ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
CATHERINE CARR, AUDIO PRODUCER “I grew up on a diet of Woman’s Hour ,” broadcasting experience, working on her favourite show is just a taste of what she has achieved. Continuing with the BBC, she produced and reported for Radio 4’s You and Yours , created Where Are You Going? for the BBC World Service and presents The Exchange . Her venture Cambridge resident Catherine Carr recollects. Tallying over 20 years of
points went back 20 years further than mine. The way that children are brought up, thought of and cared for really changes over time.” While Relatively asks hard questions, Catherine insists: “There is reciprocal love at the heart of the podcasts that I make.” She continues: “People don’t talk about siblings much. Publishing on parenting outnumbers publishing on siblings by something ridiculous. Yet it’s such a formative relationship.” A relatively new form, Catherine sees more on the horizon for podcasters. “People say the market is saturated, but that’s a load of rubbish. With publishing, you wouldn’t say: that’s enough books; or let’s stop with the films. The exciting podcasts are where people are being creative with format and sound. If you are going to make a show, don’t assume that because podcasting is to audio how YouTube was to music – democratised – it will be easy. The truth is, you need one of four things: contacts, skill, a good idea and luck.”
others, because I had to,” Catherine says. After her parents separated, the two eldest sisters were raised in the UK, while the youngest grew up in the Netherlands. New show Relatively was born just before Covid-19 arrived, a period that was a boon for podcasting in many ways. “Podcasters realised we could
do interviews over the internet,” notes Catherine. “It’s quite an intimate form. The texture that you get in the audio from being at home and talking as if on a phone call was a gift. I wanted that intimacy of eavesdropping on
Reciprocal love is at the heart of my podcasts
into podcasting, the ever-popular Talking Politics, has flooded earphones since 2016. Many of her shows find inventive methods to tease out stories, from interrupting
a sibling relationship.”
passers-by in the street to putting those with similar stories in conversation. It was while talking to colleague Jane Garvey about her sisters – a vicar’s wife and prison officer – that the kernel for her latest podcast was revealed. “Thinking about sibling relationships is always something I’ve done more than
Catherine has encountered the whole gamut of family dynamics, across every demographic, learning how constraints within sibling relationships make their mark over years. “There’s a bit of history involved,” Catherine muses. “When I had Nick and Gill Hornby on, their reference
FAMILY AFFAIR Catherine (left) with her older sister Bex
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