Today we talk with Anhaar Kareem - a 16 year old Australian woman who is part of the Make it 16 campaign seeking to give young people the vote. She shares her journey into making change - and the influences of he family and the place where she lives. She shares where the campaign came from, why young people feel like they need the vote more than ever, and some of the battles she and others have faced in talking with political leaders about why 16 and 17 year olds should have a political...

Broad based organising in the United Kingdom has a long history - starting with the pioneering work of "TELCO" (The East London Citizens Organisation). In this chat, Emmanuel Gotora - Lead Organiser at TELCO and Assistant Director at Citizens UK shares that story while also sharing his story of his journey into organising. This is an episode about the slow but powerful journey of leadership development, and the power that can come when communities join together to fight for their needs. We...

They say "don't meet your heroes" but thankfully that isn't always true. Jane McAlevey is one of those people who would call "b******t" on people calling her a hero - but I'm an Australian - so I say b******t back. Jane is a fighter - and this conversation with her recorded in 2021 demonstrates that. Jane has taught us many of the rules about how to fight and how to win. Jane is not well (see this piece in the New Yorker) - but she is still fighting. Not just for her health but for the...

Chanel Contos joins us on ChangeMakers to discuss her new book Consent Laid Bare and the challenge of how to end rape culture. She shares the journey she took to helping Australia learn about the culture of rape and sexual assault that continues to exist amongst teenagers and how we might go about ending it. Today we talk about the problem and strategies to bring down the pillars that hold up a collective culture than decriminatlises rape. To get a copy of Chanel's book - Consent Laid Bare -...

Let's talk about race. In this chat Gloria Tabi shares her experiences of racism at work in Australia and how she has come to lead change in the workplace around racial exclusion and discrimination. This is a powerful conversation about the brutality of exclusion and about the challenging strategies required to understand and change racism in the workplace. Gloria's organisation - Everyday Inclusion - works on these issues - https://www.everydayinclusion.com.au/about. Her books and materials...

Let's talk about race. In this chat Gloria Tabi shares her experiences of racism at work in Australia and how she has come to lead change in the workplace around racial exclusion and discrimination. This is a powerful conversation about the brutality of exclusion and about the challenging strategies required to understand and change racism in the workplace. Gloria's organisation - EVERYDAY INCLUSION - works on these issues - https://www.everydayinclusion.com.au/about. Her books and materials...

How do anthropologists use curiosity to see and support people to make change in the world? And what is an anthropologist anyway? In this conversation we talk with Nikita Simpson about how she came to work as an anthropologist, having worked up a curiosity about the similarities and differences between communities and cultures from growing up in a bi-racial family in Australia. She takes us to the Himalayas where she has worked with communities to understand the complex dynamics of care in...

In this episode from 2021, we look at the power of public servants and how they make change with one of Australia's most senior former public servants - Peter Shergold. In what ways are public servants ChangeMakers, and how can advocacy groups build more powerful relationships with them? This chat is with one of Australia’s most senior former public servants – Peter Shergold – who was a senior official in both the Hawke Labor Government and the Howard conservative Liberal Government. He...

What would it take for communities reliant on fossil fuels to be leaders in the climate transition? In this chat Elise Ganley, the National Lead Organiser for the Real Deal for Australia project explores how communities like Gladstone and Geelong are leading the way in designing policies that create an economic transition in ways that are shaped by their interests. Elise lives in Gladstone and grew up in regional South Australia, she tells the story of how these communities have used...

We are all different - but some of these differences are hard to see. That includes differences based on our neurodiversity or our mental health. This conversation is with Jacinta Dietrich the co-host of the Differently Brained podcast. She is autistic and has lived with the challenges of mental health. She co-created a podcast to make a space for people to share how they live differently.  Jacinta shares openly about her neurodivergence and the community she has created. We also have a...

If you are in Australia you might have heard of GetUp, or if you are in the United States you probably know about MoveOn - but you might not be aware that these kinds of digital advocacy movements operate in 20 countries around the world. These groups are linked through a global network called OPEN (Online Progressive Engagement Network) and today we talk with Nina Hall who has written the book about how the network works!  We explore what makes these organisations similar and how their work...

Making change is be invaluable, but without resources it is hard to do. This episode digs into the question of how to raise money to make changemaking happen. We talk with Martha McKenzie the Executive Director of the Civic Power Fund in the United Kingdom. The Civic Power Fund is dedicated to raising resources for community organising - providing seed grants and creating understanding amongst philanthropists of the particular power that organising can create. This Chat digs into how they...

It’s been one year since the Australian Federal Election that swooped an unprecedented number of community independents into the House of Representatives, and it’s been 10 years since that “Voices for” movement started. In celebration of Voices for Indi, we are sharing this Chat with Nick Haines - in case you missed it (ICYMI). Nick worked on Cathy McGowan’s campaign and his mum Helen Haines is the current member for Indi.  In this conversation he shares the long story of how community...

In the 2022 Australian Federal Election the Greens won an unprecedented number of seats in Queensland - producing what came to be known as the “Green Wave.” Max Chandler-Mather was at the centre of that movement - and is now the current Member for Griffith. In this conversation he shares how the Queensland Greens translated community organising techniques into an electoral force.  He shares his unusal story into the Greens, as someone who was frustrated and disenchanted by traditional...

Australia is in the middle of a national conversation that could transform our relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But how much do you know about the long story that sits behind the Voice to Parliament referendum?  Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man, born on Larrakia country in Darwin. He shares with us his journey into union activism and Indigenous struggle. This chat explores what it was like to be part of the...

Few people have been as effective at agitating for a stronger climate and environment movement as Bill McKibben. He has consistently pushed new strategies and thinking in the battle to save our natural environment and our climate.  In celebration of his agitator spirit, we are re-sharing this #InCaseYouMissedIt episode with Bill McKibben recorded in June 2022. In this chat Bill shares how he found change-making through a love of the natural environment and writing - and the lessons he has...

Australian of the Year Grace Tame talks with us about her journey into change making and the challenges she has encountered. She talks about the power of even small action, and the impact that petitions had in the #LetHerSpeak movement. She talks about how the pathway to making change can be uneven, made difficult by the experience of trauma. It is a wide ranging conversation where, with a full heart, Grace shares some of the qualities that have made her a fierce advocate for...

Today we talk with Claire O’Rouke - a former journalist, climate campaigner and author of Together We Can - about the diverse and creative grassroots movement of people around Australia taking action to respond to the threat of climate change.  Together We Can canvassed over 70 stories of Australians who have developed novel community based responses to help our climate, defying the logic that you need to be a scientist or a politician to make a difference. We unpack how people have sought...

So what do former Fire Chief Greg Mullins and Australian Cricket Captain Pat Cummins have in common? They both want action on climate change and they have both worked with Amanda McKenzie, CEO of Australia’s Climate Council, to build their strategy. Amanda is a climate communicator who has worked to catalyse different communities of people affected by climate change so they can become powerful climate advocates. She talks with us about her approach to climate communications and how long term...

Karen Iles is long time social changemaker, lawyer and victim survivor of aggravated sexual assault when she was a child. As a young adult she went to the police to lodge a statement so they would investigate the crime, only to be stymied at every turn. After almost 20 years of police inaction, she has launched a campaign to create a duty for police to investigate allegations of serious crimes like child sexual assault. Today she shares her journey and the campaign she has launched. We...

Modern society tells subtle but powerful stories that shape how we think about how we should live together, make decisions together and what we should value. Jon Alexander has identified three of these stories - the subject story of the tyrant strong man, the consumer story of the modern market and the citizen story, as alternative ways we can be. In this chat we identify how these stories impact how we make change. We look at how the dominant consumer story infects many change making...

There is a powerful movement led for and by the trans and gender diverse community building in Australia - and today’s ChangeMaker Chat is with one of its founders. Jackie Turner is a trans woman and a long time social justice and climate organiser. This chat explores how organising in her community has given her a new lens on how and why we make change. She outlines the threats to the trans communities in the UK and USA, and what that means for trans people everywhere. She provides plenty of...

Today’s podcast looks at racism in the not for profit world. Aminata Conteh-Bigher has an extraordinary story; having developed powerful leadership qualities in Sierra Leonne civil war forced her to flee her home. In Australia she founded the Aminata Maternal Foundation to change the dangerous conditions that women face when giving birth in Sierra Leonne. Today she shares how this journey has placed her at the centre of the not-for-profit world in Australia, and the struggles around racism...

One of the biggest hurdles to powerful climate action is changing our economy so it is no longer reliant on fossil fuels. Too often plans hatched by experts or environmentalists far removed from coal mining communities fail, because they are unable to bring affected communities and workers with them.  This episode comes from Collie Western Australia and talks about how the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union worked with other unions, community groups and political leaders to plan for the...

In the US midterm elections, one of the extraordinary outcomes was how many young people turned their back on some of the more extreme candidates that denied the 2020 election result. Yet should it have been so surprising? Young people have been organising like their lives depended on it for a while - including through the March for Our Lives movement against gun violence.  This episode is a re-release of the story of the March for Our Lives movement that arose out of the 2018 mass shooting...