Game Changers

How can you build a project to change lives and unearth incredible talent?

That was the question facing Adam Joolia when he moved to Brighton in 2005.

With a background in youth work, he knew the potential of music to inspire and build confidence. At Audio Active, he saw a huge opportunity.

It’s been an amazing success – he has driven the organisation to nurture young people of all backgrounds. And he has helped launch the careers of chart-toppers, Rizzle Kicks, and artists like ArrDee and Celeste. It’s also a story involving fellow #1 chart star Rag’n’Bone man – now a patron of Audio Active.

Throughout this journey, The National Lottery has helped support Adam’s projects, enabling him to thrive. 

Game Changers host, Aimee Fuller - two-time Olympian, author and broadcaster – meets Adam at Audio Active in Worthing. And she attends the launch of their latest innovative project: MXTR, a new scheme helping support those taking their first steps in a music career.

Also, in the final episode in this series we continue to celebrate The National Lottery’s 30th birthday. As part of the celebrations, they have commissioned spectacular installations. This time for this arts-based episode, we are in central London – at the iconic Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington.

Ferdi Alici, from the incredible Ouchhh studio, explains their incredible 3D projection, which transforms the wall of the V&A into a moving, morphing, breathing piece of art. The visuals and stunning soundtrack are all inspired by the Game Changers in Arts and Film. Each has had their brain waves scanned, and the data has been transformed into this unique artwork.

As the projection transforms the exterior of the V&A, we get the reaction of Game Changer Gurinder Chadha - director of Bend it Like Beckham and many other films. And fellow Game Changers Nandi Jola – from the previous episode - and Adam Joolia share their thoughts on this incredible artwork.

Be inspired. Follow to catch every episode.   

Game Changers is brought to you by National Lottery players, who raise £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. For more information about projects that help ordinary people, visit: https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk  

How can we create art which includes all our stories?

Nandi Jola is a poet, storyteller and playwright, whose work explores themes of identity. Born in South Africa, Nandi moved to Northern Ireland in 2001. Her great passion is empowering young people from marginalised backgrounds through the arts.   For the last few years, she’s lived in Belfast, and funding from The National Lottery via the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has enabled Nandi time and space to write her work.

Game Changers host, Aimee Fuller - two-time Olympian, author and broadcaster - returns home to Northern Ireland. She meets Nandi at the Ulster Museum, where our Game Changer is about to become an Artist in Residence.  

They discuss the ‘Nandi J Project’, founded with the vision of tackling women trafficking and sexual exploitation, and telling their stories. And at the Ulster Museum, Nandi and Aimee immerse themselves in the collections. Nandi has been invited by the museum to adapt the exhibits – particularly those which are African in origin.

Finally, at the Crescent Arts Centre, as birds circle overhead, Nandi reads from one of her artworks on display – a poem and a mural, called Landing (Belfast), an imaginative exploration of migration and home.  

On the podcast we are also joined by Fergie, from the incredible Ouchhh studio. They are pioneers of data paintings & sculptures, using AI and Machine Intelligence, and have been commissioned to create a genuinely unique installation, inspired by the Game Changers in arts and film.

In a busy courtyard at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Fergie explains how he visited each of the National Lottery Arts & Film Game Changers, attaching sensors to them to measure their brainwaves as they were asked a series of questions.    

The resulting data has been used to create an installation which will transform the wall of the V&A museum into a living, breathing piece of art.

Be inspired. Follow to catch every episode.  

Game Changers is brought to you by National Lottery players, who raise £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. For more information about projects that help ordinary people, visit: https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

How can you overcome stereotypes, and get everyone swimming?

Alice Dearing has enjoyed a highly decorated career, culminating at the Tokyo Olympics. She made history, becoming the first black woman to swim for Team GB at an Olympic Games in 2021.

Alice started swimming at a young age, encouraged by her mum. She fell in love with the sport and rapid progress followed: success at county level, then regional, then national. She was junior World Champion in 2016 and took on the gruelling open water 10km at the Olympics four years later.

Now, having retired from swimming, Alice is taking on an even bigger challenge. She was shocked when she discovered that, in 2020 in England, 95% of black adults and 80% of black children did not swim. Similarly, 93% of Asian adults and 78% of Asian children did not swim either.

And so, Alice co-founded the Black Swimming Association (BSA). The aim was to get more people into pools, dispelling stereotypes which have been holding back black and Asian people from learning to swim. 

With help from The National Lottery, the BSA is now helping communities across the country – getting many people into the water for the first time. It’s been a huge success; Alice has seen firsthand how people are overcoming their fear of water and are discovering the pleasures of swimming. 

Game Changers host, Aimee Fuller - two-time Olympian, author and broadcaster – meets Alice. They compare Olympic experiences as National Lottery funded elite athletes and discuss Alice’s Game Changing work. Aimee discovers Alice’s incredible drive – to change the narrative around how black and Asian people are viewed in aquatics.

We are also joined by broadcaster, Clare Balding, who reads a new poem celebrating the National Lottery’s Sports Game Changers.  

And poet Robert Montgomery describes how meeting Alice inspired his work, which was displayed with great drama in sporting locations across the UK.

Be inspired. Follow to catch every episode. 

Game Changers is brought to you by National Lottery players, who raise £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. For more information about projects that help ordinary people, visit: https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

How can you transform peoples lives through running?

Growing up in South Africa, parkrun founder - Paul Sinton Hewitt - used running as a way to unwind and challenge himself. But it was often a solitary experience. Later, as his career took him around the world, he realised what he wanted was a running community.

And so, he dreamed up parkrun: to bring people together, to run, to chat, in a welcoming atmosphere – all at no cost.

It’s been a sensation.  Each week at parks around the world, hundreds of thousands of people meet at the start line. And with a little help from The National Lottery, it’s now bigger than ever.

Game Changers host, Aimee Fuller - two-time Olympian, author and broadcaster – meets Paul to talk about his visionary idea, and discovers not just Paul’s modesty, but his ambition – to make parkrun an even bigger success.

We also have a special guest: broadcaster Clare Balding reads a new poem inspired by The National Lottery’s sporting Game Changers.  

The poem has been written for display in several sporting locations across the UK. Artist and poet Robert Montgomery describes the challenge of floating the poem on the surface of a swimming pool, and the inspiration he has taken from Paul and all the Game Changers in Sport.

Be inspired. Follow to catch every episode. 

Game Changers is brought to you by National Lottery players, who raise £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. For more information about projects that help ordinary people, visit: https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk

How can you reduce loneliness for older people?  

That was the question Trevor Lyttleton asked himself in 1965. His solution was to bring together young volunteers with elderly people who had fallen off the radar, and get them chatting over a cup of tea.

The monthly tea parties grew and grew. The charity started in London, with a small group of friends in Marylebone. By the time Trevor retired as chair in 2015 it was nationwide: 8000 volunteers were providing vital links to lonely pensioners at 600 tea parties every month.

And with a little help from The National Lottery, it’s now reaching a more diverse community than ever before.

Game Changers host, Aimee Fuller - two-time Olympian, author and broadcaster – meets Trevor to find out how Re-engage has changed people’s lives. On the way she discovers Trevor’s own remarkable career as a Grammy-nominated composer.

We also pay a visit to St James’s Park in London, where an inspiring new artwork is revealed.

Artist Luis Gomez de Teran has been commissioned to paint seven exceptional Community Game Changers - including Trevor. He describes how he was struck by Trevor’s incredible story, and how the Game Changers energized him to produce this uplifting artwork.

Broadcaster and DJ Adele Roberts also joins the Game Changers as their portraits are revealed, in a park which has a strong personal resonance in her own life.

Be inspired. Follow to catch every episode. 

Game Changers is brought to you by National Lottery players, who raise £30 million each week for good causes across the UK. For more information about projects that help ordinary people, visit: https://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk