Voices of the New Economy

Changing Times
Changing Times

Voices of the New Economy shares stories from the people, projects, and communities building a more just, sustainable, and democratic economy. Produced by the NENA (New Economy Network Australia) Storytelling Hub in partnership with the Humanitarian Changemakers Network, this podcast explores how Australians are reimagining work, enterprise, governance, and care — from community-owned energy to regenerative agriculture, social enterprises, cooperatives, and circular economies.

  1. 3d ago

    18. Local Food, Resilient Communities: Building Food Sovereignty with Robina McCurdy

    Permaculture educator, designer and community development facilitator Robina McCurdy joins Voices of the New Economy to explore how communities can move beyond food security towards food resilience and food sovereignty. Drawing on more than 35 years of experience across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, Robina has worked with communities to develop local food systems, community gardens, food forests, seed-saving initiatives and bioregional food strategies, and established The Localising Food Project in 2012. Together, we explore why the bioregion offers a powerful scale for rethinking food systems, how urban communities can reconnect with surrounding growers and producers, and what permaculture can teach us about designing relationships and economies that work with the living world. At its heart, food resilience isn't only about producing food — it's about rebuilding community, strengthening our relationship with place and creating local economies capable of caring for people and the ecosystems that sustain us. Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. Join Robina at ⁠Newkind Conference⁠ 2026: use the code NENA for 20% off registration. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    18. Local Food, Resilient Communities: Building Food Sovereignty with Robina McCurdy

  2. Aug 14

    17. Surveillance Capitalism and Enshittification: Why Our Technology Keeps Getting Worse with Paul Fenwick

    Why does so much of the technology we use seem to get worse over time? Platforms become crowded with advertising and algorithms, devices become harder to repair, and the digital services we rely on increasingly collect our data and lock us into corporate ecosystems. There’s a word for this process: enshittification. In this episode we explore surveillance capitalism, planned obsolescence, monopolies, generative AI and the right to repair, as well as practical alternatives including Free and Open Source Software, self-hosted services, repair cafés and community-run infrastructure. Veteran software engineer, internationally acclaimed speaker and open source advocate Paul Fenwick joins Voices of the New Economy to explore why technology gets worse when profit and shareholder returns are prioritised over the people who use it. Having worked with organisations including UN OCHA and Valve Software, Paul has spent decades thinking about how technology shapes society — and how society shapes technology. Join Paul at Newkind Conference 2026: use the code NENA for 20% off registration. Useful links: https://pluralistic.net/tag/enshittification/ + https://www.worseonpurpose.com/ Useful open source software alternatives: - https://joinmastodon.org/ - https://krita.org - https://jellyfin.org/ Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    17. Surveillance Capitalism and Enshittification: Why Our Technology Keeps Getting Worse with Paul Fenwick

  3. Jun 24

    16. Billionaire-ism as Mental Illness: Inner Transformation, Speculative Fiction, and Writing a New Economy with Diana Colleen

    What if one of the biggest barriers to a just and liveable future is not only our systems, but our collective ideas about wealth, success, and what it means to have enough? In this thought-provoking conversation, Diana Colleen explores the bold ideas behind her speculative eco-thriller, including maximum wages, billionaireism as a form of pathological hoarding, and the role of inner transformation in creating wider systems change. Together we unpack why fiction can help expand our sense of what is possible, how psychedelic-assisted therapy might open new pathways for healing and consciousness shift, and why hope is not something we wait for, but something we generate through action. This is a conversation about money, morality, imagination, and the deeper cultural stories that shape the economy we live in. Diana Colleen is a writer whose work sits at the intersection of speculative fiction, social critique, and inner transformation. With a background spanning firefighting, counselling, restaurant work, photography, and insurance, she brings a deeply human and unconventional lens to questions of wealth, inequality, and change. Her debut eco-thriller imagines a world where billionaires are pushed into psychedelic-assisted therapy in the hope of transforming not only themselves, but the systems they uphold. Through her writing, Diana invites readers to rethink what success means, question the cultural stories we tell about billionaires, and imagine more hopeful futures grounded in enoughness, healing, and collective change. Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    16. Billionaire-ism as Mental Illness: Inner Transformation, Speculative Fiction, and Writing a New Economy with Diana Colleen

  4. Jun 17

    15. From Policy to Practice: What It Takes to Build a Wellbeing Economy with WEAll Aotearoa

    What would it take to redesign the economy around care, reciprocity, community, and ecological wellbeing? In this conversation, Tiyana speaks with Sally from WEAll Aotearoa about the wellbeing economy movement, the alignment between wellbeing economies and Māori worldviews, and why economic transformation must be grounded in place, long-term thinking, and collective flourishing. Together, they explore the limits of GDP, the role of government and business in systems change, the promise of future generations legislation, and the practical examples already showing us that another economy is possible. Sally is a community builder and wellbeing economy advocate, currently working with WEAll Aotearoa as Knowledge and Engagement Lead. With a background in social policy research, public engagement, and systems change, Sally’s work focuses on redesigning the economy so it serves people and planet rather than endless growth. Through WEAll Aotearoa, she helps advance research, storytelling, policy advocacy, and movement-building for a wellbeing economy grounded in care, reciprocity, place, and Māori economic leadership. Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    15. From Policy to Practice: What It Takes to Build a Wellbeing Economy with WEAll Aotearoa

  5. Jun 10

    14. The End of the Economy? Yin Paradies on Returning to Indigenous Wisdom and the Future of Human Society

    What if the crises facing humanity are not simply failures of policy or economics, but symptoms of a much deeper civilisational problem? In this conversation, Tiyana speaks with Yin Paradies about modernity, Indigenous ways of knowing, and the possibility of returning to more relational, place-based, and community-centred ways of living. Together they explore the origins of hierarchy, cities, households, and economic systems; the psychological and spiritual impacts of modernity; and what it means to reconnect with country, ancestors, kinship, and Indigenous knowledge systems in an age of ecological and social breakdown. Yin Paradies is an Indigenous scholar, educator, and researcher whose work explores decolonisation, Indigenous knowledges, racism, modernity, and relational ways of living. As Chair in Race Relations, his research spans anti-racism theory and practice, Indigenous knowledge systems, health and social inequality, and critiques of colonial institutions and structures. Drawing on Indigenous philosophies, systems thinking, and decolonial approaches, Yin’s work challenges dominant assumptions about economy, progress, hierarchy, and human society while exploring pathways toward more relational and place-based futures. Check out these resources: https://www.anamcarahomestead.com.au/resources https://events.humanitix.com/decolonial-perspectives-online-study-circle-one-july-dec-2026 Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    14. The End of the Economy? Yin Paradies on Returning to Indigenous Wisdom and the Future of Human Society

  6. Jun 5

    13. Beyond Money, Beyond Poverty: Anitra Nelson on Nonmonetary Futures and New Economies for Eradicating Poverty

    Anitra Nelson joins Voices of the New Economy for a powerful conversation about degrowth, ecological economics, nonmonetary futures and the New Economies for Eradicating Poverty initiative. Together, we explore why money is not a neutral tool but a central mechanism of capitalism, how communities can organise work, care and resources beyond monetary exchange, and why poverty cannot be solved through economic growth alone. Anitra also shares insights from her involvement in the NEEP initiative, which proposes a human rights economy beyond growth, grounded in democratic governance, universal basic services, care, economic democracy and ecological limits. This episode invites listeners to question some of the deepest assumptions of the current economy and imagine what it would mean to build societies where everyone’s needs are met within the limits of the Earth. Anitra Nelson is an activist scholar, writer and researcher whose work focuses on degrowth, ecological economics, postcapitalist futures and nonmonetary ways of living. Affiliated with the University of Melbourne’s Informal Urbanism Research Hub and President-Elect of the International Society for Ecological Economics (2026–2027), she has spent decades exploring alternatives to growth-dependent economic systems. Anitra is the author and editor of numerous books, including Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy and Life Without Money, and recently contributed to the United Nations-backed New Economies for Eradicating Poverty (NEEP) initiative, which is developing pathways towards a human rights economy beyond growth. Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    13. Beyond Money, Beyond Poverty: Anitra Nelson on Nonmonetary Futures and New Economies for Eradicating Poverty

  7. Mar 18

    12. Urban Planning, Ecology, and Michael Bayliss on Post-Growth Futures

    What if the real challenge is not designing a shinier new economy, but learning when to stop? Michael Bayliss, host of the Post Growth Australia podcast, joins Voices of the New Economy to explore what it means to move beyond an economic system that depends on endless expansion on a finite planet. Drawing on years of activism across environmental, post-growth, population, and grassroots community movements, Michael reflects on the philosophical heart of post-growth thinking, why urban planning matters more than many people realise, and what he has learned from years of conversations with thinkers and organisers across the movement. The discussion also touches on intentional living, gardening, music as climate catharsis, and the tension between optimism and collapse in a time when many people can sense that business as usual is no longer viable. Michael Bayliss is an environmental activist, communicator, and host of the Post Growth Australia podcast. Over the past decade he has worked across post-growth, sustainability, and grassroots community movements, including roles with Sustainable Population Australia, urban gardening networks, intentional living projects, and local environmental organising. He is currently Deputy Convenor of the Albany Community Environment Centre and has been a guest presenter on degrowth in Curtin University’s Global Futures and Just Transformations course. Michael’s work brings together ecological limits, urban planning, community resilience, and cultural change, and he also channels environmental themes into music through his Albany-based band, Mobile Zebra. Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    12. Urban Planning, Ecology, and Michael Bayliss on Post-Growth Futures

  8. Mar 11

    11. uForage and the Local Food Economy: Turning Surplus into Community with Tianda Williams

    A head of lettuce hits $12, supermarket shelves start looking a little thinner, floods cut communities off for weeks — and suddenly “local food” stops being a lifestyle trend and starts looking like common sense. Tianda Williams joins Voices of the New Economy to explore how uForage is helping people re-localise food systems by turning surplus into shared nourishment. uForage is a community-powered food map that connects backyard growers, small producers, foragers and neighbours — making it easier to find local eggs, honey, herbs, seasonal produce, and even wild food growing in plain sight. The conversation moves from lived experience to practical systems change: why food insecurity is often a distribution problem, how community networks become lifelines during climate disruption, what foraging can teach us about abundance and place, and why the “technology that disconnected us” might also help reconnect us — if it’s built with the right values. Tianda Williams is a rural Australian advocate for sustainable, community-driven food systems and the co-founder of uForage, a grassroots platform helping people connect with local growers, backyard abundance, and foraged food. A mother and survivor of domestic violence, Tianda’s work is shaped by lived experience and a deep commitment to making sure no one goes hungry — especially as climate disruption and supply shocks make big food chains feel increasingly fragile. Through uForage, she’s helping communities re-localise food, reduce waste, and rebuild the everyday networks that make resilience possible. Voices of the New Economy is a collaborative storytelling project of NENA. The podcast is produced by the Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN), an Anchor Organisation of NENA, as part of its commitment to strengthening economic literacy, amplifying community innovation, and supporting pathways to systemic change. Each episode features researchers, practitioners, organisers, and everyday changemakers working across disciplines and communities to re-imagine how our economies can serve people and planet. LISTEN & EXPLORE FURTHER A full companion article for this episode is available here. Connect with NENA: Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Connect with Humanitarian Changemakers Network (HCN): Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn Get involved: NENA members and friends are warmly invited to participate in the podcast — as interviewees, storytellers, or contributors to the NENA Storytelling Hub. To get involved, visit the Hub page or email: nena@neweconomy.org.au

    11. uForage and the Local Food Economy: Turning Surplus into Community with Tianda Williams
See All (18)

About

Voices of the New Economy shares stories from the people, projects, and communities building a more just, sustainable, and democratic economy. Produced by the NENA (New Economy Network Australia) Storytelling Hub in partnership with the Humanitarian Changemakers Network, this podcast explores how Australians are reimagining work, enterprise, governance, and care — from community-owned energy to regenerative agriculture, social enterprises, cooperatives, and circular economies.

Information

More From Changing Times

You Might Also Like