Freelance Pod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

May 04, 2021

00:38:34

Freelance Pod is back with some comedy-focussed episodes! I've made a little entry into the comedy industry during lockdown, and the pod is following me into this wild new world...

Please note the new url for the newsletter, Writing by Moonlight, which is now on Buttondown: https://buttondown.email/suchandrika/

If you were already a newsletter subscriber, you'll have moved over to the new newsletter with me - if you're not and love reading it, why not subscribe now?

Now, onto this episode...

PR, comedian, comedy promoter and podcaster Vix Leyton is the guest on this episode.

She's got brilliant advice from her own experience of working on two careers, PR by day and comedy by night.

Listen out for the time that Vix refused to be turned down for a job, it's inspirational! Take a tip from her and ask for that pay rise! Make the request that scares you, because "no never kills anybody."

Vix hosts the Comedy Arcade podcast, which probably features your favourite comedian one at least one episode, taking part in the hilarious anecdote competition across three rounds.

When we refer to "The Cavs," on this episode, we are talking about The Cavendish Arms pub in Stockwell, which runs the comedy night Comedy Virgins. You can find out more about the Cambridge Comedy Festival competition here, but unfortunately it's too late for any new entrants.

You can see Vix's work-in-progress 'I Feel P(r)etty' at Brighton Fringe and The Cavendish Arms this summer, while you can catch a live recording of Comedy Arcade at the Camden Fringe.

Here's where to find Suchandrika's fringe show 'I Miss Amy Winehouse':

Brighton: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/i-miss-amy-winehouse-wip-153490/

Camden: 3rd-7th August at the Etcetera Theatre, ticket link TBC

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Newsletter: https://buttondown.email/suchandrika/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jul 27, 2020

00:23:19

Journalist, poet and publisher / writer of media criticism newsletter Conquest of the Useless, Mic Wright guests on this episode. This is the last one of the current second season. Don't worry though, I'll be back with more great guests later in the year!

Mic both works within the media, and makes a living critiquing it, through his newsletter and Twitter feed. Digital platforms have allowed all kinds voices to be heard, and fair criticism of our media industry is vital. On this episode, Mic tells me how he does it, how it impacts upon him and what advice he'd give to a new journalist.

Find Mic on social media:

Twitter: @brokenbottleboy

Instagram: @brokenbottleboy

Mic mentions the journalist Henry Dyer on the episode, find him on Twitter here: @Direthoughts

If you would like 50% off a subscription to Conquest of the Useless, use this link: https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/freelancepod

It expires on 31 July 2020, so you've got until the end of the week from launch day!

And here's the Alana Levinson episode that Mic mentions

Here are the links to my August masterclasses:

- Personal essays

- Podcasting

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_14

Jul 19, 2020

00:28:37

Lauren Razavi joins me on this episode to talk about the future of work, how writers can use influencer tools to benefit their careers and what the digital nomad lifestyle might look like post-COVID-19.

At a tricky moment when we're gingerly leaving lockdown and wondering how our offices are going to work (or, if you're freelance like me, if you'll ever get to work anywhere other than home, help!) it's helpful to speak to Lauren, who's spent a lot of her career writing and speaking about what work could look like in the years to come.

Having worked on content for Google and on the future of work for The Guardian, Lauren has seen how the internet can amplify what we do offline, and how technology has given us the chance to work and live in a location-independent way. Lauren herself has been a digital nomad, and she's been thinking about how that lifestyle will have to adapt to a wary, post-pandemic world.

We refer to the great Study Hall piece, The Writer as Influencer: https://www.patreon.com/posts/writer-as-30653019

Lauren mentions this piece by Tiago Forte: https://fortelabs.co/blog/the-rise-of-the-full-stack-freelancer/

And here are some useful links on the filmmaker Ondie Timoner:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3798628/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_8

You can sign up to Lauren's newsletter Counterflows here:

https://laurenrazavi.substack.com/

You can find Lauren on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/LaurenRazavi

And on Instagram here:

https://www.instagram.com/laurenrazavi/

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jul 10, 2020

00:19:21

In 2011, two years after American radio producer and reporter Kim Fox had moved to Cairo to take up a teaching role at The American University of Cairo, the Egyptian Revolution happened, in response to increasing police brutality on what would turn out to be the dying days of President Hosni Mubarak's presidency.

Kim spent time at the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, which involved up to 2 million people. Over a decade later, the scenes she witnessed in Cairo are being repeated in Minneapolis after George Floyd's death, and around the world.

Kim also tells me about how her students use social media, in a country that has faced internet censorship both before and after Mubarak's fall, and how podcasting is growing - Cairo's now got its own podcast festival!

You can find Kim on Twitter @ohradiogirl (https://twitter.com/KimFoxWOSU), and you can listen to the Ehky Ya Masr podcast (from Kim’s students).

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jun 30, 2020

00:25:41

Alex Bertulis-Fernandes is a comedian and writer. She's been doing stand-up for the past year, and she is writing a memoir while being mentored on the Penguin WriteNow mentoring scheme*.

Alex and I met at the late, much-loved Clean Prose writers' space a few months ago, at a memoir-writing workshop taught by writer Cathy Rentzenbrink.

Alex was actually the person who broke some comedy news to me last week - that I was a nominee for the Funny Women Stage Awards 2020 - she had been in the same position last year, and she happened to see this year's announcement before I did!

On this episode, Alex tells me about her 'Dial down the feminism' artwork, which went viral on Twitter, and what that felt like. She goes into how social media helps a comedian's work these days, and how writing stand-up sets has influenced the writing of her book. She rounds off the episode with some great advice on why writers should aim to be vulnerable.

Find Alex on

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexbertanades

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexbertulisfernandes/

* Click for more information on the recent report into the lack of diversity in UK publishing

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jun 19, 2020

00:33:17

Freelance writer and author Flora Baker has combined memoir and a self-help guide in her first book, The Adult Orphan Club.

Flora lost her mother at 20, and her father at 30, just a few years ago. We 'met' via the Young Orphans Whatsapp group, although thanks to lockdown we have not yet met in person.

After her mother's death, Flora went travelling for five years, and detailed her adventures on her blog, Flora the Explorer. She admits now that the travelling allowed her to postpone doing the work of grieving, as the day-to-day adventures pushed her mourning aside.

She's written the book she needed back then, one which unflinchingly, but kindly, describes the complex aspects of grief that aren't talked about enough, and so arrive as a horrible surprise for the newly bereaved.

Flora's blogging has helped build her social media presence, and it's only this week that she's written for analogue media, with a piece in The Telegraph about her book, accompanied by a suitably socially-distanced photoshoot.

Self-publishing her book was a very different task, and she describes all the work needed on top of the writing to make a non-traditionally-published book the best it can be.

The Adult Orphan Club is available for pre-order now, and on sale from Saturday 20th June.

You can find the Young Orphans on social media:

Instagram: @Young Orphans

Twitter: @YoungOrphans

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised their work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

- Who are the women of the Manosphere?

Jun 12, 2020

00:33:44

MEL Magazine's deputy editor Alana Levinson joins me remotely from Los Angeles on this episode, to talk about how necessary editing is for good writing - but it's been devalued in a digital world where any of us can press publish whenever we like.

Sometimes, editing can feel like a judgement on the quality of our writing [bad, we assume], but Alana wants to reassure freelance journalists looking to pitch MEL that editing is a collaboration, to make the article the best that it can be.

And yes, she also delves into the origins of The Great Solicited Dick Pic Experiment by MEL writer Miles Klee, and what the piece revealed about the difference between male and female experiences of the internet.

We also talk about his piece on what Frankie Muniz - from Malcolm in the Middle - is up to now, part of a series on '00s nostalgia. He lives in Arizona and own an olive oil company with his wife, as well as tweeting rather cryptically!

Alana also shares tips on how to pitch her, what kind of stories she's looking for and how she works with writers as an editor. Her job as deputy editor at MEL involves overseeing long form features, investigative work, and special issues — in addition to daily editorial direction. She has also been a freelance writer for the past four years, so she knows what it's like on both sides of the fence.

Here are three MEL investigations recommended by Alana:

- The Doomsday prepper's time has finally come

- The trans men who get abortions

You can find Alana Levinson on social media here:

Twitter: @alanalevinson

Instagram: @alanalevinson

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised creativity and work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

May 29, 2020

00:31:44

When I saw Marie Foulston's tweet about the lockdown houseparty that she threw in a spreadsheet, I knew that I had to invite her onto the podcast to hear all about it!

Marie is now a freelance creative producer and playful curator, and was most recently Curator of Videogames at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. During her time working there, she was Lead Curator of the 'Videogames: Design/ Play/ Disrupt' exhibition, and you can read more about it in this New York Times piece: 'games-curator-victoria-albert-museum.html">Playing Games Can Be Hard Work. So Can Choosing Which Ones to Display'.

Marie tells me about the anxiety of organising the spreadsheet party and waiting for her friends to arrive - just like hosting an IRL soirée! The theme of feeling anxious links her shared doc party (which went v. well, thanks for asking, they even watched the sun rise, blissed out) to the mandatory nature of Zoom calls under lockdown, and to the huge success of the game crossing-covid-coronavirus-popularity-millennials.html">Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the pandemic.

Her stories of trying to create shared spaces online during the lockdown beg the question: what is the best way to be social when we can't be together?

You can still visit the party on Google Sheets here, but be warned, the document is now locked, and all the cups contain off-brand vodka - sample at your peril...

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised creativity and work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

https://twitter.com/paruledits

May 15, 2020

00:23:52

Joining The Writers' Hour every morning for one week early on in lockdown helped me break through the cobwebs and write the outline of the book that I've been working on for the past year, in fits and starts. I used the hour to write longhand, which always helps unlock my creativity.

The Writer's Hour is a simple idea: every weekday morning between 8 and 9am BST, the founders of The London Writers' Salon, Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti, hold a Zoom meeting where writers turn up, enter into the chat box what they want to achieve in that session and then... write. For an hour. With the web cam trained upon them. Meaning that a load of other writers can see them writing too. It helps alleviate the loneliness of writing, which is particularly lonely during lockdown. At the end of the hour, Parul and Matt hang around for 5-10 minutes to chat.

Parul, a book editor who's available for consultations on manuscripts, joins me on the podcast to talk about how the publishing world works in a digital age, the questions to ask of yourself before getting started on that book idea - and what it was like to fall for Stieg Larsson's novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo before the public did, making it a massive hit.

Here are a few links from the episode that you might find useful:

https://twitter.com/writerssalon

https://twitter.com/trinetti

https://londonwriterssalon.com/

https://writershour.com/

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised creativity and work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Apr 30, 2020

00:29:50

We're tackling some big subjects on this episode of Freelance Pod: imposter syndrome, how social media leads to 'compare and despair' and how living under a pandemic lockdown affects our sense of self.

Joining me for this episode is Dr. Richard Orbé-Austin, author and licensed psychologist in the state of New York. He's particularly interested in how freelancers and creatives can build strategies to combat imposter syndrome.

Social media shows off everyone's highlight reels, but it doesn't always reflect the hard work that went into that success, or the luck, or the generational wealth and opportunities. Only knowing the person's full story can tell us that. Dr. Orbé-Austin suggests listening to podcasts as a better way of diving into the story of a person you admire. And if you can't find a podcast episode they're on? Reach out and connect with them!

Imposter syndrome is fuelled by the automatic stories we tell ourselves inside our own heads. These stories com from our childhoods, education, early days in work, passing comments that stung but stuck. We can change those narratives ourselves.

Dr. Orbé-Austin's recent book, co-authored with his wife Dr. Lisa Orbé-Austin, is all about tackling imposter syndrome. It's called Own Your Greatness: Overcome Impostor Syndrome, Beat Self-Doubt, and Succeed in Life.

Have a watch of his Instagram video, Five Tips for Overcoming Imposter Syndrome as an Artist.

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Mar 23, 2020

00:59:40

Freelance Pod is back after a little break! It's now a monthly podcast, but everything else stays the same. Of course, until the Coronavirus Lockdown is over, it's going to be remote record all the way...

So this episode is the live show from November 2019, when author Gemma Milne joined me onstage at the beautiful Boulevard Theatre in Soho, London.

Gemma's book Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It is available for pre-order now, and is out on 23rd April. It comes in audio form too, narrated by Gemma herself.

The non-fiction book takes a look at "bombastic headlines about science and technology," which "are nothing new," but this kind of hype can "be responsible for fundamentally misdirecting or even derailing crucial progress." It's the perfect book for the Age of Covid-19.

Gemma joined me onstage to talk redundancy, branding yourself online, how her early years in advertising informs her work, how the internet has transformed reporting - and, of course, how she wrote a book.

Along the way, she drops loads of great advice for budding authors, freelancers and career-changers. Gemma's currently working on her second book, and she was called "inspirational" by more than one person in the audience that night.

Enjoy the episode - hope you're staying very safe and well!

On each episode of Freelance Pod, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Grief doesn’t have five stages (https://theoutline.com/post/6135/unconventional-wisdom-no-stages-of-grief?zd=2&zi=nn56rjpu)

Nov 14, 2019

00:35:49

Author Rachel Vorona Cote joins Suchandrika Chakrabarti on Freelance Pod's first birthday episode, to talk about grieving in a digital age.

We first spoke after I read Rachel's Longreads piece, The Fraught Culture of Online Mourning (https://longreads.com/2019/05/21/the-fraught-culture-of-online-mourning/), earlier this year. Rachel had lost her mother 18 months before writing the essay.

She took to the internet during her mother's last illness, tweeting updates. Soon after her death, Rachel wrote Dead Mom Soundtrack, or the Top 5 Songs About Losing Your Mother (https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/dead-mom-soundtrack-or-the-top-5-songs-about-losing-your-mother/?mbid=homepage-more-latest-and-video), for Pitchfork.

As someone who lost their parents in an analogue age, I'm fascinated by how the internet has enabled greater visibility for the bereaved. It's possible to find people in a similarly painful and isolating state anywhere in the world, and to have meaningful, cathartic conversations without ever meeting - as Rachel and I have.

I've left in Rachel's side of the conversation, where she talks about my early experiences of grief. Perhaps I'm not ready to get into them on this podcast yet; it's too intimate. She mentions a couple of personal essays I've written, so here are links:

The storage unit that became a portal to my childhood home (https://www.curbed.com/2019/10/10/20905310/story-deceased-parents-grief-storage-units)

Check out Rachel's book Too Much (https://www.amazon.com/Too-Much-Victorian-Constraints-Still/dp/1538729709/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1EA01G90E9E34&keywords=too+much+rachel+vorona+cote&qid=1559599468&s=gateway&sprefix=too+much+rac%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-1), which is available to pre-order now, and is published in February 2020.

Don't forget that there are still tickets available for Freelance Pod's third live recording of the year, at the Boulevard Theatre in Soho. They're only £12, and what else are you doing this Sunday evening? (https://boulevardtheatre.co.uk/whats-on/sunday-service-podcasts-2/)

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Oct 28, 2019

00:58:13

It's a Standard Issue x Freelance Pod crossover episode! I met up with Jen Offord, Mickey Noonan and Hannah Dunleavy at the Boulevard Theatre, Soho, to talk about our upcoming live shows there, how the internet has changed journalism, feminism and what their live recording has in store for the audience.

Here's the Instagram album containing the picture we talk about in the cold open. It's definitely worth a look, especially if you love neon!

You'll also hear a little bit from writer Gemma Milne, who's guesting on Freelance Pod's live show at the Boulevard on Sunday 17th November.

Standard Issue Podcast is the result of live shows that the gang - including their boss and SI founder, Sarah Millican - used to put on to support the original online magazine. So the liveness started first - the podcast second.

Mickey and Hannah are trained journalists with years of experience on newspapers and magazines between them, with a major highlight being Mickey having spent 9 months as a sexpert on a lads' mag. They've also both tried their hands at comedy in the past. Jen came to journalism from the civil service, and in truly early internet tradition, set up a themed blog that caught the imagination, and resulted in articles, TV appearances and a book deal.

We recorded this episode on a landing at the Boulevard Theatre, in true Soho style, between a lift, a loo and a glass bridge by a neon tattooist sign. Cheers to the theatre's Emma Groome for sorting us out!

Look out for Standard Issue's women in TV-themed live show at the Boulevard on Sunday 10th November.

You can find SI on the socials here:

Instagram: @standardissuepodcast

Twitter: @standardissueuk

Facebook: @standardissuemagazine

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Oct 06, 2019

01:31:40

This very special episode of Freelance Pod was recorded in front of a live audience at the London Podcast Festival in September 2019!

Pod fave Abdulwahab Tahhan returns for this 90-minute episode, in conversation on-stage at Kings Place with host Suchandrika Chakrabarti. Syrian refugee, stand-up comedian, journalist, lecturer, a person who's now clear on what the word 'loo' means... Abdul's got some good stories to tell. He takes us on a journey from his childhood in Aleppo all the way to opening a comedy set for Romesh Ranganathan at the Southbank Centre , with a bit of border-hopping and latte-making in between.

These slides provided the backdrop to the show, and they are referred to, so you might want to take a look. Don't worry, you'll still understand the episode if you can't see them!

Does this episode make you feel like you missed out on the live show? Well, you kinda did... but fear not, there are MORE:

- Freelance Pod will next go live to celebrate the Refugee Journalism Project in October

- Freelance Pod will go live with a special guest at the newly-reopened Boulevard Soho Theatre in November

- Suchandrika will be giving a workshop in how to adapt a podcast into a live show at the Newsrewired conference in November

- Here are Suchandrika's thoughts on adapting an audio-only project into a fully visual and interactive experience

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Sep 02, 2019

01:10:28

Beth Ashton, The Telegraph's head of social media, kindly invited me over to their offices to tell me about how they do... social media. Traditionally, The Tele's newspaper readers have been amongst the oldest in the UK, which should present a challenge to converting them into online readers. They've also got a metered paywall and Premium content that stops quick and easy reads or sharing.

Nevertheless, as Beth tells us, The Tele is one of the few news websites to make Snapchat work, and to harness the power of social media to bring in newer, younger readers. Going niche is good, and allows for a different tone - compare the Telegraph's main Instagram feed to Telegraph Royals, for example. Their columnists and their podcasts also present unique content that convince readers to subscribe.

The endless algorithm changes makes managing a social media team tough, as best practice is always changing, and messaging can get missed - Beth is refreshingly candid about these lesser-known issues on the pod.

We first met when Beth was head of audience at the Manchester Evening News, part of Reach Plc, and I was working across the regional publications, while based at the Daily Mirror. Beth and the team worked flat-out on the night of the Manchester Arena bombings, a horrifying event that ended up shining a spotlight on how well the city can come together in a time of need.

While we're talking about how the MEN covered this event, we mention former Teesside Gazette reporter Beth Lodge's great work on a memorial Facebook Live that has been watched by over 1.6 million people.

p.s. Who's the Romesh that Abdul Tahhan's talking about at the very beginning? Yep, it's the one you think. Abdul's opened for him.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Newsletter:https://suchandrika.substack.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Aug 25, 2019

00:36:14

BBC Radio 4 Extra's Podcast Radio Hour has become another way to discover great podcasts, as well as an opportunity for some lucky podcasters to get heard on the radio.

Host and producer Amanda Litherland came up with the idea a few years ago, and found herself thrown in front of the microphone. Luckily, her comedy background has helped her presenting, although she is open about only practice can give you interviewing skills - and the confidence to ask those questions.

On this episode, we delve into what makes podcasts different to radio, why comedians and podcasts go together and the Eddie Mair advice that helps her show.

Amanda loves podcast recommendations, so do give her tweet @amandalitherland. If it's funny, all the better!

You can hear Freelance Pod on Podcast Radio Hour here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003tnr

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Aug 20, 2019

00:45:13

Here it is, the Freelance Pod guide to the London Podcast Festival 2019, with programmer Zoë Jeyes!

Zoë is Deputy MD and Comedy Programmer at Kings Place, and has been working there since it opened 11 years ago. A longtime podcast fan, she first floated the idea of a festival in 2014, with the first one going ahead in 2016.

Since then, podcasting as a medium - and an industry - has exploded, and the 2019 festival is set to be the biggest one yet, with 60 live shows and a whole weekend of workshops for anyone who wants to start a podcast, or learn more about the industry.

Freelance Pod's live show is at 2pm on Saturday 7th September. I'm also going to see Mostly Lit, The Allusionist and Rule of Three - at least. Tweet me @freelance_pod, or message me at @freelancepod on Insta to let me know if you've booked tickets too!

Listen to the episode to find out the surprising places that Zoë listens to pods (she is *dedicated*), how to transform a good podcast from its oroginal audio form into a visual, interactive show and

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Aug 11, 2019

00:49:54

"I loved being a journalist," writes Jackie Annesley in a frank essay about losing her last job in journalism, as editor of The Sunday Times Style supplement, where, among many other things, she commissioned the PanDolly podcast from two of her columnists; it's now better known by its second name, The High Low, with journalists Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton.

Jackie's exit from The Sunday Times is accompanied with euphemisms about 'replacement' and 'commercial decisions'. In the months that followed what she felt was the end of a career in newspapers - editing The Sunday Times' News Review, being in charges of features at the London Evening Standard and editing the Daily Mail's Femail section - Jackie realised that this sudden change in circumstances could, in fact, work for her.

She's now Creative Director for start-up Soda Says. 'Soda' stands for School of the Digital Age, and, according to their Instagram bio, they've been "selling tech to you and your mother since 2017." Jackie writes a fun, irreverent weekly newsletter for them, and hosts the podcast Talk Tech to Me, where she asks starry guests to explain their relationships with their mobile phones. The first episode features Anne Robinson of the Weakest Link fame, and it's great fun.

What Jackie has to say is packed with wisdom and good advice, as well as an appreciation of how journalistic innovation has sped up thanks to the internet, while the money has drained away... thanks to the internet. A "sunset industry"? Perhaps, but the lessons in communication that journalism teaches you are more important in a digital age than ever before.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jul 22, 2019

00:37:31

Matt Cooke is Head of Partnerships & Training, Google News Lab, part of the Google News Initiative.

Google News has been a major factor in completely changing how news is indexed, distributed, discovered and consumed. That's because the internet has changed news distribution to include you, the reader, the audience, yes you, you control what you want to see, when you want to see it. Alongside sharing and self-publishing on social media, Google indexing news has completely changed the industry.

Matt's now spent almost as much time building Google News Labs as he did working at the BBC, on news and, memorably, as presenter of BBC Three's 60 Second News. He thinks that transparency is the key to winning audience trust, and he cites this well-known BBC Africa Twitter thread as an example of showing the inner workings of journalism for the greater good. Despite working in a very digital world, though, Matt still buys his trusty local newspaper once a week.

This episode is packed full of his insights into digital journalism, and his advice for journalists who've reached a crossroads in their careers.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jul 14, 2019

00:21:23

Did you know that there's a Freelance Pod live event at the London Podcast Festival in September? Yup, alongside big hitters like The Guilty Feminist, Have You Heard George's Podcast and The Allusionist, Freelance Pod is going to have its first live event, and you can be part of the audience! Click this link for more information, and to buy tickets for under a tenner.

This episode is a little introduction to the live event guest, Abdulwahab Tahhan. Abdul came to London from Syria as a refugee in 2012, taking a long and tough journey through Turkey. He's now a stand-up - warming up crowds for comedy legends like Romesh Ranganathan - as well as working towards his PhD, writing for The Guardian and developing a podcast to let other refugees tell their stories of settling into British life.

There was a time when Abdul was new to the UK and applied for 100 journalism jobs, without any luck. In 2015, he joined The Refugee Journalism Project's one-year scheme, which transformed his professional life. The workshops and networking helped him get a job as a researcher with the NGO Airwars, and paved the way towards all the exciting things he's doing today.

If you like what you hear on this episode, join Abdul and Freelance Pod host Suchandrika Chakrabarti for the live recording at Kings Place in September!

This is also Freelance Pod's 30th episode! Find out why that's an important number to Suchandrika on the pod...

Suchandrika Chakrabarti was also the guest on the launch episode of The Media Insider, with author and PR Helen Croydon. There's a snippet on the pod, and you can find the episode here.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jun 20, 2019

00:31:36

Journalist, author and founder of the soon-to-be-launched Freelance Feels, Jenny Stallard joins me on the podcast to talk about her career moving from print to digital, her freelancing journey and why freelancers need to more vigilant about our mental wellbeing than the more traditionally employed. I've written here about how freelancing got me down, and how this podcast solved it! Love U, Freelance Pod!

Along the way, she looks back at the creation of mega-helpful freelancer Facebook Group, The No1 freelance ladies' buddy agency, which has supplied me with work and new contacts among other freelancers and even editors - it's a must-join for all freelancers.

Freelance Feels is going to be a blog, podcast and coaching service. As journalism moves from analogue to digital, the need for continual training grows, as the opportunity for ongoing training in or out of a newsroom shrinks. Jenny talks us through her ideas to help that situation.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jun 07, 2019

00:34:28

Deez Links is "a dailyish link to cool shit happening in & around the media industry." Each day, Delia Cai - also Growth & Trends Editor at Buzzfeed - sends out one link. Just one link. She really sells it, in the way you'd want a particularly well-informed and fun friend to sell it to you. It's working out for her - Deez Links turned three in February, and was recently voted fourth most popular media newsletter, after Nieman Lab, Axios and American Press Institute.

Delia guests on the podcast to talk about how she wanted to take the quick wit of a Snapchat streak and turn that into a newsletter; how extra her third birthday celebrations for Deez Links were, but the community she built loved meeting in IRL, so actually, it was just enough; and the joy of having a passion project.

Here's my take on how an enjoyable side project can rev up your creativity.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

May 31, 2019

00:20:49

We've got a new season of Black Mirror on Netflix, so here are Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones to talk us through Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too, Smithereens and Striking Vipers. They also take the piss out of each other and make me LOL.

Don't worry, there aren't any spoilers, so you're safe to listen before watching the season. It is, however, extremely sweary right from the start.

Along the way, there are bits on Newswipe and Screenwipe, a blast from the past of the Unnovations Catalogue (!) and some insight into Andrew Scott aka Moriarty, aka Fleabag's Hot Priest and the ranting character he plays in the episode Smithereens.

Season 5 episodes discussed: Striking Vipers; Smithereens; Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too.

Read a write-up of the interview in the New Statesman here: “For civilisation, it’s a bit depressing”: Charlie Brooker on Black Mirror’s relevance

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

May 19, 2019

00:40:46

This episode for Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK features Dr Samara Linton, and will be out later today. She tells me about putting together The Colour of Madness, the book that she co-edited. It's about the black and minority ethnic experience of mental illness, mainly in the UK, the medical services around it and how racial stereotypes remain, grimly, a part of that process.

The book that takes a frank, clear-eyed look at how the failures of those services can lead to vulnerable people missing out on help, getting misdiagnosed or ending up in prison. It's a snapshot of this moment in time, when we're more open than ever to talking about mental illness, but that conversation still marginalises certain groups.

Samara and her co-editor Rianna Walcott crowdsourced the contributions to the book, in a smart and thoughtful use of social media that Samara explains in detail. While a lot of people might be leaving Facebook, those groups are still a digital town square for those united by an interest, cause or shared experience.

On Mental Health Awareness Week: dem.com/growing-up-with-a-schizophrenic-mother-doctors-detainment-and-dealing-with-her-death/">I wrote for the first time about my mother's struggles with a chronic mental illness.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

May 12, 2019

00:32:35

It's part two of my interview with Twitter's Director of Curation, Joanna Geary. She takes us through her career from working at The Guardian to starting out at Twitter in 2013, with loads of great insight on how the journalism industry has tried and tried and tried again to mould itself to the demands of the internet.

Joanna's also got some great tips on taking your skills out of the newsroom and into a tech company, if you're starting to look at other options.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

May 07, 2019

00:36:26

Joanna Geary started out as a print journalist in 2004 - as a business reporter on the Birmingham Post - and ended up in charge of Twitter's Curation team in 2017. That's a job and a company that didn't exist when she started her career.

From blogging in Birmingham and using Facebook to find people on the scene of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, to setting up Hacks/Hackers in London, via The Times' paywall and The Guardian's social strategy, Joanna tells me how her career has been shaped by working at the intersection of news and digital.

It's a period of time that's seen the news industry turned inside-out. Joanna got her big break into the nationals thanks to a Twitter DM, and she has great insight into how to manage culture change, digital innovation and managing a yearning to work in tech when she thought she'd always write for a living.

This is the first episode in a two-parter - make sure you tune in for next week's episode, where we follow Joanna's journey from The Guardian to Twitter (via a LinkedIn message).

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Apr 22, 2019

00:43:26

Every freelancer I've interviewed for this podcast - or just met in the past 11.5 months of freelancing - has worn multiple work hats. It's just the way of things, as freelance consumer journalism is very unlikely to pay the bills to live in a major western city in 2019 AD.

Talk to freelancers making decent money from content marketing, and they'll most likely mention Contently. Founded in 2011, the platform works with brands to find them storytellers.

Deanna Cioppa, Executive Editor at Contently, joins me on this episode to talk about how to start a portfolio to appeal to brands, what her team is looking for in your past clippings and bylines to match you to brands and how content marketing differs from journalism in some important ways.

A former journo herself, Deanna knows how scary it can be for journalists to move into this space, and she's the authority on what brands are looking for in writers.

Contently also has The Freelancer, a publication written by freelancers, for freelancers. I had my first piece published there this weekend, a love letter to Freelance Pod and how it's helped my creativity. Let me know if you have any thoughts on it!

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Apr 15, 2019

00:34:04

If you're a keen podcast listener, you might recognise Caroline's name from the Hot Pod newsletter, or, since yesterday, from The Browser's daily inbox offering. Sign up for The Listener here: https://thelistener.email/

Podcasts and newsletters have a lot in common: each one develops its own voice and character, and gets delivered into its audience's private spaces: ears and email inbox. Caroline and I discuss how both are a good substitute for having your own column.

Caroline's got a book coming out in June, The Way to the Sea, and its topics include the Thames Estuary, which leads out of London to her childhood home in Kent, and is where her parents first pitched up in England over 30 years ago, after sailing over from apartheid-era South Africa. What do immigrants become after spending over half their lives in the new country, and brining up children who are more of the new land than the old? Maybe we need a new word?

Caroline is also a podcaster, with the British Podcast Awards-nominated Shedunnit, which take a deep dive into the real stories behind classic crime fiction. It's up for a prize in the Smartest Podcast category, so one to try if you like crime fiction and also feeling S-M-R-T. Wait. Was that a Simpsons joke?

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Apr 08, 2019

00:09:23

Bonus mini-episode!

Freelance Pod was featured on BBC Radio 4 Extra's Podcast Radio Hour! Host Amanda Litherland and guest Renay Richardson listened to a clip from the third episode of the podcast, Music sounds better with you, feat. BBC 6 Music producer Shola Aleje. They went on to discuss Shola's advice on making a podcast, freelancing and self-care.

Find the whole show on BBC Sounds here.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Apr 01, 2019

00:42:15

Two years ago, audio producer Lewis Raven Wallace was fired from his job at Marketplace, a radio programme made by American Public Media.

He had refused to take down a blogpost he had written in response to Donald Trump's recent inauguration, Objectivity is dead, and I’m okay with it. As a member of a marginalised group - Lewis is trans - he delves into the myth of 'journalistic objectivity', which is central to American journalism.

Who gets to occupy this central space and view the news with an 'objective', dispassionate eye? The privileged, certainly. But hasn't the status quo shifted quite far with Trump? We need to hear from the passionate activists now, too. Digital is more often than not their medium.

Since that painful moment in his career, Lewis has gone freelance and written a book, It's about to be published, and will be accompanied by his new from-somewhere-lewis-wallace.php">podcast - both called The View From Somewhere.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Mar 24, 2019

00:29:06

This episode's guest is writer, coach and podcaster Rebecca L. Weber.

Born and raised in Boston, Rebecca takes us along on her journey from the US to South Africa, and from teaching to journalism to teaching writers to build freelance businesses, and coaching those new to writing on their way to becoming freelancers.

Like many freelance writers, Rebecca wrote a newsletter, but it only really started making sense when she converted it into The Writing Coach Podcast. Through podcasting, she gets more feedback from those needing her coaching, and she can form a clearer idea of which issues need to be addressed right now, as freelancers learn to adapt to the ever-changing digital world.

As a fellow digital comms trainer, I'm with Rebecca - us freelancers have to stay open to continual training.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Mar 17, 2019

00:27:43

This episode's guest is ex-BBC journalist turned social media trainer and content strategist Sue Llewellyn of Ultra Social!

You heard a bit from her on the International Women's Day compilation episode, but here she is on an episode of her very own, at long last... after I managed to screw up two of our recordings! Third time's the charm, right?!

Sue takes us on a whirlwind tour of how social media has changed work, and the world! Covering everything from training the England football team to use social, to making risky red carpet broadcast decisions, to how badly older women are treated by the media, to plugging in a landline to sit alongside her typewriter in the analogue days, Sue's tales from her career are hilarious, and also completely on theme for the podcast - she's personally seen how the internet has totally transformed journalism.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Mar 07, 2019

00:33:11

It's International Women's Day 2019, and so I decided to celebrate all the amazing female guests who've been on the pod, plus tease you with a few voices from upcoming episodes.

Enjoy!

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Mar 02, 2019

00:30:28

Freelance journalist, author and campaigner Anna Codrea-Rado is this episode's guest. I was lucky to meet Anna (Twitter: @annacod) at a journalism event about a week or so after my redundancy last May, because she is so positive, but also practical, about making a freelance career work. At the time, I was just about keeping the feelings of panic repressed, while I tried to learn what freelancing is all about... [still learning, btw]

Anna is the author of the free First Aid for Freelancers e-book, The Professional Freelancer weekly newsletter and she's the brains behind the huge #FairPayForFreelancers campaign. In a climate where editorial jobs are less safe than ever, Anna has done a lot of work to help other freelancers feel equipped to deal with embarking on a different career path, and also to feel part of a community.

We don't just talk about the business side of freelancing on this episode though, as important as that is. Anna firmly feels that her career couldn't have taken off as it has if she'd stayed in her staff job at Vice. She takes us through the best story she's written - involving her grandfather and a commission for The Paris Review - and the time her hero, BBC 6 Music presenter Mary Anne Hobbs, invited her onto a panel!

Links: First Aid For Freelancers: https://www.annacodrearado.com/first-aid-for-freelancers The Professional Freelancer: https://www.annacodrearado.com/newsletter #FairPayForFreelancers campaign: https://twitter.com/annacod/status/1092745531112243201

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Feb 23, 2019

00:45:55

Isabelle Roughol is senior editor-at-large at LinkedIn. She joined the company in 2012 and built a global news team working in seven languages across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia.

She considers the future of work and value-driven business, and publishes two columns: The Last Globalist, on living an open life in a world that’s shutting down, and Media in 60 Seconds, a weekly video series about the media industry. Isabelle got her start in newspapers, working as a reporter and editor for publications in the US, Cambodia and France.

On this episode, we talk about working in newspapers; what it takes to set up an international editorial team; and how us freelancers can use our LinkedIn profiles to tell the most compelling story of our unique careers. I even get a tour of their new London offices in The Guardian's old Farringdon Road building!

You can find Isabelle on LinkedIn here: lnkd.in/isa

She's also on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/iroughol

Speaking of career narratives, here's one I wrote earlier this month: https://www.themuse.com/advice/what-i-learned-about-career-pivots-from-being-laid-off-three-times

Here's the piece on voice tech and my predictions for 2019 that I mention in the pod intro: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-things-ive-learnt-power-voice-3-predictions-2019-chakrabarti/

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Feb 16, 2019

00:34:02

"Just over 50% of journalists said they were 'overwhelmed' by information during their working day and wanted to 'explore solutions' to make it more manageable."

That's the headline finding from John Crowley's survey on digital journalism and burnout, for the European Journalism Centre's News Impact Network.

John's now a freelance digital journalist and consultant, but his career began 20 years ago, as an editorial assistant on The Irish Post newspaper in London. He worked in that newsroom - which only had one computer with access to the internet - for five years, gaining lots of reporting experience and a few good anecdotes along the way.

Since then, he's edited on newspapers that were going digital, and been in charge of digital newsrooms for The Wall Street Journal, International Business Times UK and Newsweek.

He joins the podcast to talk about the causes of burnout in newsrooms, how this can affect freelancers trying to pitch, and what could help.

Also worth a look: Anne Helen Petersen's viral BuzzFeed essay, How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Feb 09, 2019

01:02:54

Well, this episode has got me nostalgic for London trains, tubes, bridges and underpasses that were covered in graffiti in the 90s.

As one of the graffiti writers says in the incredible 1983 documentary Style Wars, that my guest David Speed mentions in this episode, once he'd tagged a subway carriage, it'd take his work all over the city, to people who'd never heard of him, who'd probably never meet him. And yet. His work was out there.

Graffiti was the analogue internet - along with literature. (h/t Maria Popova: magazine.com/maria-popova/8840-maria-popova-on-information-in-the-digital-age">https://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/maria-popova/8840-maria-popova-on-information-in-the-digital-age)

Graffiti artist in the 90s, now a street artist in the teenies, David Speed has just scored a major podcasting victory with his with his co-presenter Adam Brazier: Creative Rebels has been out for a month, and already shot to No.1 in Apple Podcasts' Business chart, and they're chilling out in New & Noteworthy, the best place for a podcast to get discovered.

Find Creative Rebels on Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/creative-rebels/id1448695774?mt=2

I speak to David about teenage kicks, what makes for a creative mindset and the joy of nurturing new talent.

Find the Graffiti Life channel here, for behind-the-scenes footage of them painting huge murals: https://www.youtube.com/user/GraffitiLifeCompany

Oh, and here's the Gary Vaynerchuk $1.80 thing, it's good advice!

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Feb 03, 2019

00:32:30

Digital strategist & journalist Laura Oliver (https://twitter.com/LauraOliver) is currently acting Head of Audience Growth at Vogue International, and was Head of Social and Community at The Guardian, until she went freelance two years ago, following voluntary redundancy.

Freelancing wasn't the plan after leaving The Guardian - Laura says she kind of fell into it - but once she'd made the decision, she made use of LinkedIn to get work, and she goes into detail on the episode on how she did that.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jan 29, 2019

00:33:56

Producer Leona Fensome guests on the podcast to tell us about working on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

After working in written journalism in her native Australia, Leona tried out some audio and liked it. Two years ago, after moving to the UK with her British husband, Leona ended up in the BBC's freelance pool, and, after some work experience on Jeremy Vine's show, got her start on one of the BBC most famous radio shows.

Leona tells us what it's like to work with Jane Garvey, how ticking a few diversity boxes as a journalist can work to your advantage and, of course, about the story she can't forget.

If that's not enough BBC Radio for you, try my interview with 6 Music Breakfast and Desert Island Discs presenter, Lauren Laverne.

Media news this week: it's been a horrible time for redundancies. Here's a guide on how to get out of bed after being laid off.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jan 21, 2019

00:36:21

British freelance journalist Jennifer O'Mahony (Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaomahony) is now based in West Africa - mostly in Dakar, Senegal - and her job would be much harder without Whatsapp. Technology leapt from the analogue age to smartphones in the area she covers, so contacts prefer Whatsapping, speaking on the phone, or meeting in person. Businesses have Facebook pages rather than websites, rely on mobile money rather than bank accounts and email isn't really the done thing.

Jennifer had to learn a whole new way of reporting, after working in Hong Kong for news agency Agence France Presse. There, she covered the Umbrella Movement protests in 2014 using her mobile. However, when cultivating sources for less urgent stories, she found that online messages were much preferred to phone calls, and in-person meetings weren't important.

On this episode, Jennifer talks us through the tech a foreign reporter needs these days to get the job done, and how this varies wildly from country to country.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Jan 12, 2019

00:22:54

I sat down with Charlie Brooker this week to profile him for New Statesman, here's the link to the piece: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv-radio/2019/01/black-mirror-s-charlie-brooker-using-bandersnatch-politics-s-fantasy-isn-t

We talked about Bandersnatch, politics, 80s music, how much his kids love the Alexa and Black Mirror Season 5. Well, I tried to get him to talk about the last one, and he did a good job of, well, you listen for yourself. Netflix have nothing to be concerned about, let me tell you.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Dec 29, 2018

00:30:59

Sure, none of us have finished Bandersnatch yet, because none of us ever will. We're just going to have to live with that.

One thing we'll all have noticed is that the themes of mental illness, therapy and medication are central to every path that Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead) takes through the game-film. He's clearly not well when we first meet him, he worries his dad (Chris Parkinson), and he pays a few visits to his therapist, the ominously-named Dr R. Haynes (Alice Lowe) - an older relative of Black Museum's Rolo Haynes? Ruh-roh.

I speak to Dr Bishakha Chowdhury about how the show portrays Stefan's mental health, and what that adds to the story / stories, plus how his fragile state compounds our feelings of guilt when choosing futures for him that will only torture him further.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Dec 27, 2018

00:12:12

Netflix has finally released the trailer for Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. What's a Black Mirror Event? Nobody knows, but looks like we'll be finding out at about 8am GMT tomorrow... that trailer looks pretty darn analogue, so the 1980s nostalgia is going to be strong.

To help with the Season 5 anticipation, here's an interview I did with Charlie Brooker in October, around the release of behind-the-scenes book Inside Black Mirror.

We talk about how the increased speed of technological innovation would change the earliest episodes, which were made in 2011; the eerie predictions the show's become known for; and, er, what else Charlie's been watching, when he's had the time.

Enjoy!

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Dec 24, 2018

00:35:26

I've known this episode's guest a long time, since we were both undergraduates at Oxford back in the Noughties. Oli Mason (https://twitter.com/moreolimason) went into making films, and he's made an impressive number over the decade since graduating. He's also been made redundant three times (same as me!), so he's very well-placed to talk about the ups and downs of making films in a digital age.

Oli's latest project is making a short film with the BBC and BFI to celebrate 30 years of the internet, by looking at how gay men have met each over the years. The film is very much about analogue becoming digital, and how society has changed so much over recent decades. His career in film reflects huge industry changes too. See the crowdfunder for his film here, every penny helps: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/have-we-met-before-an-lgbt-short-film#/

You can find Oli on Instagram here: @moreolimason.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Dec 21, 2018

00:42:29

It was a simple and inescapable choice back in spring 2015, wasn't it? Stability and strong government with incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron, or chaos with Ed Miliband. We, the British people, did not choose chaos with Ed Miliband.

All the Brexit palaver has sent the political news cycle spinning faster than ever, but there's one politician who's having a gentle bit of fun with it: yes, non-chaos-maker, Ed Miliband. First, he tweets at Theresa May ahead of her party's no-confidence-in-her-vote: "if it goes wrong tonight I can promise you a bright future in podcasting."

He would know, he's got a successful weekly one called Reasons to be Cheerful.

Secondly, Ed really doubled down on all this stuff, and put an edited version of the chaos tweet on an Ed Stone (please google that) on the front of his Christmas card.

His podcast producer, Emma Corsham, pops onto Freelance Pod with the card to talk about how Theresa May might fare as a podcaster, the Geoffocracy and, inevitably, shark movies.

Emma works on a range of podcasts, and she can help you produce one too, so look her up on Twitter: @produceremma.

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2018/11/i-ve-been-burnt-so-many-times-actress-natalie-dormer-sex-lies-and-being

Dec 09, 2018

00:28:06

This week's guest is film critic Ryan Gilbey, who's a self-confessed "creature of print," as he started out on The Independent's film desk 24 years ago, after winning a competition. He now writes for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and New Statesman.

We met back in 2006 when he was my tutor on a part-time Film Journalism course at the British Film Institute in London.

Ryan has seen journalism shift from print to digital, and that's affected how filmmakers and actors approach interviews. I've come up against that in my work too, and my interview with actress Natalie Dormer for New Statesman a few weeks ago is useful reading as well:

Ryan also has excellent tales about Martin Scorsese, Michael Caine, David Fincher and many more celluloid luminaries...

Find Ryan's work here: https://muckrack.com/ryan_man2

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

https://twitter.com/freelance_pod_/status/1067795701227245569

Dec 02, 2018

00:49:55

This episode's guest is radio and podcast producer Shola Aleje.

Shola works on Lauren Laverne's BBC 6 Music show, as well as producing podcasts for Emma Gannon, Cherry Healey and Bestival.

We recorded in Shola's London living room, which has a gorgeous vintage vibe, a shelving unit filled with vinyl and a large canvas print of Bruce Springsteen from around the turn of the century.

We talk about how radio was a way of connecting across time and space before the internet; being part of the first generation to grow up without, and then with, mobiles and easy access to the internet; and what we can learn from cover versions and samples. Find the covers we talk about here:

We also go down memory lane right back to the 90s and reminisce about the voices we heard on the way to school in the morning, Bam Bam and Streetboy on Kiss 100 Breakfast. Where are they now?

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

Nov 25, 2018

00:22:47

This week's guest is Jordan Gass-Poore' (https://twitter.com/jgasspoore), who's currently working for US liberal magazine Mother Jones in New York.

Jordan grew up in Texas, and has worked as a journalist in her hometown, in New York and in London. She's also studied journalism in the US and UK.

On the eve of the November 2018 US Midterms - an election that saw huge wins for the Democrats, the biggest midterm voter turnout since 1914, and an incredibly diverse set of representatives elected to office - Jordan tells me how different journalism is in the UK and the US.

Check out The Mother Jones Podcast here: https://www.motherjones.com/topics/the-mother-jones-podcast/

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreelancePod/

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/19/how-podcasts-became-a-seductive-and-sometimes-slippery-mode-of-storytelling

Nov 18, 2018

00:37:11

Welcome to the first episode of Freelance Pod!

The first guest is audio expert Christina H. Moore. Christina has worked on podcasts for the BBC and for Apple Podcasts, and she now works on podcasts with musicians.

Christina's seen the inner workings of the world's most popular podcast discovery engine: the Apple Podcasts app. So her advice is invaluable for podcasters and would-be podcasters alike.

In other podcast-related things this week, the New Yorker ran a big piece on them:

It's much nicer about them than the headline suggests, and takes us behind the scenes of some huge American podcasts - definitely worth a look!

How has your industry moved from analogue to digital? Each episode, creative guests tell host Suchandrika Chakrabarti how the internet has revolutionised work.

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