StoryCo

Telltale Industries
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to StoryCo presented by James Kirkham. Story is mankind’s oldest technology, and StoryCo explores how that tech is being supercharged by the world's best minds. In the new economy, story is our principal sales tool, our mental crutch and our map for our future. James Kirkham explores story holistically: as a business tool, self-help strategy, political map, and guide to humanity. Join us every Thursday with story thinkers who lead organisations from every imaginable sector : theorists, producers, writers and stars. If you like a good story, pass it on! Subscribe now!

  1. 2d ago

    How One Journalist Exposed a $7 Billion Theft & Jailed a Prime Minister | Clare Rewcastle Brown

    Clare Rewcastle Brown on the 1MDB scandal, vexatious lawsuits, and why one blog brought down a government. Episode OverviewSome $7 billion was stolen in the 1MDB scandal. It cost $8 billion to cover it up. Clare Rewcastle Brown uncovered it from a spare room, with a blog and a shortwave radio and no newsroom behind her. When the Malaysian government hired a $15 million PR firm to destroy her reputation, she exposed the PR firm and had it shut down. When London's top libel firms sent legal letters, she didn't reply. The prime minister who orchestrated the theft is now in prison. Rewcastle Brown grew up in Borneo, watched the rainforest she remembered become palm oil plantation, and started writing about it. What she found ran through Goldman Sachs, the Wolf of Wall Street, a Kuwaiti emirate, and the global financial system. In this conversation she explains how half a million leaked emails cracked the story, why corruption is almost always in plain sight, how London's libel laws protect the corrupt rather than the journalism that exposes them, and what it means to be called a persistent pest by one of the men she put in jail. The libel system section is the best account of how the law has been weaponised against public interest journalism. And the moment she says she's not interested in the prime minister's prison sentence but in the consequences for the people of Borneo is the one that stays. Link to her most recent book - https://saqibooks.com/books/the-westbourne-press/the-china-contract/?utm_source=storyco&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=storycopodcast Chapters(00:00) Cold open: $7 billion stolen, $8 billion to cover it up(01:00) Intro: blog, shortwave radio, no newsroom, brought down a government(02:00) Tell me a story: the call from Kuwait and the final jigsaw piece(04:00) Borneo childhood: the Amazon of the East and what happened to it(06:00) The greenwash conference in 2006 and the palm oil plantation(07:00) Mafia corruption at the highest levels of the state(08:00) Why a single blog was enough(09:00) The truth has immense power, even in a post-truth era(11:00) The $15 million PR campaign and why she exposed the PR firm instead(13:00) Why mainstream newsrooms couldn't touch the story(15:00) Six libel firms pre-publication(16:00) Anti-SLAPP laws and who the libel system actually protects(19:00) The legal bluff: why she didn't reply(21:00) Najib Razak, Jho Low, and the sidekick everyone knows(22:00) The Wolf of Wall Street, the PM's wife, Jho Low in the launch photos(23:00) Corruption is almost always in plain sight (25:00) Half a million emails and how the story broke(26:00) Not interested in the PM in jail: the consequences for Borneo(28:00) Epstein, 1MDB, and the overlap she kept bumping into(29:00) Persistence pays: a persistent pest(31:00) Sarawak Report and journalists in danger worldwide(34:00) Public interest journalism needs to be protected by law "You can be up against the most powerful people, with enormous support to disguise and push back, but when people read the truth, it resonates." — Clare Rewcastle Brown About the GuestClare Rewcastle Brown is an investigative journalist and founder of Sarawak Report, the blog that exposed the 1MDB scandal. Her reporting contributed to the defeat and imprisonment of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. She has been sued, surveilled, threatened, and convicted in absentia in Malaysia. Her book on the cover-up period of 1MDB is out now. Listen ElsewhereAPPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcastLINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod CreditsStoryCo is a TellTale Industries production.Host: James Kirkham.Guest: Clare Rewcastle Brown.Executive Producer: Jago Lee.Producer: Nelly Batt.Editor: Nelly Batt.Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross.Theme: Doubt Point.Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard

  2. Sep 10

    Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and The Spy Nobody Knows Yet | Ben Macintyre

    Ben Macintyre on Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and the strangest book he has ever written. Episode OverviewIn 1943, British intelligence floated a dead body off the coast of Spain with letters from an officer who had never existed. The Germans believed it. In 1941, a professional safe-cracker parachuted into Britain by the Nazis immediately switched sides. In 1979, a senior KGB officer in Tehran agreed to spy for Britain because he wanted erectile dysfunction medication the West didn't actually have. Ben Macintyre has spent 30 years telling these stories for The Times and in bestselling books that became films, a TV series, and a West End musical. In this conversation he covers the Cambridge spy recruiter who nearly made him an intelligence officer, why he prefers bad men doing good things to heroes, the chain from Ian Fleming's imagination to a real wartime deception to a Broadway singalong, and the new book Redwood, completely unknown until now, about the KGB spy whose private problem changed the shape of the modern Middle East. The Cambridge tap-on-the-shoulder opener is exactly who Macintyre is. The Operation Mincemeat section is the best account of how fiction becomes reality becomes fiction again. And the Redwood reveal at the end is the most genuinely surprising thing this show has aired. Chapters(00:00) Cold open: the tap on the shoulder and the strangest book he has ever written(01:00) Intro: Agent Zigzag, Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends(02:00) Tell me a story: Cambridge, Major Halliday, sandals(04:00) Why the Oxbridge club was a systemic failure for British intelligence(05:00) Oxford historian father and the narrative verve that matters(07:00) Columbia journalism school and the foreign correspondent years(08:00) The gold dust question: what did it smell like?(09:00) Journalism in crisis and why people are starting to pay again(13:00) Paraguay, the lost German tribe, Nietzsche's sister(15:00) Why intelligence history has better sources than any other period(16:00) Agent Zigzag: the four-foot archive and the double defector(19:00) Why secret files are more honest than public ones(21:00) The anti-Bond: bad men, twisted timber, no heroes(24:00) Operation Mincemeat: homeless man, false identity, Spanish spy(26:00) Ian Fleming's idea, Duff Cooper's novel, the Broadway singalong(29:00) Rogue Heroes and letting go of the story(31:00) The Iranian Embassy Siege and the first breaking news(33:00) Why the gunmen weren't Islamic radicals(36:00) Redwood: the new book, completely secret(37:00) A KGB officer, Tehran, and erectile dysfunction(39:00) Vitamin tablets and secret Biro prescriptions(40:00) What Redwood revealed: the Soviet plan to topple the Ayatollah(41:00) The CIA, the Iranians, and the world we still live in(43:00) Rewriting the final chapter after an Israeli airstrike killed the characters About the GuestBen Macintyre is a columnist and associate editor at The Times and the bestselling author of Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends, The Spy and the Traitor, and Rogue Heroes. His books have been adapted into films, a BBC drama series, and a West End musical. His new book, Redwood, publishes this year. Listen ElsewhereAPPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcastLINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod CreditsStoryCo is a TellTale Industries production.Host: James Kirkham.Guest: Ben Macintyre.Producer: Jago Lee.Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt.Editor: Nelly Batt.Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross.Theme: Doubt Point.Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

  3. Sep 3

    The War Zone Journalist Who Exposed The Global Mafia | Misha Glenny

    Misha Glenny on war zones, McMafia, and why this is the time of monsters. Episode OverviewIn 1994, Misha Glenny drove across Sarajevo Airport under sniper fire. A bullet entered his car, passed through the drive shaft, and exited the other side. He didn't panic. He traced the bullet's path with the detached curiosity of someone who had been doing this for years. Glenny made his name covering the fall of communism and the Yugoslav Wars for the Guardian and the BBC, then spent years tracing the globalisation of organised crime for McMafia. He has just taken over In Our Time from Melvyn Bragg. In this conversation he covers the three moments when new technology met political revolution and ended in catastrophic violence, why Starlink is Musk's real business, how the Austrian army decoupled from Microsoft, and why organized crime adapted to Ukraine faster than any government. The Sarajevo opening is the best this show has had. The McMafia section on what criminals understand that governments don't is the most practically useful. The In Our Time section at the end, on being the representative of the listener rather than a demonstration of your own cleverness, is the one that stays with you longest. Chapters(00:00) Cold open: a bullet through the drive shaft in Sarajevo(01:00) Intro: Yugoslavia, McMafia, In Our Time(02:00) Tell me a story: Sarajevo Airport 1994(05:00) Staying calm: the only rule in a war zone(06:00) Reporting what you know versus what you think(08:00) Camera phones and politicians denying what everyone can see(09:00) Fake news is not new: the problem is scale(10:00) Three technology revolutions, three waves of catastrophic violence(13:00) Doom scrolling and the false promise of connection(15:00) Musk, Starlink, and controlling global communications(19:00) The Austrian army decouples from Microsoft(21:00) 1989 and peak optimism(25:00) Yugoslavia: where the optimism died(26:00) Gramsci: the time of monsters(28:00) Hybrid warfare: cheap disinformation, North Macedonia teenagers for cash(29:00) McMafia: how Yugoslavia globalized organized crime(31:00) Brazil, favelas, AK47s, talking your way through(33:00) The Serbian checkpoint: Politika and Serbo-Croat saved two lives(36:00) What organized crime understands that governments don't(40:00) Odessa closes: 4,000 men a month smuggled across the border(42:00) Take back control and Make America Great Again(44:00) The Chilean referendum and the word yes(46:00) In Our Time: taking over from Melvyn Bragg(48:00) You are the representative of the listener(49:00) Archaea: the third branch of life nobody knew about until 1977 About the GuestMisha Glenny is a journalist, author, and broadcaster. He covered the fall of communism and the Yugoslav Wars for the Guardian and the BBC, and his book McMafia traced the globalization of organized crime and was adapted into a BBC drama. He ran the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and this year took over In Our Time on BBC Radio 4 from Melvyn Bragg. Listen ElsewhereAPPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcastLINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod CreditsStoryCo is a TellTale Industries production.Host: James Kirkham.Guest: Misha Glenny.Producer: Jago Lee.Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt.Editor: Nelly Batt.Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross.Theme: Doubt Point.Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

  4. Aug 27

    Vertical Drama's Dirty Secrets | Thalia Kent Egan

    Thalia Kent Egan on vertical drama, AI theft, and why filmmaking shouldn't be brutal. Episode Overview Thalia Kent Egan was commissioned to write a 90-page vertical drama script. She was told she would direct it, that the company wanted bold storytelling, real actors, heartbeat moments. Then they went quiet. When she followed up, they replied to say they had already released it as an AI-generated project using her script without telling her. Thalia studied languages at Oxford, did a directing master's at Goldsmiths, and has spent over a year inside the vertical drama world. She is one of the few people working in the format who will say clearly what it is: a tech industry making content for commercial gain, with a bingo card of tropes, racist casting, exploitative storylines, and crews paid below proper rates. She is also one of the few people trying to change it from within, and one of the most thoughtful observers of what the format is actually doing to audiences. This conversation earns its runtime at every turn. The opening story is the sharpest possible account of where the industry is heading. The bingo card section is the funniest. The observation that the phone screen creates a cult fandom around actors that AI cannot replicate is the most interesting. And the Garden of Eden feature she has been developing since her year abroad in France is the best note to end on. Chapters (00:00) Cold open: brutal sets, the world built by men, AI takes over (01:00) Intro: Oxford, Goldsmiths, vertical drama director (02:00) Tell me a story: the script they commissioned, the AI release she never knew about (05:00) Oxford languages, Berlin and Paris, why film was always the destination (06:00) Goldsmiths: finding her people, a year of practical filmmaking (07:00) Communal directing: deconstructing the hierarchy (08:00) What vertical drama actually is (09:00) Six to nine days to shoot a feature film's worth of content (11:00) "All you have to do is direct" (12:00) Intimacy coordination and fitting two people into a tight vertical shot (15:00) Constraints, creativity, and being a square peg (16:00) Quiet time, freeform pages, writing on the tube (18:00) The bingo card: drugged women, mafia bosses, tropes that never change (20:00) Why vertical drama is always about rich people and luxury (21:00) The phone as private screen (23:00) Racism, straight-written queer storylines, who is funding this (25:00) Actor fandom: intimacy creates cult followings AI cannot replicate (27:00) Marketing budgets four to five times larger than production (28:00) AI: keep its dirty mitts off the creative process (29:00) 14 of the top 20 vertical dramas already AI-generated (32:00) Better budgets, risk-taking stories, what a good version looks like (35:00) The feature: Garden of Eden, Adam as abuser, Eve escaping toward a queer communal world "Filmmaking shouldn't be like a brutal process. There's no point focusing on egos." — Thalia Kent Egan About the Guest Thalia Kent Egan studied French and German at Oxford and completed a directing master's at Goldsmiths. She has been directing and producing vertical drama for over a year while developing her own short films and photography work. She is also a trained intimacy coordinator. Her feature film is in development. She is on Instagram and Substack as Dolly Kentigan. Listen Elsewhere APPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod Credits StoryCo is a TellTale Industries production. Host: James Kirkham. Guest: Thalia Kent Egan. Producer: Jago Lee. Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt. Editor: Nelly Batt. Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross. Theme: Doubt Point. Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

  5. Aug 20

    No Such Thing as Bad Bacteria? A Microbiologist Explains | Dr Gab Astorga

    Dr. Gab Astorga on microbial genomics, hiding the vegetables, and why science is not finished until it's communicated. Episode OverviewDr. Gab Astorga opens with the story of how tuberculosis invented the cowboy hat, which led to American culture, which led to Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter. It is exactly who he is and exactly what this conversation delivers for the next 40 minutes. Gab grew up in the Philippines, moved to the UK at two, spent his childhood unable to communicate, hid in libraries and art rooms, got a PhD in microbial genomics, built a following of over half a million people explaining the invisible world, and was diagnosed with ADHD in the final year of his doctorate. He calls his method edutainment and describes it as hiding the vegetables: start with something flashy and fun, then slip in the physics, the chemistry, the biology underpinning it, then return to the fun. It is, by every measure, working. This conversation covers bacterial genomes, the gut health industry's predatory relationship with people who lack the knowledge to push back, the difference between misinformation and disinformation, and why being queer made him a better scientist. The ADHD section is the most personal. The Stetson story is the best opener this show has had. Chapters(00:00) Cold open: disease, American culture, Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé(01:00) Intro: microbial genomics, half a million followers, TikTok Creator of the Year(02:00) Tell me a story: John B. Stetson, tuberculosis, the cowboy hat(04:00) Born in the Philippines, moved at two: communication as the first obstacle(05:00) COVID, a phone on a windowsill, and talking to numbers(06:00) Misinformation versus disinformation: one is on purpose(08:00) Vaccine hesitancy since the 1600s(09:00) The edutainment method: hiding the vegetables(12:00) Bacterial genomes: the instruction manual inside every living thing(13:00) The gut microbiome: trillions of microorganisms and what they do(14:00) Good and bad bacteria: why the framing is wrong(17:00) Gut health products and who they prey on(18:00) The One Health concept(19:00) COVID as a lesson: rapid response to hantavirus and measles(22:00) "Science is not finished until it's communicated"(23:00) Being queer made him a better scientist(26:00) AI in science: useful for the laborious, dangerous for the creative(28:00) ADHD diagnosis in year four of the PhD(30:00) The grieving period: checklists, alarms, forgetting to eat and sleep(32:00) Life on hard mode: immigrant, queer, neurodivergent(34:00) The gut health podcast problem: 14 harmful claims per episode(35:00) Opinion dressed as fact and who needs to be held accountable(37:00) Five-year-old Gab, 80-year-old Gab, and the joy of right now "If you can't see people who are like you, how can you visualize yourself in a place of research, in a place that's creative?" — Dr. Gab Astorga About the GuestDr. Gab Astorga is a microbiologist and science communicator with a PhD in microbial genomics. He reaches over half a million people across TikTok and Instagram, was named TikTok's Book Learning Creator of the Year, and works with researchers, politicians, and companies to make accurate scientific information accessible. Listen ElsewhereAPPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcastLINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod CreditsStoryCo is a TellTale Industries production.Host: James Kirkham.Guest: Dr. Gab Astorga.Producer: Jago Lee.Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt.Editor: Nelly Batt.Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross.Theme: Doubt Point.Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

  6. Aug 13

    Why The 1970s Paranormal Star Gave It All Up To Become A Healer | Matthew Manning

    Matthew Manning on poltergeists, laboratory healing, and why he gave up fame at the height of it. Episode OverviewWhen Matthew Manning was 11, objects began moving around his Cambridge home. His father, an architect, ruled out every logical explanation one by one. The police sergeant he reported it to turned out to have a personal passion for ghost hunting and knew exactly who to call: a professor of genetics at Trinity College, Cambridge, who lived five miles away and was the world's leading expert on poltergeist activity. That was 1967. By his early 20s Manning had been tested by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist in Toronto, influenced cancer cells and blood cells in sealed laboratory flasks under controlled conditions, and sold over a million copies of his first book. Then he went to India, didn't find a guru, climbed to 12,000 feet in the Himalayas, and came home having decided to spend the rest of his life healing instead. This is one of the strangest and most quietly compelling conversations this show has produced. Manning is not a performer. He describes bunk beds moving in a school dormitory with the same register as someone describing a delayed train. The laboratory results section, blood cells lasting four times longer with his hands present, is the best argument in the episode for taking the question seriously. And his observation that the thirst for something spiritual is stronger now than at any point in his 50 years of work lands at exactly the right moment. Chapters(00:00) Cold open: automatic writing, cancer cells, a performing monkey(01:00) Intro: poltergeist, Nobel physicist, 50 years of healing(02:00) Tell me a story: Japan 1976 and the turning point(04:00) Walking away from fame at the height of it(05:00) India, no guru, and 12,000 feet in the Himalayas(06:00) The Presence at Nakurnd: two paths(07:00) University of California: enzymes, frogs' nerves, cancer cells(09:00) The Barcelona department store blackout(11:00) Distance, Faraday cages, and results that got stronger(14:00) Cambridge 1967: the poltergeist begins(17:00) Poltergeist Over England and the father who had read it(18:00) The police sergeant who loved ghost hunting(19:00) Professor George Owen: geneticist, five miles away(21:00) Boarding school: bunk beds and dinner plates from nowhere(25:00) Automatic writing: the hand that went down by itself(26:00) Automatic drawing: Picasso, Munnings, fooling art experts(30:00) Science isn't equipped yet, but it will be(33:00) The price of unchosen fame(35:00) Blood cells in saline: four times longer(37:00) Love as the scientific parallel(38:00) Toronto, Josephson, and the oldest part of the brain(40:00) Ancient ability, not futuristic(41:00) McCartney, Gallagher, and the songs that write themselves(43:00) 90,000 followers and a world looking for something spiritual "When something happens in a test tube, you can't say that is the result of faith, placebo, or psychological factors." — Matthew Manning About the GuestMatthew Manning is a British healer and author who first came to public attention in the early 1970s. His first book The Link, published at 19, sold over a million copies globally. He has been tested in controlled laboratory conditions at the University of California, London University, and the University of Toronto, where his work was observed by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Brian Josephson. He has practiced as a healer for nearly 50 years. Listen ElsewhereAPPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcastLINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod CreditsStoryCo is a TellTale Industries production.Host: James Kirkham.Guest: Matthew Manning.Producer: Jago Lee.Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt.Editor: Nelly Batt.Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross.Theme: Doubt Point.Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

  7. Aug 6

    She Endured Eight Years of Coercive Control. Here's How She Wrote Her Way Out | Ros Barber

    Summary Ros Barber on coercive control, the Shakespeare authorship question, and why writing is a survival mechanism. Episode Overview Ros Barber was six months pregnant when she learned the insurance software her husband had been contracted to deliver didn't exist. She stayed up 36 hours, learned C++ from scratch, delivered the system, went into premature labor, and came home from the hospital to make the client's tweaks while her baby was still in an incubator. Her husband watched movies on the sofa. That was year one of eight. Barber is a Desmond Elliott Prize-winning novelist, a poet, a former mainframe programmer, and the person who standardized the baby change sign across a continent. She knew she was a writer at four. What the coercive control took from her was eight years of output. What she has been doing since is getting it back: a novel written in iambic pentameter in the voice of Christopher Marlowe, a female pirate epic her agent calls Booker-worthy, and a Substack memoir that went viral because hundreds of women recognized the exact words her ex had used. This is the most emotionally complete conversation this show has had. The opening story earns every second. The food apartheid section, a stepfather who had Kellogg's and gold-top while four children had Wavy Line cornflakes and margarine, is the best account of how low self-esteem gets installed in a person. And the hotel window moment at 34, where she calculated whether the drop was high enough, is delivered with the same precision and dark humor that runs through everything she writes. Chapters (00:00) Cold open: Marlowe, Shakespeare, who gets to tell the story (02:00) Tell me a story: six months pregnant, 36 hours straight, C++ from scratch (05:00) Year one: the baby in the incubator and the wrong answer (07:00) Punished for saying what she felt: writing as the only safe outlet (09:00) Teaching herself to read with tracing paper before school (11:00) Biology degree, £40 from writing, the pivot to programming (13:00) 40 men in suits, one woman in a holey jumper: the only name called (16:00) The people who love us write the first false biography of us (19:00) The Marlowe Papers: a PhD, a funding crisis, calling on Marlowe's ghost (23:00) The agent who said it had no commercial potential (24:00) Read in a weekend, deal in five days (26:00) The female pirate epic: Mary Read, the only pirate who got there herself (29:00) Serializing on Substack in Dickens mode (32:00) Open misogyny as a public service (36:00) Food apartheid: Kellogg's for him, Wavy Line for four kids (40:00) It was money: working it out at a crepe stall (43:00) The death threat: if you leave me, you won't live very long (44:00) The hotel window at 34 (47:00) Writing about it for the first time (48:00) Were we married to the same person? (50:00) Nobody Knew I Was in an Abusive Marriage Including Me (52:00) The memoir: childhood, coercive control, growth on the other side "I feel the need to share this story because I haven't, and I have been silenced, and it feels important." — Ros Barber About the Guest Ros Barber is a novelist, poet, and memoirist. Her novel The Marlowe Papers, written in iambic pentameter, won the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. She has lectured at Goldsmiths and the University of Sussex, and writes on Substack where her memoir-in-progress and essays on coercive control have found thousands of readers. Her female pirate epic is currently being serialized on Substack. Listen Elsewhere APPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod Credits StoryCo is a TellTale Industries production. Host: James Kirkham. Guest: Ros Barber. Producer: Jago Lee. Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt. Editor: Nelly Batt. Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross. Theme: Doubt Point. Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

  8. Jul 30

    The Football Shirt Is The Most Political Object In The World | Joey D'Urso

    Summary Joey D'Urso on dirty money, soft power, and why the shirt on your back says more about the world than you think. Episode Overview A Schalke shirt is thirty years of Germany's addiction to Russian gas. A Colombian yellow kit became a factional political weapon in a single election. Joey D'Urso spent years as a political journalist at the BBC before the editor of The Athletic asked if he liked football, and everything changed. His book More Than a Shirt was a Guardian and Waterstones Book of the Year. His investigations into Premier League gambling sponsorships were cited in Parliament. In this conversation he takes a Schalke shirt into the studio and traces the geopolitical story of Europe and Russia over three decades, explains why the Colombian yellow went from unifying symbol to factional weapon, and argues that state ownership is the thing that worries him most about the game's future. He also makes the case that the Premier League is one of the only genuinely meritocratic institutions left in Britain, that the non-league boom is one of the most positive stories nobody is covering, and that football is now the last truly universal thing in a fragmented world. The man in Istanbul who lost three months' wages on a Paul Pogba fan token is the most human detail in the episode. Chapters (00:00) Cold open: the Schalke shirt, Gazprom, football as political object (02:00) Tell me a story: Jimmy Glass and the greatest goalkeeper goal in history (03:00) Politics was always in football: from Mussolini to Qatar (05:00) Westminster, Brexit, BuzzFeed, and getting sacked on Zoom (06:00) The Athletic: shady gambling sponsors in the Premier League (07:00) Called to give evidence in Parliament (12:00) Medellín, Escobar, and why dictators want football clubs (13:00) The Colombian yellow: from national symbol to factional weapon (15:00) 3pm kickoffs and the Industrial Revolution (20:00) Football as the last universal thing (21:00) VAR and the stolen moment of joy (23:00) Schalke and Gazprom: the shirt that mapped the war (25:00) Blue stickers over the Gazprom logo (26:00) Newcastle, Saudi Arabia, and asking fans to care (31:00) State ownership and the inflationary spiral (32:00) Football as one of the only meritocratic things left in Britain (35:00) The non-league boom: a completely different sport (39:00) The man in Istanbul who lost three months' wages on a Pogba token (40:00) Hydration breaks and destroying football's sustained tension (44:00) Saudi Arabia 2034: real culture, propaganda vehicle (48:00) Substack, the second book, a cabin in Scotland "Football reflects people's politics back at them. I don't think it changes people's politics in a huge way, but it shows you exactly what's there." — Joey D'Urso About the Guest Joey D'Urso is an investigative journalist and author who covers football, politics, and money. He began his career at the BBC covering Westminster and Brexit before joining The Athletic, where his investigations into Premier League gambling sponsorships were cited in Parliament. His debut book More Than a Shirt was a Guardian and Waterstones Book of the Year. He writes a weekly newsletter on Substack and is currently completing his second book. Listen Elsewhere APPLE : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/storyco/id1886770413 YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/storycopod Credits StoryCo is a TellTale Industries production. Host: James Kirkham. Guest: Joey D'Urso. Producer: Jago Lee. Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt. Editor: Nelly Batt. Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross. Theme: Doubt Point. Special thanks: Craig Heptinstall, Jack Freegard, Tyler Newton, Isa Gibson.

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Welcome to StoryCo presented by James Kirkham. Story is mankind’s oldest technology, and StoryCo explores how that tech is being supercharged by the world's best minds. In the new economy, story is our principal sales tool, our mental crutch and our map for our future. James Kirkham explores story holistically: as a business tool, self-help strategy, political map, and guide to humanity. Join us every Thursday with story thinkers who lead organisations from every imaginable sector : theorists, producers, writers and stars. If you like a good story, pass it on! Subscribe now!

Information

  • Creator
    Telltale Industries
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Telltale Industries
  • Show Website
    StoryCo