Spoonful of Laughter: Changing the Diabetes Narrative Through Comedy

What happens when you try to dismantle one of the most common and damaging forces in diabetes care with comedy?

Diabetes stigma affects nearly 4 in 5 adults with diabetes. It impacts their mental, physical, and social well-being. Spoonful of Laughter is a national campaign that tackles this stigma head-on—not with lectures, but with laughter.

In this episode, guests Brian Fitzgerald of Dancing Fox and Beth Strachan, who collaborated with The diaTribe Foundation to create the campaign, take us behind the scenes of how this unexpected creative approach came to life.

We explore why comedy is such a powerful “Trojan horse” for social change, how the campaign broke through entrenched stereotypes, and what nonprofit communicators can learn about designing bold, emotionally resonant campaigns.

About the guests

Beth:

For over three decades, Beth Strachan has been a professional do-gooder working at the crossroads of social justice, environmental protection, and health. Her narrative change work has helped catalyze the nationwide move toward clean energy; integrate arts, culture, and creative expression into our daily lives; and illuminate structural racism as a root cause of inequity. She has helped lead courageous breast cancer survivors on awe-inspiring ascents of Mount Shasta and Mt. Rainier, uniting communities in a powerful movement to prevent the disease. She helped launch the premier traveling film festival spotlighting women’s voices in cinema, raising $8 million for nonprofits across North America. With a family motto of “Non Timeo Sed Caveo” (I fear not, but am cautious), she approaches every endeavor with boldness tempered by wisdom, ensuring that progress is both impactful and sustainable.

Brian: 

Brian Fitzgerald has been a mischief-maker for social change for most of his life. He spent 35 years with Greenpeace doing everything from door-to-door canvassing to going to sea to save whales, stopping a nuclear weapons test in Nevada for four days, and pioneering the organization’s adoption of digital activism back when the web was young. Together with Tommy Crawford, he’s the founder of Dancing Fox, a creative agency based in Amsterdam and dedicated to beautiful disruption, where he advocates for a more invitational, hope-based form of activism. 

Resources

• Demystifying Nonprofit Budgets: What Every Leader, Fundraiser, and Marketer Needs to Know: https://brooks.digital/health-nonprofit-digital-marketing/demystifying-nonprofit-budgets/

Contact Brian and Beth

• Brian: https://www.dancing-fox.com
• Beth:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethstrachan/
• Brian: @brianfit.bsky.social
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfit/
  • Insta: @brianfit
  • https://substack.com/@brianfit
• Beth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethstrachan/
• https://www.dstigmatize.org/spoonful-of-laughter/
• The Center for Media & Social Impact’s report, How Comedy Works [to Change the World]