Good Things

Zero Waste Malaysia is a trailblazing non-profit that has been empowering communities to live sustainably and reduce waste for over eight years now. From a meeting of two like-minded friends, to a movement of over 50000 members, Zero Waste Malaysia continues to grow in strength, and we catch up with Irene Chooi (Education Programme Manager), and Tasha Sabapathy (Senior Programme and Communications...

Andrew Morley is the CEO of World Vision International, an organisation focused on fighting hunger, poverty and climate change. Coordinating over 34,000 staff in nearly 100 countries, World Vision has provided aid to over 100 million vulnerable children and families. We spoke to Andrew Morley about his journey and World Vision’s various efforts to help the needy in an increasingly conflict-ridden...

From the beginning, organisms evolve from one cell, which divides and becomes new cells that in turn divide. This cell cycle is the key to life, enabling growth, development and reproduction. Sir Paul Nurse, Chancellor of the University of Bristol, dedicated much of his scientific career to studying how this cycle is controlled, and the gene that plays a decisive role in several of the cell cycle’...

Renowned Malaysian fashion designer Bernard Chandran is marking an important milestone in 2024 - working for 30 years in Malay Contemporary Fashion. Known for his innovative designs that blend traditional Asian elements with contemporary Western aesthetics, Bernard is a local and global icon with a unique vision, and impeccable craftsmanship. He has earned accolades and a dedicated international c...

Dr. Wong Siew Te is a renowned wildlife biologist, tropical ecologist and CEO/ Founder of the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) in Sabah. Following his studies first in Taiwan, and then at the University of Montana, he has focussed his life's work on the Malayan sun bear, the smallest and least known bear species. In 2008, Dr. Wong founded the BSBCC to rehabilitate sun bears and reintro...

Gibbons, also known as the singing apes, are endangered in Malaysia, but we don’t even know how many of them we actually have left across both the Peninsula and East Malaysia. Marini Ramli, also fondly known as Bam, has dedicated her life and career towards protecting these gibbons. She started the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project or GReP and later on the Gibbon Conservation Society to help rehabilit...

Fazley Fadzil is the Pro-tem secretary at Transit Malaysia, an NGO comprised of concerned citizens focussing on representing public transport users and advocating for their needs. On top of that, if you’re a public transport user in Malaysia, you’ve definitely used a particular app by a private company. Highly reliable and the ultimate survival tool for public transport users in Klang Valley. Inte...

The Malaysia Teacher Prize (MTP) was started to celebrate exceptional educators and unsung heroes in Malaysia, and is the first of its kind in our country to recognise teachers on a national scale, and provide a platform to scale their best practices. Now running for its third year, the competition, organised by Pemimpin GSL , is a localised version of the world renowned Global Teacher Prize, and...

Macaranga is a Malaysian environmental journalism portal founded by Wong Siew Lyn and Law Yao-Hua. They produce in-depth, research-based features, train environment journalists, and do tremendous work raising awareness, driving change, and building an informed community dedicated to environmental conservation. In light of World Press Freedom Day 2024, we speak to the co-founders of Macaranga on th...

What is it like to reach for and study the stars? Malaysia’s first astrophysicist, Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Mazlan Othman, has shown us what that looks like, paving a path for women in STEM and today, she remains a role model for many who dream of a career in astrophysics. She joins us on the show today to reflect back how the stars aligned for her career both in Malaysia and on the global st...

Wong Kueng Hui is a 29-year-old activist from Malaysia. He was a former stateless person from Sabah who fought relentlessly for 16 long, gruelling years to gain citizenship. He finally received his IC in 2023 – a life-changing event. But as far as he’s concerned, the battle is far from over, as there are still tens of thousands (some say hundreds of thousands) of stateless people in Malaysia. Not...

In a world where trees are being cut down in forests and cities to make way for development and agriculture, there is an organisation which is giving away free trees for people to plant in a bid to repopulate our planet with greenery. Since 2012, Free Tree Society has been giving away healthy plants to people and communities around Malaysia and has since given away about 63,000 plants through thei...

Native Discovery is a social enterprise with an ecommerce setup, which, as the story goes, began as an unexpected encounter between an enterprising Orang Asli aspirant, and a bright-eyed civil engineering student. The aim was to co-create community-based tourism ventures with indigenous communities in Peninsular Malaysia, to boost livelihoods while enabling respectful cultural discovery. The partn...

Dr Stephen Sizer is the Founder of Peacemaker Trust, a charity dedicated to peacemaking, especially where minorities are persecuted. He’s a Christian Priest (or former priest) and activist known for critiquing Christian Zionism and advocating for Palestinian rights. Despite facing tremendous backlash for his views and advocacy, including getting banned from serving, the 70-year-old has continued t...

Dr Judith Mackay has spent decades of her life and career advocating for stricter tobacco control  across the globe and calling out the tobacco industry for their practices. A British medical doctor based in Hong Kong since 1967, she has had vast experience working with different countries and stakeholders, as well as with the World Health Organisation in pushing for better tobacco control -...

Ho Yock Lin is one of the founding members of the All Women’s Action Society also known as AWAM , back in 1985. For over 40 years, she’s dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights and pushing for legal reforms surrounding domestic violence, sexual harassment and more. In light of International Women’s Day 2024 today, Yock Lin joins us on the show to share her journey Image credit: All Women...

Women's March Malaysia is a dynamic movement dedicated to advancing intersectional education and advocacy across a spectrum of issues. Grounded in the principles of inclusivity and social justice, Women's March Malaysia promotes gender equality, and works towards amplifying the voices of marginalised communities within Malaysia. We speak to * Ares, the Movement Outreach and Programmes Lead for the...

Sports is often seen as a way to bring people from all walks of life together, whether you’re playing or a spectator cheering on the game. That’s exactly what Projek Tongkat aims to do, by supporting and providing a space for amputees to partake in one of the most beloved sports in Malaysia: football. Here to share more about the project is its director, Dr Ahmad Munawwar Helmi Salim.  Image...

Mohammad Alshatri is a human rights activist. He worked with SUARAM for 6 years, where he focused on issues such as police misconduct, deaths in police custody and other human rights violations. Mat – as he likes to go by – is also a documentary filmmaker. His documentary ‘Perhimpunan Haram’ will be screened at an event at Gerakbudaya called ‘Proses Sebuah Protes” happening tomorrow at 2pm. See om...

Sarah Irdina is the co-founder of MISI Solidariti, which is a youth-led organisation. They garnered attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for being one of the many youth-led groups that organised the LAWAN rally during Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration. Sarah, who was a 20 year-old college student at the time, was arrested and detained overnight under the Sedition Act.  See omnystudi...

In Malaysia, it’s estimated that 5,000 babies with congenital heart disease are born every year. While many of these cases will be mild and wouldn’t require any treatment, more severe cases would require surgical intervention which may not be easily accessible to underprivileged families. That’s where the Malaysian Congenital Heart Foundation comes in, as a non-profit organisation to support patie...

For many Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses, who gave birth overseas, obtaining citizenship for their children is a never-ending struggle. As it stands, the Malaysian constitution awards fathers the automatic right to confer citizenship on their children born abroad but the same does not apply to mothers. Esther Teo is one of these mothers. After fighting an uphill battle against the system fo...

From running a large-scale pro bono medical camp for six years, to collecting, fixing, and giving repurposed computers to schoolchildren in need, the Medical Awareness Camp Outreach or MACO team have come a long way since they started their NGO. Started by a group of specialist doctors and non-medical volunteers to provide free medical services to the poor, the group's current focus is on their co...

Wong Chin Huat is a political scientist and one of the founding members of Bersih 17 years ago. But Chin Huat’s passion for politics and fighting against injustice started way before that. On today’s episode, we have a conversation with Chin Huat about his political life before Bersih, what the Bersih movement changed in this country (and what it didn’t) and his hopes for the future. See omnystudi...

Wathshlah Naidu is the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), a non-profit organisation promoting media freedom, access to information and freedom of expression. She’s also been part of Women’s Aid Organisation and the International Women’s Rights Action Watch, as well as UNHCR. In this episode, we discuss her journey as an activist for more than 20 years, feminism and...