As I’ve gotten older and my friends have started going out less, we’ve begun to swap boozy nights out for increasingly bizarre murder mystery parties. Usually, an industrious volunteer will choose a theme (space cowboys, the set of a 1970s porn film, a 1950s office party, that sort of thing…) and proceed to write a murder mystery plot line so nutty and so ridiculous that the group will spend the evening in fits of laughter. At the start of the night, we’ll usually gather in one room as the writer reads out a painstakingly detailed opening narrative as the rest of us wait in giddy anticipation for the clues that will form the night’s plotline.

I had that same feeling – of giddy anticipation – when I listened to the first episode of COLD TAPES: Winter Over from Free Turn. A murder mystery set against the backdrop of Antarctica’s six-month Winter Over, COLD TAPES centres around the suspicious death of a 33-year-old behavioural scientist Andrew Fairfield. The story is told through a series of ‘found’ tapes including phone calls, police interviews and personal recordings. We start with the moment DCI Tessa McCallister of the Met Police is invited to investigate a murder 9,000 miles away due to the ‘jurisdictional nightmare’ created by The Arctic Treaty. As the story unfolds, the listener becomes privy to the intertwined lives of a small group of international scientists and crew stationed on a remote research base, Bowers Wilson.

A nice idea for a fictional true crime podcast, sure. But what makes this show all the more interesting is the chance for audience participation. Inquisitive listeners are given the chance to win a £10,000 cash prize as well as earning the esteemed title of British Super Sleuth 2024 at Crime Con London 2024, described as ‘the ultimate True Crime event.’

To win the prize, participating detectives will need to explore up to 20 hours of audio content including the victim’s audio diaries, police interviews and other evidence. They’ll also need to demonstrate their ability to notice subtle clues, discrepancies and anomalies as well as showing their critical thinking skills. At a time when internet sleuthing is at an all time high (to a point where it’s even begun to hamper the investigation of real murders) COLD TAPES: Winter Over seems like the perfect outlet for a population hooked on true crime.

As I begin to make my way through the ‘found’ tapes, I find myself wanting to scribble down clues in a tiny policeman’s notebook. The victim’s finger appears to be fractured, there’s an untranslated tattoo written in Chinese script on the victim’s body, an inkling of a love triangle between crew mates… I’m in. To make the series, Free Turn worked with police officers, polar adventurers, and researchers to ensure the experience was as authentic as possible. And, even a casual listener would be able to tell they’ve taken the same meticulous approach to all elements of the show, including the immersive sound design. We hear phone calls cut in and out due to the poor Antarctic internet signal, latex gloves rustle their way through the autopsy and a body bag shuffle as the victim’s body is moved onto a gurney.

Also helping to bolster the show’s believability is an incredible performance from the actor behind DCI Tessa McCallister. Her persistent yet firm approach helps guide the listener through a number of difficult conversations with begrudging scientists, each with an acute case of cabin fever and many of whom are growing increasingly suspicious of the ominous sounding ‘Keony Industries’ funding the entire Antarctic mission. This story, which dances between unexplained mysterious psychotic events, interpersonal drama and strange global conspiracy theories clearly wants to be more than your average fiction podcast.

In fact, Gemma Batterby, COO and Founder of Free Turn, describes COLD TAPES as ‘a cerebral challenge and an intricate puzzle’ and that’s definitely what this is. So much so that the lengthier episodes, made to sound unedited, occasionally leave too much room for the listener to lose the thread. 20 hours of content will no doubt prove too much of an undertaking for some. But, then again, there’s nothing like the promise of £10,000 to keep people listening. A truly creative way to increase your listen-through rate.

Even more innovative than the £10k prize pot, though, is the podcast’s exclusivity model. A £5 ticket to enter the competition gives listeners the chance to binge the series ad-free, as well as giving them access to exclusive additional content. The only question that remains is how many listeners will actually be hooked enough to pay the £5 entry fee?

No matter what the outcome, Free Turn is clearly thinking of creative ways to incentivise listeners to pay for podcasting. Which, in such a turbulent time for industry, feels desperately needed.

COLD TAPES: Winter Over is out April 15th. The competition to solve the case closes on Friday 6th September, 2024. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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Beth Watson is a freelance writer and full-time podcast enthusiast, currently working as a Content Discovery Manager for BBC Sounds. Prior to the BBC, she was Marketing Lead at Message Heard where she worked on launching and growing impactful podcasts such as Conflicted, Power Lines and Who Robs a Banksy.

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Before the show, I managed to chat with producer Annie Brown about the process of making the live show and what they wanted to achieve. “Listeners had such strong feelings about the evidence it was hard to just leave it as it was.” She shared that the overwhelmingly positive reception to the podcast made it obvious they had to involve the audience and give them the chance to play the jury in real time. “It’s just fun to be able to interact and engage with the people that gave the show such life.”

The show was split into three acts:

• Act 1 – A podcast recap with host Elizabeth Day with enough context and details for audience members that might not have listened to the whole podcast. Bonus behind the scenes audio outtakes and pictures of Tristan and Annie’s process kept it freshtoo.
• Act 2 – Feyther on trial. A stern telling off from detectives Jackie Malton and Hamish Campbell to focus on the evidence; a live reenactment of a suspicious phone call from the police file; an animated floor plan of the sequence of events from the night of the murder; and audience voting using a virtual polling app.
• Act 3 – A live Q&A for audience members to ask their questions to Tristan, Annie and Kate Dancy directly.

So what worked? Firstly, Elizabeth Day was the best person to host this show. When I asked Annie why they chose Elizabeth, she said “She’s an amazing stand-in for an enthusiastic audience member. She’s such a deep listener, a deep thinker and pokes and prods at the story as our audience members have been.” That’s exactly what she did on stage, guiding the evening and reminding us of all details we’d overlooked.

The visual elements were helpful too. I have to admit that at times, listening to the podcast was confusing because of the multiple versions of events and the sheer number of important details. The animations of the house and the chain of events were the perfect illustration – even if it did feel a bit like VAR with the audience playing the referee.

I wasn’t a fan of the live voting. Although I understand the intention, I think phones and theatres aren’t compatible. The light, the risk of technical error (of which there was only one, thankfully), and people checking their notifications instantly sucks you out of the world that’s been carefully built around you.

Finally, the story. Ghost Story is so successful because there’s something for everyone: hauntings, murder mystery, true crime, family drama. But at the heart of it is a tragedy. Whether it was a murder-suicide or a double homicide, these deaths are personal to the Dancy family. Ghost Story is not unscathed from criticism of sensationalising a personal family trauma, most vocally by one member of the Dancy family, Tash Cutts. Her open letter condemning the show was handed out outside the theatre. This criticism fits into a wider conversation in the podcast industry about the ethics of seeking out, dramatising and profiting from vulnerable individuals and their stories.

True crime makes great content because you have the thrill of someone’s messy and exciting reality while watching from a distance. But at what cost?

Ghost Story Live was made for the fans who loved the story, loved the characters and those who wanted to dive into the details together. The newly shared pictures and testimonials, particularly of Naomi Dancy, were a wonderful addition to an already vivid podcast, and served as a reminder of the central themes of legacy and reckoning with reality. Even after seven episodes, a bonus episode and a live show, I was still debating who could have committed the crimes! So, as we drop the final curtain on season 1, the ghosts of Feyther, Naomi and Maurice certainly live on…and I’m confident the legacy of Ghost Story will remain with us for a long time.

Listen to Ghost Story on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other popular podcast apps >>

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Katie Stokes is a freelance writer, editor and podcast producer. Her work explores mental health, social relationships and identity. She is the host of Re:Mind the Podcast, unpacking how small behaviours have a big impact on our mental health. She is also an educator, creating audio and video resources for migrants looking to learn English.

The post REVIEW // Ghost Story – Live appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Described as a ‘sonic scrapbook and a passport to roam’ Lowlines follows Petra Barran as she travels solo through the Americas. What pulled me to listen to the series was the production process – the original audio was recorded on the fly by Petra, who’s described as a ‘novice presenter and producer… without an itinerary to record’. It was only in post-production that Social Broadcasts and Scenery Studios used the (sometimes very) raw tape to pull together a narrative.

Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Host Petra Barran and Executive producer Lina Prestwood

This style of production was sold as unusual, but it’s something a lot of novice presenters/producers – myself included – will recognise, particularly when it comes to travelling through your headphones. The resulting mix of musings, field recordings, original music and conversation is a style we find in a lot of travel podcasts. But if I draw comparisons to a more intentionally crafted production – such as QCODE’s Thru series, which has a similar ‘journey of discovery’ premise – Lowlines feels more like a reflection on a trip rather than a story of a trip. Whilst thru-hiker, Cody Hofmockel, went into his journey as a journalist wanting a narrative, Petra set out to find a narrative after her journey.

I recognise this need to seek understanding after the process, rather than letting the recording process add a shape to your trip itself. The result with Lowlines is that Petra’s recordings do invite escapism to the Americas, but not the type of escapism that allows the listener to forget the world. Instead, it asks us to imagine ourselves in the location as a whole: in the first episode ‘Second Line’ we don’t just get the tourist view of New Orleans with the Jazz parades, we get the reminder from a resident that this is a funeral procession. We get to really hear the heart of the city with a conversation in someones’ living room.

Despite the focus on soundscapes, the moments that stick in my mind are the parts with very little noise: it is Petra’s description of New Orleans from the air as ‘a mass of tiny little scabs’ – something that could be offensive but paints the image perfectly; it is the man working on a Louisiana levee who sounds slightly defeated as the almost unspoken threat of a Katrina-level disaster lingers in the conversation.

It’s the weight to these kinds of conversations that stops the listener from sinking into the soundscapes too deeply. Host Petra does acknowledge this heaviness to the content: at the end of the second episode, she ends an audio diary by going to watch The Kardashians in her hotel room. It’s a needed moment, because I found certain layers of sound and conversation quite intense.

Overall, the description of a sonic scrapbook feels like an apt one – listening to the series as a whole could be a bombardment of too much to take in, and there’s pieces that I found more interesting that others. But we get a collage of moments that are important to Petra. Listeners might not find resonance in everything they are offered, but everyone would be able to take something away.

The first episode of Lowlines, ‘Second Line (New Orleans)’, is available now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other popular podcast apps >> 

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In the spirit of bringing together different perspectives, we thought it would be good to try and get two reviews: One from a writer that can relate to Clive, and one from a writer that can relate to Laura.

Read on to find out what Laviea Thomas and Mimi Jones thought of the Heirs of Enslavement podcast…

“A sentimental and riveting listen with honest story-telling.”

Heirs of Enslavement tells the story of the bloodline of the oppressed via Labour MP Clive Lewis, and the bloodline of the oppressors, via British-American journalist Laura Trevelyan.

It’s a burningly honest and surreal conversation that gives an insight into the story of Grenadian slaves from all angles, with facts and statistics provided by Grenadian historian and author, Nicole Phillip Dowe.

For Black people tuning in, especially those of West Indian descent, Clive’s perspective is an open book that allows you to feel like your voices have been heard. When discussing the importance of this conversation, Nicole emphasises that: “It’s history that has to be talked about, history that has to be spoken about, history that has to be discussed.” This is a really remarkable and important statement to hold onto, as it acknowledges the fact these stories are retold not to imprison ourselves in the trauma of our ancestral history, but to stay knowing.

Clive’s return to his home town to reconnect with his roots and his father, Tony Lewis, “a famed trade unionist,” is a powerful moment. You can feel the overwhelming sensation of emotions from the audio. Having spent a long period away from his ancestral home, Clive’s return is a cathartic moment that a lot of Black people and people of colour can relate to.

It’s important to see a British member of parliament be involved in something like this. Especially following King Charles’ recent half-empty ‘apology,’ to Kenya after they asked for an ‘unequivocal apology‘ from the British monarchy in relation to years of colonialism and enslavement. As a representative member of British politics, Clive’s involvement in this podcast is something that could, arguably, cost him his job. Nevertheless, this level of honesty across British media is not only refreshing to see, but is an essential for those who can relate to Clive.

In just the first episode this podcast offers Black listeners a space to feel emotions they might have pushed aside. It’s often for us to subside our emotions, in fear of the reactions of our white peers. More often than not, we aren’t allowed to feel emotions of deep sadness, or anger about our historical timeline. Heirs of Enslavement allows you to tap into those without second-guessing how it may affect others.

A brilliant and insightful first episode, to say the least.

Laviea Thomas is an experienced freelance music and culture journalist and creative copywriter based in north London. With a knack for writing, Laviea’s journalism can be seen across print and digital publications with current bylines spread across Metal Hammer, NME, Skiddle, WhyNow, Rock Sound, The Forty-Five, The Quietus and Overblown.

“Heirs of Enslavement is not an easy listen, but I am certain it will help”

Slavery remains an awkward subject for many British people. Even without knowing our full family histories, if we are white it’s likely at least one ancestor participated in trades connected to slavery.

That truth is uncomfortable. I get it.

Yet the open dialogue in Heirs of Enslavement demonstrates why we must reckon with slavery’s enduring impact.

Like many Northern Irish Christians, my great-grandparents devoted themselves to spreading the gospel. Most of their missionary work occurred in Africa’s British occupied colonies.

Only after both great-grandparents died did I grasp the missionaries’ reality. Sorting through their belongings, my grandfather casually mentioned the “help” in his childhood home- the cleaning woman, the cooks and so on. When pressed on whether the workers were paid, he muttered about his mother helping with their schooling – and that was all we ever discussed on the matter.

My grandfather seemed oblivious to our shock over this revelation. Perhaps it’s not surprising given the way we’ve whitewashed our history. It’s unfortunate but a single Heirs of Enslavement episode taught me more about slavery’s legacy than any textbook or family conversation ever has.

This invitation to address the trauma that the slave trade has left, and the shame many British people have, let’s us hear Laura and Clive discuss incredibly important aspects of our past, and answer questions we may not have known we had.

Within only the first episode, this show gives us such a diverse range of experiences within Grenada’s history. With Clive Lewis MP whose family were enslaved on the island; Laura Trevelyan whose family owned around six plantations; Clive’s dad, Tony Lewis, and teacher/historian Niccole Phillip-Dowe who helped Laura with her family’s public apology, they bring personal stories of the real impact slavery had.

Amongst discussing the Trevelyan’s reparations, they suggest the possibility of the British Government finally apologising and paying our own reparations. It was particularly interesting to hear the joy from Niccole and Tony if such a thing could happen. What seems like an obvious gesture to many would mean funding for hospitals, schools, books, and finally making a change for the better after our centuries of horrific treatment to people across the globe.

Our families and country are more complicit in slavery’s history than we like to believe. Confronting that truth may be the only way to mend its persisting wounds. Heirs of Enslavement is not an easy listen, but I am certain it will help us start addressing the atrocities our ancestors committed.

Mimi Jones is a poet and playwright, exploring autism, queerness and disability through their work. They run QueerOutLoud, the South Wests Queer Creatives Network, and have spent 2023 as Young City Laureate, helping nurture the diverse voices in Plymouth’s poetry scene. Follow them on socials @MimiJMedia and @QueerOutLoud.

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The second episode of Heirs of Enslavement, ‘Our Shared Legacy’ was released on 17th November. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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Podcasts based on scandals are so ubiquitous that it takes a juicy story to stand out nowadays. Thankfully, Wondery has really upped the ante with Hooked on Freddie, the true story of a dolphin sex scandal set in a sleepy English town in the late 1980s.

The podcast tells the story of animal rights activist Alan Cooper, who developed a close friendship with a wild bottlenose dolphin (nicknamed Freddie by locals) when the mammal appeared in Amble Harbour in Northumberland. The quiet town was concrete and grey before Freddie turned up but soon became a vibrant tourist trap, with B&Bs selling out for the first time in years and everyone from New Age digeridoo players to the Blue Peter team turning up to get a look at Freddie.

As well as the friendship with Freddie, we hear about Cooper’s rivalry with Peter Bloom, dolphinarium manager and head trainer at Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire. Both men claim to be animal lovers, but Cooper rails against the idea of exotic animals in captivity and hates everything Bloom stands for. The feud will threaten one of the men’s livelihoods and destroy the other’s life.

The six-part podcast series is hosted by Becky Milligan, who first covered Freddie’s appearance in the North Sea as a student journalist. Milligan, who once reluctantly swam with Freddie herself, draws on original interviews from the late 1980s and early 1990s and new reporting — including interviews with Cooper and the Bloom — to tell the tale.

I had family local to Northumberland who lived through the scandal, so I’d heard about the “man who loved a dolphin a little too much”, as my older cousin tried to describe the story. However, I knew little beyond the tabloid headlines and nothing of what happened next. Hooked on Freddie is a podcast that benefits from knowing as little as possible, so I suggest you don’t Google the case before diving in.

But it is worth saying that Cooper became the subject of nasty rumours about potentially inappropriate behaviour with Freddie in 1990. Cooper laughed these off, but by 1991, the animal rights activist faced criminal charges of sexually assaulting a dolphin — setting off a tabloid storm.

The first unfounded accusation changed the course of Cooper’s life, and the series details the aftermath of his arrest for, as a police officer couldn’t bring himself to say without laughing, “wanking off a dolphin.”

The accusation seems barely credible to Cooper’s friends, but the case goes to the crown court, where the animal lover faces a deeply humiliating trial. The charges could hardly be more disgusting for a vegan animal rights activist. And however unbelievable the accusations are, they cause other activists to distance themselves for fear of guilt by association.

Wondery is known for its incredible range of true crime podcasts, including Dirty John, Dr. Death, and The Shrink Next Door, and Hooked on Freddie features the same levels of suspense, intrigue and twists we’ve come to expect from the network. With vivid soundscapes scoring the story and Milligan’s excellent reporting, the episodes (clocking in at under 40 minutes) whiz by. I greedily gobbled up the first three episodes and now face the prospect of waiting weeks for the story’s conclusion.

It’s a ridiculous story that you wouldn’t imagine having lifetime consequences, but the ripple effect on Cooper’s life after the accusations add a layer of tragedy. The episodes may have a heavy subject matter but feature real moments of genuine levity to break the tension. Milligan gets some great quotes from her interviewees, and her delivery is full of wit. Hooked on Freddie is a great and sometimes tragic story of love and rivalry, truth and rumour and the relationship between humans and the natural world. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

Listen to Hooked On Freddie on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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Catherine Renton is a freelance journalist specialising in lifestyle and culture. Her work has been featured in the likes of The Guardian, the i, Metro, Vogue, Refinery29, PodPod and Empire Magazine. She regularly appears on live radio and as a guest on BBC Radio podcasts, including Woman’s Hour and the Digital Human. When she’s not writing, she will likely be walking her dog while listening to one of the hundreds of podcast episodes she refuses to delete from her phone. Find out more about Catherine >>

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In Hauser & Wirth London, Axel Kacoutié and Lou Mensah sit in front of a Amy Sherald painting titled “For love, and for country” (2022). The piece is part of an exhibition called The World We Make and it’s Amy’s first solo show in Europe. The piece is also the subject of ‘Interludes: Dream Recurred’, the fourth episode in the new season of the Shade Podcast, which this live podcast experience is launching.

Interludes is a collaboration between multi award-winning sound artist Axel Kacoutié and Shade, where six contemporary artists answer the question: What does healing sound like?

Lou Mensh and Axel Kacoutie. Photo credit: Kid Circus

In previous seasons of the Shade Podcast, host Lou would hold interviews between artists and herself regarding how art has moved through their life. It would result in conversations about what art means personally, but also beyond one person. A particularly harrowing season of Shade was after the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020 – season four reflected on how the media responded to the uprising.

Speaking to Lou before the show, she told me that though those conversations were timely, she felt that after this response the audience needed a place where they could find some sort of solace. “I just thought next season I want it to be a gift to the audience and for people who are listening, something that can hold them, comfort them and acknowledge the need for everyone just to take a step back – to take some respite and some selfcare. I just wanted to create a small space through this series with Axel that would help people do that.”

This is evident through Axel’s sonic response. At the launch, they play us a snippet of the episode ‘Dream Recurred’ – Amy discusses the piece “For love, and for country”. Her images depict Black Americans in ordinary everyday situations and also reimagines them in historical moments: This piece in particular was a recreation of the photograph VJ Day in Times Square (1945). She fondly mentions friends she cares deeply about and wanting them to be represented, and it is followed by Axel using audio of Amy simply repeating the words “love is love” – the words linger in the air and the audience take them in. After sitting in comfortable silence for some seconds, Axel explains why the use of repetition not only emphasises the statement but reminds us how grounding the listening experience can be.

Credit : Amy Sherald ‘For love, and for country.’ 2022

“I feel like there’s a lot that the body and ear can do and need and I wanted to speak to that intuitive response,” they continue, “to follow how sound and music works to encourage and evoke a stillness,” a stillness that is often difficult to find in podcasting.

Lou talked briefly about how as the Producer she broke the housekeeping rules of podcasting – there is no traditional intro and outro, no break for ads and sponsors. Lou wanted all of that removed, “I wanted it to be an audio but also a physical and an emotional space to rest. For people to just relax. In audio there’s a lot of talk, a lot of chat, there’s a lot of fast energy. There’s a lot of slick audio making but I feel like it misses that capacity to hold people emotionally. I just felt like it was something I would try and do.” I felt like this approach of break in structure from Lou and these moments of quietness and minimalism for Axel worked well together – healing itself is such a nuanced and deeply personal topic; it is never linear therefore giving the listener a moment of reflection and breaking tradition feels just.

For those who have been listening to Shade for a while, you may remember the first glimpse of collaboration between Axel and Lou was the final episode of the 2021 four-part series of conversations exploring anti-racism in the arts, co-curated by Shade and Convergence. They’ve wanted to work together since, both confirming that it had been a year long process to get Interludes made. However, to add a timeline to projects like these is reductive. In some of the Interludes episodes, the sounds Axel used draw inspiration from projects that were made ten years ago, “It’s all part of the healing process that being able to give life to things that you thought would never see the light of day,” Lou adds, “I’ve been working in the arts for nearly 30 years so there is no way that all the things I’ve experienced and been a part of, have not been a part of this series because they have, so it’s a lifelong process of memories and inspirations.”

This project was as much for the creators as it is for the listener.

Listen to Interludes on The Shade Podcast now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

The post REVIEW // Shade Podcast LIVE – Interludes appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Rae shared anecdotes of what they don’t teach you at university. We followed her battle with both e-coli and imposter syndrome – I am not sure which was more crippling. And what do you do when you are the only female in an expedition in the jungle and you run out of period products? Listening to this regressed me straight back to my first field study in the wetlands of Guyana during rainy season, when I really wished someone had told me to cover my butt with mosquito spray too, as that particular snack would be very much on display when I visited the outdoor toilets.

Oddly, Rae highlights that it was when her work took her to Kenya, which was her first time in a predominantly black country, that she was the only female, black scientist in her team. Race was continually in the forefront of the discussion, and she constantly has to prove herself and explain herself before she could get on with just doing her job.

Rae very effectively compares the micro-aggressions she received to mosquito bites. One mosquito bite a day is tolerable, but one a day in the same place every day, over and over again, will drive you bananas. Outsiders, who haven’t had the daily dose of mosquito bites, and might not even have noticed that you have been bitten, will only see someone (female, of colour) kicking off for seemingly little or no reason.

The most offensive example she gives is the time she was walking up to a stage to receive an award and someone handed her a plate, thinking she was catering staff.

After bringing these inequalities to light in season one, the second season of Going Wild kicked off on 27th September with a question many women are forced to deliberate: “How will having children affect my career?”

Sure, Rae has a more extreme career path than many. Most of us do not spend three months at a time tracking bears in the wild… But getting married and having children still disproportionately changes the path of life for women. Rae wanted more than a desk job, she didn’t want to settle, and what her husband would have to sacrifice or compromise on never seems to have come into the equation.

Episode two features Christine Wilkinson, a hyena expert (I didn’t know that was a job, and now I want it) who echoes Rae’s experiences in the field. It was only when she arrived in Kenya that she was, for the first time, like Rae, the only female black scientist on the team. Being half black, she felt like the outsider regardless of who she was with. This feeling of lack of belonging will strike a chord in many.

Although the show addresses some big cultural topics, there is fun stuff in this podcast too. Listen to find out what a meat tree is, for example, and learn the endearing story of Smiley the hyena…

But the ultimate lesson is clear: let’s get more people of colour involved in science, so the next generation see more people like them in roles – such as ‘hyena expert’ – that they might want to achieve for themselves.

Listen to Going Wild on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

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At the London Podcast Festival, the cast of Drunk Women Solving Crime (Hannah George, Catie Wilkins and Taylor Glenn) and RedHanded (Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala) head to the stage with bottles of Waitrose-branded Cava. This is the second time the shows have collaborated so there is already a deep familiarity with each other and their sense of humour. The ladies pour Cava into their glasses, ready to tackle some mysteries.

Since 2018, the three hosts of Drunk Women Solving Crime have gathered to solve true crimes that are a bit more lighthearted than the usual calibre of misdemeanours. Plus, every guest must present a personal crime that the team must solve together.

Tonight, they begin by inviting Suruthi Bala to share a story from her university days: the strange disappearance of her notebook with crucial notes from lectures, as well as a distinct pair of shoes she found at a stranger’s house… Suruthi’s story goes on for some time, with each extra detail making the case more intriguing. In the end, the team reckon it was the rival flat of girls below Suruthi as revenge for her disrupting their partying activities. It’s good fun and gets the audience warmed up to the true crime we are about to dissect.

The case is that of Helen Hullick, who was arrested for repeatedly wearing trousers when testifying in court. Host Taylor Glenn is fairly arbitrary in the rules of the game. She begins a sentence about the story but then leaves a pause for Team Drunk Women or Team Redhanded to guess what happened next. Most of the scores are dished out for who made the funniest quips rather than legitimate guessing (though the two sometimes came hand-in-hand).

This section of the show has a good balance of an intriguing story, whilst also having the air of a bunch of friends having fun and making each other laugh, which is infectious. The audience feel welcome to contribute their guesses, which is welcomed by the teams on stage, and we are even granted a point! When it comes to wrapping up this segment, Team Drunk Women and Team Redhanded call it a draw, because it doesn’t really matter who won, but instead it was about sharing this fascinating story.

Now it’s time for an audience member to share a story. The chosen storyteller is the sister of someone who previously submitted a ‘true crime’ for the team to solve (which if you hadn’t listened to the show you might not understand). This segment ends rather succinctly, as Taylor’s now keen to keep to time, but it leaves room for some extra jokes and funny misunderstandings.

The audience members who were familiar with the shows had had the Drunk Women/Redhanded fix they wanted, and laughed alongside the cast. There were a number of people who had not listened to either podcast featured, but this felt like a show where it was not necessary to have done the research. The structure was clear, the story of Helen Hullick was engaging, and the comedy left the audience feeling satisfied, with their spirits lifted.

Before we leave, Taylor shares all the achievements Helen Hullick went on to do as a way to celebrate a fantastic woman who always advocated for fairness and equality. I think about how the show was a fun way to dissect the way the patriarchy can be needlessly inconvenient, and the fantastic ways women hit back with their stubbornness.

Listen to Drunk Women Solve Crime on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

Listen to RedHanded on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

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In the case of the live show I saw at the London Podcast Festival, the panel consisted of Sarah Bennetto and Njambi McGrath (Empire Strikes Back) vs Abigoliah Schamaun and Sharlin Jahan (The Right Side). The third team playing was the Hive Mind of the Audience.

I wasn’t expecting a show that has a theme tune with the words “we’re short, we’re round, we’re brown or we’re queer…” to keep very much off the table when it comes to comedy fodder, and host Deborah Francis-White came hot out of the gate to acknowledge the “change of staff at Buckingham Palace.” Luckily, the audience were receptive to the quip, because there were several of the same theme that followed, culminating in the recognition of the show taking place in King’s Place.

Seeing the recording of this panel show was a peak behind the curtain and, as someone who has attempted to control a panel conversation, it was reassuringly chaotic. It’s also great to see the amount of teamwork that goes into the episode you can hear – Deborah is the host, but questions are set by Ned Sedgwick. The panel brought their stories and jokes (some more loudly than others) and the little musical ditty was played live by Mark Hodge. Even the Producer (a job that often needs coaxing out into public) Tom Salinsky was present to rile up the audience at the start and wind down the comedians towards the end of time.

There were points that highlight we are all somewhat out of practice with live shows: several segues had to be read more than once, a few jokes didn’t quite land a laugh (although listening back to the episode, they seem funnier because of that). And as an audience we needed a lot of encouragement to get involved. The Global Pillage team were perhaps sorry they encouraged us because the first answer that was given appears to have been too rude for the podcast version!

But it was fun to feel the energy in the room, and be involved in the show.

Oh, and I completely forgot that I gave an answer for the Hive Mind at around 16mins. I do like a good pun…

Listen to Global Pillage Live at the London Podcast Festival 2022 now on Apple Podcast, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

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For those of you who missed Root of Evil, this 2019 hit saw hosts and sisters Rasha Pecoraro and Yvette Gentile unravel their own family secrets. They set about exploring their grandfather Dr George Hodel’s involvement in the 1947 Elizabeth Short case, The Black Dahlia Murder. And now Pecoraro and Gentile are back with Facing Evil, delving into a different case each week with a touching affinity to families also hit by tragedy.

This podcast starts as an ode to Hawaii, where the hosts are from. And this is where the first case takes place. Lisa Au left her boyfriend’s sister’s house in Honolulu one night in 1982, and no spoilers, but it did not end well for her.

Pecoraro and Gentile go through the various suspects (it’s always the boyfriend, right?) and discuss the chilling possibility that it was someone posing as a police officer who pulled her over to the side of the road that night.

Episode 2 covers the 1998 murder of 21-year-old gay student Matthew Shepard. He was approached by two men at a bar and inexplicably left with them. He was found the next day tied to a fence, and died six days later as a result of his injuries.

Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were caught and charged, and this case brought hate crimes to the forefront of the public’s mind. The suspects even used homophobic slurs during their testimonies to the police.

Pecoraro is gay. Gentile is clearly an ally. Pecoraro came out at 30 (she is now 43), and says she would have come out sooner if not for this murder, which took place while she was in high school. The direct impact of this murder on these sisters is tangible.

The first two cases addressed by Facing Evil led to changes in US legislation. In the Lisa Au case, police officers are no longer allowed to use blue lights on top of civilian-appearing cars, because it is too easy to impersonate. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was introduced and signed into law by President Barack Obama. It aims to protect people from hate crimes at any time, and not just while partaking in protected activities like voting or going to school. Byrd was also murdered in 1998 and dragged for three miles behind a pickup truck because he was black.

This podcast series carries a higher message of promoting a better understanding on gender, race and homosexuality. This may be a bit intense at times – there is none of the light relief you get from a true crime comedy podcast such as Wine & Crime or Murder Most Irish – but remember, they are coming from a country that has just overturned abortion rights, and they’re coming for the gays next. And while there are still people out there scared to come out, or preferring to be dead, keeping these topics in the public eye is super important. Pecoraro and Gentile embody this message with sympathetic treatment of victims and stories and without being too preachy.

Listen to Facing Evil on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

Diana Safieh hosts We Knew The Moon podcast, on all things empath, spiritual, witchy, unexplained, creepy and spooky. She is a co-founder of The Goddess Temple, Twickenham, which holds guided meditations and workshops, like Tea & Tarot. And Make Your Own Smudge Sticks. She hosts a monthly webinar series on the situation in Palestine/Israel for The Balfour Project charity.

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Ian is a wonderful host. If you have listened to some of his own interviews (especially his appearance on Desert Island Discs) it is evident that he himself is a great storyteller, and this comes across in his interview style. He is not rigid and when he wants to find out more, it is done in an inquisitive nature. He sounds like a friend who really cares when you are catching up – not like a reporter wanting the next headline.

This approach creates the perfect environment for trust, which always results in an honest interview. In episode one, simply titled ‘Chris’, Ian sits down with Chris Brannigan, who talks about walking the length of Britain barefoot, to raise money for treatment of his daughter’s CDLS diagnosis, a rare genetic disease. When Chris mentions walking to Downing Street in so much pain, Ian goes back and encourages him to go into detail. This is a nice and subtle touch really reflecting how much Ian cares that Chris’ story is fully told.

Ian also shares his own personal stories to connect to the interviewee’s story – from vulnerable moments from his difficult childhood to his failures and triumphs throughout his football career. This is a great reminder that despite our different paths – whether you are a poet, musician, academic or athlete – we are all connected because we have been through difficult moments and somehow have come out of the other end.

I also noticed that the beautiful sound and mixing allows the guest’s story to be fully indulged by the listener through carefully selected pauses, which heighten the emotional parts. An example of when this is done well is episode two  ‘Mel’. Mel is a mother who takes us through the night when she found out her son had been assaulted.  Many times these stories are told through the headline of the assault but here, we hear about how 25 year old Jordan Sinnot loved football, had the biggest smile in the room and how he sang ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ to his partner.

There are plenty more episodes like this that remind us that there is a person behind the tragedy, like Munira, mother of two, who lost her home in the Grenfell Tower fire and had to start again. With moving from one temporary accommodation to another Munira was determined to hold on to her love of cooking and as a result curated a space where the community can come together to enjoy food and/or just have a chat.

Ian Wright’s Everyday People has a simple format of people sharing how they got through their most difficult moments. Where the beauty lies is that these stories of resilience are always needed and can help us reflect on our own trials and tribulations. Bring on season 2.

Listen to Ian Wright’s Everyday People on ACAST, SPOTIFY or your favourite podcast app.

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Every family has myths – the stories from older family members that are half-remembered, or half-told. Like many families, my own family stories range from the sublime (my Polish grandmother walking across continents as a refugee) to the ridiculous (Billy Bragg hitting on my mum at a gig). Arguably, every family’s myths are worthy of a podcast. But when you throw in Soviet Russia, the world-renowned Mariinsky Ballet school and a daring escape from a locked hospital, you have the makings of great investigative podcast.

This is the starting point of Finding Natasha, the newest podcast from Message Heard. The company has made other shows investigating geopolitics through personal stories – such as Conflicted, where Aimen Dean (a former jihadist turned British double agent inside Al Qaeda) talks openly about ‘The War on Terror’. But Finding Natasha is more than an investigative podcast – it is research into the producer’s family history.

The podcast focuses on Debbie Gayle, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and one of Britain’s most promising young ballerinas in the 1970s. She is also lead producer Jake’s mum. In 1974, Debbie became the first Westerner to train with the world renowned Kirov (now the Mariinsky) in Russia. The first two episodes of this podcast looks at how this was both a dream come true for Debbie, and a great chance at cultural diplomacy for Britain and Russian.

But Debbie’s time is Russia was disastrous from the start. And after drinking contaminated water, Debbie was taken to an isolated room in a Soviet hospital, and left alone without treatment, and unable to escape. Natasha was the person who let Debbie out and helped her get back to England, and since then, Debbie has searched for Natasha. But she had little more than an Anglicised first name (the Russian would be Natalya) and a photo to go on.

I expected this search for Natasha to be the point of entry for highlighting aspects of a country and time in modern history that can seem impenetrable. And there were points that touched on this – the section that talked about Debbie preparing for the exchange sees a contrast between excitement, and foreboding warnings of the line to tread whilst over there. This was a time when there were dire consequences for simply owning Western currency whilst in Russia.

But rather than using Debbie’s personal story as the listener’s way into 1970s Russia, it plays out the other way around. Russia works as the backdrop to Debbie’s story, and the show doesn’t gloss over how close it is to the subject. Small things remind us that this is a real life family saga. Jake refers to Debbie as ‘Mum’ throughout (rather than using a more formal ‘my mother’) and Zoom recordings don’t edit out the despairing comments from Debbie about the state of her – and Jake’s – hair. It all adds to the realness of Debbie. And it makes the search for Natasha all the more important for both the show and the listener. This family myth is so grand, we feel like we need it to be corroborated. As Jake says at one point:

“As most of us with our parents, I only understood as much as [mum] had given away herself. Natasha was the only other person who was there.”

At five episodes long, Finding Natasha is about the right length. But it did leave me wanting to know more. I wanted to learn about Debbie, and I found myself Googling for images of her. I wanted to read the newspaper cuttings on the cover of the pod art (it would be great to have such resources released alongside the shownotes).

But more than that, Finding Natasha left me wanting to go away and learn more about my own family myths as well.

Finding Natasha launched on 18th May. Listen to the trailer and subscribe now on the Message Heard website, Spotify or your favourite podcast app.

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The podcast in question, Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division & New Order, takes listeners on a journey through the life and times of two of my personal favorite things to ever come from Manchester. But a question worth asking before diving into Transmissions is – when tales of both of these bands exist already in books and films, do we really need a podcast?

During lockdown, I’ve spent my time as many music fans have – watching all the documentaries I could get my eyes. One that I thoroughly enjoyed, New Order: Decades, should have satiated my desire for content around one of the greatest new wave bands of all time. And yet, when Transmissions fell into my lap, I dove right in and was wowed with what I found.

Narrated by the absolutely brilliant Maxine Peake, the eight-part series spins a long and winding tale about the creation, demise, and rebirth of some of the most truly iconic music. Not only are we treated to newly-recorded interviews with Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris, Gillian Gilbert and Peter Hook, but we also get the experience of hearing the impact of Joy Division and New Order’s music on the likes of Bono and Thurston Moore. Nothing is taboo – the episode in which they discuss the tragic death of Ian Curtis is heart wrenching (and at episode 4, is a good spot for a break.)

As an aforementioned Factory Records fan (with a Tony Wilson tattoo, if you’ll forgive me) the early episode about the birth of the label and, later, the definitive role of The Haçienda in shaping the direction of dance music is a powerful acknowledgement of the roles of Wilson, Alan Erasmus and Rob Gretton on the scene and sound we as fans so adore. And for the most dedicated music fans, you will not be let down by the deep-dive in episode eight into the best-selling 12-inch single of all time, “Blue Monday”. The band’s exploration of how the seven-and-a-half minute synth-pop masterpiece was created (and a brilliant note from Bernard about vinyl vs. digital for dance music) makes the final episode of the series 37 minutes of pure joy.

Will there be a second season? Knowing that the last album discussed on the show, “Power, Corruption and Lies”, is only the second album in New Order’s ten-album history to date, one can only hope so. There is far more story yet to be told, and thus we find the answer to our earlier question: do we really need a Joy Division/New Order podcast? From fans around the world comes a resounding yes, and we desperately need season two.

Transmissions: The Definitive Story of Joy Division & New Order is produced by Cup and Nuzzle and available on ACAST and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

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If you watched any UK TV in the 90s, you are likely familiar with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. As comedy double-act French and Saunders, they are memorable for parodies of films such as Titanic, Silence of the Lambs and Lord of the Rings. Now, a French and Saunders podcast brings them back together for their Audible Original series, French & Saunders: Titting About. And there is something incredibly joyful about hearing them together again.

The duo take a relatable topic and playfully riff comedy from it. From stories on airport shopping, to the scandalous reveal of which of the pair snogged Brad Pitt! As with all good celebrity podcasts, the topics would be mundane in other hands – but I seriously want to find out what Saunders’ top-three vegetables are…

Launched at the end of 2020, this series of six episodes has been described by listeners as “exactly what is needed right now”. 

And listeners aren’t alone in they’re excitement. It’s clear that the pair enjoyed themselves in the making of it. When talking about her experience making the podcast, Dawn French said:

 “Titting About with Fatty is the best fun I’ve had without my incontinence pants on. Which, on reflection, was a mistake. Some soft furnishings were damaged in the making of this series.”

Saunders added:

 “I can’t imagine anything I’d rather be doing than titting about with Dawn. We both have tits, after all”.

Photo by Rachel Manns, courtesy of Audible

Audible shared some of the things you can look forward to in each episode:

Episode 1: Passions and Hobbies

Dawn and Jennifer explore their passions and hobbies, including Jennifer’s love of football. Plus, find out which of them has a fondness for kissing (…Brad Pitt).

Episode 2: Holidays

They may seem like a thing of the past now, but the glamorous world of holidays centre stage in Episode 2. Dawn recalls dribbling on a stranger whilst asleep on Concorde, whilst Jennifer remembers childhood holidays swimming in sewage.

Episode 3: School 

Talking about their time at school, Dawn and Jennifer remember frightening teachers, the awkwardness of sex education and – that dreaded word that brings fear into children and adults alike – ‘liver’.

Episode 4: The Seven Deadly Sins 

From Lust to Greed, Dawn and Jennifer examine their lives, through the moral compass of the Seven Deadly Sins. Subjects covered include Idris Elba, road rage and elastic waistbands.

Episode 5: Food 

Some say that food is the ingredient that binds us together. Let’s see if that’s the case as Jennifer reveals her top-three vegetables and Dawn shares what her last meal would be.

Episode 6: If We Were Alive Now 

In the final episode of the series, Dawn and Jennifer look back at their careers. From early gigs as a double act with one functioning microphone to considering which shows they would parody now

This French and Saunders podcast is an entertaining and exclusive insight to the warm, mischievous friendship of two much-loved performers, leaving no stone unturned for laughs.

French & Saunders: Titting About is available to download now, only on Audible. Every month, Audible members get one credit to use on any audiobook regardless of price or length, plus unlimited access to Audible Original Podcasts at no extra cost.

Listen for free with your 30-day trial. From £7.99 / month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

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Stay with me here. You really haven’t heard it all when it comes to talking about race.

CA Davis, host of A Latto Thought. Photo by Joe Martinez Photography.

I imagine that you’ve been signposted to a few podcasts on this subject this year, and the usuals do the rounds – for good reason, we need them. But perhaps you’re tired of ‘learning.’ I get it. I think that we have reached a stalemate when it comes to race-based podcasts, which happens when any subject is thrust into the forefront of our everyday lives in a short space of time.

Following the BLM protests this summer we were overwhelmed with reading lists, more lists on how to be antiracist and podcast recommendations (my own show included). And I did wonder what everyone did with all this information. It was a lot to process. Maybe too much. And now it’s all died down, maybe it’s time to reflect on what content is not only available, but also dynamic and accessible. Podcasting needs to improve the dialogue on race and make the content more diverse, not only in terms of who is hosting, but also in terms of the content they cover. We don’t have too many podcasts on race – but they seem to be at each end of a spectrum with nothing bridging the gap.

We have shows that share personal accounts of racism – the anecdotal stories. We have the heavyweight conversations telling historical accounts of how we’ve got to where we are and what we need to do about it – the serious and instructive shows.

What’s missing is the engaging content that accompanies you through the events that have created the complex structures and misconceptions surrounding race, alongside real stories of people who were affected by these events… without leaving you feeling exhausted by the end of it. If you’ve yet to find a show like this, I’ve found one for you.

CA Davis, Host of A Latto Thought. Image by Joe Martinez Photography.

A LATTO thought is hosted by filmmaker, digital storyteller and producer, CA Davis. CA works at Northwestern University in a small department that supports humanities research and pedagogy. His role is to take professors’ research and locate the stories within their work to create films that both academic and non-academic audiences can enjoy.

CA takes you on a huge ride through some of the most important events in the history of racial stereotyping, including – importantly – contemporary mixed-race misconceptions. In the episode ‘takin’ it back’ you will hear why we have achieved a “false sense of progress” regarding mixed-race people (especially those in positions of power). Our bodies are used as momentary vapours to veil over the truth about how much we have progressed, in part due to the ‘cultural firsts’ such as electing a Black president and a Black female Vice President, or having a Black Royal Family member. Yet, these individuals are mixed-raced. And it’s mixed-race bodies that are wrongly used as markers of a racially progressive society.

In the latest episode ‘kinfolk, not skinfolk’, CA draws you right into the falsehoods of DNA testing until you are rewinding to hear every word. Just as you’ve grasped a new and complex idea, he pulls you right out of feeling comfortable with a thud of a great bassline, witty quip and lighter chat. The balance of sound, narration and the super-high, cinematic production quality, makes it an engaging listen.

A LATTO Thought is stimulating and educational. You’ll finish the show feeling contemplative but energised. That’s a rare thing in this genre of podcasts.

Listen to A LATTO Thought on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and on the A LATTO Thought website.

—

Lou Mensah founded Shade Podcast to create a safe space for rigorous & inclusive conversations on Representation within the Arts.

Before launching Shade Lou worked on various commissions as a photographer, including stills for Directors Anthony Minghella & Sundance winner Marc Silver plus Mike Figgis; gaining awards for her work from Nick Knight and the late Alexander McQueen.

Launched just over a year ago, Shade Podcast has been received well by both the audience and press. Miranda Sawyer (The Guardian) said of Shade “Every episode gave me something new to think about. Inspiring!” – whilst Esquire has listed Shade as one of the ‘Best 2020 Podcasts you can listen too.”

Season 4 is due to be launched in Jan 2021. Listen on Acast, Spotify or Apple Podcasts. 

Read more reviews by the Pod Bible team.

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