Power, People and Planet

"We utilise the power of culture to our own benefit" Islam Elbeiti is a Sudanese bass player, radio presenter, and social change activist. She serves as Community Engagement Lead at The Innovation for Policy Foundation, Cultural Wave Support Lead at The Global Assembly and is co-founder of the Sudanese Innovation and Entrepreneurship Network. In this episode, Kumi speaks with Islam about...

"There is no alternative to alliances and there is no alternative to solidarity" Born in Mumbai, Lysa John started out building grassroots campaigns around urban poverty, governance and housing rights. Since then she has worked with Save the Children International and as Head of Outreach for the UN High Level Panel on the Sustainable Development Goals, and today describes herself as “a r...

“What we need are good politicians… who understand how basic access to water and sanitation is, if you want to deliver on any other development priority ” Lawyer and human rights activist Catarina de Albuquerque made history as the first person to serve as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation (2008 - 2014). She currently serves as CEO of Sanitation a...

“There are no prisons big enough for ideas. They can’t put our ideas behind bars. Your movement and what you work for will always be bigger than you.” Disha Ravi is an Indian climate and environmental activist. She is a founder and active member of Fridays For Future India with a focus on “MAPA” (most affected people and areas). Her arrest and detention by the Indian government in February of 2021...

“The social contracts can always be negotiated. I think our responsibility actually is to be constantly negotiating what that social contract looks like. How we relate to each other. How we live with one another.” Dr Amara Enyia is a community organizer, lawyer and political strategist. A former candidate for Mayor of Chicago, she is currently the managing director of Diaspora Rising, an advocacy...

“Understanding that actually power lies inherent in us. It’s the responsibility and the rights and the beauties and the power to actually change society from within and outside.” Ashish Kothari is an Indian green activist, scholar and co-founder of the Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group. He has served as chair of Greenpeace India, on the board of Greenpeace International and has been active wi...

"Health is a public good. So if we have a market system that's not working for the public good, then that needs to change." Dr Tolullah Oni is a public health physician and urban epidemiologist. She grew up in Lagos and today is a Clinical Senior Research associate with the University of Cambridge as well as an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. She is also...

"There's nothing like watching the home that you live in being demolished by bulldozers to make you politically conscious." Growing up in Cape Town's District 6 in the 1970s, Tasneem experienced racial segregation, forced eviction and discrimination first hand. Her anti-apartheid activism eventually took her into politics, serving as a provincial environment minister in South A...

“We need to centre care , care in the widest sense of the word, as we try to rebuild in this post COVID era.” Aruna Rao is a feminist, an activist, and the co-founder of Gender At Work, an international network dedicated to building new cultures of equality and inclusion. In a passionate and wide-ranging conversation that opens with Aruna’s rendition of the spiritual Wade in the Water, Kumi and Ar...

“Due to COVID 19 people have been questioning their basic contract. Is this government protecting me, and are these politicians doing what they claim to do, which is to look after us and to protect our health?”   Once a British diplomat and now self proclaimed 'gentle anarchist', Carne Ross describes how solving today’s problems starts with shedding our assumptions about what works and w...

Feeling at all freaked out by the state of the world at the moment? Wondering what you can do about it? Join Kumi Naidoo, the veteran social and environmental justice campaigner, to tackle some of the biggest issues of our time. In each episode Kumi is joined by activists, artists and community leaders who are dismantling our broken system - and building something better in its place. Hear their s...