Local Heroes Podcast

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...

In a world of so-called influencers, meet the real deal. A true change maker of our time. On this week’s Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan meet Harriet Lamb, a woman who has spent her life sitting in the heart of the contradiction, brokering the relationship between David and Goliath, and disrupting the mainstream to make it fairer, greener, and more just. From leading the Fairtrade movement thr...

On this week's Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan sit down with the brilliant Hannah Graham, storyteller, illustrator, and former nurse, who’s swapped scrubs for sketchbooks and now spends her days lighting up classrooms, libraries and community halls with stories, doodles, and a lot of heart. They chat about how Hannah went from the hospital ward to the world of children’s storytelling, why draw...

In this episode of Local Heroes, Chris and Dan are joined by two of Sunderland’s most committed cultural champions, Frankie Francis (Frankie and The Heartstrings, SAFC matchday commentator) and Marty Longstaff (The Lake Poets), the duo driving the bold vision behind Sunderland Music City. What begins as a deep dive into grassroots creativity and community-led regeneration soon rolls into the finer...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by the brilliant Yasmin Sayed Ahmed, a vegan cook, food storyteller, and all-round unbeatable human being. We kick off chatting about the chaos of London’s 20mph speed zones, failed driving tests, and how learning to drive later in life can feel like scaling Everest. But that’s just the start. Yasmin shares her journey from Alexandria...

Many men suffer in silence. Some never get the chance to speak. Suicide remains the biggest killer of men under 50 and the North East has some of the highest rates in the country. James Fildes knows that struggle firsthand. After battling depression and suicidal thoughts for years, the Sunderland lad who once famously got his head stuck in the railings at Roker Park came dangerously close to becom...

This week, Chris and Dan welcome Joe Arrowsmith and Steve Hoggy from the powerhouse that is Arrow Strength Gym and things get loud, honest, and hilarious. Let’s get this out of the way: the podcast studio? It’s not a rip-off of Arrow it's an ode. A very sincere, 99% identical ode. Because when a space is built with blood, guts, community, and purpose, it’s hard not to be inspired. This episode is...

With no guests and no script, Chris and Dan are left to their own devices. In this episode, they muse on the mysterious decline of cherry-flavoured everything, reflect on the weight of self-doubt, and somehow end up recounting the time Chris got scammed by a biscuit-eating window cleaner. From absurd tangents to unexpectedly raw moments, it’s just two mates talking nonsense, getting real, and find...

On this week’s Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan speak to Katie Cullen, co-founder of the much-loved Block & Bottle - the North East’s first combined butcher and craft beer shop. Originally launched in Gateshead and now based in Heaton, it’s at the forefront of the North East’s craft butchery scene, pioneering ethical sourcing, nose-to-tail education, and challenging the traditionally male-d...

On this week's Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan meet Peter Manning, the creative force behind Prefab77. Based in Newcastle, Peter’s bold, layered work blends street art, fashion, and symbolic storytelling. But beyond the visuals is a story of sheer grit - from training as a printmaker in the British Army to hustling New York’s pop-up scene, landing gigs with Donna Karan, and wrestling with pass...

In this week's Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan are joined by Richard Colman Ord - fifth-generation restaurateur, proud Sandancer, and the passionate force behind Colmans Seafood Temple in South Shields. With Italian roots and a childhood spent selling pears on the counter of the family’s original Ocean Road shop, Richard’s connection to food and hospitality runs deep. We discuss history, herit...

This week on the Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan talk to the outrageously lovely Amy Whitfield, the unstoppable force behind Triple A Food Tours, a business she started in 2019 to shine a light on the North East’s incredible food culture. Inspired by a food tour in New York and fuelled by her love of all things local, Amy swapped a career in property for a new adventure rooted in community, st...

In this episode of Local Heroes Podcast, Chris and Dan talk to Barry Hyde of The Futureheads,a rare, unfiltered peek behind the curtain. We dive into his personal journey through the intense pressures of the music industry - from touring with Franz Ferdinand to confronting the pressure of failure and the emotional weight of creative leadership.  Barry opens up about his experience living with bipo...