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Eight Billion

Eight Billion

Written by: Liza Florida
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 Level up your personal, spiritual and professional development as we uncover the deeply intimate experiences of ordinary people living extraordinary lives. By 2022 there will be eight billion people on planet Earth, each with a unique story of struggle, pain, perseverance, and victory. The Eight Billion Podcast empowers you to connect with others on a level you never thought possible.2023 - Eight Billion Project Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Students Of Serbia: A Generation Steps Forward, A Voice For The Nation

    Students Of Serbia: A Generation Steps Forward, A Voice For The Nation
    Jan 14 2026
    🎧 Listen NowThis episode captures the most dangerous phase of Serbia's student movement---the moment when peaceful protest evolved into political power, and the regime's response turned brutal.Following Part 1's foundation of how grief became mobilization, Part 2 reveals what happened when students crossed the ultimate threshold: entering politics in a system designed to crush opposition. Through the voices of Katica, Nina and Natalija, we witness the Green Light campaign, mass arrests of over 300 students, and the vision of a future worth fighting for.This is the story of young people who refused to be silenced---and paid the price with their freedom, their safety, and their futures.🧵 Episode OverviewIn this continuation of Episode 3, Liza Florida returns to conversation with the same three students ---Katica Stevanovic, Nina Kustudic and Natalija Petrovic---as they navigate the movement's most perilous evolution.What began as mourning and blockades transformed into something the regime feared most: organized political opposition. The students describe their decision to form an electoral list---a move that immediately placed targets on their backs and escalated government repression to unprecedented levels.Through firsthand accounts of June 28th's violence, mass arrests, and ongoing intimidation, these women reveal the true cost of challenging entrenched power. Yet their testimonies also carry profound hope: a vision of Serbia where children can be children, where institutions serve citizens, and where young people stay because they can thrive, not just survive.This episode documents the point where student activism became existential---and where courage became the only path forward.🔑 Key Topics CoveredBreaking the Political Taboo Why students overcame their fear of the word "politics" and decided to build an electoral list.The Green Light Campaign How students gave citizens permission to act---and what followed when the people responded.June 28th: The Turning Point Police brutality escalates as the regime recognizes the true threat of organized student opposition.300+ Arrests in One Week The unprecedented crackdown following the electoral announcement and its impact on students and families.Building Democratic Infrastructure How the student electoral list was algorithmically designed to represent all universities fairly.The Algorithm of Representation A transparent system allocating parliamentary seats based on enrollment numbers across Serbia's higher education institutions.Solidarity as Survival Why "leaving nobody behind" became the movement's core principle during its darkest hour.A Vision Worth Fighting For What kind of Serbia these students are risking everything to create.🧠 Voices from the Frontlines"In Serbia, politics is a curse word. But we realized everything is politics---and we were fighting Goliath with nothing but our voices.""We had protests with hundreds of thousands of people, and it wasn't enough. People kept asking: 'What then?' We needed a concrete solution.""The moment we asked for elections---crickets. Silence. Because he realized we actually have a chance to win.""June 28th was when the police brutality really started. Before that, our relationship was mostly cordial.""We had more than 300 students arrested in a week. That's when we knew the stakes had changed completely.""I have a dream---to live in a country where I don't know the name of any minister, because I'm content with the work they're doing.""This world needs changing. We're headed to a very dark place. But no goal is unachievable if every fight is the fight we pick.""Authoritarian regimes rely on isolation. When stories cross borders, they disrupt the silence.""I want a Serbia where young people don't have to leave, where they can thrive and not just survive.""I want our children to stay children. High schoolers have been protesting way too much."💡 Political Strategy & Democratic InnovationThe Student Electoral List An independent political list composed of experts and policy holders unaffiliated with existing regime or opposition parties.Algorithmic Seat Allocation Transparent formula distributing parliamentary positions based on university enrollment numbers and geographic representation.The Green Light Campaign Strategic messaging empowering citizens to take whatever action they deemed necessary for change.Infrastructure Beyond Blockades Building electoral campaign systems designed to outlast the immediate protest phase.🤝 Connect with the Students of SerbiaThe Students of Serbia represent a rising global call for transparency, accountability, and dignity.Follow their movement and ongoing actions through student-led social channels:Katica Stevanvoic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katica-stevanovic-4614442b0/ Nina Kustodic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninakustudic/🤝 Connect with Me📷 Instagram: @lizaflorida | @eightbillionproject👤 Facebook: Eight Billion Podcast💼 LinkedIn: Liza ...
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    56 mins
  • The Moment We Chose Each Other: The Students of Serbia and the Power of Solidarity

    The Moment We Chose Each Other: The Students of Serbia and the Power of Solidarity
    Jan 7 2026
    🎧 Listen NowThis episode brings listeners from the historical context established in Episode 1 directly into the lived experience of Serbia’s student movement. Through the voices of Katica, Nina and Natalija, we move beyond chronology and into conscience—into the moment when collective grief transformed into collective action.What began as a tragedy in Novi Sad became a reckoning for an entire generation. This conversation captures the point where history stopped being something observed—and became something lived, organized, and defended.🧵 Episode OverviewFollowing the historical groundwork laid in Episode 1, Episode 2, Part 1 centers the voices of the students themselves.Liza Florida sits down with three student leaders who emerged at the forefront of Serbia’s mass civic awakening following the November 1st collapse of the railway station canopy in Novi Sad, a preventable disaster that claimed 16 lives. Rather than recounting events from a distance, this episode offers firsthand testimony—what it felt like to live inside a system where corruption is not abstract, but lethal.The students describe how mourning evolved into mobilization, and how universities became sanctuaries of resistance. Through democratic student assemblies known as Plenums, young people from vastly different disciplines—engineering, philosophy, medicine, and the arts—came together to practice the democracy they felt had been stripped from public life.From sleeping on faculty floors in freezing conditions to facing police repression and public intimidation, these women reveal a new form of leadership rooted not in hierarchy, but in solidarity, care, and moral clarity.This is not a story about politics as ideology—it is about survival, accountability, and the fundamental right to live.🔑 Key Topics CoveredThe Fall of the CanopyA firsthand account of the Novi Sad tragedy and the immediate shock that ignited a national awakening.Corruption as a Life-Threatening RealityHow systemic negligence and state-aligned reconstruction projects led to fatal consequences.11:52 AM — The Power of SilenceThe weekly collective pause honoring the victims, transforming grief into public remembrance.When Students Were AttackedWhy violence against students became a turning point that mobilized broader public outrage.The Plenum ModelAn inside look at horizontal, democratic student assemblies used to debate, organize, and decide collectively.Inter-Faculty UnityHow collaboration between technical sciences and the humanities strengthened the movement.The Right to LiveA shift away from partisan framing toward a universal demand for safety, dignity, and accountability.Resilience Under PressureThe personal cost of resistance—sleep deprivation, surveillance, intimidation, and propaganda.🧠 Voices from the Frontlines“We realized we could lose our lives if we don’t speak up now. This isn’t about ideology—it’s about the right to walk down the street safely.”“Attacking students—the future engineers, doctors, and lawyers—is what truly angered the people.”“Our professors told us they were learning democracy from us again—learning how to listen.”“The faculty became our home. We came with sleeping bags and food and said: ‘This space is now protected.’”“It was coincidence that 16 people were killed—and coincidence that more weren’t. Everyone knows someone it could have been.”“True strength comes from love, solidarity, and honoring life.”💡 Grassroots Organizing & Collective ActionPlenum (Student Assemblies)Horizontal decision-making spaces that restored participatory democracy within universities.Campus BlockadesSustained, nonviolent occupations that transformed academic institutions into centers of civic resistance.STAV (Student Activism Group)A Novi Sad–based collective continuing its work despite arrests, trials, and state pressure.🤝 Connect with the Students of SerbiaThe Students of Serbia represent a rising global call for transparency, accountability, and dignity.Follow their movement and ongoing actions through student-led social channels:Katica Stevanvoic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katica-stevanovic-4614442b0/Nina Kustodic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ninakustudic/🤝 Connect with Me📷 Instagram: @lizaflorida | @eightbillionproject👤 Facebook: Eight Billion Podcast💼 LinkedIn: Liza Florida🌐 Website: lizaflorida.com🙏 Special ThanksTo Katica, Nina and Natalija—for their courage, clarity, and commitment to truth.To the International Peace Bureau—for partnership and support throughout this series.To the victims of the Novi Sad tragedy and their families—your lives are honored, your memory held.And to our listeners: may this episode remind you that democracy is not inherited—it is practiced, protected, and renewed by those brave enough to stand.🔗 About the SeriesWomen as Agents of Change is a special podcast series hosted by Liza Florida, presented by Eight ...
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    1 hr
  • Women As Agents of Change: After the Fall of the Canopy - The Birth of a Nation of Students

    Women As Agents of Change: After the Fall of the Canopy - The Birth of a Nation of Students
    Jan 6 2026

    Women as Agents of Change | Students of Serbia — After the Fall of the Canopy (Episode 1)

    On November 1, 2024, a canopy collapsed at the Novi Sad railway station, claiming sixteen lives and shattering the sense of normalcy across Serbia. What followed was not only a period of national grief, but the beginning of a profound civic awakening.

    This episode lays the historical foundation for a two-part podcast series on the Students of Serbia—tracing the year that followed the Fall of the Canopy and the conditions that gave rise to one of the most significant student-led movements in modern European history.

    Through remembrance rituals, silent vigils, democratic plenums, long-distance marches, and mass mobilizations, Serbian students transformed grief into collective action. As institutions faltered and pressure intensified, women emerged at the frontlines—holding space, organizing, protecting, and sustaining the movement with courage, clarity, and care.

    Episode 1 focuses on:

    - The aftermath of the canopy collapse and its national impact

    - How student organizing evolved in the months that followed

    - The emergence of silence, solidarity, and remembrance as forms of resistance

    - The role of women in holding the moral and emotional center of the movement

    - The events leading up to the pivotal March 15 gathering in Belgrade

    This episode does not seek to sensationalize tragedy. It exists to document history, honor lives lost, and provide context for understanding how a generation chose unity over division—and love over fear.

    🎙️ This is the Eight Billion Podcast, in collaboration with the International Peace Bureau, as part of our ongoing series Women as Agents of Change.

    Episode 2 transitions into Podcast Part 1, featuring in-depth interviews with three women students who share where they were when the canopy collapsed and how the events outlined in Episode 1 unfolded for women on the frontlines of the movement. (Out January 7, 2026)

    📌 Subscribe, listen, and join us in witnessing a story that is still unfolding.

    This content is presented for educational and documentary purposes only. It reflects publicly reported events, historical accounts, and firsthand narratives intended to foster understanding, dialogue, and awareness. It does not constitute political advocacy or endorsement.

    #StudentsOfSerbia #WomenAsAgentsOfChange #EightBillionPodcast #InternationalPeaceBureau
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    9 mins
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