Radio Workshop
Radio Workshop
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Hosted by Lesedi Mogoatlhe, we produce the Radio Workshop podcast in collaboration with youth reporters and radio stations across Africa to tell stories from places that are often overlooked, in ways that reflect how young people see the continent.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
3 days ago
Love Is a Conversation
Nigerian audio producer, Mo Isu, suffers from severe anxiety. It’s gotten so bad that he thinks it might be time to get some professional help. But is that something his stern, old-school father would approve of? Mo decides to face his fears by having a tough conversation...
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19 Sept 2023
We’re on NPR! Listen to The Coal Life
On 17 September our episode “This Coal Life” was featured on National Public Radio’s daily news podcast Up First. The Sunday Story, hosted by Ayesha Roscoe, featured the Radio Workshop story that explores how the Skhosana family is going to cope with South Africa's transition to renewable energy.
The Skhosanas live a modest yet comfortable life in Kriel, South Africa. And they owe it all to coal. In fact, their family has worked in this industry for generations. But, now, the entire energy sector in South Africa is set to be rewired. Renewable energy will replace coal in a transition intended to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, while also making it a “Just Transition,” as the government calls it, with better jobs and cheaper energy - and maybe even healing past wounds. But what happens to the people who built their lives on coal? The world is watching to see how Kriel - and families like the Skhosanas - are going to do it.
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16 Aug 2023
To Vote or Not to Vote in Zimbabwe
Young people in Zimbabwe are torn. Not just about who to vote for, but whether or not they’ll vote at all. Zimbabweans head to the polls on August 23rd 2023. It may be the first or second time young people can participate in the election of a president since the end of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule in 2017. The coup that toppled him sparked new hope. But election violence, an unstable economy and lack of reforms in the years since have jaded Zimbabwe’s youth. This story was produced by Radio Workshop in collaboration with Magamba Network.
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3 Aug 2023
Level Up
We held an audio storytelling workshop in Cape Town, South Africa in early 2023, where nine producers from five different countries learnt how to produce a story from beginning to end in just 10 days. This episode features two stories made by new producers, Naomi Grewan from South Africa and Munirah Kaoneka from Tanzania. ‘I'm Just a Wes’ is a story that explores trans joy, and 'Embracing Your Scars’ - a thoughtful and empathetic story about surviving trauma.
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29 Jun 2023
This Coal Life
The Skhosanas live a modest yet comfortable life in Kriel, South Africa. And they owe it all to coal. In fact, their family has worked in this industry for generations. But, now, the entire energy sector in South Africa is set to be rewired. Renewable energy will replace coal in a transition intended to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, while also making it a “Just Transition,” as the government calls it, with better jobs and cheaper energy - and maybe even healing past wounds. But what happens to the people who built their lives on coal? The world is watching to see how Kriel - and families like the Skhosanas - are going to do it.
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6 Jun 2023
Listen to Me
Sibongile is trying to be a better friend to her colleague, who is living with bipolar disorder. Abigail desperately wants to improve her relationship with her father, but not at the cost of her mental health. And two sisters, pushed apart by a traumatic incident, find their way back to each other. These three intimate stories were produced by Radio Workshop youth reporters from across South Africa for the SNF Nostos Mental Health conference, which will be held in Athens, Greece from the 21st to the 23rd of June 2023. More information here: snfnostos.org
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26 May 2023
A Crisis of Biblical Proportions
Climate change is already impacting billions of people worldwide. Floods. Droughts. Climate migration… The enormity of the crisis at hand can make it easy to lose sight of the individuals who are impacted. Like Grace Chileshe Chanda, a 21 year old Zambian climate activist, who's agreed to show us what climate change and the damage from increasingly heavy rains and floods looks like up close in Mtendere - the largest and oldest township in the country’s capital, Lusaka.
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19 Apr 2023
Room for Tears
Smangele Mathebula was raised to be a strong black woman. Her mother, Irene, taught her to be tough in order to survive the difficult challenges of Apartheid. Smangele never learned to be vulnerable. Now she has her own daughter who's seventeen, and Smangele doesn't want her to hold in her emotions like she learned to. So the two sat down to talk about their mother and grandmother, Irene, sharing feelings, and not grabbing a knife by the blade.
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6 Mar 2023
Can We Just Remove Africa from the Planet?
Rebecca Mbaama knows grief. When she lost her mother suddenly, her world came crumbling down. But for the sake of her siblings (and herself) Rebecca had to keep going. Luckily, her mother left her with all the tools she needed to do just that. In this episode, Rebecca explains how she is facing her climate grief in much the same way - by taking action - not to mention her first flight ever to attend COP27, where she meets activists Emi Mahmoud and Maria Reyes. And just like Rebecca's mum, they inspire her to keep going.
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6 Dec 2022
Here We Are
Coming out as a trans man is risky. Doing it on Youtube - incredibly risky. Especially when home is the relatively small town of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where Noks Simelane says there’s no such thing as anonymity. Yet Noks did exactly that at age 19. This is our second story about finding allyship in surprising places - and this time, the unexpected ally was the internet…
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8 Nov 2022
A Moment of Truth
Secrets. That’s what kept “Ras That Guy” safe in Zimbabwe. At his wedding, he wore a traditional white dress to protect a secret. He found hormone injections on the black market which he could take in secret. But Ras is done with secrets. They’ve been eating him up inside. In this episode, he peels back the layers to reveal who he really is. To his surprise, he found allies in people he least expected.
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13 Sept 2022
I Will Not Grow Old Here: The Lights of Sandton
In the third and final episode, Mary-Ann goes in search of “new songs” about her home. A chorus of young voices helps her to explore the contradictions of life in Alexandra. There are no easy answers, and not everyone will make it out of Alex, but there is something infectious about the energy and persistence of young Alexandrians - a spirit Mary-Ann embodies and hopes will take her out of Alex. Some day.
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26 Jul 2022
I Will Not Grow Old Here: The Air We Breathe
In episode two of three, Mary-Ann steps out of her comfort zone to explore parts of Alex she's been warned about her whole life. Her search for answers leads her to places where past and present overlap. How will she find her way out of Alex when the legacy of apartheid lingers, practically in the air she breathes? Meanwhile, things in Mary-Ann’s personal life take a turn for the worse.
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15 Jun 2022
I Will Not Grow Old Here: A Girl from Alex
This story starts with a number: 70%. That's how many young people in South Africa are unemployed. Youth hustle and hope to find success, but how do you make it in a place like Alexandra township in Johannesburg? And how do you get out? In this three-part series, 23-year-old Mary-Ann Nobele brings listeners into her life in Alex and shows us why she's made this promise to herself: I will not grow old here.
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8 Jun 2022
Coming soon: I Will Not Grow Old Here
This story starts with a number: 70%. That's how many young people in South Africa are unemployed. Youth hustle and hope to find success, but how do you make it in a place like Alexandra township in Johannesburg? And how do you get out? In this three-part series, 23-year-old Mary-Ann Nobele brings listeners into her life in Alex and shows us why she's made this promise to herself: I will not grow old here.
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31 May 2022
Demystifying Demons
[Trigger Warning: Suicide] When Zambian law student Mulemba Mulando’s best friend commits suicide, it sends her into a spiral of grief and guilt. But her own healing process ultimately leads her to becoming the kind of friend and advocate her friends and her community needed.
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28 Mar 2022
Young, Unvaccinated, and African
Africa is falling behind on vaccinating its citizens against COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy among youth is a big reason why. We speak to some young people in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and South Africa to reveal the extreme lengths youth will go to to avoid getting the jab.
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11 Feb 2022
Things Fall Apart: Rebuilding Through Radio
When violence swept across Kwamashu, South Africa, Sibonelo Sithole was one of the only youth radio presenters that could make it to the station, Vibe FM. When he opened up the lines for callers, Sibonelo learned that division runs deep within his community. Months later, he is still trying to understand both sides of the story.
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31 Jan 2022
Things Fall Apart: Picking Up the Pieces
Youth activist Nonku Zungu found herself caught in the middle of the violence that gripped South Africa in July 2021. As things begin to settle down, she steps in to help her community make sense of it all.
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30 Nov 2021
Things Fall Apart: 8 Days of Unrest in South Africa
Youth reporters from across South Africa take to the streets to speak with their communities in an attempt to reckon with the violent unrest that erupted in July 2021 following the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma.
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