The Good Problem

We're flipping things for the final episode of season five, and host Leigh Mathews is being interviewed by the wonderful Mel Harwin who has over 15 years experience working as a leader, implementor, human designer and evaluator in the international development, social, and environmental programs globally. Mel's experience, curiosity and critical thinking thinking skills contribute

Ethics is a term we throw around quite often in the doing good sector. But what does it really mean? Where do ethics apply? Is it at the organisational level, the individual level, or both?In the humanitarian sector, where staff are regularly placed in situations where they are required to make decisions that can deeply affect the lives of others, how does ethics apply? Is it ok to

In the aftermath of the #metoo movement, we saw the emergence of #aidtoo and the resulting exposure of harassment, abuse and discrimination in the development and humanitarian sector. While the reports are shocking to read, it’s no surprise – abuse, sexual misconduct, racism, and discrimination have been long prevalent in the sector, and we continue to see reports naming major

Organisations all over the world are engaging in a long overdue self-analysis and reflection of how they operate and how they engage with communities whom they have traditionally worked ‘on behalf of’. This can be both confronting and challenging, but it’s also entirely necessary if we want to dismantle the harmful systems and structures rooted in colonialism that underpin ho

Working in a sector that is traditionally seen as ‘doing good’ can mean that often, actions and behaviours that are not good at all, and in fact, cause harm are able to proliferate. The international development sector is built upon colonial ideals and has traditionally perpetuated those through a harmful system of top-down do-gooding that actively suppresses development instea

As somebody who has spent their entire career working to protect the rights of vulnerable children, today’s episode was challenging to record. While we know that children’s rights are violated daily, we don’t expect that harm to be caused by the very institutions created to protect them. Australia’s family court was established in the 1970s, underpinned by a naive belief th

Today’s episode is a deep dive into exploring doing good in the context of activism. This podcast exists to explore why we do good, how we do good, and what the implications of our do gooding are. In activist communities, we often see a spectrum of people – from those who participate in activism sporadically, to those who dedicate their entire lives to the causes. At this extre

Today’s conversation is a topic very close to my own heart, and one that’s formed a core part of my professional career: children living in orphanages. The evidence tells us that growing up in an orphanage is harmful, yet it’s still happening at scale with millions of children globally stuck in institutions. A key fact that I want to continue to drive home is that the idea th

Ethics don’t exist in a vacuum, they are developed over time, at an individual level through the course of our relationships with people, animals, the environment, and systems. In our modern world, it’s difficult to be independent of systems we don’t ethically align with. Advances in medical technology are moving at an unprecedented pace, and the frameworks we have to guide t

Today’s episode unpacks a topic that can be uncomfortable for some of us, but is something that we will all experience. Death. \Death is the natural end of life, one certainty that every human being will experience, yet something we are often deeply unfamiliar with and shy away from. My guest today is Zenith Virago, a professional Deathwalker of over 20 years. Zenith is a leader