Each month, Storycatcher brings you two podcasts:
short stories about
ordinary southern africans
longer stories about those
who go deeper and further
Insplorations
Episode 5: January 2025
Nanette Flemming
Nanette Flemming has spent 25 years with the Khomani San in the southern Kalahari. She was there in the early days of their successful land claim and has seen the hope and cultural knowledge of that time in great danger of disappearing. She talks to us about the kind of precious experiences she had with the elders of the community who are all but dead.
Episode 4: January 2025
Carrie and Kyle-Mark are discovering fascinating – truly fascinating – things about ground hornbills.
Episode 3: December 2024
The wildlife warrior, fighting rampant poaching in the game reserves of Limpopo with his tracker dog Landa.
Episode 2: November 2024
Dr Keneiloe Molopyane was chosen as a team member for the homo naledi excavation, a dangerous and thrilling enterprise to bring thousands of intriguing fossils out of the dark chamber where they’d lain for 300 000 years.
Episode 1: October 2024
Craig Foster
Son of the sea and director of the Oscar Winning documentary “My Octopus Teacher”.
We spoke about everything but octopuses and he gave more examples of his curious interactions with the creatures of the deep.
Potpourri
Episode 4: January 2025 – Stories from the Storycatcher’s Adventures
This month features two stories from the Southern Kalahari: Dog of Dogs and Death in the Dunes.
Episode 3: December 2024 – Stories of Hoedspruit
This month’s Potpourri takes us to Hoedspruit, boom-town safari capital of South Africa.
Llewell Viljoen
Llewell Viljoen’s childhood was deeply unhappy – but in ways that are most unusual. Hers is a story of great forbearance and triumph.
Gerry Macdonald
Chopper pilot, game capture expert, legendary anti-poaching hero and rhino saviour.
Collet Ngobeni
A sergeant in the crack all-female anti-poaching unit the Black Mambas, who patrol 20 000 wild hectares of the Greater Kruger Park.
Brent Abrahamse
A photographer who sees beauty in all women, coaxes it into being, and translates it into sensuous images.
Episode 2: November 2024 – Stories of the Magaliesberg
Potpourri is out on the 3rd Wednesday of each month and in November it features stories from the Magaliesberg. You can listen to the whole episode or skip between stories.
Louis Steyn
The Haunted House at Windy Pines.
Jenny Gillies
Jenny Gillies was on a Sunday walk with her friends when she heard a strange squeak under a bush. It was a squeak that changed her life.
Johnson Masinga
Johnson Masinga is the best-read pump attendant you’ll meet. Probably the most cheerful too!
Rob Milne
Rob Milne, collector of the Magaliesburg’s stories, big or small.
Vicky Brooker
Episode 1: October 2024 – Stories of the Deep Blue Sea
October’s Potpourri features stories from the sea. There are two encounters with sharks (of a very different nature); a conversation with an old fisherman; and two tales of remarkable coincidence. You can listen to the whole episode or skip between stories.
Bernie Shelly
Bernie Shelly is 77 years old and has been surfing for over sixty years, so it was only a question of time before she encountered one of the ocean’s apex predators.
Rob Caskie 1
Rob is an accomplished speaker who specializes in the great days of Arctic and Antarctic exploration. This is a tale from those long-gone days that is as inexplicable as it is remarkable.
Elaine Hurry
Elaine was saved from drowning when she was five years old. That was dramatic enough, but it was nothing by comparison with what was to come.
Tony Trimmel
Tony Trimmel is a descendant of Philipino and Portuguese fishermen who arrived in Kalk Bay in the 1840s.
Isabelle Webb
Isabelle Webb suffered three brutal losses in her life, so brutal they might have destroyed her. She chose otherwise.
Rob Caskie 2
Robs is an explorer of the arctic and antarctic. He shares a tale that is as inexplicable as it is remarkable.
