Life Lessons & Strategies
for Social Change

Amanda Tattersall’s grandmother’s father was killed because of his gambling debt. This launched her family into a period of homelessness that cemented which side of the political battle Amanda’s grandmother found herself on. This passion for the sociopolitical was embedded in Amanda early on through her grandmother telling her stories while taking care of her as a kid. But her family wasn’t particularly political; she had no idea how to act on this sense of activism that she was feeling. 

However, like many do, she found the resources she needed in university to expand her horizons, diving deep into social good movements around student rights, refugee rights, and peace during the war in Iraq. 

Amanda Tattersall has had quite the career in social change. She co-founded GetUp!, Australia’s most successful digital advocacy organization, that has over one million members. She founded and ran the Sydney Alliance for nine years, which brought Saul Alinsky-style community organizing to Australia. She has written the globally focused go-to book on coalition strategy, Power in Coalition.

She is currently the education lead at the Sydney Policy Lab, which is Sydney University’s bridge-building hub with the wider community, and is the strategic director of their post-COVID economic recovery plan. She is also the host of the ChangeMakers Podcast, where she shares much of her learnings, reflections, and lessons in social change strategy. 

This multi-faceted history of participation and involvement in as well as reflection upon social change movements is what we focus on in today’s conversation with Amanda. That’s much of what we dive into in our chat today: where we’re at in the world with bringing about positive social change and how to create more of the ideal world that we believe we should be living in. So many detailed reflections, lessons, and incredibly impactful advice. 

This episode is definitely worth a listen, especially as a young, ambitious changemaker fired up about fixing one of the many issues our world is currently facing.