Following the 2021 coup by the Burmese military, the Burmese community have built an extraordinary civil disobedience movement to call for the return of democracy. Today we speak to Myint Cho a long time Burmese pro-democracy activist, active in the student movement in 1988, and then based at the Thai-Burma border for 12 years. He shares the long history of the struggle and explains what is happening today.

Myint Cho - Changemaker chats

Tyson Yunkaporta belongs to Apalech clan of North Queensland. He wrote Sandtalk and is an iconoclast - helping us to see things differently in a modern world of crisis and chaos. Join us on a chat that explores a different understanding of power, change and being.

Tyson Yunkaporta - ChangeMaker Chats

Dany’s latest book Summertime documents her experience inside the 2019 Bushfires. Today we talk about her journey and how she has learnt to speak about crisis. We also discuss the power she has drawn from bearing witness. Dany identifies strategies for how change makers can walk with crisis, and harness the power of story-telling in how they make change.

Danielle Celermajer - author Summertime - ChangeMaker Chat

We talk to one of the biggest names in US community organising, Ernie Cortes. We chat about the history of organising, exploring how it has changed and how it has created a powerful network of organisers that spans the globe. Ernie reflects on the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) under Saul Alinksy, his work building the IAF after Alinsky’s death, and some of the practices the IAF uses to develop powerful organisers.

Across the conversation Ernie mentions dozens of important references and readings that will be food for any existing and want-to-be change maker. We have put that list on our website too, for those who weren’t quick enough to grab a pen - https://changemakerspodcast.org/ernie-cortes-changemaker-chat/.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Ernie Cortes - ChangeMaker Chat

This week we explore what it would take to build a movement for nature. Sam Rye is a manager at the Conservation Volunteers Australia. He has been involved in a lifetime of work around regeneration and in networks involving decentralised leadership. He is bringing those two passions together to imagine how people can reimagine their relationship with the earth.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Sam Rye - ChangeMaker Chat

Jane McAlevey is a fierce advocate for winning social change through organising. Her organising method, grounded in decades of experience, mentorship and the battles of many movements across US history, is that workers and people need to lead their own change. She specialises in teaching how you can support people to do this. 

For unionists, her work is well known - and this episode is a joyous journey into how she came to this approach, and how that approach works. For others in the climate movement or racial justice movements - this is a useful introduction to what Jane means by organising, how it is different to mobilising and some of its crucial features. 

If you are interested in Jane’s work, she has published three books and a free online book of case studies that can all be downloaded here - https://janemcalevey.com/. You can find Jane on Twitter at @rsgexp. 

She also runs a global training program called Workers Rising - the most recent session is described here and future sessions will be advertised on Jane’s website (you can sign up for updates). 

For more on ChangeMakers - check us out at https://changemakerspodcast.org/, or Twitter at @changemakers99 or @amandatatts.

Jane McAlevey - ChangeMaker Chat

Could there be a single lever in the global marketplace that could transform the stakes for climate change? Yes - the insurance industry. Over the past 5 years insurance has been turned upside down by a nimble network of climate campaigners that have set new rules to end insurance for fossil fuel projects. This is the story of the Sunrise Project, the Insure our Future coalition, and the global and Australian distributed networks that have turned the world of insurance around.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org
On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

The Best Climate Campaign You Have Never Heard Of

How can we hold together big ambition for social change on issues like climate alongside the small work required to build powerful connections across our diversity and difference? This piece explores the tensions of scale between big and small, fast and slow through stories and reflections across a life of organising. Our host Amanda Tattersall reads a memoir that she wrote for the Griffith Review in their August edition entitled Hey Utopia.

You can find the Griffith Review here: https://www.griffithreview.com/editions/hey-utopia/. 

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Scaling Change - Amanda Tattersall on making change big and small

The war on drugs has been a failed battle for decades. But what could we be doing differently? And what is a church doing running a facility where illegal drugs can be used openly? And why?

For more on the Medically Supervised Injecting Centre go here.
For more on the Fair Treatment campaign go here.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Addiction, drugs and the quest for Fair Treatment

Australia locks up asylum seekers if they attempt to get here by boat. But the refugees that have been subject to indefinite detention on Manus Island and in Australian hotels have resisted. Mostafa Azimitabar, Moz, has led refugee resistance from the inside using the change making skills that he developed as a Kurdish freedom fighter. Here he shares his story and his approach to change making, lessons learnt in his struggle against the Iranian and Australian governments. You can find Moz on Twitter @AzimiMoz and on Instagram @mostafaazimitabar.

Mostafa (Moz) Azimitabar - ChangeMaker Chats

Across the world statues and symbols dedicated to slave owners and colonialists are being removed. But before that movement started in the United States and the United Kingdom, it began in Cape Town. The is the story of #RhodesMust Fall and the South African #FeesMustFall movement that sought to not only remove the symbols of colonialism but demanded that the education system be changed in substance as well.

Where the statues fell first #RhodesMustFall

Lots of people say they co-design research and policy with communities, but how do you know when co-design is being done well (and when it isn’t)? We talk to one of the world’s leading autistic participatory researchers, Professor Liz Pellicano from University College London. She shares the elements of good co-design, such as the process of interdependence, the role of relationships and power in the co-design process, and important place of lived experience researchers. You can follow Liz @liz_pellicano.

For more about ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Liz Pellicano - ChangeMaker Chat - Co-design

Could there be a single lever in the global marketplace that could transform the stakes for climate change? Yes - the insurance industry. Over the past 5 years insurance has been turned upside down by a nimble network of climate campaigners that have set new rules to end insurance for fossil fuel projects. We are re-releasing this 2021 story of the Sunrise Project, the Insure our Future coalition, and the global and Australian distributed networks that have turned the world of insurance around.
For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org
On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

The Biggest Climate Campaign You Have Never Heard Of

Terri Janke is an Aboriginal and Torrest Strait Islander Lawyer who uses the law to protect and advance Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. As a Meriam and Wuthathi woman who grew up in Cairns in northern Queensland, for over 20 years she has crafted a set of legal instruments that allow for the protection of Indigenous Culture. From an Indigenous perspective, Culture is the embodiment of life, and it can be represented in anything from art to dance, from bones to research. She is well recognised across Australia for her work in protecting Indigenous Culture using a series of True Track protocols that enable Indigenous Culture to be recognised as intellectual property. 

Here she explains her journey and how she found the law. She explores her ICIP principles and then applies them to the process of research, and in particular Country-based ‘placed-based’ research. This is a powerful conversation for non-Indigenous listeners as Terri generously shares an Indigenous perspective on Culture that is very different to white understandings of culture.

For more about Terri’s work you can visit her website - https://www.terrijanke.com.au/. Or read her book True Tracks, available from UNSW Press.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Terri Janke - ChangeMaker Chat - True Tracks

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 discuss the power of personal experience in shaping political advocacy and her hopes for changing the legal system.

For more on Karen’s campaign:
Take action to support the campaign at MakePoliceInvetigate.org
Watch Karen on The Project
Read Karen’s story in the Guardian and in News.com.au

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org
On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Karen Iles - ChangeMaker Chat - Police & Sexual Assault

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 engaged work with a variety of affected communities has changed the public debate on climate in Australia.

You can find out more about the climate council here - https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Amanda McKenzie - ChangeMaker Chat - Climate Communicator

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 to overcome challenges like climate distress and what Claire has learnt about what goes into the most successful forms of change.

For more information about Together We Can visit: https://claireorourke.com/new-book-together-we-can/

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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Claire ORouke - ChangeMaker Chat - Climate Action

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 change.

Grace’s book “Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner: a memoir” is available here.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Grace Tame - ChangeMaker Chat - the challenges of making change

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 taken from the kind of movements he has helped bring to life, like 350.org and Third Act.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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Bill McKibben - ChangeMaker Chat - Climate Agitator #ICYMI

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 Uluru Statement from the Heart and the community movement following it. He talks about the power and importance of the Federal Labor Government’s commitment to a national referendum to change the Australian Constitution and create a Voice to Parliament in late 2023.

Thomas has written five books, and you can find out about them here. His latest book released in May 2023 with Kerry O’Brien called “The Voice to Parliament Handbook” is available via all major book distributors (see here). Thomas is on tour talking about the book and the dates and tickets can be found here.

There are lots of organisations campaigning for a yes vote, including:
https://yes23.com.au/ (space to volunteer)
https://togetheryes.com.au/ (supporting kitchen table conversations)
https://ulurustatement.org/training/#/ - a learning platform about the voice and the Uluru Statement from the Heart

The Voice is a produce of a powerful collaborative process led by and for Indigenous Australians that culminated in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

You can find out more about ChangeMakers:
Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org
On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/
On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Thomas Mayo - ChangeMaker Chat - Voice To Parliament

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 electoral politics. But gentrification and the Brisbane floods
 changed his perspective, and he was encouraged to try and use lessons from political parties like Podemos and social movements around the world in the electoral arena.

Max goes into detail about how the Greens successfully organised, using door knocking, training programs and issue education sessions to create a space for political education
 and movement building. He talks openly about the challenges of electoral politics, and how important it is for candidates and parties to be held accountable to the people that elected them.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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https://changemakerspodcast.org
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Max Chandler-Mather - ChangeMaker Chat - Organising in Elections

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 independents used community organising techniques like kitchen table conversations to build an independent electoral base in Australia. 

The Voices for Indi group has just released a new book called The Indi Way - and you can find out more about it here - https://voicesforindi.com/.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Nick Haines - ChangeMaker Chat - Voices for Indi #ICYMI

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 have done this and some of the obstacles they have encountered. It is a tour de force about all things organising, and it demonstrates the power of using the principles of organising to ‘disorganise and reorganise’ philanthropy.

In the Chat Martha mentions a few ideas which you can find out more about here:
Jane McAlevey - there is a ChangeMaker Chat with Jane that you can find here.
Scale - the article that our host Amanda Tattersall wrote is here

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Martha MacKenzie - ChangeMaker Chat - Organising Money for ChangeMaking

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 differs across the world. We talk about a big debate inside the network - about having their campaigns between being led by member preferences and being stewarded by staff. This is a chat we at ChangeMakers particularly enjoyed as our host, Amanda Tattersall helped found GetUp in Australia. 

If you have been getting emails from one of these organisations - come and have a listen to how they work! 

For more on ChangeMakers check us out: 
Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.org 
On Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/ 
On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts 
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nina Hall - ChangeMaker Chat - Digital Advocacy

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 lovely chat about changemaking - and the power that  “small” change, like one to one conversations can bring to changing the world.

You can find out more about the Differently Brained podcast here: https://differentlybrainedpodcast.podbean.com/, where there are links to episodes. The podcast can be found on all the podcast apps.

For more on ChangeMakers check us out:
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On Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatatts

Jacinta Dietrich - ChangeMaker Chat - Differently brained

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 community organising and worked with the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney to create a community-led transition from the ground up.

For more on the Real Deal see here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab/our-research/real-deal.html.

Host Amanda Tattersall is involved in this project and has written about it, including a discussion of the work in Gladstone and in Geelong.

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Elise Ganley - ChangeMaker Chat - Climate Transition

When the largest rally in human history in 2003 didn’t stop the Iraq War it makes you wonder what does it take for a coalition to win? In the second episode of ChangeMakers podcast we look at Brexit and examine how the types of coalitions used by each side influenced the outcome of the referendum. Then we go to the Northern Rivers in regional Australia look at how a different kind of alliance against Coal Seam Gas sought to organise across the entire community.

Series 1 Ep 02 - How to Win

What can we learn when a Hollywood TV show gets into ChangeMaking? Comedy show Brooklyn 99 took on police racism. How did they do it in a way that people didn’t turn off?

http://changemakerspodcast.org/

Series 2 Ep 1 - Brooklyn99

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?

http://changemakerspodcast.org/

Series 2 Ep 2 - Umbrella Movement

The road to marriage equality in Australia was filled with dirty tricks and homophobia. How did the LGBTI community build a movement strong enough to overcome it all?

http://changemakerspodcast.org/

S2 Ep 5 - Marriage Equality

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 changemaker.

#20  Igniting opportunities for Refugees

This is the homework for attendees of the ChangeMakers MasterClass on Electoral Power.

Electoral Power MasterClass Homework

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?

Jolovan Wham ChangeMakerChat

On 14 February 2018, 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. That same day, student survivors began to build a movement against senseless gun violence and lax gun laws. This is the first episode in a multi-part series that shares how they organised for change. This episode looks at how important their voices were in breaking through the sense of despair in America’s gun debate.

#24 Power of March for Our Lives - 1 - Who Speaks

Mike Gecan is a 45 year veteran organiser based in the United States. He is the former National Co-Director of the first, largest and oldest community organising network in the world - the Industrial Areas Foundation. He talks to us about what organising is, and what it is not. He shares stories about how he learnt about power, and explores some of the differences between social change traditions like mobilising and organising. He also gives us a fresh take on the upcoming Trump v Biden 2020 US Presidential Election.

Go to our website link for additional reading, materials and links referred to in the podcast. https://changemakerspodcast.org/mike-gecan-changemaker-chat/

Mike Gecan - ChangeMaker Chat

ChangeMakers Podcast tells stories of people trying the change the world. Host Amanda Tattersall travels the globe, talking to the people involved in extraordinary campaigns, finding out what works - and what doesn’t. Hopes, fears and regrets are revealed. Story by story, the lessons of how to change the world are teased out. Series One in 2017 featured ten episodes, and Series 2 released in 2018 covers campaigns from the democracy movement in Hong Kong to the Marriage Equality movement in Australia, to the anti-Trump movement in the USA. 

ChangeMakers shows change is possible.

Popular tracks by ChangeMakers Podcast