Who are you and what’s your podcast about?

Keri: I’m Dr. Keri Ohlrich, PhD in Human Development and Organizational Systems. I specialize in change management, HR processes, and coaching, with experience leading HR transformations for start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. I also hold certifications in Prosci® and iPEC CPC.

Kelly: I’m Kelly Guenther, and I hold a Master of Education, am an iPEC® Certified Professional Coach (CPC), as well as a certified Prosci® change management practitioner, and I specialize in holistic talent and people development, leadership training, and change management.

We founded Abbracci Group, where we work with individuals and companies to forge their own unique paths, offering expertise in coaching, strategic talent management, and people development. But we wanted to go beyond the HR space, and help ordinary people break free from all of life’s heavy expectations, by having real, raw (and funny) conversations with guests who’ve defied all of that – whether they’ve changed careers, overcome personal struggles, or challenged societal norms.

What’s the first podcast you ever listened to?

Keri: Honestly, I can’t remember the exact first podcast I ever listened to, but it was probably Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. I’ve love how Jesse has this gift for interviewing creative people in such a thoughtful way. The stories are always rich and inspiring – it’s the kind of podcast that makes you think and keeps you hooked at the same time.

Kelly: For me, it was This American Life on NPR. It’s such a classic! The storytelling is top-notch, and they dive into such a wide variety of human experiences. It was one of the first podcasts that made me realize how powerful the medium could be for sharing stories that connect people.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

Keri: The idea for the podcast came to us during the pandemic, when we realized it was time to evolve from the HR-focused webinars we’d been offering. With our shared love of podcasts we knew we wanted to create something that went beyond the HR space. Over the years, we’ve heard thousands of stories from people who’ve inspired us in profound ways, and we realized there was a bigger conversation to be had about breaking free from expectations and living authentically.

Our podcast was born out of that desire to dig deeper and share meaningful content that reflects the real-life struggles and victories everyday people experience when they decide to take control of their lives.

Kelly: It’s been an amazing way for us to connect with people outside the traditional HR world and highlight the stories of those who’ve pushed boundaries and broken out of the boxes in which they find themselves. We’re passionate about these conversations because they’re not just inspiring – they’re real, relatable, and often life-changing.

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

Keri: I draw so much inspiration from Bullseye with Jesse Thorn. Jesse is a phenomenal interviewer who has this incredible ability to dig deep and get personal with his guests. The conversations are rich, authentic, and I love learning from all the creative minds he brings on the show. It’s not just about their success stories but the real, behind-the-scenes journeys that inspire me.

I’m also a huge fan of Pivot with Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher. Their dynamic is unmatched – sharp, insightful, and they push you to think differently about business, tech, and culture. Plus, they’re not afraid to challenge each other, and I find their banter as engaging as their analysis.

Oh, and I can’t forget Hidden Brain. It taps into the science and psychology geek in me! The show takes complex human behaviors and breaks them down in ways that are fascinating and eye-opening. I’m always left with a new perspective.

Kelly: For me, it’s SmartLess all the way. Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett are hilarious and self-deprecating about how little they claim to know about podcasting. But their authenticity and vulnerability with each other, combined with their humour and incredible guest lineup, make it pure escapism. It’s a great reminder that we don’t have to take ourselves too seriously to have real, meaningful conversations.

I also really appreciate The Daily from the New York Times. In 20 minutes, it gives me a quick, yet insightful dose of news. It’s focused, gets straight to the point, and gives you just enough information without overwhelming you – perfect for staying informed when life gets hectic!

Who’s your dream guest for the podcast?

Keri: Oh, we love this question! Our podcast is all about people who have broken the rules and shattered expectations, so, naturally, we’re drawn to guests who embody that spirit. I would absolutely love to have RuPaul on the show. As a die-hard RuPaul’s Drag Race fan, I admire how RuPaul has consistently given a bold, unapologetic middle finger to societal norms and the establishment. His ability to not just survive but thrive in a world that tried to box him in is nothing short of inspiring.

Kelly: I’m a massive Serena Williams fan. Having played tennis, I’m in awe of Serena’s sheer power, grit, and determination. Serena didn’t just break out of the box – she smashed it to pieces. From her dominance on the court to her advocacy for women, mothers, and athletes, she’s the ultimate example of breaking through barriers, both personal and societal. Having Serena on would allow us to have an incredible conversation about resilience, success, and what it means to chart your own course.

RuPaul and Serena Williams – two trailblazers who’ve redefined what’s possible. Dream guests for sure!

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

Keri: The biggest lesson I’ve learned as a podcaster? It’s the incredible power of storytelling and just how resilient people really are. Hearing the journeys our guests have been through, their struggles and triumphs – it’s a reminder of how much strength and courage humans have.

But I’ll also be the first to say, podcasting is hard work! It’s a true commitment, and most of the time, it’s not about money. It’s about making an impact, knowing that your words are landing in someone’s ears, halfway around the world. That’s still mind-blowing to us – how many people are tuning in from all corners of the globe, all wanting to break out of their own boxes.

Kelly: One of the most important things I’ve learned is the art of truly listening. Podcasting demands an intense focus – you have to be fully present with your guest, completely in the moment. When someone’s sharing a raw, vulnerable story, it’s an incredible honour to hold that space for them. It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly, and that deep connection is what makes this medium so powerful. You’re right there with them, and so is the audience. That’s the magic of podcasting!

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

Keri: Ah, it’s like choosing a favourite child – but let’s be real, we all secretly have one!

When we look back at the episodes that really stick with us, Robert Markowitz and Celeste Headlee’s conversations immediately come to mind. Robert’s journey from lawyer to clown (yes, you heard that right!) is such a powerful example of breaking free from the expectations to follow a “respectable” career path. Instead, he chose something unconventional, something that spoke to him – and it’s such a refreshing and inspiring story about what it means to redefine success on your own terms.

Then there’s Celeste Headlee. Her episode challenges how we think about time, work, and the constant pressure to be productive. We still laugh when we talk about her saying, “We are not knives,” in response to the hustle culture’s obsession with “the grind.” Celeste really opened our eyes to how deeply ingrained societal and capitalist expectations are, and how liberating it is to question them.

Both episodes perfectly capture the spirit of The Breakout: part humor, part personal journey, part life lessons, and a whole lot of “you can do this!” They’re a great starting point for anyone wanting to understand what we’re all about.

You have a new book coming out, Whatever the Hell You Want, is that linked to the podcast? Please tell us more about it.

Kelly: Absolutely! Our upcoming book, Whatever the Hell You Want: An Escape Plan to Break Out of Life’s Little Boxes and Live Free from Expectations, is deeply inspired by The Breakout podcast. The stories, wisdom, and lessons from our incredible guests, combined with our more than twenty years of experience in coaching and organizational change, compelled us to write this book.

At its core, this book is about freedom: the freedom to redefine what success and fulfillment mean to you. We all deserve to experience true happiness, peace, and authenticity, and this can only happen when we take control of our lives, unapologetically.

Keri: As best friends and business partners, we bring a sense of humour, compassion, and actionable steps to the process. We’re also thrilled to introduce our BREAK Change Model, which we’ve refined from both our personal experiences and work with clients. It’s a practical, empowering framework to help readers.

Like the podcast, our book offers a roadmap to freedom and fulfillment. We’re so excited to share it with the world!

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

At the Abbracci Group website or the podcast website. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube and you can pre-order our book Whatever the Hell You Want: An Escape Plan to Break Out of Life’s Little Boxes and Live Free from Expectations here.

Listen to The Breakout on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast apps >>

This article was provided by Lower Street as part of a paid advertising package. To enquire about advertising with Pod Bible email info@podbiblemag.com

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Podcasts are a fantastic way to further connect with the subjects you are passionate about, and arts podcasts are no exception. Whether it’s giving you insights to artists and galleries, helping you experience a piece of work you can’t visit in person, or uncovering hidden histories of art movements, there is plenty to dig into.

The Great Women Artists’ Podcast

Katy Hessel’s podcast (and Instagram, and book) gives glowing introductions to the lives and practices of great artists. We get new, alternative insights into the lives of well-known women like Paula Rego and Yoko Ono; for others – like Ruth Asawa, Augusta Savage, and Suzanne Valadon – the podcast pushes back against their posthumous obscurity. Hessel also interviews contemporary artists practising today. Her interview with Marina Abramović is a highlight (you get to hear how she realises that Earth is the ‘Glasgow of the Universe’ in a planetarium) and required listening ahead of this autumn, when the artist will be the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the Royal Academy. Listen on your podcast app >>

Womanica

This iHeartPodcasts show is a five minute daily dose, reinjecting women into the history books. Each episode focusses on an individual woman, grouped in series like ‘Dynamos’, ‘Mothers’, and ‘Ragers’ (with the help of some corporate sponsorship.) Broad in scope and subject, Womanica leans towards the US, covering from Lorraine O’Grady, Sister Mary Corita Kent to Carolee Schneeman – another performance artist, most recently on show at the Barbican. But the episode on Julia Margaret Cameron is a welcome introduction to the artist and photographer at the fore of Tate Britain’s rehang. Listen on your podcast app >>

Writers & Company

Eleanor Wachtel, presenter and co-founder of the Canadian radio programme Writers & Company, recently announced her retirement from the show after 33 years of broadcasting. The farewells bid to her by everyone from Salman Rushdie to Zadie Smith are a testament to her remarkable legacy – and give us an opportunity to go back into the archives. W&C is a deep dive into the the lives, thoughts and works of remarkable writers from around the world, including Bulgarian poet Kapka Kassabova, the multi-hyphenate Amit Chaudhuri, and artist William Kentridge. It considers the act of writing broadly, and delve as much into the guest’s history as the subject of the episode. The episode on the anachronism-filled 2022 film Corsage, Marie Kreutzer’s portrait of the nineteenth century icon, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, is a must-listen. Listen on your podcast app >>

Talk Art

More contemporary is Talk Art, presented by actor Russell Tovey and Margate-based gallerist Robert Diament. Promising to ‘make art accessible, non-academic, non-elitist, gossipy and fun’, each episode feels like a warm conversation with a friend – and we’re in good company, with the likes of Lindsey Mendick, Lubaina Himid, Sonia Boyce, and Ai Weiwei. Still, my favourites are those that platform younger, lesser-known artists, like Paula Siebra. Stepping into her studio in Brazil (by Zoom), we learn why she loves painting glass jars, hates any sort of technology, and paints to the sounds of Simon and Garfunkel. It’s wonderful to hear other young people so driven by their practice: ‘I have a lot of work to do, I’m not dying today’. Listen on your podcast app >>

Arts & Ideas

Say what you will about the BBC – though some formats and presenters are a little staid, it still produces some of the best researched arts, culture, and history content in the field. The BBC Radio 4 shows might get the most attention, but it’s Arts & Ideas (sometimes called Free Thinking) from BBC Radio 3 that makes the boldest leaps. Some episodes explore well-worn subjects from alternative perspectives, like why we love to hate the Pre-Raphaelites, and what such hatred says about us. The series features a wide range of speakers, from Tate Modern’s Nabila Abdel Nabi talking about Hilma af Klint and the occult, to curator Craig Clunas, on what connects Freud and Chinese sci-fi films, and Rana Mitter, on how Artemisia Gentileschi shaped art and advertising. With its multidisciplinary panel, the recent episode on decadence dives into the art movement’s Orientalist foundations from different perspectives – and how ‘art for art’s sake’ has its origins in the colonial anxieties of nineteenth-century France, which feared a falling birth rate with the rise of women’s rights, contraception, and so-called ‘sex for sex’s sake’. Listen on your podcast app >>

EMPIRE LINES

EMPIRE LINES uncovers the unexpected, often two-way flows of empires through individual artworks – from theatre to architecture, painting to film. In fifteen minutes, we focus on one object as an artefact of imperial exchange, using art to understand the how and why, and challenge simplistic, monolithic understandings of empires. Recorded on location in the latest exhibitions, EMPIRE LINES features fascinating interdisciplinary thinkers in the field, with contemporary artists like Nalini Malini and Ingrid Pollard, curators from The Courtauld to the COBRA Museum in the Netherlands, and the team behind Tate Modern’s Surrealism Beyond Borders. Listen on your podcast app >>

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Jelena Sofronijevic is an audio producer and freelance journalist, who creates content at the intersections of cultural and political history. They are the producer of EMPIRE LINES, a podcast that uncovers the unexpected flows of empires through art, and historicity, a new series of audio walking tours, exploring how cities got to be the way they are. Their full works in print, including museum and exhibition reviews, can be found here. Follow them @jelsofron.

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Why did you decide that podcasting and audio was the best medium for this project?

Cast your mind back to 2020 when public life as we knew it ended, abruptly. Fear was rampant as an invisible and deadly virus swept the globe, claiming the lives of family and friends within days of developing a cough. Every day, a hapless Boris Johnson announced startling new death statistics of people who had ‘died before their time.’

What medium could give voice, power, and immediacy to the kind of catastrophic, widespread loss not seen in generations? In my mind, it could only be the most personal of mediums: podcasting. What could be more personal than losing a loved one to Covid 19 without warning, goodbye, or funeral and then dealing with grief in isolation? This is how the Stolen Goodbyes podcast came into being… remotely and via a laptop in lockdown. In the scariest and loneliest of times, this most intimate of podcasts empowered people to give voice to the incomprehensible loss of a loved one in these circumstances while enabling hundreds more to feel connected and accompanied in a grief like no other.

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I love a good story, happy or sad. As a journalist, I have spent my life listening to, investigating, and writing about stories so I tend to gravitate towards interview-based and story-led podcasts such as RedHanded. For audio design and innovation, it has to be George the Poet. The BlindBoy podcast is as funny as it is thought-provoking and as I’m a proper news junkie, I regularly opt into The News Agents. Given my Irish roots, I enjoy Mario Rosenstock’s take on the world.

Who do you hope listens to this podcast?

Other people who have experienced Covid grief.

Heather Hallett, chair of the public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Politicians who made and broke the rules including Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, among others.

Generations to come, be it in 2123 or 3023, as they will know what it was like to live through a pandemic and hopefully learn lessons. Thanks to the British Library, future generations will be able to do just that as the Stolen Goodbyes podcast forms part of the Covid 19 National Life Stories series.

Experts who can advise on how to unpack this most complicated, traumatic grief.

How has the project changed since the first season?

The first season was about capturing a historic event in real-time and giving a voice to the life, times, and unprecedented deaths of ordinary yet extraordinary people.

This latest season is about picking apart a troubling and as yet unexplored aspect of grief to Covid 19. I’ve called the season ‘Distorted Grief’ as we explore the manifestations of how losing someone to Covid 19 seems dreamlike and surreal like that special someone could walk through the door at any moment. The bereaved are experiencing this derealisation of reality because they were denied the rite of passage death rituals we took for granted such as saying goodbye, seeing and dressing the body of a loved one, and having a funeral.

This inability to confront death has produced some fascinating insights on the podcast, including one woman remarking: “I felt if I had stayed in lockdown, my dad might somehow come back again.” My guests join me in exploring the importance of sounds and voice recordings associated with loved ones, the joy of making unexpected connections, as well as sharing coping mechanisms, gratitude, and resilience in the face of adversity. We also examine our loved one’s legacies, including my own father who I lost in April last year.

Did you have to approach things differently with this season now that covid is less in the forefront?

I think that’s very much how here-today-gone-tomorrow politicians would like us to view Covid, as a thing of the past. We can’t afford to let moving on mean refusing to look back or to properly investigate what is happening now, in order to deliver a better, kinder, and better prepared tomorrow for the people who come after us. The reality is Covid 19 is unpredictable and will most likely remain a threat to our collective health for years to come.

The Covid 19 bereaved are still unable to close the circle of grief. They are stuck and need help to move on. The pandemic made an unequal society more unequal. However, the pandemic is also a once-in-a-generation chance to remake society and build a better future.

What you have personally learnt from podcasting?

Podcasting creates weird and wonderful connections and connections make life worth living. Listen…actively!

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

That’s a tough one as each guest brings unique and personal insights, experiences and stories. If I have to say, it would be: ‘Ten Months Without Our Husbands – Emma Charlesworth & Pamela Addison’. (Season one). I’ve chosen this episode because Covid 19 altered the trajectory of the lives of these two women when both their husbands died from the virus in their 40s. Despite being on opposite sides of the world, and in a sliding doors moment, they connected and became firm friends thanks to the Stolen Goodbyes podcast. It’s that thing about podcasting creating weird and wonderful connections!

There’s a lovely commonality and interplay between Emma and Pamela on the episode, where they share the (unexpected) highs and lows, the laughs and surrealness of suddenly navigating a life and parenthood without your other half.

You can follow Karen and Stolen Goodbyes on Twitter @Ricekmc, Instagram @StolenGoodbyes and Facebook @StolenGoodbyes. Listen to Stolen Goodbyes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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What was the first podcast you ever listened to?

The first podcast I ever listened to is a show called the GiantBombcast back in 2009, I was a big gamer at the time and I didn’t have the best internet connection to watch reviews or previews so it was a great way to stay in the loop and the personalities of all the hosts really impressed on me that doing a podcast could be fun.

Why did you decide to start podcasting in the first place?

I always had a creative streak but never really knew what to do with it, I’m not the best writer and can’t draw but always wanted to make things. After a stint in college radio I did an internship in commercial radio but the format never felt right. Eventually I decided to give podcasting a try when I went back to study journalism after listening to them for so many years and immediately it clicked. All the ideas I had in my head seemed to start to take form and I saw all the little threads that would pull the fragments of my notebooks together to become a reality.

Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?

I take a lot of inspiration from shows like Articles of Interest. I like to think about how different storylines come together to influence something as a whole, like the story of how a forearm tattoo on Tsar Nicholas II intersects with the Meiji Restoration in Japan and the decline of the Dutch trading companies. I like shows that take a small, almost inconsequential, story and use it to connect it to something bigger and more nuanced.

How do you navigate talking about the cultural aspects of tattooing?

One of the biggest things to remember about tattooing is that it is not a monolith, from the outside most non-tattooed people just see tattoos as tattoos, ink in skin and nothing much more than that, all painted with the same brush. When in reality tattooing as a culture is very diverse, from styles, to regions, to even who’s applying them. There has always been a very rich cultural history in tattooing that far predates tattooing machines or our modern ideas around tattooing. It’s an artistic medium that has touched every culture and subculture you could imagine, so it’s a lot more diverse and deep than most people think

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

Always save a backup and don’t drink sparkling water before recording.

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

I would recommend either our second episode, ‘Into the Land of the Painted People’ on the prehistoric origins of tattooing, or our episode on ‘Britain’s first professional tattooist’ Sutherland McDonald.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

There’s no such thing as a bad tattoo, just ones that aren’t appreciated yet.

Where can Pod Bible readers find out more about you?

You can find us on Instagram @beneaththeskinpod where we also share images of some of the tattoos we talk about in the show!

Listen to Beneath The Skin on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other popular podcast apps >>

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Safe travels!

Looking for even more travel podcast stories? Why not check out Melissa’s recommendations from last year. And if you need more playlists to inspire you, head to the Playlists tab now >>

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Death is as much part of life as birth and breath but it’s the part that most people rarely want to talk about. Why did you feel it was important to start this podcast?

I wanted to shine a light on the people who work with death as they are so rarely ‘seen’. Like the people who collect bodies from rivers, or photograph stillborn babies, or work in the mortuaries preparing our dead. Basically, the people doing the jobs we hope someone else is doing.

So my intention with Dead Honest is to bridge people’s fear of the unknown with their curiosity to know more so they can see how extraordinary these people are.

Most of the guests you have on are problem solvers and are the people you want in the room when death has knocked whatever the circumstance. One of your recent guests, Robert Jensen, stated that “you don’t want my memories”. Why is it do you think that these people want so badly to help in such dire circumstances and often at a large cost to themselves?

All of my guests have one thing in common: a deep desire to help others at the worst of time of their lives. For most it’s less of a career, and more of a vocation. Of course, burnout is a risk, and it can take a terrible toll, but I’ve never met a group of professionals with a greater sense of job satisfaction.

The podcasts’ central theme is ‘speaking about death honestly’. I was expecting a macabre listen however I couldn’t help but feel very safe knowing that people like your guests exist in the world. I was surprised not only to feel that way but also I couldn’t stop listening. Has being the host of this podcast affected you in ways that maybe you weren’t expecting?

Yes, I am affected by some of the feedback I receive. One listener reached out to me after the recent suicide of her brother to thank me for speaking so plainly about suicide when others wouldn’t. That email meant more to me than any number of downloads, because I’m also vulnerable in these interviews. I sometimes feel I’m treading on thin ice and so to get that feedback was hugely reassuring.

I really like what you said about your guests not wanting to be misquoted or sensationalised and therefore you give them autonomy on the final edits of their stories. With such sensitive material being discussed, what are some other ways in which you conduct the podcast as to suit the guest as well as the listener?

I want my guests to listen back to their final edit and think, ’Yes, that sounds like me. That is what I wanted to say’. And central to that is building trust. If they know they are in control, they will be more candid. It also helps that I work with bereaved families, as it means we can discuss graphic issues without the fear I will be disturbed or offended.

For the listener, there’s an advantage that I’m not some generic ‘host’ or a ‘presenter’. My questions come from my own natural curiosity so hopefully I’m asking the questions they want to ask. I have been told the podcast can be a “difficult listen” and I accept it is not for everyone. But we do need to get braver about having conversations around death, if only out of respect to those we’ll meet when it eventually finds us.

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

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Apple Podcasts and Pod Bible partnered up for a series of interviews with creators. In each issue, we ask creators about their podcast and how they use Apple Podcast Subscriptions to connect with their fans. We recently sat down with the editor at Tortoise Media, Basia Cummings, to learn about how they leverage subscriptions to build relationships with their audience, offer more content and perks to loyal listeners, and ultimately take their business to the next level.

Apple: Tell us about your podcast. What makes Tortoise stand out?

BC: Tortoise is different from any other kind of newsroom I’ve worked in, in two important ways. First, as our name suggests, we take the news slowly. We investigate what’s driving the news, not breaking news. Secondly, our journalism is built for – and with – our members who join our newsroom to tell us what they care about and inform our work.

Where can people listen to your podcast

They often access our work through our website or our app. As Tortoise grew, it became clear to us that, with all our investigative and storytelling expertise, podcasts were the best format for us. Becoming an audio-first publisher in 2020 allowed us to craft investigations and daily shows in a way that stayed true to our “slow” and “open” values — while significantly growing our audience.

What kind of shows do you make?

Today, our focus is very much on narrative storytelling, and we do this in different ways, in different podcasts, for very different audiences. The Slow Newcast is our award-winning flagship investigative show – one gripping story each week. Our daily shows, the Sensemaker and the Playmaker, take one story a day and make sense of the world of news and football. We also work on narrative series – long-term, ambitious stories over 6-8 episodes. These have included Left to Die, My Mother’s Murder, Finding Q, and the global hit Sweet Bobby.

What made you decide to launch a subscription on Apple Podcasts?

Building a relationship with our audience – whether through Tortoise membership, which brings people into our newsroom and informs our journalism – or through Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, is crucial to us at Tortoise as a business, and as journalists. Helping our audience make sense of the world is what we do, and it became clear as we were publishing Sweet Bobby, our hit show about a catfishing scam, that we were building a large off-platform listenership. Apple Podcasts Subscriptions enabled us to bring those listeners closer to our newsroom and give them a richer listening experience.

How do subscriptions fit into your overall business model?

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is a natural extension of our success in audio. When our daily Sensemaker hit seven million downloads and Sweet Bobby went viral towards the end of 2021, we realized that we had an increasingly loyal audience that we wanted to grow. Apple Podcasts Subscriptions benefits mean we can give early access to our investigations, exclusive content where appropriate, and ad-free listening. It means we can offer more while staying true to our values – and we can remain an open, slow newsroom that our members truly feel part of. What information have you gathered from Apple Podcasts Subscriptions?

We’ve been delighted to discover how young our listeners are. We always knew that the average Tortoise member skewed far younger than the average person who paid for media; 39 compared to 55+. But one of the things we’re particularly proud of is that our average listener age is 29. In the world of news, that’s really important. Through our membership and our audio subscription, we’ve debunked the myth that younger people aren’t prepared to pay for news content.

Where do you see Tortoise+ in a year?

Membership is one of the key barometers of our success. As we grow our membership over the next year and beyond, we can bring more voices into our newsroom, and fund more investigations. We have a brilliant slate for 2022, including stories from the Sweet Bobby team, The Slow Newscast team, as well as new shows with brilliant commentators and activists. And there’s lots of exclusive and bonus content in the works.

Tell us about an episode that you’re most proud of.

In June last year, a colleague told me that someone had messaged him about a terror attack in Mozambique. I remembered seeing it flitter across the headlines here in the UK, but I hadn’t followed it closely. A couple of weeks later, I sat down for an interview with two men, Nick and Wes, to learn more about what had happened. It was one of the most incredible, devastating interviews of my career, and became Left to Die, a three-part investigation into how a group of civilians was abandoned by the military, the government, and one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world, and left to fight for their lives as Islamist militant besieged them. It is a series that, I think, shows why being slow really matters; how it allows you to get deeper into stories that are quickly forgotten in the quick cycle of breaking news. But most of all, it shows how important it is to really listen to people, and hear their stories.

What would you say to someone who’s trying to break into the industry?

The piece of advice I would give anyone, whatever they are trying to do is: take your time. At Tortoise, it took us a while to figure out what the right format and approach to The Slow Newscast should be. It took months to land on the right format for the Sensemaker, which is now our biggest show. And by “taking time,” I mean: allow yourself time to figure out who this show is for and what you want to say. Also, never underestimate your sound designer. They are the magicians who transform the heavy, leaden script into gripping stories or unforgettable moments that’ll make you miss your bus stop.

Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is the global marketplace for premium podcast subscriptions. Join the community, build a following, learn more at apple.co/podbible 

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Banged Up is a chart-topping series hosted by prison lawyer Claire Salama and two former inmates (entrepreneur Rob Morrison and former professional footballer Mike Boateng aka Boats) who were each convicted of fraud and match fixing, and met in the gym of Wandsworth prison. Wildly entertaining and hugely thought provoking UK podcast Banged Up, about the reality of going behind bars  the most honest and darkly comic podcast out there about what prison is really like. After features in newspapers like The Independent, it has found its way onto many ‘best new podcasts’ lists (including our own!)

We asked the hosts how this podcast about prison came to be. Plus, Boats gives some first-hand advice about background noise for podcasters…

From left to right: entrepreneur Rob Morrison. prison lawyer Claire Salama and former professional footballer Mike ‘Boats’ Boateng

Some of the people you interview are speaking about very personal stories in an honest way. What do you think the secret is to being a good podcast interviewer?

Rob: Let them talk (something I have to keep reminding myself – Claire and Boats help too!). I think also by keeping the conversations generally pretty relaxed and light hearted.

Claire: Not being judgmental; I think we have avoided focusing too much on our opinions of matters relating to the criminal justice system and given the guests their chance to say what they think.

Boats: Sharing our own stories, our vulnerabilities, bad decisions. Especially in Season 1, when we went in-depth about our experiences, how we got to be in prison and how we found it, our reflections about our own actions, shows others that we have something in common and can relate.

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

R: I like that it’s long-format and you don’t have to condense answers or stories down into short soundbites.

C: I think there is great access to an audience. The fact you can multitask when listening to a podcast means that people can engage on a topic while going about their daily lives, that they might not otherwise have time to sit down and read a book about, or watch a documentary. Plus, the episodic nature means you can keep things entertaining and light.

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

R: Talk a bit less and a bit more slowly!

C: Enjoy meeting up in person as you will soon have to do this through a computer!

B: To always be yourself and don’t act up for the camera/microphone because you’ll get found out…

C: You mean, don’t watch football in the background while recording because you’ll get found out!

B: That! and be prepared to do interviews and sound like a broken record.

Which episode of your podcast means the most to you?

R: Ep 1 of the second series – Laura AKA Babs. We were really good mates and then lost contact while we were both inside and I wasn’t sure how she was getting on. Hearing her talk in the episode in such a funny way was just really enjoyable.

C: I really enjoyed Ep 4 with the prison governor, Andy. In my job, I am usually only in contact with staff when things are going wrong, chasing them for things that haven’t been done or raising concerns about a prisoner’s treatment. It was great to hear how empathetic the officer was, how he understood the importance of good governance and a reminder of how hard it is, not just for those locked up, but for those doing the locking up.

B: Episode 7 you’ll hear from a victim of serious violence. It’s not something Rob and I have really had to think about much before, there not being a direct ‘victim’ to our offences. His experience was mad and he doesn’t hold it against anyone, he manages to still recognise how important it is we treat people who have committed offences well.

Do you have a dream listener for the podcast? Who most needs to hear these stories.

R: Anyone who has formed their opinion of the prison system based on news articles in the Sun.

B: I would have liked to have heard these stories before going into prison myself.

Which podcasts or podcast hosts inspire you most?

R: I love Joe Rogan because he is a brilliant interviewer and the range of guests he gets on. Also How to Fail w/ Elizabeth Day for the same reasons. Malcolm Gladwell (Revisionist History) and Michael Lewis (Against the Rules) because of their ability to look at stories with depth and a different angle.

C: I’ve always been a fan of Louis Theroux as an interviewer and I have really enjoyed his ‘Grounded’ series over lockdown.

R: Boats, you can say Rob

You recently had a group photoshoot and described the results as ‘the World’s Worst Band’ – what would the band be called??

R: Rough Justice

B: (laughs and shakes head)

C: I don’t think Boats would be seen in a band with us! And it would certainly be a bad one with my lack of musical talent.

Finally, what is your current favourite podcast you would recommend to readers?

R: 1. Banged Up 2. Quickly Kevin will he Score – the 90s Football Show

C: Let me guess Boats, you don’t listen to podcasts?

B: Haha, correct!

C: He hasn’t even listened to ours!

Listen to Banged Up now on ACAST, SPOTIFY and ELSEWHERE. Follow Banged Up on Twitter @BangedUpPodcast and Instagram @BangedUpPodcast

The post Banged Up: A podcast about the reality of prison appeared first on POD BIBLE.

Chris Broad created his multi-award winning YouTube channel Abroad In Japan after moving to Japan to work as an English teacher in 2012. In the 8 years since its inception, Abroad In Japan has amassed over 2 million subscribers. Pete Donaldson, a co-owner of podcast production company Stakhanov, met Chris when he interviewed him for his radio show. Already a fan of the channel, Pete joined forces with Chris and the podcast was born in 2018. Since then, the podcast has pulled in over 11.5 million listens. Abroad In Japan is currently the only Stakhanov show that does not record on-premise, offering a unique set of production challenges – from the logistical to the very technical. As broadcasters have been forced to adapt to lockdown restrictions, remote recording has become an art of its own – one that Chris and Pete have long had to master.

What is your remote recording set-up?

C: Once Pete convinced me we should do the podcast, I snapped up a Rode NT1A condenser mic and that’s been my set up for 3 years now! We started out having a Skype call and recording our audio locally then mixing it together, and these days we use a service called Zencastr which does it for us. While most of the episodes are recorded from my apartment, the beauty of doing our podcast remotely is I can stick the microphone in my backpack and record from wherever I am. For example, last week I was in Tokyo for a meeting and I was able to record from my hotel room!

How have you had to adapt the show in the face of the pandemic?

C: Given both Pete and I are sitting in rooms 8,000km away, we’ve actually not had to change anything since the pandemic started. On the contrary, our setup has helped us weather the storm better than other podcasts, I think, which have had to quickly adapt and abandon the comfort of their recording studios. We could never have envisaged our setup would prepare us for a situation of this scale.

P: Yeah, to be honest, I’ve mainly been rolling with Chris’s schedule. Being in Japan, he’s had a lot more capacity to get out and about. While London’s been in lockdown, Chris has been all over the place – I’m well jealous!

C: For the three years we’ve been recording, Pete has recorded in London and I’ve recorded in Japan. Typically we record on Tuesday at around 6 pm Japan time and 10 am for Pete back in the UK, with both of us hunched over a cup of coffee! Still, my favourite episodes are the ones where Pete visits Japan and we get to record face to face. Hopefully, we can make it happen again in 2021!

What are some of the challenges of recording remotely?

C: Although I have the benefit of being able to host the podcast on the go, the downside is that it can take extra hard work to make sure Pete and I sound natural despite the distance. In the early days when using Skype, there could be a delay of a second or so which could lead to awkward pauses, most of which we removed in post-production.

P: I’m with Chris! Whereas most people featured in these pages will be painfully aware of the limitations and challenges when it comes to recording shows in homemade insulated tents made of duvets and blankets, we’ve been wrestling with the best way to record remotely since the beginning. Our biggest adversary is latency. We’ve had to find our rhythm over the last three years as London to Sendai is quite the distance for VOIP!

C: Yeah – it’s incredible to think we’ve recorded over 150 episodes in this exact format for the past 3 years. But it’s worked surprisingly well and many of our listeners early on mistakenly thought we were in the same room recording together.

Listen to Abroad in Japan wherever you listen to your podcasts. Follow Abroad in Japan on Twitter and Instagram.

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Stakhanov produces podcasts that entertain and inform, including some of the UK’s biggest and most popular shows – boasting a combined 4 million monthly listens and over 45 years of podcasting experience. Whether recording remotely or in our broadcast-grade London studio, we specialise in every stage of the podcasting process. To find out more or get in touch, visit our website at stakhanov.studio!

The post Abroad in Japan talk recording remotely, 5000 miles apart! appeared first on POD BIBLE.

In January 2015, long-time podcaster Helen Zaltzman – not quite yet a Podcast Champion but on her way to the honour – debuted her second audio project, The Allusionist. “I didn’t know what it would be until I really started it,” Zaltzman told The Guardian* later that year. She just began with the idea that: “There are hundreds of thousands of words in the English language and the combinations of those words and humans using them is almost infinite.”

That’s what each episode of The Allusionist is: a deep-dive into the history behind a word, phrase, dialect or other facet of the English Language (slang and swear words feature often), that has been forgotten now that the term has entered mainstream use.

After eight years of making Answer Me This! along with Olly Mann and Martin Austwick, Zaltzman launched The Allusionist as a solo podcast, with Austwick providing the music. At 131 episodes and counting (Zaltzman releases two or three episodes a month; the latest, Podlingual, came out on February 25th 2021), knowing where to start with the podcast can feel daunting.

The good news is, you can start anywhere! Each episode is self-contained, there are no narrative arcs, and any inter-episode references are clearly signposted. There’s even a Lexicon page on The Allusionist website, where you can choose a word, then find the episode that it appears in.

I’ve chosen these three episodes as the ones I think newbies should begin with – and, I asked Helen Zaltzman herself to comment on my choices. Here they are:

Episode 4 – Detonating the C-Bomb

You’ve got to love a podcast that devotes its fourth episode to the strongest swear word in the English language. But why is it the one that makes people recoil the most? Why is it so much more popular in the UK as opposed to the US, and why does it sound all the morse insulting if you hit the final ‘T’ hard? If, like me, you find yourself lost in these questions, then this episode is a great place for you to begin!

HZ: At this point, I was still learning what the Allusionist was, and how to make it. I hadn’t yet adjusted to having an audience that was not predominantly British but American, as there’s a different attitude to the C-word in the USA that I hadn’t really understood. It’s a lot of listeners’ favourite episode of the show – swearing is always a crowd-pleaser, I have since learned. Listen now >>

Episode 93 – Gossip

Gossip is an absolutely classic Allusionist episode: taking a term that has been unfairly gendered as female – and maligned as a result – then looking at why this has happened. Zaltzman uncovers the history of sexism and behind the term. Men gossip just as much as women, because it’s essential to building social bonds and finding out news in the workplace, but they don’t get the flak for it. Want to know why? Dive into this episode!

HZ: Gossip was an episode that came about because on a whim I looked up the word’s etymology, and found it to be very different to what I expected – I love it when that happens, Step Away is another episode like that, and the pieces about ‘bulldozer’, ‘lemur’ and ‘copper’. Although the history of the word is what piqued my interest, the main narrative of the episode is more about how the word has been twisted to dismiss something as trivial and feminine, even though gossip is actually really important, socially and culturally. Listen now >>

Episode 99 – Polari

This is an unexpectedly emotional episode, as Zaltzman digs down into a culture and a dialect that emerged in the late 1800s, in response to strict laws against homosexuality, but fell out of use once those laws were neutralised by the Sexual Offences Act 1967. It’s a reminder that our language not only carries history in its syllables, but also the creativity of those who refused to be silenced. The Polari words mentioned so familiar – they’re very much in mainstream use today.

HZ: Some of the most interesting and complex topics on the show are about LGBTQ+ words, and language of oppressed people. Polari covered both. Quite a few Polari words have entered popular vernacular but I wonder if people even know they’re saying words from a secret language that gay men used to communicate with each other before homosexuality was legal. Listen now >>

Listen to The Allusionist on ACAST, SPOTIFY and all other podcast apps.

*That 2015 Guardian piece suggests starting with these three episodes, confirming the legendary status of the Detonating the C-Bomb episode: PortmanNO, C-Bomb, Bosom Holder.

The post Where to start with The Allusionist appeared first on POD BIBLE.