wants, what the group understands.”
Co-host Seyi Rhodes says the Optimistic Information podcast supplied the chance to affix the dots of a number of pursuits
The ability of a tailor-made strategy is unearthed to notably putting profit in episode two. Right here, Modgil and Rhodes meet a bunch of ladies in Peru, who’re supporting the nation’s neurodivergent group with their psychological well being challenges, by way of the easy act of internet hosting picnics.
In the end, Modgil hopes the podcast can even give listeners a dose of much-needed optimism. “Typically we get this very skewed concept that all the pieces on the planet goes unsuitable, and that impacts our personal emotional wellbeing,” she says. “Generally once we’re feeling like nothing can change, or nothing can get higher, we are able to develop a way of apathy and find yourself considering: ‘What’s the purpose? Nothing ever adjustments.’
“Listening to tales of native communities, devoted teams and passionate people which have come collectively to impact change – and listening to about what’s really altering for the higher – [can] enhance our psychological well being,” Modgil explains. “Hope is definitely a extremely vital technique for wellbeing.”
Most important picture: Radha Modgil and Seyi Rhodes, photographed by Sam Bush
