Over the last few months I have been interviewing moral agents, people like Maff Potts, Srdja Popović, Joyti Mhapsekar, and Simon Duffy. And people like Sascha Haselmayer whose book Slow Lane is based on interviews with social entrepreneurs around the world, another group of moral agents.

We are talking about people who go against the grain of orthodox social thinking. What if the answer to all of our problems was each other, and not more services? How about revealing the dictator who runs our country to be the buffoon he really is? Why can’t people with intellectual disabilities exercise their rights to live in the community and not an institution?

We have turned the last page of each of these stories so none of the propositions seem shocking. But shocking they were before the authors of change put pen to paper.

In this episode, Katherine Zappone helps us make sense of these conversations. What do we mean by moral agent? (Spoiler alert, the answer is about morality). How do people sustain themselves through the long struggles of social change? When and where will the next generation of moral agents leave their mark on society? 

Katherine is better placed than most to answer these questions. She either led or was closely involved in the leadership of three major social movements in Ireland. On women’s education, on marriage equality, and on fertility rights. Then she moved from civil society to state, applying her moral compass to lead a ministry and contribute to cabinet decision making.

Sascha Haselmayer’s book The Slow Lane, is published by Berrett-Koehler. In the podcast we talk about Ann Louise Gilligan’s book Reclaiming the Secret of Love published by Peter Lang. Paulo Freire’s work is best understood through his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Katherine is working on a memoir about her transition from civil society to government, hopefully to coincide with the 10th Anniversary of the 34th Amendment to the Irish Constitution that followed from Katherine and Ann Louise’s long struggle for marriage equality.

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Get in touch with us any time by sending an email to hello@ratio.org.uk.

Ratio Talks is produced with the help of sound designer Nik Paget-Tomlinson and creative director Richard De Angelis. The show’s theme song is by Luca Picardi.

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