PODCASTS WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

JASON REED FROM LEAP UK & THE STOP AND SEARCH PODCAST SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE BEHIND PODCASTS FROM THE CHARITY AND CAUSES SECTOR

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We all know just how diverse family life can be and the podcast Some Families does an incredible job of highlighting the many different stories from within the LGBTQ+ community. Often funny, often emotional, hosts Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley discuss many topics around family life. Lotte explains how the podcast started:

LJ: I was approached by Story

Hunter productions after the founder Kirsty read an article I’d written for The Telegraph about the division of emotional labour and parenting as a same sex couple. We met and spoke about the lack of resources and information for queer parents.

I suggested Stu as a co-host as I knew he’d adopted two kids with his husband around the same time my daughter was born. We did a pilot and Stu and I learnt so much from each other’s very different experiences. We developed the show as a mix of our own personal stories and then threw in a fabulously diverse array of guests with their own stories too.

Parenthood can be an interesting journey and Some Families discuss topics such as surrogacy, IVF and IUI donors, as well as co-parenting and much more.

We are exploding the notion of a nuclear family! The journeys to parenthood that we explore are so fascinating and diverse and there’s always so much to learn from each other. Straight parents will also get a lot from listening as so much of parenting is a universal experience. Overwhelmingly - although we do discuss mental health issues our stories are positive, full of joy and optimism and the gloriously messy reality of motherhood, fatherhood and everything in between.

Stu explains how good the reaction has been to the conversations, notably from a wide-ranging audience.

The LGBTQ+ parenting community has embraced us as there was really nothing else like it in the podcasting world for them. We

received so many messages from parents who suddenly felt represented, which was a great feeling. However, our audience goes wider than just LGBTQ+ parents and we’ve found a large group of non-queer parents and people who just find the show entertaining and informative. One straight listener said we answered the questions she always felt afraid to ask.

I feel proud of the diverse families we’ve represented to date and we still have a great range to cover. I’ve found stories of trans parenting particularly interesting and important, as the acceptance and rights of the trans community is so far behind. The stories of how this affects the trans parenting journey will hopefully help educate others and give hope to many trans people who want children in their future.

Stu highlights how we can all helpt this conversation:

Some Families has had wonderful support but we are a podcast that celebrates a minority within a minority so we ask everyone who enjoys to help share the word as we need the support to be able to keep going and to be recognised within the heteronormative parenting media landscape.