Emotions of Change

In this special bonus episode and season finale, host Michelle Grant and producer Katarina Hagstedt go behind the scenes of Emotions of Change. Together, they reflect on what it really took to make a podcast that doesn't just talk about emotions, but feels them, in real time. From pre-interviews and sound design to vulnerable retreats and growing pains, this conversation traces the creative journey, the unexpected lessons, and the personal shifts that shaped the series.  Together they unpack why most of us rush to tidy our emotions into insights, how “showing up anyway” became a quiet act of courage, and what happens when a facilitator dares to become a participant.  If you’ve been curious about the making of the show and what we learned along the way, or craving a glimpse into the messy middle of storytelling, this one’s for you. 

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Anger is one of the most misunderstood emotions in change work. It can be explosive, uncomfortable, even frightening, especially for those of us who’ve been taught to suppress it. But what if anger isn’t something to manage or avoid, but something to compost? In this episode Sarah Queblatin, a regenerative designer and founder, shares what happened when the organization she built over seven years began to fall apart. As she fought through donor silence, the needs of her community, and board decisions she didn’t always agree with, Sarah found herself challenged: emotionally, financially, and spiritually. She embarked on a journey that took her from a silent retreat in France to chopping bamboo on a permaculture farm, and finally to the dusty trails of the Camino de Santiago. Along the way, she reconnected with her anger, not as something to fear, but as a source of protection, power, and possibility. After Sarah’s story, we are joined by Jennifer Cox, a psychotherapist, host of the Women are Mad podcast and author of the bestselling Women are Angry book. This episode is about learning to carry fire, and what becomes possible when we stop trying to silence our rage and instead learn how to let it move.

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What does it take to stay soft while doing hard things? In this episode, we meet Bärbel Weiligmann, a global nutrition leader whose work touches millions, and whose leadership is grounded in something rarely celebrated at scale: compassion. Not just for others, but also for herself. We follow Bärbel through three defining moments: a quiet connection on a tea estate in Assam, a coffee date shared between grief and joy, and a breakdown after a funding call that ends with three scoops of ice cream and an unexpected act of self-kindness. Along the way, we explore what compassion really asks of us, especially when systems are slow, and we’re expected to keep showing up. In the second half of the episode, Buddhist teacher, author and translator Chandra Easton guides us through a compassion practice, a chance to move from hearing the story to living the feeling. This is a story about presence, permission, and the kind of care that keeps change work going.

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What happens when the world asks too much, and you say yes to all of it? In this episode of Emotions of Change, we meet Shomy Hassan Choudhury, a global sanitation activist whose life looks dazzling from the outside: TED talks, White House invitations, Instagram spotlights, photos with royalty. But when political violence erupts back home in Bangladesh, and she finds herself helpless from afar, anxiety begins to wrap around her like a red snake. As she tries to hold it all: work, family, duty, and image, Shomy shares what it costs to keep showing up for others while ignoring your own needs. This is a story about guilt in moments of joy, people-pleasing in the face of burnout, and the slow realization that anxiety isn’t something to fight, but something to listen to. In the second half of the episode, Michelle and our producer Katarina decides to watch Inside Out 2, letting a Pixar movie help unpack what anxiety is really trying to tell us, and what changes when we meet it with compassion instead of control.

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What if grief isn’t just about losing someone you love, but also about stepping away from work you once loved? In this episode we sit with Jess, a South African change-maker who, for a time, led an innovative sustainability initiative in her country. Until she realized it was time to let go. Her grief wasn’t just professional. It was ecological, political, and deeply personal - grief for the oceans she once loved, the promise of post-apartheid South Africa, and a role that had shaped her for decades. We’re also joined by philosopher and psychologist Bayo Akomolafe, who helps us explore grief not as something to fix, but something to feel through. He calls it a wild god, one that arrives not to break us, but to make us different.

This episode is for anyone navigating a liminal space, wondering how to let go of what no longer fits and how to stay open to what might come next.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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After many years of hosting change-maker communities, Michelle Grant started to notice something. That there was plenty of space to talk about vision, strategy and impact. But no space to sit with the raw, contradictory, and often inconvenient emotions that come with trying to make a positive difference in the world. The actual experience of feeling, in real time, is still something we mostly do alone. We want to figure it all out first, go through the mess of it privately, and only share when we can neatly package our experience into learnings and wisdom. This brand new podcast series, Emotions of Change, is a public space to share different types of impact stories. Ones with real people and real feelings.

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