0:33

Hello dear

0:33

listeners, welcome to the first

0:36

ever episode of A Political

0:36

Hope. The podcast exploring how

0:40

to get the courageous ethical

0:40

and trusted leaders we need for

0:43

the 21st century. My name is Bek

0:43

and I'm Communications Manager

0:47

at Apolitical Foundation. I'm

0:47

joined today by Apolitical

0:50

Foundation CEO Lisa Witter.

0:50

Lisa, do you want to tell the

0:54

good people what we're doing

0:54

here today?

0:56

Absolutely. We're

0:56

here today to tell you about a

0:59

new podcast we're putting out

0:59

called A Political... - a kind

1:02

of play on "apolitical" - A

1:02

Political Hope. And really, why

1:05

I want to do this is we hear day

1:05

in and day out about what's not

1:10

working in politics. About the

1:10

politicians you don't believe,

1:13

about the mudslinging in

1:13

politics, about the broken

1:16

systems, about election outcomes

1:16

that you may or may not agree

1:19

with. It's kind of dark and bad

1:19

news. But what you don't get to

1:22

see is.. we are privileged that

1:22

we get to hear about all the

1:25

political innovators, that

1:25

political entrepreneurs, the

1:28

people behind the scenes, really

1:28

trying to not just save

1:32

democracy, but make it better

1:32

really make it for the 21st

1:35

century. So this series is going

1:35

to be about people you may have

1:37

heard of or may not bring new

1:37

and different ideas to politics.

1:41

Yeah, when I was

1:41

kind of conceptualising this

1:43

podcast, for me, it was really

1:43

important that it was solutions

1:46

oriented and as practical as

1:46

possible. And like the name

1:51

suggests, I want it to be a dose

1:51

of hope, and to help push us out

1:55

of this kind of cynicism that

1:55

keeps us stuck. Lisa, you talk

1:58

about the possibility of

1:58

politics and the politics of

2:01

possibility. And that's kind of

2:01

a theme that I'm hoping comes

2:05

out of this season and series.

2:05

So yeah, I'm going to talk a

2:08

little bit now about how this is

2:08

going to work. So we're going to

2:12

release an episode each

2:12

fortnight it's going to be an

2:15

interview with someone in

2:15

politics, or with ideas that

2:18

helping to make politics and

2:18

democracy better. I'll do a lot

2:21

of the interviews. But Lisa will

2:21

also do a fair few, then a few

2:25

members of our team are going to

2:25

do interviews here and there.

2:28

And that's usually topics that

2:28

they work really closely with or

2:31

are particularly passionate

2:31

about. To give you an idea about

2:34

themes and interview topics. Our

2:34

first episode is with Mehdi

2:39

Jomaa, who was the acting prime

2:39

minister of Tunisia after the

2:44

Arab Spring, the only way to

2:44

change is to be involved. And

2:48

then we've also got episodes,

2:48

this is just to give you an

2:50

example, on politicians mental

2:50

health...

2:52

"I worry about

2:52

the quality of our democratic

2:54

processes as a consequence of

2:54

political well being"

2:57

What a good

2:57

climate politician looks like...

2:59

"Learn from

2:59

each other in terms of what

3:02

works because with common issues

3:02

also come common solutions"

3:05

And how to bridge

3:05

activism to political power.

3:08

"Seeing young woman getting into politics, putting themselves out

3:09

there, more and more women being

3:12

elected across the world and so

3:12

on gives me hope"

3:14

Remembering that I

3:14

want this to be as practical as

3:17

possible, there's going to be a

3:17

few questions that every guest

3:21

answers. The first is they're

3:21

always going to give their key

3:25

takeaways for the audience.

3:25

Secondly, we'll close each

3:29

interview by answering the

3:29

question, what is giving you

3:33

political hope? Because there

3:33

are good things happening out

3:37

there we promise. Okay, Lisa, is

3:37

there anything else you want to

3:41

say before we head off?

3:43

No Bek. It's an

3:43

honour to work with you and

3:45

everyone who's listening. Thank

3:45

you. Thank you for caring.

3:48

There's a lot that you can be

3:48

listening to right now. Please

3:51

give us feedback. Give us a

3:51

little kick. If you think it

3:53

should be better or different.

3:53

We really want to hear from you.

3:56

Democracy is about co creation

3:56

and so is this. So we want to

3:59

hear from you. So thanks.

4:01

Thanks so much.