I Had No Idea That Was Possible: What We Can Learn From the People Who Made Change Happen

At Fix The News, we spend a lot of our time talking to people who are moving the needle on some of the world’s biggest problems. Their work is extraordinary. But we’ve learned that the story of changing the world is also a deeply personal one. It’s full of wrong turns, stubbornness, unlikely allies, things that didn’t work, things that somehow did — and moments when someone saw a possibility that everyone else had missed. Over the years, we’ve learned a lot from these conversations. So for The Sidebar, we want to try something different. We’re going to put some of these people in a room together. And then we want to see what happens when they start comparing notes. What did they learn the hard way? What turned out not to matter? What made the impossible suddenly possible? Are there patterns and lessons that translate from one problem to another? Part conversation, part experiment, this is a chance to get beyond the polished success stories and into the human reality of how change actually happens. Discussion Leaders Drew McCartor is President of Pure Earth, where he has spent 16 years tackling one of the world’s largest but least visible health threats: lead pollution. His experience spans the long journey from struggling to get an overlooked issue noticed to having the opportunity to address it at extraordinary scale. Aidan Rielly is cofounder of The Farmlink Project, a grassroots organisation that started with a group of college students spotting an absurd disconnect during COVID: farmers were throwing away huge amounts of food while food banks were struggling to keep up. Today they have rescued more than 500 million pounds of food and delivered 375 million meals to communities in need. Susan Ngoiri is Senior Manager of Global Development at Sanku, which is tackling hidden hunger with an unlikely idea — a small machine attached to local flour mills that adds essential nutrients to everyday food. She’s also a writer, bringing a storyteller’s eye to what it takes to turn a deceptively simple idea into change at extraordinary scale. Sam Bencheghib is co-founder of Sungai Watch, a grassroots organisation tackling some of the world’s most polluted waterways across Indonesia. Their approach goes full circle: stopping plastic in rivers before it reaches the ocean, engaging local communities, collecting, sorting and upcycling the waste. To date the organisation has removed almost 5 million kilograms of plastic waste. And they won't be alone. We’ll be gathering more people as we move through UNGA and Climate Week — people working on very different problems who have one thing in common: they’ve made something change. What to expect A conversation built around real examples of things that worked. People who have helped make meaningful change happen will unpack the journey behind the outcome: what they tried, what worked, what didn’t, and what comes next. Participants will have the opportunity to interrogate those experiences and look for lessons that travel across sectors and geographies. Rather than asking speakers for their vision of the future, the emphasis will be on evidence from the recent past and present. What has already become possible, and what does that teach us about what could happen next? Who this is for This session is for people working across social and environmental change who spend much of their time confronting difficult problems and want to learn from people who have already found ways through some of them, including funders, practitioners, policymakers, entrepreneurs, advocates, and systems leaders. What you will get out of it Real examples of progress that may challenge your assumptions about what is possible Candid lessons about what worked, what failed, and what changed along the way Insights you can translate from other sectors and contexts into your own work A chance to learn directly from people who have turned ambitious ideas into tangible change And after a week of panels, presentations and conversations about everything that needs fixing, this is your reminder of what’s possible. Hosted by Amy Rose, Fix The News