Can making a banner bring people together? Could rethinking local journalism help rebuild trust? And who gets to decide what happens to a neighbourhood when regeneration comes knocking?
These are just some of the questions explored in Series 2 of the AHRC Creative Communities podcast, produced by MIC media.
Working with researchers from the AHRC Creative Communities Programme, we’ve combined research podcast production, bespoke training and documentary storytelling to bring six community-led research projects to life through audio.
Across six episodes featuring 71 voices, listeners travel through communities in all four devolved nations of the UK, discovering how culture, creativity and collaboration are helping people influence the places where they live.
Research That Puts Communities First
The AHRC Creative Communities Programme is a £3.9 million research programme funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and hosted by Northumbria University.
It explores how culture and community-led innovation can strengthen belonging, tackle inequality and create opportunities across the UK.
As devolution reshapes decision-making across the UK’s nations and regions, the programme is also building evidence about how communities can play a greater role in shaping local policy, investment and growth.
At the heart of this work are the Community Innovation Practitioners (CIPs), researchers collaborating with communities, cultural organisations, businesses and policymakers to tackle locally identified challenges.
For Series 2, we’ve worked with six CIPs on their fascinating research projects:
- Claire Tymon, Huddersfield: Exploring how Culture Labs can give communities a greater say in shaping local culture and policy.
- Eilish Victoria, Dundee: Investigating how creative spaces can become more accessible and community-led.
- Lisa Rea Currie, Northern Ireland: Exploring belonging, heritage and the barriers that prevent people from feeling welcome in cultural spaces.
- Sara Hassan, Birmingham: Asking whose voices are heard as Digbeth undergoes regeneration.
- Shirish Kulkarni, Wales: Exploring how communities can reshape local journalism, storytelling and trust.
- Ruth Flanagan, Rochdale: Bringing women together through banner-making, craft and the town’s co-operative heritage.
Each project has produced a podcast episode, case study and policy paper, offering different ways to explore the findings and share learning with communities, practitioners and policymakers.
The written outputs provide evidence and recommendations. The podcast episodes take listeners into the research, where they can hear the conversations, experiences and perspectives behind that work.
Behind the Microphones: Producing a Research Podcast Series
Making a documentary-style podcast about complex research takes much more than good recording equipment.
Since September 2025, MIC has worked closely with the CIPs, providing our Train, Learn and Launch service that combines bespoke training, mentoring and production to help them develop their podcasting skills and tell their stories with confidence.
The researchers brought their knowledge, ideas and community relationships, gathering hours of conversations and recordings from the people involved in their projects.
Our challenge was to transform those recordings into compelling documentary-style stories that would engage audiences beyond academia, without losing the complexity or integrity of the research.
Working with our award-winning producers and editors, Jo Newsholme and Jack Glover, we provided the creative direction, editorial expertise and technical production needed to shape the recordings into a cohesive series.
Place is also such an important part of this research, so exploring sounds has been central to our approach. From Dundee’s creative spaces to the streets of Digbeth, we’ve explored how location recordings, natural sound and archive material can add another dimension to the storytelling.
It’s these details that help listeners connect with the places they’re hearing about, rather than just being told what happened when and where.
Throughout, we’ve worked collaboratively with the CIPs, balancing their research expertise and the experiences of contributors with the demands of compelling audio storytelling.
We’ve also supported the wider launch, including transcripts, show notes and promotional content. It’s been a substantial team effort, and one we’re so incredibly proud of!
Why Podcasting Belongs in Research
At MIC, we work with universities and purpose-led organisations to communicate ideas that deserve to reach beyond their usual audiences.
One of the biggest challenges in research communication is finding ways to make complex subjects engaging without losing the detail, nuance or integrity of the work.
Good research podcasting isn’t about simplifying research until the important bits disappear. It’s about finding creative ways to communicate those important bits so more people can engage with them.
For Creative Communities, that meant combining professional documentary production with an approach that enabled the researchers to develop new skills and take an active role in telling their stories.
The result is a carefully crafted series that sits alongside the programme’s policy papers and case studies, helping people discover, understand and apply the learning in their own work and communities.
Vic Elizabeth Turnbull, founder of MIC media, says:
One of the things I’m most proud of with this project is how we’ve brought together the CIPs knowledge and community relationships with MIC’s specialist production expertise. We’ve supported researchers with limited podcasting experience to take on something really ambitious, combining their expertise with ours to create something neither of us could have made alone. For universities and research programmes, I think there’s a real opportunity to think about podcasting from the beginning, rather than as something you do once the research is finished. When it’s built into the process, it can become part of how you engage people, share knowledge and demonstrate impact.
Professor Katy Shaw, Director of the AHRC Creative Communities Programme, adds:
“Our continued partnership with MIC media has been instrumental in helping our Community Innovation Practitioners share their research in creative and accessible ways.
MIC’s combination of training, collaborative working and professional production expertise has enabled researchers to develop new skills while ensuring that community voices remain central to the storytelling.
Together with our case studies and policy papers, this podcast series offers valuable insights into how community-led innovation can inform policy, practice and the future of devolution across the UK.”
A Collaboration We’re Proud Of
This second series builds on our first collaboration with the Creative Communities Programme, which began in 2023.
A huge thank you to Claire, Eilish, Lisa, Ruth, Sara and Shirish for their enthusiasm, creativity and trust throughout the process.
And to the Creative Communities team at Northumbria University and the Arts and Humanities Research Council for continuing to champion new ways of sharing research.
A massive shout-out, too, to our MIC production team for the skill, care and hard work that’s gone into the series.
Listen to Creative Communities Series 2
The whole series is available to listen to now! Hit play below, listen here, or search for Creative Communities Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Got Research You’d Love More People to Hear?
Whether you’re planning a research podcast, exploring creative approaches to public engagement or looking to build your team’s podcasting skills, we’d love to hear what you’re working on.
At MIC media, we help universities, researchers and purpose-led organisations turn complex ideas into engaging audio through podcast production, training and consultancy.
Let’s have a chat about your project.
