Changemaker Q&A

What happens when someone who was never “supposed” to succeed in traditional education ends up building a method that helps students leap multiple grade levels in literacy? Russell shares his unlikely journey from struggling with severe dyslexia to law school, government-backed research, and a writing-first framework that’s helped students dramatically improve reading and writing outcomes in month...

Skip the HCN Weekly Brief: 6:20 How do we create a better future if we struggle to imagine one? Reflecting on the conversations that emerged during a week-long Post-Growth Futures series, this episode explores one of the biggest challenges facing changemakers today: our collective crisis of imagination. Rather than treating the future as a single destination waiting to unfold, the discussion refra...

Resilience isn’t about pretending things don’t hurt — it’s about learning how to keep moving when they do. Michael shares how his journey from growing up in Miami to serving in the Air Force shaped his mindset, and why anime storytelling became the most powerful tool he’s found for growth and leadership. The conversation explores how narrative can cut through our defences, why “behaviours over fee...

A growing number of people feel caught between the desire to build meaningful lives and the economic realities of surviving within systems that often reward status, productivity, and profit over contribution and care. Inspired by Moral Ambition and reflections on work, vocation, and systems change, this episode explores what it actually means to direct our ambition toward making the world better,...

What if the most powerful lever for systemic change isn’t strategy — but consciousness? Martin shares his journey from early corporate success and burnout to becoming a leadership coach focused on inner transformation. Together, we explore how conditioning, ego, fear, and inherited patterns shape the way leaders show up — and how shifting those patterns can ripple outward into organisations, polit...

A listener question sparked today’s discussion about the relationship between the internet, culture, and societal transformation. While social media and online platforms appear to accelerate cultural change at unprecedented speed, this episode explores whether what we are witnessing is genuine transformation or simply faster-moving opinions and visibility. Drawing on sociology, systems thinking, a...

A multi-passionate journey from music engineering and early internet tech to circus life, esoteric teaching, and finally a plant-centred practice in Damanhur—an intentional community in northern Italy described as “Hogwarts meets Oz”—opens into a surprising toolkit for changemakers. This conversation with plant advocate Tigrilla explores how plants can shift the way we understand purpose (by recog...

Skip the HCN Weekly Brief: 4:56 After 100 episodes of Changemaker Q&A, one thing has become clear: changemaking is rarely linear, tidy, or predictable. From grassroots activists and nonprofit founders to artists, educators, researchers, and entrepreneurs, this milestone episode reflects on the biggest lessons that have emerged across years of conversations about systems change, leadership, sto...

Service often gets framed as something people do on the side, yet this episode shows what happens when service becomes a sustained practice—built into systems, relationships, and everyday leadership. Heidi shares the story behind founding Spiritual Care at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, after personal loss reshaped her understanding of what families need in moments of trauma. The conversation ex...

Skip the HCN Weekly Brief: 9:05 Change doesn’t just happen because we have the right strategy, the right tools, or even the right intentions. It happens through relationships—and relationships are built on trust. This conversation explores the idea that all social change moves at the speed of trust, unpacking what that means across everything from interpersonal relationships to organisations, fund...

Actor-turned-communication-expert Dominic Colenso joins Changemaker Q&A to unpack why communication is not a “nice-to-have” for social change, but a core capability—especially when your work involves complex ideas, competing priorities, or audiences who are not already convinced. Drawing on his background as a professional actor and his later work coaching leaders, founders, and teams, Dominic...

Skip the HCN Weekly Brief: 5:59 What’s the difference between creating impact and creating change—and why does it matter? This episode explores a distinction that often gets overlooked in the social impact space: the difference between improving people’s lives in the present and transforming the systems that shape those lives. Through a simple but powerful analogy, we unpack why both roles are ess...

Live events look effortless from the crowd, but behind every stage, schedule, and security plan sits an intense working environment built on long hours, high stakes, and a freelance culture that can make wellbeing feel like an afterthought. In this conversation, Nika shares how the pandemic exposed the mental health crisis many event professionals were already carrying, and how that experience hel...

Skip the HCN Weekly Brief - 3:45. This episode responds to a listener question from a practitioner stepping into academic research and feeling overwhelmed by theory of change, explanatory change theory, and the broader field of social change research. It unpacks the difference between a practical theory of change and a deeper explanatory change theory, explains why research philosophy matters so m...

A non-linear career can feel confusing while you’re living it, yet it often becomes the foundation for the most grounded leadership. Global entrepreneur Neli Kools shares how her journey—from architecture and urban planning, to studying music business in the US, to running a digital marketing agency—ultimately led her to co-found Intimate Queen, a plant-based wellness lingerie brand built to chall...

Skip the HCN Weekly Brief - 7:17 From choosing the right degree to figuring out whether systemic change is too overwhelming to pursue, this rapid fire Q&A tackles a range of listener questions about what it really means to build a life in changemaking. The conversation moves through practical advice for people just starting out, why growing a garden might be one of the best lessons in social c...

Communication sits at the heart of leadership, relationships, and social change—yet most people were never taught how to listen well, navigate conflict, or speak in ways others can actually receive. Drawing on her work with global leaders and couples, Eri Kardos unpacks why many communication breakdowns are patterned rather than personal, how trauma responses quietly shape everything from workplac...

Turning 30 can be “just a number”, but it can also be a moment to pause and take stock — and that’s what this episode does. Tiyana shares the winding, unplanned story of her twenties as a changemaker: a semester abroad that sparked activism and opened doors to the UN, the volunteering and self-education that shaped her more than formal study, the early beginnings of the Humanitarian Changemakers N...

Freedom is often spoken about as an abstract ideal, yet for many entrepreneurs and changemakers it is the invisible foundation that makes creation, expression, and impact possible. Drawing on a lived experience of displacement, migration, and rebuilding life from scratch, this conversation explores the deep connection between freedom, entrepreneurship, and service. The episode examines why fear an...

If you don’t want the HCN update, skip to 12:35! What if doing less was actually the smartest strategy for creating more impact? Inspired by a very real moment of autumn “shedding” (and some painfully slow internet), this episode dives into what leverage really means in the context of social change. Instead of glorifying busyness, we explore productivity as a ratio of inputs to outcomes — and why...

Grassroots changemakers are often driven by purpose first—then quickly discover that impact also requires skills in branding, communication, storytelling, and digital strategy. In this conversation, Daniel (founder of The Good Growth Company ) shares a practical roadmap for building trust and visibility without trying to do everything at once: starting with audience clarity, choosing formats that...

Social work is often reduced to “service delivery”, but it’s also one of the most important bridges between lived experience and systems change. This conversation breaks down social work as a distinct approach to impact — one that operates across the micro (individual support), meso (community and organisational change), and macro (policy and structural transformation) levels. Along the way, it ma...

Foreign aid is often reduced to slogans—either dismissed as wasteful or romanticised as simple charity—yet the reality is far more complex, political, and consequential. Drawing on a decades-long career that took him from private law practice into senior work across USAID and the broader development sector, Clifford offers an insider account of what international assistance looks like on the groun...

Human rights are often described as the basic freedoms and protections we have simply by being human — but where do those rights come from, who protects them, and how do they actually work in the real world? This episode unpacks the philosophical foundations of human rights, traces their historical evolution from early legal codes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and walks through all...

Iran has been experiencing renewed waves of protest and strikes alongside intensifying repression, including a widely reported escalation in executions. This conversation explores what people inside the country are demanding, how resistance is being organised over time, and why many advocates argue there is a “third option” beyond either foreign military intervention or accommodation of authoritar...