Socially Democratic

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Executive Director for Per Capita, Emma Dawson, and former Federal Member for Batman, David Feeney, for Socially Democratic’s first of our weekly episode recaps of the 2022 federal election campaign.  Emma and David bring their expertise and insights into the discussion of the opening week of the 2022 campaign, analyzing ho...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Irish based communications, advocacy, research, policy consultant, David Kitching.  For our belated St Patricks’s Day episode, David discusses the impact of Britain leaving the European common market on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. They discuss the prospect, ti...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by former communications advisor to the Labour/Labor Government's of Tony Blair and Julia Gillard, John McTernan. John returns to the show to give us an update on UK politics and the Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s performance two years after taking on the role.  With Labour leading in successive national polls, John d...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by former federal member for Adelaide and bestselling author Kate Ellis, for an emergency mid-week episode! Kate and Stephen try and keep the lid on while unpacking the recent Adelaide Advertiser-YouGov poll that has things looking good for current opposition leader Peter Malinauskas and SA Labor. Kate gives her analysis of th...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Maurice Blackburn’s Liberty Sanger, SDA’s Julia Fox, and Victorian Labor MP Nat Hutchins for our annual International Women’s Day mic handover.  Catching up 12 months later from the first handover, Liberty, Julia, and Nat return to Socially Democratic to follow up on the issues discussed last year and unpack the current iss...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Democratic consultant, Jonae Wartel. Jonae unpacks the first 12 months of the Biden Administration and its key policy successes achieved thus far. She gives us an update on the progress of the Jan 6 committee and the ongoing impact that the insurrection has on the Biden administration’s ability to govern. Jonae also gives h...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by SA Weekend writer and Obsessive fan of Celtic, Redlegs and Swans, Michael McGuire. With the 2022 South Australian State Election being held next month, Michael gives his insights into the key issues both parties will campaign on including covid, healthcare and public transport. He compares the leadership styles of Liberal P...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by Dave Clark from Point Blank: a Canadian campaign agency that partners with the New Democratic Party - sister party of the ALP. With the “Freedom Convoy” of anti-mandate/vaccine truckers clogging up streets and disrupting supply lines between Canada and the US, Dave explains how this has impacted life in Ottawa and the large...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by federal member for Lilley, Labor’s Anika Wells.  Anika joins Stephen fresh from attending the National Press Club in Canberra, where Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame gave impassioned addresses on gender violence and sexual harassment, to give her opinions on the mood at the Press Club, the takeaways from Higgins and Tame’s s...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by former economic adviser to the Rudd/Gillard Government and managing director at Accenture Australia, Amit Singh. After joining Stephen back in early 2020 to share his predictions about how COVID would impact Australia’s economy, Amit returns to Socially Democratic to share his thoughts on the actual outcomes of the pandemic...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by former Labor government media advisor, researcher, and fellow Aussies for Obama alum, Matt Nurse.  Matt discusses his current PhD research investigating the COVID-19 science communication infodemic, what misinformation is and how it can impact communities, particularly in negative ways. He describes how his experience working in communications, an...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by co-chair of the First People’s Assembly of Victoria, Marcus Stewart. Catching up since his last interview back in March last year, Marcus reflects on how and why the First Peoples Assembly got started and updates us on the negotiations for a Treaty between the First People’s Assembly of Victoria and Victorian State Governme...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly was joined by cricket commentator, sports journalist, and former political advisor, Adam Collins.  After a brief chat about the 2021/22 Ashes series, Adam gives the rundown as to how a group of die-hard Hawthorn Hawks fans went from chatting on online forums to leading the charge as part of the Hawks for Change historic and successful ca...

Dunn Street founder and Community Organiser Stephen Donnelly this week switches it up and becomes the interviewee for a change, joining founder of Fireside Agency and host of StoryCraft podcast - Ben Hart, for their final episode of StoryCraft, season one.  Stephen talks about the rise of public narrative theory in politics, how Dan Andrews deftly used it to become the first Victorian Opposition l...

On this week's episode of Socially Democratic, Stephen was joined by Harriet Shing in what is now officially a yearly tradition - the State Politics Year in Review. Starting off with an update on Harriet’s miniature donkeys, Harriet dissects the year that was 2021.  First touching on COVID 2.0 - Delta Outbreak and the Two Major Lockdowns that followed - then Victoria Parliament’s historic pas...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by the former campaign director for Jacinda Ardern's successful landslide election in 2020 and now Public Relations Director at Capital NZ, Hayden Munro. Starting with New Zealand, Hayden discusses Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Heading across the Pacific to the United States, we review the Biden Administration’s fir...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by federal member for Lilley, Queenslander, Anika Wells, and federal member for Macnamara, Josh Burns once again for our annual Federal Politics Year in Review - 2021 edition. Together Anika and Josh unpack what has been an absolutely crazy year for Australian politics, starting with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as it rolled over from 2020 to 2021,...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by Socially Democratic’s Pop Culture Correspondent, Tess Farrell for our annual Pop Culture Wrap Up.  Stephen and Tess review HBO’s “White Lotus”, Disney’s “Only Murders in the Building”, HBO’s latest season of “Succession” (with Spoilers), and the latest Bond film to hit the big screen “No Time To Die” (with Spoilers!!!!!!!).  In this monster wrap u...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by Victorian State Premier Dan Andrews. With 12 months out from the 2022 State election, and as Victorians begin to enjoy the hard won freedoms following a winter lockdown, Premier Andrews reflects on the shared experiences of the Victorian community and the sacrifices they made over the past 2 years to enable us to come through this incredible chall...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by the National Secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Michael Kaine.  Michael discusses how, with Australian states opening up post lockdowns, the Australian transport industry is in crisis and explains how international businesses like Amazon and Uber are exploiting Australian workers, enabled by existing archaic industrial regulations and laws....

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by Washington DC based Democratic consultant and Obama campaign alum, Jonae Wartel. Inspired by the HBO documentary series “Obama: In pursuit of a more perfect union”, Jonae joins Stephen in revisiting the Obama years, reflecting on his legacy - in particular the impact the Obama campaign had on them both, and thousands like them, as emerging organis...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by NSW Labor Leader and member for Kogarah, Chris Minns.  Chris discusses his ascension to the leadership of the NSW Labor Party, his constructive and, at times, conciliatory approach to the role of opposition during the recent 108 day lockdown, and details what kind of leader he aims to be for the people of NSW. Chris also shares his thoughts on whe...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by US politics regular Sam Schniedman. Off-cycle election season is in the air and Sam unpacks which races to keep an eye on this November, with a particular focus on Sam’s home state, Virginia. Sam breaks down the candidates running, the context in which these elections are taking place, and dives into the issues of the American economy, voter enthu...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by American researcher and data analyst, Will Cubbison. As a former researcher with the US based Analyst Institute and a wealth of experience campaigning around the world, Will shares his extensive knowledge of data analysis, political behaviour, and organising - including how to get people to vote and to adapt after a losing campaign, drawing from h...

Dunn Street founder Stephen Donnelly was joined by National President of Australian Young Labor, Ali Amin. Ali responds to John Curtin Research Centre executive director, Nick Dyrenfurth's assertion that Young Labor is “too like the Greens,” with a narrow inner-city, tertiary educated, middle-class membership lacking diversity.  Ali shares his story from refugee to student activist fighting C...