Podcasts Of The People – stories of every day South Africans

I remember the moment clearly. Kurt and I had just sat down at Voodoo Lily for one of our catch-up breakfasts in August 2018. The conversation began with me sharing a few insights from some podcast that I had listened to over the last couple of days. Kurt picked up on one of the points that I had raised around stories and shared an idea of how we could start telling stories to connect South Africans.

Those who know Kurt Solomon will tell you that his energy as a person is infectious. He has a phenomenal ability to connect with people and draws his energy from engaging with others around him. “If ever a boytjie liked to klap it, it’s this oke. Kurt gets a kick out of meeting, helping and making people smile.”

Podcasts of the People (POP) aims to bring South Africans together by encouraging people to get to know and understand each other better by starting a conversation. Have you ever stopped to greet someone you didn’t know or started a conversation with a random in a queue while shopping?

The goal is to share stories of everyday South Africans, of all races, religions, genders, and ages. Kurt is inspired and motivated by normal, everyday South Africans, and their stories. He chats with car guards to understand their story and he knows many people, from all walks of life. Single moms with cancer, people with depression, some who attempted suicide but overcame it all. He knows that people all have a story to tell and wanted to chat with people from all walks of life to share their stories, to inspire and to spread positivity and hope through South Africa. After chatting to his equally passionate mates about the idea,  Carel Nolte (Business partner and mentor), Joshua Nuttall (me) and Levon Lock, they kicked his arse and so POP was (finally) born.

We roped in Jono Bruton to bring the super logo and brand theme to life. Levon kindly offered up his studio for our first 3 recordings towards the end of 2019 and his sound engineer/editing skills mean that we have managed to continue recording episodes while being physically distant through zoom – more episodes will be dropping shortly.

Kurt and I met on a farm in the Franshoek Valley in the Western back in 2013. He and Carel were on the way to Afrika Burn and had stopped in to spend the night in Stellenbosch. Recalling this memory, reminds me of how our journey through life is serendipitous in nature and how important people are. Fast forward a few years and we have worked together on a number of projects, been given exciting opportunities and are good mates.

So, when Kurt chatted to me about POP and asked if I would be keen to help manage the content of the podcast, it was an opportunity that I could not resist.

POP is an informal conversational style podcast for the people, by the people. We want to tell stories, connect people with people and enable people to learn or be inspired by others.

Podcasts are exploding globally and for good reason. They enable connections and give us the ability to learn from others. I have been listening for podcasts for just over 4 years now, they give me the opportunity to learn from the experience from other and offer a personal connection with fascinating thinkers who I may never have the chance to meet face to face. Through the CN&CO blog, I had been sharing weekly podcast recommendations and ideas based off some of the podcasts that I had listened to each week. You can check them out here and I will be kick starting these blogs again over the coming week.

Tune in, subscribe to the podcast on your favourite podcast player. Simply type in Podcasts of the… and it should pop up in the search results.

We all have a story to share, so if you would like to share your story please get in touch with us. Kurt (kurt@cnandco.com), Josh (joshua@cnandco.com).

Ps, seeing that we are on the topic of people you may also enjoy the story and stories of Humans of New York.