Everyone loves a good story. The kind that gives you goosebumps, makes you think, makes you sad and hopeful at the same time. But did you know that stories like those can also lead to policy change at the highest levels?

In the second episode of the SwitchPoint podcast, our president and CEO, Pape Gaye, chats with Paurvi Bhatt, president of the Medtronic Foundation and vice president of Medtronic Philanthropy, about an auspicious partnership that harnessed the voices and stories of frontline health workers from Brazil, India, Ireland, South Africa, Uganda, the United States and Zambia to deliver game-changing testimony on the power of investing in global health.

In 2017, Medtronic Foundation and IntraHealth International teamed up to provide frontline health workers with professional storytelling coaching. These health workers have gone on to testify on Capitol Hill, present at global conferences, and contribute to professional publications.

Who knows better what will work on the front lines of health care than those who are there?

Storytelling helps bring the need for continued—and augmented—financial and technical resources to global public health to a personal level, to a level where listeners feel the needs viscerally. Advocates who know the power of storytelling can help decision makers tap into empathy and form policies that not only uplift the human experience at the center of the health system, but that are practical and based in the realities on the ground. After all—who knows better what will work on the front lines of health care than those who are there?

Listening to the ones providing health care on the front lines is paramount to improving the health and wellbeing of communities. You can hear Bhatt explain why “the story needs to come from the very people that we’re here to serve,” as well as how our annual SwitchPoint conference has become a platform for these testimonies, when you queue up episode two of the SwitchPoint podcast.

The SwitchPoint podcast explores what happens when extraordinary experts from completely different fields come together to do some good. We hit record on conversations between speakers who are inspired and challenged by one another and eager to dive into each other’s worlds as they push new humanitarian ideas from across boundaries and industries—all for the greater global good. Stay tuned for more.