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/

Most people in prevention care deeply… that’s not the issue. The issue is that some of the most common prevention approaches can quietly miss the mark… and sometimes even backfire.

In this episode of Pathways 2 Prevention, Dave Closson sits down with Matej (UTRIP), author of Prevention Gone Wrong: The Do’s, Don’ts, and the Common-Sense Lessons in Drug Prevention, to unpack why “good intentions” aren’t enough — and how to course‑correct without shaming the field.

Episode Links:

• UNODC International Standards on Drug Use Prevention (PDF): https://www.unodc.org/documents/prevention/standards_180412.pdf
• Book: Prevention Gone Wrong: The Do’s, Don’ts, and the Common-Sense Lessons in Drug Prevention

Drug Free America Foundation:

• Website: https://www.dfaf.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrugFreeAmericaFndn/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drugfreeamericafoundation/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg9f7kHutH1xAFO_ZIRPmrg
• X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/drugfreeamerica