ChangeMakers

18/08/2026

Across the northern hemisphere, heatwaves and fires are once again showing the escalating consequences of climate change. But politically, climate has slipped down the agenda as authoritarianism, polarisation and other crises compete for attention.

In this ChangeMakers Digest, Samuel and Amanda ask what this means for climate movements.

How do we respond to the urgent need for aid and support while also building longer-term community resilience and connection? Where should climate action be organised? And how might movements build the power they need when political attention has moved elsewhere?

We try to digest the climate fires.

https://changemakerspodcast.org/climate-change-fires-and-how-we-respond-changemakers-digest/

18/08/2026

Conscious Tribes explores the relationship between public and private life: how institutions, power and social expectations enter our most personal experiences.

Seeing those pressures more clearly does not make private experience less real. It helps us understand that some of what we carry alone may need to be addressed together.

https://conscioustribes.net/book/

11/08/2026

Over the past six months, India’s Cockroaches Junta Party has taken the country by storm — challenging Modi’s BJP and mobilising around failures in the way medical exams are run.

But what do those of us outside India know about this movement? And what can it teach us about how change happens?

In this ChangeMakers Digest, Samuel and Amanda Tattersall explore what has made the movement so successful, how it compares with movements like Gen Z and the Arab Spring, and the powerful connection between what a movement fights for and how it chooses to fight.

A fascinating movement — and plenty of lessons for changemakers everywhere.

Listen now:
https://changemakerspodcast.org/lessons-from-the-cockroaches-changemakers-digest/

04/08/2026

Dom Kelly has spent almost his entire life advocating for disability rights. Living with cerebral palsy, he is the founder of New Disabled South in the US.

He shares his journey from rock music to disability justice, explores the history of the US disability movement, and explains why intersectionality and difference matter in building collective liberation.

A powerful conversation about the movement behind “Nothing About Us Without Us” — and the lessons it offers us all.

Listen here: https://changemakerspodcast.org/dom-kelly-changemaker-chat-disability-justice/

28/07/2026

Can writing help us make a difference?

In this ChangeMakers Digest, Amanda and Samuel explore when—and how—writing and reading can shape the way we understand the world and act within it.

Drawing on Amanda’s experience writing her new book, Conscious Tribes (which is out in Australia today!), they compare two different approaches: writing as a conversation with the reader, and writing as an act of persuasion designed to convince them of a particular point of view.

Along the way, they borrow insights from Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey and Hannah Arendt’s writing on public and private life to ask: What happens when we tell and retell our stories? And how does writing change when we genuinely keep other people in mind?

https://changemakerspodcast.org/writing-and-making-a-difference-changemakeres-digest/

21/07/2026

Peter Garrett is best known as the lead singer of Midnight Oil, but he has also spent a lifetime trying to make change.

From protesting the Vietnam War and apartheid, to leading environmental and anti-nuclear campaigns, to entering parliament and serving as a Labor government minister, Garrett has experienced activism from both outside and inside the institutions of power.

In this ChangeMaker Chat with Amanda Tattersall, he reflects on what those decades have taught him — and why he is now helping create space for a serious public debate about AUKUS.

The Australia–UK–US submarine deal is expected to cost more than $360 billion. Yet Garrett argues that neither parliament nor the public has properly debated the decision, its consequences or the alternatives.

Listen to the conversation:

A chat about music, protest, parliament and his latest adventure - the people's inquiry into AUKUS

16/07/2026

In this week's digest we jump on the World Cup bandwagon to ask what supporting a team can teach us about organisations, belonging and democracy.

There is plenty of politics around these games — including Trump’s sporting “expertise” — but our focus is on the difference between strong and weak organisations, and what that might teach us about making change.

https://changemakerspodcast.org/the-world-cup-and-lessons-about-making-change-changemakers-digest/

07/07/2026

What can the art of storytelling teach us about how to make change?

Anna Funder has spent her writing life challenging the stories told by the powerful — from the Stasi in East Germany, to the rise of Hi**er, to the erasure of Eileen O’Shaughnessy from the story of George Orwell.

In this ChangeMakers conversation with Amanda Tattersall, we talk about writing as a form of change making, the power of ordinary people, and why Anna is now speaking out against AI content theft and the tech companies profiting from writers’ work.

New episode out now.

What the art of story-telling can teach us about how to make change.

23/06/2026

Leisel Jones is one of Australia’s great Olympians — a four-time Olympic swimmer and three-time gold medallist.

In this ChangeMaker Chat, Leisel speaks with Amanda Tattersall about the pressures placed on young athletes, her own mental health struggles, and how those experiences led her to become a powerful advocate for change.

https://changemakerspodcast.org/leisel-jones-changemaker-chat-speaking-up-for-mental-health/

25/05/2026

Democracy is under pressure - from Trump’s attacks on democratic checks and balances in the US, to Reform’s rise in the UK, to One Nation’s resurgence in Australian by-elections.

But democracy is not only defended in parliaments and elections. It is also rebuilt locally, through the practices that help people work across difference.

In this ChangeMakers conversation, host Amanda Tattersall speaks with democracy scholar Hahrie Han ahead of the UCL Policy Lab’s Ecosystem Project gathering in May 2026.

They explore where hope comes from when politics feels grim — and how people can still build power together.

Listen now: https://changemakerspodcast.org/hahrie-han-changemaker-chat-building-a-progressive-ecosystem/