The reMAKERs

What are the social conditions that make people susceptible to the lure of the far right, and what might we do to change these conditions? Mario Peucker is an Associate Professor and the author of Democracy Strikes Back: Understanding and Countering the Rise of the Far-right. Mario is an expert in the rise of the far right and is interested in asking better questions about the links between democr...

This episode is a recording of ‘Book Club Live’ hosted by the wonderful folk from Good Together .  Matt Berry ( Good Together ) hosts Millie Rooney (Executive Director at Australia reMADE ), Dan Hill (Director at Melbourne School of Design ), and Sisonke Msimang (Author and Program Lead at the Centre for Stories ) for a conversation about the book Abundance. Published in 2025, Abundance by De...

What if we could unearth for humanity the most enduring source of human knowledge on the planet – Indigenous systems thinking — and fuse it with the best of modern knowledge and technology? What if we could bake in more relational, expansive, nature-based design into how we approach our lives and work, and solve our biggest challenges?   On our last episode of the reMAKERS for 2023, we c...

In tumultuous times, how do we ensure that communities can care and be cared for through disaster?  It’s all hands on deck for this episode of the reMAKERS podcast, as Lily welcomes Dr Millie Rooney (Co-Director) and Rachel Hay (Research and Projects Officer) onto the podcast to talk about Australia reMADE’s Care through Disaster project.  Rebecca Solnit has described disasters as a port...

The economy is just how we produce and provide for one another. So what if we threw out the old indicators of growth and profit, and instead measured its success by our collective wellbeing? On this episode of the reMAKERS podcast, we talk to Amanda Janoo  (Economics and Policy Lead) and Lisa Hough-Stewart (Implementation Lead) from the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance — about the countries...

What do a grandmother’s advice on ants, a time machine and an iceberg have in common?  According to Dr Vishnu Prahalad, they’re all part of what it means for us to live more sustainably, by learning to  think in terms of systems.   On this episode of the reMAKERS, we talk to Dr Prahalad: a conservationist, ecologist, systems thinker, and Senior Lecturer in the School of Geograp...

How do we reMAKE our systems to treat people with respect, kindness and empathy?  On this episode of the reMAKER’s podcast, we talk to Mark Zirnsak, Senior Social Justice Advocate at the Uniting Church , who works on issues from climate change and tax to modern slavery, as director of its Justice and International Mission . Mark is an endlessly curious person and deep thinker, whose drive for...

How can business better serve society and the planet we share? What’s holding us back from doing business better, and where is the momentum for change? How can we tell a true purpose-driven business from one that’s just doing a little good (or a nice PR campaign) on the side? Today we’re chatting with Sally Hill, General Manager of the impact investing firm Tripple , and founder of the Purpose con...

Young people today have the deck stacked against them, and they know it.  They’ve grown up in a world defined by the global financial crisis, the climate crisis, a housing and cost-of-living crisis, and a global pandemic.  Their HECs debts are growing, their confidence in the future is shaky, and it’s feeling nigh impossible for all but the most fortunate to secure the basics of a good l...

“We don’t need a new economics to tackle most of these problems, we just need less bullsh-t.” - Richard Denniss Chief economist and Executive Director of The Australia Institute , Richard Denniss, joins us for a frank and refreshing look behind the curtain of economics, politics and power.  He says the real power of economics is to conceal power itself, and make the indefensible sound inevita...

What if Australia had a national conversation about the country we want to have, and the kind of ancestors we want to be — and then enshrined these goals into legislation? What if we asked school children to write postcards to their future selves and construct their dream cities using lego and minecraft, and decision-makers really listened? What if different sectors — from health and transport to...

Are you overdue for a big pay rise? Would moving a 4 day standard working week be the best way for your employer to give you one (even if you work part-time)? Economist and Professor John Quiggin thinks so — and he joins for a fireside chat to explain this and other big ideas gathering momentum in modern economics today.  This is your episode if you want to better understand policies like a 4...

When it comes to our economy, can we dare to ask the question, ‘when is enough, enough?’  Is it time to be more discerning about what we want from our economy and how we define success, from our personal lives to the world at large?  Political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change Dr Katherine Trebeck is here to guide us through a paradigm shift from the economics of...

Imagine if we put wellbeing at the heart of government.  Imagine a National Conversation that kicks off and creates shared goals for the ‘Australia We Want’, with input from all corners of society.   Our former Treasurer may have mocked wellbeing budgets as all mala beads and incense, but more than half the countries in the OECD have some form of wellbeing framework in place. If we get t...

It’s the economics course you’d actually like to take, and today’s guests hope the best universities in the world copy their approach and put them out of business. In the meantime, they’re educating a new generation of leaders to remake economics from the inside out, and you’re invited to apply. Join us for a provocative discussion about an economics fit for the 21st century, with guests Steven Ha...

What does it mean to contribute? What do we need to to enable everyone to meaningfully contribute to society (and for this contribution to be recognised)?  In the second half of 2022, Australia reMADE and Women’s Health Goulburn North East hosted a series of live panel discussions based around the three Cs from our public good work — Care, Connection and Contribution. Join Millie and three ex...

Welcome to the second instalment in our Bonus Summer Series — a deep dive into CONNECTION. It’s a conversation about radical love and the peace we gain when we are still, vulnerable and connected to place — accepting Country as a place of care and love that loves us back. It’s about the gender implications of connection as real actual work. It’s about connection across difference, and welcoming co...

We bring you the first episode of our Bonus Summer Series — a conversation reframing CARE. Why is it that a fence line on a National Park changes our care relationship with a piece of land? What does it look like to recognise care as a policy choice rather than just an individual responsibility? And who is up for a four-day work week? In the second half of 2022, Australia reMADE and Women’s Health...

It’s the end of the year, folks. No one needs anything overly demanding to listen to, but nor do we need a whinge-fest (state of nation: “tired”). Enter Millie and Lily for the final reMAKERS pod of this year: a pretty chill but perky chat that comes full circle to the start of this season, about our ‘why’ as a country and interesting spaces the public good ideas have travelled to this year. Find...

What does it mean to be Australian? Do we have a national story, a national identity; and do we need one if we’re going to heal the wounds of our past and rise to the challenges ahead? Join us for a fascinating discussion with two of Australia’s leading historians, authors and academics about finding and evolving the story of us. Professor Emeritus Julianne Shultz and Professor Frank Bongiorno hav...

Ah, fiction. Just when you think you’ve had enough of the real world, here comes our refuge. Our imagination and joy. Our space to play and safely try on bold ideas, delve into our pain, recover our humanity; laugh, cry and walk in each other’s shoes. Recently inspired by some great guest interviews, Millie and Lily are back to talk about the arts, the stories that have shaped them, and whether ar...

A story, well told, has unmatched power. So how do we tell stories that take us through pain, overcome division and make room for all of us to be our full selves and still belong? What is it about story that makes it one of humanity’s oldest and best technologies? And how can those of who want to change the world especially tell better stories — stories that have a moral, without being moralising?...

Where were you in the 2020s? Our next guest wants you to be able to say, ‘I was part of it, leading the change’. Dr Joëlle Gergis is one of the world’s leading climate scientists and, we reckon after this conversation especially, a national treasure. She’s devoted her career to the cutting edge of climate science: researching, teaching, writing and contributing to the UN’s IPCC Sixth Assessment Re...

This conversation is for anyone who’s ever been ambivalent about their phone (or secretly longed to smash it), as well as those of us trying to thoughtfully navigate our way through a beautiful, troubled, at times exhausting world with love, hope and joy. On today’s episode of the reMAKERS, Millie and Lily sit down with Toni Hassan. Toni is a Walkley Award-winning journalist, writer , visual artis...

If you’re someone who has ever felt freaked out about the climate crisis, this is the episode for you. In this episode of the reMAKERS, Millie gets chatting with Claire O’Rourke — campaigner, behaviour-change expert and author of Together We Can: Everyday Australians doing amazing things to give our planet a future.  Claire and Millie explore climate grief (and why the thought of facing it ma...