Bespoken Media - podcast production and training

30/06/2024

The Koryoin: their ancestors fled war in Korea. Generations later, they return to seek safety from war in Ukraine.

We made a totally fascinating half hour documentary for the BBC World Service which aired this week - about the 100s of ethnically-Korean Ukrainians who have fled war, and found safety in South Korea.

Their ancestors - great grandparents and further back- had themselves previously fled to Russia, to escape a prior war in their homeland, and became known as the Koryoin.

It is well worth 30 minutes of anyone’s time on a Sunday morning.

Find it here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6r86

Huge congrats and thanks to Bespoken producer Amanda Hargreaves, presenter in South Korea So Jeong Lee, and sound designer Joel Cox.

The new World Service commissioning round - the window for indies like us to bid for and win money to make programmes - is opening soon.

What amazing or insightful stories could we be telling, like this, from around the world?

How ethnic-Korean Ukrainian refugees returning to Korea are receiving a mixed welcome

24/06/2024

Exciting times here at Bespoken!

We are so chuffed to say Katie Revell joined us today as an assistant producer.

Katie is an award-winning podcast producer and presenter, and has made work for BBC Radio 4's highly acclaimed Short Cuts, and Radio Scotland's Out of Doors.

She grew up in the south-east coast of Scotland, speaks fluent German, and has made beautiful and important audio work in the past on sustainable food and farming.

We did a recruitment process a few weeks ago, and were totally blown away by the quality of applicants.

While we were lucky enough to meet some fantastic and passionate people, Katie shone out as the best of the bunch.

We are excited to see what we can all do together next!

27/05/2024

A rural upbringing can give you (read: me) a complex and frustrating relationship with the class system.

It’s a common misapprehension that everyone who lives in rural Britain is loaded - because it’s full of places that people will pay vast sums of money to visit - or move to.

We think about working class public voices, particularly in Scotland, and the ones that come to mind are all urban.

It’s why I bloody *loved* Rebecca Smith’s book ‘Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside’.

Her childhood was in precarious tied housing on a country estate in outwardly idyllic Hawkshead in the Lake District.

She beautifully weaves her history with stories of the foresters, farriers, farmhands, plumbers and others that make up rural communities UK-wide.

Rebecca is a cracking guest on the On Farm podcast, which our Bespoken Media team produce.

Have a listen to her episode here: https://pod.fo/e/2402d4

And once you’ve listened, go and buy her book from an independent bookstore somewhere rural.

Falkirk-based Rebecca Smith's first book is called Rural: The Lives of the Working-Class Countryside. As a forester's daughter, Rebecca grew up in tied housing on a Lake District estate, then becam...

03/05/2024

Out-of-office: on.

16/04/2024

Extraordinary beauty and mortal danger can be just a knife’s edge apart - especially when you are in the ‘Death Zone’ (anywhere above 8,000 metres, where oxygen is scarce).

This is one of our favourite moments from episode 1 of ‘Chasing Mountains’, Bespoken Media’s incredible new mini-series for the BBC World Service ‘Amazing Sport Stories’ strand.

The series is co-hosted by Kathy Karlo and Joanna Jolly, and brilliantly produced by Leeanne Coyle.

Climber Edurne Pasaban is on her way down from the summit of K2. It is dusk and she is exhausted...

Find the whole episode at BBC Sounds (link in comments).

Eps 2, 3 and 4 are out on the next 3 consecutive Mondays.

15/04/2024

“As climbers, we are inviting risk every time we go into the mountains.

"Mountaineering’s path asks us to gamble a thread, in order to receive everything in return."

So says climber and podcaster Kathy Karlo, as we publish episode 1 of Bespoken's 4-part mini-series 'Chasing Mountains', part of the Amazing Sport Stories strand for the BBC World Service.

Chasing Mountains is the story of 5 astonishing climbers, who each had a chance to become the first woman ever to summit all 14 of the world's highest mountains.

Kathy co-hosts the series alongside former BBC News Nepal correspondent Joanna Jolly.

Jo's involvement with this series sees her pick up the threads of a story she last reported on nearly 15 years ago.

She says: “Back in 2010, when I was in Nepal reporting on this story, I was focused on who was going to win the race.

"But Chasing Mountains tells the story of the enormous mental and physical challenges that these women overcame – and it’s made me realise that being first isn’t that important.”

We are seriously proud of this series, and everyone on the Bespoken team who played a role in delivering it.

Production credits:

Producer Leeanne Coyle and co-producer Carys Wall.

Engineers Joel Cox (not on Linkedin) and Adam Whalley.

Our producer in South Korea So Jeong Lee.

Production support: Patrick Wallace.

From the BBC World Service commissioning team: Jon Manel, Anna Doble, and Jonathan Hill.

And of course, the biggest credit of all must go to the 5 incredible women at the heart of this story.

They are Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Nives Meroi, Edurne Pasaban, Oh Eun-sun and Go Mi-young.

Listen to Amazing Sport Stories: Chasing Mountains episode 1 now on BBC Sounds.

Episodes 2, 3 and 4 are released on the next 3 consecutive Mondays.

09/04/2024

We are hiring!

We need an enthusiastic assistant producer to join our busy yet supportive Bespoken Media team.

This is a development role, so don't rule yourself out if you don't have loads of industry experience. We'll offer training and support to get you up to speed. .

What we *are* looking for is a demonstrable passion for audio production, creativity, and a 'can-do' approach.

We would ideally like you to work physically alongside team members here in Edinburgh, usually one day a week. This is part of the development offer.

Take a look at the link below.

DMs are open for anyone who wants to book in a chat - and please share widely to others in your networks.

The deadline for getting your application to us is 1200 on Thursday 2nd May.

When we have jobs available in the Bespoken Media team, we will let you know about them here

08/04/2024

This is one of the greatest stories you’ve probably never heard - and Bespoken Media and the BBC World Service are telling it over the next 4 weeks.

In the decade from 2000 to 2010, 5 women from around the world found themselves in lockstep, each working to climb all 14 of the world’s mountains over 8,000 metres.

They were - and still are - reluctant to call it ‘a race’. But that is certainly how it was portrayed in the media.

As we’ll hear, it became a deadly race.

We’ll be talking about this series a lot over the next month.

The trailer is out on BBC Sounds now (link in first comment), and episodes are being released over 4 consecutive Mondays from next week.

We want to pay tribute to the amazing Bespoken team who got this series off the ground and delivered it so brilliantly;

Producer Leeanne Coyle and co-producer Carys Wall, who first found the story to pitch to the BBC.

Sound designer Joel Cox, who brought the beauty and savagery of the world’s most inhospitable landscapes to life.

Hosts Joanna Jolly and Kathy Karlo, who each bring a vital and unique perspective to the story.

Our producer in South Korea So Jeong Lee, whose help throughout has been invaluable in delivering this series.

The BBC commissioning team, who have been as excited about this project as we have - Jonathan Hill, Anna Doble and Jon Manel.

And of course, the 5 incredible climbers - Nives, Gerlinde, Edurne, Miss Oh and Miss Go - all of whom you will meet over the course of the 4 rollercoaster episodes to come.

There is much more to say about this story, and we’ll share much more as the weeks go on.

For now, please subscribe to ‘Amazing Sport Stories’ on BBC Sounds to be among the first to listen to new episodes as they are released.

21/03/2024

Booked in 60 seconds?

We were recently set a challenge: to pitch Bespoken Media's services to potential clients - in just 60 seconds.

How do you think we did? We welcome any feedback.

The key thing to understand about Bespoken is that we are audio and podcast specialists; we can help you to develop your podcast from scratch, or level up your existing one. We also offer podcast production training and consultancy.

Get in touch any time for a chat about how we can help you.

19/02/2024

It's .

We were with our client On Farm - rural podcast and training academy for a VERY emotional SAYFC Young Farmers finals at last year's Royal Highland Show.

It's well worth listening back :) There's a link in comments to take you straight to the episode.

16/02/2024

A year since Nicola Sturgeon left office, there is renewed interest in the former Scottish First Minister’s legacy, career, and history.

There are no doubt more chapters to come - but our BBC Sounds series, a Bespoken Media partnership with BBC Scotland News, is the definitive telling of her story so far.

Find it online - search ‘Nicola Sturgeon’ on BBC Sounds or wherever you get podcasts.

06/02/2024

One of our key goals at Bespoken Media is to place ourselves meaningfully at the heart of Scottish culture.

We already make ‘Lantern Scottish Poetry’ with our Makar - our national poet - Kathleen Jamie. We’re so proud of this podcast.

Later this year, we look forward to getting started working with Fergus to tell the story of Scottish drama.

28/01/2024

The Micronesian island of Nauru is the world’s smallest republic - but has been left with big health problems relating to obesity, food scarcity, & colonialism.

We’re very proud of today’s ’The Food Programme’ - exploring the multi-faceted reasons for the obesity issues faced by Nauru and the wider South Pacific. Produced by Bespoken’s Carys Wall.

(Link in comments).

15/01/2024

Enquiries, collaborations, bookings… 🥵 Who else feels like today was 2024’s first ‘proper’ day back at work?

For our Bespoken Media team, I’m pleased to say we’ve started the year at a sprint. 🫠

However, there’s room for one more… so if you’re starting the year thinking about launching or upgrading your branded podcast, we’d love to book in a chat. ☎️

Here are some things we can do for you:

✏️’Podcast primer’ training - we’ll take you from a standing start (or wherever you are) to having all the skills and knowledge to launch and run a podcast series

🧐an audit of your existing podcast, offering up recommendations to level up your production quality, your workflow, or better meet your brand’s goals

🎼 work with our in-house composer and sound designer to create a bespoke suite of production music to your brief; no more making do with that cheap-sounding library track.

🫡 production services: once we’ve helped you figure out what your podcast should be like, and how it should sound, we’ll make it for you too. And handle its distribution to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all the places people find podcasts. Simple. It could be an ongoing, weekly or monthly series, or it could be a box-set that we launch in a flurry of marketing.

——

🤗Here’s what one person had to say about how much they enjoyed working with us. We can put you in touch with this and many other past clients, so you can hear it directly from them:

“It’s really hard to overstate how brilliant it was to work with Dave and the team at Bespoken.

“We had a big, complex project for one of the world’s best-known corporates that needed to be delivered on a tight deadline with very important stakeholders.

“Dave and his team not only delivered an incredibly high quality of audio product – with real love and dedication to the content and the output – they also became an extension of our team and project managed much of this project on our behalf – so much so that Dave really became the de facto project lead.

“His expertise, passion, candour and warmth meant the client really took to him and he led this project with dedication, attention to detail and a real desire to get it right for them, for us and for the audience.

“To bring that artful BBC storytelling into the business world so deftly and to navigate many of the challenges of working with a big corporate so effortlessly was no mean feat and Dave excelled - and both we and the client are delighted with the outcome.

“Thank you and needless to say Bespoken Media come very highly recommended.”

——

We can be in your corner. Just get in touch to get us started. 💯

15/01/2024

Enquiries, collaborations, bookings… 🥵 Who else feels like today was 2024’s first ‘proper’ day back at work?

For our team, I’m pleased to say we’ve started the year at a sprint. 🫠

However, there’s always room for one more… so if you’re starting the year thinking about launching or upgrading your branded podcast, we’d love to book in a chat. ☎️

Here are some things we can do for you:

✏️’Podcast primer’ training - we’ll take you from a standing start (or wherever you are) to having all the skills and knowledge to launch a podcast series

🧐an audit of your existing podcast, offering up recommendations to level up your production quality, your workflow, or better meet your brand’s goals

🎼 work with our in-house composer and sound designer to create a bespoke suite of production music to your brief; no more making do with that cheap-sounding library track.

🫡 production services: once we’ve helped you figure out what your podcast should be like, and how it should sound, we’ll make it for you too. And handle its distribution to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all the places people find podcasts. Simple. It could be an ongoing, weekly or monthly series, or it could be a box-set that we launch in a flurry of marketing.

——

🤗Here’s what one person had to say about how much they enjoyed working with us. We can put you in touch with this and many other past clients, so you can hear it directly from them:

“It’s really hard to overstate how brilliant it was to work with Dave and the team at Bespoken.

“We had a big, complex project for one of the world’s best-known corporates that needed to be delivered on a tight deadline with very important stakeholders.

“Dave and his team not only delivered an incredibly high quality of audio product – with real love and dedication to the content and the output – they also became an extension of our team and project managed much of this project on our behalf – so much so that Dave really became the de facto project lead.”

10/01/2024

It's that time of year... Has your organisation got money down the back of the sofa that it needs to use up?

(Pic: , 'lead producer'. Couch: model's own).

We took two calls yesterday from teams looking to get the best possible value from small (ish) pots of leftover budget they need to spend this financial year.
 
If that sounds like you, it's a nice problem to have... and Bespoken Media can help!
 
If your organisation doesn't yet have a podcast, we can:
 
- run a skills development session, to give your team start-up practical podcast training, and to help you understand the basics
 
- run development sessions, to work up storytelling and creative formats that will set your podcast apart from the crowd
 
- work with you to create 2 or 3 pilot episodes, for you to use as evidence to build a case for adding podcasting to next year's BAU
 
If your organisation already has a podcast, we can:
 
- run a content review and audit, troubleshoot workflow issues, and provide costed recommendations for how to level up your storytelling and / or production skills, so you can grow and better serve your audiences
 
- work with our in-house composer and sound designer to create a bespoke suite of production music or design assets to your specific brief (you can ditch that tired old library music you've been making do with)

- level up your podcast's visual branding assets with our dedicated designer

10/01/2024

It's that time of year... Has your organisation got money down the back of the sofa that it needs to use up?

(Pic: Harris, Bespoken's 'lead producer'. Couch: model's own).

We took two calls yesterday from teams looking to get the best possible value from small (ish) pots of leftover budget they need to spend this financial year.

If that sounds like you, it's a nice problem to have... and Bespoken Media can help!

If your organisation doesn't yet have a podcast, we can:

- run a skills development session, to give your team start-up practical podcast training, and to help you understand the basics

- run development sessions, to work up storytelling and creative formats that will set your podcast apart from the crowd

- work with you to create 2 or 3 pilot episodes, for you to use as evidence to build a case for adding podcasting to next year's BAU

If your organisation already has a podcast, we can:

- run a content review and audit, troubleshoot workflow issues, and provide costed recommendations for how to level up your storytelling and / or production skills, so you can grow and better serve your audiences

- work with our in-house composer and sound designer to create a bespoke suite of production music or design assets to your specific brief (you can ditch that tired old library music you've been making do with)

- level up your podcast's visual branding assets with our dedicated designer

Here's what people who've already worked with Bespoken in this way have to say about us:

- “Bespoken are absolutely brilliant. With their help, they gave us a blanket overview of the current podcasting market, helped to develop a new sound, and got the team thinking about how to bring out the best stories within any given topic."

- "Bespoken turn around work quickly and always go the extra mile when it comes to the quality and the delivery of work."

- "Honest, creative and knowledgeable, their expertise is second to none."

- "Dave has been so helpful with his ideas on improving the podcast – from audio design to marketing, to using his wide network of audio contacts to create a new suite of music. I’d highly recommend Bespoken if you want your podcast made with care by a team of experienced specialists.”

- “Working with Bespoken Media is an absolute joy. Extremely professional and a huge amount of fun to boot."

- "They take quality recording and editing to the next level. Our expectations are always high but the finished product always far exceeds not only our expectations but also those of our sponsors and listeners."

- "What an amazing company to work with! Bespoken's professionalism, dedication, passion and commitment was first class."

09/01/2024

New cover art gallery for the office wall - looking sharp!

20/12/2023

We're so pleased to say - thanks to new funding from Creative Scotland - we will be releasing new episodes of the Lantern Scottish Poetry podcast throughout 2024!

For now, as a wee Christmas present, there is one new episode in the feed - recorded live at the recent Push the Boat Out Festival in Edinburgh's Summerhall.

With Scotland's Makar (and middle class tosser) Kathleen Jamie, regular co-host Ally Heather Heather, and special guest, multi-award winning poet Niall Campbell - it's a great listen!

It's got chat and readings around the theme of Inheritance - all produced by Bespoken's brilliant Patrick Wallace.

We've put a link to the episode in the first comment below (to try to outwit the algo) - or just search 'Lantern Scottish Poetry' in your preferred podcast player.

13/12/2023

Delighted that Bespoken Media is one of 13 production companies UK-wide - and the only one in Scotland - to receive support from the Radio Indie Development Fund, announced today.

It's massive news for us!

We'll receive a cash boost that will allow us to recruit an additional team member (on which, more details in the new year).

We'll also benefit from a direct line in to the commissioning team via a mentor relationship.

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From the BBC press release:

The £250,000 fund is allocated to back talented indies to develop in certain areas of their work, supporting the BBC’s priorities, including increasing diversity and content from all parts of the UK, allowing the BBC to better reflect, represent and serve all audiences.

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Also - huge congrats to our good friends Cardiff-based - who are also named as fund recipients. Massive well done team!

13/12/2023

Delighted that Bespoken Media is one of 13 production companies UK-wide - and the only company in Scotland - to receive support from the BBC's Radio Indie Development Fund, announced today.

It's massive news for us! We'll receive a cash boost that will allow us to recruit an additional team member (on which, more details in the new year).

We'll also benefit from a direct line in to the Radio 4 commissioning team via a mentor relationship.
-------------
From the BBC press release (link in first comment, to try to foil the algo):

The £250,000 fund is allocated to back talented indies to develop in certain areas of their work, supporting the BBC’s priorities, including increasing diversity and content from all parts of the UK, allowing the BBC to better reflect, represent and serve all audiences.

Dave Howard, Bespoken Media says: “Bespoken Media is committed to helping to build a strong, inclusive and flourishing audio production community in Scotland. This support, financially but more importantly in terms of creative mentorship from Radio 4's commissioning team, will go a long way to helping us to do that. We look forward to getting started!”

Mohit Bakaya, BBC Director of Speech says: “We specifically wanted ideas that would help us build up the pool of diverse new talent to bring us great stories from all corners of the UK. We had an impressive set of submissions, and we are looking forward to working with this year’s recipients as part of our plans to make BBC’s speech radio more representative of the country as a whole.”
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Also - huge congrats to our good friends Cardiff-based Bengo Media - who are also named as fund recipients. Massive well done team!

06/12/2023

Great work by Maddy Savage and Benoît Derrier Media - a social media video to accompany Maddy's BBC World Service documentary, made with Bespoken Media - called "Sweden: Living with guns and gangs".

Sweden has become a European hotspot for deadly shootings, rocking its reputation as a safe and peaceful nation. Last year, a record 62 people were killed in...

05/12/2023

Bespoken's latest documentary airs globally on the BBC World Service from today.

We work regularly with brilliant Stockholm-based news correspondent Maddy Savage.

In 'Sweden: Living with guns and gangs', Maddy gets under the surface of an alarming rise in Sweden of fatal shootings.

As she says:

"I wanted to move beyond statistics and politics and hear how the violence has impacted people's lives.

"It was a tough programme to make, and the families of the 52 people killed so far this year are often in my thoughts".

Bespoken Media managed this project, with excellent sound design (as always) from Joel Cox, solid research by Josephine Frans and valuable input from Maddy's co-presenter Nikoi Djane.

BBC Sounds link to listen in first comment. Thanks!

30/11/2023

“Bonkers Bruno locked up” was the front page splash in the Sun newspaper.

“Sick Bruno in siege drama” is what the Daily Star went with.

That was back in 2003, when household name and heavyweight boxer Frank Bruno was admitted, under a section of the Mental Health Act, to a psychiatric hospital.

What must that have been like for his family?

Thankfully, we have come a long way.

Lots has been written about why those headlines were stigmatising, damaging, and - to say the least - unhelpful.

But there are millions of children and young people, still living with this kind of stigma and sadness today.

To be clear, that's not because they have a parent living with mental ill health -- but because they worry about how *others* will respond to that mental ill health.

Frank Bruno's daughter Rachel Bruno-Hardy is Dr Pamela Jenkins’ latest guest in the podcast series ‘My Family, Mental Illness… and Me’.

Patrick Wallace of our Bespoken Media team produces this series for the UK's only charity dedicated to supporting and advocating for the children of parents with mental illness ( ) - Our Time.

In their conversation, the pair address what it was like for Rachel to read those headlines about her dad, and what it was like to grow up in the twin shadows of her dad's fame, and his mental ill health.

This is the penultimate episode in what has been a quite extraordinary series of conversations.

There are now 16 episodes in total, in the podcast feed - with a wide range of public figures, from 'The Body Coach' Joe Wicks to Tory peer Lord Bethell, who've all grown up as the children of parents with mental illness.

Riven through the episodes are extraordinary resilience, kindness, empathy - and a deep-seated desire to make things better for generations to come.

Listen at the link in our first comment. And please share widely - you never know who you might help.

29/11/2023

had a great day with the corporate team at today - thanks to Stephanie Todd for inviting me in.

We tend to talk about this less than the actual podcasts we produce, but Bespoken offers training, troubleshooting, and consultancy to companies and organisations.

We call this ‘awayday-style training’, but it’s really just a Bespoken expert coming in and having a blether with you about your podcast (or your plans for a podcast, if it doesn’t exist yet).

We’ll kick the tyres, help you nail down what it should sound like, what your workflow could be, and where you should or shouldn’t spend your money.

(Spoiler alert: don’t buy the expensive microphone. In fact, don’t buy *anything at all* until you know exactly what it is you want to make).

We have a format for the sessions, and a rather natty set of PowerPoint slides, but we like it best when it’s a genuine two-way chat, and we are properly digging into the nitty gritty questions and concerns that you have. We can do it in person, or remotely via video call.

As we always do, we’ll follow up, within 7 days of the session, with a written and fully costed set of recommendations for how the company should move forward its podcasting goals and ambitions.

Sound like something that might be useful to you and your team? We’d love to hear from you.

We can get you booked in as soon as January - and we can put you in touch with lots and lots of past satisfied customers. 🙌🏻

23/11/2023

“A first for Scotland”.

“Predicated on relationships, kindness, and love”.

“Going to make a big difference to people’s lives”.

Tonight we launched our latest at a packed live event at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, and these are some things people said about it.

Put simply, ‘Keeping Edinburgh’ is a love letter to the people, groups and organisations in Scotland’s capital who make life better for those around them.

Created by our team at Bespoken, for and with the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, and hosted by brilliant singer-songwriter Gus Harrower, Keeping Edinburgh is a ‘well-being what’s on guide’ for Scotland’s capital.

It explores the free-to-access places and spaces, that are helping folk across the Capital have More Good Days.

Give it a listen - just search ‘Keeping Edinburgh’ wherever you get podcasts.

And as always with our projects - every like, every share, and every word-of-mouth recommendation to a friend (a) supports our growing small business, and (b) gets these important messages into more people’s ears.

We’re so proud to be a part of this project, and we hope it’s the start of something that grows and grows.

A brand-new wellbeing 'what's on guide' with a difference. Explore the free-to-access places and spaces, helping folk across the Capital have more good days. Hosted by Edinburgh singer-songwriter and community musician Gus Harrower, this immersive listen will introduce listeners to the amazing peopl...