HAVE YOU HEARD? // From Lads To Dads

Have You Heard? is a series in which the team from Pod Bible meet the people behind the podcasts you may not have heard of yet. While the Oh. My. Pod. section in the magazine gives a quick shout out to shows of that ilk, Have You Heard aims to go deeper in an effort to spread awareness for shows that deserve more exposure! In this eighth edition we sat down with Ben Wason and Matt Wilson to discuss their podcast, From Lads To Dads.

Who are you and what is your podcast about?

Ben – My name is Ben Wason and our podcast is about the difference from living the lad life to now living the dad life. We tell stories and talk from an unfiltered and relatable standpoint.

Matt – Hi, I’m Matt Wilson, as Ben said, From Lads To Dads, gives an unfiltered look at fatherhood, and the differences its made to our life. We don’t mince our words and hopefully give a funny and honest look at parenthood that people can relate to. I think a lot of men can put pressure on themselves and can also feel under appreciated when becoming new parents. As (quite rightly) a lot of the attention is with the mum in the early years, we hope our podcast is somewhere Dads can come and listen and think “actually it’s not just me who does that or feels like that” and Mums can listen and think “well at least my husband isn’t as bad as these two idiots!”

What’s the first podcast you ever listened to?

Ben- Athletico Mince & The Joe Rogan Experience.

Matt- Like everyone else in the world, my first podcast was probably Serial or The Ricky Gervais Show. But it was the fantastic All Killa No Filla that got me hooked on podcasts.

Why did you start podcasting in the first place?

Ben- In all honesty, I could not be arsed to write a book and me and Matt could talk for years. During 2019 I really came to terms with my mental health issues and as I came out the other end, luckily unscathed, I felt I wanted to bring these issues to light and turn a positive spin on a lot of difficult topics

Matt- Me and Ben have been mates for years- going out drinking and living what we call (with our tongues firmly in our cheeks) a “lad” lifestyle, but we both ended up having children within a month of each other which completely turned our “lad” lifestyle on its head and changed our lives for the better. We both recently went through a tough time mentally and spent most days on the phone with each other, until one day we said “why don’t we create a podcast instead of wasting our phone bill?” which is why our episodes always feature a mental health section. I’ve always wanted to start a podcast and have seen people I know create some really fantastic podcasts, such as Hannah George from Drunk Women Solving Crime (we both attended the same comedy writing course), so that’s what we did, we sat down with a notepad and some mics and got to work!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

Ben- The Joe Rogan Experience

Matt- As Ben said, Joe Rogan is a big inspiration as he flips the standard podcast format on its head and plays by his own rules. Also if you listen to the very first episode of the Joe Rogan show, it makes you realise that even the top podcast in the world started off sounding a bit ropey, nobody starts out perfect. I also take inspiration from podcasts that aren’t afraid to speak freely and don’t censor their content such as the Distraction Pieces Drunkcasts and True Geordie. I think too many parenting podcasts sit on the fence in order to please everyone, We want to change that!

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

Ben- Steven Gerrard because the geezer could stanch!

Matt- Probably Ricky Gervais as I find his views on a lot of topics really interesting. I also think it would make for a great discussion to chat with someone who has been so publicly against having children of his own.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learnt so far as a podcaster?

Ben- That we both cant talk at the same time!

Matt- Yes, at the risk of sounding like my Year 9 Geography teacher, “there’s a reason we’ve got two ears and one mouth!” If we listen twice as much as we talk, things flow better and we produce better content. At the beginning We were so full of energy that we would be interrupting each other or going off on tangents, by slowing things down and chilling out a bit we produced much better content.

Which episode would you say is the perfect introduction to your podcast?

Ben- I would say, start with Episode 1 and come along on our crazy little journey with us!

Matt- They say the first few episodes of a podcast are just practice where you find your feet, but I agree, the first episode is called The Birth, as its the birth of our podcast and we give an unnecessarily detailed description of what the births of our children were like from our point-of-view.

Where can readers find out more about you?

Check out our Instgram, Twitter and Facebook

Instagram: @from_lads_to_dads

Facebook: fromladstodadspodcast

Twitter: @fromladstodads1

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