The change we need is human change, and it can start with you.

Joy can feel out of reach in a world on fire, especially for those of us trying to 'fix' things. In this episode of Emotions of Change, we meet Malika, a Mauritian conservationist whose journey took her from academic success and global institutions to collapse, and surrender, in the forests of Berlin. After giving everything to protect nature and still feeling like it wasn’t enough, Malika began asking different questions. What if our ecological role isn’t just to restore balance, but to embody joy? Through prayer, grief, and a slow return to listening, Malika discovered a new kind of purpose, not one built on urgency, but on reverence. This episode explores what it means to move from striving to sensing, and how joy might just be our most radical contribution.

What happens when the fuel behind your change work isn't just clarity or care, but guilt? In this episode of Emotions of Change, Brazilian social entrepreneur Renata shares how the weight of privilege slowly pushed her from purpose into burnout, and what happened when she finally stopped to question the guilt driving her. Alongside reflections from host Michelle Grant and insights from non-violent communication teachers and practitioners Miki Kashtan and Aurelia Saint-Just, we explore what guilt is really doing in our work, and how we can begin to move through it.  Miki introduces a four-stage framework for processing the guilt of privilege - taking us from denial, guilt or shame, to tenderness and collective stewardship. This episode offers a map, and a deeply human story for navigating one of the hardest emotions in change work.

When Zoya Miari fled war for the second time, she arrived in Switzerland carrying more than just her past, she carried a vision. A storytelling platform for displaced people, built from her own experience as a Palestinian-Ukrainian refugee. But between nursing shifts, family responsibilities, and self-doubt whispering “you’re not enough,” that vision nearly stalled. In this episode, Zoya and host Michelle Grant go behind the polished surface of changemaking to talk about what happens when we get stuck in doubt and what it takes to keep going. With insights from psychotherapist and author Britt Frank (The Science of Stuck), they explore how self-doubt can be less of a problem to fix and more of a message to understand. It’s a story of burnout, bravery, and the quiet decision to start anyway, one micro yes at a time.