Are You Listening?: The Oxfordshire Youth Podcast

Ace (He/Him) was the winner of our 2020 Community Champion Award. After battling Leukaemia as a child, Ace has endeavoured to support charities such as Star Light and Cancer Research. This year at his school he was the driving force behind their Race for Life week which raised over £7800 for Cancer Research. He spoke to Teya (She/Her) about his experiences at the Youth Awards and how it elevated 2...

Jacari won the Youth Project of the Year award at the 2020 Oxfordshire Youth Awards.  Through the Jacari Project Oxford, volunteers from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University are paired with local children who have English as an additional language to deliver English lessons to them, many children are from migrant or refugee families. These lessons help to boost the children’s acade...

Autumn (She/Her) was the winner of the Pride of Oxfordshire Award. She has dealt with difficult times from childhood and yet has consistently shown strength and resilience in the face of adversity. Some of Autumn’s achievements include: being a poetry competition winner (resulting in two publicised poems), leading youth sessions, and taking on high levels of responsibility to advocate for other yo...

In the second episode of the LGBTQ+ miniseries, Ben (They/Them) was joined by Darius (He/Him) to host a brilliant array of guests to talk about queer representation in the media. Bethia (She/Her), Pheobe (She/Her), and Emily (She/Her) discussed queerbaiting, the progression of queer representation, and the stereotypes of gender in media, advertising, and fashion. They even dived into how queer peo...

In the first episode of our LGBTQ+ miniseries, Ben (They/Them) and Sam (He/Him) talk to Megan (She/Her), Molly (She/Her), and KJ (Ze/They) about their coming out experiences and share any tips and tricks they might have picked up along the way.  They dived into some issues faced by those people coming out and explored some interesting concepts about gender and identity.  We hope that thi...

It seems like forever since we actually did the Youth Awards but we thought that it was about time to reflect on this amazing event. Teya joined Darius to host this episode talking about all of the amazing things that happened along the long journey to the Youth Awards. They were joined by the rest of the Youth Awards planning committee, Sam, Christian and Jenny. This reflection will give you a de...

First episode of 2021! 2021 is finally here so it is time for our first episode and we had a lot to say. Sam and Darius sat down with the rest of the Podcast committee, Jenny, Christian and Ben (We missed you Teya) to discuss exactly how we were feeling about everything. When we recorded this episode, we were all coming to terms with the inevitable third lockdown. It affected us all so differently...

This is the final episode of the Black Lives Matter Miniseries, so we thought that it would be a good point of time to reflect on how insightful this podcast series has been. In this episode, you will hear some of our favourite quotes from the wonderful guests who joined us, and Darius speaks very honestly about how this Miniseries has affected him. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed by the...

It’s time for the fifth episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. We are so excited for this to be the first collaboration episode for the Oxfordshire Youth Podcast. We’re so happy to introduce our friends Bear & H from the 0-100 Podcast. Darius, Bear & H speaks to Saskia, Ricardo, Jas and Ben (Oxfordshire Youth Voice Committee member). They delve into the reasons for their activ...

It’s time for the fifth episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. We are so excited for this to be the first collaboration episode for the Oxfordshire Youth Podcast. We’re so happy to introduce our friends Bear & H from the 0-100 Podcast. Darius, Bear & H speaks to Saskia, Ricardo, Jas and Ben (Oxfordshire Youth Voice Committee member). They delve into the reasons for their activ...

It’s time for the fifth episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. We are so excited for this to be the first collaboration episode for the Oxfordshire Youth Podcast. We’re so happy to introduce our friends Bear & H from the 0-100 Podcast. Darius, Bear & H speaks to Saskia, Ricardo, Jas and Ben (Oxfordshire Youth Voice Committee member). They delve into the reasons for their activ...

It’s time for the fourth episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Raf, Gabriela and Hana. They delve into the subtle nuances that incite hatred within media, fetishization, cancel culture, the demonization from the media and how words change perceptions. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed by the podcast hosts and their guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ox...

It’s time for the fourth episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Raf, Gabriela and Hana. They delve into the subtle nuances that incite hatred within media, fetishization, cancel culture, the demonization from the media and how words change perceptions. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed by the podcast hosts and their guests do not necessarily reflect those of Ox...

It’s time for the third episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Ella and her 3-month-old baby Ava. They delve into how Ella having a mixed-raced daughter has changed her perception of motherhood, how she has been researching so that she can protect her daughter from this world and about how racism is weaved into the media we consume. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expr...

It’s time for the third episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Ella and her 3-month-old baby Ava. They delve into how Ella having a mixed-raced daughter has changed her perception of motherhood, how she has been researching so that she can protect her daughter from this world and about how racism is weaved into the media we consume. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expr...

It’s time for the second episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Sam, (you already know and love him from previous episodes of the Oxfordshire Youth podcast) Xiao, Lizzie, Aashika. They delve into the discrimination they have felt throughout their lives, the normalisation of black trauma, harmful stereotypes and what Black Lives Matter means to them. DISCLAIMER: Views...

It’s time for the second episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Sam, (you already know and love him from previous episodes of the Oxfordshire Youth podcast) Xiao, Lizzie, Aashika. They delve into the discrimination they have felt throughout their lives, the normalisation of black trauma, harmful stereotypes and what Black Lives Matter means to them. DISCLAIMER: Views...

It’s time for the first episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them. Darius speaks to Jenny (Oxfordshire Youth Voice Committee member) and inspirational YouTube star, Ariya. They delve into the shock they felt seeing George Floyd’s murder and discrimination as a whole. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed by the podcast hosts and their guests do not necessarily reflect those of Oxfordsh...

It’s time for the first episode of Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them (part of the Black Lives Matter miniseries).  Darius speaks to Jenny (Oxfordshire Youth Voice Committee member) and inspirational YouTube star, Ariya.  They delve into the shock they felt when seeing George Floyd’s murder and reflect on discrimination as a whole. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed by the pod...

Welcome to the third and final part of the Black Lives Matter Miniseries – Fantastic Allies and Where to Find Them.  This part involves so many inspiring allies; some of them are podcasters, writers, models - what unites them is their passion for supporting the cause of the Black Lives Matter movement. In this introductory episode, Darius shares 10 top tips on how to become a fantastic ally y...

The third and final episode in You Can’t Take Our Youth Away, let’s go!  Darius continues to chat with Yasmin, Akasha and Luis from Mandala Theatre Company. They discuss what the amplification of black voices looks like to them, what Black Lives Matter means to them and what is next for Mandala. DISCLAIMER: Views and opinions expressed by the podcast hosts and their guests do not necessarily...

It’s time for the second episode of You Can’t Take Our Youth Away - the second part of the Black Lives Matter podcast miniseries.  Darius chats to Yasmin Sidhwa, the Artistic Director of Mandala Theatre Company, and two of the amazing young people she works with: Akasha Daley (her daughter) and Luis Riberio. Akasha studies in Germany and she is a dancer and choreographer, she uses her gift fo...

Welcome to part 2 of the Black Lives Matter mini-series – You Can’t Take Our Youth Away.  In the first part, Darius chats to Yasmin Sidhwa, the Artistic Director of Mandala Theatre Company, to talk about the erasure of black activism successes, the ‘Global Majority,’ Yasmin’s career and how she is cultivating a culture within Mandala that has inclusivity and diversity at its heart. Her story...

What’s in store for episode number 4 of our Black Lives Matter Mini-series. Darius chats to Faustine, the founder of Collective Conversationz, No More Period Poverty Oxford and she is also the co-founder of Women’s Hub Oxford. Known to many as ‘The Hood Writer,’ she is consistently empowering and educating those around her whether it is to do with intersectional feminism, Black Lives Matter, cultu...

Are you ready for the 3rd episode in the Black Lives Matter Mini-series? Darius sat down and spoke to Sasha Johnson. She is known as Oxford’s Black Panther, she’s an amazing youth worker, freedom fighter, activist and business owner. Sasha was also the lady who pulled together the Black Lives Matter Protest in South Park in Oxford on 3rdJune 2020. They discuss taking up space, sub-oppression withi...