Turning Purpose Into Action with Brittany Butler
Dream Big Podcast with Bob Goff and Friends
Bob Goff
4.8 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if the thing you care about most isn’t too small to matter? In this conversation, Bob sits down with Harvard Kennedy School faculty member and SICI Executive Director Brittany Butler to talk about purpose, power, and what it looks like to stop waiting for permission and start moving toward the things that matter most. From innovators changing healthcare and food systems around the world to everyday people taking one bold next step, this episode is an invitation to believe your ideas can make a difference too.
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If something in this conversation stirred up an idea you can’t shake, maybe that’s worth paying attention to. Join us at Harvard Kennedy School for Purpose, Power, and Practice and spend a few days exploring what your next step could look like.
Learn more and apply here: https://sici.hks.harvard.edu/purpose-power-and-practice/
*Application is open until June 30th.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Bob and Friends podcast. Hope you're having a great week. This is always a treat to introduce you to the people that have voices that are really important in my life. And as you get to know somebody and then you get to know the people that they're listening |
| 0:24.7 | to, it just gives you a more rounded perspective of them. |
| 0:28.8 | And so we have Brittany Butler who's here from Harvard Kennedy School. |
| 0:34.5 | Brittany, welcome to the podcast. |
| 0:36.8 | Thanks for having me, Bob. I'm delighted. I think this is |
| 0:40.0 | great. You're sitting in Boston. I'm sitting in San Diego and we're both like enjoying these |
| 0:44.8 | Bluebird days. Tell us a little bit for the people that haven't met you just yet, a little bit about |
| 0:51.0 | what makes you, you, like you have a terrific husband you made a couple |
| 0:56.1 | people you like i know you accomplished a lot too but like tell me what lights you up all right |
| 1:02.2 | hi um i think it's funny that you already know by marriage story bob just for everyone listening |
| 1:08.5 | the very first dinner i ever had with bob which was only the second time I never met Bob. |
| 1:14.2 | We got down to it and talked about how we met our spouses. |
| 1:17.4 | And I thought, I need to spend more time with this man. |
| 1:19.9 | Like, he's just getting straight to the point. |
| 1:22.6 | So I am Brittany. |
| 1:24.4 | I am wife of Joel, mother of Uma and Juno, two wonderful girls who are seven and three and a half years old. |
| 1:32.9 | I am a faculty member here at Harvard Kennedy School, which is our school of public policy. |
| 1:38.4 | I like to say it's like getting a degree for doing good in the world. It's a pretty cool place to work. And I'm also |
| 1:46.1 | the executive director of the Social Innovation and Change Initiative, which is an organization |
| 1:51.2 | within Harvard Kennedy School that's dedicated to helping people think about their own |
| 1:56.9 | strategy for making social impact. And I love being part of that conversation before I, I've |
| 2:03.7 | been here for 10 years. Before that, I was working on the ground as a nonprofit executive. |
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