Fearless conversations about mindful, purpose-driven and impactful leadership.
marchfirst.substack.com (https://marchfirst.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
Mohammed Semra was born in Sudan, to the Beja people of Eastern Sudan, and arrived in Footscray as a child. He is now the Mayor of the City of Maribyrnong, the youngest mayor in Australia at present and the first person of sub-Saharan African descent elected mayor in the country. He started out facilitating in youth work through the Centre for Multicultural Youth (https://www.cmy.net.au/).
In this conversation with Dimitri Antonopoulos (https://open.substack.com/users/2167627-dimitri-antonopoulos?utm_source=mentions), Semra talks about what it takes to lead a community you grew up in. Who gets to be in the room. Why lived experience only counts if it comes first. And what a basketball club can do for a kid who has nowhere else to belong. They are joined near the end by Nina, a Year 9 student from Braybrook College who is Mayor for the Day.
They get into:
* Growing up Sudanese at home and Australian at school, and never finding a place to be both
* Being told to change his name to get elected.
* Why basketball was the difference between him and the friends who went another way
* Consultation theatre, and what co-design looks like when it starts at the beginning
* Stewardship as a leadership practice: making decisions for the next 10 to 20 years
* Choosing between two good outcomes, and finding the one everyone can live with
* Council’s anti-racism project: 80% of respondents had experienced racism, and only 15% reported it
* Nina’s anti-racism student group, and why she wants us to stop putting people into categories
Get full access to March First at marchfirst.substack.com/subscribe (https://marchfirst.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
23 Jun 2026
Nobody's Coming to Save You: Sherry-Rose Bih
Sherry-Rose Bih was born in Cameroon, moved through Gabon and South Africa, and arrived in Melbourne at six years old. She’s a board member of the Centre for Multicultural Youth (https://www.cmy.net.au/), founder of WomanGirl, and a social inclusion coordinator working in mental health. She is also about to launch her own podcast.
In this conversation with Dimitri Antonopoulos (https://substack.com/profile/2167627-dimitri-antonopoulos) and Damian Karaula (https://substack.com/profile/212985731-damian-karaula) , Sherry-Rose talks about what community practice actually requires of us. What it costs. What it gives back. And why showing up, even when you’re unsure what to say, is the thing!
They get into:
* Growing up across three countries and what migration teaches you about belonging
* The difference between climbing the ladder and raising the village
* Why isolation is a form of torture — and what that tells us about what we actually need
* The indoctrination of individual competition, from ATAR scores to the boardroom
* What “ubuntu” means as a leadership practice, not a philosophy
* Her own story of almost cancelling this conversation — and what made her come anyway
* Her upcoming podcast series: Nobody’s Coming to Save You
Worth your time.
Get full access to March First at marchfirst.substack.com/subscribe (https://marchfirst.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
5 May 2026
The Rainforest: Bonny Morlak
In this conversation, Bonny traces a life lived at full stretch: from stage designer in Cold War Berlin to web pioneer on the Sunshine Coast; from a rainforest off-grid in the Queensland hinterland, to the 61st floor of a Manhattan skyscraper — and the burnout that finally brought him to his knees.
What emerges is a conversation about identity, stillness, the cost of people-pleasing, and what it actually means to grow up — as a man, a father, a leader.
We talk about:
* The childhood question that shapes who you become — whose love did you crave, and what did you have to do to get it?
* Fast dopamine, the slot machine hidden in your phone, and why sitting under a tree might be the most radical act available to us
* Three and a half years living without walls in a Queensland rainforest — and what nature quietly teaches you
* The startup culture of performing confidence while the kitchen burns
* Depression, burnout, and the fetal position that changed everything
* Why nothing f***s up a startup quicker than running out of happiness
* The one word swap that gives you your life back — replacing “I have to” with “I want to”
* What real vulnerability looks like in leadership
* Becoming best friends with your worst case scenario
* And at 60, being the closest he’s ever been to knowing who he actually is
Get full access to March First at marchfirst.substack.com/subscribe (https://marchfirst.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)
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