Archive

Introduction to ChangeMakers Podcast

The ChangeMakers podcast is short series podcast that tells stories about people who are striving for social change across the world. This post introduces the series and includes the catalogue of episodes.

Listen to Becky Bond on Big Organising

The big organising approach utilised in the Bernie Sanders campaign offers several valuable rules to scale up your efforts, empower members and supporters, and catch the fire of momentum. Hear from Becky Bond, co-author of Rules for Revolutionaries.

Changemakers #19: Migrant Caravan in Central America

In late 2018 thousands of people from across Central America walked North to the border of the USA and into the political maelstrom of the midterm elections. How did they organise themselves and what did they achieve?

Changemakers Podcast: Changemaker Chat with Marc Stears

Can Universities be change makers? What does it take to traverse the research-practitioner divide? Interview with the of Director of the Sydney Policy Lab.

Changemakers Podcast: Changemaker Chat with Becky Bond

We have radical challenges like climate change and inequality but not many radical political leaders. What does it take to find and elect leaders like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who is trail blazing a new political agenda in the United States? Becky Bond was one of the Field Directors for the Bernie Sanders campaign and she shares her experience of combining radical agendas and political parties.

Changemakers Podcast: Changemaker Chat with Jolovan Wham

Imagine trying to make change in an authoritarian state? Jolovan Wham works in Singapore with migrant domestic workers. Why does he do it and what does the state do to make his change making so hard?

Changemakers Podcast: Changemaker Chat with Hahrie Han

Hahrie Han is one of the world’s top researchers studying ways of strengthening civic engagement.  We explore the different strategies you can use to build people power and the journey she took to become one of the world’s top researchers in this space.

Changemakers Podcast: Changemaker Chat with Jeremy Heimans

Podcast interview with Jeremy Heimans, a digital social movement entrepreneur & key figure behind social change organisations like GetUp, Avaaz and Purpose. 

Changemakers #20: Igniting opportunities for refugees

In Australia it’s hard for newly arrived refugees to find a new job. In 2011, Settlement Services International found a way for refugees to create businesses for themselves – by using the marketplace as a change maker.

Changemakers #21 The People v Twitter trolls

Social media abuse tries to shut people down, and is frighteningly common for women and people of colour. This is the story of how Amnesty crowdsourced thousands of volunteers to patrol twitter and see if they could stop it.

ChangeMakers 1.1: Making the Impossible Possible

The story of the Fight for 15 campaign in the US which is radically changing the way low-wage workers fight for better conditions. Then we look at the roots of the radical politics that is sweeping Barcelona – and examine their attempts to “empower the street”.

ChangeMakers 1.4: When Anger Works Part 1

The story of the powerful #FeesMustFall student movement in South Africa. When a growing movement of young people places itself in harms way to stop injustice, it can be powerful and unpredictable.

ChangeMakers 1.5 When Anger Works Part 2

The story of the Lady Cilento Hospital vigil which turned into a national flashpoint that overturned a decade of political consensus on Australia’s refugee policy. Remarkably, when they began the organisers of the vigil didn’t know what they were aiming to achieve.

Treesits, Lock-ons and Barricades: Environmental Blockading in the 1980s

From 1979 to the 1990s Australia, Canadian and American activists took part in a series of environmental blockades to defend old growth forests, rivers and other biodiverse places. Join Iain McIntyre for a series of conversations with the blockaders who took part in these campaigns.  

ChangeMakers 1.6: Protesting in Putin’s Russia

This episode looks at how to organise genuine opposition in a place where the one thing they hate is genuine opposition. How a small protest against destruction of a local park turned into a mass movement that’s sweeping Russia.

ChangeMakers 1.7: Fighting Dirty – Standing Rock

What would you do if someone wanted to bulldoze an oil pipeline through your country, threatening not just your land, but your water and air? And what if the nation backing them had a history of playing dirty? That’s the situation the people in today’s episode found themselves in. The battle over building an oil pipeline in Standing Rock in South Dakota, USA.

ChangeMakers 1.8: The Power of Vision

What does it take to improve the lives of millions of people? The late Fred Hollows knew. He was known across the globe for his groundbreaking work in disrupting the global medical establishment, and his legacy lives on among the doctors he inspired. What does it take to achieve transformation at this kind of scale?

ChangeMakers 1.9: Fighting the Hard Right

In 2016, GetUp, an organisation best known for its online petitions and email campaigns, decided to go offline. They came up a strategy to remove extreme conservative politicians from the Australian parliament. One of the places they went to was the seat of Bass in Northern Tasmania.

Changemakers 2.2: Umbrella Movement

In 2014 Hong Kong hundreds of thousands of citizens staged a mass street occupation demanding the vote. Why did it happen? And what led to tensions building inside the movement overtime?

ChangeMakers 2.3: Indivisible

This is the origin story of the largest anti-Trump organisation in America and how it built a mass based local movement to save affordable healthcare.