Unlike traditional podcasts, say the publishers, Innermost features unique stories from Guardian listeners and the ambient sounds they record. The result is a series of unexpected and intimate vignettes where the listener is transported from one place to another in the way the guest defines.
Each episode of Innermost will take the audience to new corners of the globe. From a 30-year-old heroin addict in London, to a woman in India who only met her husband once prior to lockdown and a secret, escalating war between neighbours in North West England, over bird seed.
The first episode of Innermost takes listeners to Kuala Lumpur, where a young woman is in lockdown with her brother who has an acute mental illness. Through cooking him meals she begins to repair their damaged relationship and understand his condition more.
Leah Green, the host of Innermost and Guardian multimedia producer, said: “Innermost feels really different from other Guardian podcasts, because its main aim is to delight, rather than inform. You won't hear any expert voices or analysis, just unprecedented access into the lives of people that you wouldn’t ordinarily have the chance to meet.
“We have also made sound design a huge part of the podcast. Working with composer and sound designer, Pascal Wyse, on this has enabled us to provide a product that is as rich sonically as it is in content.”
Christian Bennett, executive editor for multimedia journalism, Guardian News & Media, said: “The Guardian is committed to hosting rich and diverse conversations from politics to football and science. Giving our readers a platform to voice their views helps us see things from a range of perspectives – there is a lot we can learn from personal stories.
“We continue to expand our podcast offering, every month we reach millions of Guardian listeners around the world. We have been a market leader in podcasts for 15 years and we see opportunities for growth as audio consumption increases.”
Green, whose Fake or for real? series on theguardian.com and Instagram account have garnered millions of views, is also a video producer and has worked on some of the Guardian’s most successful video projects including the Anywhere but Westminster politics series and Death land, a series which examines our relationship with mortality.
Green’s video ‘How period apps are making other people rich’ recently won this year’s Webby Award People’ Voice vote for Best Video (Technology).
Innermost is the newest audio series from the Guardian’s dedicated audio team, whose shows include Today in Focus and Football Weekly, Audio Long Read, Science Weekly and, most recently, Forgotten Stories of Football which recounts the best moments in football history.
According to the Guardian’s latest podcast research, 17.2million people are currently listening to podcasts in the UK (27% or 4.5m of those have listened to a Guardian podcast in the last three months) and a further 14.3million either intend to listen or are open to the idea of listening over the next six months.
New episodes of Innermost will be released every Tuesday for a limited run and can be listened to on theguardian.com/audio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast or the podcast app of your choice.
Innermost is supported by Vodafone.
