Show Notes
Today's guest is government minister Josepha Madigan. I was almost fearful of having a politician on, somehow they don't get the same maverick kudos of someone leading a grassroots movement, often they are met with an eyeroll and some cynicism but the reality is that changing legislation and representing the will of the people is one of the most central and powerful changemaker roles. Myself and Josepha met when we sat together at a breakfast event for Spinal Injuries Ireland. I was struck by her warmth and her openness and when I contacted her office a couple of weeks later to invite her on she was immediately accessible and agreed. Jospeha is a busy woman, her current remit is Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion. She started out as a family law solicitor and witnessing the pain people went through during family breakdown, upon her election as TD she worked to bring about the divorce referendum in 2019 which saw an amendment to the separation duration for divorce eligibility reducing it from 4 years to 2. This had a massive impact on people's lives.
Regardless of your political persuasion, this is a podcast based on people wanted to make a difference and I think you'll hear from Joespha that this is who she is, motivated by people and the stories they tell, she has positioned herself as someone who can make legislative and funding changes as well as using her voice to speak on issues in the media and the Dail. She spoke out recently about her personal experience of gender based violence, something she did not need to do but felt compelled to as she saw an injustice she understood.
Today we talk about that, about the divorce referendum and the importance of accountability for our policy makers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Changemakers with Clare McKenna
With this episode I wanted to do something slightly different, I'm still talking to someone who works in the area of making change but if we want to show up in the world, or even in just our own life, we can't pour from an empty cup so I've invited Life Coach Aisling Nestor on to the podcast today.
I was quite blown away by this week's episode with Sandra Healy co founder of Inclusio a science based, data led diversity and inclusion platform, designed to measure, track and action diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We talk about her career in tech spanning over 20 years and how a moment where she noticed a major gap between the number of men and woman at a conference to now working to have a more equal playing field for all, so that a workforce represents the diversity of our classrooms, our society and ultimately the customers of a business. We talk about bias from seeing a name or address on a CV right the way through the work force and I found myself with a bias, I was still thinking of inclusion through a bit of an us and them lens – that it was a good idea to have more people who are different than me working alongside me and to break down any barriers to that, and that's true to a degree but after talking to Sandra I've realised it's actually about all of us, WE are all different and it goes deeper that race or nationality and its important we come together and make sure every voice is heard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dr Eoin Galavan is a senior clinical psychologist and associate fellow with the psychological society of Ireland – they have recently set up a special interest group for addressing climate and environmental emergency. The group are looking at the psychological reasons why we hear the information, we know there is only a window of opportunity for us to turn around the climate crisis and yet we often just return to normal life and hope that someone else will sort it. Eoin speaks honestly about his own journey to becoming climate concerned, not just as psychologist but also as a father and the steps he has taken.This is ultimately an empowering and uplifting conversation, not only giving greater understanding of how we humans work and behave but also what we CAN do now that can make a real difference. Here are some of the references from the conversation;
Seyi Akiwowo is CEO and founder of Glitch and now author of How to Stay Safe Online – A digital self care toolkit for developing resilience and allyship. Seyi has had the most incredible journey – a force to be reckoned with she became the youngest ever black female councillor in London at the age of 22. When a video of a speech she made at the European Parliament went viral, it led to a surge in followers but also sexist and racist comments as well as death threats. This experience led Seyi to speak out about the online world, it's very much knitted in to our every day and there are so many positives, but there is so much we allow to go unregulated and unreprimanded. Seyi speaks of the digital platform as being a public space with us as digital citizens and we should protect ourselves in that space as much as we do off line. Today we talk about Seyi moving on from that traumatic experience and pouring herself into setting up Glitch, a charity looking to end online abuse through awareness, advocacy and action. We look at the fall out of online abuse including the sobering statistic that 43% girls hold back their opinions on social media for fear of being criticised. For black women it is worse, 84% are more likely to be mentioned in an abusive or problematic comment. Online abuse causes more issues that mental health, its infringing on human rights and eroding democratic engagement. We also talk about the boundaries we ourselves have to put in place in the online world. I saw Seyi speak a couple of years ago and was blown away by her passion and had so many AHA moments with things she was saying about digital citizenship and the online world. I've been hoping to speak to her since then and I'm so chuffed she chose to make time for this podcast to discuss her brilliant book.
My guest today is Conor Buckley – Conor is the founder of Human Collective – a brand of sustainable clothing with a message of equality and a movement that includes education and workshops. As you'll hear Conor was inspired by his mum Christine, a changemaker herself who spoke out about institutional abuse and was a champion for victims and the vulnerable. Human Collective gives back to three charity partners, Sports Against Racism Ireland, LGBTQ plus Ireland and The Irish Youth Foundation to support their work tackling inequality. We talk in this episode about how we all have bias but now more than ever we need to come together as a collective – we need to call in rather than call out injustice and how it's ok to take small steps towards real and lasting change. Inclusion and diversity is what will empower and it's important that we aren't passive in our pursuit of this – but true allies. For more on Human Collective click here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.