Mothership presents the Good of Small Things with Jessie Brinton

How would you manage if youwere evacuated from your home because of a wildfire and your community burned to the ground? It’s almost un-imaginable to those of us in the UK but for Paula James Martinez, her husband and 7 year old daughter, it happened in early January when the Eaton fire ripped through her local town of Altadena, destroying homes and businesses and leaving many of her friends homeless. A British-born writer and filmmaker who also runs Mother Lovers, a non-profit raising awareness about maternal health, she’s spent the time since helping her community work out what to do next. The US news cycle has been moving so fast and so loud since the fires that it’s almost as if they didn’t happen. But they did. This conversation with Paula took place at the end of January and we were tempted to ask her if we could re-record it. But then we listened to it again and there’s so much in it that\s inspiring for us all to hear. Powerful, crazy white men might be driving the news narrative. But the stories we most need to hear are the ones on the ground, in places where real people live real lives where every small thing you do matters.  So whenever you’re listening to this, in early 2025 or a year’s time, here it is, in its original form, an emotional and very worthwhile conversation with Paula about what people do when the unimaginable happens.

The Good of Small Things is back this week after a short break to process all that has been going on in the world. This year has been a lot, right? A very understandable response from many has been to turn down the volume and focus on daily life because, well, overwhelm (if you're reading this when it's first shared, then throw Christmas into the pot). But what if you need to turn down the volume but you don't want to shut it all off completely? That's where this week's guest comes in. She's Yazzie Min and if you don't already know her, you'll soon see why. Yaz is a spoken word poet, a facilitator, a community organiser and so much more. Mostly she's someone who's dedicated herself to flipping the script on what’s normal so that in a harsh world, love and care can rise to the top again. She started her own movement platform, Stand for Humanity, back in 2016 in the time of Trump mark 1 and Brexit, all predicated on the wisdom that if each of us does one small thing, then together we can have a big and meaningful impact. If you’re one of the many who are feeling confused right now, wanting to turn off the news, but also far from ready to give up on the world, then this chat is for you. Enjoy.NotesYazzie is at @Standforhumanity on Instagram and Navigating the Tender on Substack.Neighbourhood Doulas are herePaul Hawken’s Blessed Unrest is here Sound editing on this episode by Mary Chan at Organized SoundThanks to Sundari Photography for the portrait of Yaz

The rise of the Smartphone Free Childhood movement is the ultimate modern story of how a small action can lead to a big change: when Daisy Greenwell made an Instagram post to share her worries about her young daughter having a smartphone, she didn't expect it to go viral. But it did, and 24 hours later, the WhatsApp group she'd made with her mate Clare, had reached its 2000 people limit. Since then, Daisy, Daisy’s husband, Joe, and Clare have been running the movement from out of her and Joe’s kitchen in Suffolk. The community is now 150,000 strong with local WhatsApp groups of parents in almost every neighbourhood around the country, schools and thousands of individuals signing their Parent and School pacts, and as of this week, a Safer Phones Bill tabled for government debate. In episode 2 of the Good of Small Things, Daisy tells Jessie the inside story of how it happened, what the impact has been (including on her own family life!) and why the whole experience has left her feeling more optimistic than ever about what can happen when people get together to make change. Don't miss this episode.

In this first episode of the Good of Small Things, Jessie meets Piarvé Wetshi, co-founder of Colèchi. If you haven’t heard of Colèchi yet, you will soon. A platform and community that’s all about reconnecting what we wear with where it’s grown and made, it began in 2018 with some tiny gatherings hosted by Piarvé and her sister and has grown into a force, a research and education platform with a gorgeous community of bold thinking creatives, designers, scientists and makers assembled around it. We've been fangirling them since we first heard about them and we’re so happy that Piarvé is our first guest on the podcast. With her 6 month old on her knee, she talks about fashion, farming, how you make a great community of people you can be yourself with, the influence of her mum’s upbringing on her and Tina's ideas about togetherness, friends and family, and of course, her own small superpower that's helped make it all possible. Notes and resourcesColèchi and their (excellent) educational materials can be found at colechi.com and on Instagram and LinkedIn.Look at their AGreenCulture journal here. Sign up for the next You can Knit With Us here. Extra shouts to Akil Benjamin at the Black Business Residency at Somerset House, and @EmmaSladeEdmondson of Sisters in Sustainability.Contact the Mothership team at hello@heymothership.com with your questions and ideas! Follow us on Instagram (tag #thegoodofsmallthings)Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 

Welcome to the Good of Small Things from Mothership, a new podcast about the small superpowers each of us has and what we can do with them. Each week, host Jessie Brinton will ask a very special guest for the small good thing, the tiny talent, tool or skill that they use to do their bit - and even, sometimes, do very big things. Tune in to hear the stories, get the inspo and learn from the coolest people around how they’re navigating caring about kids and the planet at this particularly crazy moment in history. Tune in and subscribe for your chance to be part of the moment when the mums (and aunties, grandmas, sisters, carers, plant mums and dog mums) take charge, as it happens.The Good of Small Things is co-produced with Mary Chan and Sophie King, from a concept by Orsola de CastroContact the Mothership team at hello@heymothership.com with your questions, ideas and advertising enquiries! Follow us on Instagram (tag #thegoodofsmallthings).Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.