With so many podcasts out there it can be hard to know where to start. SMK’s Head of Programmes, Kath Christie, delves into the world of podcasts to dig out twenty five of the best campaigning and social change podcasts she could find.
“Essentially an interesting conversation that you can’t be in the room for, where the host is asking the questions you’d want to ask yourself.” That’s how a wise soul once described to me what the best podcasts are about. We campaigners are duty bound to be curious, so I threw myself into a sea of research – identifying the polished, the rough diamonds, the short and the rambling campaigning podcasts, with an intrinsic need to categorise them. With winter still in full swing, you might find something to help take the edge off the cold from this list below.
How change happens
Looking at the issues, people, and approaches behind some of our most effective campaigning.
100 Campaigns That Changed the World
Experienced campaigner Steve Tibbett examines a range of social and political campaigns that have made a real impact. From the Windrush campaign for justice for people who migrated to the UK from the Caribbean to the WASPI campaign against state pension, over thirty episodes have been produced to date.
Author of ‘No Win Race’ Derek A Bardowell talks to people who are tackling some of the most challenging social issues of our time from Ben Lindsay at Fight the Power tacking youth violence, to Immy Kaur building a fair and just society in Birmingham. Features the views, approaches, and tactics of those speaking truth to power. Last episode produced in 2020.
Previously ‘Brave New Words’, this podcast by campaign advisor Anat Shenker-Osario spotlights real-world narrative shifts that lead to global campaign victories. Season 3 travels to Brazil (youth mobilisation against Bolsonaro), the US (mid-term elections), Costa Rica (fossil fuel extraction) and Ireland (undocumented immigrants).
Amanda Tattersall (co-founder of Get Up, Australia’s most successful digital advocacy organisation) tells stories about people striving for social change worldwide. Podcasts are divided into Stories (diving into specific campaigns like the Parkland protests and March for Our Lives) and Changemaker Chats (including with SMK campaigner of the year Patrick Vernon).
A thoughtful podcast about campaigning and advocacy – going under the surface to explore how social and political change happens and the way advocacy can contribute to it. Hosted by Jim Coe, the format is interview based, with a different them each podcast. Nearly 40 episodes were produced up until 2020.
From the archives, this seven-part SMK podcast series examines trends in how change happens, from the use of law to campaigning to transforming women’s sport, taking in the Irish Abortion Referendum, and divesting from fossil fuels.
Championing solidarity & reimagining society
Powerful personal stories of how people are shaped by their lived experience and sometimes go on to envisage what positive change could look like.
Sound Delivery and Jude Habib are behind the four series of Being the Story which features thought-provoking talks by people who have faced life changing experiences which they are now channelling into solutions to create social change. Includes rapper and foster care leaver Ric Flow on growing up in foster care and Milly who becomes a journalist against the odds.
Explores what bold long-term criminal justice reform looks like through six episodes featuring conversations with experts, activists, and people with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
Prisoners are unhappy about the lack of balanced media representation about the reality of prison life. This series supported by the Prison Reform Trust aims to rectify that with untold stories of people’s real-life experience behind bars.
Created by teens in care and care leavers across the UK, this series tells the story of what it’s really like to live and work in the care system. (Spoiler alert: it’s not like Tracey Beaker!). The series aims to reduce stigma and support positive change in the care sector.
Community Organisers in Conversation
A Seeds for Change podcast, in conversation with community organisers. From stopping immigration raids on their streets to building renters unions, people are organising in their communities to take collective action against poverty, policing and the hostile environment. As well as fighting to improve the conditions of our lives now, these are struggles for a different future – for economic justice, decolonisation and abolition.
Inspiring changemakers
People with a vision who have taken power back into their hands – with a refreshing range of serious to funny approaches.
This Citizens UK podcast tells the story of faith leaders, students and other people who took back power through community organising and won change on issues that matter, like mental health funding and achieving the living way.
This podcast from the Good Agency celebrates wide-ranging changemakers leading purposeful lives including Gabby Jahanshahi-Edlin from Bloody Good Period and Jamie Klinger from Reclaim the Streets.
Mary Robinson (yep, the former Irish President and now all-around Green warrior) joins comedian Maeve Higgins for a fresh take on game-changing women fighting for climate justice, covering issues ranging from fashion to food security. Promises love, laughter and unforgettable story telling.
Spotlights visionary women leaders and changemakers globally. Past episodes include the rising tide of disinformation and digital dictatorship to the power of the arts to spark social change.
Because social change can be funny too! This feminist comedy podcast is hosted by Deborah Frances-White, discussing topics relevant to feminism in front of a live audience.
Innovative ideas
Bold and creative approaches are vital to impactful campaigning. Take heart from these innovative takes on problem solving.
‘Medicine for global mental health’ is how co-hosts Ed Miliband & Geoff Lloyd described their original ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ podcast. They bantered through complex problems with a solutions-based lens, featuring ideas to change the world from positive political framing to zero waste cities. This occasional series revisits conversations and ideas from the original series.
Nesta Chief Executive Ravi Gurumurthy is joined by thought leaders to tackle innovative ways to tackle society’s greatest challenges from the importance of ethics in AI to how we get to net zero.
Refreshing to see Channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy delving into big ideas like how we change the world. Each week he hosts a prominent person to discuss how we think, act and live. Recent guests include Esther Ghey, the mother of Brianna Ghey, the 16-year-old transgender girl murdered in a park in 2023. Esther now campaigns to ensure Brianna’s legacy is an improvement in the mental health of children and teenagers.
Thinking outside the box, this BBC World Service series presented by Myra Anubi meets people and projects trying to make the world a better place, including how two communities learned to work together to protect their water supply.
Worthy of a mention
Artificial intelligence, digital technology and political campaigning are fast moving approaches, so worth keeping an eye out for new developments in these areas.
Award-winning, left-leaning US tech podcast which offers insights about digital technology which listeners are unlikely to hear elsewhere. The producers hope is that knowledge will enable action. New podcasts every week.
From building a strategy to nailing the message, this 2023 podcast features former deputy chief of staff to Boris Johnson, Cleo Watson on the art of political campaigning.
Closer to home
Organisations working across the social change sector host their own podcasts – here’s three that feature campaigning and social change.
Movement building, community organising and social change all feature in this podcast from the Social Change Agency.
Although more of a weekly charity sector news round-up, this podcast periodically includes campaigning news and approaches.
Despite its primary focus on international development debates, Bond’s podcast covers campaigning territory, such as the ethics of storytelling and what politicians really think of aid.
My key take aways would be that social change podcast choice is growing by the day, shorter is definitely more memorable and I like to come away having learnt something new. Who and what have I missed? Can’t wait to hear your suggested additions to this collection – I would love to grow this list and share back with the campaigning community.