Podcasts – Storycatcher

Each month, Storycatcher brings you two podcasts:

short stories about
ordinary southern africans

longer stories about those
who go deeper and further

SIMPLE STORIES SIMPLY TOLD

These are stories of ordinary people in Southern Africa – housewives and husbands, sons and daughters. The mavericks and musicians, sailors and scientists, cooks and conservationists. There are two podcasts each month: Potpourri, a collection of short stories. And Insplorations which are longer and feature those who are living big and asking the big questions.

I travel the subcontinent in my truck, my Kalahari dogs on the passenger seat, catching the strange, funny or sad stories suggested by my listeners. So my routes are not determined by game parks and scenic views but by Southern Africa’s creative, eccentric deep-thinking people of the heart.

Please help me find them.

Insplorations

Episode 2: November 2024

Vincent Carruthers

Vincent Carruthers has spent decades researching the Magaliesberg so he knows many of its secrets and stories. He brings us some from the renowned caves of the region and their even more renowned paleoanthropological treasures.

Dr Keneiloe Molopyane

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 2: November 2024 – Stories of the Magaliesberg

Potpourri is out on the 3^rd Wednesday of each month and in October it features stories from the Magaliesberg. You can listen to the whole episode or skip between stories.

Click on the images to view galleries of the guests and their stories.

Louis Steyn

The Haunted House at Windy Pines.

[11:54]

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.

[09:54]

Johnson Masinga

Johnson Masinga is the best-read pump attendant you’ll meet. Probably the most cheerful too!

[05:30]

Rob Milne

Rob Milne, author and amateur historian.

[14:25]

Vicky Brooker

Vicky Brooker works with elephants and loves big cats, like Mica the cheetah, and she’s done so for over four decades.

[13:28]

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.

Click on the images to view galleries of the guests and their 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.

[14:06]

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.

[09:57]

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.

[11:17]

Tony Trimmel

Tony Trimmel is a descendant of Philipino and Portuguese fishermen who arrived in Kalk Bay in the 1840s. Like his father before him, Tony supplies the boats with fuel, though his work is sporadic – at best – these days.

[18:37]

Isabelle Webb

Isabelle Webb suffered three brutal losses in her life, so brutal they might have destroyed her. She chose otherwise.

[12:33]

Rob Caskie 2

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.

[07:12]

Subscribe to our mailing list