Special: This Cultural Life
Have You Heard George's Podcast?
BBC
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 April 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
George talks to John Wilson about some of his most formative cultural influences including the grammar school that taught him the essay-writing skills he still puts to use when making his podcast. He reveals how Tupac Shakur’s 1998 song Changes ignited his interest in hip hop, and discusses the impact of rap and grime on his own verse. He also remembers how his local community radio station gave him his first break and encouraged the development as a performer.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.6 | My name's Linda Davies and I commission podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.4 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable |
| 0:14.3 | experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC |
| 0:20.4 | makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Hi, I'm John Wilson and you're about to listen to an episode of this cultural life in which I speak to George the Poet. To hear more episodes from the |
| 0:45.0 | series search for this cultural life on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:48.3 | BBC Sounds, Music, Podcasts. |
| 0:53.0 | Welcome to this cultural life, the series in which leading creative people reveal the formative influences and experiences that inspired their own work. |
| 1:09.0 | I'm John Wilson, and my guest in this episode is George the Poet, born George and Panga, the son of |
| 1:15.5 | Ugandan immigrants. |
| 1:17.1 | He grew up on a London council estate and won a place at Cambridge University. |
| 1:21.5 | Having started out as a rapper, he made his name as a spoken word, |
| 1:24.5 | performer and poet with the publication of his debut collection Search Party in 2015. That same |
| 1:30.8 | year he was nominated for the Brits Critics Choice Award and the BBC Sound of 2015 poll. |
| 1:36.2 | He was also offered an NBE but declined the honor. He launched a genre-defying podcast in 2019 which won a host of prizes including the Peabody Award |
| 1:46.5 | a prestigious American Prize for Broadcasting becoming the first podcast from outside the |
| 1:51.0 | states to win it. Have you heard George's podcast, as it's called, |
| 1:55.0 | interweave stories of his own upbringing |
| 1:57.0 | with detailed explorations of contemporary social and political issues? |
... |
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