Changemaker Q&A

Most changemakers are trained to think in terms of strategies, systems, leverage points, and outcomes. We map problems, design interventions, and try to move complex social systems toward more just and sustainable futures. Yet one of the most powerful teachers of change is often overlooked: the living world itself. In a recent episode of Changemaker […]

After 100 episodes of Changemaker Q&A, one lesson keeps returning again and again: meaningful change is far messier, more relational, and more human than most frameworks or strategies prepare us for. Across conversations with grassroots activists, nonprofit leaders, artists, researchers, entrepreneurs, community organisers, and systems thinkers, a pattern has emerged. The people creating the most

Some episodes are about tactics. This one is about something more foundational. It is about what happens when care stops being an individual impulse and becomes something designed, organised, and sustained—especially in the places where people are most vulnerable. In this conversation, Heidi traces the path that led her into the not-for-profit world, and it

In social change work, there is often a strong focus on strategy, innovation, and systems design. Organisations invest significant time developing theories of change, mapping stakeholders, identifying leverage points, and designing interventions intended to shift complex social problems. Yet many change efforts succeed or fail for a far simpler reason: the presence or absence of

Across social change spaces, there is no shortage of strong ideas, compelling evidence, or well-intentioned projects. What is often missing is not substance, but translation. This episode of Changemaker Q&A, featuring Dominic Colenso, explores why communication and storytelling are not peripheral skills for changemakers, but core infrastructures of impact. The conversation reframes communication away from

There’s a subtle but important distinction that often gets lost in the social impact space: the difference between creating impact and creating change. These two terms are used interchangeably all the time. They show up in job titles, organisational missions, funding proposals, and everyday conversations among people working to make the world better. But while

Live events are often remembered for what happens on stage. The headline act. The keynote. The moment the crowd lifts. Yet the deeper story of events sits elsewhere: in the invisible labour of people who build temporary cities under pressure, coordinate thousands of moving parts, improvise through failure, and hold responsibility for safety, reputation, and

One of the most disorienting parts of starting a PhD in social change is realising that the words everyone seems to use do not always mean the same thing. Theory of change. Change theory. Explanatory theory. Research philosophy. Ontology. Epistemology. Methodology. It can quickly feel like you have walked into a conversation that began years

Some of the most consequential social innovations do not begin with a grand plan. They begin with a question that refuses to go away. In a recent Changemaker Q&A conversation, entrepreneur Neli Kools traced the pathway that led her to co-found Intimate Queen—a plant-based wellness lingerie brand built around an insight that is simultaneously intimate,

Sometimes the most useful social change conversations are not the polished, highly structured ones. Sometimes they are the messy, honest, wide-ranging questions people ask when they are trying to find their footing: What should I study? Am I aiming too big? Where do I even begin? What should I read? This episode of Changemaker Q&A