
Season 3 · Episode 34 · 30 Jan 2026
34 - David Gough
With David Gough
“"Empathy is a much more difficult thing; it involves getting down on your knees, looking at the person eye to eye and recognising what experiences, traumas or difficulties they’re facing that you feel within yourself. To me, that is the key to storytelling for change, stories that generate empathy rather than sympathy."”
Reflections
Q1: Place
If we could do a flypast on any part of the world that is significant to you, which place, city or country would it be and why?
The Kibera slum in Nairobe
Q2: Life
Give us a glimpse into your life story so far with an emphasis on what you are doing currently?
Storyteller, Journalist for the Guardian in Africa, TV journalism with Sky, UN headquarters in New York, Humanitarian Coo-op
Q3: Reset
Where on earth is your place or reset or re-charge?
Salcombe in Devon (UK)
Q4: Wonder
What wonder of the natural world excites you the most?
The Himilayas
Q5: Hopefulness
What is your story of hopefulness (not your own) about a person, business or non-profit who are doing amazing things for the world?
Abdul Kassim founded and oversees a school for over 200 girls in the Kibera slum in Nairobi which is one of the largest slums in the world.
Q6: Insight
As we prepare to re-enter, what insight, wisdom or question would you like to share with us?
It feels like a great opportunity to build on this sense of interconnectedness, to build on the drivers behind the growing inequity which is the great challenge we face right now. Are we going to seize this moment?
Location
Flyover
The Kibera slum in Nairobe
Guest
🇰🇪 Tunbridge Wells (UK)