Surer and Saredo Mohamed’s podcast, On Things We Left Behind, talks to some of those who have experienced conflict and allows them to tell their own stories.
LaunchPod, our podcast competition in partnership with Acast, has come to an end with the launch of the winners’ podcast, On Things We Left Behind. The podcast explores the hidden afterlife of war and confronts the realities of exile from a first-person perspective.
Hosts Surer and Saredo Mohamed, daughters of Somali refugees, journey through personal lived experiences, asking guests “what do we remember and what do we choose to forget?”, “How do we keep in contact with loved ones in times of difficulty?”, and “how do we reconcile the dreams of adolescence with the realities of adulthood?”.
In the compelling first season, the voices of historians, architects, museum creators, and accidental archivists can be heard, alongside acclaimed author Nadifa Mohamed who speaks about finding 30 year-old recordings of family stories and unearthing new connections through the preserved voices. PhD student Alice Musabende also discusses owning her story and reclaiming agency after surviving genocide.
Listen and Acast created LaunchPod, the UK’s first podcast talent competition, to discover fresh podcast talent and bring to life ideas from unheard voices. We were delighted to produce the series of the winning entry and our partners Acast have been promoting and hosting the podcast on their platform. The winning entry was crowned by expert judges, including Jamie Morton from My Dad Wrote A Porno. The pilot of On Things We Left Behind was chosen from hundreds of submissions.
Surer Mohamed, co-host of On Things We Left Behind, said: “It’s been an unbelievable experience winning LaunchPod and seeing the idea that Saredo and I came up with in our home now produced into a fully fledged podcast thanks to Listen and Acast. It’s surreal to see the podcast on podcasts apps, so now anybody can listen to the extraordinary stories we’ve shared.”
Listen to the podcast series here.
