Listen to These Podcasts to Get Ready For The IWPF!

Aug 30th

We’re just over a month away from the International Women’s Podcast Festival 2024, and we can’t wait to be in a room with some of the most influential people in the podcasting world. One of the best things about a podcast festival is that you can get to know our speakers and their work before you even arrive.

To help you level up your excitement, we’re sharing some of the podcasts that have been made by our speakers this year. Whether you are looking for a catalogue of interviews, a community of sisterhood or some insight to the recent history of another country, these shows will keep that podcast itch scratched until October!

TAPE LETTERS

Tape Letters is a project that stretches across multiple disciplines, including poetry, photography and physical exhibitions – but at the heart is the sound of one person talking to another. When many Pakistanis migrated and settled in the UK between 1960-1980, they had to turn to an unorthodox form of communication to stay connected to friends and family back in Pakistan: recording and sending messages via post on cassette tape. Tape Letters features original tapes collected from families, as well as oral history recordings and interviews with the people involved in the project. Leona Fensome was one of the Producers on this series (alongside Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, who spoke at our last festival) and you can catch Leona speaking on the How to Tell Stories That Matter (and Make Money) panel at this year’s festival. Listen to Tape Letters now.

TO MY SISTERS

Courtney Daniella Boateng and Renée Kapuku are your online big sisters, and their show To My Sisters offers listeners in-depth conversations about subjects that often aren’t tackled enough. From how marriage changes your friendships, to healing your relationship with men, they offer episodes that are focused on wellness and growth but in a way that doesn’t ignore the social context. The sense of community comes out in the way they bring on guests to talk about their expertise, but also in the #TMSHotTakes episodes that react to the needs of their community, such as the recent ‘Racism in the UK Isn’t ‘Covert’ #TMSHotTakes‘. Courtney and Renée were recipients of the 2023 Content is Queen Micro Grant and we’re thrilled that they are hosting the From Audience to Community workshop on 4th October. To get a good context for their session, listen to the podcast here.

SLIDING DOORS

Based on the concept coined by the 90s movie classic, Sliding Doors host Jennie Becker chats to some amazing people from all walks of life about their Sliding Doors Moments. From Spandau Ballet’s Martin Kemp to Stef Reid MBE, the series gives some wonderful insight to some household names, as well as the randomness of life. We get to learn why Jennie Falconer left university, and hear Dane Batiste’s theory of the multiverse, or rather the ‘Daneiverse’. But we also get some episodes that ask us to consider alternative histories that set people on a path long before they were born. The sheer range of guests Jennie has spoken to is staggering, and so it’s very fitting that she will be running the Booking Great Guests workshop at this year’s festival. Listen to her catalogue of guests here.

AFGHAN STAR

Afghan Star is perhaps one of the most recommended shows of the moment, catching the ears of the editors at Apple Podcasts, The Week, The Telegraph, The Spectator – and most importantly we’re fans too! In the years between the fall of the Taliban and its return, people all over Afghanistan planned their lives around watching a musical talent show. The Afghan Star television series launched a cultural revolution, but when the Taliban returned in 2021 the show came to an abrupt end. John Legend narrates this series, but much like the Afghan Star television show, the podcast will pull you in with the true stories of the singers and the people involved in the show. This was produced by Meera Kumar, a producer whose work has been recognised by multiple awards. She’s also been named a Radio Academy 30 Under 30 and recently worked on the pilot episode of Sissy, which was a recipient of the Content is Queen Micro Grant 2023. We can’t wait to listen to her at The Shape of Shows workshop at this year’s festival, but in the meantime listen to Afghan Star here.

THIS IS DATING

This Is Dating is produced by the same team as the iconic Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel, which lets listeners in on real psychotherapy sessions. This Is Dating has a similar format and we get to eavesdrop on real people’s first encounters and dates, before hearing them speak to experts about how to (basically) do better next time. Both shows have the same feel of being let into something you shouldn’t quite be privy to, but in both cases you come away from episodes with small revelations that just might change the way you approach life. Hiwote Getaneh was one of the producers on the show, and as the only producer who was also dating at the time, she found herself having to approach the production in a different way to her colleagues. Hiwote will be hosting the Structure of Intimacy Panel at the festival this year. Listen to This Is Dating here.

INTERCONNECTED VOICES

Interconnected Voices was a product of the Transmission Roundhouse programme, which offers emerging presenters and producers aged 18–25 a chance to create content from the heart. Produced and hosted by Cherise Hamilton-Stephenson alongside co-producer Bridey Addison-Child, the show combined insightful political commentary with personal stories from underrepresented, diverse and minority voices. The show ended in 2020, giving it something of a time-capsule feel if you listen now, but some of the conversations were quite prescient (or perhaps, four years later, it is incredible how stagnant progress is…) Cherise will be speaking on the Power of the Producer Panel at this year’s festival. Listen here.

 

PLUS MANY MORE!

This is just the first page of the podcast app when it comes to incredible shows by our speakers this year. There are several speakers with shows we’ve recommended before and other speakers who are working on more than one show at a time, or providing support away from production:

  • Ella Watt’s passion project Camlann is a reimagining of the Arthurian legends.
  • Bea Duncan’s work on the last Anthems talks series shared conversations from trans individuals.
  • Natasha Miller’s food podcast Bitter/Sweet is a lovely, intimate short series.
  • Menopause Whilst Black from Karen Arthur was one of our first recommendations for providing a safe space through podcasting.
  • Raj Pander’s podcast Almost 40 is about getting older, but not necessarily wiser – it focuses on milestones, and not just the ones to do with age, but the ones that her guests think are important.
  • In The Reset Rebel, journalist Jo Youle meets the rogues, rebels, and rascals who have carved out a life on the island of Ibiza.
  • As the Founder of Chalk + Blade, without Ruth Barnes we might not be obsessed with the BBC’s Obsessed With… series.
  • And of course, the original true crime podcaster, Sarah Koenig will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Serial on the 3rd October at the Southbank Centre.

If you want to connect with incredible women like this who are shaping the rapidly expanding world of podcasting, you can join us on 4th October 2024 for talks, workshops, panel discussions and much more! Tickets are available now or find out more on the International Women’s Podcast Awards website.