Purpose, governance, and change in conversation.
Seeds follows Stephen Moe through long, reflective conversations with people shaping social change, business, law, and community life. The show moves from personal history into practical questions about governance, funding, leadership, and better models for the future.
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Seeds is a long-running series about people trying to make useful change without flattening their stories into neat success arcs. Stephen Moe’s interviews are patient and often biographical, using childhood, study, career turns, culture, and personal motivation as routes into the work a guest does now. The result is social entrepreneurship with memory attached. Recent episodes show the range clearly. Tessa Vincent’s conversation moves through charity law, work connected to government and politics, and the editing of Kiwis and Climate. The Seeds Impact Conference episode shifts from interview mode into a practical map of ideas: emerging views on capitalism, community housing, impact investing, startup success, and audience-nominated speakers. Several episodes drawn from Changing Paradigms push at older charity assumptions. Chris Clark’s chapter questions whether donor-centered charity products can distract from the real end goal of transforming lives. Bea Gliding’s chapter argues for young people, rangatahi, as leaders and builders rather than passive recipients of support. The introduction to the book uses the Oliver Twist image to question how charities think about need, funding, and purpose. Governance is another recurring lane. In the session with Judene Edgar, legal obligations are treated as more than a box to tick, with attention to induction, mentoring, evaluation, board behavior, and confidence. The show also makes room for people working at the intersection of technology and service. Alana Irving’s episode connects cultural awareness, Japan, communication styles, and FundSorter. Lani Evans’ conversation moves through upbringing, nature, service, and the work behind FundSorter. Seeds is measured rather than flashy. It prefers context, named examples, and thoughtful backtracking to quick takeaways. Its center of gravity is Aotearoa, with frequent attention to charities, boards, te ao Māori perspectives, social enterprise, and practical models for positive change.
Made for: Seeds is for listeners interested in social enterprise, charity leadership, impact investing, climate work, governance, and purpose-led careers. It especially suits people who like ideas grounded in personal history and practical examples.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its slow bridge between life story and sector detail. It can move from Japan, childhood, or nature into charity law, community housing, board behavior, and funding tools without losing the human thread.
Conversations with people living with purpose and having a positive impact in our world. Host Steven Moe asks about their life journeys and what has shaped them into who they are today.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Seeds connects personal histories to the funding, governance and organizational choices behind public-purpose work.
Seeds follows Stephen Moe's curiosity from personal history into the decisions that shape enterprises, charities and public-interest work. His interviews with Alanna Irving and Lani Evans connect childhood, cultural experience and time in nature with their later involvement in…
Japan before Fundsorter: Stephen Moe lets your curiosity about a founder take the scenic route.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded career story about how legal and political work helped lead Tessa Vincent to editing Kiwis and Climate.
Tessa Vincent's path into Seeds gives this episode its useful shape: an honours dissertation on charity-law reform, time working for a judge, and a Labour Party research role all feed into a wider story about purpose-driven work.
A practical episode on turning charity governance duties into steadier, more confident board habits.
Charity governance is treated here as both a legal responsibility and a test of organisational durability. With Judene Edgar of the Institute of Directors, the episode moves past bare compliance and toward the board habits that help charities and societies operate with more…
A reflective look at cultural awareness, purposeful work, and Alana Irving's latest venture, FunSorter.
Alana Irving's story gives this Seeds episode a clear, reflective path into purposeful work. Her personal history, time in Japan, and attention to how people communicate shape a conversation that moves from childhood influences to the difference between asking and guessing…
Lani Evans links FundSorter's charity work with the childhood and outdoor experiences behind her sense of purpose.
Lani Evans gives Seeds a purposeful center through FundSorter, with the episode tracing how upbringing and early influences can shape the work someone chooses to pursue.
A thoughtful episode on medical care, autonomy, and the childhood ambition behind a global initiative.
Seeds follows Dr. Anu Ananda Raja from an early wish to practise medicine in Africa to Women Together Global, a global initiative with a New Zealand part, an Africa part, and a connection in New York.
A candid conversation about putting capital back in service of mission.
Impact investing becomes more than a statement of values when it meets the documents that actually govern capital. Seeds puts that pressure point at the center of a practical conversation about whether an organization can keep its money aligned with the problem it exists to…
A measured legal reading on how a trust's purpose, context and objectives can shape investment decisions.
This legal opinion asks trustees to weigh more than financial return when they think about capital investments. Seed's podcast presents Parryfield Lawyers' opinion on enabling impact investing as an audio reading, giving listeners another way into material that also remains…
Rob Walling on bootstrapped SaaS growth, plateaus, and exits — with founders who lived them.
Abbey Ashley's playbook for turning your job skills into a virtual assistant business.
SaaS operators on scaling, pricing and AI, metrics included.
Alex Blumberg interviews guests like Megan Phelps-Roper and Shane McAnally about failure and reinvention.
Host Steven Moe reads a legal opinion from Parryfield Lawyers on enabling impact investing for trusts.
Lawyer Steven Moe launches a legal opinion on impact investing in a live conversation with economist Shamubeel Eaqub.
On Seeds, Katherine Dewar, founder of GoodSense, talks with host Stephen about impact storytelling and her route into communications.
Stephen Moe starts with Tessa Vincent's book, then works back through the pieces that brought her there: study, charity law, judge work, politics, and climate editing.
Announcing the Seeds Impact Conference 2026 on 22 May, a free online event focusing on positive change, new economic models, impact investing, and startup success.
Chris Clarke shares his experience as CEO of World Vision New Zealand, questioning the traditional charity model and realizing the need to focus on ends over means.
Bea Gladding reads a chapter from 'Changing Paradigms' advocating for charities that empower young people as leaders and drivers of change.
The host introduces a free essay collection challenging traditional charity paradigms, using the Oliver Twist mindset as a metaphor for outdated practices.
Judene Edgar of the Institute of Directors and Stephen Moe of Parryfield Lawyers discuss the Charities Act's Section 42, which requires a governance review at least every three years.
Alanna Irving describes growing up in San Francisco and the Bay Area, where the Exploratorium, tacos, and multicultural neighborhoods shaped her early life.
["Lani Evans says FundSorter can match New Zealand charities to about 2,600 funding opportunities and cut an application from about 20 hours to about 30 minutes.", "She ties that work to a Brisbane childhood in Logan City, with a schoolteacher father, a social-worker mother, kangaroos in the backyard, and a koala outside her bedroom.", "Evans traces a path through a Queensland College of Art film degree, Southern Faces, and an all-female Rape Crisis traverse that used Lake Te Anau, the Milford Track, and Mitre Peak to talk about help-seeking behavior and sexual violence.", "The interview also covers a high school walkout of about 4,000 young people against French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific and the steward-ownership deal that moved Thank You Payroll's future dividends back into Generous Ventures."]
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A panel discussion on tools for transformation and system change for a zero waste future, featuring experts from academia, law, and sustainable business.
A discussion on the impact of the 2025 New Zealand budget on charities and tax policies.
A panel discussion from the New Zealand Green Business Council Housing Summit on partnering for better housing supply results.
A live discussion on charities and tax featuring Craig Fisher, Jenny Gill, and Steven Moe, starting with a Māori karakia.