Podcasts We Produced
As the public debates around history grow louder, it seems there’s a gap between how history practitioners understand their work and what the public thinks history is. We need a more productive public conversation about history. But how do we get on the same page? Hosted by Christy Coleman and Jason Steinhauer, this six-part series delves deep into a new, research-backed communication framework developed by FrameWorks Institute in partnership with AASLH, NCPH, and OAH. We produced this series as stand-alone programming for AASLH’s Reframing History project. We conducted 17 interviews, prepared script and dialogue prompts for the hosts, did all the editing and mixing, and even prepared marketing materials to help promote the show. Listen.
On the Record at The National Archives
We’ve been producing this podcast for The National Archives in Kew, London, for two years. Working closely with their engagement team and content experts, we interview their record specialists, craft their insights into a narrative, write a script, coach their hosts through narration, and bring it all together in an engaging, refreshing look at the stories hidden in the archives. Winner of the 2020 AAM MUSE Silver Award for Podcasts. Start with this episode.
Smithsonian’s Stories from Main Street
Produced for Museum on Main Street, a program of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Services. MoMS wanted to share their 1500 mini stories collected from everyday small-town Americans in podcast form. So we developed the show concept, curated stories, wrote the script, and put it all together as a lushly soundscaped storytelling experience. Narrated by Hannah Hethmon. Start with this episode.
Transitional Justice in America
Transitional justice describes the measures countries put into place to address legacies of conflict and human rights abuses. In the absence of any formal transitional justice mechanism in the US, Sites of Conscience are ideal places to facilitate and foster discussion around truth, justice, and reconciliation. To help American sites learn from the work already being done around the world, we paired up US-based Sites of Conscience with Sites of Conscience members in Colombia, The Gambia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka - all countries that have, or are currently undergoing transitional justice processes. In this series, participants will revisit these conversations, sharing what they have learned with you, our listeners. This podcast is a program of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience. Start with this episode.540/episode/da4b3e9d03eb24620d1470fbeb7bc601
We the Museum is a podcast for museum workers who want to form a more perfect institution. Hosted by the field's go-to podcast person, Hannah Hethmon, We the Museum episodes feature in-depth conversations with museum workers in the US and beyond. Explore ideas, programs, and exhibitions that inform and inspire. We the Museum is a space where we can all slow down and take a moment away from the day-to-day work to learn, grow, and expand our toolkit. Find out more at WeTheMuseum.com. This show is a production of Better Lemon Creative Audio. It's made possible by our show sponsor, Landslide Creative. Listen.
Whose Stories? is a podcast about children’s books, diversity, and the role of archives, brought to you by Newcastle University and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books. In the first season of our podcast, we’re exploring the story of children’s books and Black Britain. Ultimately, we’ll show you what we can gain from making children’s books more inclusive – and what’s lost when the UK’s children don’t find themselves reflected in the words (and worlds) they find on the page. Hannah Hethmon was Executive Producer and Editor. The show was produced, written, and narrated by Rufaro Faith Mazarura for Better Lemon. Start with this episode.
New Art, New Perspectives introduces you to the Fitzwilliam Museum’s latest acquisitions and displays. From Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s striking etchings of black figures to the extraordinary forms of Magdalene Odundo’s ceramics; from new works on Gaza to the refugee crisis and the Iraq War, this podcast offers a fresh view of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Through short, intimate conversations with artists and curators, host Dan Vo offers listeners ways to look at and think about the featured artworks as well as insight into their place in the Fitzwilliam’s wider collection. Highlighting artists of colour and underrepresented stories, the series explores the importance and relevance of contemporary art to historic collections. Listen.
Produced for the Vagina Museum in London (yes, there’s actually a Vagina Museum), this show’s first season explores all things gynecological anatomy at the intersection of history, science, and culture. Alyssa Chafee researches and develops stories, interviews guests, and works on the story alongside Hannah Hethmon, who edits and co-produces. The result is a fresh, funny, and surprising listen. It’s also our most downloaded podcast. This show won an Honorable Mention in the AAM MUSE Award Podcast Category (2021). Start with this episode.
Produced for the National Preservation Institute in Virginia, this podcast explores the past, present, and future of historic preservation through intimate and insightful conversations with influential preservationists, including Former Director of the NPS Robert Stanton and Former Vice President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Susan West Montgomery. We helped NPI develop the concept, facilitated remote interviews, worked with host Jane Seiter to write the script, coached Seiter through narration, and put everything together. We also provided cover art and managed RSS publishing. Start with this episode.
The Precarious World of Thomas Nashe
This limited series was part of a larger grant-funded academic project, The Thomas Nashe Project. We worked with three Nashe scholars from the University of Sheffield and Newcastle University to produce this nuanced and engaging mix of narration, expert interviews, and actor-read texts. This show uses the works of the writer Thomas Nashe and his contemporaries (like Shakespeare and Donnne) to think about what precarity meant then, and means now. Listen//precariousworld.podbean.com/.
The show that started it all. In each episode of this show, Better Lemon’s Executive Producer Hannah Hethmon visit a different museum (in Iceland for S01 and Maryland for S02) to speak with key staff members, taking listeners on a VIP tour of visitor-facing spaces and behind-the-scenes. Winner of a 2018 AAM MUSE Award. Selected for collection and preservation by the United States Library of Congress as part of its first wave of podcast collecting.
Talking Culture: A Futures Podcast
Talking Culture is a platform for thought-provoking discussions about the future of Europe, the UK, and the world. Through fascinating interviews with thinkers and doers in the arts and culture sector, this show investigates how creative fields are emerging from the tumultuous present into the future. What role will culture play in a post-Brexit, post-COVID-19, post-colonial world? And how can it contribute to a future that prioritises sustainability, collaboration, diversity, and inclusion? From the Goethe-Institut London, this is a podcast about the critical role and value that arts and culture have in our societies. Listen.
The Goethe Institut-London wanted an exciting project for their A-Level German students in the UK who couldn’t visit Germany as planned thanks to COVID-19. So we developed a program to work with groups of 12 students at a time to remotely produce their own podcast in German for other German language learners. The students had a blast, made great strides in their language skills, and now others can listen too! The program was such a success that it’s been repeated with three more groups already. Read more and listen.
Podcasts We Edited
Articulated: Dispatches from the Archives of American Art
This new podcast series from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art showcases one of the oldest, largest, and most respected oral history collections in the world. The series explores the great diversity of the American art scene, as well as important moments throughout history with insightful commentary from leading scholars, curators, and art world figures.
Black Manifesto, the 10 Commandments: Black Women Speak Out, is a 10-part podcast series hosted by nora chipaumire and Pawlet Brookes. Black Manifesto brings together voices of Black women from around the world as a collective conversation, making the invisible visible, and addressing how we work to reshape a new world in which Black women are seen and heard, and a resource for inspiring creativity, learning, and unlearning. Each guest will discuss one commandment from nora’s Black Manifesto, offering their interpretations and insights. Start with this episode.
Sound Out: Voices of LGBTQ Activism
We’re proud to work with GiveOut as they spread the word about LGBTQ advocacy around the world. We started editing on episode 12. Join host Dan Vo and the GiveOut team to hear stories from their grant partners, providing a unique insight into the global movement for LGBTQI human rights. Crossing five continents, we will hear from activists working to support their communities and campaign for change in places where LGBTQI people face discrimination, criminalisation, and serious human rights abuses.
Hidden Stories of the Royal Parks
A podcast from The Royal Parks that explores the hidden stories of the eight Royal Parks in London. We edited episodes from 4-11 while Royal Parks did not have any in-house staff available to work on the show. Start with this episode.
This narrative-radio style podcast from the London Metropolitan Archives tells the stories of Londonders in their own voices, exploring community archiving projects connected to the institution. We consulted on show development, worked with staff to find a platform (Descript) that allowed them to assemble episodes on their own, and edited the first few episodes as they worked to move editing in-house.
Serendipity has developed a new podcast series that addresses issues facing Black, Asian and other minority and marginalised communities in Leicester. The podcast series explores a range of topics including the impact of COVID-19 and practical advice in the aftermath, mental health and wellbeing as an informative dialogue with community activists, academics and experts. The podcast provides support and advice to help people to rebuild their lives and their communities. Given the current spike in cases in Leicester and lockdown being renewed in the city, this is a much-needed resource.
“Reclaiming Blindness”
“Monuments”
We facilitated remote-recording and edited two special episodes for renowned Donmar Warehouse to accompany feature productions. Listen to the episode.
From emerging artists to legendary figures, this podcast gives voice to the African and Caribbean Diaspora. In each episode, Pawlet Brookes, CEO and Artistic Director of Serendipity, speaks to pioneering Black dancers, artists, choreographers, activists, academics and leaders within the arts and heritage sector. In addition to editing, we also provided support to Serendipity on how to interview their guests and record their narration, wrote the intro/outro narration based on content provided by them, and advised on publishing and marketing. Start with this episode.
Audio Tours & Other Projects
Talking Culture: A Futures Podcast
We worked with the Goethe-Institut London to upgrade and relaunch their existing podcast, Talking Culture. We completely re-edited every episode, wrote new narration with a more focused show concept, worked with the show host to record the narration, added new music, and created a marketing plan to relaunch the show with improved copy and a full set of social media videos and promo images to engage new listeners. Going forward past their initial six episodes, we will also be editing future episodes of the show. Listen.
When COVID-19 forced the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum to close their doors, they adapted their upcoming Men of Change exhibition into a distributed outdoor exhibition and walking tour installed at key locations in the historic Deanwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C. To accompany the walking tour, they released an audio “tour.” We helped plan how the tour content would be collected and structured, and once AMC staff and volunteers had recorded community interviews responding to the exhibition and narration, we edited it all together, scored the tracks, and published it via RSS feed to all major podcast listening platforms. Listen.
Audio Content for Charleston Trust
We worked with Charleston Trust on a 40-piece audio component to their new digital guide on the Bloomberg Connects app. We worked with staff to adapt their written content for audio, recommended narrators, managed the narrators, and edited the final pieces. To soundscape the 1-2 minute pieces, we visited Charleston and collected the sounds of this amazing 16th century house to be used alongside classical music and other relevant sounds that give just a touch of ambiance to the stories. Explore the Guide.