Amateur Activist with Isabela Herrera

Join Isabela for a solo session. Isabela talks about navigating friendships in your 20s and covers the bases — from friendship breakups, investing in existing friendships, and how to make new friends. Enjoy.  As always, we are so grateful for everyone who listens and shares. When you get a moment, we'd be so grateful if you left a review on Apple Podcasts, rated us on Spotify, or tagged us in your...

Dr. Joel Hollier joins the Amateur Activist to talk about life “after” COVID-19. Joel is a researcher, writer, social worker, and pastor, with degrees in social work and theology, and a PhD in Behavioural Science.  His research covers the intersections of trauma, faith, gender, and sexuality. He is the author of A Place at His Table: A Biblical Exploration of Faith, Sexuality, and the Kingdom of G...

The Amateur Activist is joined by Rabbi Mike Harvey to talk about his first book, Let's Talk: A Rabbi Speaks to Christians. Rabbi Michael E. Harvey is the bestselling author of Let’s Talk: A Rabbi Speaks to Christians. He is an ordained rabbi whose passion and work involves social justice and advocacy work and interfaith conversations. You can connect with Rabbi Mike here: https://www.rabbimic...

The Amateur Activist is joined by Beaux Young as the pair look back at their last two conversations (2020 & 2022), reflecting on how they've changed over the years. Beaux and Isabela have been friends for years and this conversation is special for a lot of reasons. While it may not be obvious why or how this episode intersects with activism or advocacy, it's an important exercise nonet...

Hi amateurs, welcome back! As always, we are so grateful for everyone who listens and shares. When you get a moment, we'd be so grateful if you left a review on Apple Podcasts, rated us on Spotify, or tagged us in your stories on Instagram, @amateuractivistpod Connect with me on Instagram, @belagiirrll A big thank you to David Andrew for producing the music for this season. Follow him ⁠here

Season 3 starts now! If you've been around since the very beginning, thank you. If this is your first episode, thank you for picking my podcast. It means the world that I get to plan, interview and release episodes for another season and that you listen to it all. This is a quick trailer explaining who and what we are as amateurs and what my hope is for this season & year. It's simply...

This week, Isabela sits down with Sally Irwin, the CEO and founder of The Freedom Hub. Sally started The Freedom Hub in 2013 with the mission of ending slavery in Australia, helping victims rebuild their lives and partnering with others to end slavery globally.  The Freedom Hub does incredible work with corporations and individuals to support survivors while fighting against a very real human righ...

This week Isabela sits down with Dr. Cathy Pederson, a Professor of Biology at Wittenberg University and founder of Standing Up To POTS, a non-profit working to improve the quality of life for people living with POTS.  Standing Up to POTS was founded by Dr. Cathy Pederson in 2014 after her daughter was diagnosed with POTS.  Standing Up to POTS was created to generate a community who can support ea...

This week, Isabela sits down for episode 4 of this season's mini-series, Let's Take a Look at the News. In this mini-series, Isabela intentionally looks at what's been happening in the news in Australia or globally and tries to understand the situation in “real-time.”  In this episode, Isabela offers a vulnerable, honest, and unedited look into how she’s been trying to navigate the con...

This week, the Amateur Activist sits down to quickly recap her half-marathon race from a couple of weeks ago. Running 21.1 km has nothing to do with activism or politics, and Isabela knows that. But, she attempts to look at how distance runners develop self-regulation tactics and mental resilience to withstand challenging and exhausting circumstances. In a somewhat scattered word vomit, Isabela tr...

This week, Isabela sits down and records her thoughts around evangelism - her opinions on it as a Christian, if she thinks there’s space in activism for evangelism, and the role the Church should play in this space.  Isabela would love to hear your thoughts after listening to this episode - if you agreed with her, or disagreed, or had any thoughts of your own. She has opened up her DMs for this ep...

This week Isabela sits down for episode 3 of this season's mini series, Let's Take a Look at the News. In this mini series, Isabela intentionally looks at what's been happening in the news in Australia or globally and tries to understand the situation in "real time." This week Isabela attempts to understand The Voice Referendum in Australia. As always, we are so grateful for...

This week, Isabela is joined by Daniel Principe. Daniel is a youth advocate and educator. Every week he is invited to engage with schools and communities all across Australia to help them have the confronting conversations - pornography, body image, penis size, sexual assault, suicide, and online predators. Having heard the heartbreaking stories of thousands of young people across the country he i...

This week Isabela sits down with Kat Armas - a Cuban American writer, theologian, and podcast host. In 2021, Kat released her debut book, Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength. Isabela got her hands on this book at the beginning of 2022, and it transformed how she engaged with her faith. In this week's episode, Isabela and Kat discuss the bo...

CW: This episode mentions r*pe, sexual assault / sexual violence and covers topics such as masturbation, trauma, and self-pleasure. In this episode, Isabela sits down with Ella Simms - a creative, educator, and founder of Colourful Peach. Colourful Peach is an arts and education organisation that seeks to unite, empower and entertain. They've done a lot of anti-sexual violence work in the last few...

This week Isabela sits down and goes through three things that happened during the month of June - the wildfires in Canada, important news regarding plasma donations in Australia, and the recent riots in France. As always, we are so grateful for every single person that listens and shares. When you get a moment, we'd be so grateful if you left a review on Apple Podcasts, rated us on Spotify, o...

This week the Amateur Activist brings you a conversation on allyship. It's the middle of June, and the world is celebrating Pride Month. There are a lot of exciting things that we can be a part of as activists, queer people, allies, etc. This week, we look at what allyship can look like this month (and beyond), if Christians can really be allies towards the queer community, and the cost we sho...

This week the Amateur Activist sits down to talk about mental health - her own history and experiences with mental illness, how to manage your own mental health in relationships, how to navigate feeling like a burden and unlearning toxic independence & learning how to be dependent and reliant on people. Isabela is vulnerable and honest in how she sees herself, in some of the things she continu...

This week the Amateur Activist sits down with you for a one-on-one and sheds some light on the behind-the-scenes of how she engaged with current events and news this week. Isabela highlights the sources and news platforms she goes to in order to inform herself, how she picks which topic to do a deep dive into, and goes a little deeper into two big things that happened in American news recently.  A...

This week, the Amateur Activist is joined by Kate Boyd (for the second time!). Kate is a writer, Bible teacher, and host of the Happy & Holy podcast. Kate's first book has just been published, and Isabela gets an opportunity to talk to her about untangling, the journey back to church, and all the bits Isabela loved about the book. If you haven't listened to the first episode with Kate...

This week Isabela sits down with Joel Hingston. Joel used to teach biblical studies for numerous years, focusing on Johannine literature & Revelation and is now a PhD candidate. He is passionate about apocalyptic literature, ancient texts & cultures, music and myth. In this episode, Joel goes through the book of Revelation, providing context & settling some confusion around its message. Then Joel...

This week Isabela is joined by Jocelyn Clark. Jocelyn is a registered nurse who specialises in women's health, has a Master of Women's Health Medicine, is a midwife and currently juggles multiple roles, one of which is her work as a clinical nurse specialist working in women's health clinics caring for women who may not want to access mainstream healthcare. She is extremely passionate...

If you've been around since July 2021, thank you. Thank you for listening to episodes, for sending kind words and for sharing episodes that made you think or feel something. It's March 2023 and we are launching season 2 of Amateur Activist shortly and I am so bloody excited. I'd love it if you would listen to this short 2.5-minute trailer for season 2 so we're all on the same page....

This week Isabela is joined by Susan Smith, a seasoned counsellor whose help and guidance have helped and impacted countless people. She obtained her BA in Behavioural Science from Swinburne University, her Diploma in Counselling from the Australian Institute of Counselling and a Graduate Certificate in Pastoral Counselling from NFP Leadership College. This week, they discussed attachment styles a...

The Amateur Activist is joined by author, media commentator, blogger, and advocate for women and girls - Melinda Tankard Reist. Melinda is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, the harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women. She recently authored her 7th book, He Chose P*rn Over Me . She is also one of the founders of the grassroo...