In this episode of The Political Dispatch, we turn our attention to India, the world’s largest democracy, where a student-led protest movement has grown into a major political story.

Rather than interviewing a guest, Tom and Lily put Sidd in the hot seat. As someone from India who closely follows the country’s politics, Sidd takes us through the events surrounding the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the exam scandal and student protests that preceded it, and the emergence of the self-styled Cockroach Janta Party.

We explore how the movement grew from a viral social media campaign into a nationwide protest, the role of India’s opposition parties and independent media, and the very different ways the government and protesters have framed what happened.

We also look beyond the immediate protests to ask what this movement could mean for Indian democracy. Is the Cockroach Janta Party simply a protest movement, or could it become a genuine challenge to India’s political establishment? And what might the growing political engagement of India’s younger generation mean for the country’s future?

Please leave a rating, share a comment, and subscribe!

To connect with Tom, Lily or Sidd, please find them on Instagram: @sparetom, @lilymott3, and @siddkurapati.

For more information about the show, please find Be the change. Media Network on Instagram: @bethechangemedianetwork.

Opinions shared by the guests and hosts of this show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Be the change. Media Network.

Chad Mott returns! In this sequel to Lessons in Democracy (the show's most downloaded episode), Lily, Sidd and Tom sit down with Chad, a history and government teacher at Evergreen High School in Colorado, (and Lily's Dad), to talk about the history of civil rights in the USA.

July 4th marked the United State's 250th birthday. Chad tracks the key moments in US civil rights history, from the founding fathers to the Civil War, to the Red Summer of 1919, McCarthyism, the emergence of Barack Obama and the rise of MAGA (Make America Great Again).

Please leave a rating, share a comment, and subscribe!

To connect with Tom, Lily or Sidd, please find them on Instagram: @sparetom, @lilymott3, and @siddkurapati.

For more information about the show, please find Be the Change Media Network on Instagram: @bethechangemedianetwork.

Opinions shared by the guests and hosts of this show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Be the Change. Media Network.

In the third and final part of their Brexit trilogy, Tom is joined by Associate Professor Dr. Monika Brusenbauch Meislová to ask ten years on from the EU referendum, where are we now?

You can listen to How Brexit Happened Parts One and Two, wherever you get your podcasts from.

Monika traces how Brexit changed the way British voters view the role of government in their daily lives, assesses where UK-EU diplomatic and strategic relations stand today, and explores whether there are any realistic scenarios in which Britain could ever rejoin the EU.

The conversation also takes in each of the six Prime Ministers who have navigated the aftermath of the vote, from David Cameron through to Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, to Keir Starmer. Monika unpacks what each Prime Minister demanded of the EU, what they won, what they lost, and what they left behind.

Please leave a rating, share a comment, and subscribe!

To connect with Tom, Lily or Sidd, please find them on Instagram: @sparetom, @lilymott3, and @siddkurapati.

For more information about the show, please find Be the Change. Media Network on Instagram: @bethechangemedianetwork.

Opinions shared by the guests and hosts of this show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Be the Change. Media Network.