Author: Phil Latz

Season 3, Episode 1

Grant Ennis Explains the Dangers of Corporate Disinformation

Welcome to season three of The Squeaky Wheel Podcast!

We’re starting the year with an amazing guest who’s from San Francisco, USA, but lives in Paris, France and lectures for a university based in Melbourne, Australia!

Grant also speaks five languages and has previously worked for international aid agencies in a wide range of countries around the world including Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Honduras, Kenya and Syria.

Since 2020 Grant has been an adjunct Lecturer at Monash University. Grant’s teaching and research focuses on the political and commercial determinants of health, primarily exploring the political influence of the sugar, road, and fossil fuel lobbies. 

Grant has written the acclaimed book Dark PR: How Corporate Disinformation Undermines Our Health and the Environment. His work has been referenced in the Journal of Transport & Health, Traffic Safety Research, Alcohol Clinical & Experimental Research, The Australian, Michael West, the Australian Financial Review, the Irish Times, the Irish Examiner, the Irish Independent, among others. 

Grant’s scholarship has had international reach and has contributed to parliamentary discussions related to nutrition and transport in Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

Dark PR includes details of “Nine devious frames” used by corporations and in particular their highly paid public relations consultants to effectively fight back against members of the public who are advocating for positive change, for example to make our streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

In our conversation we deliberately don’t go into these in detail, because there has already been an excellent interview recorded with Grant, that does unpack each frame in order, one by one. It was done by The War on Cars, a podcast that we highly recommend and are Patreon supporters of. You can listen to that podcast episode here.

In our conversation, Grant fires off many references to earlier research and reports. Here are the relevant links:

F Nuance https://kieranhealy.org/files/papers/fuck-nuance.pdf

Twitter and Tear Gas https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_online_social_change_easy_to_organize_hard_to_win

If We Burn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_We_Burn

Renationalisation of British Rail https://www.lemonde.fr/en/transport/article/2024/12/04/uk-set-to-nationalize-train-operators-from-may_6735167_216.html

President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez https://latinolens.tonolatino.com/p/a-message-to-the-far-right-from-spain

IMF Report on US$7 Trillion in Fossil Fuel Subsidies  https://www.imf.org/en/topics/climate-change/energy-subsidies

Chartists https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartism

Hands off our charities alliance https://unitingcare.org.au/submission/hands-off-our-charities-alliance-australian-charities-and-not-for-profits-commission-amendment-2021-measures-no-2-regulations-2021/

Sharon Beder – https://youtu.be/gAQKXmUnc4Y Alliance for a Paving Moratorium  / Jan Lundberg https://www.culturechange.org/apm_page.htm

Reactionary Centrism https://www.volts.wtf/p/all-about-reactionary-centrism

What’s Up?

Unfortunately Squeaky Wheel Podcast co-host Irene McAleese is stepping away for a little while to deal with some personal commitments. The show will carry on with just Phil Latz for the moment, which means a much shorter What’s Up section. 

Phil mentions World Bicycle Relief has just passed an amazing milestone of building and delivering over one million bicycles into the field. Here’s a great video that shows what this means to the one million recipients.

Look out for our next episode, due out on the third Thursday of March.

Until then, keep squeaking!

Season 2, Episode 11

Peter Norton Warns – Don’t be Dazzled by the “Magic” of Automated Vehicles

This month we’re very excited to be speaking with Associate Professor Peter Norton who is a historian at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

Peter has authored two highly successful and thought-provoking books, “Fighting Traffic, The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City” and “Autonorama, The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving.”

Peter is a sought after keynote speaker who has given his unique perspective and insights on how we got to where we are today at many conferences around the world.

As he reveals in our conversation, even Waymo, the multi-billion automated vehicle operator owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has had Peter share his perspectives about automated vehicles with them.

During our conversation, we refer to this amazing video showing everyday life on Market Street, the main street in San Francisco in 1906. In addition to showing how very different street scapes and traffic looked at the dawn of the automobile era compared to today, it’s also poignant in that it was filmed just days before the vibrant city was largely destroyed by a devastating earthquake and subsequent fires.

Later in our conversation we talk about “autonomous vehicles” that as Peter thoughtfully points out, are anything but autonomous and instead should be called “automated vehicles”, we refer to this safety report from Waymo.

What’s Up?

In our “What’s Up” section at the end of the episode, Irene refers to the new Kangaroo Point Bridge that, less than a year after opening has already had over three million wheeling and walking trips, averaging about 10,000 people per day, with zero cars. Here’s a link to the Brisbane City Council’s announcement of this milestone.

And here are some progress photos of construction that Squeaky Wheel’s Phil, (ever the active travel infrastructure nerd!) took each time he visited Brisbane, culminating in his first ride across the newly opened bridge.

This is yet another great example of “Build it and they will come.” There certainly weren’t 10,000 people swimming across that stretch of the Brisbane River each day before it opened…

We’ll be taking a Christmas break and wish all of our listeners a merry Christmas and happy new year! Look out for our first podcast of 2026 on Thursday 19^th February and then on the third Thursday of each subsequent month. 

Until then, keep squeaking!

Season 2, Episode 10

Are we being killed by traffic engineers? Shocking revelations from Wes Marshall!

Our guest this month is Wes Marshall, Author of the thought provoking book, “Killed by a Traffic Engineer.” This book has certainly ruffled feathers amongst some elements of the traffic engineer “establishment.” So much so that some state DOT’s (Departments of Transport) in the USA have banned the book from their libraries.

But that hasn’t stopped staff from those DOT’s creating unsanctioned discussion groups to study the book’s many revelations.

Irene talked with Wes in Perth just after he’d given his keynote address to the 2025 Australian Road Safety Conference in late October.

Wes Marshall, PhD, is a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado Denver, where he holds a joint appointment in urban planning. 

He plays a pivotal role as director of the university of Colorado’s Human-Centered Transportation program and their Transportation Research Center. Wes is a licensed Professional Engineer and focuses on transportation teaching and research dedicated to creating safer and more sustainable transportation systems.

Wes, also has a podcast called Look Both Ways that he cohosts with David Zipper. During covid lockdown he wrote “Killed by a Traffic Engineer – Shattering the Delusion that Science Underpins the Transportation System” 

You can find out more about Wes and subscribe to his newsletter via his website.

You can buy his book here.

We’d like to give special thanks to the organisers of the Australasian Road Safety Conference, including Elissa Lulan, who arranged a quiet room for the interview and kindly allowed us to display our Squeaky Wheel Podcast banner at the conference.

What’s Up?

One interesting story that we edited out of our “What’s Up?” segment for the sake of brevity, but you might like to look at, is this very demeaning to cyclists and tone deaf poster that Irene saw on the Transperth train that was taking her back to the airport at the end of the conference. Irene’s post about this literally went viral.

Phil spoke about the new Sea Otter Australia cycling festival that he attended. This is the first annual edition of huge, long-running Sea Otter cycling festivals held each year in the USA and Europe.

He also spoke about receiving and reading “Life After Cars”. If you haven’t yet heard about this excellent book, then please take a look.

Irene attended a webinar sharing the results of the new 2025 National Walking and Cycling Participation Survey.

She was then heading to Barcelona to speak at the Tomorrow Mobility World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Then to Hobart for the 2025 National Parks and Leisure Conference in Hobart, Tasmania before finishing her “conference blitz” at the ITS Australia Summit on the Gold Coast, Queensland. ITS stands for Intelligent Transport Systems.

Season 2, Episode 9

How Prue Oswin Achieved Better Outcomes for Safe Children’s Travel

After graduating with degrees in Geography and Environmental Engineering, Prue Oswin spent eight years as a water engineer before switching to active transport in 2009.

Ever since then, Prue has been deeply involved in making her home region of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland a better place to walk and ride, especially for children.

Prue began her career working within local government, then for a traffic engineering company. Later Prue set up her own consultancy that she ran for almost a decade.

Recently she’s joined the Planning Institute of Australia as State Manager for Queensland and the Northern Territory. 

Prue wrote this very widely read article about her work, particularly highlighting evidence-based active transport planning and save independent travel for children, that we refer to extensively in our conversation.

Two great quotes from Prue:

“We don’t build our bridges where people are swimming across the river. Where people are too frightened to go, we’re not going to get traffic volumes data that tells us that.”

“Having a road network without safe crossings is like having a Meccano set without the nuts!”

Here is a link to the website of Carloine Criado Perez, author of the book Invisible Women, that Prue refers to in this episode.

Prue refers to the Ride Score Program that has helped substantially increase the number of children riding to school.

Prue uses CompassIOT data. “Cheaper, faster, evidence-based.”

Prue talks about the ScootSchool program that she created for training young people about safe walking, riding and scooting.

What’s Up?

In our What’s Up Section, Irene spoke about the iMove grant that they’d just been awarded to conduct this important project.

She also mentioned that Ride Score, a project that our guest Prue Oswin has interacted with in Queensland, that is run by We Ride Australia, has just won an iMove grant to expand into Perth, Western Australia.

Irene gave a call to action for anyone wanting to report problems with their local infrastructure to use the See.Sense app and finally, she mentioned the See.Sense newsletter that is called Signals.

Season 2, Episode 8

National Transport Conference Special Edition Featuring Keynotes Lucy Saunders & Giles Perkins

We recorded this month’s episode at the National Transport Conference, that is run each year by the Transport Professionals Association. Both the conference and association have just been rebranded and relaunched by the organisation formerly known as the AITPM.

Both Irene and Phil headed to Adelaide for this year’s conference that ran from 3rd – 5th September. Phil attended as a guest of the TPA to record this podcast episode. We’d like to thank Kirsty Kelly and Erika Childs from the TPA, not just for their invitation but their wonderful hospitality at the conference.

In this episode, you’ll hear from the first two of the three keynote speakers that opened the conference each day. We’re also very happy to report that the third keynote presenter, Skye Duncan who is Executive Director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative, is also happy to join us on the Squeaky Wheel, but because this is already an extra-long episode, we thought it would be best to speak with Skye at a later date.

Lucy Saunders

Our first guest, Lucy Saunders is a unique combination of public health specialist, urbanist and transport planner. 

She has created the Healthy Streets Approach, an evidence based- framework for decision making at every level. Lucy works with organisations across the world adapting her approach to each context.

Lucy, who is based in the UK, has advised a wide range of major clients including the World Health Organisation and UK Government Departments for Transport and Health. She is a skilled and engaging presenter and teacher who has inspired and trained hundreds of practitioners, advocates and politicians around the world.

To find out more about Healthy Streets where you can also download their free tools and other excellent resources, please visit their website.

Giles Perkins

Giles Perkins, leads WSP’s Future Mobility team in the UK and has over 34 years’ experience in the futures, transportation planning, digital and intelligent transport sectors. He has worked in the public and private sectors as a senior client and director level consultant and has led major projects across all modes. 

Giles is a recognised expert in the field of Future Mobility / Transport and Zero Emission Mobility He is a strategic thinker with an in-depth appreciation of the challenges facing all modes of transport resulting from disruptors, both within the transportation realm and wider socio-economic changes which influence it. 

Amongst many senior roles, Giles is a Board member of the National Centre for Accessible Transport in the UK.

What’s Up?

Next month Irene will be heading to Perth, WA for the 2025 Australasian Road Safety Conference.

During the same week Phil will be heading to Batemans Bay, NSW for the first annual Sea Otter Australia that will be including a conference and trade expo.

Season 2, Episode 7

Sam Johnson Reveals the Amazing Potential of the World Bank

The World Bank might not be the first organisation that active travel advocates think of as an important potential partner. But with billions of dollars at their disposal they’ve already been enabling some amazing projects around the world, in part through the work of the highly motivated expert who was our inspiring guest this month.

Sam Johnson is a Sustainable Transport Specialist with the World Bank and Visiting Researcher at the Technical University of Eindhoven, focusing on innovation and urban mobility transitions. He has worked in transport infrastructure advisory for the World Bank with many national governments over the last eight years.

Sam co-leads the World Bank’s Active Mobility Community of Practitioners and is a strong advocate for people-centric urban design and reducing car dependency to foster more vibrant, equitable, affordable, healthy, and green cities.

On UN Sustainable Transport Day (November 26, 2025), he plans to release an independent, ambitious publication arguing why and how to invest up to 10% of Government road budgets in Livable Streets in all 193 UN member states by the end of the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Transport (2026-2035). The work is tentatively titled ”Investing 10% of Road Budgets in Livable Streets for 2035.

Of course, understanding there’s no guarantee that your idea would be adopted, if you can think of a punchier title, a free limited edition Squeaky Wheel Podcast cap could be winging its way to you!

Simply write your idea in the contact us form here.

Sam packed a huge amount of exciting information into his chat with us, often about places and projects that most of us will have been until now completely unaware of.

If any of these topics interest you, below are a series of links through which you can find more information.

Relevant Links

Here is a link to the cyclingMAX tool that the World bank Group developed in conjunction with the ITDP (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy) and the GFDT (Global Facility to Decarbonise Transport)

On 3^rd June World Bank Group staff members created a “human bicycle” to celebrate World Bicycle Day. Here’s a link to a video and post by Nicolas Peltier, Global Director Transport, World Bank.

During our interview with Sam, he spoke about progress being made with cycling and active travel plans in some unexpected cities around the world.

Here are links that he kindly supplied to four cities and countries that he mentioned.

Abu Dhabi

Singapore

Addis Ababa

Santiago

We’ve also included a link to a detailed power point presentation that Sam gave to the Velo-city 2025 conference in Gdansk, Poland. It includes excellent photos, charts and maps about Tianjin’s vision to transform their city into a vibrant, liveable, active travel friendly destination.

Sam’s project is a work in progress and if people want to know more or offer a constructive critique they should do so via LinkedIn here where Sam outlines his current thinking here. The finalised output will be published on UN World Sustainable Transport Day – November 26, 2025.

What’s Up?

Irene mentions:

ITS Australia announced world-leading research by a multi-party government led team which explored how to better leverage existing data and technology to deliver safer, faster and more efficient road travel, shaping a future of seamless mobility. By incorporating See.Sense data in the project they found that cyclist movement and braking data revealed hidden safety risks and flow inefficiencies, providing actionable insights for intersection and infrastructure design.

Helsinki went a full year without a traffic death and they do not rest on their laurels and are now working with See.Sense to further improve e-scooter safety.

Irene also mentioned that Active Travel England have published a new report on ‘Estimating the benefits of Active Travel’.

Irene will be presenting and exhibiting at the upcoming AITPM National Transport Conference.

Phil mentions two major projects underway in Sydney, Australia.

Here are photos of the opening day of the new Oxford St protected cycle lane in Sydney, followed by photos of the new ramp currently under construction at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, including one showing the five flights of stairs that it will be replacing.

Season 2, Episode 6

Voices of Velo-city: Wins, Challenges and the Future of Active Mobility

Welcome to a completely different format for this month’s Squeaky Wheel Podcast!

We recorded at the Velo-city conference 2025 in Gdansk, Poland, held from 10^th-13^th June 2025.

Gdansk might not be as large or highly visited as some of the cities previously hosting Velo-city, but it’s a unique city with a powerful recent history. This northern Polish portside city was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement whose long struggle and hard-won victories over oppression and tyranny ultimately sparked the collapse of the Soviet Union and changed world history forever.

Here are four scenes from Velo-city 2025’s host city.

Phil recorded a “vox pops”. He asked the same four questions in the same order to seven different conference presenters, who came from a wide range of locations around the world.

Unfortunately, the sound quality of the recording of one of the guests was too poor to use, so you will only see six guests below. Apologies to Murat Suyabatmaz, Co-founder and Director of the Turkish Cyclists Association – hopefully we can chat at a future Velo-city!

Our guests in order of appearance are:

Aangi Shah

Senior Associate, Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, Mumbai, India

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Amanda Ngabirano

Chairperson, The National Physical Planning Board, Kampala, Uganda

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Chris Bruntlett

International Relations Manager – Dutch Cycling Embassy, Utrecht, Netherlands

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Karen Vancluysen

Secretary General, Polis (Cities and Regions for Transport Innovation), Brussels, Belgium

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Philippe Crist

Senior Advisor at the International Transport Forum (ITF) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Philippe emphasised that he was speaking in a personal capacity and not as a representative of these organisations. From Paris, France via Nashville Tennessee.

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Eleanor McMahon

Former politician and cabinet minister, CEO & Founder of Share the Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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The four questions asked for their personal perspectives on what the scene was like in their home city – the biggest recent wins, main challenges and their hopes for the future.

You’ll hear a lot of vision and passion in this unique global snapshot from an inspiring host city and conference.

In her comments, our guest Karen Vancluysen repeatedly talks about Elke Van den Brandt who is Brussels’ Minister of Mobility, Public Works and Road Safety. Because she sounded like such an influential person, I found this link to a great article about her published by Zag Daily.

Enjoy!

What’s Up?

In our “What’s Up?” section we mention the leading NYC Mayoral candidate Zorahn Mamdani and his radical policies of cycling and public transport. Here’s a link to his survey responses supplied to Streetsblog.org.

It’s Tour de France time. Here’s a very nicely made advertisement that will hopefully put a smile on your face.

Finally, in her “What’s Up” comments, Irene refers to a new video showcasing the impact of the Extended Light Insights Trial (LIT) — a collaboration between the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), Surf Coast Shire Council (SCS) and See.Sense.

By combining anonymised See.Sense sensor data collected on bikes with local community feedback, the project identified safety challenges along Fischer Street, Torquay – a high-risk corridor for people on bikes. The insights gathered helped shape targeted safety upgrades now making a real difference for riders connecting the north and south of the town.

This is a great example of how data and engagement can work hand in hand to create safer, more connected cycling routes.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7346486618716835841

Season 2, Episode 5

With Dr Hafez Alavi

In this episode we’re talking with leading safety expert, Dr Hafez Alavi.

Hafez has a passion for making our lives safer when we travel. 

Hafez was born and raised in Iran.

We start by asking him about key events during the first half of his life that helped to inspire his passion for road safety.

Having already completed a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering in Iran, followed by a masters in transport engineering and planning, Hafez then migrated to Australia and did a PhD in road safety and injury prevention at Monash University.

Based in Melbourne, Monash’s Accident Research Centre is the largest and most respected of its type in Australia.

After a distinguished career spanning state, federal and international government funded authorities, Hafez created his own consulting firm in 2020 which he continues to run today.

You might think that road safety research is a dry and dull topic for conversation, but as you’ll soon hear, Hafez has an irrepressible enthusiasm for life and his passion about this topic is contagious!

Relevant Links

Here are some links to a range of presentations Hafez has previously posted on LinkedIn:

10 Common Myths About Speed & Speeding.

Hafez collaborated with colleagues to produce this humorous 10 point article and an excellent four minute video explaining the dangers of speeding.

How a Local Council in the US Eradicated Road deaths? Hoboken, New Jersey

Seven strategy tips after Hafez, who is a prolific traveller, visited Hoboken.

How to Provide a Safe System for Valuable Road Users, i.e. Pedestrians, Cyclist and Micrombility Users:

A LinkedIn post and video produced by Hafez based upon the Kinetic Energy Management Model developed at Monash University Accident Research Centre.

How to Organise Our Roads and Streets with Safety of Everyone in Mind

A graphic explainer from Hafez about how street hierarchy should be organised and designed.

Community’s Reaction to 30km/h Zones in Melbourne, Australia

Spelling out the proven benefits of 30 kph zones for all local streets.

How to Provide a Safe System for E-Scooter Riders

A five point plan, written by Hafez, for achieving safer e-scooter riding.

How to Look at Different Infrastructure from a Safe System Perspective. This time a Dutch-style Roundabout

A two minute video produced by Hafez that explains the key design features needed to make a roundabout safer, not just for people driving, but also cycling and walking.

Hafez also briefly refers to CASA, this is the Centre for Automotive Safety Research, which is based in the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

What’s Up?

Both Irene and Phil refer to the 2025 Velo-city conference in Gdansk, Poland which will have finished just before this podcast goes live, at which See.sense will be presenting and Phil will be attending and recording Vox Pop’s for next month’s podcast.

Irene also gave a sneak preview of a new project they’ll be doing with Tier Dott in Helsinki Finland. You can see ongoing See.sense news announcements here.

Irene will also be speaking at the AITPM Conference in September in Adelaide.

Phil mentioned that in addition to Velo-city he’ll be attending Micromobility Europe in Brussels and Eurobike in Frankfurt.

Season 2, Episode 4

With Jill Warren

Just over five years ago, Jill Warren left a very senior global corporate career and took a serious pay cut to follow her passion and become the CEO of one of the world’s largest and most influential cycling advocacy organisations, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF)

She’s overseen some historic wins and helped to significantly grow the ECF, but now Jill has decided that it’s time to move on, having announced her intention to leave in July 2025.

In this interview we ask Jill to detail some of the ECF’s biggest wins, ongoing challenges and she encourages us all to “follow your why” when you’re looking to persuade others.

As you’ll soon discover if you listen to this interview, Jill is a highly articulate and insightful communicator. She’s also a true internationalist. An American who has lived many years in Europe and who could have given this interview just as well in Dutch, German or French. Luckily for us she was happy with English this time!

Relevant Links

Here is the ECF’s main website.

Here is a link to their most recent annual reports and other major reports.

If you fancy a European cycling holiday, this is their EuroVelo international cycling routes page.

Here is the European Declaration on Cycling made in 2024, that should unlock many policy and funding changes over future years.

In terms of funding for cycling infrastructure, Jill summarised:

€3.2 billon over seven years from the European Commission for direct funding of infrastructure to their 27 member countries.

€1.2 billion of co-funding with member countries.

€1.7 billion of one-off funding stemming from the Covid pandemic

Giving a sub total of €6.1 billion. This converts to US$7.2 billion, GB£5.12 billion and A$10.5 billion.

In addition to this is internal country, regional and city funding throughout Europe.

What’s Up?

Irene refers to this report, co-authored by Dr Merdith Glaser and Barbara Oliviera Soares about barriers to cycling in Amsterdam.

Irene also talks about a new UK travel survey showing very mixed and overall disappointing results for cycling activity trends there.

Phil refers to the City of Adelaide’s Integrated Transport Strategy, for which public comment closes on 25^th May 2025.

Phil also talks about autonomous vehicles and in particular a report on Waypoint, the official blog of autonomous vehicle company Waymo, that reports up to 92% lower crash rates.

Finally, here’s an illustration of Gartner’s Hype Cycle that Phil refers to.

Season 2, Episode 3

With Kirsty Kelly

Kirsty Kelly is quietly spoken, but in this interview she shares great insights with authority.

Since 2019 Kirsty has been CEO of the AITPM (Australian Institute of Traffic Planning in Management) which is Australia’s national association for transport professionals.

Under Kirsty’s leadership, the AITPM recently published a groundbreaking Policy Issues Paper: The Path to Net Zero: Decarbonising Australia’s Transport System. You can download the full paper here.

In this interview we discuss six highlights of the paper’s 22 recommendations. AITPM is a professional membership association, not a lobby group, but many of these recommendations are in alignment with the things that lobby groups are calling for.

Kirsty has taken a keen interest in sustainable urban development for many years. Prior to joining the AITPM she was CEO of the Planning Institute of Australia – the peak professional body for Australia’s urban and regional planning professionals.

Kirsty is a qualified urban planner who has practiced her profession both within local and state governments and in private practice. She’s also been a member of range of boards and advisory groups.

In the What’s Up? section that follows our interview with Kirsty, we mention two organisations: 

Yarra Bug Podcast is an excellent long-running podcast that is also broadcast on 3CR community radio in Melbourne.

Camcycle is an advocacy organisation based in the small university city of Cambridge UK. Its dynamic CEO Roxanne De Beaux recently completed a speaking tour of Australia that we attended and we hope to have Roxy as a future guest on the Squeaky Wheel Podcast.