33 episodes
Yarn | A Story Podcast John Roche
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- Society & Culture
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5.0 • 11 Ratings
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Documentaries and dramas. Whether we're spinning yarns or unraveling them, Yarn is about telling interesting stories.
We have about 26 different stories now, each in a different style. Most episodes are standalone but some bigger stories are part of a series. We've done a 3-part doc series on the history of disability, a 2-part docu-drama about a German spy in Ireland during WW2. We've taken listeners on a trip around the Chernobyl exclusion zone, on a ride-along with a New York police officer and into the bizarre palace of a corrupt dictator.
Irish Podcast Awards: Winner, Best Factual '22
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Yarn Drama Hour
[Audio drama collection]
We've released 25 and a bit stories for Yarn. To celebrate we're going to take a look back in this omnibus episode. Lately most of our episodes have been documentaries so I decided to dig out some of our fiction stories and pull them together into a neat bingable collection for your listening pleasure. I've selected 4 stories and recorded new introductions for each. Enjoy!
New episodes coming soon.
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Comments and feedback very welcome!
Twitter: @YarnStoryPod
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yarnstorypod/message -
The Stalker
[Documentary]
"I had no contact with this man. All I ever said was hello to him. It's stalking. And it builds and builds."
These are the words of my mother, Eileen Byrne. She’s going to recount her ordeal with a stalker.
I was just a kid at the time. I knew very little about it, until lately when she started talking about the incident. It was a recent Irish news story that triggered her memory. The murder of Aisling Murphy in broad daylight, sparked a national conversation not just about violence against women but also about the level of harassment and intimidation women are forced to endure on a daily basis. Aisling’s murder added fuel to a prominent campaign to make stalking a criminal offence in Ireland.
For more information about this campaign see Stalking.ie
Full episode transcript here:
https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-25-the-stalker-3399f983ff0
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Yarn is produced and edited by John Roche
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Comments and feedback very welcome!
Twitter: @YarnStoryPod
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yarnstorypod/message -
Kyiv Calling
[Special Interview]
On Day 6 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine I talked to an old friend of the podcast, our tour guide from the Chernobyl episode.
He talks about the Russian takeover of the Chernobyl exclusion zone and what it's like to be staying put in Kyiv during the invasion.
If you would like to support Ukrainian refugees and aid organisations working in Ukraine or get protest information here is some information:
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/ways-to-help-ukraine-conflict/
If you would like to donate directly to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defenсe of Ukraine you can use the details here:
https://war.ukraine.ua/donate/
If you would like to support our friend specifically from this episode please email me and I will pass on his payment details. Any contribution size is very welcome.
Produced by John Roche
Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yarnstorypod/message -
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury
[Documentary]
Inside stories from the jury room.
I wanted to see inside this secretive world and get a sense of what it feels like to serve.
I talked to 7 former jurors about their 7 separate trials.
I also talked to a practicing criminal law barrister for his thoughts on the jury system.
We’ll explore the selection process, the characters in the courtroom and the atmosphere in the deliberation room.
Then we'll do a deep dive into a few cases and hear them told from a juror's perspective in their own words.
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Thanks to Barrister Seamus Clarke SC
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Produced and edited by John Roche
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Comments and feedback very welcome!
Twitter: @YarnStoryPod
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yarnstorypod/message -
Lone Actor Terrorism
[Deep Dive Interview]
The Oklahoma City bombing of 1995… The 2011 Norway attacks… The 2016 Nice truck attack… The 2019 Christcurch, New Zealand shootings…
What do all these attacks have in common? They were all formulated, planned and executed by a single individual.
The popular fear of lone actor attacks is that they are completely unpredictable and so almost impossible to prevent. We speak to Dr. Francis O’Connor, an expert on lone actor radicalisation. Dr. O’connor and his colleagues have been funded by the EU Commission to research lone actor attacks.
They have collected what they think is the largest dataset of lone actor attacks and attackers in the western world dating from 1990 until the present.
Full Episode transcript available here:
https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-22-lone-actor-errorism-e651ee20d569
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Dr. O'Connor's book is available here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Insurgency-Popular-Support-Turkey/dp/1108838502
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Produced and edited by John Roche
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Comments and feedback very welcome!
Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com.
Twitter: @YarnStoryPod
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yarnstorypod/message -
The Secret Palace
[Documentary]
We visit the Mezhyhirya estate in the Ukraine.
The vast estate covers over 340 acres. That’s just shy of the area of Monaco. The glamorous and opulent principality has a lot in common with Mezhyirya. Except Monaco is home to 38,000 people. Mezhyhirya was most recently home to just one family.
This is the story of the former president of Ukraine - Victor Yanukovych.
His mafia style cartel, nick named ‘the family’, his extravagant lifestyle and the construction of his monument to greed - The Mezhyhirya palace and estate. Now known as the world’s only 'Museum of Corruption'.
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Produced and edited by John Roche
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Comments and feedback very welcome!
Email: yarnstorypodcast (at) gmail.com.
Twitter: @YarnStoryPod
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Full transcript available here:
https://mrjohnroche-42475.medium.com/yarn-21-the-secret-palace-fb2440c68a01
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yarnstorypod/message
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Great job John keep up the good work..
Great show
Yarn story podcast nails what makes podcasts great. It features true(ish) short stories and essays that inform and entertain.
The narration style is intimate and personal. Original music and voice actors pop in and out, which adds a nice texture. A lot of the stories focus on interesting characters the narrator has met. A bare-knuckle boxing hipster and a reggae music obsessed football hooligan to name a couple. An episode called The Siren explores the tumultuous history of the narrator’s home town. It includes witch trials, Oliver Cromwell, nuclear bombs and the IRA.
My favorite episode so far is Lefty. It’s a deeply personal biographical account with a bit of a twist. It tells the story of what it was like for the narrator growing up with Cerebral Palsy. This mostly affected the narrators left leg. Lefty the leg becomes a voiced character himself in the story. It’s an interesting way to explain what Cerebral Palsy is to a wider audience and the music score adds a lot of tension and emotion to the piece. With only a handful of episodes released thus far, Yarn story podcast is only getting started. I look forward to hearing how it progresses.
Mr
Yarn Story Podcast is the weave of the future. Subscribe now for a better life. And don't forget to leave a 5 star review!