Dr. Rola Hallam is a punk rock doctor. She is the founder of CanDo; a crowdfunding platform that puts resources in the hands of the frontline healthcare workers in war-affected communities. 

In 2011, when war first broke out in her home country Syria, Hallam became involved in the humanitarian response. Working with various Syrian-led NGOs, she played an integral part in building 7 hospitals in Syria including the first ever crowdfunded hospital. 

To address the issues she had found within the aid system, she established CanDo, a not-for-profit social enterprise and crowdfunding platform for local humanitarian organizations. She ran a crowdfunding campaign in 2016 called People's Convoy, which raised money to build a Hope Hospital for children after the last children's hospital in Aleppo was destroyed having been bombed for the 6th time. She and the Convoy drove the entire provision of medical equipment for the hospital from London to the Turkey-Syria border in December 2016. She says, “Hope Hospital was built because thousands of people came together from around the world and said: It is not acceptable to bomb hospitals, it is not ok to bomb children. And we will rebuild.”

March 15, 2021 is the 10-year anniversary of the ongoing war in Syria. Hallam is now fundraising to help protect children who are being targeted in schools. Go to SaveSyriasSchools.org to help purchase early-warning systems for 150 schools. 

DONATE NOW - Save Syria's Schools

SaveSyriasSchools.org 

‘Saving Syria’s Children’ documentary

https://vimeo.com/140567469

TED Talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/rola_hallam_the_doctors_nurses_and_aid_workers_rebuilding_syria/up-next

‘Open letter: let us treat patients in Syria’

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61938-8/fulltext

The People’s Caravan

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-38528360

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Dr. Rola Hallam: The Fuckery of Philanthropy

Morning loves. Greetings from BED. This is a long one, and it's a good one. It's about Sharing and Not sharing things on the internet. The transcript and post about this voiceramble is HERE: https://www.patreon.com/posts/48918771

Halfhour Voiceramble for Patrons - March 18 2021

Listen to 'Bento Box Boundaries' from Research Degree Insiders 
https://researchinsiders.blog/2021/02/18/bento-box-boundaries/

Image: Photo by kofookoo.de on Unsplash

Bento Box Boundaries

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, Dr. Alana Vincent (Umea University, Sweden) joins FMEP’s Sarah Anne Minkin to discuss how she moved from supporting the use of the the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Working Definition of Antisemitism to opposing it. Dr. Vincent describes the chilling and silencing effects of the IHRA definition, the shortcomings of European Union research that purports to justify it, and the advantages of alternative definitions that offer clarity and nuance. 

Original music by Jalal Yacquoub.

The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism: "The Wrong Answers to the Wrong Set of Questions"

An interview with Lee Skallerup Bessette about the book Of Many Minds: Neurodiversity and Mental Health among Faculty and Staff in Higher Education, which she has co-edited with Rebecca Pope Ruark. We discuss the trap and the promise of higher education for neurodivergent folks, and the ways that contributors to the book navigate that. 

Related Posts, Podcasts & Books:
All The Things ADHD - Podcast - https://allthethingsadhd.com/

Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal (book) - by Rebecca Pope-Ruark, PhD - https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12574/unraveling-faculty-burnout

Lee featured on an episode of Rebecca’s podcast too: S5:E1 - the agile academic - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lee-skallerup-bessette-of-many-minds/id1550448046?i=1000723541561

This interview was conducted via Zoom on Sept 17 2025. It has been substantially edited, as mentioned in the introduction, for ease of reading/listening and reference.

Of Many Minds: An interview with Lee Skallerup Bessette

These are both from days at the Pike Market Medical Clinic. Patty bought a house and was trying to be a good neighbor where she was, having decided to stop travelling the world. I wrote: "Kind of about taking leaps and moving around, or staying put on your own porch, or both, and about saying goodbye, no matter what you do.". Joan was working the front desk, after decades of organizing with the socialists and unions. She was 30 years older than me, and now I am the age she was when I wrote this. "After many years of grassroots organizing, she STILL believes that if we all work together, we truly CAN change the world".

Swampdancin track 10 Patty's Porch

One day in my early forties I looked around and realized that I occupied a very strange social space: I was good friends with both doctors and porn activists, climate scientists and avant-garde writers and musicians. When I began recording these conversations, I realized that I'd accidentally created what I've always yearned for: an excuse to randomly call up really creative and compassionate people, dispense with the superficial chat, and get to the core heart-to-heart discussion about what's important in this life. Being able to create this podcast using patronage also means that I don't have to answer to a boss, rely on advertisement, or otherwise dilute the content of the conversation. This podcast is produced purely by me and my home-team, for my community, with no added artificial ingredients.

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Introducing... Everything

Amanda Palmer Presents: An intimate conversation with Elizabeth Lesser. Recorded Aug 14, 2019 in Woodstock, NY. 

Elizabeth Lesser is an author and healer who co-founded Omega Institute in 1977.

She is the author of Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow, Marrow: Love, Loss & What Matters Most, The Seekers Guide: Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure and, most recently, Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes.
 
In 2008 she helped Oprah Winfrey produce a ten-week online seminar based on Eckhart Tolle’s book, "A New Earth." The webinar has been viewed by over 40 million people worldwide.

She has two TED Talks - “Take The Other to Lunch” and “Say Your Truths and Seek them in Others.”

In this episode we talk about memoirs, Elizabeth’s books, telling other people’s stories, The Omega Institute, patriarchy and leading an examined life.

www.elizabethlesser.org

www.eomega.org

@ElizabethLesser on Twitter

TED:
https://www.ted.com/speakers/elizabeth_lesser

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Elizabeth Lesser: Bullshit is Everywhere

Amanda Palmer presents an intimate conversation with Tim Minchin, recorded February 20, 2020, in Sydney, AUS.

Tim Minchin is a world-renounded Australian comedian, actor, writer, musician, composer, lyricist, and director.

He is the composer and lyricist of the Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated show Matilda the Musical, based on the book by Roald Dahl.

His musical Groundhog Day, based on the 1993 film, opened in London in 2016, winning his second Olivier Award, and opened on Broadway in spring 2017.

He is the subject of the 2008 documentary, Rock N Roll Nerd.

Tim played the role of rock star Atticus Fetch on Showtime's Californication.

In this interview, we talked about expanding your empathy, exploring your self-loathing in order to find peace, decoupling intellectualism from emotion, the power of The Internet to share the stories of the disenfranchised, combining radical honesty with compassion, how a safe space can people help heal, the gift of being told that you are not special, and how our job is to do what we want on stage.

@timminchin

www.timminchin.com

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Tim Minchin: Accidentally Brave

Amanda Palmer presents an intimate conversation with Fred Leone, recorded March 6, 2020 in Melbourne, Australia. 
 
Fred Leone is a musician with Australian Aboriginal, Tongan, and South-Sea Islander heritage. One of the few Butchulla song men, he is a cultural custodian preserving their language through music. He the front man for the hip hop group Impossible Odds. Fred is also a passionate community activist and a First Nations advocate. He is committed to passing down the cultural knowledge of his ancestors by passing on traditional songs and dances to younger generations via his work as a song man.
 
In this episode we talk about Fred’s surprise hit song, growing up with a Robin Hood mentality, what it means to be a “song man” in his culture, saving his dying native language, the importance of passing on knowledge, the politics of land rights, the sterility of anthropology, how to be a better ally, and traditional burning methods that can prevent brush fires. 
 
Twitter:
 
@impossible_odds
 
Music:
 
https://www.impossibleoddsmusic.com
 
https://amandapalmer.bandcamp.com/track/solid-rock-with-fred-leone
 
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Exclusive content is available to Patrons only.
 
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Join the community at amandapalmer.net/podcast

Fred Leone: Song Man

Amanda Palmer presents an intimate conversation with Masarat Daud, recorded October 29, 2019 in London, England.

Masarat Daud is an alumnus of Cambridge International School, Dubai. She later studied at the American University of Dubai and also completed a certificate course in Tech Tools and Skills in Emergency Management through TechChange.

Masarat is the Founder of 8 Day Academy, a global education movement with a mission to make education accessible and relevant to all communities. She has also worked as a columnist for the Khaleej Times and as Deputy News Editor for CPI Dubai.

She is the curator of TEDx Shekhavati; a conference that takes place in rural Rajasthan. In her TEDx talks, she discusses how to break stereotypes and how she learned to love her burka.

In this episode we talk about the importance of stoking your curiosity about people different from you, the power of core values to bring people together, keeping a world view of abundance, Masarat’s dinners with Twitter friends, the cult of feminism, the importance of visibility and taking up space, nudity, and not taking responsibility for other people’s ignorance.

Twitter:
@masarat

TED:
https://blog.ted.com/why-i-wear-the-burka-masarat-daud-at-ted2014/

8 Day Academy:
https://www.facebook.com/8dayacademy/timeline

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Masarat Daud: I Am Not Responsible for your Ignorance

Academic career guide. I firmly believe that your academic career has the potential for joy as well as success. I help academics build their confidence to do the work they find meaningful and find the time to do the important work.

Of Many Minds: An interview with Lee Skallerup Bessette

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide

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