Stay connected. Keep learning. Keep unlearning.
The Imposters Roster is our newsletter bringing together the latest conversations, insights, learning resources, and opportunities from The Imposters community.
Each edition explores the ideas shaping our work, highlights people challenging conventional definitions of knowledge and expertise, and shares new ways to recognize and learn from lived experience.
Whether you’re here to explore, reflect, or put new ideas into practice, there’s a place for you on the roster.
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Catch up on previous newsletters, discover what we’ve been working on, and follow our journey as we continue asking: Who gets to be an expert?
Volume 2 · October 2026
Season Two: Knowledge
Season One asked a personal question: Do you ever feel like an imposter? Over twelve conversations, our guests answered it, and in doing so pointed us to a bigger one. If imposter feelings are shaped by the systems we work in, then we need to look at what those systems recognize as knowledge in the first place.
That’s where Season Two begins. Here’s what’s new.
01 · Podcast
The theme of Season Two is Knowledge. This season we’re taking on one of the most fundamental questions in humanitarian and development work:
What counts as knowledge, and who gets to produce it?
Thank you to everyone who sent in nominations. We heard from people whose lived experience, research, practice and leadership push back on conventional ideas of expertise, and who offer new ways of understanding knowledge in our sector. We’re widening the circle this season to include voices from research, the arts, advocacy and refugee-led organizations.
Recording is underway, and we can’t wait to introduce the Season Two Imposters. Follow us on LinkedIn for guest announcements and the full story behind the theme.
Read the Season 2 announcement →
02 · Learning
Unlearning with The Imposters turns Season One’s conversations into learning resources for anyone working across humanitarian action, development, education, research and social change. It asks us to rethink what we know, who we learn from, and whose expertise counts.
There’s no set order. Start wherever you are.
Learn the language
A shared vocabulary for talking about lived experience, knowledge, expertise, power and recognition, grounded in the insights of our Season One guests. Two terms to start with:
Explore the conversations
Learn directly from Season One guests through curated clips, questions and prompts for reflection, organized into four playlists:
Put it into practice
A free, downloadable tool that shows what lived expertise looks like in practice, and what individuals and organizations can do to recognize and draw on it.
Download the Learning Aid (PDF) →Start the Unlearning Pathway →
03 · New Bonus Episodes
Between seasons, we released two bonus episodes. Both offer a bridge from Season One’s questions about expertise to Season Two’s focus on knowledge.
ft. Tharwat Abaza & Lila Raouf · Released Sept 16 · 1 hr 3 min
Season One guest Tharwat Abaza takes the host’s chair and asks founder Lila Raouf about her own relationship with lived experience. They talk about imposter syndrome in academic spaces, navigating a blended identity, the emotional toll of acting as a translator between cultures, the disconnect between localization rhetoric and practice, and what decolonial principles can look like in development work.
Listen now →ft. Maddie Lyons · Released Sept 21 · 20 min
Maddie Lyons shares her path through an unconventional, world-schooled education and her experiences in Latin America, and how they led her to study international studies and Arabic. A short, warm conversation about soft skills, cultural connection, and recognizing the knowledge we carry because of where we’ve been.
Listen now →Missed Season One? Catch up on Riverside, YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Over the coming months, you can expect:
Want help unlearning with your team? Get in touch about workshops, facilitated learning and advisory support.
Follow along on Instagram @the_imposters__ and LinkedIn for episode clips, guest announcements and new resources. And if this newsletter was forwarded to you, subscribe here.
Thank you for learning, and unlearning, alongside us.
— Lila Raouf
Founder & Director, The Imposters
theimposters.org · An archive of lived expertise in global development · contact@imposterroster.com