Hearing Stories & New Research Findings About Social Issues And Topics Related To The Children And Education In South Africa

As a social worker and researcher I have found myself often turning to podcasts for inspiration, for learning and for connection to others. There are not many podcasts coming from South Africa, a developing country which focusses on social issues and social development. Navigating the research process is a wonderful story should be told and findings can be relevant to all levels, not only academia. I'm Jessica Ronaasen, and research should be relatable.

Relate Your Research is a proudly South African online podcast which gives parents, teachers and students an opportunity to hear stories and new research findings about social issues and topics related to the children and education. This podcast is a platform to hear about the latest work and findings of social workers, psychologists, educators, health practitioners alike who are curious about the world around them and want to share with research. Why should research be confined to pen and paper?

Target audience includes, social workers, helping professionals, development researchers and postgraduate students working in the social sciences

This podcast started in 2019 as a passion project with the aim of preserving the lessons and stories of social work researchers in South Africa. A podcast provided a collaborative platform for social workers and researchers to share their unique experiences, creating an innovative dialogue while preserving knowledge and also giving accessibility to the content. I personally enjoy listening to podcasts, it has become a form of background research and a world of learning erupted as I discovered the meaningful conversations others were having, and yet these conversations were not contextualised for South Africa, a country with a number of unique social issues.

My motivation was, and continues to be to grow an unlikely network between civil society, practitioner professionals and researchers. What a pleasure to facility conversions about the projects that people spend hours and hours working on. This also creates the opportunity for other researchers to learn from the lessons of others. Decolonial social work has become a major thrust in South Africa as we strive to form and own our own African flavour I the academic world. Relate Your Research is proudly recorded and produced in South Africa.

My first episode, the pilot, continues to be my most downloaded episode. It look about a month to record and edit. We loved creating the intro jingle and I must admit that throughout the process I had such anticipation for the first official published episode.

Our schedule at this point aims to release one episode per month, a monthly topic with covers the research as well as the lessons learnt along the way. I am about to launch a special Early Childhood Development Series focussed on education and social development and this will potentially increase the number of podcasts per month. Watch this space!

Finding the time to do podcasts has become easier as I have found the flexibility and enjoyment of these conversations are often energising to my other projects. I slot recordings in whenever I can, and production usually happens in the evenings. I am most grateful for Richard Baker, our production lead. He really is the fine tuning and quality control for these episodes.

This podcast is self funded, however with our new ECD series we have secured a funder for 12 episodes which is most exciting! Innovation at its best!

This podcast is really an opportunity to create. It offers researchers a platform and I feel that is also allows me to really engage with the wider world of social work in such a unique way. My first sponsorship took about 8 episodes, but I think the topics also assists with regards to securing funding.

I think the future is moving online and as podcasting becomes more significant there is a thrust for information to be shared. Relate Your Research hopes to be a part of linking communities with current research to inspire, learn and link others to helpful projects and resources.

Using Zoom has been a wonderful tool, particularly remotely. I have an open call for guests to request to be on the show but I also am often on the look out for interesting topics and guest to include on the show.

You can follow our journey and process via our website (jessicabaker36.wixsite.com/relateyourresearch) or social media channels.

I have seen that word of mouth and referrals are key to new subscribers and growing the audience base. My Instagram account @Relate_Your_Research has become a wonderful tool for sharing the journey and for marketing the podcast, Facebook (@realteyourresearch) also offers our community updates and links to the podcast.

I find that most of our listeners link through their preferred streaming platform or our host site Iono.fm. What a privilege to be hosted on a proudly South African streaming platform. Their support and services are really exceptional.

I have learnt that, as a host I need to listen more and talk less! :) This has been a humbling process of really learning to facility conversations and create a platform for passionate people to be passionate! Ive also realised that not every episode has to be "perfect" and that our audience is really tuned into the authenticity of each show.

Ive loved seeing the different responses to podcast recording for different personality! Not everyone naturally speaks for audio output.

Personally, I have gained a great amount of learning from listening of other podcasts, and podcasts ab out podcasts! :) Proudly learning along the way.

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