Podcast Episodes

Hold Fast! 5. No better mirror than the sea

Denied entry to a series of ports in the Caribbean, the crew of the Avontuur begin to wonder whether they will ever be able to get off the ship. They mend sails and find creative ways to entertain th…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Hold Fast! 4. Taking the biscuit

Unable to step off the ship, tensions are rising amongst the crew of the Avontuur and coping mechanisms begin to emerge. When the dry store is raided and boxes of biscuits go missing, ship’s cook Giu…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Hold Fast! 3. The world as you know it no longer exists

In the middle of the Atlantic, the crew of the Avontuur receive a satellite email with news from land that throws everything they’d been counting on to the winds. Their mission and schedule are in di…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Hold Fast! 2. I didn’t know the sea was so big

15 people, 188 days at sea, one extraordinary ship: how the Avontuur was locked down at sea during the Covid-19 pandemic.

What would you do if your world shrunk to 300 square metres, and you had no sa…

Published on 1 month, 4 weeks ago

Hold Fast! 1. Signs from the universe

15 people, 188 days at sea, one extraordinary ship: how the Avontuur was locked down at sea during the Covid-19 pandemic.

What would you do if your world shrunk to 300 square metres, and you had no sa…

Published on 1 month, 4 weeks ago

My way out of the woods

A corporate high-flyer ended up living in a forest after a spiral of debt, shame and secrecy.

After avoiding a mounting debt to his landlord, Australian Mic Whitty’s life started to crumble. Instead o…

Published on 2 months ago

Sex, love, Rock 'n' Roll... and The Sopranos

Robin Green is an American writer who has been dizzyingly successful, but she describes herself as a 'clueless girl'. At times, she didn't even realise she could actually write. In the early 1970s wh…

Published on 2 months, 1 week ago

Why I wore iron underwear on Kabul’s busiest street

Artist Kubra Khademi was so enraged by the constant sexual harassment faced by women in Afghanistan that she created a bespoke suit of armour, forged out of metal with exaggerated breasts and buttock…

Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Kidnapped at four: How I found my way home

After being kidnapped, a promise to return to his mother helped Antonio Salazar-Hobson through his darkest hours.

Antonio Salazar-Hobson was four years old when he was kidnapped from his Mexican migra…

Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago

The penguin that followed a teacher home

While visiting friends in Uruguay, British teacher Tom Michell saw a penguin covered in oil and tar on a beach. Tom cleaned the bird as best he could and then tried to release it. The penguin refused…

Published on 3 months ago