TROUBLEMAKERS
At TROUBLEMAKERS, we explore how to rebel in an age when a few elite have so much control. We speak with inspiring people from all walks of life across the planet on the tools they use to subvert and seize power for the transformation of our world. TROUBLEMAKERS is a place to learn from each other about how to make change. This podcast is a transcontinental operation brought to you by Beautiful Trouble, MOVE the Global Social Movement Centre, MS TCDC, and Global Platforms.
Episodes
Reggae artist and human rights defender Maiko Zulu, known as Comrade Father, on five presidents, Pan-Africanism, and why he refuses to let a funder own his conscience. A sharp, hopeful conversation about resistance, music, and the next generation.
Guest: Maiko Zulu (Comrade Father), Zambian reggae artist and human rights defender with 35 years in music and a Pan-African agenda.
Three takeaways
...On The Feminist Utopia, feminist Qate Mongi shares what the word really means to her and what a more balanced world could look like. A conversation about equality, leadership, and why feminism isn’t about replacing one energy with another.
Guest: Qate Mongi, feminist.
Three takeaways
- Feminism isn’t anti-men. It’s a vision of a peaceful world for both, where mas...
Strategic communications expert Brian Roberts on how activists can get their message right: verify before you share, match the message to the audience, and break dense policy into language people actually understand. Hosted by Monicah Kamandau, they talk about misinformation, AI, and knowing your rights before you demand them.
Guest: Brian Roberts, strategic communications expert. EU Youth Sounding Board m...
Paul Musyimi on what social movements really are, why peaceful organizing wins, and how activists keep each other safe when the work gets dangerous. With Malemi, Paul talks about the principle "Seek Safety in Support Networks": when activists are threatened, national and international networks can provide support and deter violence.
Guest: Paul Musyimi, who works with social movements through Global Platfo...
Youth activist Nancy Siatwiko on why young Zambians are done waiting for permission to lead. Host Malemi talks with her about locked-out candidates, young women in politics, and using social media to organize.
Guest: Nancy Siatwiko, Movement Manager for Youth for Parliament and the first female student president of Cavendish University Zambia. Twice locked out of party adoption for being young and female, ...
Ep 55: Youth, Power & Political Spaces with Tilvas Ngosa
Recorded at the Global Platform studio in Zambia, this episode asks why youth political participation across Africa stays so low, and what it takes to change that. Host Malemi talks with activist Tilvas Ngosa about systemic barriers, youth leadership, and the real cost of getting into African politics.
Guest: Tilvas Ngosa, Program Of...
Politicians pass laws, but culture shapes belief, and belief shapes everything else. In this episode, Thompson Luzendi sits with Sefu Sanni to unpack the battle of ideas: how culture becomes the real terrain of power, and how the creative arts can move people where speeches and laws cannot.
About the guest Sefu Sanni is a Kenyan musician, poet, and self-described communication strategist and propagandist. ...
What does an ideal world look like? Given Kapolyo answers without hesitation: one where inequality does not exist, and leadership is not a male sport. In this Smoke Signals, she lays out her feminist utopia, then grounds it in the everyday realities that prove the fight is far from over. It doubles as a passing of the mic, recorded as Given steps in to host the seasons ahead.
What you'll hear
- Her vision of a world where women ...
What makes someone walk to the utility company with a placard instead of posting complaints online? Nalishebo Sinyama has been answering that since 2019, when a load shedding protest in her Lusaka suburb turned her into an organizer overnight. She sits with Given Kapolyo to trace her path from a grassroots ward organizer to national work, and now to feminist organizing in Somaliland. With Zambia's general election a week away, her ...
TM Smoke Signals: Silence, by Sylvie Baziga
A spoken word piece by Sylvie Baziga on the slow deaths that leave no bullet holes: the swallowed cry, the smothered dream, the word never spoken because speaking means disappearing.
Host: Thompson Luzendi (Zambia) Guest: Joe Kobuthi - philosopher, public theologian, political analyst, and curator of The Elephant Pan-African magazine.
The rules of the house were written by someone who was never supposed to stay. Thompson sits down with Joe to unpack the moral political economy &m...
Human rights defender, activist, and presidential candidate for the Republic of Kenya, Boniface Mwangi joins Smoke Signals for a direct, unfiltered conversation on what it will actually take for Kenya's Gen Z movement to convert street energy into political power by 2027.
This is not a motivational t...
A spoken word piece by Frank Amani on the cycles we inherit and refuse to break.
Same Stupidity confronts the ways human beings repeat patterns across generations, dressing up the same vicious circle in new clothes, chasing happiness while performing it, and calling it progress. The poem moves throug...
Guest: Wilson (Willynkya), film & TV producer, content creator, and influencer based in Tanzania
Rodgers sits down with Willynkya to unpack "Put Your Target in a Decision Dilemma" (Andrew Boyd & Joshua Kahn Russell) through the lens of content creation and film and what it means for activists and organisers trying to move audiences toward action.
About Willynkya Five years in film and TV before transitioning fully into cont...
In this powerful spoken-word piece, poet Opolot Emmanuel Solomon paints a vision of an Africa that has moved beyond division, dependency, conflict, and limitation. Through repetition, imagination, and conviction, he challenges listeners to picture a continent where dreams become reality, borders no longer divide people, and Africans take ownership of their shared future.
Meet the PoetOpolot Emmanuel Solomon is a Ugandan spoken wor...
What does “development” really mean—and who is forced to pay for it?
Meet the GuestZiada is a climate and gender justice advocate working at the frontlines of renewable energy and community resistance. Trained in medicine, her activism was shaped by real encounters with inequality, environmental breakdown, and lives lost to preventable conditions.
What We Unpack in This EpisodeWhat is EACOP, really? A massive oi...
What happens when poetry becomes testimony? What happens when a voice carries the grief, rage, memory, and survival of an entire people?
In this deeply emotional and politically charged episode of Troublemakers, we journey through “Vous allez où?”, a haunting spoken-word piece that confronts war, displacement, colonial violence, exile, and the persistence of hope in places the world often chooses to ignore.
Through vivi...
How do we move from gathering stories to creating impact? How can we be more strategic about story gathering? And who truly owns the narrative - organisations or the communities themselves?
In this episode of Troublemakers, we explore the role of storytelling in activism and development, featuring insights from practitioners working across Brazil and Nepal within ActionAid. This conversation unpacks how stories are gathered, shaped...
How do we defend rights in a world full of misinformation?
In this episode, guest host Jesué Mutanava speaks with Steward Muhindo, a human rights activist from the Democratic Republic of Congo and member of Lutte pour le Changement (LUCHA).
They explore how social media shapes activism, the dangers of disinformation, and how young people can push for change through peaceful action. Steward also shares simple ways to verify informat...
In Super Hero, Phindu Banda honors the quiet courage of everyday people who rise, endure, and keep going. From childhood dreams to life’s hardest moments, this piece reminds us that survival, resilience, and showing up are acts of heroism.
You didn’t wait to be saved. You became the hero.
About the Poet
Phindu Banda is a Malawian poet, performer, and activist whose work explores identity, feminism, and social justice. T...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
DISGRACELAND is an award-winning music and true crime podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. Jerry Lee Lewis's 5th wife? Dead. Sid and Nancy? Both dead. Why? Because musicians are insane, and insane things happen to them. Why did we lose Amy Winehouse at 27? Was Debbie Harry really abducted by Ted Bundy as she claims? Is Patti Smith not just the "Godmother of Punk", but also the "Original True Crime Girl"? What really happened the night of the Jay Z nightclub stabbing? What do the Diddy indictments truly reveal? All these stories and more, on artists from every genre and their true crimes, in our massive 260-plus story archive. The Dead, the Stones, Johnny, Willie, Frank, Kurt, Courtney, Gaga, Lana, Taylor, and too many to name. DISGRACELAND is music history come to life through audio storytelling as you've never heard it before, with revealing facts: yes, assassins are the real reason the Beatles quit touring—reclaimed myths: no, Mama Cass didn't die from choking on a ham sandwich––and constant reckoning between art and artist––all told through the lens of true crime. This is the podcast for the self-proclaimed "Disgos", the musically obsessed and the true crime heads; the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. DISGRACELAND is where host Jake Brennan tells the stories they didn't want told. The kind you'll end up telling someone else. Get ready to uncover hidden truths and buckle up for truly edge-of-your-seat storytelling. New, fully scripted, sound-designed episodes are released every Tuesday. Bonus chat-style episodes where Jake responds to voicemails, texts, and emails from Disgos hit on Thursdays, and "Rewind" episodes from our archive drop on Sundays. DISGRACELAND is not a journalistic podcast. It's an entertainment podcast inspired by true events. Certain dialogue and scenes are dramatized, as is common in scripted entertainment based on real stories. Sources and credits for each episode are available at www.disgracelandpod.com. To unlock ad-free listening, exclusive content, and connect with your fellow Disgos, go to www.disgracelandpod.com to become an All Access member. Rocka Rolla.