It’s day 82 of the COVID-19 (Corona Virus) lockdown in South Africa and since the introduction of the alert levels strategy, life is slightly getting back to normal while the number of COVID-19 infections grow exponentially. On this day, we also mark the 44^th commemoration of the Soweto Uprising that took place on the 16^th of June 1976. Such an extraordinary event has left me thinking about events and how they are experienced today. Online events are now the new norm for a lot of brands to celebrate important days such as June 16 and when digital events aren’t taking place most people run out of ideas to keep themselves busy, besides the tiring house chores and endless online meetings.

However, that is not the case with me, I am pretty busy consuming content that keeps me sane while I look at the same walls every single day. If I’m not working, writing articles, painting on canvas, catching up on the latest series with my family, I’m spending my time listening to podcasts.

At unprecedented times such as these, I am inspired to celebrate young and black podcasters that are doing a phenomenal job with their podcasts whilst representing the youth of South Africa in their respective fields.

What is a podcast?

According to Google, a podcast is a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new instalments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

Here are my favourite podcasts…

Lessons With Lion

As an emerging young and black PR professional, I absolutely enjoy and draw inspiration from digital marketing maven Lebo Lion who is the founder of the podcast Lessons with Lion. The podcast is a free marketing and entrepreneurship podcast for African pioneers. With Lessons With Lion, Lebo Lion is disruptively creating a portal for pioneers to access to vital information.

“We want to challenge South African leaders and decisions makers to create an economy that is truly globally competitive by having stronger SMEs leading our economy.”, Lebo Lion expressed in an interview with ExpertHub.

If you ever wonder how Lessons With Lion was born, here’s an amazing fact. When Lebo Lion founded her podcast, she had the wish to play her part in improving the ecosystem for entrepreneurs. This is one of the reasons that led Lebo Lion to merge her content creation and marketing skills to find an innovative way to serve the market. That is the growth we enjoy seeing to this day.

MASHSTARTSUP Podcast

A podcast for Africa’s opportunity seekers, problem solvers, future shapers, world builders, and entrepreneurs hosted by Mashudu Modau. The MASHSTARTSUP Podcast is a platform to encourage, empower, and educate young people in Africa on entrepreneurship and business.

In my interview with Mashudu, I piqued a bit of his brilliant brain for insights on how he thinks young South Africans have harnessed the power of communication, “South Africa’s creative and entrepreneur communities have really taken this time to innovate themselves out of a very difficult situation. The rapid adoption of streaming services like Crowdcast, accelerated use of Zoom and the explosion of Instagram live as a medium are all signs of amazing efforts to evolve and meet audiences where they are. This has been a time to adapt as fast as possible and be in front of the audiences they needed to be speaking to.” He said.

How Mashudu Modau’s brand has grown during the lockdown?

Mashudu shares, “I had to lean more into deeper insights that help entrepreneurs, small businesses, and start-ups navigate this turbulent time. This lead to launching the Founders Sauce platform for entrepreneurs and creators is to discover the best tools, communities, and people to help you BUILD THEIR NEXT venture. This allowed me to help people better navigate the uncertainty and sharing as many tools and resources as possible that could enable entrepreneurs to survive and thrive in this time.”

 

She Brigade

Hosted by Pelontle Mosimege, the She Brigade Podcast is a platform where women come to share the stories what led them to become the amazing and phenomenal women that they are today.

How has your brand pivoted during the Covid-19 pandemic, I asked Pelontle, “My brand was affected in that it is an in-person interview platform that requires a lot of technical resources in order to record. Moving to remote podcasting has definitely been challenging but a journey that we are still going on.”, she answered.  

She Brigade still comes out as one of the top podcasts during the lockdown.

“We also realised that over and above showcasing African women’s stories, it was also important to have discussions about what we are going through as young professionals especially during this time when the working world dynamics are shifting. The definition of what is considered ‘professional’ is changing. How we look for jobs is changing. Our roles at work are changing. The overall navigation of work is changing. This is why we’ve now added an additional layer to the brand where we have discussions with our audience and with professionals to help each other navigate what we’re going through – the segment is called the Coffee Break.” , Pelontle adds.

She Brigade is a platform that aims to empower people through the art of storytelling. Pelontle believes that, “today young people’s voices are being heard a lot more now than ever before. However, I also believe that a lot of young people don’t understand just how powerful they really are and can be and would sometimes rather shy away from being a part of decision-making processes, but it’s so important as young people to own our voices and understand that even the smallest act can make a difference.”

Reflecting on the success of these podcasts, I can assure you that the lockdown has not been easy on anyone, but it has shown that it takes a strong fish to swim against the current. The above mentioned young and black podcasters are a true inspiration and are definitely rising above the odds during this lockdown. We applaud them as we look forward to seeing even more amazing content.