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Get active: the power to make a difference – Paul Lindley OBE, Chair, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights UK

About This Episode

Michael speaks to Paul Lindley OBE, founder of the leading organic baby food brand Ella’s Kitchen and now chair of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights in the UK. A passionate campaigner for health, human rights and happiness, Paul shares his journey from a childhood in Zambia that inspired him to “Keep Smiling”, his entrepreneurial experience with Ella’s Kitchen, and how Robert F. Kennedy’s speeches inspired his own activism.

Paul Lindley OBE

Paul Lindley is an award-winning British entrepreneur and children’s welfare campaigner. He founded organic baby and children’s food brand Ella’s Kitchen in 2006, and is an author of a best-selling book Little Wins: The Power of Thinking Like a Toddler. Since exiting Ella’s Kitchen in 2018, he has remained an active campaigner as Chair of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights UK, co-founder of social enterprise The Key Is E alongside musician and social activist Emmanuel Jal, Chair of the London Child Obesity Taskforce, trustee of the Sesame Workshop, and founder of enterprise competition Just IMAGINE If.

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Lockdown List

What is a book that has changed your life?

21 Lessons for the 21^st Century by Yuval Noah Harari – it raises all those challenges we are failing to address

What are you watching in lockdown?

A tipping point: as each of us decide if we change the way we live as we realise we live in consequential times.

In one sentence, describe your new normal.

Hope, despair, hope, disappointment, hope, optimism, hope, belief, hope, action, hope, achievement: Repeat.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

Robert F. Kennedy – a ripple of hope, whose moral imagination fought injustice and who dreamt things that never were and asked why not.

What is your best tip for life?

Grow down: think like you did when you were a toddler and use the power of that imagination, free thinking, curiosity and self-confidence to do it.

Top 5 lockdown tracks

Streets of London – Sinead O’Connor: There but for the grace of God go I.
Every Child’s Plate – Emmanuel Jal: I wrote the lyrics for this song (gulp). It still gives me energy in my role tackling child obesity. Listen to it and watch the video below!
War – Bob Marley and the Wailers: ‘We are confident in the victory of good over evil’.
Life on Mars – David Bowie: Creative perfection.
Bridge over Troubled Water – Artists For Grenfell version: We desperately need to find that bridge once again.

Find out more

10 books to change your life