Igniting Change

For International Women's Day 2026, our host and COO, Sophie speaks with Rebecca Shadwick, Campaigner for Gender Rights and Justice at Oxfam International, about the ongoing fight for gender rights and justice. They discuss the importance of bodily autonomy as a foundation for justice, the challenges posed by anti-rights movements, and the need for solidarity among feminist and queer movements. Th...

Two sisters. No startup handbook. A very real problem. And a Dragons' Den deal. In this episode of Igniting Change , Olivia and Tanyka Davson share how they built Cubbi , a money-saving app and community for new and expecting parents, right in the middle of a cost-of-living squeeze. We talk building without "experience", going viral, and what it takes to scale fast when you know national TV attent...

After launching our AI Adoption Report, we kept hearing the same question from purpose-led teams: "Great… so what do we do next?" In this episode, Duncan Cook (CEO) and Matt Lawrence (Head of Marketing) walk through our new downloadable, fill-out-able AI Adoption Toolkit, designed to help organisations adopt AI responsibly in a practical, no-drama way. We cover how to start small, choose the right...

When a crisis hits, how do you lead - and innovate - at the same time? In this episode of Igniting Change , Puff sits down with Jamie Lesueur , Head of Emergency Operations at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) , to explore how technology is reshaping humanitarian aid from the inside out. From new digital tools that deliver faster, fairer assistance to the...

When people talk about climate action, it's usually doom, gloom, and existential dread. Justdiggit flips that script. In this episode, Puff sits down with Merel Rikveld, Head of Communications at Justdiggit, to dig into the movement that's turning degraded land green again, and doing it at scale. Merel shares how local communities in Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal are restoring land, bringing back mi...

From Google Docs to doing good. 💚 In this episode, Puff sits down with Addie Achan, founder of The Kaleidoscope Project , to unpack what it really takes to build AI that drives meaningful change. Addie shares her journey from software engineer at Google to building AI models for The Trevor Project, leading AI strategy at Fast Forward, and now helping philanthropies and investors make ethical, evi...

What do AI adoption, purpose-led orgs, and a taco hat have in common? 🌮 Turns out, it's the perfect recipe for an honest (and slightly chaotic) chat about where AI for good is heading. Join the convo to get the inside scoop from Duncan and Matt at 3 Sided Cube before our new AI Adoption report drops on 12 November. This one's got it all, the data, the debates, and....taco's. They dive into: What...

Wildfires are one of the fastest-growing natural threats on the planet, and the race to detect them earlier has never been more urgent. In this episode of Igniting Change , Puff talks with Neal Spungen , Founder of Detect Wildfires , about the technology, teamwork, and human story behind innovations in wildfire detection. From sensors that spot smoke in seconds to the partnerships driving faster,...

How do you lead digital transformation when human rights are on the line? In this episode of Igniting Change , we sit down with Paul Smith , Chief Information Officer at Amnesty International , to unpack what it really takes to modernise technology inside one of the world's most values-driven organisations. Paul shares his journey from the corporate world into the nonprofit sector, why leading wit...

Meet Roo, a chatbot built to protect privacy, share facts, and give hope when access to care is under attack. In this episode of Igniting Change , Puff talks with Nicole Levitz, Senior Director of Digital Interventions and Insights at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, about Roo's creation and how it's helping millions of people find trusted answers about sexual and reproductive health onli...

Maps aren't just lines and dots. In the right hands, they're tools for resilience. In this episode of Igniting Change , we sit down with Nicole Siggins , researcher and civic technologist, to talk about the messy, human process of turning community data into tools that actually make a difference. Nicole shares lessons from years of work at the intersection of mapping, research, and civic infrastru...

Caring for a child comes with huge responsibility. And when emergencies happen, every second matters. In this episode of Igniting Change , Emma speaks with Jill Hernandez from the American Red Cross about how the organisation is reimagining childcare training and launching a brand-new Childcare App with 3 Sided Cube. Together they explore how the Red Cross supports tens of thousands of caregivers...

Season 8 of Igniting Change kicks off with a candid conversation on America's gun violence epidemic, and the tech that's helping fight it. We recorded this episode with Everytown for Gun Safety , the largest gun violence prevention organisation in the U.S., after hearing them share a sobering reality: America is the only country in the world with more guns than citizens. With a population of 331 m...

What do Nike ads and methane leaks have in common? Not much — unless you're Pooja Munsshi. To wrap up Season 7, we're joined by Pooja from the UN Environment Programme's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), who left a high-flying marketing career to take on one of the planet's most urgent climate challenges. We talk career pivots, building data platforms that people actually use, an...

In this episode of  Igniting Change , we catch up with Virtual Doctors, the charity using smartphones to link rural clinicians in Zambia and Malawi with volunteer doctors across the globe. James and Daniel join us to talk about: Evolving their app for real-world impact The challenges of scaling telemedicine in low-resource settings Onboarding 60 new clinicians in just three weeks Why UK-based doct...

What do you do when global funding gets pulled overnight, and people still need care? Leah Ekbladh, Executive Director of  Digital Square , joins us for a chat about the messy business of making digital health systems sustainable, equitable, and country-owned. You'll hear: 💻 Why many global tech pilots fail (and how to avoid the graveyard) 🌱 What it means to truly localise innovation 🧠 How to s...

What do you get when you mix a backend dev, a front-end wizard, a pile of AI tools and a challenge involving… cats? Absolute chaos—and some very questionable furry drumsticks. In this gloriously unhinged episode, Cube's own Kev and Tom take on an internal challenge: build an AI-powered cat avatar maker in a single day. No pressure, right? 💻 Expect: Image generation mishaps (we're looking at you,...

War zones. Mass displacement. Millions in need. When crisis hits, traditional humanitarian systems move too slow, but what if tech could flip the script? In this episode, we sit down with Chutima Tantakasem , Head of Digital Solutions at the UN World Food Programme in Ukraine, to talk about how her team is tearing down outdated processes and using digital tools to deliver aid faster, smarter, and...

What if charities could move as fast as startups? What if AI could actually help, instead of just being another buzzword? Enter Jim Snape , Deputy Director of Technology at the National Deaf Children's Society , who's ditched slow processes, flattened hierarchies, and embraced AI, all in the name of making a bigger impact. In this episode of Igniting Change, we get into:  - How Jim's team got rid...

With iOS 19's massive overhaul on the horizon, AI is clearly Apple's next big frontier. But before we get swept up in what's next, let's talk about what's already here: Apple Intelligence . In this episode, Greg and Sam put Apple's latest AI tools to the test: 📩 AI-powered email writing – adios Grammarly? 📸 Photo editing wizardry or just clever AI washing? 🧠 Siri + ChatGPT – a dynamic duo or a...

Running a global nonprofit, transforming education with tech, and raising kids? That's no small feat…right?! For International Women's Day , we're joined by Lauren Lichtman and Navya Akkinepally , the co-executive directors of Learning Equality , to talk about co-leadership, making education accessible without the internet, and how motherhood has shaped the way they lead. 💡 What does it take to s...

Thirty years since the Beijing Declaration, where are we on gender justice? And why does it feel like progress is slipping backwards? For International Women's Day , we're joined by Amina Hersi , Head of Gender Rights and Justice at Oxfam International , for a raw and urgent conversation about the state of gender equality, the power imbalances that keep progress slow, and the feminist movements st...

How do we tackle some of the biggest challenges facing children today? In this episode of Igniting Change, we sit down with Thomas Davin, UNICEF's Global Innovation Director, to talk about the bold ideas, emerging tech, and next-gen problem solvers shaping the future of child welfare. From AI-driven education to climate entrepreneurs under 30, Thomas shares how UNICEF is backing big ideas with rea...

Duncan Cook (our fearless CEO) and Matt (Head of Marketing extraordinaire) dive into the results of our AI survey, where we asked  thousands  of purpose-driven organisations how they're using AI. The verdict? From cautious optimism to full-on experimentation, it's clear that the tech for good sector is learning to love AI. Expect big insights about balancing ethics, privacy, and innovation, plenty...

What happens when your boss calls in mid-recording to put you on blast? Or when an email system bombards thousands of inboxes? Kev and Tom are here to relive their most chaotic moments as developers and, more importantly, what they learned from them. From scaling smarter to avoiding API disasters, this episode is full of real talk, a few laughs, and plenty of takeaways. Whether you're a developer...