Local Heroes Podcast

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan meet serial entrepreneur, innovator and all-round make-things-happen-er Charlie Hoult. From the very first seconds it’s classic Local Heroes - unscripted, off-the-cuff, and full of left-field turns that only happen when you ditch the agenda and let authentic stories unfold. Charlie takes us deep into the world of Hoults Yard: a 12-acre former in...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan welcome Carlos Yescas. Carlos is a globally respected cheese expert, author, and food systems thinker, and Partnership Coordinator at Food Newcastle, where he works to build a more equitable, sustainable, and connected regional food system. His journey spans Mexico City, Ireland, the US, China, and now the North East of England. From washing dis...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan meet with Smith & Liddle, the songwriting duo formed after both artists reached a crossroads in their solo careers. They talk openly about why working alone started to feel creatively draining, the uncertainty of giving up individual identity to become a duo, and how starting again from scratch helped reduce pressure and reignite their love...

One year on from Chris and Dan’s original sit-down with Si King, we are welcoming the PROPA engine room to the Local Heroes Podcast to mark a major milestone - one full year of PROPA. In this episode, we talk to the PROPA kitchen crew (left to right) - Tom Cuthbert, Josef Blythe and Rory Welch - reflecting on a whirlwind first year that has seen PROPA grow from an idea into a defining part of the...

On this week's Local Heroes Podcast, your average hosts Chris and Dan talk to the electric and entrepreneurial Steffi Smith - a true North East legend and one of the region’s most inspiring business role models. As the founder of The Chocolate Smiths, she has built not just an iconic brand, but a blueprint for creativity, resilience, and modern entrepreneurship. Steffi opens up about discovering h...

This Week on the Local Heroes Podcast, the inflexible Chris and Dan Meet Jo Hutton - yoga teacher, creator of Yoga for Tired People, accidental viral sensation, and proud North Eastener. From ASMR mishaps and camping confessions to deep chats about mental health, self-talk, and the realities of wellbeing, this one has everything: laughs, nostalgia, local banter, and powerful insights. Jo shares he...

Local Heroes Podcast - Special Edition: Ivanna Fundraiser 8-Hour Pod-A-Thon Live and in collaboration with Arrow Strength in Sunderland in aid of raising money for a 4yr old Ivanna, a local girl who needs a heart operation in Boston.  Please donate: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/arrow-ivanna-potts This special edition of the Local Heroes Podcast takes you inside our 8-hour live Pod-A-Tho...

This week, Chris and Dan sit down with James Dixon, the creative force behind Lines Behind - the instantly recognisable artwork that’s become a true North East success story. Inspired by Keith Haring - immediately scoring points with Chris - James takes us on a journey from his early days working with global brands like LEGO and Nickelodeon to building his own independent creative studio that now...

This week, Chris and Dan meet sisters Coleen and Karen, two remarkable women who turned one of Britain’s most shocking romance fraud cases into a story of strength, survival, and hope. For years, they were caught in the lies of Greg Wilson - a conman who called himself “James Scott”, a supposed firefighter, devoted fiancé, and local hero. Behind the uniform was a man living multiple lives, manipul...

What happens when a fisherman swaps the North Sea for a mission to preserve his hometowns heritage? In this lovely conversation, Terry McDermott, chair of the North Shields Fishermen’s Heritage Project, takes Chris and Dan from diesel-scented decks and 40-foot waves to statues, school trips and a living legacy on the North Shields Fish Quay. He recalls the 800 Years of North Shields celebration -...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan welcome David Hall, a proud North Easterner and former MasterChef contestant, for a raw, funny, and deeply human conversation about food, the fading spotlight, and finding yourself again. From the smell of Bovril on cold match days at St James’ Park, the conversation is a heartfelt tour through growing up in the North East - its rivalries, humou...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit down with Laura Pidcock - political powerhouse, awesome activist, and all-round good human. Born and raised in Northumberland, Laura’s North East roots run through everything she does, grounding her politics in honesty, fairness, and fierce compassion. As the former Labour MP for the historic heartland of North West Durham, she brought her c...

This week, Chris and Dan are joined by Chris Nicholas, founder of The Ice Guys - a men’s mental health community built on banter, bad jokes, and cold water therapy - almost in that order. What started as a few lads taking a dip for a laugh has turned into something genuinely life-changing. Chris opens up about the ups and downs of sobriety, and laughs about how, in the past, he’d find himself half...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, your increasingly average hosts, Chris and Dan, sit down with Sunderland’s own Tom A. Smith, a 21-year-old already making waves on the UK music scene. Tom’s story is anything but ordinary. He started playing live shows at just eight years old, found himself on stage at Glastonbury by the age of ten, and has already clocked up over a thousand gigs. Now signed...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit down with musician, composer and local legend Kathryn Tickell, celebrating 40 years of showcasing the Northumbrian pipes. The conversation begins with handwriting jitters, block capitals, and autograph chaos (including signing and numbering 1,000 CDs), before opening into Kathryn’s extraordinary journey. From recording her first cassette in...

In this week’s Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan talk to the Coastal Custodian, whose story began with a simple live stream from the beach at Beadnell and has grown into a movement inspiring tens of thousands. From the very beginning, there’s been a reluctance to make the work about her — instead, the spotlight has always been kept firmly on the coastline, the wildlife, and the people who make N...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by the nationally acclaimed North East chef, Kenny Atkinson. In his early days, Kenny wasn’t interested in food - he dreamed of joining the RAF, and later tried a gruelling 3 days with the Marines. But neither was meant to be. Like many growing up in the North East, he was surrounded by allotments, local produce, and the tradition of...

This week on Local Heroes, we meet Leodhais Macpherson, a man who turned unimaginable loss into an extraordinary journey of healing. After losing his brother Conor to suicide, Leodhais set himself the challenge of running 128 marathons in 128 days. Along the way, he battled exhaustion, moments of weakness, endless calorie packing, and midnight deadlines to keep the streak alive. But the miles were...

From Gordon Ramsey to Gordon the Gopher, the world has been blessed with some very famous Gordons. This week, Chris and Dan sit down with North Shields sculptor Keith Barrett, the environmental artist behind our podcast mascot and worldly table, Gordon. Named (obviously) after another local legend, Gordon Sumner AKA Sting, this table is no ordinary piece of furniture. Listen closely and you’ll hea...

On this week’s Local Heroes Podcast, your average pod hosts, Chris Jewitt and Dan Prince, meet the one and only Michael Dickson of Dicksons Pork Butchers. This is a story rooted in family and tradition, from German heritage and the creation of the legendary Saveloy Dip, to an Italian connection with Sunderland’s Notarianni ice cream family. It’s also a story of legacy, a teenage Michael, reluctant...

In this episode of Local Heroes, we meet James King and Mark Brown, the boys behind Newcastle’s much loved Cantina. They didn’t start as friends. Working long shifts in Newcastle’s bars and restaurants, they often found themselves side by side but not quite in sync. Over time, the hard graft forged mutual respect and that chemistry deepened when they became the rhythm section in a band. Then came...

Phoebe Lao’s journey takes some beating. Born and raised in Los Angeles to Chinese immigrant parents, she grew up surrounded by bold flavours and deep-rooted food traditions. Her dad brought the fire of Indo-Chinese fusion, while her mum kept Southern China’s rice-based comfort food at the heart of every meal. Before food became her calling, Phoebe worked as a produce trader in Canada and was chas...

In this episode of Local Heroes, we sit down with Eileen Ferguson, the Co-Founder of the award-winning Ad Gefrin Distillery in Wooler. For Eileen, the distillery isn’t just a business, it’s a promise kept. Ad Gefrin stands as a testament to her father’s wish: to give something lasting back to the people of Wooler. Eileen shares how her upbringing on a farm shaped her love of food, family, and plac...

This week Chris and Dan sit down with Jack Robertson and Caden Elliot, the chaotic minds behind Metroland Comedy, a sketch show web series that blends mockumentary mayhem with cinematic storytelling. They chat about handbrake turns, the roots of Caden’s obsession with tinned tomatoes, and bonding over labelling EVERYTHING, during the formative days of Metroland. Jack, Caden and the Metroland colle...

This week, Chris and Dan sit down with our first publicly-voted guest, Helen Aitchison, joins us for a powerful, hilarious, and heartfelt episode. Voted by the People, Fuelled by Purpose (and Crisps) Helen went from 20+ years in social care to becoming a published author and founder of Write on the Tyne, where she helps people tell their stories and tackles elitism in the arts head-on. We talk abo...