Meet the introvert activists who are quietly changing the world
Sarah Brown
In the first of a new series of her Better Angels podcast, sa国际传媒 Chair Sarah Brown talks to three gentle but persuasive campaigners.
What makes a good activist? The ability to make yourself heard above the din? Or a quiet determination to change things for the better?
In a new series of Better Angels 鈥 the podcast for the activist spirit 鈥 Sarah Brown explores different types of campaigning styles, including introverts and extroverts.
Sarah, who is Chair of sa国际传媒, started Better Angels in 2016. She said: 鈥淎t sa国际传媒 we have always worked in a very outward-facing, very assertive way.聽A lot of earlier episodes of the podcast were about finding your voice to create change.
鈥淏ut as I met different activists I realised there is more than one way to create change. It doesn鈥檛 suit everyone to have the same approach.
鈥淭he similarities between the styles is that there is a focus on the changes needed. The difference is the journey to get there.
鈥淚f you use your voice, you use the media, protests, sitting on platforms at events. If you鈥檙e an introvert, those are not tools you want to use.
But the single-minded focus on what you want to say and who needs to hear the message is the same.鈥
The first episode of the new series focuses on quiet activism, featuring some gentle voices whose powers of persuasion have marked them out as change-makers.聽Sarah鈥檚 guests are British activists Sarah Corbett, Claire Heuchan and聽Stuart Beveridge.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been really interesting talking to people who are introvert but are passionate about change,鈥 said Sarah Brown. 鈥淚 was interested to know what quieter ways of campaigning can do.鈥
Her first guest in the new episode is聽Sarah Corbett, a professional activist, author, speaker and founder of the聽. It is a social enterprise that combines craft and activism to engage people with social justice in a non-confrontational way.
She said it鈥檚 important that people 鈥渄on鈥檛 just see activists as shouty, loud extroverts鈥.聽 Sarah added:聽鈥淐raft is part of the activism toolkit 鈥 it is not to replace marches or petitions.
鈥淚 care deeply about injustice.聽A lot of introverts are also highly sensitive people so we are really good at empathy and compassion.鈥
Claire Heuchan is an award-winning feminist writer who 聽鈥 writing聽on subjects such as race, power, identity and sexual politics.
She told Sarah Brown: 鈥淭he whole purpose of the feminist movement is change 鈥 to build a world in which women and girls are liberated from all forms of oppression.聽If I didn鈥檛 believe that change was possible there would be no point in working towards it.鈥
Stuart Beveridge, who has been blind since birth, works for the聽聽charity in Fife, Scotland.聽He talked to Sarah about how technology is transforming the lives of visually-impaired people and聽how working in partnerships with like-minded organisations can bring about change.
鈥淪ocial media can be key 鈥 once it鈥檚 up there people can鈥檛 really ignore it because it鈥檚 in the public eye,鈥 said Stuart. 鈥淪ometimes it can be just a small tweet 鈥 it just has to hit the right person and they take notice.鈥
The rest of this series of Better Angels will feature a noisy activism episode and four specials, including in-depth interviews with Sarah Corbett, Claire and Stuart.
Looking back over the three years of Better Angels, Sarah Brown said she has learned to appreciate other people鈥檚 styles and approaches.
鈥淚鈥檝e seen podcasts grow too so there are so many other voices to listen to,鈥 she said. 鈥淎lways learning from people will always impact what you do.鈥
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