Exeter Stories
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Exeter Stories

ABOUT THIS PODCAST 🔗

Exeter Stories showcases the changemakers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders transforming Exeter and the Exe Valley. Host Paul Batterham interviews local heroes building a better future across health, culture, business, and social innovation.

Discover inspiring stories from brilliant people doing brilliant things right on your doorstep. From a multi-agency support model, to a volunteer-run theatres, to a vision of the city as a place for everyone, each fortnightly episode showcases the positive impact happening across our region.

Perfect for residents, business leaders, and anyone interested in community development, local innovation, and grassroots changemaking in Devon.

New episodes every other Wednesday on all major platforms.

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This podcast has been made possible by the support of the University of Exeter's Innovation team, and the Arts & Culture team.

The idea grew out of civic innovation workshops led by Julie McLaren and Kate Jago in early 2024. Without their work bringing together Exeter's movers and shakers, this podcast wouldn’t exist.

Thanks also go to Adrian Webb at Outcome Path for marketing support and for encouraging me to think bigger and bolder.

And finally, to all of the interviewees: thank you for being candid, funny, serious, passionate, and for all the brilliant things you do.

Documentary
Society & Culture
Hosts:
Update frequency:
every 18 days
Average audio length:
35 minutes
Guest interviews
Has sponsors
English
United States
20 episodes
since Oct. 1, 2025
episodic
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IN THIS PODCAST 🔗

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LATEST EPISODE 🔗

Malcolm Mardon: 50 Years of Hospital Radio

Malcolm Mardon: 50 Years of Hospital Radio

Malcolm Mardon, chairman of Hospital Radio Exeter, tells the story of a station that has been on air since 1974, and reflects on fifty-one years of walking hospital wards, collecting requests, and keeping patients company. Hospital Radio Exeter was founded by police inspector Terry Roberts, who had…
00:34:58
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PREVIOUS EPISODES

Ellie Taylor: What Exeter's Oldest Community Charity Has Learnt About Lasting Change

Ellie Taylor: What Exeter's Oldest Community Charity Has Learnt About Lasting Change

Ellie Taylor, Chief Executive of Exeter Community Initiatives, traces the thirty-year history of one of the city's oldest charities and explains why the most important outcomes of its work are often the ones that never make it into a spreadsheet. ECI was founded in 1993 by a coalition of city centr…
00:40:39
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Nick Hall: Music in Devon Initiative and The Devon Music Scene

Nick Hall: Music in Devon Initiative and The Devon Music Scene

Nick Hall and Dave Knox of Music in Devon Initiative (MIDI) share the story of a decade spent building the infrastructure Devon's music scene never had, and reveal the two city centre spaces that are changing what's possible for musicians in Exeter. Nick came to Devon via Somerset, London's Britpop…
00:36:38
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Jen Harris: Leading the Cloth Nappy Revolution

Jen Harris: Leading the Cloth Nappy Revolution

Jen Harris, founder of the Baby Room on Paris Street, traces an eighteen-year journey from a cold scout hut in Heavitree to one of the most essential community spaces in Exeter, and makes an unanswerable case for what new families need. Jen arrived in Exeter at sixteen and has never really left. Wh…
00:45:05
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Debbie Bucella: Alibi and the Case for Children's Creativity

Debbie Bucella: Alibi and the Case for Children's Creativity

Debbie Bucella, Chief Executive of Alibi, tells the story of one of Devon's most significant arts organisations; forty years of taking world-class theatre into school halls, and a reinvention that turned a funding crisis into a community hub. Debbie arrived in Exeter in the late nineties. Her route…
00:34:21
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Maresa Bossano: Building a Community Food Hub on Cowick Street

Maresa Bossano: Building a Community Food Hub on Cowick Street

Maresa Bossano, founder of Love Food CIC, shares the story behind Exeter's community food hub on Cowick Street in St Thomas, and makes a compelling case for why local, plant-based food isn't a lifestyle choice but vital to public health infrastructure. Maresa has spent thirty years working in susta…
00:38:34
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Will Adamsdale: Building Exeter's Comedy Scene From Pub To Festival

Will Adamsdale: Building Exeter's Comedy Scene From Pub To Festival

Perrier Award winner, actor, and the man behind Locally Sourced comedy night, Will Adamsdale traces the unlikely journey from a comedy emergency in a Sidwell Street cafe to founding Exeter's own annual comedy festival, now running around 90 shows across some of the city's most unexpected spaces. Lo…
00:39:29
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Lightbear Lane: Building Culture and Community Across Exeter's Streets and Stories

Lightbear Lane: Building Culture and Community Across Exeter's Streets and Stories

Dr Sarah Spencer and Dr Judith Morgane, the partnership behind arts and heritage organisation Lightbear Lane, share how they are using community film, creative mapping, Shakespeare and asset-based development to help Exeter find its identity, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Founded in 2023, Lightbe…
00:43:01
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The Modern Earl: Heritage, Innovation and the Future of Exeter

The Modern Earl: Heritage, Innovation and the Future of Exeter

Recorded live at the Devon & Exeter Institution, this episode features Charlie Courtenay, the 19th Earl of Devon, as he reflects on heritage, stewardship, and the future of Exeter. We explore: What it means to “inherit” a story and reshape it for the modern world. How the historic Earldom and …
00:21:56
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CoLab Women: Compassion, Connection and Recovery

CoLab Women: Compassion, Connection and Recovery

Jeanie Lynch, Head of Service for CoLab Women, reflects on decades of community work and what it means to build trust, safety, and hope in Exeter. We discuss: Her early activism in the 1980s Exeter women’s movement and her journey back to the city. The origins of CoLab Exeter and how it evolved in…
00:36:41
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Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Paul Batterham, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.
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