when we were travellers
Hi there, It’s not just the need for a holiday that’s finally got to me. I’m missing the travelling bit of travel. Trains, planes, late-night taxis across...
a comma can let us hear a voice break, or a heart
Hi there, Countdown to Tier 2 lockdown for Londoners… here we go. While there already seems to be a lot of stuff out there about lockdown Christmas, I just...
You have been hit by lightning and you have morphed into something else
Hi there, Did anyone else have trouble waking up today? In London, it’s as though someone’s forgotten to switch on the sun. Welcome to the Grey Months. The...
The day when remaining tight in the bud becomes too painful
Hi there, It’s been a long week, hasn’t it? The chill of autumn has definitely arrived in London. suchandrikaCourage came up in a conversation I had today. I...
Literature is the original internet
Hi there, Here’s a lovely Yanyi quote that I got the chance to share with the Writer’s Hour last week: I believe, as artists, we’ve only heard one side of...
"We can’t escape the world; we bring it to our writing."
Hi there, Earlier this week, a journalist asked me a few questions about getting into comedy during this bizarre year (hopefully my words will make it into a...
We are all whispering in a tin can on a string, but we are heard...
Hi there, It feels like a new beginning is round the corner, right? We’re on some kind of strange summer holiday now (and I will be too, for a long weekend,...
Discount code for £5 off tomorrow's podcast masterclass
Hello hello, There are a few tickets left for tomorrow’s podcast masterclass, so I thought I’d offer you a discount!Buy a ticket using this link and you’ll...
To strive, to seek to find: a poetic newsletter name change
Hi there, I’ve changed the newsletter’s name, to the name of the first blog I ever had: To Strive, To Seek, To Find (which has now been folded into my...
Mic Wright's Conquest of the Useless and a South African letter from lockdown
Hi there, Welcome to new subscribers, there’s been a flurry of you recently! Happy to be writing to you on this beautiful and soon-to-be-boiling-hot day in...
Freelance Pod hits 10,000 downloads + Lauren Razavi on the future of work
Hi there, What an exciting week: Freelance Pod hit 10,000 downloads! Pod me now Freelance Pod by Suchandrika @freelance_pod_Well the big moment came and went...
My Zoom masterclass on using personal essays to break into a new publication or niche
Hi there, So I’m running a masterclass on using personal essays to break into a new publication or niche on Tuesday 4th August, from 6:30-8pm, over Zoom. If...
The podcast scene in Cairo and a letter from lockdown in New York
Hi there, What a grey rainy hell-week it’s been in London! And it’s not quite over yet! Hope this missive is a little ray of sunshine for you. The latest...
If you were told to "dial down the feminism," what would you do?
Hello there, In this edition of the newsletter, there’s an answer to the question in the subject line, a global letter from lockdown in Cairo, Egypt and a...
Author Flora Baker on her book about orphanhood | A pod milestone | Comedy news
Hi there, Here’s a little something to read while you enjoy the easing of lockdown. Hope you’re looking forward to the easing of lockdown, when apparently...
MEL magazine deputy editor Alana Levinson on quaranculture and pitches she'd like to see
Hi there, I’ll avoid starting off this newsletter on the wrong foot… Suchandrika @SuchandrikaCpls do not start an email to me like this June 12th 20202...
Black Lives Matter
Hi there, While the acronym ‘BAME’ has become has become the standard way to refer to non-white people in the UK, the umbrella term squashes together the...
Letters from Lockdown: On how we find escape online (even in a spreadsheet)
Hi all, I’ve endured a few wifi blackouts during the lockdown, including this morning. There’s a particular panic-inducing helplessness to losing your only...
Letters from Lockdown: On the changing nature of intimacy during a pandemic
Hi all, It was lovely and kind of painful to see the retweets of Robyn Vinter’s tweet, asking for us to share the last picture from our normal lives. I...
Letters from Lockdown: On the distance between who we are and who we're going to be
Hi all, Londoners, what’s happening with the weather? I can’t tell when to take my one-a-day walk. I don’t want to waste it getting soaked. Hm. Guess I’ve...
Letters from Lockdown: On the future stories we'll tell
Hi all, I’ve decided to keep writing the newsletter while we remain on lockdown - we could all do with more content to consume, right? Fifty years from now,...
Freelance Pod returns with a live show featuring author Gemma Milne
Hi all, Freelance Pod has returned after a bit of a break! We’re on Season 2, Episode 40 (I like long seasons, apparently) and the podcast is now going...
Merry that bit between Christmas and New Year!!
Hi all, It’s a sunny Christmas Eve and I’m wrapping presents while listening to a 100% Xmas tunes playlist. Here is a gigantic picture of me as a reindeer,...
Freelance Pod is one year old!
Hello there, Well, would you look at that, I‘ve been making this little podcast for a whole darn year now! That was my main aim when I started: to produce a...
Standard Issue Podcast at the Boulevard Theatre, Soho
Hi there, You get to hear from Standard Issue Podcast on the latest episode of Freelance Pod! So let’s forget about the actual news and take a little walk...
Special guest for Freelance Pod's November live recording revealed...
Hi all, The science writer - and soon-to-be-author of Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It* - will be joining me onstage as...
"During war, all relationships are temporary"
Hi there, The latest episode of Freelance Pod was recorded in front of a live audience at the London Podcast Festival in September 2019. Abdul Tahhan joined...
Freelance Pod has been shortlisted for a Lovie Award!
Hi all, A quick midweek missive to let you know that Freelance Pod has been shortlisted for an award! The Lovie Awards celebrate the best of the European...
I did my first live podcast recording - and lived to tell the tale!
Hi everyone, We did it! Freelance Pod went live at the London Podcast Festival on Saturday! Here are some of the other podcasts that were playing on...
The Telegraph's head of social, Beth Ashton, on news in a multi-platform age
Hi everyone! T-3 days until live recording!! I regret to inform you that there are now Freelance Pod stickers: Suchandrika @SuchandrikaCI mean, who wouldn't...
The Telegraph's head of social, Beth Ashton, on news in a multi-platform age
Beth Ashton, The Telegraph's head of social media, kindly invited me over to their offices to tell me about how they do... social media. Traditionally, The...
BBC Radio 4 Extra's Amanda Litherland on her Podcast Radio Hour
Hi all, Hope you’re enjoying the gorgeous bank holiday sunshine - it’s already 28 degrees C out there! With the London Podcast Festival only weeks away, I’ve...
BBC Radio 4 Extra's Amanda Litherland on her Podcast Radio Hour, comedy and interviewing
BBC Radio 4 Extra's Podcast Radio Happy Hour has become another way to discover great podcasts, as well as an opportunity for some lucky podcasters to get...
London Podcast Festival programmer Zoë Jeyes is never not listening to a pod
Hi everyone, I’ve been having the busiest August of my life. How is it the 21st already?! However hectic my month is, though, it’s not a patch on that of my...
Guide to the London Podcast Festival 2019 with programmer Zoe Jeyes
Here it is, the Freelance Pod guide to the London Podcast Festival 2019, with programmer Zoë Jeyes! Zoë is Deputy MD and Comedy Programmer at Kings Place,...
Former Sunday Times Style editor Jackie Annesley on swapping newspapers for tech
Hi all, It was a delight to speak to Jackie Annesley about her career in newspapers and her pivot to tech, as Creative Director of Soda Says. Jackie has...
Former Sunday Times Style editor Jackie Annesley on swapping newspapers for tech
"I loved being a journalist," writes Jackie Annesley in a frank essay about losing her last job in journalism, as editor of The Sunday Times Style...
Matt Cooke of Google News Labs still buys his local newspaper - Freelance Pod 31
Hi all, It’s too hot outside, politics is the worst and yeah… if now’s not the time to queue up 239 podcast episodes on your phone, when is? For something...
Matt Cooke of Google News Labs still buys his local newspaper
Matt Cooke is Head of Partnerships & Training, Google News Lab, part of the Google News Initiative. Google News has been a major factor in completely...
Freelance Pod at EastCast Away on Thursday!
Hello! Firstly - I’ve moved over to Substack, thanks to a well-timed tweet from Anna Codrea-Rado, aka The Professional Freelancer. The new sign-up url is...
"Being a refugee is a dream come true" - preview of London Podcast Festival live recording with Syrian comic Abdulwahab Tahhan
Did you know that there's a Freelance Pod live event at the London Podcast Festival in September? Yup, alongside big hitters like The Guilty Feminist, Have...
Why Jenny Stallard is launching Freelance Feels on National Freelancers Day
Journalist, author and founder of the soon-to-be-launched Freelance Feels, Jenny Stallard joins me on the podcast to talk about her career moving from print...
Delia Cai's Deez Links is a Snapchat streak that grew up to be a newsletter
Deez Links is "a dailyish link to cool shit happening in & around the media industry." Each day, Delia Cai - also Growth & Trends Editor at Buzzfeed - sends...
Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones on Black Mirror Season 5
We've got a new season of Black Mirror on Netflix, so here are Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones to talk us through Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too, Smithereens...
Mental Health Awareness Week and The Colour of Madness, with Dr Samara Linton
This episode for Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK features Dr Samara Linton, and will be out later today. She tells me about putting together The...
When news met the internet, with Twitter's Director of Curation, Joanna Geary - Part Two
It's part two of my interview with Twitter's Director of Curation, Joanna Geary. She takes us through her career from working at The Guardian to starting out...
Coming soon
Substack is a platform for newsletters and podcasts. Find out more at substack.com. Publishers can delete this post by finding it in the “Posts” section of...
When news met the internet, with Twitter's Director of Curation, Joanna Geary - Part One
Joanna Geary started out as a print journalist in 2004 - as a business reporter on the Birmingham Post - and ended up in charge of Twitter's Curation team in...
What journalists should know about content marketing, with Contently's Deanna Cioppa
Every freelancer I've interviewed for this podcast - or just met in the past 11.5 months of freelancing - has worn multiple work hats. It's just the way of...
Podcasts and newsletters go together, with Caroline Crampton
If you're a keen podcast listener, you might recognise Caroline's name from the Hot Pod newsletter, or, since yesterday, from The Browser's daily inbox...