Red Jericho Podcast
In my final year at Northumbria University, I produced a podcast examining the political geography of the North East.
In the last decade, the North East has been at the heart of some of the key moments in our country’s history. After decades of consistent support of the Labour Party, things began to change following the 2016 Brexit Referendum. With the help of figures including the BBC’s new Political Editor Chris Mason and Bishop Auckland’s first Conservative MP Dehenna Davison, I consider what’s happening in the North East, its significance and what the future might hold for the region.
Listen here:
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What I got out of making “Red Jericho”
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How I Developed
Red Jericho was completely self produced, fronted, and edited. I enjoyed the variation in taking on roles of researcher, producer, and editor all at the same time.
I enjoyed audio editing especially. I made use of many of the tools available in Adobe Audition to turn sometimes poor quality audio into something of a suitable quality for a podcast.
Most of all, I’m proud that I’ve produced a podcast that I believe is fully grounded in the North East that champions the region and its place in national politics.
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My Biggest Challenge
To call the last half decade a tumultuous time in politics would be an understatement, and the past 6 months have been no different. Trying to secure interviews over the partygate scandal and Ukraine crisis were difficult. Since the pandemic, MPs have reported record levels of casework yet to settle down, and with the added political tensions members from both sides were reluctant to be interviewed, particularly by a student journalist with few credentials to his name.
However I continued to persist and secured enough interviews to produce a podcast as I’d planned to make it. I was particularly pleased to secure Dehenna Davison, the first Conservative to be elected to the seat of Bishop Auckland in the constituency’s 100 year history.
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My Fondest Memory
The most exciting moment for me was when I had the opportunity to interview BBC journalist Chris Mason. For many years he’s been a huge inspiration and alongside the rest of the Newscast team played a huge part in the development of my passion for politics.
Being able to meet him (vitrually) and ask him questions as I’ve seen him ask others was an honour, and he gave fascinating insight into the political situation as it stands in Westminster.
I was thrilled to hear he’d been appointed as political editor when in the final stages of producing the podcast (not least because it meant I could refer to him as the BBC’s new political editor!)