Show Notes
Sometimes moving forward is all about realising that you’ve got the power to write your own narrative. This week you’ll hear stories about people facing down their own internal narratives that threaten to keep them quiet and small.
Like a Preacher by Idayat Jinadu As a young girl, Idayat is scared to speak her mind. She stutters. But as she becomes an adult, she grows to realise her stutter isn’t an impediment, and that it’s time she claimed her voice, like a preacher. Produced by Idayat Jinadu. Sound design by Mel Bakewell The Supervising Producer was Evana Ho.
Ayla by Carey Scheer This next story is from the amazing Purple Orange podcast that centers narratives around people living with a disability. Ayla Regione spent years hiding her deafness, trying to “keep up”, and pushing through without asking for what she needed. When barriers got in her way, she blamed herself. Produced by Carey Scheer And an extra special thanks to Ayla Regione for sharing their story.
All The Best Credits Host: Gabriella Accaria Executive Producer: Melanie Bakewell Programming & Community Coordinator: Catarina Fraga Matos Production Manager: Kwame Slusher Community Coordinator: Patrick McKenzie Theme Music composed by Shining Bird Special shout-out to all our volunteers See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from All The Best
"...as an act of justice doing and expressing how much I care for them, and I guess also the sacredness of all life in witnessing and experiencing multiple genocides and affrontations of, like, what's happening on these lands I think navigating grief as an act of love maybe gave me a sense of autonomy and being able to move through with a, with a bit more grace and not letting it subsume me all of the time." - Shareeka Helaluddin
There is this Tolstoy quote from Anna Karenina, "All Happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." I've always struggled with this binary. This idea of happiness or unhappiness as somehow being fixed states. No nuance. I think real families, ones outside Russian fiction, exist on a more complex spectrum.
This week we are featuring our first story from our Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship 2026! More than 15 Years ago, Jesse Cox co-developed an incredible audio narrative program on fbi.radio called All The Best. JCAF is an audio mentorship program, pretty one-of-a-kind, championing the kind of work and spirit our show's co-founder upheld and honouring his legacy.
Sooooo ... the best way to think of this episode is a bit like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But instead of there being a bereaved scientist obsessed with resurrection, we have a monster of a story stuck together from different audio body parts made by audio makers from all over the world. Our Programming and Community Coordinator Catarina Fraga Matos breaks down the way the audio corpse works: