Let’s Reboot the Future

What happens when you refuse to accept that nothing can be done? In this episode, we hear from Samantha Ward OBE, Deputy CEO of Royal Voluntary Service, whose lifelong conviction that the world can be changed for the better has shaped an extraordinary career in service and volunteering.

From childhood, Sam had a powerful sense of right and wrong and the grit to go with it, always asking not just "why is this happening?" but "what can we do about it?" Where others saw naivety, Sam saw possibility, and she never stopped acting on it.

That conviction was tested most visibly when the pandemic hit and Royal Voluntary Service stepped forward while others battened down the hatches. The result? The NHS Volunteer Responders programme, built in a matter of weeks, which mobilised 750,000 volunteers and delivered support over 2.6 million times to people who might otherwise have been completely cut adrift.

Sam also shares the more recent launch of GoVo, RVS's flexible volunteering platform now home to nearly 1,800 charities, designed to meet people where they are and make volunteering work for modern life, whether that's 20 minutes on the way home or a Saturday afternoon trying something completely new. As Sam describes it, it was built on the same quiet certainty that it was simply the right thing to do.

More about Samantha: 

Samantha Ward OBE, Deputy CEO and Chief of Services and Volunteering at Royal Voluntary Service

As well as Deputy CEO responsibilities, Sam is also responsible for Royal Voluntary Service's volunteering, safeguarding & service delivery, including health, social care, community services and Armed Forces support. 

Sam is also a qualified Leadership Coach, Mentor & Consultant for Leaders who feel driven to serve and are born to lead. She was awarded an OBE for services to charity in 2022.

Links and resources:

• Royal Voluntary Service
• GoVo volunteering platform

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'The Girl Who Wouldn't Look Away' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Before he made it to the boardroom, David Butcher managed the stage at a Jimi Hendrix concert. What he learned backstage on a Baltic island about motivation, leadership and getting the best out of people stayed with him through three CEO roles and a lifetime in business.

In this episode, David makes the case that the most effective leaders are not the loudest ones. Kindness, compassion and the courage to ask simple, naive questions, he argues, are the tools that cut through complexity, unlock better thinking and drive better outcomes. The boardroom, it turns out, needs a little more of what worked backstage at the Love and Peace Festival.

More about David Butcher: 

A veteran of more than 50 years in the pensions and investment industry, David has been a CEO three times and served as a non-executive director on the pensions boards of BlackRock, Legal & General, Scottish Widows and The Peoples Pension.

David has also chaired two companies in the wellbeing and mindfulness space and served as a board member for two research organisations in the pensions and asset management sector.

A mind management practitioner for 50 years, David is now bringing the benefits of mind management to individuals and companies. Through Positively Aware Ltd, David provides coaching and mentoring services to individuals and companies to improve mental health and wellbeing, resilience and productivity.

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'What kind of world are we building?' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

What does it look like to build a business where people truly matter?

Edwin Booth CBE, Executive Chairman at E.H.Booth & Co ltd, shares his journey from arriving as an 18 year old into his family's business, shaped immediately by the sheer kindness of the people around him, to becoming a leader who puts people at the heart of everything.

Edwin reflects on how culture is built from the inside out. By listening to people’s experiences, especially those who have faced barriers such as imprisonment, he has helped create opportunities rooted in dignity, skill-building, and trust.

This is a conversation about purpose in action. About leadership that listens. And about the belief that when people are supported and trusted, they can thrive.

Or as Edwin puts it, “there is no such thing as someone who cannot do something, if they are encouraged, shown how, and trusted to do it well.”

A warm, wise and quietly radical conversation about what business can be when it genuinely puts people first.

More about Edwin:

Edwin Booth CBE DL is Chairman of E H Booth & Co Ltd, the proprietors of Booths Food Stores in the North of England. Representing the fifth generation of his family to lead the business since 1847, Edwin has spent his career building an organisation rooted in excellent service, sustainability, and locally sourced food and drink.

Beyond the business, Edwin has dedicated much of his life to community and public service. He chaired the Lancashire LEP for over seven years, chaired the Employment Advisory Board at HMP Lancaster Farms, and is a Trustee of the Eden Project. He was appointed CBE in 2019 for services to business and charity, and served as High Sheriff of Lancashire in 2021.

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'The Northerner in the Room' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Gemma Lannon has created a wonderful gathering space in London for people channelling their work towards sustainability and climate solutions - it's called Treo House.

In this episode, Gemma shares how the sudden loss of her father at 15 reshaped her understanding of the world, teaching her to hold two things at once: the uncertainty of outcomes, and the courage to act anyway. She reflects on why "naive" might not be the negative label we think it is, how optimism and joy are not just nice-to-haves but essential fuel for this work, and why acting from instinct and conviction, even without all the answers, might be exactly what our collective challenges demand right now.

More about Gemma: 

Gemma Lannon is the founding director of Treo House, a collective for people working in sustainability in London. The organisation facilitates our ability to learn from and look after each other, through in-person events hosted at its home in Vauxhall. Gemma previously worked in the sustainability team at Unilever and on grassroot sustainability projects in Cornwall, Portugal and New Zealand. 

Link to Treo House

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'Moral Courage & Disco Balls' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Michael Macy may describe himself as having a minor role, but a front row seat in establishing peace across some of the world's most complex conflict zones - but the lessons he carries from those experiences are anything but minor.

At the heart of this conversation is a deceptively simple but profound insight: "Too often people think you have to resolve all the conflicts before you can have peace. No, peace, in my experience, peace creates the space to resolve the conflict."

Michael brings this to life through his experience of the Good Friday Agreement in Belfast, offering a rare and intimate perspective on how peace, when enacted, can do what negotiation alone cannot.

He also shares what he's doing about it today. Through Enacting Peace, an international effort he co-founded, Michael invites people everywhere to mark each equinox and solstice with a conscious act of peace, however small. The invitation is simple but radical: to recognise your own capacity to contribute, to celebrate it, and to act on it.

Michael mentions his friend Joe, he is referring to Joe Miller. You can find out more about Joe here.

A little more about Michael: 

Michael Macy is currently working to encourage peace. 

He is on the board of the Abrahamic Reunion, working for peace in Israel and Palestine and a founder of Enacting Peace, an international effort to invite people to act for peace. It has no dogma, no dues and no politics, just a request and a hope that you will do something for peace. 

He initially worked as a therapist, became a trial lawyer and hosted a radio talk show. He then spent nearly 30 years as a U.S. diplomat developing mutual understanding between the U.S. the UK, Mali, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, India, Haiti and Tunisia among others. In order to build those bridges, he worked with dancers, writers, artists, academics, journalists, religious community leaders and comedians.

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'The Space We Create' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Felicity Aston MBE is a climate scientist, polar explorer, expedition leader and record-breaker. She was the first woman to ski across Antarctica alone. Most recently, she led the B.I.G. (Before It’s Gone) Arctic Research Expedition, gathering vital material for Arctic sea ice research.

In this episode, Felicity shares the importance of using what you’re good at to address the issues facing our world. For her, that means using her expertise in leading expeditions to tackle inequality for women, including bringing together women from across the Commonwealth to ski to the South Pole.

She also speaks to something deeper: the responsibility of those in senior positions to champion those coming through. Felicity reflects on how painful it can be to be dismissed as naive, and the difference it makes when experience and wisdom are used to lift others instead.

Check out this link to find out more about Felicity and her polar explorations. 

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'Encouraging the Extraordinary' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

In this episode, we’re joined by Gaynor Morrison, a midwife, lecturer and photographer, and the creator of You Were Held.

Drawing on her role as a midwife safeguarding lead, Gaynor shares how she supports some of the most complex moments in care, when babies are removed from their mothers following court decisions. Through You Were Held, she offers a simple but profound gift: professional photographs taken at birth, created with care and dignity, to honour the bond, love and connection between mother and baby, even in separation.

A powerful reflection on compassion in practice.

More information about Gaynor: 

Gaynor has worked in the NHS and in education over the past 30 years with her speciality and focus on Safeguarding vulnerable families. After leaving the front line of the NHS nearly 3 years ago, she was able to start the 'You were held' compassion project with her safeguarding manager Sharon Bunford, who arranges the governance, data protection and formalities. As a volunteer she is able to go back to the Trust and offer photography to mothers and birthing people who are being separated from their babies due to complex safeguarding situations, with a hope of capturing those first moments when the baby is held by their birth mother so that they will both have forever memories. This project recognises the mother's role prior to separation and will be a small gesture towards acknowledging their disenfranchised grief.

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'On Dignity, Humanity, & the Quiet Power of Compassion' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Rich Good has spent over 40 years exploring the human condition, drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions.

At the heart of his episode is a black and white photograph of Rich as a young boy, beaming outside a wigwam in his grandmother’s garden in Aberdeen. A child full of love and ready for adventure.

He takes us through the journey of that boy’s life, the challenges he faced, the people who supported and shaped him, and how it became an apprenticeship in the human condition. Shared with honesty and care, in the hope that whoever needs to hear it might feel less alone, and see the possibility held within life’s challenges.

Rich also reflects on a wide-ranging career rooted in a profound love of nature, and inspired by Earth Wisdom Teachings. From time with First Nations teachers to his work at the Eden Project, designing and delivering leadership programmes for HotHouse.

At the heart of it all is a belief that many of us are seeking a different way of being with each other, one rooted in humility, kindness and love, now central to his work with the charity Humility, Kindness and Love (HKL)

Having worked holistically with individuals and organisations for nearly 40 years and as  co-founder of the Imaginal Collective and One Good Life , Rich invites people to create a life where there is PEACE in the Mind, HOPE in the Heart and JOY in the Soul. He is also a board member of the international charity,  HKL which  fosters humility, kindness and love across the globe to create a more beautiful world.

Link here to learn more about the HKL Global Movement

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'Finding Each Other' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Daryl Davis is an American musician, lecturer, activist and author whose life’s work has been shaped by a simple question: why would you hate me when you don’t even know me?

He has spent decades studying, seeking out and speaking with members of hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Through Daryl’s calm, human conversations, many have chosen to leave these organisations and encourage others to do the same.

Daryl believes we learn to hate, and that what is learned can be unlearned. At the heart of this is our ability to listen and to speak with each other.

He shares five things he believes we all crave in life, and that when we recognise these needs in each other, it becomes easier to connect and value one another: to be loved, respected and heard, to be treated truthfully and fairly, and to want for our families what others want for theirs.

Daryl shares more of his experiences and insights in his book The Klan Whisperer. 

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'Are You Being Hurtful or Helpful?' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org

Jennifer Nadel shares what it means to trust what you know is right, even when others dismiss it as naive.

From protesting as a young girl in the countryside to drafting a law to make it an offence for politicians to deliberately deceive the public, she reflects on how taking action, even when it does not succeed, moves us out of despair and into something more hopeful and generative.

Years on, that once dismissed idea is now being taken forward in Wales and considered in Westminster. A conversation about truth, persistence and the quiet courage it takes to keep going.

Jennifer Nadel is co-director of Compassion in Politics, a UK cross-party think tank bringing politicians together across divides. She is also Director of  Compassionate Politics at Stanford University’s Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast?

Read our blog 'Build the Kite' here.

Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future.

www.rebootthefuture.org