#impact: Social Impact | Social Entrepreneurship | Social Good

#impact invites you in to eavesdrop on intimate, raw and honest conversations on creating positive change in the world. Brought to you, with love, by Regina Larko, the voice that encourages you to get curious about what making an impact means to you. www.hashtagimpact.com

Raising Children with Rare Diseases: The Power of Community and Connection 06/24/2026

Raising Children with Rare Diseases: The Power of Community and Connection In this episode of #impact, we hear from Sarah LaPham, director of A Different Story in Amsterdam. A Different Story was born out of our experience of parents to a little boy living with a rare neurological disease. From obtaining a diagnosis to finding quality care to fighting for accessible education and to building a supportive community, their experience in this journey is the foundation of A Different Story. Together in conversation with Sarah is Nina Aziz Justin, another mother from the same community, whose story holds an almost uncanny connection. The two first met in a global Facebook group for families navigating rare conditions only to later discover they live in the same neighbourhood in Amsterdam, with children the same age. What unfolds is a conversation about what often remains invisible: the quiet isolation that can come with raising a child whose needs don’t fit into familiar categories. The subtle, often unspoken shame that can arise not from the child themselves, but from a world that doesn’t always know how to meet differences with understanding. And the concept of “living loss” — the ongoing experience of holding deep love and deep grief at the same time, every single day. At the heart of it all is one clear thread: what changes when people are truly seen. Not fixed. Not pitied. But met in a real community. Through A Different Story, that kind of space has been growing in Amsterdam since 2022 — centering care intensity rather than diagnosis. Monthly in-person gatherings with childcare, online meetups, and spaces where children aged 8–16 can simply be children, while parents are given something many of them rarely experience: a breath. Sarah also makes an important call for what needs to follow — , so that this kind of support stops being the exception and becomes part of how we care for one another. There is something very humbling about seeing how a community can form like this. And then watching it grow into something that now reaches across cities and countries, holding people who might otherwise never find each other. Small moments of recognition. Someone saying: me too. I get it. After you listened, we have a feeling you will never look at community building the same way again. Connect with our guests: Sarah LaPham: | A Different Story: | | | Nina Aziz Justin: | | Nina's book: Connect with the #impact team #impact | | | | /episode/index/show/hashtagimpact/id/41790680

WHAT MAKES A CHANGEMAKER? | STEPHANIE COX | ASHOKA AUSTRIA 06/14/2026

💬Voice - Johannes from andererseits - Making Disabilities Visible 05/28/2026

💬Voice - Regina Larko - Raising Kind and Caring Children 05/28/2026

💬Voice - Forrest Kelly - Supporting Small Farmers and Local Communities 05/28/2026

💬Voice - Andreea Coscai - Giving Mentorship Opportunities to Young Women in Rumania 05/28/2026

💬Voice - Taylor Thigpen - Doing Peace and Youth Development Work 05/28/2026

💬Voice - Jimmy Westerheim - Creating a Human Connection 05/28/2026

💬Voice - Sarah LaPham - "The demand for our work is growing" 05/21/2026

💬Voice - Fyiona Yong - Challenging the Way We Think About Leadership and Inclusion 05/20/2026

💬Voice - Nina Martin Da Silva - Financial Literacy for Kids (Vienna, Austria) 05/18/2026

💬 WHAT'S UP WITH ALL THESE VOICE NOTES HERE? 05/18/2026

💬Voice - A Family on the Way to the Museum (Vienna, Austria) 05/18/2026

💬Voice - Aziph Mustapha - Doing hard things & raising funds for Teach For Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) 05/18/2026

YOUR VOICE on #impact | Real Voices. Real Impact. 04/29/2026

The Long Game of Impact | Dr. Shirley Gallagher 04/29/2026

The Long Game of Impact | Dr. Shirley Gallagher Today you meet Dr. Shirley Gallagher. She’s an Irish scientific communicator and sustainability professional with over 25 years of experience, someone who has spent her entire career asking one core question: how do we actually make systems more sustainable? Her journey started early. In 1986, the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl sparked her awareness of environmental issues, a moment that would go on to shape her life’s work. Since the 90s, she’s been working across contaminated land, water, energy, and now the circular economy, with a PhD focused on contaminated land. But this conversation doesn’t start in a lab. It starts on a small Irish island, Árainn Mhór, where Shirley grew up. She shares how island life shaped her: the deep sense of community, the self-reliance, and also the quiet confidence to think differently. To not just follow the system, but question it. And yet, her world is also deeply technical. We talk about what it means to work within (and sometimes push against) European directives, ISO standards, and highly regulated systems, while still holding onto a human, values-driven approach to sustainability. Shirley is someone who doesn’t just talk about community, she lives it. From biodiversity initiatives like Future Orchard in Cork, to sea swimming groups, to her work with EU Climate Pact Ambassadors, Voices for Climate Action, and Toastmasters, she’s constantly part of spaces where ideas turn into action. She’s also the COO of Second Life Battery Services Limited, where she’s working on a patent-pending approach to reusing waste batteries, turning what we discard into something usable again through digitally controlled systems. A real-life example of the circular economy in action. We also talk about Greenworks, a €1.6M European Social Fund programme she was part of—training over 1,500 people and helping launch 30 companies—and what it taught her about impact, sustainability, and what happens when funding ends. And then, at the end, we zoom out. Shirley shares what impact means to her (“making a difference”), who inspires her, and the one thing she keeps coming back to. Start listening to hear it all. Connect with our guest: Dr. Shirley Gallagher: | (will go live soon) Mentioned in this episode: Greenworks worked with , , and of course and Shirley also spoke about which still does wonderful educational programmes Connect with the #impact team: Reach out to us at Want to get your voice heard on #impact: Share your voice HERE: /episode/index/show/hashtagimpact/id/41058135

A Global Clean Up Movement (and it all started with a simple walk). | César González Fernández 03/17/2026

Nine Years In: Asking the Oracle What’s Next for #impact Podcast 02/25/2026

Building Community, One Creative Morning at a Time 01/27/2026

What Your Voice Held This Year 12/05/2025

A Decade of Building with Purpose | Natalie Chan 11/26/2025

Small Scale Impact | Revisiting Jimmy Westerheim| The Human Aspect 10/29/2025

Mental Health Matters 10/10/2025

Connecting the Dots on Your Own Doing Good Journey | Mabel Sieh 09/24/2025

Connecting the Dots on Your Own Doing Good Journey | Mabel Sieh Constant change, acceleration, ambitions and aspirations, so many of us are trying to balance the many layers of living in a complex world and creating our own meaning through impactful work. Mabel Sieh’s story is allowing us to take a big collective breath. Maybe even a sigh of relief. From her beginnings as a teacher and journalist to leading impactful initiatives in Hong Kong and most recently a transformative trip to Nepal, Mabel’s path is anything but linear, and that’s exactly what makes it so powerful. She speaks about letting go of the need to control every detail and instead staying open to life’s surprises. “The older I get, the more I feel, there’s just so much you can plan, but so much more you can’t,” she says. There’s a moment in the conversation where Mabel recalls being invited to a corporate event, seemingly insignificant, but that encounter eventually led her back to Nepal, where she felt all the pieces of her past start to click into place. “I have the privilege to experience a lot of things coming back to my life in a very good and positive way.” It’s this idea of serendipity that runs like a thread throughout the episode, not as something accidental, but as something that reveals itself when we slow down enough to notice. As you listen, you will not just walk away inspired by Mabel’s story, but invited to reflect on your own. Her advice? “Connect your own dots.” This is more than just a conversation, it’s a gentle, powerful reminder that our lives as well as our work don’t have to be perfectly planned to be deeply impactful. 🎧 Tune in to hear how Mabel Sieh lives a life shaped by curiosity, courage, and compassion and why that might be the most powerful blueprint of all. Connect with our guests: Mabel Sieh: Get in touch with #impact host Regina Larko at or connect on Want to share your voice on the podcast? You can: Want to start your own Podcast or use your voice with more courage and confidence? . /episode/index/show/hashtagimpact/id/38276560

Podcasting for Beginners | Register Now 08/20/2025

What Community Sounds Like 08/19/2025

What Kids Really Need From Us | Angie Lau | Life Beyond School 07/16/2025

Arts, Voice, Health, and Human Potential | Jennifer Davison 06/18/2025

Arts, Voice, Health, and Human Potential | Jennifer Davison Meet Jennifer Davison, opera singer, arts for health professional, social entrepreneur, teacher and mother. I sat across from her at a dinner in Vienna. And as you do, we started talking about passions, work, life. There I was, sharing my love for leveraging the power of voice to inspire positive change. And her eyes lit up. Not just with curiosity, but with that spark that told me: she gets it. What followed was a beautiful conversation about her passion for the arts and voice, how it all connects with health and how she and her co-founder Bea are building a startup rooted in the arts, voice and breath, as the foundation for a healthy body and soul. I knew right then and there that I’d invite her on the podcast. I didn’t say it out loud, but I think she felt it. What I didn’t know then was that a film team, currently working on a documentary about my journey as a podcaster, would soon ask me for footage of an actual Podcast interview in action. Time was very…tight. A public holiday was coming up. I thought, who would be spontaneous enough to jump into a recording with just a few hours’ notice? Plus, I usually take my time to prepare, to really get to know my guests before we hit record. I didn’t have to think long. I messaged Jennifer. Would she be up for recording, picking up the thread of that deep, soulful conversation we’d had just the day before? She said yes. And the rest… well, it’s too fresh to call it history. But in my soul, I know this episode will go down in #impact history. We recorded with a film crew around us, but the energy was anything but chaotic. It was focused. Relaxed. Deep. Meaningful. Jennifer made me pause. Reflect. Breathe. She reminded me of the beautiful, gentle, yet unshakably strong power of our voice. This is one you’ll want right at the top of your playlist. It’s that moment of anticipation at the opera, when the curtain lifts and everything goes silent. And then it begins. The force of it. The power. The audacity. We made something special that day. Something that you can take into your own changemaker journey too. Connect with our guest: Jennifer Davison: Arts for Health Austria: ArtWave: Mentioned in this episode: (Jennifer and Regina are both passionate listeners of this podcast) Want to hear about new episodes first? Work & Connect with #impact host Regina Larko: /episode/index/show/hashtagimpact/id/37045420

Human Connections Beyond Labels | Jimmy Westerheim | The Human Aspect 05/13/2025

Fueling Longevity and Transforming Food Systems | Abigail Coleman and Chandni Sacheti 04/15/2025

#impact: Social Impact | Social Entrepreneurship | Social Good

TOPICS