"Every day's a school day – 21 resources to learn new things

It’s one of the misconceptions of being a kid that when you grow up you’ll know it all. We think learning new things is a constant throughout life. 

As many go back to school and university students start preparing to take up new studies, thoughts inevitably turn to all things education at the beginning of September. Refreshing school uniforms, stationery and backpacks. But it’s when typically ‘out of offices’ are rife as many of us take advantage of a chance for summer holidays. Whether overseas on a sun lounger or in a tent on the Cornish coast, many will be cracking open a longed-for book or tuning into a new podcast. 

Here at Social Supermarket, we as a team are obsessed with learning new things and when we’re not sampling new products and designing new hampers, we’re stuck into our library books and podcast series. But we also learn new things all the time from our brands, so we decided to ask some of our brands and collaborators for their favourite resources to keep learning…

We couldn’t help but share our favourites with you.

Best podcasts to learn something new

1. “The podcast series Being the Story features conversations with such people who channel their lived experience to come up with solutions to create social change. At SSE we’re all about supporting people with lived experience as we believe they’re best placed to tackle the injustice they’ve faced,” says Henna Patel, communications coordinator at The School for Social Entrepreneurs.

2. “The Happiness Lab“, says Katie Rose, Social Supermarket’s Head of Marketing & Brand. “In particular, they have an episode from December 2020 on how to give and receive the perfect gift, which is really relevant for us, as we help so many companies and customers with gifting.”

3. “Farmerama, the podcast all about regenerative farming,” says Phoebe Baker, our very own Customer Service & Operations Executive. She is really passionate about food and where it comes from. “It’s my most listened to podcast, I once listened to it for 6 hours straight.”

4. “Do More Good features interviews and conversations with people from all walks of life who are creating social change and generally doing good things. Key themes include leadership, innovation, fundraising and current affairs,” says SSE’s Henna.

5. Our co-founder and CEO Jamie Palmer is a big fan of Secret Leaders. It uncovers the “skills, secrets and stories of world class entrepreneurs.”

6. One of our newest team members, Jess Burns who joined us as Account Manager – Corporate Sales, is really passionate about making people who are going through specific experiences aware that they’re not alone. She has her own podcast I Can Relate, which profiles people who have gone through unique experiences from being adopted to being LGBT in non-tolerant countries.

7. “Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman, AKA the co-founder of LinkedIn is packed with start-up advice from Silicon Valley and more – invaluable for small businesses and social enterprises just starting out,” says Katie from our team.

8. “I would say, that since the pandemic I have become a podcast addict,” says Emily Sayer, founder of Stib. “I dip in and out loads rather than listen to one show all the time, but my regular favourites are Hay Festival, Conversations of Inspiration with Holly Tucker MBE,  Mindlove, TED Talks Daily and The Mindset Mentor.“

Best blogs & magazines to learn something new

1. “Pioneers Post is a brilliant social enterprise magazine jam-packed with social impact news and opinions from around the globe. A must-read for changemakers,” says Henna of SSE.

2. “Gal-dem is an online and print publication that tells the stories of people of colour from marginalised genders.” It’s SSE’s Henna’s go-to when in need of opinion pieces all about socio-politics from like-minded people with a similar background to her.

3. “I find Besma’s blog, Curiously Conscious really insightful and informative and it focuses on the current issues within sustainability,” says Jenny Allan, founder of Jenerous, a clothing brand that supports women and people from low socio-economic backgrounds.

4. “The Stack is so much more than a magazine,” says our team’s Katie. “It’s a fully fledged membership platform and app for mission-driven women to network with each other, watch on-demand videos and attend events – all with a view to driving equality for women. I’m obsessed with their newsletter and round-ups every morning at 6am that lands in my inbox.”

Best books to learn something new

 

1. “101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think” by Brianna West is a book full of wonderful short stories, thought pieces and lists covering every self-development topic you can think of!” say Susha and Rosie from the communications team at Hubbub, a socially impactful organisation we partnered with on our picnic campaign this summer. “From happiness and suffering to goal setting and to what different emotions might be trying to tell you – it’s really easy to read, super insightful, inspiring and has plenty of interesting ideas.” 

 

2. “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac is a brilliant book which supports our values at Hubbub,” continue Susha and Rosie. “It’s clear and concise at setting the context for the scale and urgency in which we need to act on climate change, as well as providing positive, practical actions and solutions. Both authors have a similar ‘stubbornly optimistic’ attitude towards collective action and environmentalism – it’s infectious.”

3. “So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. SSE’s Henna: “As a racialised person, I found solidarity and comfort in a lot of Oluo’s words. But heartache too, of being reminded of the injustices we face daily under the hands of white supremacy. At SSE we’re always learning more about diversity, equity and inclusion, to further drive our mission to tackle inequality. You can find out more about our anti-racist commitments here.”

4.”Historical novels are my favourite,” says our team’s Jess. She recommends “The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah, as it’s very pro-women and is a great way to learn about what was going on during the start of the First World War and the bravery of taking care of others in a time of conflict.”

5. The Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook: Pressure Test Your Start-Up Idea by Ian C MacMillan and James D. Thompson. SSE’s learning manager Nils Bucknell says “The book I recommend to our students most often is the Social Entrepreneur’s Playbook. It’s a very practical book full of tools for each stage of a start-up, from understanding the problem, testing and finding solutions.

Feeling ready to learn something new? Jump into our blog with:

• Ella Daish who wrote for us about ending period plastic
• Jack Hodgkiss, Creative Partner at Hubbub who wrote for us about the organisation’s Treasure Your River campaign
• Izzy McLeod, who wrote for us about the history of Pride month– one to brush up on ahead of London Pride in September

Getting ready to go back to school or head off to university? Shop our Off to College gift guide.