Since then, more than 30 older people aged 60+ have been involved in the first series, and it was even praised by Prince William! The award-winning podcast is back for a second season and looks set to continue is its mission for creativity and connection. We spoke to creators, theatre company Made By Mortals.

Why podcasting? What is it about the format that appeals for this project?

We turned to podcasts through necessity to be honest. We run a not-for-profit that traditionally creates music theatre and films with groups of people from our community in Manchester. When lockdown hit, like everyone we were forced to work remotely, which meant that none of our groups could meet in person. We wanted to create something that could bring people together during a time that they were forced apart. So, through experimenting, playing and using our imaginations over zoom, we came up with the concept of Armchair Adventures, a podcast series for children that takes them on a journey of the imagination.

We were able to develop the scripts, rehearse and record using equipment we all had to hand, while still managing to create something that meets (and I think has now surpassed) the artistic quality of our theatre work.

Podcasting has also helped us to grow our audience reach. Armchair Adventures has had tens of thousands of listens, if that was one of our theatre productions we’d have to sell out a lot of venues to reach those numbers!

You’re also able to play with sound design to make the listener feel part of the action. Podcasts have allowed us to create immersive theatre far more regularly than we ever could when putting on a staged theatre show

To top it off, podcasts are also easy to get hold of, they’re convenient for an audience as they can take their podcasts with them wherever and play them whenever. So all in all, podcasting was the perfect solution!

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

I think our Armchair Adventures episodes are getting better and better all the time, so I’d go for our latest one ‘An Underwater Adventure’ (released 11th November). The series follows 15 year old travel agent Connie, and her gang of explorers. With the pandemic, people haven’t been able to go abroad as freely as they used to, so they’ve come up with an alternative to a traditional vacation, a journey of the imagination, an “Armchair Adventure”. Using the voices of Connie and the gang, music, immersive sound design, and places in the podcast for the listener to interact too, the listener is very much a part of the action.

The use of the music in this latest episode, ‘An Underwater Adventure’ is really fun. It’s like the piano has come along on the journey too, and instead of hearing someone speak, the piano communicates through music!

We also always have an important message for children in the podcasts too, in this one, it’s all about conservation and climate change. And as always, there’s plenty for the listener to join in with too in this episode! I do love ‘Carla’s Bubble Adventure’ and ‘A Showbiz Adventure’ from season 1 too though!

Has Armchair Adventures grown beyond the podcast?

One of the most exciting things about Armchair Adventures is how it has been adapted to be used in lots of different settings. We made the series for children so it was important to us that we put it in front of as many kids as possible! We have great relationships with local schools through our theatre work, so we presented the podcasts online in ‘Live Online Shows’. This also put podcasting on the radar for many schools and children. Since then we’ve made teaching resources to accompany the podcast episodes, so teachers can embed the learning. This was particularly impactful with ‘A Unity Adventure’ which is about racial equality.

We’ve also created an activity pack for older people and trained up activity co-ordinators in nursing homes so they can use it with their residents. Now restrictions have eased up we’re now creating the episodes in person and also working on the development of a live Armchair Adventures theatre show – watch this space!

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I really like The Story Pirates and how it blends actors, musicians, improvisers and stories from kids. It’s quite like how we create Armchair Adventures, except we make it using stories from over 65s!!

Away from podcasts, we’re really into the work of Tim Crouch, a theatre maker who challenges traditional theatre conventions. We try and do that with our work, blurring the distinction between performer and audience member.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned from working on this project?

You can’t just expect an audience to fall at your feet, no matter how good you believe your podcast to be. You need to spend just as much time, if not more, marketing your podcast and maintaining audience engagement as you do making the episodes!

We’ve worked really hard at this, and although we’ve had a low-budget, grassroots marketing campaign, the results have been brilliant: tens of thousands of listens including a surprise following in India; engaged with over 5,000 school children through our Live Online shows; we’ve trained over 50 activity co-ordinators in nursing homes; we were recommended by BBC Radio 4 and Podcast Radio; received a letter of commendation from HRH Prince William and most recently we became an award-winning podcast by winning Best Podcast at the Manchester Publicity Awards 2021!

It’s all nuts and can’t wait for where our next adventure takes us!

Listen to Armchair Adventures on SPOTIFY or your favourite podcast app.

The post Armchair Adventures: A podcast for sharing imagination appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Hi Rosie! Your podcast evolved from your work in different mediums – first your book Is Monogamy Dead? and then solo stage show The Conscious Uncoupling. What made you decide to make The Breakup Monologues as a podcast?

The creative lineage dates back even further than that! The Conscious Uncoupling was the final part of a trilogy of solo comedy shows that began with The Science of Sex. I toured that around the U.K. in 2009 and 2010 but have revived it for subsequent performances in New York, Sydney and at Edinburgh Fringe. That was a silly lecture all about the psychology of attraction, the kind of subversive sex ed. lesson we all wish we’d had at school. But behind my grubby lab coat, makeshift props, spoofy ancient love poems and graphs was a serious intent to get to the bottom of how relationships worked… and sometimes didn’t!

So there’s been this more serious line of psychological enquiry underpinning my creative work about love for over a decade. I think it stems from growing up gay and feeling different. There are many things about love and attraction that are universal but some that are different for queer partnerships. Did you know that lesbians divorce at a much higher rate than anyone else? That surprised me. But also made me feel better about my very serially monogamous past. It’s not atypical for a queer woman.

Did you take inspiration from any podcasts in particular before you started?

I guested on The Guilty Feminist to talk about my book Is Monogamy Dead? (which had stemmed from the middle part of the aforementioned trilogy) just before starting The Breakup Monologues. So that definitely inspired me to record the second and third seasons live at Kings Place. Although I’m changing format and feel for the new season [which started on 12th February]. That’ll have more of a magazine feel with separate interviews linked by me. That was also a format familiar to me because I’ve presented a show on Resonance FM for many years. So, if anything, my original inspiration came from radio… and the sort of mix of intelligence and humour of some of Radio 4’s artsy and cultural output, Woman’s Hour, Loose Ends and so on.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learned as a podcast producer since the start of The Breakup Monologues?

To be adaptable. Lockdown threw a big spanner in the works for me. I’m a live performer. It’s in my blood. So it took me a while to adjust to the fact that live shows weren’t going to be happening again for a while. I also had to figure out how to replace the lost ticket sales income. Fortunately a couple of superfans came to the rescue and put some money into the new season.

Also, to think about your USP. When I began talking about breakups onstage and in the podcast, audiences said it was so needed. Breakups weren’t talked about. Now there are more podcasters and authors discussing them. Which is what I was trying to achieve in a way. But now I also think I have to work harder to make The Breakup Monologues distinctive. And I think the cerebral/science angle about the parallels between addiction and heartbreak, or the sociological aspects of how polyamory changes the conversation about breakups and the way we bring those ideas in alongside the more personal anecdotes, is the kind of thing I have always enjoyed doing. Some of my favourite reviews of my book were the ones that acknowledged that there was clearly a huge amount of research that had been done but that research came across in such a light, accessible way. Also, I think inclusivity is a big thing for me. Not just in terms of sexuality. One of my favourite guests was Lynn Ruth Miller, who talked about dating and sex for the over eighties!

Earlier this year, you were awarded funding from the British Podcast Awards and Wellcome Trust to make a miniseries, My Chemical Romance. Where did the idea for these bonus episodes come from?

I had been aware for a few years of the work of neuroethicist Brian D. Earp into the idea of ‘love drugs’ and ‘anti-love drugs’ that could either help us to stay in a relationship or reduce the trauma of leaving one. Could the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind actually become a reality? So when the Pulse Award scheme from BPA and Wellcome was announced, it seemed like the perfect idea to explore in a double bill.

Did you have to produce this series in a different way to your regular episodes?

Yes. Although that hadn’t been the plan. I wanted to record these as a live double bill at Kings Place with a diverse and intelligent panel including Brian. However, the event was scheduled for late March, just at the start of lockdown. So instead I recorded a socially distant conversation with Brian and then did something completely new. I put an open call out online for listeners to submit their stories about how drugs we already take such as SSRIs, birth control pills etc had affected their romantic lives (and had perhaps had side effects of acting like an anti love drug). This was really interesting to put together.

And did you learn different things from doing the My Chemical Romance miniseries?

I suppose I felt more confident that you can still make great content without necessarily needing celebrity names. Obviously The Breakup Monologues has had some big names and will continue to do so. It does help with getting the word out and getting media or social media attention. But a great story or a new, intriguing idea is still worth a lot too.

What is something as a podcast producer you haven’t tried yet but would like to?

Over lockdown, I’ve been listening to a lot of the classic long form investigative or storytelling shows like Serial, S-Town, The Missing Cryptoqueen and Passenger List. I am desperate to make something like this, where you start off with a question but then maybe go off on other fascinating tangents. I have an idea I love for a series like this. But I might need some production support and finance to really do it justice. So we will see.

In the meantime, I’m also adding a slightly more themed and narrative approach to the latest season of The Breakup Monologues. There will be one particular episode where I’ll be unravelling the mystery of why one tiny breakup, after only a couple of casual dates, ripped right to the heart of all my vulnerabilities and kind of defied the ‘normal’ breakup rules of how much something is supposed to hurt if it hasn’t lasted very long. It’s a very nuanced change in atmosphere but the listening experience might feel a bit more like chapters of a book.

How do you experience other podcasts as a listener? Can you turn off your editing ear and just enjoy shows, or do you always tune in to the things you would have done differently yourself?

I tend to enjoy podcasts in different genres to mine. Although recently I have been listening a lot to the clever use of music in other podcasts. I always just had a fun little theme that came in and out at the start and end. But now we’ve got another piece by the same composer which fades in and out throughout the show as well. It’s a very simple change but one that points to the slightly different direction I’m taking things.

Do you have a dream guest?

I mentioned the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind above. It’s one of my all time favourites. I’d love to interview Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet about how they’d feel if the memory erasure process depicted in the film became a reality. They’ve had a few divorces between them. I wonder if they’d erase their ex-partners!

And now it’s coming full circle and you’ve been commissioned to write a book based on the podcast! Can you tell us about that?

The Breakup Monologues book will be published by Bloomsbury at the end of May. It tells my own story of trying to learn from my breakups, and from all the experts and friends that I’ve interviewed, and figuring out how to actually try and stay in a relationship at last. I think my breakups have proved to be such learning experiences, and ultimately really positive, that I’ve become a bit of a breakup addict. Is it possible to do that much active learning and growth while actually staying in a relationship? We will see!

Where can Pod Bible readers find out more about you and the show?

The Breakup Monologues is on Instagram @breakupmonologues where I post fun backstage images from the live shows, exclusive extracts, bonus content and ideas from the show and book. I’m also on Twitter @rosiewilby. It would be great to hear from people there. Otherwise there’s my website www.rosiewilby.com, the show is available on all good podcast platforms, my first book is available from all great bookshops as a paperback, ebook and audiobook and the new book is available now to pre-order. 

The post Rosie Wilby: Podcast producer for The Breakup Monologues appeared first on POD BIBLE.