Two countries, two youth workers, one shared conviction: resilience isn't a luxury, it's a practice anyone can learn.

This is a special multicast episode, recorded alongside our partners at the Unnecessary Harm podcast, built around this year's World Resiliency Week theme, "The Pulse of Resilience: Fall, Feel, Rise." Host Shane Varkow sits down with Adam Woods, coordinator of the Hope Tour in Australia, and Sneha Patiyathal, a youth prevention specialist in Kerala, India, and one of this year's World Resiliency Day global ambassadors.

Adam and Sneha are two of the architects behind this year's global campaign, and they bring the view from the ground: what it actually looks like to walk alongside young people in two very different cultural contexts. They talk about the contagions unraveling kids in their communities, the quiet damage of absent parents, and the moment a young person hears "you matter" for the first time.

If you work with young people, lead a coalition, or just want to understand what real resilience-building looks like outside a policy paper, this one will stay with you.

Guest Bios

Adam Woods coordinates the Hope Tour in Australia and is part of the Acts Global Church Network, a community organization helping people rebuild their lives with hope and reasonable grounds for it. He's one of the architects behind this year's World Resiliency Week campaign.

Sneha Patiyathal is a youth prevention specialist and credentialed catalyst at the Fourth Wave Foundation in India. She has represented her organization at the United Nations in Vienna and the Asian Youth Forum on Drug Use Prevention, and serves as one of eight World Resiliency Day global ambassadors.

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• https://feeltherise.org/

This special multicast episode was originally recorded with our partners at the Dalgarno Institute and their podcast, Unnecessary Harm. As part of our ongoing collaboration around World Resiliency Week, we are excited to share this conversation with the Pathways to Prevention audience.

Host Shane Varcoe sits down with World Resiliency Week planning team members Dave Closson and Jen Schneeman to explore the 2026 campaign theme - The Pulse of Resilience: Fall, Feel, Rise.

Together, they unpack a powerful question: What if resilience isn't about pushing through, toughing it out, or simply "embracing the suck"?

Drawing on lived experience, trauma recovery, prevention science, military service, nervous system research, and community-building, this conversation explores resilience as a rhythm rather than a destination. Dave and Jen share practical insights on burnout, healing, youth wellbeing, substance use prevention, and the importance of creating space for both struggle and growth.

The result is a hopeful and deeply human conversation about how individuals and communities can develop the awareness, tools, and support systems needed to navigate adversity and emerge stronger.

About World Resiliency Week

World Resiliency Week is a global collaborative initiative bringing together prevention professionals, educators, researchers, community leaders, advocates, and lived-experience voices to strengthen resilience across individuals, families, and communities.

The 2026 theme, The Pulse of Resilience: Fall, Feel, Rise, focuses on helping people recognize life's inevitable challenges, develop healthy ways to process them, and build the capacity to rise with greater awareness, connection, and strength.

Get involved at: ⁠https://worldresiliencyweek.org/

College drinking is often treated like an individual choice problem — “students just need to make better decisions.”

In this episode, we zoom out and look at the bigger lever: culture and environment. Host Dave Closson is joined by Kate Lower (SHIFT, University of Texas at Austin) and Keyra Palacios (UT Austin student & SHIFT Maker) for a practical conversation about what prevention looks like when you center student experience, take environmental strategies seriously, and bring a harm reduction mindset into real campus life.

You’ll hear:

• What SHIFT is (in plain language) — and why culture change beats slogans
• How campus and “game day” environments shape norms and expectations
• Why “preventable measures” matter — and what they look like on the ground
• Keyra’s perspective as an economics major (not a public health major) doing prevention work
• A real-world story that captures the SHIFT mindset: bringing a first-aid kit to a party
• Why health communication is hard — especially when students and powerful stakeholders have competing incentives
• Takeaways for prevention leaders, campuses, and studentsVisit: https://shift.utexas.edu/