Impact!

In this episode we offer one of our occasional country files, honing in on a country that’s not often in the headlines of the western news media to understand what challenges and opportunities its people are facing. This time, we turn the spotlight on Uzbekistan, the central Asian nation of nearly 40 million people and one of only two double land-locked countries in the world. As we quickly learne...

Allegations of abuse and discrimination based on skin colour and ethnicity against individuals targeted by the US immigration enforcement agency ICE continue to be reported. At the same time, some who are detained are said to being put under pressure to voluntarily give up their claims of asylum or other reasons to remain in the US, while there are concerns about the conditions and treatment of so...

In this episode we turn our attention to what it means to be coherent as we let down our anchors and focus on a year of keeping ourselves grounded during times of uncertainty and rapid change. Being coherent means letting our experiences settle into meaning, alignment and a greater sense of wholeness. It asks us to notice what is emerging and invites us to incorporate what we’ve experienced into o...

Five years after US troops left Afghanistan, the approximately 25 million women and girls in the country remain subject to an exceptionally wide series of exclusions from education, work, public space, mobility and political life. For many, life has been getting worse and has become largely restricted to the privacy of their homes since wide-ranging powers to punish so-called acts of vice became c...

Could it be that what we pray or hold intention for now has the power to affect the experience of others many years ago, such as relieving their suffering or willing that they are held in light through what became recorded as a perilous situation? In this episode, we ponder whether prayers and focused intention can affect past events. We compare perspectives from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hind...

Rarely has a meeting between a US and Chinese President been more critical, as Presidents Trump and Xi prepare to meet for their summit in Washington next week. Their agenda includes trade tariffs, wars, space warfare, Taiwan, and more. Yet, it’s not clear whether the stark alarm being sounded by AI tech bosses will have the urgency of attention that it needs by the two countries whose role in reg...

In a poignant episode commemorating 25 years since the horrific attacks of 9/11, we ask how might we respond to that appalling tragedy now, and specifically, where might we hold our intentions and prayers as America marks this sombre anniversary. As we quickly came to see when researching this episode, there’s much that calls for our prayers, including what’s happening today, what we might pray fo...

With the US midterm elections rapidly approaching, it’s likely to be a time for many when differences of view are ripe to inflame passions that may be very unpleasant and unsettling. In this episode, we look at how easily such strong emotions can take hold and sometimes get mischannelled. We’ll see how this relates to what the highly-esteemed Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh calls interbeing, and...

Fires, floods, earthquakes and cyclones seem to be happening all the time now, and with ever-more intensity. This year has seen records being broken in many areas in terms of the frequency and intensity of such events. At least where human beings are concerned, these are records that aren’t to be wanted. Yet, can we pin all of what’s happening on global warming, and might Mother Nature herself be...

While now often out of the headlines, huge swaths of land in western Canada remain ablaze, as the embers of hundreds of other fires seen across the country this year continue to burn. The smoke pollution effects, large-scale evacuation of people and huge loss of forests are very clear to see. There are many longer-term consequences of the fires too, as we’ll see in this episode. We examine the 202...

As the UN celebrates and brings attention to the world’s youth with its theme of “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations” for International Youth Day this Wednesday, in this week’s Impact! we seek to understand the many challenges and opportunities that young people today are facing. For many of the nearly 1.3 billion young people who are aged 15 to 24, the future looks more uncertain than ever, a...

At a time of tinder-box peace in the Middle East, the 20,000+ strong Iran-backed Houthis based in Yemen threaten to disrupt shipping through the Red Sea and launch drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s vital east-west oil pipeline. A blockade of the narrow Bab al-Mandeb strait into the Red Sea would take the global oil trade crisis to a whole new level, yet with Houthi involvement, could happen as easil...

In Impact! this week, we take stock of the state of migrant and refugee movements so far this year. We reflect upon the sobering reality of what motivates such migration, and the all-too frequent tragedies faced by those making dangerous sea crossings in an attempt to flee oppression and desperate conditions at home. We hone in on the principal regional routes and recent shipwrecks, public attitud...

In this week’s Impact! we give attention to an invaluable service that’s close to both our hearts, and with which we have very recent and ongoing support from–the worldwide hospice movement. We explore their surprisingly recent history, purpose, and the global reach of palliative care, explaining how hospices began, the services they provide and how they are funded. As always, we see where our pra...

A brave, bold, but battered country marked 15 years of existence last week, South Sudan. Its many challenges are staggering, but it’s also a country whose predominantly younger generation have hope for a future free from conflict, food shortage and displacement, and in which young voices of today help pave the way for establishing regular elections, political cooperation and the rule of law. Join...

Philanthropy may suggest a need to be wealthy, but this is far from true. In this week’s episode we explore what the concept really means, how it differs from charity, and how it relates to intention holding. We’ll hear some heart-warming stories and come to understand why all the world’s great religions have philanthropy at their core. We’ll see that science proves that it pays to be nice. And we...

As we enter the second half of the year, Global Healing Response turns its attention to the theme of resilience, the intentional capacity to stay grounded, endure, adapt, and grow amid personal and collective crises. We get to the bottom of what this means and how we might strengthen our capacity to stay resilient in these challenging times. And as always, we suggest where to focus our intentions...

El Niño returned with a vengeance this month, with some experts warning that it could be the strongest yet. Millions face the threat of fire, floods and drought in the months to come. Join us for an El Niño 101 as we understand what this natural phenomenon is, why it matters, and how human-created global warming are amplifying its effects. We ask why the 2026 event could be especially strong, and...

With Pride Month now in full swing, in this week’s Impact! we celebrate the many positive stories of progress toward tolerance and equality for LGBTQ+ people in many countries, while acknowledging the rollbacks being faced by others. We ask what is pride, as Clive explains why it’s become especially important and meaningful for him. And as always, we take a look at where we might hone in with our...

Remigration, the policy of deporting individuals based on their assessed right to live in a country, is increasingly being framed in the rhetoric of populist parties in Europe and North America. For some, it can be taken as a code word for targeting people based on ethnicity who aren’t seen by those detaining and deporting them as fitting their view of what is to be a fellow citizen based on race...

Following our look at Brits’ perceptions of life Stateside last week, in this episode Ellen puts Clive on the spot to find out if common American views of the Brits really stack up in practice. We get behind the myths and the mysteries, and uncover some surprising truths. Do we really get lost in the great trans-Atlantic divide, or do we have more in common than we realize? Fasten your seat-belts...

As both the USA and UK approach important anniversaries in the coming weeks–250 years of independence from Britain stateside, and 10 years on from the decision to go independent from Europe on the UK side of the pond–this week, we check out what we think of each other. This week, Ellen is our eyes on the ground stateside as our eyes on the ground as Clive seeks to see whether ideas that many Brito...

Taking time for self-care and releasing anything that doesn’t serve us is something that’s well known to virtually all you take part in energy and intention work. Yet, sometimes we need a strong reminder as to why this is necessary. In this episode, we take a deep dive into the practice-within-a-practice of offering ourselves self-care. We discuss practices like Tonglen, heart-brain coherence, sel...

This week we turn our attention to a situation that just a few years ago, would have dominated world headlines and moved the world to action, yet today is hardly mentioned by the world’s news media–the devastating humanitarian crisis in Somalia, where over 6 million people are facing acute food insecurity. We take a look at the human impacts—widespread displacement, child malnutrition, school clos...

This episode investigates the disturbing phenomenon called "Rape Academy": clandestine online communities where men share tips, videos, and tactics for drugging and sexually abusing women, often their partners. We discuss insights gained through investigative reporting, the role of technology platforms and regulation failures, and seek to understand where our prayers and intentions may be best foc...