Podcasting is the brand new battleground for unique information content material, and TVNewser is getting an inside look courtesy of BBC Information’ The World Story.
Final month, the BBC launched The World Story podcast, hosted by Tristan Redman and Asma Khalid. The podcast, which is accessible weekday mornings at 5 a.m. ET, explores the advanced relationship between the U.S. and the remainder of the world, with every shaping the opposite each day.
Validating this endeavour is the truth that Redman is predicated in BBC Information’ London workplaces whereas Khalid operates out of its Washington, D.C. workplace. This cross-Atlantic tandem ensures audiences are supplied with context concerning U.S. actions and the worldwide penalties.
“We wish to zoom out from the day-to-day trivialities, take a breath, and take into consideration world tales with top and perspective,” Redman informed TVNewser.
Every episode focuses on a single theme, which is advantageous to the podcasting medium. Khalid notes they’re able to merge “the rigor of reporting with the aesthetics of audio to show large concepts into thought-provoking, digestible episodes.”
TVNewser lately caught up with Redman and Khalid to gauge their early impressions of their new podcasting enterprise:
Query 1: How is the podcast going to this point?
Redman: Nice! We now have been energized by the primary few weeks of launch. There have been large, consequential tales to inform. There’s been the shock Israeli assault on Qatari soil, the transatlantic debate on free speech, and the tragic homicide of Charlie Kirk, which has rocked the US. These are all troublesome and delicate tales to grapple with. However as a journalist, necessary information creates momentum and objective. And we’re motivated that our present has been actually touchdown with listeners.
Khalid: I’ve been loving it. It’s a present I deeply imagine must exist in our world on this second. We’re making an attempt to inform tales that aren’t being informed elsewhere and join the dots between the U.S. and the world. One in every of my favourite episodes we’ve completed thus far is the one from September 18th on free speech. The episode was so well timed, given the headlines in America, however we didn’t simply discover the home debate. We checked out why free speech (or the notion that it’s beneath risk) has change into a rallying cry for conservatives in America and the way that matches right into a broader world dialog.
Query 2: How do you decide a theme for every podcast episode?
Redman: It’s type of a everlasting dialog inside the group. We now have formal information conferences daily the place we’re debating concepts for the approaching days. However then a present concept is simply as prone to ping in from a member of the group who’s sitting on the bus. And a few days it’s simply apparent what it is advisable to be doing: The story jumps out at you.
Query 3: With the 2 of you in numerous international locations, stroll us by way of the method of manufacturing an episode of the podcast.
Redman: We now have group members throughout the time zones, from Washington to London to Sydney. It’s an enormous benefit. It allows us to make use of nearly 24 hours of the day to provide the present. London kicks off with an early information assembly to set the agenda, earlier than D.C. is awake, however not at all times—Asma is commonly up very early. Then there’s a window the place we’re all on-line, targeted on recording. Later, London arms off edits to D.C. after which Sydney earlier than we publish.
Khalid: It’s a bit tiring, little doubt! In spite of everything, we’re constructing a present throughout an ocean with a group unfold throughout the Atlantic, and, naturally, we’re unfold throughout time zones. So, sure, that has meant some late nights for Tristan and the London group and a few early morning tapings for me. And anybody who is aware of me will probably be shocked to listen to this (as a result of I’ve by no means been a morning particular person). However I’ve been waking up so early—usually with out an alarm—as a result of I’ve been so energized to work on this podcast.
The time zone unfold and the differing world views are an enormous profit within the information trade. All of us take a look at tales in a barely completely different manner, and that makes the information conferences richer as we attempt to hash out a narrative concept.
Query 4 for Khalid: What would you like American listeners to remove from the podcast?
Khalid: I coated politics within the U.S. for years—reporting from the White Home and numerous counties and marketing campaign rallies. And I feel, typically, we, as Individuals, have a tendency to think about politics and world information as distinct, unrelated concepts. When, in actuality, what occurs in Washington undoubtedly impacts the world. And, likewise the world additionally impacts us. I’m hoping that our present helps listeners join the dots and higher perceive how main headlines—like the popularity of a Palestinian state on the United Nations or the homicide of Charlie Kirk—have ripples across the globe and right here at residence. And the BBC has such a powerful newsroom of journalists scattered across the globe to assist us inform these tales in a manner that few different information shops may.
Query 4 for Redman: How are world audiences reacting to U.S. tales dominating worldwide headlines?
Redman: Worldwide audiences are fairly on level in relation to U.S. information. It’s no shock to us when the U.S. dominates the headlines. I’m usually struck by how pleasantly stunned many Individuals are after they encounter the depth of data that guests to the U.S. have about what’s taking place there. Everybody on the planet is by some means affected by occasions in the US, and the U.S. is more and more formed by what’s taking place elsewhere, too. Our present is about that interconnectivity. We’re not a present about U.S. information completely. We’re telling, fairly actually, a worldwide story, and the U.S. is an immovable and essential a part of that.
Query 5. What do you hope audiences study from this podcast?
Redman: To borrow an expression, we hope listeners will really feel they’re listening to much less in regards to the climate and extra in regards to the local weather. We wish to zoom out from the day-to-day trivialities, take a breath, and take into consideration world tales with top and perspective. And to assist us do this, we are able to name on professional correspondents from BBC’s newsrooms and bureaus everywhere in the planet. We now have an unimaginable vary of journalists in each nook of the globe.
Khalid: I need individuals to really feel like they spent 20+ minutes with individuals who assist them higher perceive the world round them. And I hope our podcast does that in a manner that entertains and informs. What I’ve beloved in regards to the present is that we’re not simply giving individuals a headline they may get through a push alert. We’re doing a deep dive on one story with an extremely gifted group of producers who make the story sound lovely.
