The Shifting Edge Podcast

Neil Townsend
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship

A podcast dedicated to those at the leading edge of social change - the innovators, practitioners and organisations who are willing to be different and to act differently in pursuit of an idea they believe in. We explore their stories - warts and all - the good times, the bad times and the price they had to pay. Along the way we explore critical themes such as what it really takes to learn, how organisations adapt themselves and the value of partnerships. Brave people doing big things, hosted by Neil Townsend and a rotating cast of co-hosts. Find out more at www.freerangestrategy.com. email connect@freerangestrategy.com if you'd like to feature in, or to sponsor an episode.

Episodes

  1. Jul 20

    The Story of Loop - Why the successful accountability platform closed down.

    We talk to Alex Ross, who spent six and a half years building Loop — an independent, collective, feedback and accountability platform for the humanitarian and development sectors. It worked. Communities used it to report abuse, fraud and exclusion, often anonymously, and in their own languages. Usage grew faster than anyone projected, mostly through word of mouth. And yet last month, the Loop team took the decision to close it down. This conversation is about what that journey taught Alex and the team — and what it reveals about the sector they gave that time to. We talk about why Alex started Loop in the first place, the moment a Somali woman told her it was a life and death decision about who she reported abuse to, and the resistance she encountered not from a lack of demand but from organisations that found independent accountability threatening. Alex is candid about the emotional cost of that ride, what she'd say to someone setting out on something similar today, and why she thinks the problem was never the technology. Most importantly we talk about why this experience exposes a serious gap and the urgent need to change the secotrs' self reporting culture and practice. There's a lot in here for anyone working in or funding the humanitarian and development space — and some things that are hard to sit with. Information about Loop will be preserved on the Minority Rights Group website here when ready https://minorityrights.org/talk-to-loop/

  2. Jul 7

    Jennifer Wilde: Building for Impact, and the AI Moment the Social Sector Can't Afford to Miss

    Jennifer Wilde has had an unorthodox career journey. She fell into humanitarian work in Nepal, Somalia and the Philippines, founded the Nepal Innovation Lab in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, and helped scale it into the global Response Innovation Lab network. Then she moved to San Francisco, raised VC funding, and launched an AI startup built around reducing the mental load on parents — particularly mothers. The thread running through all of it, she says, is a deep frustration with inequity. We talk about what it means to be a 'builder' — the drive behind it, the walls you run into, and what she learned navigating a world of venture capital while trying to stay true to a social mission. Some of those stories are indeed eye-opening, but the conversation that will stay with me is on AI and the social sector. Jenny shared that while more workers in the aid sector are using AI daily than their private sector counterparts, only around 9% of organisations have integrated it strategically. That gap, she argues, isn't really a technology problem or a talent problem. It's a leadership challenge — and with funding cuts biting hard at the same moment as AI is reshaping what's possible, the organisations that don't engage with this now risk missing it all together. We talk about how organisations can seize this once in a generation moment. Jennifer's book Do Bigger Things, co-authored with Dan McClure, is available on Amazon and you can Connect with her on LinkedIn.

  3. Jun 8

    Reaching Over a Million Learners, Parents and Teachers - The story of ThinkZone

    The remarkable story of Binayak Acharya, the Founder of ThinkZone, an Ed-Tech organisation which leverages accessible tech solutions & community-led interventions to develop children's foundational skills. (www.thinkzone.in, binayak.a@thinkzone.in) Co-hosted by Bhavya Srinivasan, the Senior Manager at Gray Dot Catalyst, a consultancy focused on innovation, strategy and partnerships, with a particular focus on scaling innovations. (www.graydotcatalyst.com)

    Reaching Over a Million Learners, Parents and Teachers - The story of ThinkZone
  • 3 Episodes

About

A podcast dedicated to those at the leading edge of social change - the innovators, practitioners and organisations who are willing to be different and to act differently in pursuit of an idea they believe in. We explore their stories - warts and all - the good times, the bad times and the price they had to pay. Along the way we explore critical themes such as what it really takes to learn, how organisations adapt themselves and the value of partnerships. Brave people doing big things, hosted by Neil Townsend and a rotating cast of co-hosts. Find out more at www.freerangestrategy.com. email connect@freerangestrategy.com if you'd like to feature in, or to sponsor an episode.

Information

  • Creator
    Neil Townsend
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Neil Townsend