It’s Christmas Eve and we just wanted to drop by to wish you all a Merry Christmas. We hope that despite the challenging year that we have all had, that you will all be able to enjoy the holiday season and get a much-needed break.
This year has really tested us all and although it has been a rough one, it was also nice to see all the acts of kindness that were on display. From churches and charities delivering food and taking care of our spiritual and mental health to frontline workers going above and beyond the call of duty to care for our loved ones, keep us safe and ensure we had all the essential items we needed; we could really see God’s love at work in many people.
As we reflect on this past year and the true meaning of Christmas, we are struck by one important lesson, we are part of one family – the human race; God’s children – and as such we should look out for each other, not because it is our job but because we should genuinely care for another and love one another. This is what we should hold on to when the media, political parties and ill-equipped leaders, Presidents and Prime Ministers try to divide us and create mistrust. We are one people, experiencing the same challenges and we should be able to empathise and sympathise with each other. Therefore, we must do what it takes to protect those who are vulnerable and less fortunate than ourselves because, as this pandemic has taught us, we are either one paycheque away or one infected person away from being vulnerable too. So, in this current climate, we must be community-focused. This means taking simple, preventative actions such as wearing a mask in a public place, sanitising or washing our hands regularly and physical distancing when in public. With COVID-19 cases increasing rapidly because of the new mutation, this is not the time to focus on self and a misguided notion that wearing a mask is affecting your civil rights, if we’re willing to wear a seat belt whilst driving, pay our taxes and pay for insurance we’ll never use, then wearing a mask in a public place really isn’t that much of an imposition. Think of those with compromised immune systems such as those living with non-communicable diseases like cancer; and the elderly. They need us to get through this pandemic safely. Let’s be our brother’s keeper and come together to overcome this.
With that said, we hope you have a wonderful, safe Christmas and holiday season, filled with love and if you’re looking for some interesting, insightful, inspiring or thought-provoking content to keep you entertained while you’re at home over the holidays, then we recommend listening to some of our favourite podcasts, which are listed below. Enjoy!
- The Ted Radio Hour – TED Radio Hour investigates the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world’s greatest thinkers
- Hidden Brain – Hidden Brain reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behaviour and the biases that shape our choices.
- Radio Diaries – First-person diaries, sound portraits, and hidden chapters of history from Peabody Award-winning producer Joe Richman and the Radio Diaries team.
- The Rare Birds Podcast – A series of early-stage entrepreneurship podcasts which focuses on developing economies and emerging markets
- Buried Truths – Buried Truths acknowledges and unearths still-relevant stories of injustice, racism, and resistance in the American South.
- Ear Hustle – Ear Hustle was the first podcast created and produced in prison, featuring stories of the daily realities of life inside California’s San Quentin State Prison, shared by those living it
- Code Switch – Overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting
- The Comb– Combing Africa for stories about the unseen forces that bind us together and tear us apart.
- Better Off (Formerly The Harvard Chan’s This Week in Health Podcast)
- Invisibilia -An exploration of the invisible forces that shape human behaviour — things like ideas, beliefs, assumptions and emotions
- Daily Hope with Rick Warren – Pastor Rick Warren, the author of the Purpose Driven Life, shares practical tips to deal with fear, anxiety and stress,
- The BBC’s Documentary Podcast – documentaries investigating developments, issues and affairs
- Public Health Culture – A podcast that discusses the social determinants of health, health disparities, community-centred research and program management
- Rough Translation – Stories that follow familiar conversations into unfamiliar territory
