Sounds Like Change

Drowned in Sound
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What if music isn’t just entertainment but a tool for healing and social change? Sounds Like Change, hosted by music and social change expert and organiser Ariana Alexander-Sefre, brings together artists, thinkers, and changemakers to explore the profound role music plays in shaping our mental health, identities, and collective futures. The podcast offers an uplifting lens that sees music as a cultural force with the power to shift how we feel, relate, and act in a society that has left so many of us feeling hopeless. Each episode starts with a song of hope chosen by the guest, then moves from personal stories to wider societal questions, and ultimately toward imagining better futures. Conversations are interwoven with moments of sound and reflection, creating space to feel and process. “Music has always been one of the most powerful tools we have for unity, hope and progress, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of its potential,” says host Ariana Alexander-Sefre. “This podcast is about exploring how music can help us heal, connect more deeply, and imagine new ways forward, both individually and collectively.” The series will feature a diverse range of voices, from well-known musicians and producers to psychologists, activists, and cultural leaders. Together, they explore themes including mental health, creativity, identity, social justice, and the role of artists in shaping culture. This podcast launch comes amid increasing scientific and cultural interest in the relationship between music and wellbeing, as well as a growing movement positioning artists not just as entertainers, but as leaders in social and emotional change. Sounds Like Change is a Drowned in Sound production.

Episodes

  1. Complicity Is the Opposite of Community & How Media Storm Fights Back | Helena Wadia

    4 hr ago

    Complicity Is the Opposite of Community & How Media Storm Fights Back | Helena Wadia

    Helena Wadia chose "People's Faces" by Kae Tempest as her song of hope. It's a song about what actually saves us - not stuff, not safety nets of money, but the faces of the people in our lives. It's also a song that keeps evolving: every time Kae performs it, new lines appear, new distinctions are drawn. When Helena first heard it in 2017, the lyric was "oppressor and oppressed." Now it's "oppressor, complicit, and oppressed." That shift, she says, is everything. This episode moves from the personal to the political and back again. Who decides which stories matter and what happens when we change the lens? Helena has spent her career trying to answer that question, first in legacy newsrooms where her pitches about women, trans people, and communities of colour were repeatedly told they weren't "relevant," and now through Media Storm, the podcast she co-created with Mathilda Mallinson to do journalism the way it should be done: from lived experience, with the people at the centre rather than as an afterthought. Helena Wadia is a multimedia journalist and award-winning presenter working across print, video and audio. She co-hosts and co-created Media Storm with Mathilda Mallinson, a podcast that puts people with lived experience at the centre of news stories, teaches media literacy through "news watches," and has built a devoted audience of listeners who wanted the news to feel like it was actually for them. Helena spent years as a news anchor on London Live's News at Six and presented NME's In Conversation series. Her work has appeared across the Evening Standard, Channel 5 News, BBC Asian Network, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit and more. She specialises in feminism, race issues, and social justice and as of this year, she is also the new co-host of the Drowned in Sound podcast. Helena talks about what it took to leave a stable journalism career behind: the moment she and Matilda looked at forty articles about refugees, not one of which quoted an actual refugee, and decided to do something different. She talks about how the left/right divide is less a political reality than a system designed to keep people from realising they share most of the same values. She reflects on her own route into music - Top 40 until 17, when an ex-boyfriend played her the Pixies and sent her on "a huge journey," eventually to Bristol, to the student music press, and to journalism. She speaks honestly about the difficulty of resting while reporting on Gaza, and why she's come to understand that community - a gig, a choir, a friend you call - is the only kind of rest that actually works. And she ends with a message for the future, tattooed on her body: "it takes an ocean not to break." This podcast is part of the Drowned in Sound network, and was produced by Sean Adams and edited by: tell.studio (Phil, Louisa, Owen, Matt) Helena Wadia https://www.linkedin.com/in/helena-wadia-4a653889 Media Storm podcast https://mediastormpodcast.com/about-us/ Recorded remotely. Find out more and follow the show: https://linktr.ee/soundslikechange

    1hr 5min
  2. Media Bias, Gaza and the Search for Radical Empathy | Karishma Patel

    27 May

    Media Bias, Gaza and the Search for Radical Empathy | Karishma Patel

    What happens when a journalist follows their conscience all the way out of the BBC? Karishma Patel spent months covering Gaza as a BBC Middle East specialist. She pitched the story of Hind Rajab, the six-year-old Palestinian girl who called the Red Crescent for help from a car surrounded by her dead family... and yet Karishma was told she was too emotionally attached to the story. She talks about the gap between impartiality and truth, why she left, and how music has been the thread running through all of it: from a piano piece she composed during the genocide to Elgar on long walks in the English countryside. Karishma Patel is also an ambassador for Amnesty UK's Defend Dissent campaign (protecting the right to protest at British universities), works with the Britain Palestine Media Centre, and is currently writing a book critiquing the concept of impartiality in journalism. She is published in Cultures of London: Legacies of Migration (Bloomsbury, 2024), was shortlisted for the #Merky Books New Writers' Prize in 2022, and holds an MPhil in English Literature from the University of Cambridge. She is also a classically trained pianist and opera singer. 🎵 Song choice: Sospiri by Edward Elgar Find Karishma: https://www.instagram.com/karishmapatel1/ | https://x.com/karishmapatel99 Sounds Like Change: https://linktr.ee/soundslikechange About the host: Ariana Alexander-Sefre has spent over a decade working at the intersection of music and social justice. An Iranian-British social innovator, she is the founder of SPOKE, a TEDx speaker, and an SXSW Innovation Award winner. A Drowned in Sound Network production. Edited by Tell Studio (tell.studio).

    56 min
  3. Climate Justice, Occupation & The Future We Are Fighting For | Mohammed Usrof

    12 May

    Climate Justice, Occupation & The Future We Are Fighting For | Mohammed Usrof

    Episode 2: What does it mean to try and imagine a future not just after collapse, but while the collapse is still happening? Mohammed Usrof, Palestinian researcher and co-founder of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy, talks about energy sovereignty, the case for fossil fuel embargoes, and why art, politics and liberation can never be disentangled. Usrof is an organiser and anti-imperialist thinker whose work sits at the intersection of climate justice, energy political economy and decolonial development. As the co-founder and Executive Director of PICS, a Palestinian-led research and advocacy organisation, he's advancing analysis on climate, energy and environmental injustice under conditions of occupation, militarisation and uneven development. He is also currently a PhD candidate researching energy sovereignty, fossil fuel histories and refineries in Palestine and the wider region. 🎵 Song choice: Spoils by Massive Attack featuring Hope Sandoval Find Mohammed / PICS: palclimateinstitute.org Sounds Like Change is a podcast about how music, sound and storytelling help us stay human, hopeful, and build the courage to shape a more just future. Hosted by Ariana Alexander-Sefre. linktr.ee/soundslikechange About the host: Ariana Alexander-Sefre has spent over a decade working at the intersection of music and social justice. An Iranian-British social innovator, she is the founder of SPOKE, a TEDx speaker, and an SXSW Innovation Award winner. A Drowned in Sound Network production. Edited by Tell Studio.

    54 min
  4. The Poet Who Fights for Justice & Why She's Learning to Rest | Shareefa Energy

    28 Apr

    The Poet Who Fights for Justice & Why She's Learning to Rest | Shareefa Energy

    What can we learn from someone who brings the same heart to the fight for equality and justice as they do to the stage? Shareefa Energy talks about burnout, the wave analogy that changed how she thinks about her role in movements, and why joy is liberation. Shareefa Energy is a poet, writer, recording artist, activist and workshop facilitator from Highfields, Leicester. She is the author of Galaxy Walk, endorsed by the late Benjamin Zephaniah. Her work is known for its honesty, power and unwavering commitment to justice. Her poetry has featured on BBC The One Show, Channel 4 and ITV, and she has led storytelling, creative writing and performance workshops internationally with communities across the UK and from Palestine to Sierra Leone. Her work has included schools, universities, immigration detention centres, survivors of domestic violence and those impacted by state violence. With 16 years’ experience as a youth worker, Shareefa’s practice centres poetry as both activism and self-care. She is also the co-producer of To Kill A War Machine, the documentary film about direct action network Palestine Action. She has performed internationally including at the Royal Albert Hall, and works with organisations varying from community to corporate. She is the recipient of the UK Entertainment Best Poet 2017 Award and the CKI Literature and Poetry 2023 Award, and has been nominated for multiple arts and culture honours. 🎵 Song choice: My Generation by Nas & Damian Marley Find Shareefa: shareefaenergy.com | instagram.com/shareefaenergy Sounds Like Change is a podcast about how music, sound and storytelling help us stay human, hopeful, and build the courage to shape a more just future. Hosted by Ariana Alexander-Sefre. linktr.ee/soundslikechange About the host: Ariana Alexander-Sefre has spent over a decade working at the intersection of music and social justice. An Iranian-British social innovator, she is the founder of SPOKE, a TEDx speaker, and an SXSW Innovation Award winner. A Drowned in Sound Network production. Edited by Tell Studio.

    56 min

  5. Season 1 Trailer

    Introducing... Sounds Like Change

    Welcome to Sounds Like Change, the podcast exploring how music shapes who we are, how we heal, and how we change the world. Hosted by social change expert Ariana Alexander-Sefre, this podcast brings together artists, thinkers, and changemakers to explore the deep connection between music, our personal health, culture, and wider social change. Each episode flows from personal stories to collective challenges to imagining better futures - always leaving you with something real to take into your own life. We explore questions like: • How does music impact mental health and emotional well-being? • Can music, art and culture drive social justice and systems change? • What role do artists play in shaping a better future? • How can we transform pain into purpose? Expect conversations on: music and healing, mental health, creativity, social justice, culture, identity, hope, and collective change. Alongside each conversation, you’ll find moments to pause with sound, reflection, and creative rest woven throughout. This is a space for people who feel deeply, think critically, and still believe a better world is possible. If you’re interested in: music for mental health, conscious culture, social impact, creative leadership, healing through art, or purpose-driven living, you’re in the right place. Subscribe and join us as we explore what the future could sound like. Sounds Like Change is part of the Drowned in Sound podcast network.

    2 min

Trailer

About

What if music isn’t just entertainment but a tool for healing and social change? Sounds Like Change, hosted by music and social change expert and organiser Ariana Alexander-Sefre, brings together artists, thinkers, and changemakers to explore the profound role music plays in shaping our mental health, identities, and collective futures. The podcast offers an uplifting lens that sees music as a cultural force with the power to shift how we feel, relate, and act in a society that has left so many of us feeling hopeless. Each episode starts with a song of hope chosen by the guest, then moves from personal stories to wider societal questions, and ultimately toward imagining better futures. Conversations are interwoven with moments of sound and reflection, creating space to feel and process. “Music has always been one of the most powerful tools we have for unity, hope and progress, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of its potential,” says host Ariana Alexander-Sefre. “This podcast is about exploring how music can help us heal, connect more deeply, and imagine new ways forward, both individually and collectively.” The series will feature a diverse range of voices, from well-known musicians and producers to psychologists, activists, and cultural leaders. Together, they explore themes including mental health, creativity, identity, social justice, and the role of artists in shaping culture. This podcast launch comes amid increasing scientific and cultural interest in the relationship between music and wellbeing, as well as a growing movement positioning artists not just as entertainers, but as leaders in social and emotional change. Sounds Like Change is a Drowned in Sound production.

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