Shows
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldPatriotic MillionairesOur guest is on this episode Rebecca Gowland, the executive director of Patriotic Millionaires UK, which is a network of British millionaires, from multiple industries and backgrounds, from across the UK, to use what they call the ‘voice of wealth’ to build a more just, stable, and inclusive economy, and their aim is the end of extreme wealth. They have a profound concern about the destabilising level of economic and political inequality. And they want to see more economic and political equality. In the U.S., the group was founded in 2010 by Erica Payne under the name "Patriotic Millionaires for...
2025-11-0340 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the World3 HijabisThe guest on this episode is Shaista Aziz, one of The Three Hijabis—a powerful anti-racism campaign that began with a viral tweet in 2021. What started as three British Muslim women watching England play in the Euros soon became a national movement, after racist abuse targeted Black players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka. Their petition to ban racists from football for life gained over a million signatures in just 48 hours, forced government action, and sparked a global conversation about inclusion in the sport. With 12 million petition views and a lasting impact on football culture, their story is a...
2025-07-0839 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldMaking Football SaferThe guest on this episode is Dawn Astle. Dawn is the daughter of Jeff Astle, who played football for West Bromwich Albion in the 60’s and 70’s. At the age of 55, Jeff was diagnosed with dementia, and he died four years later. The pathologist who officiated Jeff’s death said his brain looked like the brain of a boxer. Dawn has been campaigning since then for a change in the rules about heading in football. She has also helped win significant victories, notably with a ban coming into place in youth football this year and next year. But there is a l...
2025-07-0246 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldDuncan GreenIn this opening episode of Season 3 of 100 Campaigns that Changed the World, I speak with Duncan Green – one of the most respected thinkers and practitioners in global development and social change. Duncan is Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB, Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics, and author of the widely read blog From Poverty to Power. His influential book How Change Happens has shaped how campaigners and policy-makers think about power, systems, and transformation. Drawing on decades of experience in international advocacy, Duncan reflects on what it really takes to create lasting change – and what campaigners toda...
2025-06-2728 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldLive: Trust and Truth, Campaigning in the Disinformation AgeAn expert panel of seasoned campaigners who have dealt with disinformation and falsehoods, our first live panel event sheds light on how campaigners can navigate the issues and counter conspiracy theories, lies and half-truths. The panel consisted ofDr Charles Kriel, who is co-Founder of Metrotone Media, co-Director of the documentary People You May Know, which follows his breakthrough Cambridge Analytica investigation while serving as Special Advisor to the UK parliament Select Committee on Disinformation and Fake News.A list of other target panellists is available on request. Tessa Kahn, who is the Director of Uplift UK, which supp...
2025-02-101h 22
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldKush KanodiaDr. Kush Kanodia is a multi-award-winning campaigner on disability rights and is Sheila Mackechnie Foundation’s Campaigner of the year. His own disability has fuelled his lifelong commitment to social justice. He shifted from a successful investment banking career to focus on disability rights.In this episode, we discuss three successful disability rights campaigns which he has played a leading role in. One of these targeted the Premier League and the number of wheelchair-accessible spaces in stadiums which didn’t accurately reflect the needs of disabled fans, a second was on parking charges for disabled people at NH...
2024-12-0338 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldBerlin Housing CampaignThe Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen movement wants the city of Berlin to transfer real estate into public ownership, expropriating the city’s large corporate landlords: those who have more than 3,000 units (an estimated 11% of the city’s housing stock). Launched in 2018 but dating back to 2010, the initiative focused on increasing rents and poor-quality housing in a city where 85% of people live in rented accommodation.Campaigners uncovered a mechanism under the constitution to hold referenda. 7% of those eligible to vote were needed to sign a petition and some 171,000 signatures were collected. A referendum was held in 2021, with the...
2024-11-2138 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldThe Corn LawsThe Corn Laws were a series of trade restrictions and tariffs on imported grain (wheat, oats, barley and rye – not corn) that were in effect in the UK from 1815 to 1846. The Passed by Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in response to a strained post-war economy, they were intended to favour domestic agriculture by making it more difficult to import grain. Campaigning on the laws focused on the Manchester-based Anti-Corn Law League. The goal of the League was the ‘immediate and total abolition’ of the Corn Laws, the wording deliberately echoing the successful anti-slavery agitations, but the broader aim was to promote...
2024-10-3131 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldStop taxing periods. Period.The guest on this episode is Laura Coryton, a British campaigner, feminist activist and author who started the "Stop taxing periods, period" campaign in 2014, while she was still a student. The campaign sought to abolish the 'tampon tax' in the United Kingdom by making menstrual products exempt from VAT. The campaign and petition on Change.org successfully pushed the UK Parliament into establishing the Tampon Tax Fund in 2016, through which almost £100m was donated to female-focused charities. Her campaign finally succeeded in 2021, when the tax on all period products was axed. Loads of great insights from a campaigner who sta...
2024-10-1028 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldDumb AnimalsLynx began their anti-fur campaign back in the mid 1980’s. By using innovative advertising and media campaigns such as the famous David Bailey ‘Dumb Animals’ poster and cinema commercials, consumer attitudes towards the wearing of fur in the UK changed dramatically. Most department stores used to have fur salons and fur could be found almost everywhere on the high street. More and more department and high street stores started to adopt ‘fur free’ policies such as the Fur Free Retailer programme and the wearing of fur is no longer seen as acceptable. Partly thanks to the campaign, fur farming has been ba...
2024-10-0431 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldClimate Change: Senior Swiss women vs the GovernmentIn a really fascinating example of litigation-led campaigning, a group of senior women in Switzerland argue that - because they suffer more from frequent and intense heatwaves - Switzerland must do its bit to keep global heating below 1.5ºC. KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz (Senior Women for Climate Protection) is a group of elderly women in Switzerland, initially formed by a group of 40 in 2016, but now numbering more than 2,500. After exhausting all national options, they took their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The Court’s decision this April (2024), has set a crucial legal precedent that establishes States’ human rights clima...
2024-09-0637 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldStop Funding HateStop Funding Hate is a pressure group which asks companies to stop advertising in, and therefore stop providing funds for, certain British newspapers that it argues use "fear and division to sell more papers". It was launched in August 2016, by a group of people who came together online to highlight how some British newspapers were using hate and division to drive sales. This was a time of unprecedented amounts of negative headlines about migrants and refugees in newspapers: particulary the Sun, Daily Mail and the Express. The guest in this episode is Richard Wilson who i...
2024-08-3036 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldUber drivers: Yaseen AslamYaseen Aslam is a great example of a 'lived experience' campaigner. He started working as a private taxi or ‘minicab’ driver in London in 2006 and moved to taxi firm Uber when the company launched its Uber X service in 2013.Between 2015 and 2021, he and other Uber drivers campaigned to ensure that the company treat its drivers as “workers” which entitles them to more rights than independent contractors. Uber had a position that the drivers were self employed 'contractors'. They maintained this position throughout years of legal proceedings and appeals that took the case all the way to the Supr...
2024-05-2132 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldWASPI CampaignThis spisode features an interview with Angela Madden, the Financer Director and Chair of WASPI - the Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign.In 1995 the John Major government raised state pension age from 60-65 to bring in line with men. In 2011, a new Pensions Act was introduced that shortened the timetable to increase the women's pension age to 65 by two years but also raised the overall pension age to 66 by 2022. Both the 1995 and 2011 changes came as a shock to many, with women discovering that they would have to wait up to six years longer for their...
2024-05-0335 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldMarcus Rashford Free School MealsMarcus Rashford is a professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Manchester United and England. He has launched and been involved with quite a few campaigns, most notably on child food poverty. in this episode we talk with Jo Ralling, who helped to run the feed the future and the #EndChildFoodPoverty campaigns for the Food Foundation, where she is head of campaigns. She previously worked with Jamie Oliver on various food campaigns including Sugar Smart. The Food Foundation spearheads the End Child Food Poverty Coalition which consists of a group of more than 30 organisations supporting the call from M...
2024-03-2839 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldInfected Blood CampaignIn the 1970s and 80s, 4,689 British haemophiliacs were treated with blood products contaminated with HIV and Hepatitis C. More than half of them have died. At the time, the medication was imported from the US where it was made from the pooled blood plasma of thousands of paid donors, including some in high-risk groups, such as prisoners. If a single donor was infected with a blood-borne virus such as hepatitis or HIV then the whole batch of medication could be contaminated. Official documents presented to the inquiry revealed this therapy was given as part of clinical trials.
2024-02-0844 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldAnti-Apartheid MovementThe British Anti-Apartheid Movement was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African racial segregation system, Apartheid . By the late 1980s the UK Movement had unleashed a number of campaigns and branches and become one of the most powerful international solidarity efforts in history.In this interview we feature three prominent UK anti-apartheid activists and organisers from the time: Chitra Karve, who was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign, Suresh Kamath who was formerly Vice-Chair of the Movement, and helped to organise the...
2023-11-2951 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldFreedom RidesEmilye Crosby, professor of history and the coordinator of Black Studies at SUNY Geneseo, and Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor for the History Department in the Ohio State University, reflect on the tactics and strategies of the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Rides were a key part of the American civil rights movement of the 1960s and the Riders rode buses through the American South in 1961 to protest against segregated bus terminals. They tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and lunch counters at bus stations in Alabama, South Carolina and other Southern states. Along their routes, the freedom riders were met with v...
2023-11-0338 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldMum's for LungsTackling air pollution in a city like London is a big and important job. Mum's for Lungs founder Jemima Hartshorn explains how setting up and running a community-based, grassroots campaigning organisation on a part-time basis is both inspiring and challenging. Crowdsourcing campaign ideas and operating a parent-friendly model are some of the ways in which Mum's for Lungs stands out. Jemima also reflects on issues like the ULEZ (London Ultra Low Emmissions Zone) and how the issue has become politically weaponised in recents months. Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted...
2023-10-0232 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldJubilee 2000 Debt CampaignJubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of poor country debt by the year 2000. The campaign was hugely successful, leading to large quantities of debts being cancelled. Here I speak with Adrian Lovett, formerly Deputy Director of Jubilee 2000 and leader of the successor organisation, Drop the Debt. Adrian, now CEO of Development Initiatives, which seeks to harness the power of data and evidence to end poverty, talks about how the Jubilee campaign became very high profile, getting noticed by world leaders and finding media coverage through celebrity engagement, and combined that with mass mob...
2023-09-0134 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldTogether for Yes: Abortion in IrelandTogether for Yes is an abortion rights campaign group in Ireland. It campaigned successfully for a Yes vote in the 2018 referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment's constitutional ban on abortion in Ireland. In this episode I talk with Ailbhe Smyth, an Irish academic, and the founding director of the Women's Education, Resource and Research Centre at University College Dublin. As well as being involved in campaigns on women’s liberation in the 1970s and on equal marriage she was named as one of the Time 100 most influential people, which she helped found and which was the umb...
2023-07-2850 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldEqual Marraige CampaignThis episode is on the campaign for equal marriage in the uk, sometimes referred to as gay marriage. The interviewee is Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK. Andrew was very much involved as a leader of the campaign which led legislation to allow same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The legislation was passed by the UK Parliament 10 years ago, in July 2013. In England and Wales, the first major campaign for same-sex marriage was Equal Love established by Peter Tatchell in 2010. The Coalition for Equal Marriage is a British campaign group created in 2012 by Conor Marron...
2023-07-1842 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldLooking back and learning lessonsIn this episode, long-time friend and collaborator Chris Stalker and I look back at some of the previous campaigns that the podcast has covered and try to tease out some common lessons and insights for campaigners and people interested in campaiging think about. Chris lives in Brooklyn, New York and has over 30 years of experience working in the non-profit sector having conducted close to 100 campaigning evaluations as well as working in senior advocacy roles at Oxfam, Amnesty International and the UK’s National Council of Voluntary Organisations. He is Adjuct Assistant Professor of Public Service at Ne...
2023-07-0945 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldEnd Our Cladding ScandalThe start of season 2!I speak with Paul Afshar who is spokesperson for the campaign end our cladding scandal. The scandal in the UK started to come to the fore after the grenfel tower fire. In June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in west London,. 72 people died, two later in hospital, with more than 70 injured. It was the worst UK residential fire since World War II. The fire was started by an electrical fault but This spread rapidly up the outside of the building -accelerated...
2023-06-2938 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldCovid-19 Bereaved Familes for JusticeCovid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice is a campaign that has called for accountability for the UK Government Response to Covid and for the lessons to be learned so that mistakes are avoided in future pandemics. In this episode Campaign Director Nathan Oswin tells us how the campaign has been successful, and what the challanges were.You can join here: https://covidfamiliesforjustice.org/ and there is also a Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/covidfamiliesforjusticeuk Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy f...
2022-06-1737 min
100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldBetter Together Campaign: Scottish IndyRefBlair McDougall explains the success of - and the stories around - the Better Together Campaign which set out the case for staying in the UK during the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014. Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-04-2946 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldSurfers Against SewageI speak to Hugo Tagholm from Surfers Against Sewage who have been campaiging UK government and water companies to end sewage pollution in rivers and the ocean.Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2022-02-0243 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldStop the European Super LeagueJoe Blott talks about the campaign to stop the European Super League proposal, which included some of Europe's biggest clubs and collapsed within 72 hours after widespread criticism from fans, players and governing bodies and politicians.Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2021-07-1429 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldThe SuffragettesMy guest is Helen Pankhurst, women's rights activist and great grandaughter of Emily Pankhurst, and togther we examine the Suffragette's role in the campaign for women's suffrage.Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2021-04-2035 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldPeter TatchellPeter has been campaigning since the 60s on issues of human rights, democracy, LGBT freedom, and global justice. From the late 70s onwards, he proposed a single, comprehensive Equal Rights Act to harmonise the uneven patchwork of equality legislation. This proposal was eventually secured with the passage of the Equality Act 2010. In 1994, he named 10 Anglican bishops and urged them to “Tell The Truth” about their sexuality; accusing them of homophobia and hypocrisy. Four years later interrupted the Easter Sermon of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, in protest at his opposition to gay equality. In 1999, in London, he am...
2020-07-0641 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldWindrush CampaignThe Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 when it emerged that many British people who arrived from the Carribean before 1973 were being wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in some cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Guy Hewitt exaplains how the campaign to get justice for the affected was a kind of campaigning 'perfect storm' and how his heterodox background helped him play a leading role.Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2020-03-0640 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldClose Guantánamo BayClive Stafford Smith is the founder of Reprieve and the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center and in this episode we talk about his role in the long running campaign to close the prison on the US military base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. To date, Clive has helped secure the release of 69 prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (including every British prisoner) and still acts for eight more and he talks candidly about the challenges he has faced and how he and other overcame them. Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on A...
2019-12-1134 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldSpycopsIn November 2015 London's Metropolitan Police was forced to apologise to seven women "tricked into relationships" over a period of 25 years by officers from two undercover police squads. The officers involved - just some of 140 officers who took part in such operations - had eventually vanished, leaving victims feeling as if – in their words - they had been subject to "psychological torture". The disclosures led to the closing of the units concerned, and the setting up the Undercover Policing Inquiry under retired judge Sir John Mitting.One group representing at least 30 victims of such practices, which my interviewee in...
2019-12-0631 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldThe Campaign to Abolish the Slave TradeThis podcast features back to back interviews with two experts on the slave trade and the British campaign to end it: Dr Richard Huzzey, Associate Professor of History at Durham University and Dr Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. the two Richards talk about aspect of the campaign to end the slave trade, and what lessons there are for modern campaigners. As a side note, Richard Huzzey is a co-author of a report commissioned by Friends of the Earth about how campaigners can learn the lessons of past campaigns. https://policy.friends...
2019-09-3048 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldHIV Campaigning in the 2000sin the 2000s AIDS campaigners took the issue of access to free drugs for HIV and AIDS global ... and won. With Kirsty McNeill and Simon Wright from Save the Children UK.Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-04-0250 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldKumi NaidooEpisode 5 contains an interview with Kumi Naidoo, the South African Secretary General of Amnesty International, and well known campaigner on global poverty, climate justice and human rights. He covers and touches on several campaigns including Make Poverty History, Anti-Apartheid and climate change campaigns. Kumi speaks frankly about the current state of civil society, progress being won and lost and how he keeps motivated in the face of external and internal challenges. Sign up or leave comments at https://www.100campaigns.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
2019-01-1056 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldOzone Layer CampaignThis interview is with Fiona Weir who is talking to me today about the Ozone layer campaign which led to phase out of most products that deplete the ozone, such as aerosols and air conditioning coolants with chlorofluorocarbons.Scientists first discovered a hole in the ozone layer hole in 1985 and attributed its appearance to the use of CFCs. Friends of the Earth along with other organisations quickly mobilised to get an international agreement which saw CFCs being phased out. It is widely regarded as one of the most successful environmental actions ever and has been credited with the...
2018-08-0642 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldHillsborough Justice CampaignThis episode features Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group. The Hillsborough disaster led to the campaign for justice for the 96 Liverpool fans who died in a crush in Hillsborough stadium during a football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. There is a lot of information to be found about the disaster, for instance a very good BBC film from 2016. The Hillsborough justice campaign has been one of the most high-profile campaigns in the UK, which has seen the families of the 96 set against parts of the British establishment, especially the police, who have been shown to h...
2018-04-1645 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldTax JusticeThe Tax Justice Network is an independent international network launched in 2003. Their mission is to ‘change the weather’ on a wide range of issues related to tax, tax havens and financial globalisation. We push for systemic change. in this episode I interview John Christensen is the chair and director of the Tax Justice Network. I have worked on the tax justice campaign with John, and he doesn’t fit the mould.He trained as a forensic auditor and economist, he has worked in many countries around the world, including a period of working in offshore financial...
2018-04-1143 min100 Campaigns that Changed the WorldRobin Hood TaxIn this pilot episode recorded last year I talk to David Hillman, who cut his campaigning teeth on the anti-Apartheid campaign before going on to work on the hugely successful effort to ban landmines and drop developing country debt. He is currently director of Stamp Out Poverty, working for a number of years on new sources of finance for development and leading UK campaigning for a Financial Transaction Tax. In 2010 he also helped create the Robin Hood Tax campaign, a network of more than 100 UK charities, trade unions, faith organisations and green groups pressing for a tax on financial tr...
2018-04-1044 min