Cass Denton is joined by the “Legendary” or in her words, 'busy' Hana Walker-Brown from Anthems podcast.
Anthems is a podcast from Brocolli content there have been 4 series (women, pride, home, black) of Anthems, which have hijacked four months of the year and released 30-31 everyday across the month focusing on specific, important topics.
Hana discussed not only the content but the thought behind releasing them in the morning and how listeners would listen to these podcasts in place of say a mediation or the news. Each podcast also has an original score and the sound is carefully designed. She talked about the music element of the podcast and it’s importance, also how contributors were chosen.
“Manifestos, speeches, stories, poems rallying cries written and voiced by exceptional humans…celebrate and contemplate what it is to be human, our beauty, failures, our heritage, our rage, our power and that is the tagline”.
Creating bite size experiences was important for listeners to easily digest and submerse themselves in these podcast. There was a thought that each series was a based on an album even including the design of the logo based on LP jacket designs.
Hana discusses amplifying the voices of those who would maybe not get a voice. So many people reached out due to the authenticity of the voices on the podcasts. And the podcast has actually built a community of podcasters and voices, where they have created a ‘vibrant space’ where everyone all communities are welcome.
Hana spoke about her episode and how she designed the podcast and the sound around what is being said in the podcast and the feelings she wanted to evoke in the listener. Quoting Axel Kacoutié, one of the contributors she said;
“Sound design is like the breath, you have the spine and the flesh which is like the structure and the story, which usually comes through the voice. And then the sound design which keeps everything alive, which if you don’t keep breathing means you die. It’s very subtle, you only notice your breath”.
One key point Hana makes is that every single person is treated the same, even down to how they are described in a Tweet. The show as a holistic experience through the team, the voices, the branding encapsulate diversity.
Finally she calls on the industry to do more in terms of diversity, because as she says if a team of five can do this so can others.
The final audio clip is truly moving…