Podcast: Stance — consistently smart

“If you’re born into a certain body in a certain place in a certain time, then you’re born into politics,” says the British actor and musician Riz Ahmed in the new episode of Stance. “In the big scheme of things it’s about fighting for space for yourself and people like you.”

Ahmed is discussing his own cultural identity but he could be talking about one of the biggest problems afflicting the podcasting industry today. Given the comparative newness of the medium, as well as its DIY nature, it’s depressing to find it such an overwhelmingly white and male domain. All power, then, to Heta Fell and Chrystal Genesis, the creators of Stance, for claiming space for more marginalised voices through one of the most consistently smart and wide-ranging podcasts of recent months.

Launched early in 2017, Stance is a transatlantic magazine-style show about identity, culture and politics. While Genesis is based in Brixton, south London, British-born Fell is now resident in California, which helps cement the show’s global outlook. So far, in between interviews with artists, choreographers, filmmakers, musicians and writers, there have been in-depth items on colourism, the female prison experience and the rise of the demagogue.

Fell’s conversation with Ahmed, who recently featured in Time magazine’s list of “The 100 Most Influential People of 2017”, and who here discusses his life, career and role as spokesperson for diversity in the arts, is undoubtedly a coup. Equally powerful, however, is a discussion with the academic Prithvi Hirano on the concept of borders, focusing on the 70th anniversary of Indian partition, in which she observes that “the rigidity in the borders in our mind are far more difficult to overcome than the physical border”. Elsewhere, the show hears from the Irish health campaigner Betty Holmes who reveals the impact of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on cancer patients, and the photographer Kate Stanworth on her images of people fleeing borders.

It’s through rigorous research and keen journalistic instincts that Fell and Genesis unearth these stories, in the process offering fresh perspectives and a much-needed challenge to the white male orthodoxy. While the production on Stance is sometimes rough around the edges, the views expressed from under-represented people and communities are sharp and fascinating.

Launched just over a year ago and presented by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby, the National Public Radio podcast Code Switch arrived with a similar intention to Stance: to give a voice to those who are often overlooked, here with a particular focus on race. Areas of discussion broadly include pop culture, protest, immigration, comedy and food. The stories told are excellent and the latest — about Simon Tam, the frontman of Asian-American rock band The Slants, and his fight all the way to the Supreme Court to retain their seemingly disparaging band name — is no exception.