Let’s take a look at some great podcasts that talk about disability.
The Disability Download podcast by the charity Leonard Cheshire has an interview with the model Caprice Kwai about disability and accessibility needs in the fashion industry. Changes with Annie Macmanus has an interview with Rose Ayling-Ellis from Strictly talking about the uptake in people taking British Sign Language classics (the podcast has also made itself more accessible by having transcripts available for this and all future episodes).
Our Voices podcast has a new series called ‘On Living with Disability’, with a recent episode featuring an interview with the Paralympian Alexandra Rickham. The History Extra Podcast has an episode looking at the lives of disabled people through history, in particular the Tudor era, featuring an interview with the author Phillipa Vincent-Connolly.
Finally, the Access All podcast, presented by Nikki Fox, featured an interview with the BBC’s Frank Gardner, who once again had to wait for ages on a plane waiting for his wheelchair to be made available. The series also recently featured an interview with Sheldon Riley, who talked about his journey to representing Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest this year.
NOTABLE NAMES ON PODCASTS THIS WEEK
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- Christine Quinn from Selling Sunset is on Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware
- The financial journalist Martin Lewis is on The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan this week.
- Grace Dent’s Comfort Eating podcast is back with Top Gear / Grand Tour’s James May joining Dent for the first episode.
- Stephen Fry is on The Filmmakers Podcast this week, talking about the lessons he has learnt from the directors he has worked with and gives tips about how to succeed in the film industry.
- Raynor Winn, the best selling author of the book “The Salt Path,” joins Matthew Bannister podcast Folk on Foot to talk about his new show featuring words and music of the South West Coast Path, teaming up with the Gigspanner Big Band.
- Emmanuel Dzotsi is on Twice Upon A Time with Janet Ellis, talking about how he went from growing up in Streatham to becoming the co-host of the hit US podcast Reply All.
- Johanna Konta, the former British tennis number one, is on A Question of Sport Podcast this week, talking about how she remains fiercely competitive event years after retiring from professional sport.
Here are our podcast picks for the week ahead
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Don’t Buy Her Flowers – Steph Douglas, the founder CEO of a popular online shopping website, is also the host of this thoughtful and insightful interview series with a big topic explored in each episode. Much kudos goes to Douglas for her interviewing technique, asking all the right questions on important topics such as maternal mental and adoption. I particularly liked an episode where she interviews death doulas and funeral directors Anna Lyon and Louise Winter where they discuss why we have to stop describing death as a failure.
“When we talk about how somebody ‘lost their battle,’ how can you not attribute failure to that when actually it is not about losing a battle,’ says Lyon. “We have to remove all of those words. If people describe it as their own journey, so if somebody is unwell and they describe it as battling their own illness, that’s something completely different. But it does a real disservice to somebody when we say they lost their battle. That perpetuates a myth that death is a failure. They didn’t live properly.”
HIV, Hope & Charity – A new podcast by the charity TVPS, a sexual health charity that supports people who have been affected by HIV. Presented by Sarah and Jess from the charity, this fantastic and engaging podcast explores the history of the virus and tries to tell the stories of heroes who have spent their lives creating awareness, developing breakthroughs or helping to reduce stigma. A recent episode delves into the early conspiracy theories that people assumed HIV, with reputable newspapers and magazines at the time reporting that its spread was down to vaccines. What you soon realise is that some disinformation that has been shared associated with the coronavirus vaccine has been thrown around for decades.
Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV – I love podcasts that either (a) explore our recent past to highlight how things we assumed to be fine were quite troubling or (b) is a deep analytical deep dive into something that people could have seen to be rather trivial. This comprehensive podcast looking at the history of reality television does both of those things.
Presented by the investigative journalist Sirin Kale and the journalist and broadcaster Pandora Sykes (who hosted the BBC Radio 4 series Pieces of Britney last year), this ten part documentary charts how reality television has evolved over the past twenty years. It thoughtfully delves into many interesting topics: from how reality shows viewers perceive you in a different way to how you perceive yourself, to how reality television changed the definition of modern celebrity and reflected a snobbiness towards working class people.
Truthdiggers – Finally, a new podcast for young listeners with a genius twist. After the first episode of this ‘true crime’ inspired audio drama about a missing person (don’t worry, it’s not gruesome or scary in the slightest), listeners get to decide what happens next by heading to the Fun Kids website and voting. There are new episodes each and every week. It certainly breathes new life into the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ format.
Before we go, just a quick reminder that submissions for the inaugural Irish Podcast Awards are upon us. The deadline for entries will be tomorrow (Monday) 23rd May 2022.
Meanwhile The British Podcast Awards (powered by Audible) will be taking place from the 22nd-23rd July. Just to let you know that this newsletter will be the place to find out all of the nominees, so look out for a special edition of this newsletter in the next few weeks.
