Podcast Recommendations from Birmingham, U.K.

UniPodFest is coming soon to Birmingham

Hello, readers! Please forgive the very late send. My excuse is that I recently returned from The Podcast Show in London, which was a blast. AND that I just got back from having dinner with James Cridland of Podnews and Lauren Passell of Podcast The Newsletter at Mala Project. If you know, you know. If you don’t, please ask. Because I’d love to go there with you.

That’s all I’ve got by way of excuses and whatnot. Keep calm and carry on listening to podcasts!

-Arielle Nissenblatt, founder of EarBuds

Podcast artwork for The Documentary Podcast, The Trouble With Politics, Redemption Man, The Trojan Horse Affair, and What Happened to Ricky Reel?

Curated by:

👉🏽 Nina Robinson (she/her)

Why this theme?

👉🏽UniPodFest is a podcast festival in Birmingham for younger podcast listeners and creators. It has two aims; grow the podcast eco-system outside London and to platform diverse voices. 2024's UniPodFest features a special tribute to the city's late, great creative icon; the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah with special guest, the critically acclaimed multi-award winning podcaster; George the Poet. 

Podcast Picks

The Trojan Horse Affair podcast cover art

Hamza Syed and Brian Reed lead an important investigation revealing Islamophobia at the highest level and how it infiltrates all systems.

The Documentary Podcast podcast cover art

The Documentary Podcast

Birmingham's Grassroots Heroes by Soundtruism Productions for the BBC World Service. Featuring the amazing jazz legend Soweto Kinch, this documentary explores questions of Empire and racial discrimination in sport. Soundtruism organises UniPodFest. 

The Trouble with Politics podcast cover art

With the calling of the U.K general election, broadcaster Marverine Cole (another guest and advisory Board member at UniPodFest) has launched Trouble with Politics a politics podcast with a difference, from the perspective of people who are often marginalised by British mainstream politics.

Redemption Man podcast cover art

Bernard Achampong is another guest at UniPodFest and he founded the independent production company Unedited, which has just released a pilot season — including Redemption Man, about a man who carried a white cross through West London for 35 years.

What Happened to Ricky Reel? podcast cover art

This podcast is produced by Perminder Khatkar — one of the guests at UniPodFest. It's a true crime story of a bundled police investigation of a South Asian boy.

Sponsors

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Community

🎤 This week in Podcast The Newsletter: Lauren Passell writes: “‘But We Loved’ is a beautiful love letter to queer elders from host Jordan Gonsalves, who interviews them about their stories of coming out decades before he did. This series is building something beautiful to add to the archive.”

🎙️The TED AI Show, a brand new podcast hosted by AI-focused online personality Bilawal Sidhu, features TED Talks regarding AI and aims to be AI-optimistic, but AI-realistic as well. And the podcast won’t just be broadcasts of TED Talks; it’ll also feature interviews with figures from all sides of the AI world, like OpenAI’s Helen Toner — who was on the OpenAI board that Sam Altman was fired from.

🎵Primer is a music podcast that explores a genre of music from outside the English-speaking world. We hear the stories behind the genre's most important records, the lives of its artists, the cultural, linguistic, and historical context of the songs, and how that genre interacts with the rest of the world.

New EarBuds Blog Series 🔔 

Starting next month, Eliza Lambert-Arnold will publish a series of interviews on our blog that will focus on longtime podcasters and new talent alike!

Eliza wants to foster conversations around who is doing good work and how the industry can improve. Find our blog here.

Podcast news from Podnews

Spotlight

THIIIRD Waves: With My Naija Sisters podcast cover art

Through unfiltered chat and proud cackle, a roundtable of Nigerian-British women and non-binary folk explore the magic and madness of their shared heritage, and how it has informed the lives they live today, and hopes for tomorrow.

Lining up a wide range of topics such as what it's like growing up in the U.K. when you are Nigerian, to journeys to the motherland, experiences with passport control, and who our naija icons are, this series is a great way to reminisce, reflect, and understand the country known as “the giant of Africa.”

More podcast-related newsletters you’ll love

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