What’s the story? You tell : I write.
This a storytelling and writing podcast.
The idea is simple : I sit and chat with people who have a tale to tell and then based on our meandering conversation, I then add some meat to the bones and write a story from them. Stay till the end and you will hear what the story has become.
When you live away from your home country, you often find that your stories can start to disappear. These may be myths, folk tales, stories that relate specifically to your home town or your family, they may have to do with a certain cultural event or custom or they could even be just a random story that makes you remember where you came from.
What I want to achieve on this podcast, is to give these stories some air, make sure they are remembered and then commit them to paper in a version that is very bespoke, reflecting the original story holder's recount. The plan is that together we find a story to discuss, embellish it and re-tell it. The story gets a life that continues on.
As an Irish woman, I am duty bound to make any event to turn into a story. I love a good chat and as a serial migrant, I have had the honour of meeting lots of different types of people, who like me, love to talk about our home countries. I have also worked as a teacher and a big part of that involved me coercing writing out of students, who often felt they had nothing to talk about. We all have stories to tell and I am here to put my skills as a story teller, a writer and an inquisitive soul to good use.
Please join me and my guests to find out what stories make them who they are. Stay with me while I write the newest version of the story and listen to the final production at the end of the podcast.
Intro Music by Rachel Pantin
Episodes
Jun 26, 2026
Jun 26, 2026
47 min
I met with Hadeer from Egypt to talk about how ancient cultural practices are still very relevant to modern day Egyptians. We talked about how new babies are welcomed into the world in her country and how family and friends gather at a very special ritual called El Sebou. We talked and laughed a lot (and I will apologise now for the patchy sound - we were in a Dutch buurthuis and it was particularly noisy that day.)
El Sebou sounds like a great, noisy, slightly chaotic introduction to the world for a seven-day-old, but the way Hadeer explained it to me and how she talked about its ancient beginnings made me envious that I have never attended such a ceremony.
We decided that the story I would write would be a fictional account of how the first ceremony came to be. So, please have a listen and see what you think.
What special object would you have presented to Hathor and the baby Tut if you had been there that day?
Thanks again for listening - please give me a follow and share my stories with your friends. Get in touch if you think you have a story you would like to share and explore with me on a future podcast!
Music by Rachel Pantin
Jun 15, 2026
Jun 15, 2026
35 min
Join me and my good friend Ciler as we discuss what it means to hold your culture close to your heart when you live abroad. We explored an ancient tale about a wise man with an unusual approach to imparting wisdom to an unsuspecting farmer. This is a story Ciler knows well since childhood and now she has shares it with her own children. But during our conversation we added a few more bits to the story and came up with something a little different, whilst still remaining faithful to the message of the story.
Please stay till the end and see where we landed!
If you enjoy this podcast please follow me and get in touch if you have a story to share.
Music by Rachel Pantin.
Jun 7, 2026
Jun 7, 2026
32 min
This is my first podcast, where I take an oral story and retell it. It is a story about nine sisters who are remembered in the beautiful coastal town of Ballybunion, in North Kerry. They are remembered but there is not much detail attached to that collective memory. This is a story I grew up with and so for my first podcast, I have chosen to tell and write a new version myself.
Please enjoy this story and join me for another one soon!