Hola from Spain (and South Africa)! Jill and Julia have escaped the chilling Berlin fall for warmer climates, til the end of the month.
Jill is spending the month with eleven other women entrepreneurs in Arroyomolinos De Leon, a small village outside of Sevilla, for The Break Fellowship. Throughout the month, she’ll be working with local organization Almanatura to develop new entrepreneurial opportunities for women in the village. And of course, she’ll be recording as much audio of the local cows, sheep and pigs as possible.
Julia will be in Cape Town, seeing family and soaking up some sun before we go into the long Berlin winter. She’ll be recording episodes of What’s The Mate and URSA from her home studio at the Bear Radio South Africa headquarters.
We celebrated the one year anniversary of the Bear Radio newsletter! Over the last twelve installments, we’ve shared more than twenty original interviews with creators, twelve how-to videos, hundreds of events and dozens of book and podcast recommendations! Alice O’Brien, the Bear Radio Newsletter Manager, has done a fantastic job growing our audience and making sure our subscribers receive excellent content each month. A special thanks to her for all her hard work!
The October edition of URSA came out on Tuesday, October 4th, and is jam packed with stories about incredible architecture in Bulgaria from Bear Radio alumna Militsa Tekelieva, conversations around bisexuality and monogamy with Life of Bi, news from Italy, and good (finally!) climate updates from Spain and Denmark. The episode also featured upcoming events in Berlin, must try restaurants, music from local artist Andreas Miranda and more! If you would like to support URSA, our Patreon is ready.
Lastly, we’re proud to announce that something that was in the works for a long (and we mean long) time has finally become reality. When we first started Bear Radio in 2017, we created a simple website to feature the network podcasts and some of our other projects. We made a simple logo (thanks Squarespace!) and got to work focusing on production and growing our community. As Bear Radio has grown its creative and educational services, network of podcasts, client
portfolio and team, our website and brand needed a refresh to match. Introducing: Bear Radio 2.0 – a new brand and website that carries the Bear Radio spirit through and through. Sian Amber made our logo – and we couldn’t be happier with our new Bear. Jill and Julia taught themselves how to use WordPress in a month and created the website from scratch. The team (including office dog Meeko) even had a photoshoot, pantsuits and all, to showcase our new look!
We’ll see you next month, when we’ll be back with a brand new installment of recommendations, episodes, and blogs to keep you up to date.
Until then, audio-s!
Julia Podcast Recommendation:
The Last Bohemians by House of Hutch
The Last Bohemians is an award-winning audio series that showcases women and their incredible lives and stories. From subversive musicians and rock’n’roll groupies to artists and style icons, these are women who have lived life! As the friend who recommended this podcast to me said, these are stories of older women that we seem to have lost, in a society that neglects the stories and knowledge that older generations bring. These women are SO COOL! And truthfully, I would never have heard them had it not been for this show. Journalist and presenter Kate Hutchinson launched the first season for International Women’s Day in 2019 and has since gone on to make four seasons so far. From the Swinging Sixties and LSD campaigning, to LA punks and Playboy Bunnies, the stories are wild and inspiring and a joy to listen to.
Jill Podcast Recommendation:
The Home Babies by BBC PM
In this podcast, journalist Becky Miligan digs into the past of the homes of the unwed mothers and babies in Ireland. The state and the church ran these homes, where both the young women and their babies experienced horrendous conditions and abuse. The series focuses on Tuam, a small Irish town known for showbands and, now, for the mother and baby home where young pregnant women came to atone for their ‘sins.’
While the mother and baby home was in the middle of the town, the local residents simply acted like it didn’t exist. Time and time again the residents simply say, ‘I didn’t want to get involved.’ This was the norm. The last mother and baby home in Ireland closed its doors in just 1996, and only recently has Ireland and the church started to face the damage these homes caused.
Hearing the juxtaposition between the accounts from the town’s residents and the people who lived or grew up in the home is chilling.
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