Seeds

Kerri coordinates 'Carabiner' in Christchurch which helps provide mentoring opportunities for young people aged 18-25 with disabilities.  In this interview we talk about her childhood, love of the outdoors, working life and her views about what the word "disability" means.  I really enjoyed talking with Kerri and she is a real inspiration - a few minutes of listening to this interview and you will...

E Wen Wong was 13 when she founded P.S. Our Beaches.  Now aged 16 we talk about her love of poetry, founding an organisation to clean up our beaches, solving problems and what the future holds.  I really enjoyed my conversation with E Wen and will be interesting to watch what she gets involved with in future since she has started getting involved (and starting) many things so young. Website: https...

Steve is the Executive Director at Pathway which is a charity and social enterprise helping prisoners reintegrate back into society after they leave prison.  It does that through a charitable trust owning two businesses which employ those ex prisoners.  In this longest episode so far we talk about his childhood, different careers including as a radio host, President of the Canterbury Students Asso...

Robert speaks about suicide from a place of sincerity and personal experience which is profound.  In this episode we talk with him about his childhood, early life, guardian angels who have saved him from suicide, the epidemic that we are seeing now, mental health, vulnerability and how to have more open conversations.  This is a wide ranging conversation touching on many topics with an eloquent vo...

Some interviews are like little jewels that I've somehow uncovered while walking along the beach.  Today is one of those as I speak with the poet Kathleen Gallagher.  Kathleen has written plays, poems, novels as well as done 7 feature films.  In this interview we talk about her childhood, the creative writing process, how she writes, being attentive and in the moment and her recent novel Inangahua...

Sister Mary was born in 1929 and knew she wanted to be a nurse early in her life.  In January 1949 she joined Little Company of Mary which is coming up to 70 years of service.  In this interview we talk about her early life and memories of the first radio her family purchased, the Great Depression, the start of World War II and at age 16 her first experience of being with someone who died while sh...

Julie co-founded charity KidsCan 13 years ago and is the CEO now.  In this interview we talk about her childhood, her first jobs, the influence of her parents on her life and what led her to start KidsCan.  We also talk about child poverty in New Zealand and what they are seeing on the front line among the almost 800 schools that they are in and how they are supporting children in need.  We then d...

Thanks everyone for helping reach this significant milestone!  The 75th episode was just released and with that we passed 20,000 total listens across all the interviews.  Thanks to all who are out there listening to one, or many, of the episodes of the show and telling others about it - this milestone would not have been possible without you!   In honour of reaching this have edited the seminar la...

Earlier this week (actually, last night!) I presented to around 50 people on Social Enterprise in Auckland and this is just a few short minutes extract of that more than hour long session.  I was reflecting on what we are actually talking about when we think about social enterprise and the paradigm shift that is occurring as we move away from the binary conception of charity on the one side (mainl...

Mike was appointed earlier this year to be 'Wikipedian at Large' and has been travelling the country in that role.  In this interview we talk about his childhood, his PHD in giant flightless birds and their egg sizes, his work in museums over the years and his role now promoting Wikipedia and running seminars across the country on that.  http://www.giantflightlessbirds.com/about/ @adzebill "New Ze...

Rowan is a lecturer in the History Department at Canterbury University who has done years of research into ANZAC history. In this interview (released in the month that is the centenary of World War I ending) we talk about his early childhood in Auckland, what led him to study history, and why it is that we celebrate a defeat in WW1 rather than the end of the war or a victory.  This is one of those...

Louise Aitken is the CEO of Ākina Foundation which is growing social enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this interview (the longest so far!) we talk about her childhood, what it was like growing up with her twin sister Natalie, moving to Brazil age 17 and how that shaped her identity, taking care of her father who passed away from cancer in her 20s, her career working in London, how she made t...

On this episode we discuss dyslexia as a form of Superpower.  Why might that be?  After our full interview Geoff Bone contacted me to say he wanted to talk about Dyslexia.  While it is hinted at in the full interview he asked if he could come back and share more about his experience.  We thought it would be a 2 minute insert into the interview but then it became more - this episode.  I readily agr...

Geoff is the event director for the New Zealand Agricultural Show (formerly the Canterbury A&P Show).  In this interview we talk about Geoff's childhood and years overseas in Australia and London, what it is that makes a great event, cultural differences between New Zealand and overseas, how to succeed while dealing with rejection, the history and what goes on at the New Zealand Agricultural Show...

Holly is one of the four co-founders of Collaborate which connects people with volunteering opportunities.  In this interview we discuss her early childhood in the UK, the implications of moving to New Zealand at a young age, her interest and love of theatre and what that has meant for other initiatives, how she started on the journey of co-founding Collaborate, how it works, the ups and downs of...

Anthony is a co-founder (with his Father) of Mars Bioimaging Limited which produces 3D colour x-rays (spectral molecular imaging).  This involves the intersection of high energy physics with clinical medicine.  In this interview we talk his childhood and background and what led him to work in this area.  We also talk about the technology itself and how it works and then dive down a rabbit hole to...

"What does Social Enterprise mean to us as Tangata Whenua?"  This question was explored during this participative session 2 at the Aotearoa Social Enterprise Forum held on 19 October 2018.   We heard from Kaye Maree Dunn (Chair) along with Cain Kerehoma, and Chanelle Armstrong.  Their bios are below. The point when each speaker spoke during the session: 3:02 - Kay Maree Dunn introduction and overv...

Samantha Jones gave the last word at the Aotearoa Social Enterprise Forum held on 19 October 2018 in Wellington.  The full transcript is typed below.  She brought some truths to the table that deserve to be heard such as " Leave ego behind.  If you really want to influence people let your actions speak for themselves."   This is a challenge for change and action over complacency and not focussing...

Dr Pleayo Tovaranonte explains the social enterprise Beyond the Stethoscope that he co-founded sending Doctors to other parts of the world.  We also discuss his many other entrepreneurial adventures, such as his work with REV3 Tech on new technology to sell apartments with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for construction projects.    We also talk about his childhood in Thailand and what it w...

Two former podcast guests have become great friends in the last year and as I respect each of them so highly I invited them to come back and chat about whatever they wanted - I knew the quality would be superb and so on this episode they offer their unique perspectives on the West, the future, holding hands, cultures, colonisation, people, dog walking, spirituality, purpose, driving culture, socia...

This is a short talk given to about 50 people who were all involved as board members and so was sharing a list of top 10 tips for good governance.  Thought some of you would be interested in these as well.  My voice barely made it through!   Here is the actual more detailed content and list that is discussed (with thanks to Grant Adams for his input also): 1. Govern don't manage: Avoid getting int...

Cheryl is a leadership futurist and expert in education and in this interview we combine the two into a far reaching discussion about what is to come in relation to the future of learning.  We also talked about her background as a school principal, the impact of a child dying of abuse on an entire school community, the recent Future of Learning conference she co-organised with Hamish Duff (from Re...

Simon fled Rwanda aged 16 in 1994 and never saw his home again.  This is one of those really deep episodes where we really explore what it even means to be human and reflect on what is important in life.  In this interview we talk about his experience of being a refugee, what it is like to have your identity stripped from you, key points that he has learned from his journey and how he survived.  W...

Dr Sharon McIver founded social enterprise 'Our Daily Waste' and in this conversation we talk about her entrepreneurial journey.  Before getting to that though we discuss her childhood as well as work as a music journalist that meant she reviewed hundreds of albums and interviewed many musicians such as Radiohead and Ben Harper.  We also talk about her doctoral thesis on outdoor dance culture whic...

Reuben is a co-founder and Managing Director of Smudge which has been developing apps since the iPhone first came out.  In this interview we start with a discussion about his love of music before we turn to his early experiences developing apps.  We then discuss some of the work they do today including with the New Zealand Police to save thousands of hours of time and reduce the paperwork involved...