Be the Change Podcast

Change comes when we listen to each other, even when we disagree.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Filip Janevski, a member of the Council of the City of Skopje in North Macedonia, whom she met at the Changing Narratives Conference with the No Hate Speech Network in Trenčín, Slovakia.

Despite sitting on different sides of the political spectrum, Lily and Filip hit...

Trigger Warning: This episode includes discussion of suicide. Please take care while listening.

Some of the darkest chapters of our lives can become the reasons we keep showing up and moving forward, one step at a time.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Jessica Arden Lefford, who is running the New York City Marathon with Still I Run, a charity that promotes runnin...

Pay, recognition, competition for opportunities... oh my! Somewhere along the way, the youth sector may have lost the plot on why it does this work in the first place.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, recorded to mark the second anniversary of The Forgotten Generation Podcast, Lily Mott chats with its host, Troy Njenje Mbanga, to talk about what's really missing in the youth and charity sectors to...

What does creativity mean in a world increasingly shaped by AI? And how does creativity shape politics?

In this episode, Lily Mott is joined by Tom Spare, the creator of Spare a Thought and co-host of The Political Dispatch, to explore both of these questions.

Lily and Tom talk about what creativity actually means, why expressing the ideas in our heads can h...

For climate activists, watching the impacts of the climate crisis unfold can bring a particular kind of anxiety: knowing what is happening, understanding what is at stake, and still having to find the energy to keep fighting for change.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott sits down with climate activist and refugee rights advocate, Natasha “Tash” Pavey, d...

For many young people, the biggest barrier to making change isn't a lack of ideas or opportunities. Instead, it's the confidence to act on them.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott sits down with autism practitioner, researcher, and #iwill Ambassador Folusho Bello to talk about how confidence has shaped her journey.

Folusho shares how her early volunteer work sparked a passion,...

In a world of AI and algorithms, it's easy to feel more connected than ever... and further apart than ever, all at once.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with award-winning public speaker and poet De-Mario Knowles about how a single poem, written almost by accident during the pandemic, launched him into a speaking career built around connecting with people.

De-Mario sh...

Finding your passion is one thing. Finding your people is another, and sometimes if you're lucky, they arrive together.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Thomas Grimwood, host of two Be the Change Media Network podcasts, Performing Passions and Super Summers, and a fundraiser for the National Autistic Society, about the winding road to finding his passions and his community.

In (another) solo episode, I reflect on the last six years of Be the Change Podcast and shares a vision for its next six.

After spending the past year immersed in a community of changemakers, social impact leaders, and purpose-driven storytellers, I took some time to ask myself some difficult questions:

• What is the purpose of Be the Change Podcast? Wha...

The first episode of Be the Change Podcast was released on June 2, 2020, and this episode marks six years since that first episode.

I've spent six years asking my guests: "Lots of young people want to make change but might not know where to get started. What is your advice for those people who might be listening?"

So, I devoted this anniversary episode to answering that question myself.

Thank you so much to my family, friends, gues...

This episode features Anita Okunde, Michael-Akolade Ayodeji, Zander Moricz, and Kahlil Greene.

On 14 May 2026, Zander Moricz, founder and executive director of SEE Alliance, and Kahlil Greene, also known as the Gen Z Historian, debated at The Oxford Union, where I recorded a live interview with them.

The debate was sponsored by VoxPop, which is an app that teaches young people about politics, as well as encouraging them to get invo...

For Dyar Hussain, changemaking doesn't fit neatly into one box, and neither does he.

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Dyar Hussain, Director of Education and Knowledge Exchange at YouthTheGap and host of Be the Change Media Network podcast Legacies Lost & Found, about the path from growing up curious about identity and power to building an alternative education hub rooted ...

Ahead of the UK's local elections, it's a crucial time to ask one very important question: why does voting actually matter?

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, recorded ahead of the UK's May 7th, 2026 elections, Lily Mott talks with Cosima Wiltshire, an advocate and researcher building bridges between youth, tech, and politics, about her journey from a 12-year-old campaigning for online safety to now...

Who says graphic design and social change don't belong in the same sentence?

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Olivia Krawczyk, founder of OneKind Creative, an award-winning design studio bridging graphic design and social impact, about building a career that feels true to her talents, her passions, and her values.

Olivia shares how a school volunteering trip to Ug...

What does it take to stay motivated in a field where the work feels endless and the need never stops?

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Nika Stastny, a PhD student in Global Health and host of Be the Change Media Network podcast Global Health Talks: On the Brighter Side, about her path from studying biology to now researching pediatric diagnostic devices for low- and middle-inc...

Ahead of the UK's April 20th voter registration deadline, one question sits at the heart of this episode: what happens when people who call a country home still can't vote in it?

In this episode of Be the Change Podcast, Lily Mott talks with Dany Shibu and Dani Onyewuenyi, spokespeople for the Migrant Democracy Project, about their campaign for residency-based voting rights across the UK, and their own exp...

Change comes when we take up space. This special episode takes you inside Anthropy 2026, a gathering of leaders and organizations working toward a more united future for the United Kingdom.

Recorded live from the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project in Cornwall, this episode features clips from conversations with Anthropy's Emerging Leaders, who are all between the ages of 18 and 30.

The format may be a little different from the ty...

Today is World Autism Awareness Day, and this special episode features a conversation with the following members of Be the Change Media Network:

• Thomas Grimwood: Host of Performing Passions
• Tom Spare: Host of Spare a Thought Podcast and co-host of The Political Dispatch

Throughout this episode, we discuss our thoughts on this year's World Autism Awareness Day theme (Autism and Humanity - Every Life Has Value), how we can...

Change comes through creativity and community. Rameen Bajwa and Mahnoor Rehan are part of the team developing Daak Chithi, which is a global youth organization that is bringing back the age-old, golden tradition of letter writing and adding a modern twist.

To get connected with Rameen and Mahnoor, find them on Instagram at @meenanator and @smearedwithcrimson.

To learn more about Daak Chithi, visit: https://daakchithi.org.

Please le...