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. Listen below by clicking play, or listen via an app on Apple, PodcastOne or Stitcher…

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The Late Night Live episode aired on Tuesday 18th March entitled “The perfect recipe for creating change.” Together they discussed Amanda’s US trip and her time spent with the students from Parkland learning how they build a social movement for Gun Violence. It jumped to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Green New Deal, Moscow and Green space campaigners, Cape Town’s reclaim the city movement and to the inception of  the Knitting Nanna’s in Lismore. More here.

ChangeMakers Host Amanda Tattersall just had a piece published in the Guardian about climate change, the green new deal and the politics of climate in the upcoming Australian election. It is high school students who have helped reinvigorate the climate change debate in Australia and they are preparing to march again this week. The effect they have had is similar to the reaction created by the Green New Deal in the United States in the last month. Last month newly…

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How do politicians really make change? Although most political leaders say they are powerful and can make a difference – what are the real pressures and backroom deals that make that hard? This week we hear from a senior leader of the Australia Labor Party who “spills the beans” on how some of this works. John Robertson was a Labor Party Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in NSW for 4 years, as well as being a highly successful…

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Can Universities be change makers? If so, what does it take to traverse the research-practitioner divide? To find out more we interviewed Marc Stears, Director of the Sydney Policy Lab. Marc is a former Professor of Oxford turned speech writer for the UK Labour Party’s Ed Miliband, and now he is in Sydney trying to build more bridges between scholarship and practice. So why does he do it? And how? Listen in here: On the Podcast One app, on iTunes,…

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What is a church doing running a facility where illegal drugs can be used openly? And why?   Click on the play button above to stream it here. Or listen to the episode on Podcast One, Stitcher or Apple iTunes. Or use any Podcast app with our RSS feed.   Full transcript of Episode 6 – Fair Treatment Dr MARIANNE JAUNCEY: You know I’ve been asked that drugs are bad Dr. Jauncey wouldn’t you say drugs are bad. My response…

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How do we overcome chronic long term homelessness? On this episode we look at one campaign which decided to set an absurdly ambitious goal to try and solve the homelessness problem. Click on the play button above to stream it here. Or listen to the episode on Podcast One, Stitcher or Apple iTunes. Or use any Podcast app with our RSS feed. Full transcript of Episode 7 – Homes for the Homeless SOUND EFFECT: “5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  Happy…

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Can squatters ever hope to become land owners? An inspiring story from Thailand shows what it takes for poor people to rebuild the city around them.   Click on the play button above to stream it here. Or listen to the episode on Podcast One, Stitcher or Apple iTunes. Or use any Podcast app with our RSS feed. Full transcription Episode 8 – Asian Coalition of Housing Rights HOST: In March 1981, the iconic British rock band, Queen toured Argentina….

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The Strike4Climate across Australia is the beginning of a student uprising to protect our future. These kinds of social movement uprisings don’t happen very often. The last one here was in 2003 in the lead up to the War in Iraq. Back then we organised the largest rally in Australia’s history – 500 000 people. It felt amazing. But it wasn’t enough – the war happened and the social movement wasn’t strong enough to maintain the pressure for the long…

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By Emily Lau It is almost four years after the Hong Kong Umbrella Occupation which shook the world. The 79-day occupation of the Admiralty political and commercial district ended on 11 December 2014, with the police arresting hundreds of protesters. The massive peaceful occupation captured the international news media’s imagination, because they were so used to covering violent scenes of carnage, bloodshed, rape and slaughter. Some journalists described it as the Umbrella Revolution, and it could not be further from…

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