We are so excited to be featured on the latest episode of BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Podcast Radio Hour – a weekly show, where the presenters recommend their favorite and latest podcasts.
Armchair Adventures featured in a special show ‘Positive Podcasts’, centering around inspirational listening to start the year with a feel-good bang – because let’s be honest, we need it don’t we? It comes just weeks after the lovely sausages at Podcast Radio featured us on their Pod 20 show too – (you can listen to that here) – we’re becoming quite the media darlings!
As we’re all looking forward to building a brighter 2021, we thought it was such an honor to be included on the Podcast Radio hour alongside fellow ‘positive’ podcasts by Ross Sutherland, Jon Richardson and Tim Harford. Mega thanks to Amanda Litherland and Greg Cochrane for talking about and recommending Armchair Adventures.
They said of the podcast,
“Armchair Adventures is really important and a really great podcast to highlight. It’s podcasts like this that provide such an essential lifeline for people. It provides a sense of community and friendship and it’s only gonna continue to be a vital service.
What an extraordinary project to be able to appeal to young children and their great imaginations and also older people who are maybe more isolated. And at the same time, to be able to strike that tonal common ground between those two demographics is amazing. It’s really warm, it’s funny, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s not cynical. It’s just a really really worthwhile project.”
We’ve popped the segment below for you to listen to, alongside a transcript for you to read. You can also listen to it on the BBC website here.
An important message that the show highlighted was isolation. For many in the UK, COVID-19 is the first real experience of isolation, but for many of our audience, the colder months and darker days make loneliness a yearly battle. Amanda and Greg touched on it in the show, but the complications of COVID are having an exponential effect on those for whom isolation is all too real regardless.
Companion audio such as Armchair Adventures is vital this year, and your support for the podcast makes what we do totally worthwhile.
Listen to the BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Podcast Radio Hour segment below 👇
Still not over our very own podcast #ArmchairAdventures getting a shoutout on BBC Radio 4 Extra's Podcast Hour on New Years Day! Thank you @amandlitherland and @GregCochrane for your lovely words. pic.twitter.com/ex2Lx3yP3v
— Made by Mortals (@MadeByMortals) January 7, 2021
Transcript from BBC Radio 4 Extra’s Podcast Radio Hour:
One final podcast we wanted to recommend today as part of our hopeful, future looking shows. This is a lovely one which was sent into our inbox actually. It’s called Armchair Adventures. So it’s a fictional podcast designed to combat loneliness and it’s aimed at families, children and older people. It’s made by two theatre companies, one is called Made by Mortals in collaboration with Hearts and Minds who are a theatre company for over 55s. And this has come out of a project that they do where they go into schools, and care homes and work with lots of people to bring together people of all ages to explore creativity and help people who maybe can’t get out and about as much as they would like to. Not necessarily just because of the pandemic but because of whatever reason that may be. In this podcast we follow 15-year-old Connie. Her family has got a travel agency but at the moment they’re in a bit of trouble. So, every episode one of Connie’s customers takes us on their own adventure that we can all enjoy from our own home.
[… Armchair Adventure Promo clips …]
That podcast is called Armchair Adventures. It’s produced by Made By Mortals in collaboration with Hearts and Minds. And I’m really glad we could finish with that today because I think it’s really important and a really great one to highlight because even though we’re all really hopeful for 2021 and you know, fingers crossed, vaccines gonna work and we’ll all be able to start living life as normal at some point soon, there are unfortunately a lot of people who might still feel isolated and lonely because they can’t have human contact as much as they might like to. And it’s podcasts like this and radio, audio provides such an essential lifeline for people. It provides a sense of community and friendship and it’s only gonna continue to be a vital service.
Absolutely yeh, and especially timely I suppose because it’s this time of year isn’t it, January February, we’ve just come through Christmas where isolation is at its peak for a lot of people. They’re on their own more than they are at other times of the year, mostly down to the weather but obviously adding to the complications of COVID and people having to either be extra careful and stay at home, shield, things like that and so what this podcast is, is a companion. I mean, when we talk about a companion podcast, we’re normally talking about shows that go along with big movies or tv shows or something like that. But this is a companion podcast in the way that it feels like it’s a friend to the listener. It really does send them on a journey, like you say. What an extraordinary project to be able to basically appeal to young children and their great imaginations and also older people who are maybe more isolated. And at the same time, to be able to strike that tonal common ground between those two demographics is amazing. It’s really warm, it’s funny, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, it’s not cynical. It’s just a really really worthwhile project.
Get an Armchair Adventures Activity Pack!
The adventure doesn’t have to stop at listening! You can download an activity pack to take your family, your kids, your club members, your students, your residents on their own Armchair Adventure. Download a pack here!
