The Stories of Our Times podcast will take the best and most trusted, original and authoritative journalism to create a landmark news and current affairs audio series, says News UK. Each weekday at 6am, the new podcast will take listeners inside an agenda-setting piece of Times or Sunday Times journalism, often across multiple episodes.
The Times and The Sunday Times has hired journalist and broadcaster Manveen Rana as the main host, with Times columnist and Orwell Prize winner David Aaronovitch hosting the podcast once a week.
Rana is joining from the BBC where she is an investigative reporter for Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC News, including Panorama and the News at Ten. Her most notable work includes breaking the story of sexual harassment at the top tier of Save the Children, an investigation into controversial PR firm Bell Pottinger, and A New Life in Europe: a podcast and series of documentaries that followed a Syrain family, day and night, as they travelled across Europe during the migrant crisis.
Manveen Rana said: “I’m so excited to be part of this project. Podcasts offer listeners the chance to cut out the noise of modern life and really engage with a story. We will be bringing together some of the best and most trusted journalism from The Times, with the depth and the compelling storytelling that you can create with a podcast. For anyone trying to navigate the modern world, that’s a godsend!”
John Witherow, editor of The Times, said: “Our readers trust our award-winning journalists to navigate a complex world for them, and we are constantly innovating to ensure we’re telling those stories in the most compelling way. Launching the Stories of Our Times podcast is a logical development and will bring our high quality journalism in audio to a new audience.”
A team of eight producers have also been hired, including Leo Hornak as the podcast’s executive producer. Leo is a journalist with experience making documentaries and news for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service and This American Life.
Stories of Our Times adds to The Times’s & The Sunday Times’s portfolio of podcasts that includes Red Box, the humorous insider's look at Westminster presented by Matt Chorley, and Giles Coren has no idea, which went to number one in the podcast charts.
Jimmy Buckland, managing director of Wireless Studios, said: “Stories of our Times will provide an exciting new way for audiences to understand what’s happening in the world, combining the powerful audio storytelling that Wireless specialises in with the world class journalistic expertise of The Times. It’s exciting to be extending the relationship between Wireless Studios and The Times through this new podcast, and to provide a new route for our advertising and sponsorship partners to connect with high value news consumers.”
Each episode of the podcasts will be approximately 20 - 25 minutes.
