Inside the Big Issue: These 100 Changemakers will make a difference in 2024

At the beginning of every year, when days are dark (and times seem to be ever darkening) we like to shine a light on those making things better.

The Big Issue 100 Changemakers list is a tribute to the people and organisations who have focused, not on themselves, but on the rest of us. There is something in what they’re doing that will make the coming year better too. Selfless, frequently unheralded, though sometimes a little better known, they have identified something that needs to be done, something which lifts others, often through personal experience, and rather than wait and moan they get on and make change.

Our 2024 Changemakers range from an organisation tackling racism in football to a former Royal Navy officer, whose work highlighting the experiences of veterans affected by the military’s LGBTQ+ ban led to a historic public apology from prime minister Rishi Sunak last summer.

There are many in between, including social media influencers, local community fridges, and an octogenarian who over the last 50 years has collected unwanted household goods for people experiencing homelessness.

In this time of untethering, when certainties are ever more loosened, the acknowledgement of those doing good is even more vital than it was before. To all the creators, the agitators, the activists and the thinkers, to those doing their best to make things better, we celebrate and thank you all. For the full list of Changemakers, pick up a copy from your local vendor today!

 What else is in this week’s Big Issue?

Tom Hanks, the Bomber Boys, and me

A few years ago, at his home in Easton, Pennsylvania, professor Donald L Miller was joined for a long weekend of intensive research work on the TV adaption of his book Masters of the Air by the show’s executive producer Tom Hanks.

After a couple of days, he told his hard-driving Hollywood taskmaster – who had brought with him 440 pages of notes – that he needed to take a break. “I said, ‘Tom, I got to teach,’” Miller recalls. “I live close to my college, Lafayette College. He said, ‘I can teach.’ I said, ‘I bet you can, come on along.’”

What happened next? Tom Hanks took over the class.

How road rage signifies the bleakness of January

“Everyone has got the right hump at this time of year, haven’t they?” writes Sam Delaney.

“You’ve probably seen them, those angry, tired, miserable bastards. Beeping their horns in traffic and gesticulating violently out of their windows.”

We’re all a bit fed up at this time of year. Here’s what road rage can teach us.

All that jazz coming up in 2024 to make your year a busy and vibrant one

As the word ‘unprecedented’ approaches redundancy with regards to world events, one thing remains constant: the availability of moving, surprising, thought-provoking, life-enhancing music. Depending on where you rest your gaze, there is plenty to look forward to in 2024.

In this week’s Big Issue, we highlight some of the best of it.

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