5 – Podcasts

The Trials of Democracy: Podcast

The Trials of Democracy Podcasts

Hilary and our volunteer interviewer Christine talked to 30 Cambridge residents who play different roles in public life: as elected officials, as activists, as educators, community organisers and more.  Each conversation lasted about 25-30 minutes and they have been edited by Hilary to create a fascinating collection of views, experiences and ideas about how democracy is practised today.

https://youtu.be/DF8ZJSXow9o?si=KmK0t27xMonjAFqw

Scarlet is 22 year old graduate and a passionate rower. She cares deeply about rivers and aquatic conservation and has combined https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ticRe9JKBCYthese passions to campaign for healthier waterways in the UK.

Tracie is a woodworking artist and has just celebrated 20 years of attending Rowan. Tracie was born with Williams Syndrome. She is the spokesperson for the students and staff at Rowan, and is a campaigner for the voice of disabled and able-bodied people to be heard.

Berenice is an artist, coach, award-winning designer, speaker and owner of Hello Lovely Design and Co. She has a Masters in Graphic Design and Typography from Anglia Ruskin University and she is an EDIB facilitator. Berenice is part of a ‘small but vocal’ community group that campaigned for inclusive planning that actively listening to the community, specifically at the Beehive site. She is co-director of The Full Stop Community CIC, which raises awareness of involuntary childlessness through a monthly podcast and online community, and at events including the Storyhouse theatre in Chester.  She loves Mill Road, the communities found in our city and is proud of her Cambridge roots.

 

Tony worked as a professor of education who specialised in valued led educational development of schools and education systems. He has a degree in psychology and philosophy and a master’s in educational psychology. He worked as a secondary school teacher and an educational psychologist before engaging in research at Cambridge University. He then taught and researched in other universities for thirty years before returning as a visiting research fellow at Cambridge. He has been a trustee for the Children’s Legal Centre and The Green Light Trust. He is an environmental campaigner and activist and a founder steering group member of Friends of the Cam. He is environment officer for Jewish Voice for Liberation. In 2025 he agreed to stand for Chancellor of Cambridge University in order to campaign on the environment, Palestine and unsustainable growth in Cambridge.

Liz is a trade union organiser, interested in better public services and reducing the wealth gap between the richest and poorest. She loves being in Cambridge because of its friendly people and green spaces.

https://youtu.be/V6nLX34AuYk?si=Rb7l-JIYqL7rLfwF

Naomh loves tigers, mountains and cosy pubs. She is a Member Activator for Co-op.

Ila lives in Cambridge. She has management and work experience in the voluntary and public sectors, and now works as a consultant and trainer. Her work is centred round social justice, equalities, resourcing and  organisational development, working primarily with Black and Minoritised Ethnic (BME) infrastructure organisations, Cambridge Ethnic Community Forum and Peterborough Asylum and Refugee Community Association.

Ila’s previous employment roles included Head of Policy at the National Women’s Resource Centre, Chief Officer at MENTER, an East of England race equality network, and Voluntary Sector Support Manager at Cambridge City Council. She is a Trustee for national BME organisations, Voice4Change England and Action for Race Equality.

Helen grew up in Canada on the unceded land of the Semiahmoo and Musqueam people. She has moved internationally many times: to the US for work, to Denmark to change careers and do a PhD, and to  Cambridge to do cancer research. During this journey she developed chronic illness, and has settled in Cambridge as an artist and community activist.

In 2020, Helen co-founded the Resilience Web and continues to run projects in collaboration with other community groups to build local resilience. Her art practice uses natural materials, often foraged or handmade, to create work that is concerned with our continued existence on a just and finite planet.

https://youtu.be/whYUs19K10Y?si=_COiQdZ88-Y1L7e6

Catherine is a journalist, podcaster, and community librarian. After years of volunteering with various international literacy NGOs Catherine took it local, opening a bright yellow Little Free Library outside her home in January 2020.

Thanks to partnerships with community charity Abbey People and Jesus College, Cambridge, the Little Libraries project is now a sprawling, multi-volume, epic which aims to completely change the story on literacy and book access in ‘the most unequal city in the UK’.

Peter is a director of Forster Communications, a PR agency devoted to delivering social and environmental change. Peter heads Forster’s strategic communications work for international NGOs and UK charities and foundations. He helps organisations to campaign for change, build their reputations and inspire others to get involved and support their cause.

Tim is an organiser for Citizens UK. He is the founder of Peterborough Citizens and is the organiser for Cambridge Citizens an emerging alliance set to Found in November 2026.  Prior to becoming an organiser he taught politics at the University of East London for many years.

Lewis was the longest serving Leader of Cambridge City Council, from 2014 to 2021 and secured Government funding for over 500 new affordable council homes.  In total, Lewis served as a local Councillor for 25  years. Nineteen on Cambridge City Council and six a while ago on the Greater London Council from 1980 to 1986.

Since 2022, Lewis has helped homelessness charities secure land and build new “supported modular communities”. Allia Future Homes have so far assisted the building of three communities and 36 modular homes, including the first such community in Cambridge in 1980.  There are now five Cambridge communities and sites for more have been secured her and in other cities.

Wendy started her career supporting people with learning disabilities and throughout her working life has had a continued sense of purpose around enabling people to live fulfilled, connected lives, whether that be through individual support, advocacy, or most recently community development. She feels lucky to have been one of the founding trustees for Abbey People community charity. Wendy currently works in Cambridgeshire County Council’s Communities Service as a Community Coordinator in East Cambridgeshire.

Anna McIvor is chair of Transition Cambridge and a director of the Resilience Web. She also facilitates The Work that Reconnects (eco-psychological work). She originally studied ecology, and has worked in nature conservation and flood risk management. She enjoys the challenge of supporting people and groups to work together productively.

Siobhan joined Cambridge Carbon Footprint as General Manager in November 2024, in her second role for this local climate change charity; she was their Akashi (multi-faith) Project Officer in 2010-11. In between she worked for South Cambs District Council in various sustainability roles and then spent a year studying Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College in Devon.

https://youtu.be/r135MRMNrkQ?si=68WZ5Q_EOmtjbEfe

James is a Cambridge-based multi-media artist, filmmaker, and writer known for his creative work on culture, climate, and creativity, including films about dementia and the environment. He co-founded the Extinction Rebellion Rewilding Network and has undertaken projects exploring ecological connections, human-river relationships, and the impact of clim ate change. His work spans theatre, film, and writing, with a focus on anthropological and environmental themes.

https://youtu.be/s9tUOGKRheY?si=gcth0Idc5NxSC7NW

Jade is an arts-based activist, transdisciplinary artist, social justice advocate, Queer Lesbian Black-mixed Feminist. These things inform all that she does and her lifelong commitment to contributing to a more equitable future.

Peter is a retired scientist with a special interest in energy conservation. Back in the 70’s he read Small is Beautiful by Fritz Schumacher and it has formed the basis for his philosophy of life. Much more recently Iain McGilchrist’s work on the divided brain has also had a profound influence.

Peter has lived in Cambridge for 48 years and worked mainly on scientific instruments. When time and tide allow he enjoys sailing on the Norfolk Broads and visiting Scotland. He settled down fairly late in life and lives with his partner Meg close to the river Cam.

Ruth works at the intersection of arts, health and education with a particular focus on children and young people and their creative health. Co-creation and collaboration is central to everything she does. Ruth worked with colleagues to found  arts and well-being charity Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination  (CCI) in 2007 and led their work until 2024. Their programmes cultivate creative communities in Cambridgeshire and beyond and aim to help people of all ages foster deep connections with each other and the world on their doorsteps. The work often takes place in communities with particular challenges.

Ruth established long and fruitful relationships with many Cambridge institutions (including both the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, Addenbrooke’s hospital, the city and county councils, many schools, and the region’s leading mental health charities for children and young people) and also founded Fullscope with seven other leading charities for children and young people in the county. She also built research partnerships with a number of other leading UK Universities, in particular University College London’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education, King’s College London, Goldsmiths University and Bath Spa University. Ruth has worked with Fullscope since leaving CCI, leading their work in how younger children can be part of co-producing mental health services.

Jason teaches English Literature at the University of Cambridge and is a fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He has taken part in climate activism with Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.

Cassie’s Dad was a house master in a boys boarding school when she was growing up, and she and her brother would run a little wild in the grounds, up trees and up buildings.  Nursing in London she met some brilliant patients; many had been bombed out several times.

She had three children who all went to Park Street School in Cambridge, whilst Cassie caught up with A levels and Social work training, followed by Social work locally, in the days when there were real resources in the community, such as homehelps , district nurses, OTs youth clubs and Local Authority Social Care.

Cassie was swept into peace protests during the Cold War, including a rota of women travelling to the US airbase at Greenham Common every weekend. Many more protests have followed: CND, the Iraq war, Palestine /Gaza, Climate change. After retirement Cassie volunteered with the Homeless, a Food Bank and a Conservation group. She says she has been very lucky to have some delightful grandchildren plus partners, but just wishes they could inherit a more hopeful world.

https://youtu.be/1J43eqpnPkE?si=qsl09tatah0lW5Ne

Omar is the founder of Official Stolen Bikes in Cambridge, a facebook group that’s considered to be the UK’s largest neighbourhood watch initiative tackling bike crime. Featured by the BBC, This Morning, Channel 4 Dispatches, and national newspapers, the group works with police and thousands of residents to recover stolen bikes, reunite them with owners, and even run a loan-bike scheme for theft victims. Alongside intelligence sharing, the initiative regularly posts safety advice on securing bikes, choosing the right locks and highlighting known hotspots. By day, Omar is Director of Cambridge Rowing Experience, offering both corporate team-building and personal rowing experiences that make the sport more accessible to anyone who has ever wanted to try it.

https://youtu.be/W95TFDKzqcU?si=yUQDd0DdEJDjb9El

Miles is a visual storyteller, writer, and activist.

 

Alex is an activist and organiser working across multiple campaigns focused on food, climate, and social justice in Cambridge. Since graduating in 2022 they have been volunteering and organising with Cambridge Community Kitchen, a food solidarity collective which provides upwards of 600  free, hot, vegan meals per week on a no-questions-asked basis. Through their work with Cambridge Sustainable Food CIC Alex has undertaken projects directed at tackling the root causes of food inequality and developing community-led solutions that seek to transcend the top-down model of conventional charitable aid by building collective resilience, knowledge, and empowerment on a localised level. No matter the cause, their campaigning is grounded in the principles of solid arity, mutual aid, intersectionality, non-hierarchy, and collective liberation.

Ian is Professor of Information and Communications Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London. His publications include Computer Crimes and Digital Investigations (2nd ed., 2016), Telecommunications Law and Regulation (5th ed., 2018) and Cloud Computing Law (2nd ed., 2021). Ian was a Board Member and Trustee of the Internet Watch Foundation (2004-09); the Press Complaints Commission (2009-14); a member of the RUSI Independent Surveillance Review (2014-15) and is a Non-Executive Board Member of the Jersey Competition and Regulatory Authority (2020- ). Ian is a solicitor and OF Counsel to Baker McKenzie.

Tom is a trade unionist, political activist, teacher and filmmaker.

Find out more about The Trials of Democracy

More about public involvement

More of the Exhibition

More about the Performance

https://youtu.be/VIWOkGdy098?si=gqi2mgXP769UTVWS

 

This project has been supported by S-106 grant funding from Cambridge City Council