Now she’s back with a bonus live show at Sadlers Wells in September. We pinned her down to talk a bit about her thoughts on live podcasting…

Kelechi, congratulations on the sell-out shows in April! You’re back with more in September. How does it feel to be in the same room as your listeners?

It feels incredible to be in the same room as my listeners. The moment just before I step on stage I feel nervous and excited because naturally, I don’t want to let them down and I have to remind myself that it is unlikely they would be let down because, they choose to tune in weekly to a podcast where I randomly burst into song and say the most random things.

What can you do with live shows that you can’t do on a podcast?

Truly it is the feedback that you get from a live show that is unrivalled. Sometimes I stream live on my social media platforms but I am usually just reading people’s reactions from the words they type as opposed to actually seeing them and hearing in real life their screams and claps. I love that. As a trained actor, I feel like I am literally fuelled by the audience’s energy. We have more video podcasts now so people can see facial reactions from the podcast host in a similar way to a live show but that real-time back and forth that you can have with a live audience is what I find extra inspiring.

Kelechi Okafor – Credit to Linda Blacker

Is there anything you had to get used to NOT doing in the live shows?

I can’t really think of anything I personally wouldn’t do at a live show. I pretty much wing most episodes once I have the general outline of what I want to discuss and that carries over into the live shows too. If anything maybe not having so many listeners on stage as that can be hard to manage even though I want everyone to come onto the stage and say their mind.

What is one of your favourite memories from the Live shows so far?

One of my favourite memories has to be The Receipts Podcast ladies surprising me by attending my 2019 live show and they brought me flowers. That really touched me for them to acknowledge me in that way. I think in podcasting it is important to have a community of fellow podcasters that celebrate you and vice versa.

Finally – are you any closer to getting (dream guest) Viola Davies on??

Arrgghh!! If I speak they will say I am speaking (Nigerian turn of phrase used by people who feel they’ve lamented too much already!) I thought it would be the publication of her memoir that would land me the interview but that didn’t happen. I’m hoping it is something else. Maybe an upcoming film. I don’t know who else I can beg to let me interview this amazing woman. I know once I finally speak with Viola I will be able to successfully pitch why I should play the lead in Wild Seed.

Watch Say Your Mind live on Sunday 25th September at Sadlers Wells Theatre, and buy your tickets here.

Listen to Say Your Mind on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

Article hero photo credit to Jennie Scott Photography.

The post Kelechi Okafor talks going LIVE with Say Your Mind appeared first on POD BIBLE.

After a short hiatus, I was happy to see the show return earlier this year. I caught up with Faith and Addie to talk about where the idea for the show came from, how they’ve found podcasting and the shows that influenced them.

Pod Bible: Can you give us an introduction to yourselves and The Trail Ahead?

Faith: Addie and I met trail running. We were both living in Portland, Oregon at the time and friends introduced us and it was a pretty fast friendship. And we basically realised that we wanted to talk about serious things most of the time, and we started having all of these conversations around the intersection of race, environment, history, culture and the outdoors. So basically The Trail Ahead is an extension of that. Whether it’s narcissism or not, we thought that the conversations we were having should reach a larger audience and so we created a podcast to do that.

How much preparation do you do before episodes are recorded?

Addie: A lot of preparation! Well, a lot and a little. It’s funny, we’ve gone through a transformation over the past year. We used to be much more planned in our questions and we had, like, 30 questions to ask each guest and we really had a prescribed flow of the conversation and how we wanted it to go etc. And this new round of episodes, we’ve been trying to be much more conversational – or as conversational as possible with our guests. We do a lot of background research on them, but oftentimes we’re just writing down themes and things we want to touch on with them and going from there. We’ve had incredible episodes, we’ve recorded a few conversations in the past few weeks that have gone in a completely different direction than I would have initially thought. But if we kept our 30 questions, we might not have gone there. I think that what’s been really cool is we both prepare a lot for these conversations.

We also have a visual component to the podcast, which most people are surprised by – we make short one-minute films on each of our guests because we feel that not only does representation matter in the outdoors, but visual representation matters. One of our guests said that if you can see it, you can be it. So what we’re hoping is that folks listen in, and watch and are able to see themselves outside.

What’s the biggest lesson that you’ve learned from doing the podcast so far?

Faith: I’m not sure if I can answer the biggest lesson that we’ve learned. I just go back to how lucky Addie and I feel, all the time with all of these guests that we get to speak with. Social media asks you to be really, really egotistical and you get kudos and likes for focusing on yourself. But I think the creation of a podcast was really all about amplifying other voices. So the big learning for me is how to shift the attention and how beneficial that is to everyone when it’s not about you and what you have to say, but it’s more about how you can – as one of our guests, José González says – share power with other people. That has been so mutually beneficial in all these ways. I don’t even think Addie and I have begun to quantify yet.

Addie and Faith. Photo by Fred Goris

What do you think the secret is to being a good podcast interviewer?

Faith: I think like Addie said, not being tied to what you thought you were going to make or not being tied to the conversation you thought you were gonna have. I think our first season we had these questions and we felt we had to get through them and you can actually hear it. I think you can hear at some point we’re switching tones just to get to our next question versus really letting it be okay to talk about half the things you thought you were going to talk about. Or realising you’re not telling anyone’s whole life story just where they are now. I think that’s been huge for us in terms of shifting how we host and realising that you don’t have to check a bunch of boxes in the episode.

Addie: Absolutely. And I think you can hear it in the conversation, we’re both much more engaged in what we’re talking about and what they said. Initially I was so rigid and “okay great, they just answered this question” and then I would realise that I hadn’t even heard what the answer was because I was thinking about the next question. I’m so impressed with interviewers who are just so seamless in this when they do have a list that they’re going through.

Now hopefully there’s just more natural flow and hopefully that increases the ability for us to create a safe space for our guests. I absolutely thought we were telling people’s life stories, I thought that was the point. I was like okay, we have two hours, we need to cover everything about this person. That has been such an unlock to be able to let that go and to really come in with “what do you want to talk about today? What do you want to say to the world?” and then go from there.

Faith: And that’s specific to ours too. I think there are some people who you go to that podcast and you expect and want to hear those six answers, right? We both love, how am I forgetting your celebrity crush’s name suddenly?

Addie: Oh, Brett Goldstein!

Faith: Right? So listening to Brett Goldstein’s podcast – if a certain guest didn’t answer one of the specific movie questions he asked, I’d be like, “I’m sitting here and not knowing their answer” because I expect to hear these six questions answered. So it totally depends on the podcast. I think allowing for flow is really important for ours, but it just depends on how you’ve structured yours.

Were there any podcasts that inspired you before you were making yours?

Addie: So we’re both big fans of Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson who used to co-host How To Save A Planet with Alex Blumberg. Now she no longer hosts the podcast, but I listened to that every week and I was so excited when a new episode came out. When your favourite podcast comes out with the episodes, it’s like Christmas morning or something, it feels very exciting. Faith put me onto On Being.

Faith: Yeah, I’m like a long, long term On Being devotee. I think Krista Tippett is goals in so many ways and I just feel like that podcast has changed my life. I think the depth of those conversations was really important for us, just to say you can have really deeply important conversations via this medium. And then How To Save A Planet, the co-host structure – I think those two things really influenced our desire to do one, our belief in the medium and the way that we came together to do it.

If you could go back to before you started out and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Addie: I don’t even think it’s advice, it would just be read up and learn more about what the industry is, because I’ve been so fascinated to learn from folks like yourselves, Arielle [Nissenblatt], we work with a wonderful podcasting producer Ona Oghogho. There’s been so many people in our lives, who have helped us along the journey.

Faith: Jen Chein. I don’t know what we would’ve done without Jen, oh my gosh, explaining even “this is how you do an introduction” you know? Yeah, we definitely learned in time. I’m very grateful to those folks.

Is there a particular episode you’d like to highlight or you’re particularly proud of?

Faith: Oh man, I’ve been kind of loving Noël’s recently. Noël Russell we just did a couple of weeks ago and one of the things that she says is “contentment leads to confidence”. But she just talks a lot about being okay with yourself and not feeling like you have to do what everyone else is doing. Certainly we’ve heard things like this before, but the way she says it just makes it all feel so okay. I’ve loved that one. I think while we were editing it, we were obsessed while we’re having the conversation. And then the day it came out, I was like ‘play’ as if I haven’t heard it so many times. And I can be shy about telling the people that are closest to me in my life to listen to my podcast because it feels really silly to do. But even my partner I’ve been like, “have you listened yet? You need to listen to this episode. This is my podcast, you know?” Maybe this influenced me more than I realised. It was like reading Chicken Soup for the Soul. It’s like a real feel good one.

Where can readers find out more about you?

You can find out more, listen to episodes and watch the mini videos on our website trailaheadpodcast.com, and you can follow the podcast on Instagram @trailahead_podcast. We’re @faithevebee and @adelinemthompson.

Listen to The Trail Ahead now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps.

The post The Trail Ahead: Conversations at the intersection of race, environment, history and culture appeared first on POD BIBLE.

This year’s programme will support Black women and non-binary people in the UK and Ireland, and is adapting to the global coronavirus pandemic. Twenty selected participants will receive computers, podcasting equipment and wifi access, along with other tools to ensure successful completion of the first four-week virtual course this fall. Afterward, participants will take what they’ve learned to create a podcast trailer, which will be submitted for participation in the second phase. From there, ten participants will travel to in-person training in 2021 to further develop their show.

The 2020 Sound Up submission period opens as Spotify releases research conducted among 1,000 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women in the UK, the findings of which include that 74% feel that BAME women are underrepresented in podcasting.

Courses like Sound Up continue to be important in elevating underrepresented voices in the podcast world, as the research also found that 50% say there is too much stereotyping of BAME women in podcasting. Spotify looks to combat the belief by 49% of respondents that there is a lack of strong BAME female voices in podcasting to look up to and serve as inspiration by staffing the educators and mentors of this year’s training with podcasters from the Black community.

The UK and Irish programme is open to Black women and non-binary people interested in sharing their stories through podcasting, even if they have no experience with the medium. Twelve of Spotify’s Sound Up participants have since launched their own shows, including Sangeeta Pillai of Masala Podcast.

Applications are open now at spotify.com/SoundUp through 4th August at 11.59 BST.

A previous version of this story erroneously stated the closing of application was 4th September.

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