Navigating Now: Young people navigating – and narrating – their big questions

Navigating Now… from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a podcast by young people, for young people. It follows a group of recent and current Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants, aged between 14-25 years, as they explore the big questions they have about life – from social media and identity, to mental health and careers.

Each episode is narrated by Elsie (15 yrs) and hosted by three different young people. Together, they discuss three big questions and listen to suggestions and advice sent in from across the UK. Each host picks one suggestion to try out in their everyday lives, and records their progress in audio diaries that they share throughout the series.

We caught up Elsie, as well as Junior Producer Christy Callaway-Gale,  and Producer Ryan Nile from Mags Creative, to get some behind-the-scenes insight on how this show came to be…

Can you tell us a bit about your show and yourself?

Elsie: The podcast, Navigating Now, is made by young people, for young people, and aims to answer our big questions on life. The questions that we discuss are ones that I personally have had – and, even though I’m 15 and I still have use for a lot of this advice, I just wish I had it sooner. So, I love the fact that the podcast is giving people access to the advice I wish I had. Opportunities with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE) really interest me, and I found this opportunity to get involved in a podcast especially exciting – it’s cool to be able to talk about literally anything with people.

I like music, languages, and listening to speeches, and I did public speaking and debating for my Skills section for both my Bronze and Silver DofE Awards, so that’s also why I love listening to podcasts and wanted to be involved in making one. When I hear a language or find out about a country, I’ll push myself to learn the language. At the moment, I’m learning Spanish, French, German, and Japanese! I love Spanish the most because it just rolls off your tongue.

I’ve now achieved both my Bronze and Silver DofE Awards. I found doing my Silver DofE really challenging, so I’m still thinking about doing my Gold DofE. My friends and I keep saying that now we’ve achieved our Silver Award, we should probably go all the way to achieving our Gold!

Ryan Nile: I’ve been an avid listener of podcasts for about a decade, and a creator both in front and behind the mic within this space for about 5 years. The podcasts that really made me fall in love with the potential of the medium was season one of Gimlet’s ‘Startup’ and of course ‘Serial’ – what a moment in time!

Christy Callaway-Gale: I owe my love of podcasts to my brilliant friend and podcaster Kira Allmann – the parallel world where I didn’t make it to her audio workshop is not a world I want to know!

Elsie, the narrator of Navigating Now. PHOTOGRAPHER’S CREDIT Dan Homer

Why podcasting? What is it about the format that appeals to you?

Elsie: The idea of being able to receive information in a hands-free way is so appealing to me as someone who loves to listen to things – so the format of a podcast just made sense. I tend to listen to podcasts when I’m around other people and don’t want to pay attention to my surroundings, because I want to be in my own world. It feels natural to be listening to other people speaking on podcasts rather than the loud noise around me, like on a bus or in a park. Sometimes I’m listening to a podcast in the kitchen and just burst out laughing – I hope no one sees me doing that!

The podcasts I listen to are usually quite funny, so I’m constantly laughing or have a smile on my face. Podcasts make me feel like I’m reflecting on myself. And it was so fun when we were recording Navigating Now and Ryan, a Producer at Mags Creative, always made me laugh in the studio. It was also quite funny considering all the advice from the podcast that I wish I had heard before I narrated it!

My friend who originally got me into podcasts has suggested that we make a podcast together now that I’ve narrated Navigating Now. We are thinking about talking about living and growing up in South London.

Ryan: Storytelling is the main pull for me. I believe podcasting is the most honest and intimate form of media we have, and its ability to deliver a message is second to none, whether that’s in an interview format or a narrative. On a technical level, it’s a blank canvas that can be used in near infinite ways. It’s media that can be enjoyed passively whilst commuting, driving, walking or washing up and the content can make you laugh, cry and learn something new. I love that it fosters connection and community, and platforms voices and stories that would otherwise be overlooked.

Christy: I love how podcasts can be upfront and honest about not having all the answers – they’re a space where you can explore ambiguity and nuance, and then arrive at the end and say “I still don’t know”. Going on that journey with a host across a series can sometimes feel more special than getting the answers you’d hoped for.

Did you take inspiration from any podcasts in particular?

Ryan & Christy: The way we went about developing this podcast was totally different to anything we’d done before . Young people (14-25 years) were at the heart of the process and our touchpoints for inspiration at all times. From surveys to interactive workshops with current and recent Duke of Edinburgh’s Award participants, we asked – if they could make a podcast for young people, what would it be like? The answer we came up with together is what you hear in Navigating Now.

Elsie: I generally like podcasts that are really chill, funny and just have a lesson to learn from them, so I really wanted to recreate that with my narration. I like the ‘Court Of Public Opinion’ podcast. It’s more of a comedic podcast and the narrators are really chill and make you feel like you’re in a room with friends. The ‘Pressed’ podcast is also good – that’s a really raw but funny podcast. I think that comedy podcasts really appeal to my generation because we love to have a laugh about things. The two podcasts I just mentioned are the ones you’d see people laughing about on TikTok. Listening to podcasts is also a bit of a relief from exams and stress.

Is there an episode of the podcast means the most to you?

Elsie: Episode five on ‘Navigating… Passions and Careers’ meant the most to me. My future career has always been something that I think about, so just hearing all that great advice was really encouraging and helpful.

That episode has made me think about other careers I want to do – I no longer have a tunnel vision on my dream job and I’m looking into other career options. I was set on doing engineering, but now I’m branching out to think about doing architecture – I love how creative architecture is, but it’s scary to think about committing to a single career for my whole life!

Also, I’m doing my GCSE exams next year, so that episode has made me think about the next steps beyond that, like what I want to do in Sixth Form.

Ryan: The whole series means a lot to me so I’m going to cheat and say: listen to the whole series so that you can get to episode 8 ‘Navigating… Now’. It means a lot, as we hear from all of the voices from across the series reflect on the topics, contributions and the process of making this podcast series overall. It’s very touching personally to see and hear this group of super impressive young people reflect on the journey that started out with a survey and ended with a full series that hopefully is helping other young listeners who are navigating now!

Christy: Navigating… The Environment encouraged me to make small but important changes that I’d been talking about for a while. More broadly, the series made me reflect on what it means to try new things – cue me joining a beginners’ trapeze class even though I’m scared of heights!

Do you have a podcast story you haven’t told yet but would love to?

Ryan & Christy: One thing was clear throughout the making of this podcast: there are lots of topics that are important to young people. It made narrowing the episode themes down a challenge! We hope to support more young people to tell the stories that matter to them, in the future. Young people’s stories should be heard more and they should be the voices to share them. Podcasting is the right format to allow the space to delve deep into the nuance of stories and topics that matter.

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Elsie: I remember the moment I found out I was going to be the narrator of Navigating Now. I was just leaving school and read the email telling me that I’d been selected. I showed the email to my friends, and we all started screaming and running up and down the playground. My mum also received the email, and she was very excited – she phoned me at the same time and asked whether I’d seen the email!

And on the last day before the end of term, my Head of Year called me up to the front of assembly and told everyone that I was going to be the narrator of the DofE podcast. She said it was a great achievement and showed the ‘congratulations’ email to everyone in my year.

When I came back from my Silver DofE Expedition, one of the boys in my construction class went on the DofE website and saw me on the homepage. He played the podcast’s trailer to my whole class, and it was so surreal having everyone listening to my voice like that.

Follow the show on TikTok @NavigatingNowPod. Listen to Navigating Now… From The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award on Apple Podcast, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

Main image credit Dan Horner.