People Fixing the World - The power of poetry

Can poetry change how we think, feel and act? We’re looking at how poetry is being used in some innovative and unexpected ways. We’ll hear from the Hot Poets - a group who ‘live translate’ at conferences on everything from climate change to coding. They’ve taken part in several UN climate change meetings - listening to complex presentations on science and summarising the information in a poem. They say it helps bring little known - but positive - news about climate science to a wider audience, changing despair into hope.

In Singapore we meet the medical students learning about poetry to help them become more compassionate doctors at the medical school which says medicine - like life - is not black and white. And we find out which member of our BBC team is a spoken word poet and how she is among a growing number of people worldwide to find community and belonging through open mic nights.

Plus we set our listeners a poetry challenge!

People Fixing The World from the BBC is about brilliant solutions to the world's problems. We release a new edition every Tuesday. We'd love you to let us know what you think and to hear about your own solutions. You can contact us on WhatsApp by messaging +44 8000 321721 or email peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk. And please leave us a review on your chosen podcast provider.

Presenter: Myra Anubi
Producers: Claire Bowes
Researcher: Helena Warwick-Cross
Editor: Jon Bithrey
Sound mix: Hal Haines

With thanks to: Dr Helen Johnson of the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Brighton

(Image: BBC production co-ordinator Maria Ogundele at HOTEP Healing Through Words poetry open mic night)

Published on Tuesday, 10th March 2026.

Available Podcasts from People Fixing the World

Subscribe to People Fixing the World

We are not the BBC, we only list available podcasts. To find out more about the programme including episodes available on BBC iPlayer, go to the People Fixing the World webpage.